The Yellow Umbrella

Chapter Two: Mom

"Mia James is coming here tomorrow?" Wyatt repeated in complete disbelief.

I grinned.

Not to brag or anything, but my garage was a pretty cool place to hang out after school. At least to me and my friends. While my mom basically lived in the living room with her crafts and chaos, and my dad hid in his office doing god knows what, I was given the garage. A couple years back, my dad and I took a trip to the hardware store and built a little room in the garage apart from where we kept the cars. We even painted a wall green so I'd have a green screen for my video projects. Not only was it pimped out with a semi functional mini fridge, a second hand television, and video games galore, it was also where my friends and I dropped gossip bombs on each other. Sure it kind of smelled like mildew and I could never quite escape the damp feeling it brought when it rained, but it was my place, my little crib.

Sitting in my garage two days after my Mia moment, I dropped the bomb on Wyatt. I'd been holding in the gossip for two whole days, just in case Mia changed her mind about hanging out. Like imagine how embarrassing that would be if I told my best friend only to get ditched. I'm not gonna lie though, it felt pretty damn good to finally get it off my chest, as if finally saying it aloud made it feel more real.

Scratch that, I felt like I was on fire.

Wyatt had been my best friend since we were eight. We met the summer before the second grade. My parents decided I needed more friends and signed me up for a summer day camp. I screamed and cried, begged them to let me stay at home where there were action figures and tasty snacks. My dad got so fed up with my tantrum that he ended up carrying me out of the car and leaving me sobbing on the curb. His definition of love defied what most people expected. The camp counselors brought me in, but had no idea what to do with me. They didn't sign up to deal with a seven year old having a snotty melt down, they signed up to make out with other counselors in the bathroom. The solution? Find someone as equally as alone as me in hopes that I would make a friend.

Put two losers together and what do you get? Best friends for life.

Wyatt was a little on the short side with curly black hair that hung over his thick rimmed glasses; with a tendency to be too responsible for his age. He was my right hand guy, my sidekick, my partner in crime. Every hero needed a sidekick that surprised you at the end of every high school movie by doing something totally badass.

That day in my garage, as my Mia news sunk in, Wyatt did something I had never seen him do before.

He put down his gaming controller mid mission.

Leaning back on the stained pea green sofa, I cracked open a soda and watched in delight. I mentally replayed every time Wyatt shot down my Mia dream:

Give up now, Mia's never gonna happen.

She's out of your league.

Try dating a freshman.

He thought I only liked Mia because she was pretty, that it was just puppy love. But a piece of me, deep down, knew she would one day mean more to me than I would ever know. It's like I wanted to move on, like someone new, but she was always there, the feelings were always there. The second I laid eyes on her in algebra, I wanted to scream date me. After years of waiting, I was finally getting my chance. Maybe not to scream it, but you get the idea.

"Was she high when she asked?" Wyatt accused a moment later.

"Wyatt!" I snapped.

"Blackmail?" he countered.

I laughed. "Dude, just stop."

Wyatt shook his head. "Sorry man, it's just such a fine girl of that caliber with you? Well that doesn't add up. Mathematically."