I Missed You- Kleinsen (deh)

Evan

"Hey, Jared?"

"Hm?"

"Don't shoot firecrackers off my roof."

Jared gives him finger guns and says, "Gotcha."

"Oh, and uh, if anyone gives you guys any... trouble, tell me. I'll handle it."

"Alright," I say, assuming that he was talking about me and Jared dating.

When we walk away Jared tells me, "I wanna see Matt fighting off some homophobes."

"He shouldn't have had to warn you about the firecrackers," I say, ignoring him.

"A man can't make one mistake can he?"

"You could have put both of us in the hospital, asshole."

"Well I didn't, did I?"

I sigh, just as some kids from the pool start yelling at us. Well, at Jared.

"Took you long enough to get here, get in the pool already!"

"Give me a minute, Damn." I jab Jared in the side for cussing at children (even though they probably do it themselves) but i don't think anyone was paying attention, anyway.

They whine, then try to make fun of him, like that's going to convince him to hang out with them more. "What, you're too busy talking to you're booooyfriend~?"

Jared turns to me, then turns back to them and says, "I mean, yeah."

"Wait, what?"

Jared and I walked away.

We sat down at a table, greeting some people our moms were friends with on the way. We just hung out and settled in, petting some dogs that came over to say hi to Bella, who was too nervous to leave and explore by herself. At one point Jared's mom found us and started talking about marriage and grandchildren. I found it pretty funny, but Jared got embarrassed and made her leave.

Eventually, Jared caved and got in the pool with the middle schoolers. He tried to make me join him, but no amount of peer pressure could win over how awkward that would be.

So, like last year, I sat pondered about everything. This time instead of having mom's friends come and talk to me, I had a bunch of little kids and 50-year-old women come to ask me to pet Bella. She got used to it eventually and ended up wandering around to get attention from others. She's really out here socializing better than me, huh?

Sometimes, I would look over to Jared and he would do something to try to get me to laugh.

"Hey, Evan!" He called one time. "Am I gay?"

"I sure hope so. That would be a little weird if you weren't."

The middle schoolers all snort and laugh obnoxiously.

"There you go, dumbass." He says to one of the boys. The kid turns to me and asks:

"So you guys are dating?"

"Yep."

"Are you sure?"

"...I'm pretty sure."