It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 3

“An appointment tomorrow, huh?” I said.  I bit down my curiosity on what the appointment was for.  I mean, who cared?  It was probably just some normal check-up or something.  Everyone had those.  Even Mr. Popular.

“Huh,” was Dannon’s reply.  I expected something along the lines of “Yeah an appointment.” Not “Huh.”

“What?” I asked, my eyebrows rising. 

“I had the suspicion that you were going to hang up on me.  I guess I was wrong.”

I realized now that I could have escaped any further conversation with him by hanging up the phone.  It would have been easier, and probably more satisfying than sitting there feeling awkward.  There was something about talking to Dannon that didn’t feel real.  Not like one of those freaky fantasies where all your dreams seemed to be coming true in one moment.  It was just . . . weird.  Like the most popular guy in school shouldn’t be on the phone with me.

“Would you like me to hang up on you?” I challenged, silently hoping he’d say yes.  “I could.”

“Nah.”  Dannon chuckled.  “You amuse me.”

Oh.  Well, that was cool?  I guess?  No, not really.

I looked up as my mom appeared in the doorway, wiping her hands on her pants.  The apron was gone, and I could see what she was wearing.  A simple orange tee with jeans.  Just one of the usual outfits that she wore around the house.  She was clean.  That was a good sign, right?  That meant she was done with the brownies—maybe even quit making them.  That would be nice.  I prayed silently that she threw them out.

“Who’s that on the phone?” she asked, smiling.

“Someone from school,” I replied quickly, hoping she wouldn’t dig further.  She’d absolutely flip if she found out it was Dannon of all people on the phone.  He had really bad timing, I hoped he knew.

“You talking to me?” Dannon asked, sounding confused.

“No!” I directed my voice to Dannon now.  “That doesn’t even make sense with the conversation.”

As Dannon laughed, obviously finding my exasperation amusing, I kept my eyes trained on my mom.  She was grinning—which, in this case was not a good sign—and playing with her bun.  She trotted forward, placing her hands on her hips.  “Who from school?” she inquired, wriggling her eyebrows.

Great.  So she already suspected it was Dannon.

“No one you know,” I said, trying to get her to back off.  It was only after the words were out that I realized I’d said exactly what Dannon said to his parent.

“Hey, that’s my line!” Dannon exclaimed playfully with a chuckle.

I sighed deeply, not able to handle two conversations at once.  “I’m going to hang up on you,” I told him, looking up at the ceiling. 

“Why?”

He said it childishly, like you expected a five-year-old to say.  I wondered if he normally spoke like that when he was joking around—like he was a little kid.  I had nothing against it.  I had a habit of changing the way I spoke when I was fooling around.  It was really amusing, to be honest.  “Because you never answered my question,” I drawled, quickly thinking of an excuse.

Before Dannon could say anything, I pressed the End button, cutting off our connection.  I sighed, turning back to my mom.  She was staring at me expectantly, as though she thought I was actually going to give her more information than “No one you know.”