Clementine
“Clem?”
I can’t believe this. After just barely five hours of sleep she decides that NOW would be a good time to call me? I glance at my alarm. It’s 7:13 on a Saturday morning, which makes me even angrier. What could she POSSIBLY want at this hour?
“Clemi?” She softly pokes her head through the door as if not wanting to bother me.
“Yes, Mother?” I groan out, but don’t move.
“Um, could you help me with my computer?”
I swear in my head. She seriously woke me up to fix her computer. Again? My first reaction and thought is to say “Hell no, you can live without Netflix for a few more hours,” but she’s my mother, and I still live with my parents, so all that comes is, “Sure. Just a second.”
As my mother leaves and shuts my door back, lie on my back and stroke my curls back, thinking of him—Austin. I stayed up all night talking to him. Again. He’s been my best friend for a while, but I’ve also kinda had a crush on him since the moment we first met in a high school hallway. He’s been like a brother to me since then, so I hid it from him, but recently, I found myself thinking of him more now that we don’t see each other anymore. Well, technically he graduated during my freshman year, so I didn’t see him much anyways, but still. We were discussing life and college, as usual, last night, but I didn’t care. I just loved hearing his voice and imagined him beside me with his arms around me. I mean, not in a sexual way, just comforting. I’m pretty sure my parents don’t like me talking to him so much since I’m only 16 and he’s like 20, but doesn’t matter to me.
As soon as I stretch, I slowly walk down my stairs towards my mother, who is sitting patiently waiting for me to approach. She holds the laptop up to me as I near her and I take it as I sit down next to her on the black, leather couch.
“It won’t let me access the Netflix app for some reason,” my mother tries her best to explain the situation to me as I open up her Netflix app. Sure enough, the app opens, but stays on the load screen. I exit and just check for updates. While I’m downloading it, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I check it, and it’s Austin. As funny, foolish, and ridiculous as it is, I drop everything to pick it up.
“Hello?” I try to sound sweet on the phone, forgetting my mother is still there. She clicks her tongue and shakes her head at me as she grabs the laptop back.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty, up so early?”
I blush as he says that. “Yeah, my mom needed my help with her laptop.” I answer and get off the couch. “And you?”
“I’m good, usually up by this time,” Austin responds as if shrugging off the time. “Anyways, are you free this afternoon?”
I don’t know why, but my heart takes a leap as I try to not reflect it on my phone. “Um, I think so…or should be.”
“Wanna go to the park?” Austin asks smoothly.
“Um sure,” I say almost too happily, and then finish with, “I don’t see why not.”
“Okay,” I hear Austin chuckle on the other end, “I will see you at about one I guess.”
“See ya then,” I try not to laugh.
He hangs up and I shoot upstairs, not even making sure my mom is secured with her computer, and almost knocking over my little sister coming out her room. First thing is first, I need a shower. The water isn’t yet warm when I strip out of my pajamas and hop in, but it’ll warm up soon. I only stay in for about ten minutes before hopping out and putting on a towel, realizing I forgot to bring in clothes to change into. Well, looks like a mad dash to my room.
Sometimes I hate how much I’m “in love” with him, because every time I know I’m about to see him, I try my best to look nice, though he doesn’t care. I could probably show up wearing tattered jeans and a t-shirt and he wouldn’t mind it. But this is just my mind I guess, getting pretty and looking almost human just to impress my “brother”. After about another ten minutes of standing in nothing but undergarments and tearing through my closet, I just decide on a pair of boot cut jeans and my white shirt with the rainbow butterflies. Hope it doesn’t look too “little girl-ish”. Slipping on my pink and white sneakers, I rush downstairs.
“What’s got you so peppy today?” my 14 year old sister, Malya, asks me as I take out a mixing bowl. I feel in the mood for pancakes today.
"Nothing," I respond and shrug, "I just feel energetic now that I'm awake."
"Or because of a boy," Malya smirks in a teasing way. At first, I want to scowl, but I'm too happy to, so I ignore her and roll my eyes instead.
"Is it Austin?" Malya continues to press on as she watches me mix the ingredients.
“What makes you say that?” I ask, barely looking up at her. “Just because I’m energetic doesn’t mean it’s him.”
“But, you haven’t denied it,” Malya counters in a sing-song voice. When I look up with a slight scowl, she smiles even more. “Yay, I guessed it.”
“Shut up,” I try not to laugh.
“You know he’ll never date you, right?”
Suddenly I’m back to my scowl.
“He’d go to jail for being a pedo,” Malya has a look as if to call me dumb.
“First, it’s not pedophilia, at most it would be statutory,” I aggregately pour some mix in the hot skillet. “Secondly, he could. I mean, I’m a senior…and there’s the age of consent.”
“You sound so dumb,” Malya sneers, “why would he risk that when he has other girls his age. And Mom and Dad won’t allow that to happen. You saw what they did with Kaycee.”
Kaycee is our older sister. When she was about my age, she got pregnant by a 19 year old. She eventually moved out and now lives with my aunt 20 minutes away, but not before being scolded for months by my parents. Since then, my parents haven’t allowed dating. They barely let me keep Austin as a friend, so Malya and I keep it on the down low that I’m interested in him.
“Well, I’m not Kaycee,” I respond a bit saddened. “I’ll try to keep a distance.”
There’s a brief silence, nothing but the popping of the oils and jacks on the stove to break it. Malya goes back to eating her cereal, and besides the occasional loud crunch or smacking, nothing escapes her lips.
“Well something smells good right about now,” my dad comes out of his room and says loudly. He pats his slight pudgy stomach as he looks at me at the stove. “What’s the occasion?”
“Just felt like pancakes,” I answer my father trying not to laugh about him trying to jiggle his stomach.
“Well smells good,” my dad compliments me. “We have any bacon or sausage?”
“Boy, you don’t need to have meat every time you have breakfast,” my mom comes in the kitchen.
“Well, I could use some sugar,” my dad puckers up for my mom, but she ducks away.
“Clem, there is a package of bacon in the bottom of the fridge, fry it for your father,” she looks at my dad, “and you better not have me staying up all night with your chest pains.”
We get through breakfast relatively peacefully and smoothly. Truth is, I knew my dad would most likely give me permission to go out with “friends” if he was fed. My mother, well, I just have to hide that it will be just me and a boy. Mom likes Austin, she just wants me to wait to see if I’ll still like him in a few years…like when I’m 20. My father passed out on the couch, so by default, my mom just gave me permission, provided I’m home by 6:30.
Within about an hour and a half, I’m out the door. I kinda want to be early. As I’m walking, I can’t help but wonder why he asked about the park, and alone? Will we be alone? Is he bringing friends? Maybe he has a girlfriend he wants me to meet. Or maybe he wants to tell me something, like he has mutual feelings. Nope. Have to stop, I’ve gone too far.
At the park, I take in the idyllic view of the almost too real nature. I look at my phone. 12:32. I have about half an hour before Austin gets here, so I just take a park bench—our park bench between the fat and the lake—and pull out a book. It’s a Romeo and Juliet spinoff, which I kinda related to me and Austin, but I barely get one page done before I feel hands over my eyes. A heavy smile comes over me as my body cringes with joy.
“Hi Austin,” I giggle, “You’re early.”
“So are you, kid,” Austin takes a seat beside me with a smile. “I thought you’d be here at least twenty minutes later than this.”
“Well, I was able to get out of my house earlier,” I respond and put my book back into my bag. “So, anyone else coming?”
“Nope, just me and you,” Austin smirks a bit, and then has a look of questioning on his face. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, no reason,” I shrug. “Did you have something you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yeah,” Austin sighs and bites his lip. Uh oh, not a good sign
“How bad is it?” I ask as I bite my lip.
“Well you see,” Austin starts, “I might be transferring to another college…two hours away.”
My heart drops like glass. I try to hide it as best I can, but Austin has experience with me. He hugs me close as I wrap around his chest. Thankfully, I’m not crying.
"It's okay," Austin tries his best to assuage me. "I'll still be able to visit."
"It's not that," I slip out, but don't look up. "I'll just miss you a lot. You're my best friend."
"That's understandable," Austin says as he continues to rubs me gently down my back. "I'll miss you too. I may even text you everyday."
"When do you leave?" I ask. I figure it would be better to get it out of the way rather than let it linger.
"Not until the summer," Austin answers me, "so we still have time to hang out and stuff before I leave."
"So you'll still come to my graduation?" I ask, looking slowly up at him with a half smile.
"Of course, Minty," he assures me. I can't help but smile widely. Only he calls me Minty, and I love it.
We spend the rest of the time walking around the park and just watching people. People watching has always been our favorite thing to do. It's very interesting to see the different types of people there are. I love hanging with him mostly when we do it. After all the people we have seen, it's comforting to know he can be a personal body guard. I never know what kind of guy might decide to take interest and try to hit on me, which happens a lot actually when Austin's not around. As 6:00 nears, we start to walk home. I wish he could walk with me all the way, but my parents would probably flip out, so as usual, we stop on my street.
"Well, I guess I'll see you around?" I say with a coy smile.
"Sure," Austin reaches out for a hug. Rather than hug around his chest, I throw my arms around his neck and try to kiss his cheek, accidentally pecking him on the mouth. Embarrassed, I jump back and cover my mouth.
"I'm so sorry," I can't look up at him, I'm blushing too much. He holds me tightly as he chuckles.
"It's fine," Austin rocks me, "no need to be embarrassed, it was an accident."
"But still," I say, still with my hands around my mouth. "I wasn't..."
I'm stopped by a light kiss half way between my mouth and cheek. Oh. My. Goodness.
"Now we're even," Austin smirks, which makes me glow with a rosy smile. "Well, I should let you get home before you get in trouble."
I wave good bye and walk slowly away, smiling warmly as I go. As I near my house, I try to hide the ruddiness from my face just long enough to evade my parents asking why I was glowing. I get through the door and my father is watching Perry Mason on television while my mom stares at Netflix, making it easy for me to walk past with just a quick "Hey." Entering my room, I flop on my bed. Checking my phone, I see a text from him: "Maybe we can get together again after graduation ☺"
I pinch my lips as I try not to squeal, then reply back, "I'd love to."