Chapter Three- July 18th, 2011
Today, my crush, Adam, invited me to come over to his house. I take a shower and get dressed. I walk downstairs and wait for my mother. I play a video game on my phone because I know she’s going to take a long time to get dressed.
My mom drops me off at his house. I try to remain calm. I haven’t been to anyone’s house since the incident at Jenny’s house. I tell my mom to leave. There’s no need for her to come with me. I feel like she’ll embarrass me.
Adam opens the door and I blush.
“Hi Megan! Come on in!”
“Where’s your mom?” I asked.
“Oh, she’s out on a date. She won’t be back till late.”
“Oh okay. Do you have video games we can play?” I wondered. Is that all we were going to do? Did he have other plans? I hope he does.
“Of course! I have Naruto, Mortal Kombat, Tekken-”
“STOP! I love all of those games! Let’s play Mortal Kombat first so I can decapitate your head with Kung Lao!”
“Not if I freeze your guts first with Sub-Zero!” We have so much in common already. I can’t believe it. He never showed how nerdy he was in school. But that’s what I like about him. He’s well-rounded. I just hope that everything goes how I want it to. But that’s too much to ask for.
He takes me to his room and he puts in Mortal Kombat. I sit on the couch and grab a controller.
“Ready to get killed?” he asks.
“Yeah right! If anything, you’ll be the one who gets killed!”
“You say that now, but when I rip out your spine, you’ll be the one in shock!” Actually, I kind of hope he wins. I don’t want to be better than him at his own game. Then he’ll feel bad for me and he’ll plant a kiss on my cheek. Just kidding. That’ll probably never happen.
I read the screen. FATALITY! Of course. He won.
“See! I told you I’ll beat you!”
“Yup. You were right. You are better than me.”
“Aw don’t feel bad! You wanna play Naruto? Maybe you’ll win in that one!”
“Actually Adam, I don’t feel like playing anymore. Let’s do something else.”
“Okay! How about if we get to know each other a bit more.”That sounds good.
“Okay! Where do I start? Let’s see. Well, I’m adopted. I never really knew my parents. I get all As in school, I don’t have any siblings, I love horror movies-”
“Which one’s your favorite?” he asked.
“That’s tough. Hmm. Let me see. I would say it has to be the classic, ‘The Exorcist’.”
“Really? I tried watching that and it was way too scary! I had nightmares for weeks.” We laughed.
“Tell me some things about you.”
“My name is Adam, and-”
“I did not know that! Your name is Adam? I thought it was something like Luke or Jeremy.” I said with sarcasm. He laughed.
“I watch TV shows a lot, I love playing sports and riding my bike, I jump on my trampoline a lot too. Um…”
“Wait, you have a trampoline? I’ve never been on one!”
“Really? Then come on!”
He took me downstairs and outside to his backyard. And there it was. I felt that black top. It was like a black plastic mesh connected to a metal rim with the use of springs. Adam hops on and he starts jumping.
“Come on! It’s not going to bite.” I giggle. I put my left leg over the top and rolled to the middle. He never stopped bouncing so my body began to pop up and down to the rhythm of his jumps. I stand up and start jumping too.
“It’s kind of like a bouncy house!” he said.
“Yeah.” I stop. I just remembered. Bouncy house. I don’t have good memories of bouncy houses. He stopped jumping.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Nothing. I just don’t have good memories with bouncy houses.” .
“Why? What happened?” he asked.
“Well you know that girl Jenny at our school?” Jenny still goes to my school. We couldn’t afford to move away, my mom’s job is too important. So I just had to deal with everyone calling me a freak. I has dialed down by now, but the memories haven’t.
“Yeah, what about her?”
“Well, when I was in the fourth grade, we were best friends. We laughed and played and we stuck up for each other. I came to her birthday party one weekend. And everything started fine until I sat down in the bouncy house. Every kid from the party came in and started beating me up and calling me names, including Jenny.”
“Who was watching the kids? Where were her parents?”
“Her mom, was picking up her dad from the airport and her sister, Christie, was sleeping. She was a VERY deep sleeper.”
“I’m sorry Megan. I didn’t know. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll never speak to Jenny again.”
“That kind of makes me feel better.” I said.
“Well, do you like ice cream?” he asked.
“Of course! Do you have cookies and cream?”
“That’s my favorite! Of course I have it!” I never thought it to be true but we actually have a lot of things in common. He was the hot guy in school in which every girl loved and I never thought we would be here today, sitting next to each other, hanging out.
He walks back into his house and grabs the ice cream and puts in a bowl and hands it to me.
“Thank you!” I said.
I eat the cookies and cream ice cream and everything seems to be lifted from my mind. I stand up the trampoline and begin to jump when I finish licking the bowl.
We played on his trampoline for a couple of hours, doing front flips, posting pictures on Instagram, and enjoying the beautiful summer day.
“Hey Megan. Do you watch wrestling?”
No way. He did not just ask me that. I love wrestling!
“Of course! You know the next event starts in ten minutes?”
“Yeah! You wanna go watch it?” he asked. I thought he was about to ask me out, but I thought wrong. That’s what I get for putting my hopes up.
He walked me back into his house and made me some popcorn as I sit on the floor in front of his couch.
“Would you like some butter on your popcorn?” he asked.
“Yes, please. May I turn the channel?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
I take the remote and turn to the USA channel. Adam takes the popcorn out of the microwave and sits next to me. Real close. I try not to blush, but I can’t stop. My body gets really cold.
“Shivering? It’s summer time!” he said. I giggled.
“Yeah, I know. It’s crazy.”
He slides over to me; to the point where the air between our shoulders has no room to go. He puts his arm around me. I look at him. His eyes are as green as the vibrant grass in his front yard.
“Do you mind? I thought you were cold so I-” he asked.
“No it’s fine. I don’t mind at all.” I interrupt.
I took his hand and held it. I rested my hand on his left shoulder. The show comes on. He placed the bowl of popcorn on my lap,
“This is stupid.” he says.
“What?”
He gets up and gets a bigger bowl and puts the popcorn from out bowls into it.
“Here.” he places the bowl of popcorn on my lap and we fix ourselves to our positions.
“Who’s your favorite wrestler?” he asks. I wonder. There are so many wrestlers, so many to choose from. But I finally decide.
“Kane is my favorite.” we say at the same time.
“Really?” Adam asks. “He’s my favorite too!” I blush.
A couple hours passed by. The night filled with us cheering for our favorite wrestlers (not mentioning us screaming when Kane came out and his electric guitar theme music), booing the antagonists on the show, and play-fighting with each other. In my opinion, I think the night went just how I wanted it to go. We finally settle down and sit next to each other as the main event of the show begins.
I feel something on the back of my head: it’s his hand. I turn and he looks at me.
“You have really nice eyes.” he said. My eyes? I never noticed.
“You do too.” I say back.
We close our eyes, lean in forward, and tilt our heads slightly to the right almost simultaneously. I feel a light touch on my lips. Awesomeness. That’s all I can think. That and the fact that we both like each other. It’s now obvious. He kisses me, passionately. The Tv, still broadcasting the show, turns white. Not the white and black dots with the sound that sounds like heavy rain, just plain, white. Adam releases from our lip lock and walk toward the television.
“What’s wrong?” I was being dumb on purpose. Can X hear me and my thoughts? Is he doing that? “The show was off any way.” I continue. The TV turns back on.
“You were great.” he said,
“You were too!” is that all I can say? ‘You were too?’ Typical Megan.
“So does this mean what I think it does?” he says as he sits next to me.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I blush.
“Do you have my phone number?” he asks.
“No,” I unlock my phone and tap on the add button in the Contacts app. “here, tell me it. He tells me his phone number as I type in ‘Boyfriend’ as the name.
After that, I left giving him a kiss on the cheek. I open the car door and sit in the passengers seat.
“Did you have a good time?” mom asked.
“I had a wonderful time!”
“Great! What did you guys do?” she asked. I paused. Can I tell her? I decide not to. I don’t feel like having an awkward conversation.
“We played video games and had fun. That’s about it. I mean, we watched some WWE but you know, we didn’t do too much.”
We arrived at my house and I see my cat’s green eyes reflect the car’s bright headlights and she stands in the window. It reminds me of Adam.
“Hey, Megan. I’m actually going to a party right now so I’m dropping you off.” mom said.
“Okay that’s fine.” I said as I opened the front door.I walk inside, waving my mom goodbye as she pulls out of the driveway. I close the door behind me.
“HI!” X’s voice rushes into my body as I feel each individual sound wave enter my ear and vibrate my whole body.
“God X! Don’t do that! You scared me!” I sais.
“How was your date?” he asked. He knows that I have a crush on him.
“It was not a date! We were just hangi- wait, were you watching me the whole time?”
“No, of course not! I will give you privacy! I was standing outside the front door. It’s kind of like when you’re sleeping. I don’t watch you all night!” I open the door to my bedroom and lie on the bed.
“Oh okay,” I said in relief, “Its was good! We played video games, had ice cream, and played on the trampoline!” My phone vibrates and makes the sound that I get when someone texts me. I take it out of my pocket.
“Boyfriend?” X says. I read the text.
“‘Want to go to the mall tomorrow? I’m free the whole day.’” I say out loud forgetting that X is still there.
“You’re not telling me everything that happened at his house!” He’s right.
“Okay, okay. He kind of kissed me.” I said.
“He kissed you? For how long?”
“A couple of minutes.”
I text him back. ‘Sure! Meet me at JCPenny at around 2:30.’ “So are you guys going out?”
“Yeah, we are. Wait, X, I have a question.”
“Hit me.”
“In the middle of our kiss, the television screen turned white. Was that you?”
“No, I can’t do things like that. I’m not strong enough yet.”
I wonder about who, or what did it and how. A television screen doesn’t turn white by itself.
“Megan, I do want you to be careful around Adam. I felt a negative presence in his house.” he warns.
“Negative presence? What?”
“Honey who are you talking to? Are you okay?” Mom said. She’s here? That was fast. Or maybe time just went by fast. I looked at the clock. 1:15 a.m. Yup. It was just 11:00. When did she get here? I didn’t even hear the door open.
“I’m fine, I’m just talking to myself.”
“Okay hon. I’m going to sleep.”
“Goodnight mom.” She went in her room and shut the door.