Playing With The Big Boys Now

After about two hours of pointless dares and random embarrassing truths, we decided to call it quits. As I went into the kitchen to throw th bottle away, I was intercepted by Mikey. Yay.

"Did you see it?"

What the hell was he talking about?

"What the hell are you talking about, Mikey?" I asked, still annoyed at him for that dare.

"His face."

"Whose face, Mikey?" I was becoming more frustrated with every sentence.

"Bob's, you ditz," he said lowly, as if he could hear us in the other room.

"No, I didn't see it Mikey, why don't you tell me about it, cause I know you're going to even if I don't care," I said.

"He looked so jealous when you kissed Gee, I'm amazing he didn't shoot him right then and there."

I refused to get my hopes up one little bit, oh no, this kind of thing had happened to me before. It had disappointment and disaster written all over it in thick black Sharpie.

"Mikey, you're seeing things, why don't you go lay down for a while," I said slowly.

"No, I'm not, I swear."

"Right. Well, this has been a nice little chat but I'm going back into the other room now," I said, turning around and walking out of the kitchen.

What I saw next was Frank and Cara once again attached at the lips and the others just watching with amused looks on their faces.

"Holy shit, I'm gone for less than five minutes, and I miss this?" I asked, "I gotta work on my timing."

"What did Mikey want? You guys seem to like talking alone," Gerard asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I rolled my eyes, glancing fleetingly at Bob's face. Nothing there. Mikey was wrong.

"We were just talking," I said, glancing up at the clock. It was almost 8:00, dinnertime at my house.

"Come on, Cara, we gotta go, I have dinner and I know you have homework," I said, prying her off of Frank.

"I'll drive you," Gerard said, standing up and pulling his keys out of his pocket. As we walked out of the house and to the car, Frank followed behind us and slipped a piece of paper into Cara's pocket. Once in the vehicle, she pulled it out and cinfirmed my suspicions of it being his phone number. She didn't stop smiling all the way to her house and all the way into it. I, however, was lost in my own convoluted train of thought. It was silent all the way to my house, when I said goodbye to Gerard and went inside. After dinner, I went up to my room and flopped down into my battered old papasan chair, or what my mom liked to call my 'thinking' chair.

The last time I had liked someone as more than a friend, things had ended badly. I didn't want that to happen again, as history has a tendency to repeat itself. I made a resolution then and there that I would not, I repeat, would not let myself show any of my feelings for Bob. At all. It was bad enough Mikey had known it before me, I didn't need everyone else knowing, too. I would not let the same thing happen to me twice.