The August Project

I had to practically drag, what did she say her name was? Delilah! I had to drag her out the door, she was so uncertain about leaving her own house.

“Hey Jed?”

“Yeah, sweets?”

“Where are we going?”

“Oh just to my backyard. We’ve got a fire pit that’ll be perfect for getting our smore on! But first I’ve got to make a call.”

I dropped Delilah’s hand so I could take out my phone to call Boyfriend. If I made smores without him, he’d so have my ass. And not in a good way.

“Hey Boyfriend!” he said in salutation.

“Ha, now who’s stagnating their vocab?”

“Moses, where’d you even learn that word?” he asked.

“Torchwood, duh. But anyways, I want you to get your ass over here and you’ll never guess why!”

“Well when things involve my ass, do I really even need to question why? It is pretty amazing after all.”

“Okay, you need to get your ego out of the sun for just a few, love. I’ve stolen the neighbor girl away from our parents and I’ve taken her marshmallows with us!”

“Okay, whoa, what have I told you about touching other people’s marshmallows?”

“Moses, Anthony, get your head out of the gutter. I’m talking literally. They’re big and white and fluffy and we’re going to make smores. And heaven knows that the last time this happened, I almost set you on fire.” As if I needed to remind him. But I knew it would just be more incentive to get over to my house if he thought he could play protector and save his boyfriend from matches.

“Okay, I’ll be there shortly. Love you.”

“Love you too, bye.”

The whole time Delilah had been standing there with a very strange look on her face. It was somewhere between confusion and disbelief. Like she’d never heard people talk over the phone before!

“Hey, sweets, you alright?” I said, waving the bag of marshmallows in front of her face.

“Yes, I’m fine. But uh, who were you talking to?”

“Oh just Anthony. You met earlier, remember? He’s going to join us for smores. Last time I tried to light the fire pit…well let’s just say that it didn’t end well.”

I opened the latch in the picket fence and led her from her yard into mine.

“Is that why your eyebrows look kind of funny?” she asked innocently.

“Ha, observant lass, aren't you? But if you must know, without going into detail, then yes. Though normally I tell people it's from when Anthony and I were having fun with a razor once and things got out of hand.”

She looked at me quizzically so I dismissed it with a, “Nevermind.”

We always keep lawn chairs out in the yard for just such occasions so I motioned for her to grab herself one as I settled into my favorite one. I placed the marshmallows into the empty seat next to mine; it was always Boyfriend’s.

“So…” I said.

But that’s all I could say. I had absolutely no idea what to talk to this girl about. She was looking at me expectantly, as if she really thought I was going to continue. Isn’t that cute?

Then, just like he’s done so many other times before, Boyfriend saved me by simply appearing.

“Hey lovelies!” he shouted, coming out of my house, arms laden with graham crackers and chocolate. “Ready for smores?”

I got out of my seat and gave him a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. We turned back to Delilah, when she said, “Actually, I’ve never had a smore before. What is it? And why did you just hug like that and kiss him? My parents always tell me that men don’t do things like that with other men.”

“Well first,” Anthony started, “you must be seriously deprived if you’ve never had a smore before.”

“Gentle,” I warned him.

He smiled down at me and continued. “But I’ll tell you what it is. It’s chocolate and marshmallows sandwiched between graham crackers.”

“And second,” I said. "Most men you've ever been around in your life probably wouldn't hug like we just did there. But they're not real men anyways so who gives two shits?"

“O…kay,” she said. I’m not sure which part of what we just told her she was struggling with; I thought it was pretty clear. Boyfriend went ahead and lit the fire as I got skewers for the marshmallows.

“So is the fire just to add a nice ambience then?” she asked.

“Hardly,” Boyfriend said.

“Here,” I offered her a skewer. “This is for the marshmallows and the fire helps to melt them.”

“Melt? Like butter? Then it would just fall off the stick. That seems anticlimactic.”

“Oh look here, boy, we’ve picked up a funny one,” I said. “I believe we’ll have to demonstrate.”

So Boyfriend took a skewer from me, speared a marshmallow, sat down and held it over the fire. “See, sweets, we want the marshmallow to get nice and hot, so it’s just oozing a little bit and then…”

Boyfriend removed his skewer from the fire and held it over to me as I was waiting with the chocolate and graham crackers. “…we sandwich it – and pull it off! Here, love, try it.” I held the smore out to her and she took it tentatively.

She bit into it hesitantly. “Oh my,” she said, seemingly momentarily stunned. “That's...amazing,” she said. A dazed expression crossed her bubbly little face as she indulged in the sticky goodness.

“Glad you like it,” Anthony said.

We continued to make smores for the better part of an hour, while me and Delilah’s parents were still in her house talking. But eventually we exhausted the marshmallows (can you believe it?) so we just sat around the fire, talking. It’s amazing what a few smores can do to loosen a girl up a bit.

“Health class? Health class?! You’re scarred from that? Oh sweets, if that’s the worst thing that’s happened to you in your life then you’ve got something coming,” I said.

She smiled amiably but I noticed her finger her left shoulder gingerly. I let my hand fall onto Boyfriend’s and he opened his fingers to allow mine to mingle in. Delilah fell quiet again and stared at our hands as if they were something she’d almost hit on the road; with sympathy and curiosity.

“Why do you do that?” she asked pointing at us.

Anthony withdrew his hand from under mine quickly and said, “My hands were cold.” He smiled at me and said, “Thanks, love.”

I smiled back and glanced down to check my watch. “My gosh, can parent’s ever talk! They’ve been in there now for almost an hour!”

“Oh no!” Delilah said. “My parents don’t like visitors to stay very long, they’ll probably be shooing your parents out soon enough.” She stood up and said, “I’d better get going. Um, thanks…for this, for the smores and everything.” She smiled at us sweetly and I totally saw what Boyfriend meant about Lizzie meets Ellen.

“Anytime sweets,” I told her. “You get back now, we’ll do this again some time. And as for you,” I said, standing and extending my hand to Anthony. “You’re coming inside with me.”

He took my hand as I began to lead him up to the door but Delilah caught us before we got too far. “You’re holding hands again. Why do you keep doing that?” she asked innocently.

I shrugged, smiled and said, “I just don’t want him to get lost on the way out.” And before she could ask any more of her sweet little church girl questions, I pulled Boyfriend through the door and kissed him.