Be a Man

Dirty looks, evil glares. I’ve been through it all. Even spaghetti sauce in my hair from some cheerleader dumping her tray over my head ‘on accident’. But that’s not my problem anymore. My real problem is hiding my blush whenever I get teased by Brandon and Hails. Sara just watches in amusement and leans against Josh as we’re all hanging out in the park.

The rest of Junior year had come and gone, and with that, our Senior year had flown.

It’s summertime now, by the way. And our group has a new addition, if you couldn’t have guessed. And strangely, I had never noticed before how well he fit in with us. He was the perfect match to our group. Today, however, this one day in the middle of June, it’s raining outside. Mom and Dad are both at work, and so is Brandon, so the group can’t hang out. We won’t hang out at anyone’s house without everyone in the group. The only way anyone else was ‘allowed’ to go over to someone else’s house was if it was a sleepover or a school project or they were dating. That’s the way it’s been since Sara and Josh got together.

So, I’m by my TV, with my back to the couch, secretly putting in Spirited Away. I want to see what Austin thinks of one of the best animated films of all time…anything that is a Miyazaki, Tim Burton, or Disney creation is bound to be great, and Spirited Away just happens to be a Miyazaki. So is Kiki’s Delivery Service, which Disney used to play a lot. I can’t remember whether Disney and Studio Ghibli work together or not…

“What are you putting in, Anna?” was the grinning Austin’s question from his seat on the couch. He knew I was up to putting a cartoon movie in - I’d just had him watch The Incredibles and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

“One of my favorites,” I replied airily, which wasn’t a lie.

“Well, hurry up and come back to me!” he pretended to whine. I laughed and did just as he’d asked.

Okay, so Austin is not as bad as I’d cracked him up to be. He adjusted his college plans for me, y’know. We’re now going to attend the same college in the coming fall, me with my academic scholarship and heading on to become a film writer, or a novelist, or even an English teacher, and Austin on an athletic scholarship for his football skills. We’d be okay. Just so long as we don’t break up anytime soon - Hails swears that we won’t break up. She swears that he’s been pining after me for too long to give up and who knows, she might just have something there. What she left out is that half the time, I was secretly pining after him, too, even if I didn’t know it at the time.

The movie started playing, jerking me out of another nostalgic moment, and I leaned against Austin with his arm around me. It didn’t feel weird, or abnormal, or awkward at all anymore. It felt right, like his arm was meant to be draped casually over my shoulder every time we sat on my couch to watch a random movie of my choice, sometimes to torture him and sometimes a good movie to apologize for the torturous ones (torturous to him, that is).

“This reminds me of…” he paused, then continued haltingly, “…a movie I saw at one of my friends’ houses in Nebraska.”

“What was it called?” I asked, genuinely curious as his hand absently stroked my hair.

“I…I’m not sure. Princess something? Karaoke? Shitake?”

“Mononoke?!” I asked in a slightly squeaky voice. Realization dawned on his feature.

“Yes! Mononoke! Princess Mononoke. I liked that one. It was a little bloody and was interesting to watch.” he grinned like a ten year old, instead of the nineteen year old he’d just become.

“I wish I had that one!” I moaned, “I’ve seen it like, three times from renting it, and I loved it.” I grinned and added, “This is by the same guy, y’know.”

“Sweet!” Austin said excitedly, and his focus was diverted from me to the screen.

All too soon, we were loading both mine and Austin’s things into the bed of my truck and tying them down, pulling a tarp over, because the sky was murky and grey and threatening to spill. Austin and I were going to take my truck, with Austin driving, while Austin’s dad took Austin’s cherry red sports car and his mom rode with my parents in our gas-guzzling SUV (Mom had just bought it, brand-new).

Hailey had dropped by, with Brandon and Sara and Josh, to say goodbye until break. Hailey was going to Montana for college, Brandon was going to a private college in a little town in Missouri, and Sara and Josh were staying in our hometown for their higher education. Hails gave me a hug, saying that she expected a text at least ten times a day and an e-mail three times a week. I laughed, and said I’d try if I had time. Sara just hugged me, saying she’d miss me and to keep in touch. Josh hugged me too, seeing as we were all friends (except for Austin) before any of us started dating. Then was Brandon’s turn, and he warned me not to go all prego-lego on him at college.

There’s a story behind the prego-lego thing, but I’m not going into detail about it right now. He was just telling me not to get pregnant, which wouldn’t be a problem. He knows very well I’m not the type to go gallivanting about like that. And he said it jokingly, since it was an inside joke among us all, minus Austin, who just gave him a confused look when we all started giggling about it.

One of Austin’s jock friends, Nolan, was also going to the same college as us on an athletic scholarship. His family was there with his car, as my parents had agreed to drive his parents back home, as well, in Mom’s SUV. Any little siblings were staying at home or being babysat, apparently. Nolan wasn’t near as bad as Thomas, the guy whose first name matches my last and who was an arrogant jerk. Nolan is quite nice and tolerable, for the stereotypical jock - blonde hair, blue eyes, tanned, and almost-but-not-quite-ripped - and I could see Hails practically drooling over him as she said goodbye to Austin and told him to keep me in line.

“As if!” he joked, and I slugged him playfully. Just a normal day among us.

And who knows what college will bring: a career, a learning experience, a deeper relationship, or a break-up on the horizon? All I know is that it will be worth whatever it throws at us, and if Austin and I are really meant to be together, then college won't stop that.