Quiet Boys.

When I woke up the next morning, I was so tired.
Parker wore me out.
Our midnight phone call lasted no less than three hours. Which surprised me so much. I didn’t talk to anyone, what was making her different?
Whatever it was, it was still there in the morning.
I had gotten three and a half hours of sleep, and it took me a full minute to turn off my alarm. My face was buried in my pillow, my sheets laying on the ground. I stumbled around.
My legs were so long, I thought at first I was just going to collapse.
Shower, shower, where was that thing?
I pulled out clothes.
An old pair of black jeans, blue shirt.
The water hit and felt nice. I was finally waking up.
Today was going to be long.
I dressed quickly, feeling like even breathing was difficult. I missed my dad already. Just knowing he wasn’t here was hurting me a little bit.
And then as I was brushing my teeth, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

Good morning, sunshine.

Good morning, Parker. Why did she choose me?
If I was being honest, I didn’t have many friends. There were the few I talked to in school, but that was just politeness and acting like civil human beings. I was too shy to have real friends. Except Parker, I was friends with her maybe. I couldn’t really tell just yet.

________

Awkward Ivan didn’t reply to my text message, nor had I expected him to. I knew he read it though. I knew he appreciated the three little words. He was becoming a bit of a ray of sun to me. Like the sunny yellow in his eyes I hoped to see next Tuesday. Or maybe sooner, if I could coax him out of his cocoon.
He had said such interesting things through the telephone sound waves last night.
I was tired, but I felt it was worth it. He was worth it. Ivan Worth was his name after all.
The pretty little catholic artist from up north. I wanted nothing but to learn more about his fabulous mind.
It wasn’t until lunch that I got to tell Allison all about my midnight run in with the angel.
She smiled when I told her how he believed so strongly in love, needed to really.
And that’s when I checked my phone again too.
He had replied after all.

That was a nice start to my morning.

I smiled smugly to myself. I was a nice start to Awkward Ivan’s morning.

The second phone call was even better, if I do say so myself. It was just an hour after school, I had time. He told me he was bored, so I took pity on him and called him this time. I knew he wouldn’t call by himself this time.
“Hi Parker,” was the way it began. Every time he spoke I found I loved the rain.
“I’ll stop the boring feeling Ivan. If you just meet up with me.”
“You aren’t busy?”
“If I was busy I wouldn’t have asked you, yeah? So you in?” He sounded like he was looking for something, then replied quietly.
“Um, yeah. Where do you want to go?”
“To a place where there’s stars and time doesn’t exist. Let’s go walk the streets downtown, okay?”
“I don’t think my mom would like the, um, the idea of that very much,” he stuttered. I chuckled a little. Silly boy, silly little boy.
“Then lie.”
“I’ll get caught.”
“I’ve got a spell, to make sure you don’t. Trust me.”
It was a few moments before he replied, weighing out his options.
“Alright, your spell better work.”
Thank you for playing along Ivan, I like you more for that.

________

First we met up and parked on the side of East 36th street.
He drove a blue pick up truck. He had black jeans, blue long sleeves, it was still chilly though it was April.
I was, for some strange reason, glad to see he wore pants that fit him, not tight ones. He was a real boy. A real guy. A real kid. He walked with his head down, but when he looked up he gave me a coy smile. I wanted to squeal, I was being so strange.
“I’ve already put the spell on you.”
“I kind of think you’ve put more than one spell on me,” he replied, and his face went absolutely red, with fear of rejection, with embarrassment. I laughed, took his hand.
“Good. I was hoping so.”
And then we were off. Having an adventure.
I could tell he didn’t have many adventures.
I was dragging him by the hand, and he was really pumping his long legs to keep up.
“Parker, where we going?” He asked. I turned to face him, and was a little surprised to see a full smile on his face. I smiled back, with so much happiness in my body.
“A sandwich shop. My favorite place actually.”
“O-k-kay” Ivan stammered, not being able to speak because of all the running.
We made it to the shop, and the heat hit us.
I made him eat a Panini boy. He was too skinny, eat boy.
He really seemed to like the sandwich, he ate all of it.
We roamed around the streets quite a bit. He didn’t like this.
“Parker, you realize how dangerous it really is to wander around downtown, especially at night?”
“Risk everything for happiness.”
“That doesn’t really seem correct. Plus, to be honest I really want to be able to protect you, but you see me? I’m weak.”
“You’re not weak, Ivan, never ever say that,” I told him fiercely. He was confused.
“It’s not a big deal, I’m a skinny kid.”
“You aren’t weak. Repeat that. Say, I am not weak.”
“I’m…I’m not weak.”
“That’s better.”
I took his hand again, and we didn’t speak until we got to his car.
“You let me drag you around all day, why’d you let me do that Ivan?” He tilted his head to the side, he was confused. You better answer me, kid.
“I wanted to be with you today.”
“Why?” I was really pushing him.
“You’re nice.”
“And that’s it?” I kept pressing.
“N-no.”
“Then what else. Be honest, really honest.”
“You-you scare me.”
“That’s terrible, Ivan. I’m a bully.” I said it even though I knew that wasn’t what he meant.
“No, Parker. What I mean is, is that you scare me in a good way. My mouth goes dry and my stomach fucking drops down. And I don’t know what that means because I don’t even know much about people in the first place.” He mumbled all of it, his face flushing again, burning like hot coal. The charcoal he drew with. He was afraid again. For so many reasons.
My breathe caught in my throat, hitched up. I blinked, he blinked. Three times.
“It means we should hold hands and dance in the rain and drink expensive wine together,” was all I could think of as a reply.
“Good,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Good.”
Then we got in our cars and drove off.