Lawn Boy

My mom’s side of the family has always been really close to each other. My mom always told me that they all made a big fuss when she decided to move to California because my father had gotten a job offer there. Apparently they weren’t in contact for a while, but the Collins family is way too close to stay mad at each other for long.
I’ve only met her side of the family a couple of times at family reunions and stuff. While I was there, I sort of made friends with my cousin Shane who’s only a year younger than me. I didn’t really think he was my type of friend, but he was the only one there that was even worth spending any time with. I’m not really the family oriented type of guy and neither was he. But somehow we ended up bonding over that fact.
When we got back to our new house from eating lunch, Gram was there with my Aunt Carol and Shane—Carol’s son. Carol gave me a crushing hug and Shane and I waved our hellos. Next was Gram. She also gave me a crushing hug and a lipstick mark on my cheek.
“You’re growing so tall and handsome, Max. You look just like your grandfather at your age. Oh, he was so handsome.”
My mom smiled and watched as my worst nightmare was unfolding right in front of me. If I never heard one more comparison of me and my grandfather, it wouldn’t be soon enough.
“So, are you kids ready for your first day of school?” Aunt Carol asked. “Max, you must be excited about your senior year. Have you been scoping out colleges?”
“Um…yeah,” I answered simply.
“Have you found any that you like?”
“I was looking into UCLA,” I said.
“Wow,” said Gram. “That’s very impressive.”
“Yeah,” I said.
I really wanted to leave. “I’m going to my room,” I said.
“Me too,” said Ashley.
“Yeah, me too,” said Jack.
We all ran upstairs and into our rooms. I jumped onto my bed and just looked up at the ceiling. Even staring at that empty wall was better than the awkward Q&A from my gram and my aunt.
I grabbed my tennis ball from the nightstand. It was a little chewed up. It used to belong to our dog Chien (Shyen). In case you don’t know that means dog in French. I took French my sophomore and junior years. It’s a pretty easy language. But, I’m getting off topic again.
Chien recently died. He wasn’t old or anything. He was small and mom accidently ran him over when she was backing out of the driveway. It was sad for about a month, but he was kind of annoying. He had a really loud, high pitched bark and he ran around all the time.
I kept the ball, but I don’t really know why. I usually used to bounce it off the ceiling or the walls back home when I was bored. I started to bounce it off the ceiling here. This kind of officially made it my new home.
A knock came to the door. I caught the ball in my hand. “Come in,” I said. I started to bounce the ball against the ceiling again. Shane walked into the room. He looked around at the walls. I didn’t say anything. I just kept bouncing the tennis ball.
“Nice color,” said Shane.
“I actually like it,” I said—still focusing on bouncing the ball.
I stopped the bouncing and looked at Shane who had sat on my desk chair. His hair was brown, but it was verging on red. It was a cool hair color that I secretly wished I had. He’s grown taller since I last saw him and he’s a lot lankier.
“So, what’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m just bored. Wanna go do something?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. We could go play some pool.”
“Not my scene,” I answered.
“Oh,” He looked around. “We could go to the arcade.”
“I think I just wanna chill here for a while. You can go out if you want.”
I don’t really know why I, but I just wasn’t in the mood for going out. I just wanted to go back home. I didn’t really want to be in Oregon. And one more reason I didn’t want to be in Oregon walked into my room—My Aunt Carol.
“So, you guys need to look out for each other in school, alright. Family needs to stick together.”
“Mom, we’re in different years,” said Shane.
“That doesn’t matter. You can still look out for each other. Anyway, we’ve got to get back home honey. Your dad needs your help with the yard.”
Shane sighed and got up from the chair. He waved goodbye and I waved back. Aunt Carol gave me smile as she walked out. When they shut the door, I started to bounce my tennis ball off of the ceiling again. This was going to be an interesting afternoon.

As I was bouncing my ball, I heard the doorbell ring. I heard chatter downstairs. Then, I heard the door shut. I wondered what was going on, but I didn’t have enough drive to get up and go downstairs to see what it was. But, I didn’t have to either, suddenly Rebecca came crashing into my room and made me drop the ball.
“What’s with you?” I asked.
“Oh. My. God!” She exclaimed.
“What?”
“You should see the guy that mom just hired to take care of our yards. He’s hot. No, he’s more than hot. He’s perfect.”
“That’s nice,” I said.
“What kind of gay brother are you if I can’t even talk about hot guys with you?” She pouted, sitting on the edge of my bed.
“Why didn’t you just go to Ashley then?” I asked, picking up my ball and beginning to bounce it again.
“What’s up with you and that ball anyway?” She asked. “You used to do that at home too.”
“I don’t know. It’s something to occupy me.”
“Well if you’re so bored, why don’t you help mom and me clean the rest of the house?”
“Not for me, thanks. I’ll stick to my bouncing my ball.”
“Are you okay?” She asked. “You seem a bit off.”
“I just miss my friends.”
“You’ll make new ones.”
“I don’t want new ones.”
I didn’t want new ones. I just wanted to be able to walk down the street and know that Gabby would be there. I wanted to be able to go to school and know that Mike would be sitting next to me in most of my classes. I just wanted to go back home. This wasn’t my home. It’s a good space, but a good space doesn’t necessarily make a good home. I’ll try, but it might take a while to get used to this place.