Boy Wonder in Love: Second Season

On Monday morning, I was awoken not by my alarm clock, but by the fantastically strong smell of bacon and onions.

My dad, Glenn, is kind of a shitty cook. He doesn’t have the discipline to pay attention to recipes or proportions or things like that. His approach to cooking is chuck everything in a pot and see what happens. Usually inedible shit happens.

His girlfriend, er, fiancé, Linda, is a much better cook. I didn’t know that there would be so many pluses to having Linda around. After Glenn and my mother, Katrina, split up, I couldn’t even begin imagining another, like, woman/mother-type-figure around for the longest time. Then Linda showed up and it wasn’t like how it is in the movies:

1.) She wasn’t in the relationship with my dad for the money (HA! My dad has virtually no money. Well, he has some, but not enough for a gold digger to be interested in him).
2.) She didn’t treat me like I was unwanted, yesterday’s news, baggage.
3.) She doesn’t have a pointy nose and she doesn’t cackle and she’s not like the evil queen in Snow White (… did I just make a princess reference?? Crap. Cool, right? Fack. Anyway).

In contrast, Linda:

1.) Is a good cook (my mother was a pretty fair cook too), so she brings back some balance and nutrition into the house.
2.) She’s pretty easy going, like my old man.
3.) She’s a lot wiser than I initially gave her credit for. I used to see her as this, like, giggling forty-going-on-fourteen year old girl. But she’s actually got some usable street knowledge. It’s a nice surprise.
4.) She finds my dry, horribly over done sarcasm funny.

So, all in all, she’s a good egg. I’m ok with the up-coming nuptials between Linda and Glenn.

I threw on some clothes and, as an odd afterthought, lightly slapped some aftershave on my face. I don’t usually think to do that (especially not before school) but… I dunno. Cora was going to pick me up this morning and with her around me all the time, I feel like I want to make the extra effort to be attractive for her. I think it’s because Cora attracts me so outrageously, I want to try and, like… be almost attractive. Or something.

I went downstairs and Linda was flipping over the bacon.

“I’m starving,” I groaned. Glenn was reading a paper and shook it straight and looked at me.

“You mean ‘Wow that smells good, Linda, can I have a plate?’ right?” Glenn said. I smirked just a little. My dad can’t pull off being strict to save his life. But, you know, I don’t want to be a bad kid.

“Wow that smells good, Linda. Can I have a plate?” I recited. Linda smiled warmly at me and handed me a plate of bacon and eggs.

“Gracias,” I muttered and then wolfed down my breakfast. I wondered if Glenn would chastise me for eating like an animal, but he wasn’t paying attention to me. He and Linda were sharing old-people, secret smiles over their own bacon and eggs. They were even eating off the same plate. Honestly, it’s a good thing I have a girlfriend that I’m totally nuts about because otherwise their mushy shit would drive me crazy.

Speak of the devil, I heard a car horn give two, short, somehow cheerful honks from the driveway. I scooped up my plate and breezed past my full parent and almost step parent to put my plate in the dishwasher.

“Hey, you smell good kiddo,” My dad decided to comment, sounding just a little creepy.

“Oh good. I was hoping all the middle-aged men would notice,” I quipped before I could stop my mouth as I kicked the dishwasher shut.

“I noticed too,” Linda added.

“Better. Thank you,” I said, pointing at her, and then dashed out of the kitchen.

“Have a good day Romeo!” Glenn called after me.

“Don’t call me that!” I called back and shut the front door. I looked out at the driveway and any slight irritation I’d felt with my dad completely disappeared. In contrast, my heart pounded happily and I felt all warm inside when I saw the Charger idling in my driveway. Fack, I’m such a mushy goon. Anyway, I could make out Cora sitting in the front seat, looking at me through her Wayfarer’s.

I hustled down to the car and climbed into the passenger seat, leaning over to immediately kiss Cora. She grinned at me and kissed me back. When we drew apart and I closed my door.

“Hey!” Cora said suddenly, making my head whip around and look at her. She grinned at me.

“You smell good,” She said slyly, making my heart flutter a little. I swear to God, I am a straight male; Cora just kind of… makes me flutter. Whatever!

Cora leaned over and started kissing me again, pretty hott and heavy for first thing in the morning before school. She kissed down my jaw and my neck, making me grin and glance back at my house a little cautiously. Not that I’d get in trouble for making out with Cora in the driveway (yeah right. My dad would just giggle about it), but… you know. I don’t want my dad to see me making out with my girlfriend if I can help it-

“Pay attention to me,” Cora demanded. I immediately turned my head and started kissing her, sliding my tongue in her mouth. I felt Cora giggle at me. We made out for another minute and then Cora drew away from me. I tsked my tongue and impatiently took her sunglasses off her face. She raised her eyebrows but let me do it.

I looked in her hard, sparkling blue eyes as they looked back at me. From the first day I met Cora, her eyes have made me nervous in the best way possible.

Cora grinned at me, looking beautiful, and then looked into the rear view mirror and reversed out of the driveway. I leaned back in my seat as Cora sped off to school. Cora, I swear to god, drives like she’s on a race track. She speeds and is reckless, but you know that she’d never get into a car accident. Cora is far too beautiful for car accidents, if that makes any sense.

She whipped into her usual parking spot and turned off the car. She pulled off her seat belt and picked up her travel mug of tea. She took a slurp and reached over to scratch the back of my head before climbing out of the car. I half smiled automatically and then climbed out of the car.

Cora slid her sunglasses on her face, hiding her eyes from the weak spring sun. I put my hands in my pockets and stuck my elbow out for her hand. Before we were dating, this is the way Cora usually had me escort her around. It used to torture me, because I wanted so badly to hold her hand.

Now that I can hold her hand whenever I want, I don’t feel the torturous desire to do it anymore. Cora’s hand on my elbow is pretty much just as much of a ‘couple’ statement as hand holding is.

We walked up to the school and Cora sucked back her tea.

“Did you have bacon this morning?” Cora asked me off-handedly as I opened the school door for us.

“Yeah,” I grinned at her, since she only could have known that from all the kissing in the car. Cora grinned at me and then made a face.

“What??” I demanded.

“Blech. I don’t like pork products,” Cora said. That immediately made my mind jump to perverted things and I grinned before I could stop it. Cora rolled her eyes at me and chuckled, smacking my chest quickly before putting her arm back on my elbow. We went to my locker first, Cora drinking her tea and talking about a Florence and the Machine concert that was coming to town and new guitar tabs she’d printed from the internet that she wanted me to teach her.

I walked her to her locker and we were still talking about the concert and guitar tabs when I walked her to her first class. Cora glanced over her shoulder into the classroom and then looked back at me.

“… kiss me here in the hall,” I mumbled conspiringly.

“No,” Cora chuckled breathlessly at me. She has funny rules about PDA. Sometimes she’ll throw herself on me in front of my locker and we’ll make out like no one’s watching and sometimes she’ll subtly take her hand out from mine and just hold my arm, feeling self conscious about… something. I don’t know. Usually, though, Cora lets me kiss her and hug her and hold her whenever I feel like. Which is awesome.

“Do it or you don’t love me,” I whispered, being a douche puppy (that would be a douche bag and a love sick puppy mixed together: douche puppy. Copyright Robin Svetson). Anyway, mostly I was joking. Cora dropped her mouth open a little at me and then smiled crookedly. She glanced around herself once and then pecked my mouth, quick but sweet.

“… do it again,” I said, grinning.

“Go to class,” Cora barked at me, frowning and smiling. She went into her classroom. I watched her walk to her seat, feeling in love and goofy because I liked watching her walk. Cora sat down at her desk, sleepily pulling an iPod out of her purse. I watched her for just a second more (that was all I could conventionally get away with) and then walked to my own class.

Ordinarily, I hate Mondays with a burning passion. But it's hard to hate a morning where you get bacon and kisses from your hott girlfriend.