The Book Of Love

"So because I made you stay for dinner, you're making me stay for dinner?" I asked him as we stepped off of his driveway and into the yard.

"Exactly," Aaron answered, taking my hand as we kept walking around his house to the back.

"Are you sure it's okay if your parents see us holding hands?"

He just squeezed my hand tighter in response.

I took a deep breath and exhaled as we rounded the corner and walked a few steps into the Barlow's backyard. His parents, sister and brother were all out there. His father was pulling the lid of the grill open and turning hotdogs, while his mother was folding napkins and placing silverware on top of them. Aaron's little brother, who looked to be about five, was running around chasing their golden retriever.

I gasped and put a hand to my mouth as I turned to look up at Aaron. His sister, no older than eleven, was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was laying on the small patio reading a book. My eyes watered when I looked to her right side. She was missing three fourths of her arm, and everything beneath her knee was gone. There were stitches in her skin, and small parts around the wound looked a bit black and blue. I felt so terrible. How could something like that happen to someone so young, someone so pretty? I wanted to ask about her, but Aaron wouldn't bring his eyes to meet mine. Instead, he cleared his throat.

"Ma? Pa?" he grinned as his parents looked towards us, mainly focussing on me. "This is Johanna."

His father set down the tongs he was using to flip the hotdogs and moved towards us, his wife in tow. Aaron was identical to his father, same hair and everything. "I'm Samuel, but you can call me Sam," he greeted me warmly as he placed an arm around the woman. "This is my wife, Anna."

"Hi, Johanna," she smiled.

"Hello," I said. "It's very nice to meet the two of you. I've heard wonderful things about you all," I replied as Aaron pulled me closer to him. I blushed as I looked back and forth to see if anyone was paying attention to his actions, but they didn't seem to mind.

"We've heard some pretty darn nice things about you, too," Mr. Barlow said. "Dinner should be ready shortly. I hope you like hotdogs. And my wife makes the best pasta salad, you'll love it."

Anna chuckled. "Oh, don't listen to him. He only thinks it's the greatest 'cause his momma never made it for him. He only first tried it a few years back.. Been hooked ever since."

"It's true," Sam admitted with a slight shrug and grin. "Hey, son, why don't you and your girlfriend head on inside the house and fetch the fruit. Your sister helped cut it." I nearly fell over at the mention of me being Aaron's girlfriend. Sure, Aaron kissed me, but I wasn't that naive to know that a kiss doesn't make you a couple. Aaron blushed, covering it up with a light laugh and nod. And then I wondered how his little sister was able to cut fruit with only one hand. How could she even pull a shirt over head or carry a box or take a dance class like other girls her age? It wasn't fair, at all.

Aaron guided me along as we crossed the deck and made our way into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a large bowl full of various fruits.

"What did your father mean back out there?" I asked him, fiddling with my fingers as I leaned against the counter.

"What do you mean?" he questioned as he kept digging around in the refrigerator.

Should I ask why his father called me his girlfriend, or just let it go? As I remained silent, Aaron had turned around and stopped what he was doing altogether. I glanced up and found his eyes resting on me. I immediately looked back down. "He called me your girlfriend," I said quietly.

"Oh, uh..," he started as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I never told them that you and I were or were not datin'. I just assumed that they knew we weren't anything but friends because we only met a couple of days ago," he shrugged. And just like that, my shoulders dropped and a frown appeared on my lips. Aaron had turned back to the refrigerator by then, so he couldn't see that I was disappointed.

I didn't even know why I was disappointed by what he had said, though. I mean, I knew this boy for less than a week. I guess, maybe, I liked him? Is that what it's called when you want to be with someone every day and feel upset when you see another girl next to him but feel happy when he tries to converse with your painfully dull father?

I decided to drop the idea of Aaron and I becoming anything more than friends and tried to focus on making a good first impression on his family.

The two of us headed back outside and took at seat at the wooden picnic table. Aaron sat next to his sister, and I sat next to him.

"Hi, I'm Madison," the girl with only two whole limbs said, reaching out her left hand across her brother for me to shake. "What's your name again? I was too caught up in my book, and I didn't quite catch it."

I took her hand in my own. "It's nice to meet you, Madison," I smiled. "My name's Johanna. What book were you reading?"

"The Maze Runner. Aaron brought it back from the bookstore the other day for me to read. He said a girl he met had it in her hand, and he thought I might enjoy it. Are you the girl from the bookstore?" she asked me.

I looked to Aaron only to find him blushing before I looked back to Madison. "Yes, that's me. I don't remember ever reading the title of that book, but it sounds quite interesting. Maybe I'll read it after you're done."

She was about to answer me, but her father interrupted her when he hollered for his youngest son. "Nathan! Let the dog be and go wash your hands. We don't want germs all over our food, do we now, young man?"

"NO, SIR!" Nathan shouted back, saluting his dad. Sam rustled his son's hair as he chuckled. Nathan marched off and in through the back door.

A few minutes later, everyone had taken a seat at the picnic table, and we started to pass around the food.

"Do you need some help with that, Madison?" Aaron asked his younger sister as she reached for the bottle of ketchup.

"No, it's okay. I've got it." She put the bottle of ketchup between her legs to hold it in place, then she twisted off the cap and placed it on the table. She poured a line of ketchup over her hotdog and then put the cap back on the same way she had taken it off.

I looked away after she set the bottle back on the table and found her father smiling at me. I felt my face heat up, feeling awful to have been caught staring at his disabled daughter. It wasn't that I looked down on her or thought that I was better than her because I had both of my arms and legs, I was more amazed than anything at the way she approached things that were no longer simple to her.

"Do wanna know my puppy's name? My daddy got him for me at the pound last week for my birthday. I turned six. That's this many," Nathan said to me, holding up five fingers then looking at them and deciding he was missing one.

"Really? I would have guessed you were at least eight," I joked with him, holding up eight fingers as well. "What's your puppy's name?"

"Cooper," he said as he tried to shove his whole hotdog down his throat.

"Nathan!" his mother scolded him.

"Sawwy," he replied with a mouthful of food.

"So Johanna doesn't know one thing about football, isn't that sad?" Aaron announced.

"You don't know one thing about the bestest game in the world?" Nathan screeched.

I let out a laugh. "That's not true," I corrected. "I know the quarterback is the one who throws the ball and you score touchdowns. And then you kick the ball through the two posts."

Everyone let out a laugh.

"Why don't you give her a tour of the house after we finish," Anna suggested. "I'm sure she'd like to look around. I know I would."

"That's 'cause you're a real estate agent, Ma," Aaron replied, a little sarcasm in his voice. "Johanna doesn't sell houses for a livin'," he told her before turning to me. "Right?"

I bit back a giggle and nodded, slight smile on my lips.

When everyone had finished, I helped the Barlow's clean up. It didn't take very long since there were four of us. Nathan and Madison opted to play with Cooper.

"Ready to take the grand tour?" Aaron asked me, placing his hand on my waist.

I hesitated; it wasn't everyday that someone touched me like that. "Y-yeah," I stuttered out.

He grabbed my hand while I set down the empty glass that was in my hand. He led me into the room to our left. "This is the family room. We usually just watch a lot of baseball and football in here."

I followed him as he headed out the other opening in the room. "This is probably my favorite part of the house."

"The staircases?"

"Yep," he nodded. "Since there's two of them, me and my buddies sometimes slide down them and see who gets to the bottom first. My parents don't know, of course, so let's just keep this our little secret."

I giggled. "Okay."

"Wanna race up them?" He questioned, looking to the top.

"Sure," I shrugged.

"Okay. On your mark, get set, go!" He raced up the steps as fast as he could, and I was about five behind him when he landed at the top.

"Nice try," he kindly told me.

"I was never much into sports or anything, if you couldn't already tell," I said, explaining why I wasn't as fast as he was.

"It's okay. I was one of the slower guys on the football team, actually," Aaron admitted.

He took a few steps ahead of me to our right and pushed open the door to a room. "This one's mine. It's kind of messy. I'm sorry for that."

"No, no. I like it, really."

His walls weren't a navy blue, but they weren't a bright blue either. The color reminded me of an old and.. worn down blue, I suppose. His bed was covered with a heaping pile of white sheets and a black comforter and pillows. There was some binders and papers laying around, and I assumed he hadn't gotten the chance to throw away his school stuff yet. He had a football with a signature of someone famous on it sitting on the top shelf of his desk. His computer screen was black, and there was various 'junk' on the rest of the desk. His closet door hung open and there were a few belts on the door knob and some clothes on the floor as well as other places of his room. I suppose it was a typical guy's room.

"Wanna know why I picked this room?" he asked me as he crossed over to a rather large window that let in a lot of light.

"Why?"

"It's the perfect place to watch the sun go down. And sometimes I'll climb out on the roof and watch the stars at nigh-"

Aaron was cut off by a loud, ear-piercing scream.

"Madison! Fuck," he said under his breath. He turned away from the window and sprinted out of his room and practically flew down the steps.