A List of Best Intentions

Okay, yeah. Cody was right. I was helpless.

I couldn’t sleep for the entire weekend because the girl, Stephanie, wouldn’t escape my mind. I hated it because when I thought about her, I thought about the stupid things I said, and I cringed. I was such a teenager.

My dad didn’t care too much, chalking it up to the fact that I was fifteen. But my mom was worried sick about my lack of focus. “What’s wrong?” she had said, her thick Cuban accent intertwining with the words.

“Nothing,” I had replied.

Really, nothing was wrong. I wasn’t lying. I was more than fine because I was in love, bro. Well…as far as what I knew from watching TV, I was in love.

However, what I wasn’t in love with was the fact that another Monday was off to a start. I could feel the headache pounding in my head as soon as I stepped off the bus…

But don’t get me wrong. It was far from a bad day.

I went to my locker to get my science book, so Mrs. Barker wouldn’t fume like she would half the time. Like it always did, the locker jammed and I had to shake it like a Polaroid to get it open.

Cody rushed past me and grabbed my shoulder. “Don’t screw it up, man,” he whispered before zooming off to class.

“What? Screw what up?”

He was too far away to hear me.

Suddenly, someone tapped my back. I whirled around only to come face-to-face with –

“Stephanie!”

I flailed, almost hitting her but instead my elbow crashed into the corner of my locker. I screamed in pain, clenching my eyes shut. She covered her mouth and looked a little embarrassed as our peers turned their heads to get a good look at us.

When I calmed down I realized she was laughing. “Did it hurt that bad?”

I went inarticulate. “Uh, er. Yeah. I think I’m bleeding.”

When I checked my elbow, I winced. I wasn’t just bleeding. I was pissing blood out of my arm.

“Are you okay?” she asked. I nodded. We went silent.

“So, um…you were at the party,” I stated, afterward thinking God, you’re stupid, Kevin.

She smiled. “Yeah. You played so good I almost thought Alyssa was still up there for a second.”

I smirked. “Thanks.” I just had the smoothest moves of anyone in the world, you know?

She smiled, and when I got the sense to look her in the eye, my heart took a leap.

“See ya, Kevin.”

When she walked away, I called out, “How’d you know my name?”

She beamed back at me. “How’d you know mine?”

…Cody!

~~~~~

“Dude, it was rad. You’re a freakin’ wizard.”

“All I did was tell her you liked her.”

“She knows?!”

Cody leaned back in his chair, stabbing a spork into his fish sandwich. At lunch I took the opportunity to thank him, going a little over the top, but he brushed it off like it was nothing.

“Dude, you screamed when she talked to you at the party. Brittany Spears could tell.”

“I wasn’t that obvious.”

“Yeah, sure, deny it, Kev. It’s not doing you no good.”

I sneered, chugging my milk, and we were quiet.

Robert walked up to me out of nowhere and poked my head, pushing the beanie off my head. “Here,” he said.

He handed me an envelope. “What’s this?” I asked.

“Money. You worked for us, right?” he said matter-of-factly.

Then he walked way.

With trembling fingers I slipped it open, licking my lips, wondering how much money was waiting for me…

A lot.

A lot of money.

Enough for, say, Third Eye Blind concert tickets.

I absolutely lost it.

I started flapping and wailing, jumping for joy, dancing on the table, causing a thousand heads to turn. I didn’t care if I was overreacting, something that hindered my ability to get friends earlier on in life. When something made me happy, I had to show it somehow – and I didn’t have any other means of letting it out at that moment.

Not so careful to avoid stepping in food, I jived down the table, earning both laughs and hatred from my peers.

I just couldn’t help it. An ordinary kid probably could have, but we’re talkin’ about me. I put “Meet Third Eye Blind” on the list for a reason. Before Y2K would kill me, I was gonna shake hands with the dudes who I sang along with in my room, no matter what I had to go through.

A teacher yanked my arm so I slipped in a pile of meatloaf and just barely landed on my feet. My shitfaced grin probably didn’t help my case out much, either.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” she growled through clenched teeth. I felt high.

“Dancin’,” I grinned.

To make a long story short, I ended up with in-school suspension.

~~~~~~

Okay. Mom and Dad weren’t in love with my little mishap. In fact, they despised it.

“Kevin Ricardo Slater! How could you lower yourself so much? I cannot believe you had the gall to-”

“Mom, I couldn’t help it! If you were paid a ton of money I’ll bet you’d go nuts too!”

Mom shot me a killer glance across the dinner table and I suddenly lost my appetite. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Dios mio. Why was this boy even giving you money in the first place?”

My mouth dropped while I tried to sound intelligent here. “I, uh…I mowed his lawn.”

Mom and Dad looked at me like I was the stupidest kid they’d ever seen.

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, look! He’s in a band, and their guitarist got sick, so they asked me to fill in for her at a party – but there were no drugs! I was safe. And the party was a ton of fun and I can buy tickets for me and Cody to go to that Third Eye Blind concert and we’ll be out of your hair for a night once we find a ride!”

I’m pretty sure I was lying through my teeth more than once during that little speech.

Dad pursed his lips and folded his arms. “No more video games.”

“Big whoop. When the world ends they’ll be gone anyway.”

Mom smirked evilly. “And you can kiss that concert goodbye.”

My heart snapped in two. “What?!”

They shrugged, as if to say, “You get what you give.”

I sneered in protest, but it was no use. My parents were lucky I never went out and did drugs or got anybody pregnant, though sometimes it felt like they thought I was the spitting image of Satan himself, regardless of my innocence.