She Can't Read Minds

She pulled me into Will’s room and shut the door behind us. I sat down on my brother’s bed. His whole room was blue; the walls baby blue, carpet dark blue, and everything was just blue. Leslie sat down beside me, grabbing my hands with that disappointed mother look. Great, I thought, now she’s gonna tell me my cat died or something. “Miranda, Miranda, Miranda,” she sighed, “Miranda, Miranda, Miranda, what were you doing?” I shrugged. “That’s my brother!”

“Really?” I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand in false shock. “I thought that was that hobo that hangs around the grocery store.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You know, that really hairy and smelly one who told you his name was-” Leslie covered my mouth. Let’s just say his “name” wasn’t all that nice.

“Not funny.”

“Hilarious, hun.”

“You wish, darling, but seriously, what were you doing with my brother? He’s my brother and that’s just…no. That’s no.” Leslie shook her head. “Plus have you looked at his face? He’s not all that cute or funny or, well, he is pretty smart but come on, that’s a face only our Mom can love! So do not look at him like that, ever again. Okay?” I looked up at the ceiling. Can I help that? “Besides the new neighbor, her name is Nellie. She told me she thinks Markus is adorable and she wants to date him. Back off the ugly boy, okay? He’s just my brother, nothing special about him…not like Nellie’s brother.”

“What’s his name?”

“Griffin. Hey, how bout you and Griffin? Come on, love, you’re adorableness and his.” I scrunched up my nose at how dreamy her eyes looked as she stared into space. Adorableness? Don’t think so. She must be on some heavy stuff. Ignoring me, Leslie gushes, “I’ll plan everything. It’ll be perfect; you’ll be happy. Give it a chance, hun.” I stared at her, pursing my lips. I don’t want to do it. “Please, for me?” She pouted, batting her eyelashes.

“Fine, but if I don’t like it,” I replied, “I can leave. Just get up and say, “Dude, you’re boring” and be on my merry way.” Leslie nodded vigorously, clenching my arm and grinning up at me. I narrowed my eyes; how bad did she want this? Why did she want this? “And you won’t make me feel like a total bitch for doing so?”

“Nope, I promise.” Leslie watched me slowly nod. “With that plan in mind, let’s go back to them. I can introduce you to them and plan is set into motion. Now if I find somebody, it can be you two, Markus and Nellie, and me and whoever.” Walking back to my bedroom, I suggest the hobo again with the inappropriate name. Leslie smacked me. “Be serious, Andi, he was scary.”