Growing Up

“Hey Alek, you think my plugs smell?” Joel asked me as we sat at my kitchen table, sorting through coupons for my mother.

“Umm, probably. But I don’t want to find out,” I replied, giving him an odd look.

The coupons were laid out in nice stacks in front of me, arranged by relevance. Joel was barely helping, not that I minded. Poor kid couldn’t keep to one thing long enough before his ADHD kicked in. Before I could comprehend what was happening, a foul odour hit took over my senses, making me gag. Joel had shoved on of his plugs under my nose and was laughing wildly in his seat.

“Oh, you jerk. That’s how you wanna play?”

I reached for my own ears, taking my right plug out and holding it in front of him.

“First one to barf pays $20,” I challenged, holding out my other hand to him.

He shook my hand, grinning. I put my plug up to his nose and he took a big sniff, making a face afterwards. I could see him hold back a gag as I smelt his. We kept this up till we were nearly puking a little each time. Joel took another smell of mine and ran to the sink, emptying his stomach right as my mother walked in. She glanced at both of us oddly before backing out of the kitchen.

“God, Alek, that was rancid,” Joel said, rinsing his mouth out with the detachable sink head, water pouring down his chin and onto his shirt.

He pulled out his wallet and fished around in it before dropping two tens down in front of me. I fixed my plug back into my ear before happily tucking away the money into my back pocket.

“Sooo, I have some news,” Joel said, stacking up coupons in front of him.

“Yes?”

“Well, my family’s going on Summer vacation for two weeks annnndd, well, I won’t be here like we planned,” he said, looking at his hands.

My heart dropped all the way onto the floor at his words. “Seriously?!”

“Yeah. I’d rather stay, I begged my mom but she was adamant. She’s all ‘this will be the last vacation we get as a family before you graduate’ and told me I had to go. We’re freaking going to Cali, dude. Not much of a vaca,” he muttered the last part.

“When do you leave?”

“Four days. We’ll be gone for like two weeks, or something.”

“That absolutely blows.”

He nodded and rolled his eyes. We finished up the coupons and cleaned up, telling my mom that we’d be out in Joel’s backyard if she needed us. We went up to the tiny tree hideout we built awhile ago. It was a few boards placed on same level branches so we could sit up there. It was no tree house but it was still special.

“Can’t believe you’re going to be gone,” I mumbled, picking at the park beside me.

“Not forever. And hey, maybe you could make some more friends. Like close friends. Not just me. Though, wait, no. Don’t. I’ll get jealous,” he teased.

I kicked his side playfully and he swatted my leg.

“Can’t make more friends. No one’s good enough compared to you Jo-el.”

He covered his heart with his hand dramatically, batting his eyelashes. “Well, I’m flattered, Allie-K.”

“So, you comin’ to that church party tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so. Mind if I ride with your family? My mom is kind of being bleh about taking me to church anymore.”

“Yeah, no problem. Oh, and wear your Bible Camp t-shirt from last year. We still get prizes if we wear them.”

“Eww, but it’s orange. Can’t we wear the blue ones we had the year before?” I complained.

“You can, I don’t care. But we won’t match if you do.”

I rolled my eyes at him playfully and went back to picking at the bark.

Every year at Bible Camp during the Fall, we got a different coloured t-shirt. Last year it was orange. Not that I don’t like orange ‘cause I do. But this orange was like a brown orange, very ugly. Joel loved his, no idea why, but I hated it. Though I would end up wearing it again, only because ever since Joel and I started going to the Summer party, we always matched our camp shirts. I couldn’t just break tradition, it would be too weird.

Joel and I stayed up in our tree until our mothers were calling us in for dinner. Which after we parted, we immediately started texting. We were attached at the hip and not even dinner could part us.



“Woman, come on!” Joel called through my door.

“Joel, this thing is hideous. As soon as we get whatever it is, it’s coming off,” I called through the door.

“Fine, just hurry!”

I stuffed a grey tank that Joel had made for me into my bag and slung it over my shoulder before walking out my door. Joel was waiting for me down the hall by the door. I slipped my shoes on, hearing my mom’s footsteps come up behind me.

“Bye mom, be back later. I might stay a Joel’s though, don’t know yet,” I hurried.

She waved me off and muttered something about how we were reading fairy tales before she walked off. Her comment brought a grimace to Joel and I before we shook it off and headed out, hopping into the waiting car in Joel’s drive way.

My mom was always sensitive about my religion. For the first ten years of my life she raised me to believe that it was all fake. But Joel invited me to a sermon one night and everything clicked. I, of course, made my own opinion on it all but the idea of a higher power made a difference in me. Joel was excited, he took me to church with him every Sunday and to every get together and we went to all the camps together. It all felt right. But my mom just wasn’t too accepting of it. It was a subject we didn’t speak of in my house, it was almost like a curse word to my mother to mention God. It was… uncomfortable around her to say the least.

But at least I had Joel who always supported me, and I would always support him. It’s why we were best friends.

His parents pulled into the church parking lot and we all got out and made our way around back, where everything was set up. It was almost like a little fair for our church. There were lots of activities for everyone to do and concessions and such. It was always a blast here.

“Oh, the shirt thing is over here,” Joel said, grabbing my arm and pulling me over to the table. The prize was free bounce house admission and concessions all night. They stamped out hands with a purple cross and we were off.

I quickly dragged Joel to a corner side of the building and told him to shield me while I changed quickly. He rolled his eyes and held out his arms while I quickly changed into my tank. Joel smiled when he saw the shirt I put on, the one he made me.

“Come on, let’s go rape the bounce house,” he grinned, dragging me over to the blow up contraption