And She Made the Shape of My Heart With Her Hands

“She said I was hot?”

I sighed again. “Yes, Garrett. A fourteen year-old thought you were hot.”

“Hm. Cool.” I rolled my eyes. “Is that all she said? She just came up to you and said she thought I was hot?”

I froze for a moment. “Um... Yeah. That’s it,” I lied.

“Well that’s a little strange, but flattering.”

“Uh, yeah. I’m going to go take a walk,” I answered my brother, grabbing my Sidekick and walking away from the van. I needed to think.

***

Since sixth grade, I had practically prayed for someone to find me. Someone to love me, hold me, care for me. I just wanted God to send a boy in my direction.

Well I had gotten my wish. Who would’ve thought that I would be blessed with two boys?

But the truth was, however, that I wasn’t even completely sure if John liked me. I was just judging this simply by the evidence he provided and I had picked up to analyze. It was nothing set in stone, like Pat’s. I knew he liked me. He straight up told me, and I liked that. There weren’t any weird games to be played. No worrying or hassling.

I sighed, just about to go onto my next thought when my phone started ringing. I looked down at the caller ID. It was my house…

“Hello?” I greeted warily.

“I just got a bill from some hospital in Texas saying that Cara Nickelsen had broken her wrist and received treatment for it,” my mother’s voice was a tad croaky, but still firm like it always was.

I swallowed the nervous lump in my throat. “I fell, Mom. I’m fine. Everything’s okay.”

“It better be, Cara. I didn’t let you go just to party and be a stupid reckless kid. Use your head once in awhile.”

I flinched. “I’m not partying, Mom. Everything is great and I’m having fun. We’re safe, too.” I started walking back to the van. I had walked a few minutes away down the street.

“I’m glad you’re okay, baby.” I rolled my eyes. I hated when she called me that. “I’m not too sure if I’m okay with you spending the whole summer with a bunch of boys though… I mean it’s not real proper. You’re the only girl there and all…”

“Mom, please stop worrying! Garrett’s here and everything is fine!”

“Speaking of your brother, I want to talk to him,” my mom declared.

“Alright.” With my brother giving me a confused look, I handed him the phone with a worried face.

“Hello?”

I could just hear my mom’s voice rambling on and on to my brother. I stood there with an apprehensive look, watching Garrett.

“She just fell backwards over a couple bars, Mom. She’s-”

I heard my mom’s volume in voice increase greatly. I walked closer to Garrett.

“No, Mom, no! Not a bar like beer and alcohol and stuff! I mean metal bars that were backstage! She fell over them and broke her wrist. It’s okay, Cara’s okay, we’re all okay. Everything is okay.”

I heard a faint sigh from my mother.

“Alright, Mom? Here’s Cara again.” He paused to listen to her. “Yeah, love you, too.” He gave me the phone.

“Mom?”

“Cara, I’m glad everything’s fine, but just… be careful. Okay? I love you, sweetie. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Mom. Love you, too.” I closed the phone with a click. Well that was weird…

***

I squirmed around constantly. I kept banging on my cast with my other hand. Oh Lord, I wished this thing were gone right now. My arm itched like hell!

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“My arm… it… itches! Kennedy, I need a pencil or pen or something!” I danced around like a little kid that had to desperately pee.

He looked around frantically. “But I don’t have a pencil!”

“Get one! Please! Find something!”

“Um… I’ll go back to the van!” With that, Kennedy started to jog down the 3 flights of hotel steps to the parking lot.

I shifted my weight back and forth quickly; making it still look like a potty dance a child would come up with. I started hitting the cast against the wall. That’s when Pat walked in the room.

“Cara, what are you doing?”

“My arm itches really, really badly!”

Pat looked around the big hotel room quickly, walking here and there, opening shelves and closing them. Finally he pulled out a complementary hotel pen that read ‘Holiday Inn’ on it. He walked quickly to me and grabbed my injured arm.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, my knees bent, my body leaning towards Pat. He kept moving the pen around in my cast.

“Better yet?”

“No, no… Keep going.”

Pat moved the pen over to the left a little, moving the pen a little faster. “Is that good?”

I sighed in contentment. “Yeah. That feels great.”

“Uhhh…”

Pat and I turned around abruptly to see my brother standing there awkwardly, studying us.

I smiled sheepishly, not moving. Pat was frozen, too. “Hi, Garrett. So what’s up?”

He shook his head back and forth before taking a few more steps into the room. He looked at Pat holding the pen down my cast and me basically leaning into him in bliss.

“What the hell are you two doing?”

“Well that depends. How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” Garrett answered Pat.

There was an awkward silence following Garrett’s answer.

“My freaking arm itched like crazy!” I bellowed out.

“Okay…” Garrett turned around uncomfortably and walked out of the room.

That was when Kennedy stumbled in with an unsharpened pencil in his right hand. He was huffing and puffing like someone who had just ran a mile without stopping.

“I got one! I got one, Cara!”

I let out a sheepish laugh and walked over to Kennedy. “Um, thanks, Kennedy, but Pat found the hotel pen and sort of beat you to it. Sorry, kid.”

He let out a frustrated groan. “I ran down a million flights of stairs for nothing? Jesus Christ!”

“No, no!” I consoled him. “I’ll take this pencil, Kennedy,” I slowly slid the yellow #2 pencil from his hand, “and I’m sure I’ll need it later. Okay?”

He nodded his head. “Okay.”

“Okay,” I patted his back a couple times. “Anyway, I think we’re supposed to be getting to the van. Your show starts soon.”

The two boys nodded their heads and followed me out the door.

“You better use that pencil, Cara.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Yeah. I busted my balls for that thing.”

“What balls?”

I laughed at Pat’s joke. “Burn,” I stated.

***

“Pat, you’re so skinny.”

He looked down at himself. “Yeah, I sort of am.”

I laughed. “Yeah. I bet you only weigh a little more than me.”

“Nah, you’re small,” he answered.

“Uh,” I looked down at my breasts. They weren’t super huge, but they certainly weren’t small. “For the most part, yeah.” I laughed a little and Pat smiled, a slight red tint covering his cheeks.

“What are we talking about here?” Jared and John had just walked up.

“We’re talking about whose smaller,” Pat replied.

“Well, lighter,” I added.

Jared and John studied Pat and I. We awkwardly stood there.

“Well obviously Cara’s a little shorter and her waist is smaller,” Jared concluded.

“But,” John piped in, “she’s got…” John’s eyes darted down to my boobs then back to my face with a cheeky grin, “Yeah.”

“There’s only one way to settle this…”

John looked to Jared with that grin still. “I’ll do it.”

John walked behind me and before I could say anything or ask something, he brought his arms around my waist and hoisted me up from the ground.

“Alright, alright!”

John put me down with a small chuckle. He then smirked and did the same thing to Pat, only he was expecting it.

“Yep. Cara’s lighter,” John concluded.

Pat turned to me with a triumphant grin on his face. “Told you.”

I sighed. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Hey! Let’s play some wiffleball!”

“Ha! Now I have an excuse to not play!”

“Yeah, I guess you do,” Joel sighed, staring at my cast.