JESSIE STARTED school on a Tuesday in the spring. I was awkward, unsure, even when she laughed after I told a joke I didn’t mean to tell. It was low and throaty and I thought it was one of the nicest sounds I’d ever heard.
Carter and Kelly seemed to like her well enough, but they refused to leave my side between classes and crowded me more than usual at lunch. I suppose it must have looked odd to anyone else, seeing three big guys on one small bench while a girl sat opposite them with all the room in the world. She cocked her eyebrow at us, but Carter and Kelly refused to move and I explained to her later that’s just how they were.
“Protective?” she asked, eyeing the two of them.
“You could say that. Guys, come on.”
They glared at me before glaring at her.
She laughed at them.
Later, she walked with me to the shop after school and I turned red when her arm brushed mine. I held the door open for her, and she called me a gentleman. I tripped over my feet at that and almost knocked her to the ground. Rico said in a very loud voice that it must be love.
THE SUN was setting when I walked home, thoughts of pretty girls and brown hair swirling around in my head.
Joe was waiting for me, a smile on his face. The smile faded as I got closer.
“What is that?” he asked as I reached him.
“What?”
“That smell.”
I sniffed the air around me. It smelled the same. The forest and leaves and grass and blooming flowers, all sharp and heady. I told him so.
He shook his head. “Never mind.” The smile came back and he took my hand and we walked toward home. He told me about all he’d learned, how he couldn’t wait until he got to go to school with me and Carter and Kelly, and didn’t that tree look like a lady dancing? Did I see that rock with the crystal strip running down its side? Had I seen the commercial for that new superhero movie that we just had to go see this summer? Did I want to stay for dinner? Did I want to read comic books tonight?
“Yes, Joe,” I said.
Yes to it all.
IT WAS a Thursday that I finally worked up the nerve.
“She’s going to look at me weird and I won’t remember how to breathe!” I groaned to Carter and Kelly.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Kelly said.
“But I want to.”
“Are you sure?” Carter asked, sounding dubious. “You’re not acting like it. Maybe think on it a few more days?”
“Or weeks,” Kelly said.
“Or years,” Carter said.
“Or never,” Kelly said.
“She’s coming!” I said. I might have squeaked.
“Hey, guys.” Jessie flashed a smile as she sat down at the lunch table.
“Jessie.” Carter sounded bored out of his mind.
“How nice to see you again.” Kelly didn’t sound like he meant that at all.
They both crowded me closer. I could barely breathe.
“Hi,” I said. “You look… swell.”