Authors: Tabitha Freeman
“I have a camera in my car, if you want to use it,” he offered.
“Really?” I asked, my eyes
meeting his. “That’d be great!
”
“I’ll go get it,” he said. “I parked just around the church. You wanna come with me?”
“Uh, sure,” I said, smiling in spite of myself. “We should hurry so you can see your sister.”
“Guys, I’ll meet you inside,” he said, glancing back at Jake and Grant. I nodded at Cassie and Emily, signifying the same thing, and then I walked away, following behind Tyson.
He slowed down and stepped back a bit so that he was walking beside me.
“Your name’s Ava?” he asked then.
“Yeah,” I replied. “And you’re Tyson?” Like I didn’t know.
“That’s me,” he replied, smiling crookedly. “Have you lived here all your life?”
“Unfortunately,” I said, rolling my eyes. He looked over at me and laughed. I immediately loved that laugh.
“Why’s that?” he asked me. I shrugged.
“It’s just so boring here,” I told him. “There’s nothing to do. The closest movie theater is twenty minutes away in Constantine, and, no offense, but there’s not much to say about Constantine, either.”
“So, it’s like one small place surrounded by a million other small places,” he deduced. I smiled.
“Yeah, it’s like a trap,” I said and he laughed again. God, what a great laugh.
“This is my car,” he said
suddenly, stopping at a black El C
amino.
“Wow,” I said, my mouth literally dropping open. “This car is so amazing! What year is it?” It was gleaming in the cold January sun of the day.
“1978,” he replied, smiling proudly.
“It’s so shiny,” I said.
“Thanks,” he laughed, opening the passenger side door and leaning in. “I made a deal with Jake that I’d drive when we went out on the weekends if he’d just wash and shine her up every week.”
“That’s awesome,” I breathed, taking in every detail of the classic automobile. My eyes wandered then to his…bottom half. He was bent over, searching the floorboard and I really couldn’t help but notice his incredibly nice glutes.
“Here it is,” I heard him say. He came back out of the car with a small camera in his hand.
“It’s old school, I know,” he apologized, handing it to me. “But what can I say? I’m just an amateur photographer.” I laughed. We walked inside the church together, whispering about how I’d fallen out the window, trying to be quiet, but we both had the giggles.
We sat
on the floor against
the wall in the back of the church.
“This camera doesn’t have zoom on it,” I whispered.
“That’s a good thing,” he whispered back. “Because you can take a picture of the middle schoolers and since you’re so far away, no one will be able to tell the difference.”
“But their uniforms are a different color,” I pointed out.
“Get the pictures developed in black and wh
ite,” he said simply. “Trust me,
nobody will ever know but you and me.” I got the giggles again.
“Unless you tell someone,” I said then. He put his right hand over his heart.
“I’ll take it to the grave,” he muttered and I had to cover my mouth so no one would hear me laughing.
I took the rest of the pictures on the camera and Tyson and I somehow managed not to disrupt the performance. When it was over, we stood up and clapped like everyone else and then made our way to the front of the church to see Tyson’s sister.
“Which one is she?” I asked him.
“Tall girl, blonde hair,” he told me, pointing. I nodded, spotting her as she walked gracefully down the altar steps. She stopped and began talking to some of the other chorus members.
“Hey,” Tyson said, tapping her on the shoulder. She turned around.
“Hey,” she replied and looked at me.
“Uh, Ava, this is my sister, Laura,” Tyson said then.
“Hi,” I said, extending my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Ava,” she replied, shaking my hand. She turned back to Tyson then.
“Are you coming to Mom’s?” she asked him. The resemblance in these two siblings was remarkable.
Same brilliant blue eyes, crooked smile, slender physique, and even a similar way of speaking.
“No, I’m going over to a friend’s house and then I’m going back to Dad’s,” Tyson told her. “But I was going to take you back to Mom’s first.”
“That’s okay,” Laura replied. “My friend Julie is giving me a ride.”
“Oh,” Tyson said. “Okay, well, uh, you did good.”
“Thanks for coming, jerk,” she said, smiling and giving him a hug. “I gotta go, though…Julie’s waiting. Are you coming to Mom’s this weekend?”
“Probably,” he answered.
“Okay, I’m gonna go,” she said. “Love you.”
“You, too,” he replied and then she bounded off. We followed after the crowd to the entrance of the church then and I couldn’t help but notice the way the light coming through the stained glass windows of the church hit his eyes just perfectly.
“You can actually exit through a door this time,” Tyson said suddenly. I laughed.
“Yeah, I can,” I replied. “That’s a lot safer, don’t you think?”
“Most definitely.”
“So where did you move here from?”
“Seattle.”
“Really? That’s a long way from Virginia.”
“Tell me about it,” he sighed.
“
It sucks there, though.”
“Why is that?
” I inquired. “
Because of the rain?”
“Yeah. I hate rain. It’s so depressing.”
“Me, too. It’s good weather to read in though.”
“You read a lot?”
“All the time,” I told him, a little sheepishly. “It’s the nerd in me.”
“What kind of stuff do you read?” he asked. I shrugged.
“Everything,” I replied. He smiled at me then.
“Me, too,” he said.
When we finally got outside, we were immediately greeted by Emily.
“It’s about time,” Emily said to us. “We went to the Waffle House and back.”
“Thanks for bringing me something,” I said dryly. We followed her over to Cassie’s
car
, where Cassie, Jake, and Grant were standing.
“You ready, Andrews?” Jake
asked
Tyson. It didn’t take two seconds for me to realize that ‘Andrews’ was Tyson’s last name
—
and another two seconds to put ‘Ava’ with ‘Andrews’ and realize just how good it sounded.
“Yeah, man,” Tyson said.
“You’re not taking Laura home?” Grant asked.
“No, she got a ride with one of her friends,” Tyson told him.
“I guess we’ll see you girls in a minute then?” Jake asked, looking at Emily.
“Yeah,” Emily replied. “Cassie, you’re staying with me tonight, aren’t you?” Cassie nodded.
“Ava, are you coming over?” Emily asked me. Was she serious? Of course I was coming over. How could I possibly pass up a chance to spend more time with Tyson
Andrews
?
“Yeah, I guess I am,” I nodded
, trying to play it cool.
Then, the guy
s got in Tyson’s shiny, 1978 black El C
am
ino and we got in Cassie’s
jeep. I kept my eyes on Tyson as he drove off.
“So, Tyson’s a hottie,” Emily said, looking at me with a grin as we followed them out of the parking lot. I raised my eyebrows at her.
“There’s definite chemistry there,” Cassie spoke up.
“Emily, why don’t we talk about Jake?” I suddenly said. They giggled.
“I’ll admit it
—
Jake’s
a looker
,” Emily said, smiling.
“Cassie, did I see you checking out Grant?” I asked.
“No,” Cassie replied. “You know I’d never so much as look at someone else besides Trevor. Besides, Grant’s got a funny-shaped head. Didn’t you notice that?” We broke into hysterical laughter.
At eighteen, our biggest worry in the world was staying away from boys with “funny-shaped heads”. We had no idea how much bigger the world really gets.
When we got to Emily’s house, we all went to the basement, which was our typical hang
-
out spot in high school. The walls were splashed with
faded pink
and green paint (watermelon colors, as Emily liked to refer to them) and movie posters
were tacked up everywhere at odd angles
. In the right corner of the basement, next to the purple-themed bathroom, was the family wet bar, locked at
the parents discretion.
Couches and beanbag chairs were scattered throughout the rest of the room and faced the ultimate recreation we loved in Emily’s watermelon basement: the big screen, plasma TV.
Since Emily’s brother, Jeremy wouldn’t be home from work for another two hours, we decided to just chill out and popped in a movie. Emily and Jake sat close on the sofa, Cassie was upstairs in Emily’s room talking on her cell phone to her boyfriend, Trevor, and Grant was also upstairs, in the kitchen, getting something to eat. This left some quality, get-to-know-you time with Tyson to take advantage of. After I’d put the movie in, I went and sat down beside Tyson on the floor. I pretended to focus on the movie and nervously kneaded my fingers through the plush white carpet beneath me.
“Are you spending the night with Emily, too?” Tyson spoke up suddenly.
“No,” I replied, looking over at him. “I live across the street, so I’ll just walk home.”
“I think they’re into each other,” Tyson murmured, nodding to Emily and Jake, who were now in the middle of a tickle war.
“Just maybe,” I said, chuckling. I quit playing with the carpet and relaxed a little.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked me then. I shook my head, butterflies rapidly fluttering in my stomach. No, it was bigger than butterflies. Bats, maybe.
“Do you?” I asked him.
“Nah, I don’t have a boyfriend,” he answered and I giggled.
“Just kidding,” he said. “I don’t have a girlfriend. I recently broke a girl’s heart
—
you might’ve heard of her…Britney Spears?” I laughed loudly. He smiled.
“Yeah, and now she’s a big, famous pop singer,” he went on, shaking his head. “Damn the bad luck.”
“You’re so funny,” I told him. “You crack me up.”