Wednesday
Picture 2
Kimmydon's Choice: both
Title:
All hail summer vacation. How much longer until school started again? Oh, right, fifty days. Had it only been two weeks?! Well, Beth definitely agreed with me. She only had one, lucky girl, and Sarah was a doll. Although, I didn’t like the way Sarah eyed my Jacob. They were both too young for that sort of thing, right? Thirteen was too young. Definitely.
Jacob certainly didn’t seem to notice Sarah. He was too busy climbing back to the spout at the top of that damn rainbow slide. She was adjusting herself on her towel, making sure her sunglasses were perched just so.
Beth nudged my elbow. “Good idea? The waterpark, I mean.”
“Are you kidding? Fantastic idea. I’ve been chasing them out of the house every day and they never seem to know what to do with themselves. ‘Go play’ seems to be a foreign language.” I shook my head in disgust and disbelief.
Beth laughed. “Sarah would spend all day, everyday, at the mall if I let her. She’d also be wearing less of a bathing suit if I let her have her way.” Beth rolled her eyes. “She claims this will give her wicked tan lines.”
We both stopped talking as one of the younger boys crept up to where Sarah lay. She must’ve had her eyes closed because she didn’t move until he hurled a bucket of water on her.
Beth and I nearly fell off our perches at the picnic table, laughing. Sarah chased after the boy, tripping in her towel and sprawling on the grass. As string of profanity issued from her mouth that had Beth stepping quickly to her daughter. Surprisingly, Jacob made it there ahead of her.
“Are you okay, Sarah? He just wanted to splash you. Actually, I wanted him to splash you.”
“Um, I’m okay,” she murmured, looking away as he did. She sighed. “I need a new towel though.”
“Oh! You can have mine,” he said, leading her to my side where he rummaged in our bag to pull one out. He wrapped it around her shoulders quite chivalrously. I couldn’t hide my smile. Beth echoed it.
“Is that better?” he asked, wary.
“Yes, thank you.” Sarah stepped a little closer, but just then Jacob’s younger brother, Doug, came and tossed water on Jacob.
I snorted and Sarah muffled her laugh with her hand as Jacob stood there, dripping and scowling.
“I had to wash the cooties off!” the eight year old maintained, trying to climb the multi-hued dome again.
“Cooties,” Beth said between chuckles, sitting next to me again. Jacob was climbing after his brother and Sarah was setting up again on the grass.
After tucking Doug in bed, I nearly ran to kitchen. Who was cooking? Not burning, thankfully. There Jacob sat on the counter, in his shorts, eating scrambled eggs from a plate.
I shook my head but said nothing, passing through.
“Wait, Mom. I was wondering if you’d take me to the movies tomorrow. Not go with me.” The derision in his voice was hard to miss and nearly made me snort. “Drop me off... with some friends.”
I leaned against the counter in the corner opposite him. “Some friends?” I asked.
“Well, just one friend.” He turned slightly pink.
“Aren’t you a little young to be dating?” I asked. “I mean, your brother will be appalled if you bring home cooties.” That had the desired effect; he laughed.
“Not a date. Well, not a real date. Unless... Will she think it’s a date?” he asked. “Do I need to do something special to make it a date?”
I rolled my eyes. As clueless as his father. “I think it would count.”
“Oh.” He rubbed a hand through his mop of hair, making it stick up worse than it was from the waterpark.
“Yeah. You ready for that?”
“Why? Does it mean something? I mean, is it important?” He was stunned and wide-eyed. Innocent. This girl had caught him hard. If I didn’t know Beth, I might be worried. She wouldn’t let her daughter go around using boys like mine, well not for long, not once she found out.
“It means you think of her as a girl, not just as a friend. Is that how you see her?”
His eyes remained wide and he gulped down another forkful of eggs before answering. “Yeah, I do.”
“Then I think you’re ready. I’ll drop you off at two. We can pick Sarah up on the way. Make sure you wash that pan.” I patted his knee as I left the room.
“Mom?”
I turned back, a little surprised.
He’d hopped down from the counter and kissed my cheek. “Love you.”
He didn’t even have to stretch. Damn that boy grew fast.
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