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| >> Static Item >> Chapter >> Family >> ID #1170367 |   |
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ROMANCE 101 "Jess I have to ask you something." "Sure, Joey. Go ahead." "Well it's kind of personal." "I'm listening." Joey seemed to be trying to choose words. Then he said. "Jess when you have a girlfriend what do you have to do?" "Do you have a girl friend?" "No. That is I guess, yes. I don't know." "That sounds like about the right amount of confusion. Who is this girl?" "Linda Applegate. She just moved in last summer and she's in my grade at school." "And you don't know if she's your girlfriend or not?" "No." "Well start from the beginning. What happened?" "She came over and asked to talk to me a minute. She took hold of my coat sleeve and we went over to the fence. She asked me if I wanted to be her boyfriend. I thought, I'm ten, and I don't think I was old enough. Then I thought, no, I don't want to be a boyfriend, because the guys razz you when you have a girlfriend. Besides I still didn't know what that means." "So you told her no?" "Yes but her feelings got all hurt and I was afraid she was going to cry. She's only about this tall.” He raised his hand to his chin. “And she's a girl. I felt like a bully making her cry. I didn't want her crying and all so I changed and said yes." "So she wouldn't cry." "Yeah. Then she got all happy and started telling me the rules." "The rules?" "For being her boyfriend. Like I have to save her a seat on the bus. She says we have to sit together on the bus like Scotty and April, so I can't sit with Matt and Davy any more. I thought, well that's okay I guess. But then she said she'd save me a seat in the cafeteria because if she's my girlfriend we have to eat lunch together. I can't eat with the guys any more. Jess did you have to do all that when Miss Nyla was your girlfriend?" "Well, we spent time together but that was different. We were seventeen. You're ten. And I knew for sure I wanted to have her as my girlfriend." "And she wants me to take her places. Like dates." "Places?" "She says she wants me to take her to the movies. I told her I don't have a lot of money and she said she would pay half. She said girls today pay their own way. Is that true?" "I've heard that." "When you go out with Miss Julie, who pays?" "I do. But I know some couples split the cost." "She said her father would drive us. I don't even know her father." "So do you want to take her to the movies?" "Not really. She wants to see, you know, girl type movies. And she doesn't want to see anything interesting. When you go out who chooses what you're going to do?" "Well, usually when I ask somebody out I already have in mind where I want to take her. So that's usually settled at the time we make the date." "Well, what do you do if she doesn't want to go there?" "Then she says she doesn't and we don't make the date. But this is different. I'm not ~~ that is I'm not committed to a relationship with any woman now. I just go out once in a while. So nobody has any obligation to go somewhere she doesn't want to." "Is that what I am now? Committed?" "No. You're way too young for that. It would have been less complicated if you didn't say yes to being her boy friend, though." "I had to, or she was going to cry." "Well, that's where you made your mistake. Some women, that's their way to get their way. They cry because they know how we feel about a woman crying and they hope you'll change your mind. A girl who does that; you don't want in the first place." "What does committed mean anyway?" "It means you don't date anyone else. It means you spend time together because you want to because you enjoy one another's company. It means you want to be together." "Were you and Miss Nyla committed?" "Yes we were." "But you and Miss Julie aren't?" "No." "It's confusing." "Tell me about it." "So what if the girl wants to be committed and you don't?" "Then you aren't. But you're young enough not to have to worry about it. See, Joey, being committed takes two yes votes. If one vote is no, then you aren't. You have to be honest about it. Don't let her think you are, when you aren't. And if you aren't committed you don't do any kissing or anything." "She kissed me." "When?" "After I said yes to make her stop crying. " "You're too young for this, Joey. I don’t know any way to explain it." "You mean I'll understand when I'm older?" "No, I don't think any man really understands it but when you're older you can deal with it." "Girls are way different from us aren't they?” "Yeah." "I mean they do things we wouldn't do. " "Yes." "Why?" "That was one of the questions Adam probably asked Eve. Why don't you think the way I do?" "Have they got a different kind of brain?" "Well, yes they have. We learned that in biology class. Women's brains do work differently. For one thing the talking and communicating part of their brain is bigger than ours." Joey nodded. "So they can't help it?" "Well look at it this way. Don’t we want them to be different?" "Maybe. This is what you were talking about when you told me about puberty and all that isn't it? How I'd start thinking different about a lot of things then." "Yes," "Well, why is Linda doing this already? Did she puberty already?" "How would I know that? That's too personal to talk about anyway, Joey, I'll be honest, I don't know a lot about little girls." "Some of the girls in seventh and eighth have boobs." "Yeah, well ~~ " "So what do I do, Jess? This isn't working for me. Like after school yesterday, I wanted to stay after and shoot hoops with Matt and Davy and then Eddie would bring us home. I asked you and you said I could do that remember? But Linda said no, we were supposed to go on the bus together." "What did you say?" "I told her I wanted to hang out and play basketball until five o'clock like you said I could." "And she was going to cry?" "Yeah. So when I get a girlfriend for real is she going to make me give up all my guy friends?" "You don't want the kind of girlfriend who would do that." Joey nodded. Jess went on, "Some girls, they try to change you. They don‘t like who you are and think of you as a fixer upper. Now I don't know Miss Linda, but from what you said; she's one of those. When you see that coming you get out of that real quick. When you get ready for a real girlfriend, you’ll want one who likes you for who you are and not for who she thinks she can turn you into. And that works both ways." "So then what do I do with Linda?" "You're ten. So is she." "She's eleven." "So anyway, this won't last. Trust me it'll all blow over." "And in the meantime I don't get to be with Davy and them? I can't play basketball?" "You’ll have to do what you want to do, and she'll probably get mad and break up with you." "I never want to have a girlfriend." "Well, you don't have to deal with that for a long time yet." "No, not until tomorrow on the bus." Davey got on the bus Wednesday morning. He stopped by where Joey was sitting. "Are you saving the seat?" "No. Sit down." "Aren't you still going around with Linda?" "What’s going around? I only see her at school and on the bus." "She'll bust your chops for not saving the seat," Matt said. "What do you know about it?" "I have two older brothers that date. That is Scotty does and Eddie did used to, then he got married." The bus stopped again and Linda got on. She looked around and spotted Joey. She put up her nose and sat by one of the girls. Joey was naive enough to think that was the end of it. Until lunch time that is. Linda was waiting for him at the Cafeteria door. She didn't look pleased. "I thought you were going to save my seat on the bus." "Some days I like to sit with my friends." "But I thought you were going to sit with me. I thought I was your girlfriend." "I’ve been friends with Matt and Davy since before kindergarten. They're my friends." "And you rather be with them than with me?" "Sometimes." Linda's lip quivered. Joey felt his resolve weaken, but he said, "It's nothing to cry about for gosh sakes. It's just a bus ride." "But it's our time to be together. Don't you want to be together?" "Not always." "That's what my mother says. She says all men are selfish. They always want to do what they want to do, and don't care about other people." "That's not true. Jess is a man and he isn't selfish." "Well, you are. I was looking forward to being with you and you were sitting with that David Sterrit. I don't even know why you want to be friends with him, He lives on a pig farm." She held her nose. "I live on a chicken farm." "Why would anybody want to raise pigs?" "Hey, there's good money in it!" "Well I don't like David. He's rude." "Davy's my oldest friend. I do like him." "Doesn't what I think matter to you?" "You think what you want but Davy is my friend.” "I don't like him." "So you don't like him. You don't have to, he's not your friend he's mine." "So you don't think I should have anything to say about your friends?" "You want to tell me who my friends can be?" "If you really care about me." "Oh, stop it. There's nothing to cry about. What do you care if I have guy friends?” "I thought you were different, Joey MacIver, but you're not. You're selfish! You don't like me! You just want to do what you want to do." "So you say, I can't be your boy friend unless I stop having Davy for a friend?" "It isn't considerate of you to have friends I don't like." "It isn't considerate of you to tell me who my friends can be." Joey folded his arms and stared straight ahead. She was looking at him as if she was really mad at him. "Do you want to break up with me?" "If I do anything I want to do you get mad." "I hate you," Linda announced. "I do everything for you and you won't do anything for me." Joey wondered what she did for him and decided not to ask. After a moment Linda turned on her heel and walked into the girls' room. Joey wasn't sure what just happened, but he figured he was a free man again.
© Copyright 2006 Doremi-84 on July 7 (UN: nicegrandma777 at Writing.Com).
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