Hoax Read online

  I hit the burger joint in town and sat on the tailgate to eat, letting my legs kick back and forth. I didn’t want to go in, mostly because I was filthy. But more than that, I didn’t want to take a chance of running into my friends. They probably aren’t friends if you cringe at the thought of running into them but it was what it was. I had hung out with the same group of people since middle school. It was a given.

  When I got back to the house, Corinne’s car was already parked in the garage and she pressed a button to close the garage door. She had four grocery bags in her hands and was trying unsuccessfully to look where she walked over the top of the brown bags. I laughed and then approached her to take some of the bags. She relented only two of them and nearly dropped the other two while she unlocked the door.

  I sat both of mine on the counter.

  “You don’t have to lock the doors, it’s pretty safe around here.” I shrugged as I took the milk out of the bag.

  “Oh yeah I do. Check the rule book.” She tapped firmly on a white binder on the counter.

  “Rule book?” I said.

  “Yep, and there’s a section labeled ‘Abel’ too.”

  She put different things in cabinets and then returned to the refrigerator. I sat at the island and made an attempt to read through my rules but most of them were ‘duh’ rules. Not to mention the fact that when Corinne reached up to put something in an upper cabinet, her top slid up just an inch or two and I couldn’t help but look at her tanned waistline.

  “Do you want something to drink,” she asked.

  “Nah, but thanks. Have you seen some of these rules,” I asked her.

  “Yeah, I read my section this morning. But I’m a pro at bending the rules.” She shrugged as she took the barstool across from me at the island.

  “You are,” I asked.

  “Yeah, I used to go to an all girls prep school and there’s tons of rules about everything. You gotta get creative just to stay sane.”

  “I didn’t know they had those anymore. But you live here?” I could’ve sat and listened to her voice all day. It wasn’t squeaky or nasaly and she didn’t giggle incessantly at everything I said. She was calm and sure of herself but innocent at the same time. It confused me and yet, I was in awe.

  “Yes, well, I live here now. I’ve lived at school since I was six. We just moved to another house.” A rule caught my eye.

  “Um, this says no orgies. Did you read that?” She turned the binder around and snapped in fake disappointment. “Dang.”

  We laughed and then I said I needed to get back to work.

  “Can I help?” She looked like she was serious.

  “Really,” I asked.

  “Yeah, it’s really boring and there’s nothing on TV and I haven’t gotten to the library yet.” When I didn’t answer immediately she backtracked. “It’s ok. I’ll find something to do. No big deal.” She turned and I finally found my voice again.

  “Hey, no, you just shocked me. Yeah, come help. You’ll regret it, but come on.”

  “You sure,” She asked.

  “Yeah, come on. There’s tons of sanding to do.”

  Corinne

  I am the lamest at flirting ever. I’m so incredibly lame at it that he probably thought I was insane.

  Screw it. I quit. I’m just gonna be me. If he doesn’t like it, well, it’s just gonna suck.

  I took out my frustrations on the white crackling paint which coated the window frames of the storage building. Abel had already prepped the barn. I finished the window frames and moved to the door frame. I could feel the back of my neck getting sunburned but I didn’t want to wuss out.

  “Hey,” Abel came around the right side and looked at my work. “I’m getting thirsty. Wanna take a break?”

  “Yeah, I think I’m getting sunburned too.” He went behind me and hissed through his teeth. “You already are. I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you.”

  “It’s fine. It’s the summer, right? Bound to happen.”

  We went inside and I groaned at the seventy degree air hitting my face. Abel groaned behind me at the same feeling.

  “Water, sweet tea, lemonade…” I rattled off our drink choices.

  “Lemonade, please. Glasses?” He moved to open cabinets, trying to find cups.

  “Top right.” I pointed them out to him.

  He got two out and we cooled off with ice cold lemonade. When he emptied his glass into the sink, I thought we were going out to work again.

  “It’s four o’clock, so I’m going to head home. Thanks for the help today. And take care of that.” He swiped the pads of his fingers across the apples of my cheeks. What I wouldn’t give for him to swipe his fingers over my lips, down my neck, lace them through my hair.

  “Yeah, okay. Do you work every day?” Desperate much?

  “During the week I do. So I’ll see you tomorrow?” He said.

  “Sure.” I watched him walk out the back door. Alone again.

  Later that night I sat on the couch with nothing better to do. There was nothing on TV and the only movies they had were kids’ movies and the only books they had were about kids and parenting. I had cleaned the entire house again after Abel left even though it didn’t need it. I finally gave into my boredom and went to bed.

  By the end of the week we had everything clean and prepped for painting. I went inside to take my weekly phone call from Angela. I was supposed to wait for her call around noon every Friday. We had a short conversation. There was just so much I could say. Yes, the house is clean and I read the rules. No, the house hasn’t burned down. Yes, Abel is getting the painting done. No, he hasn’t even attempted to kiss me, not even close. No, I didn’t think about his face or overanalyze every single thing he said. I silently added those last ones to the conversation.

  Abel came to the back door and knocked. I assumed it was to tell me that he was leaving for the day. I motioned him in.

  “Did everything go ok on the phone,” he asked.

  “Yeah, clean, unburned-down house, no orgies. I’m good. And you are getting ready to paint and you are mowing the grass Monday. So you’re good.”

  I was really not looking forward to a weekend alone. I mentally pleaded for him to say something, chanted it in my head. Ask me out, ask me to groom his dog, ask me to drool over him—I wasn’t picky. But I knew all along he wouldn’t. He was quiet but very sweet at the same time. And it had only been a week.

  “I’m gonna head out. I will see you Monday, I guess.” I swore I heard a buzzer sound behind me telling me that a foul had occurred.

  “See you Monday.” I watched him walk out the way he came in and listened as his truck turned over. I turned and walked up the stairs to my room. I plopped in the big plush chair by the window and pouted. At least at school I had a roommate. Sometimes they were nice and sometimes they weren’t. They didn’t stay for long. Their parents took them out when they grew disciplined or just plain missed them and brought them home. I held the record for the longest time at Wellsley. I almost wished I was there.

  Saturday morning I went into town to find the library. Calling it a smaller library was an understatement. It was tiny. I got ten books—that would carry me for a while. I then went back to the park. It was more of the same scenario from the other day. Boys played football, girls tanned, toddlers squealed. I read for a few hours and before I knew it, the sky grew dark around me. The toddlers were gone and the girls were too. The boys remained, playing for the win.

  One of them had light brown hair and when he pushed it back I realized who it was. It was Abel. His shirtless abs were on display and they were lean and cut just the way I liked, well, just the way I’d seen in movies. As if he heard my mental recognition he looked straight at me but didn’t wave or smile. I waved a little and when I found it unrequited, I got up and went home.

  Abel

  After leaving the Stephenson’s house, I went home to find Brett on my porch tossing a football and smiling like he knew I was going to show up any
minute. I groaned within the cab of the truck before getting out and facing a person who I had hoped to go through the whole summer without. Brett Anderson was the king of jerks. He was cocky and rude. He ruled with an iron fist too. He bullied and beat on anyone in school who was different in the smallest way and it didn’t take much to set him off. I didn’t like it but the consequences of going against Brett were such that I didn’t want to face them. Besides, we only had one more year of high school left.

  He moved down the porch to meet me halfway.

  “Yo Conners, where ‘ya been man?” He practically screamed it. I blew out a huff of breath in preparation for whatever he had to say next.

  “Workin’ man. What’s up with you?”

  “You work too much Abel. Come hang out with us.”

  “I’m whipped Brett. Maybe tomorrow.” Translation: Please go away.

  “All right man, but tomorrow, at the park, two o’clock, or else.” He laughed when he said it but I knew the truth of the matter. Or else in Brett’s book wasn’t fun.

  “Yeah,” I called back to him over my shoulder.

  My mom and dad left a note saying they went on a date. That was nothing new. My parents had gone on a date every Friday night for as long as I could remember. Me on the other hand? I hadn’t had a date since last year’s homecoming dance.

  That was when Brett decided that Miranda, my date, was hotter than his date and relieved me of her presence. It irked me but I was surprised at how much I didn’t care. Miranda was eye candy and she asked me to the dance so I had said yes. She talked about nothing and giggled about nothing. And her dress? Next to nothing.

  I ordered pizza and sat in front of the computer. Out of the blue I looked up Wellsley Academy in Monroe. Three clicks in and I could tell that it was a place for snobs. It cost nearly half of my parents’ annual salary and started college prep at Kindergarten. It showed girls dressed in uniforms with glasses and weird sweaters as they walked to class. But the girls on this site were nothing like the Corinne that I knew. Who was I kidding? I had only known her for a week.

  Not that I didn’t try. I asked her questions here and there about her parents and her school but she didn’t say much. I wondered if she didn’t want to divulge information to a stranger or if there was nothing to tell. These were things I was willing to dig to get to the bottom of.

  I toyed with the idea of asking her out all week. But then I would chicken out. Not because of the asking part but because of the actual date. If we saw my friends while we were out and they acted like their usual jerk selves I was sure she would want nothing to do with me anymore. Maybe I could take her somewhere else. Maybe she’d think I was a moron and call the Stephenson’s and tell them to fire me. Yeah, that was probably it. But I had to try, she was like nothing I had ever known.

  Saturday I hung out until about two when I met Brett and the other guys at the park to play some ball. And of course the girlfriends of the guys came to lay around and complain about the heat. I almost decided to go see Corinne instead but how desperate would that make me look? We played until it was almost dark, then I looked up in the middle of a play and there she sat on a bench by the playground. She watched us for a few minutes, I thought she hadn’t recognized me. Then she waved but I didn’t want to alert the guys to who she was just yet so I didn’t wave back. For the rest of the weekend I felt like a jerk. Yes, I was who I was friends with.

  Monday I pulled up to the house fully expecting an angry female but she wasn’t home. I worked through until the afternoon missing her company and her laugh. She had a whisper quiet laugh. You could only tell she was laughing if you looked at her and saw her smiling and her shoulders shaking. Not that I needed another reason to look at her.

  “I think you get more work done without me.” I exhaled a relieved breath at the sound of her voice.

  “Hmmm. I think so too. Nothing to distract me.” I said truthfully.

  “Distract you? Hardly.” She laughed.

  “What? Your mad scraping and sandpaper skills confound me.” I said.

  “Yeah, that must be it.” She laughed. “I had to go to the post office and the hardware store this morning for pool chemicals. Some guy is supposed to come and shock the pool or something.”

  “Yeah, that’s Mr. Lambert. He’s pretty nice.”

  “So, you ready for a break?” She said.

  “Actually I am.” I threw down my scraper satisfied.

  “Good, I got you a snow ball.” She smiled and began walking backwards towards the house.

  Corinne

  I swear every time I open my mouth the words that come out reach new levels of lameness. Good, I got you a snowball.

  He probably thought I sounded like a seven year old girl with pigtails. ‘Hey Abel, I like your t-shirt. You like Spongebob too? I got you a snow ball!’ Idiot.

  He interrupted my self-loathing, “Really? I love those things. I try to get one every day of the summer.”

  “Shut up.” I said sarcastically.

  “What? I do.” He said and shrugged.

  “I got you blackberry the same as mine. I didn’t know what flavor you’d like.”

  “I’ve never had blackberry, sounds good.” He said.

  I began to think that Abel was the easiest going person I had ever met. But I also had a feeling that if anyone ever did piss him off it wouldn’t be pretty. Plus the fact that I couldn’t get the picture of him shirtless out of my head. I mean really? How was I supposed to think straight around him now?

  “So, I saw you at the park.” I said as he dug into his drink with gusto.

  He looked up at me with the straw still in his mouth.

  “Yeah, I saw you too. I just…” He huffed out a breath, “Look, some of my friends are real assholes and I didn’t want you to think that I was like them. And if I waved back…”

  “Then they’d want to meet me right? No, it’s fine. I get it.” I totally didn’t get it. Since when do people call their ‘friends’ assholes. And if they are so bad, why be friends with them? Not that I wrote the book on social situations. I was raised by teachers and people who resembled the tin man.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry. I really don’t like to hang out with them much but one of them cornered me.”

  Even though I was hurt, probably more than I should be, I smiled and changed the subject.

  “So, what else is there to do around here? I drove around for a while Sunday but the only thing I saw was a bowling alley.”

  “Um, there’s that and a pool hall. Other than that you have to go into the next town over or into Monroe.” He took one last pull on the straw and I could hear that his cup was now empty.

  “Oh, ok. I’ll have to do that.” I poured the rest of my snowball down the sink. It was entirely too sweet.

  I still had my back turned to him when he next spoke up.

  “I’m going to Monroe this weekend to see the new zombie movie. It’s on Saturday. You wanna go with me?” I smiled as I watched the last drops of snowball go down the drain.

  Assume nothing. Assume nothing. Assume nothing.

  “Um, ok, yeah, sure. That sounds fun.” I smiled but didn’t want to smile too wide and give myself away.

  He looked like he didn’t expect me to say ‘yes’. He looked surprised.

  “Oh, good. I mean great. We can go out to eat too, if you want and then see the movie.”

  “Sure.” I tried to be so cool.

  “Well, I need to get back to work and I think I just heard a truck in the driveway. Mr. Lambert must be here.” He got up and started towards the back door.

  “See ya.” Aloof did not fit me at all.

  Abel

  “Hey googly eyes. Are you paying any attention to me?” Mr. Lambert snapped his fingers in front of my face.

  “Yeah, yeah, sorry. No, no, sorry, I’m not.” I finally admitted.

  “Oh good grief boy. Get your mind outta them windows and off of that girl and on the task at hand. Oh nevermind. Get outta here. Ain�
��t you supposed to be paintin’ or mowin’ grass or somethin’?” He pushed me out of the way and went back to mixing pool chemicals.

  Crap, I still had to mow the grass.

  I walked to the garage still in a daze. She said yes. She said it instantly. I didn’t have to text her for a week or buy her things until she relented. And to a zombie movie no less. A girl who liked zombie movies? She had my heart already.

  I opened the storage building and started up the zero-turn lawn mower. Mowing the grass wasn’t a chore when you had one of those things. I drove it out and started on the back yard. I had made about four passes around in a square when I saw Corinne waving her arms. I rode over to her and I thought she needed something or was going somewhere. I was wrong.

  As soon as I stopped she hopped onto the front of the lawnmower and patted one of my legs.

  “Go!” She screamed over the roaring engine. I laughed at her and then did her bidding. She squealed and grabbed onto my legs when I turned. And after we finished the backyard I stopped and let her off per her request and I moved onto the front yard. Mr. Lambert had finished the pool and shook his head at me before he got back into his truck and drove off.

  Nosy old man.

  I finished the front yard and drove the lawnmower back into its home. I decided to do the trimming and blowing off the sidewalk and the driveway in the morning. Corinne sat on the back steps with two bottles of water in her hands and the biggest brightest smile I had seen on her yet.

  “What’s that smile for beautiful?” Beautiful? Since when do I call her that?

  “This smile,” she pointed to her own face, “is because I’ve never ridden on a lawnmower. That was so fun!” She handed me one of the bottles, unscrewing the cap first.

  “Well, if I’d known you were going to get that big of a kick out of it, I would have let you drive it too.” I sat next to her, closer than I’d intended but not nearly close enough.

  “Holy crap, I’d probably wreck it. But that was seriously a blast. And you said there’s not much to do around here.” She play slapped me in the leg.