Chapter 4

That night I couldn’t help the melancholy mood I was in. The whole thing with Laura had soured everything for me. Even the fact that Dad was starting on my new darkroom the next day was shrouded in shadow. To his credit, he tried to cheer me up and I tried to be excited, but it just didn’t take.

The next morning, Dad was still at home when it was time for Mom to take me to school. He had put on his leather tool belt and was busy loading its two huge pouches with nails and screws.

“Have a good day at school, Josh,” Dad called out from the garage. “You can come help out when you get home, okay?”

“Sure. Okay thanks,” I replied, not even turning my head to look in his direction. “You ready to go, Mom?”

“Yup, let’s hit the road so you aren’t late.” Mom smiled brightly as we got into her minivan.

When I got to school, something I hadn’t expected happened. Dana was there waiting for me, but Laura wasn’t.

“Where’s Laura?” I asked, looking down the hall past Dana, scanning the crowds for the beautiful tomboy.

“I don’t know,” Dana answered with a shrug. “I have been waiting for you for a bit and haven’t seen her.”

“Oh...”

“I’m sure she is here or on her way, don’t start getting all crazy on me now,” Dana told me. “Besides, that’s my job as a woman.” I think Dana expected me to laugh at that, but I didn’t and I saw the silly grin on her face vanish just as quickly as it appeared. “Yeah, that wasn’t funny, sorry.”

“It’s fine, I just have a weird feeling,” I said. “After lunch yesterday, it feels like things changed, you know?”

“Not really, but I can see why you would think that.” Dana wrapped her arm around me. “I’m sure she is going to show up. If she isn’t at lunch, then we can start worrying.”

“Yeah, okay.”

When lunch started, I raced to Laura’s locker, but she wasn’t there. I had looked for her between classes but never found her. That in and of itself wasn’t strange, most days I didn’t see her. Our schedules were such that we rarely ran into each other in the hallways. That is, unless the two of us were looking for each other or had a plan to walk together.

I walked to where we usually met and saw Dana and Adam talking in the hallway in front of Mr. Watts’ classroom. I hadn’t even noticed, but the display case mounted on the wall still had the picture I had taken of Laura in the very center, proudly displayed for anyone to see. She still looked as beautiful in that picture as the ones I took of her for the competition.

“Hey, let’s get some burgers and a milkshake,” Dana said.

“You realize it’s winter, right?” Adam replied, looking at Dana like she was crazy.

“So, does that make them any less delicious?” Dana snapped back.

“No, but—” Dana cut Adam off with a piercing look.

“Come on, let’s go,” Dana said, grabbing my arm.

“I guess,” I grumbled and allowed Dana to start pulling me down the hall.

“Josh!” I heard a voice yell from the throng of students in the hall. I turned and saw a hand bouncing above the heads of the students as they moved towards the parking lot or the cafeteria. “Josh, wait!”

That’s when I saw her, Laura’s face as she jumped, trying to see over the students in front of her.

“Well, well, well.” Dana smirked, releasing my arm, and pushing me forward slightly. “Look who’s here.”

Laura finally burst through the crowd, running as fast as she could while trying not to drop her books. She barely managed to slow down before she dropped her books on the floor and slammed into me. Her arms went around my neck as she jumped and wrapped her legs around my waist.

“Were you going to leave without me?” Laura asked, leaning back slightly so she could look me in the eye.

“We are going for burgers and shakes, you coming?” Dana asked, and Laura gave me a quick but at the same time enthusiastic kiss before wiggling out of my arms to stand on her own two feet.

“Yum, sounds great.” Laura smiled big and bright.

The rest of the school day flew by. Dana and I had tried to figure out what happened to Laura the day before and this morning.

“I’ll tell you after school,” Laura answered between bites of food. She was all smiles so whatever it was she had to say it must have been good news, and I was ready for some good news.

When Laura and I made it to the bus stop a few blocks away from the school, we both sat down on the bench. No one said anything. I was smiling, and Laura was holding my hand, resting her head on my shoulder. In that moment, I knew I had let my imagination run wild and was blatantly thinking the worst.

“So, you want me to tell you what happened?” Laura asked me and I turned to look at her beautiful face. Her eyes were searching my own and she didn’t look quite so happy as she had a moment before. She actually looked worried and now my imagination was running triple time instead of double time.

“Yes! Err, okay, sure...” I stammered, trying to hold myself together.

“It’s not that big of a deal, I swear,” Laura laughed and pushed my shoulder playfully. I smiled, playing it off like it was no big deal, but it was very much a big deal, at least it was at the moment. “My mom thought it would be a good idea for me to go see my dad.”

“What!” I snapped, my eyes wide before I could rein in my emotions.

“I just told you it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Laura said, folding her arms in front of her chest and glaring at me. “Don’t you trust me?”

“What, of course I do. I—”

“Then trust me, Josh!”

“Sorry...” I lowered my eyes, looking at the ground and feeling incredibly stupid. As if I needed any help with that over the last twenty-four hours.

“Okay then, like I was saying...” I turned and looked her in the eye, feeling hopeful for some reason. “Mom thought I needed to talk to my dad about the whole posing for pictures thing. She got it in her mind that if I sat down with him, he would tell me how dumb I was.”

Laura paused there, a big grin spreading across her face as I searched for answers to unasked questions.

“My Dad wasn’t mad.”

“Seriously?” I questioned her and she glared at me again. “But I thought for sure he would—”

“Nope.” Laura smiled. “I explained everything to him.”

“You explained everything?” I asked, hesitantly. “Like, everything, everything?”

Laura just nodded, but the seriousness of the situation had no effect on the smile that still bloomed on her face.

“I told him all about you. I told him about your project and that you were trying to get into that contest. Everything.”

“So umm, what did he say?”

“He asked me if I...” Laura blushed. “He asked if I, umm, like you. As a boyfriend.”

I grinned; I couldn’t help it.

“What did you say?” I was fishing for an indirect compliment and Laura knew it, but she didn’t punch me or anything.

“I told him that you were different and that I liked you...”

“Just liked me?”

“Yes, liked you. You, doofus!” Laura punched my shoulder to emphasize what she was saying, I wasn’t expecting the move and fell off the bench. Laura’s hand covered her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked down at me on the ground. Then Laura started cackling as if me falling to the ground was the funniest thing she had ever seen. She got up and grabbed my arm, trying to pull me up to my feet. “Oh, get up, I didn’t hit you that hard.”

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