Boy of the Week

by Emily Camp

  “Fine, pizza does sound good. Kacey, you want some?”

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t going to turn down pizza when we hadn’t had much for supper tonight. Mom didn’t have time to cook from the time she got home from work and when we had to leave. She and Gavin made their way to the concessions.

  I looked up to see Jack coming out of the locker room. He gave me a thumbs up. I hurried to take a picture of him and posted it to my social media account with the caption ‘cheering on my favorite wrestler. Go Lanyard’ then I tagged him. Nobody would get the lanyard joke, but it was ours.

  He made it to the middle of the mat and began to stretch. I took a couple more pictures of him. Then we all stood for the national anthem. There were two rows of chairs facing each other on either side of the mat. Each team took a side.

  Jack pulled off his sweatshirt, a t-shirt underneath. He leaned forward and touched his toes. Then he smiled back up at me. I waved. He sat down with his team.

  My mom came in, she looked toward Jack’s team, whose backs were towards her. She held two foil packs in one hand and a couple drinks in the other. Gavin was already eating his pizza as he walked. They made it to me just as someone announced the first match. Two boys stripped down to nothing but a skin tight … was that a leotard? I was kind of embarrassed for them. I hoped Jack didn’t have to do that.

  “Why does Jack’s shirt say lanyard on the back?” My mom asked when she sat down beside me.

  The two boys on the mat started out squatting with their arms at their sides their fingers splayed out, and pawing at one another.

  “It does?” he had my nickname for him put on the back of his wrestling shirt? I felt my stomach grow warm. She handed my pizza to me.

  Sure enough, when his name was called after one boy pinned the other, he stood and I got a quick view of his shirt right before he pulled it off. My face went flush.

  “Quit watching him strip.” My mom leaned over to me, thinking she was hilarious.

  “Go Jack,” mom shouted.

  I looked at her.

  She shrugged. “All those years spent cheering weren’t wasted.”

  I’d forgotten my mom was a cheerleader when she was in school. It was hard to imagine that sometimes. Though she definitely was loud enough.

  Jack and his opponent shook hands then the buzzer sounded and they took their stances. Jack swatting at his opponent, the other guy pawing at Jack. I held my breath because even though they had to weigh a certain weight it still looked like this guy was bigger. Maybe because he was shorter and that made him look huskier. More muscular. Jack did good dodging the boy’s swats shuffling around in circles in the middle of the mat, until finally, the guy had him in a headlock. My mom shouted again, but I wanted to hide my eyes. I didn’t want to see Jack wiggling to get free. Then my mom nudged me.

  “He’s out.”

  I could look again.

  “Get him Jack.” My mom screamed again. She was somewhat embarrassing. “Shoot!”

  Wait, why was she shouting shoot? This wasn’t basketball. Jack made a quick motion, dipping down and grabbing the guy’s leg, he pulled it out from under him. My mom screamed in hysterics, continuing to call out Jack’s name.

  Jack was on top his opponent as the guy tried to wiggle free. The ref smacked the mat and whistled.

  “What just happened?” Gavin peered up at my mom.

  My mom cupped her hands over her mouth, making a megaphone with them. “Go Jack.”

  “Looks like Jack won,” I said.

  “He’s a really good wrestler,” my mom said.

  “How do you know so much about wrestling?” I asked, finally able to eat now that Jack’s match was over with. The ref held Jack’s arm in the air and he turned him from us to the other side.

  “I dated a wrestler when I was in high school.”

  “Dad?” I wasn’t aware that she’d ever had a boyfriend before my dad.

  “No.”

  I looked at her, head tilted. But she just looked straight ahead. My mom had this whole other life before dad that I knew nothing about. I guess, why wouldn’t she? She was twenty when I was born. Sure she had a life before me and my dad came along.

  Jack shrugged back into his t-shirt then chugged a water bottle. His teammates slapping him on the back.

  “Their uniforms are awkward,” I said.

  “Singlets.”

  “Huh?”

  “That’s what they’re called, singlets. Try not to look at their junk.”

  “Mom.” I shrieked and looked over my shoulder hoping that no one heard that.

  She laughed. “I remember how weird it was for me the first wrestling meet I went to.”

  “Huh? What’s so funny?” Gavin peered up at us, pizza sauce smeared on the corner of his mouth.

  I tried to remember why I took her out in public.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  The last thing I wanted to be doing while sitting here on Jack’s bed was homework, but he insisted that we work on it. He’d been keeping up with me like a parent or Mr. Radcliff. Saying that as much as he wanted to see me again at school, he didn’t want me to fall behind. It was sweet of him and I guess, having a boyfriend who kept me on track wasn’t a bad thing.

  We were studying together. He with his calculus book open, me with my geometry. Our legs touched in the middle of the bed and, every once in a while, when he turned a page, his hand would graze my knee. I, however, was not as discreet. I planted my palm flat on his leg. He glanced at me behind his glasses and smiled.

  “I really like it when you do that,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Smile.”

  His grin grew wider. “You’re supposed to be working on homework.”

  “I don’t wanna.” I whined as I leaned into him. He smelled nice. His entire room smelled nice. It was just as clean as it had been on New Year’s Eve.

  He put his arm around me. I liked this. I turned my face toward him, and he smiled a soft smile down at me. His eyes heavy-lidded.

  “Now you’re distracting me,” he said.

  “You have to admit this is better than studying, right?” I hooked my arms over his shoulders.

  He shook his head, adoringly, then sat up straighter, removing his arm from around me, mine slid off him.

  “Really?” I pouted a lip out.

  “Finish the page and we can take a break.”

  “The entire page?” I groaned like Gavin would if my mom was making him bathe.

  “Yes, the entire page and I’m going to check it to make sure you did it correctly.”

  “Boo.” I stuck my tongue out at him, but it only garnered me a laugh.

  “I’m still not changing my mind.” He pointed to my book. “Get to work, slacker.”

  “Slave driver.” I mumbled under my breath and went back to the boring old geometry textbook.

  What seemed like hours later, but was really only 20 minutes, I was finished. Jack looked over my work. I only had a few problems that needed correcting, and after some complaining, he helped me figure them out. I would have just left them.

  Then he went and got me some ice cream from the kitchen. I didn’t want him to leave me, but I also wanted the chance to look around his room with him not in it. I smiled when I noticed a small picture of me pinned to the board above his desk. It was the selfie I sent him when I thought I was sending it to Evan. He’d printed it. I picked up the cologne that was sitting on the top of his dresser and sniffed. It smelled much better on him. I’d decided the same about his hair gel when I opened the round, navy blue container beside his cologne.

  The door to his room opened and I jumped like I’d been caught. He balanced two bowls in his hands and kicked the door shut behind him. Shuffling across the room in his Nike tube socks. He sat down on the mattress and I took my place by him. He handed me a bowl.

  “Thanks,” I said. I’d only realized I was shoveling it in my mouth unladylike when I noticed he was staring at me funny.

&nb
sp; “Sorry, that wasn’t very attractive of me.” I swiped the ice cream dribbling off my chin with the back of my hand.

  “You like ice cream?” He smiled, thankfully not grossed out by my lack of manners.

  He leaned closer to me. “You missed a spot.”

  My heart drummed.

  “Right here.” And instead of wiping it off with his thumb or a napkin maybe, he pressed his lips to me. Now this was good timing. He was definitely learning.

  I abandoned the ice cream and wrapped my arms around his neck, tugging him closer to me. For me being the only girl he’d ever kissed, he was good at it. I couldn’t get enough of him. Though he was skinny, he had just enough muscle. Which was something that was obvious in his wrestling uniform. I started to lean back, pulling on him as I did. But he broke away from me and looked at our abandoned bowls of ice cream.

  “Are you done?”

  I wasn’t sure if I was done with it or not, but I didn’t care right now. “I’m not done kissing you.” I grinned and tried to tug on him.

  He sat up, shaking his head. “I need to put those away.”

  “Can’t it wait?” Like five more minutes.

  “No,” he picked up the bowls and stood.

  Was he serious?

  “I’ll help.” I took my bowel from him and followed him to his sparkling clean kitchen. He didn’t just sit the bowls in the sink. He rinsed each one after dumping the ice cream, which I thought was kind of a waste. Then he stuck them in the dishwasher with dire concentration as if it was a puzzle he was trying to solve. It was quirky, but adorable at the same time.

  “Now are you ready to make out?”

  “Maybe.” He said and we walked hand in hand back up to his room. Our lips connected when he shut the door behind us. He lifted me and I squealed then giggled as he tossed me on the bed.

  “You’re not on the wrestling mat.” I said taking hold of his biceps.

  “I’m not?” He tilted his head, holding himself just over me. Then he removed his glasses and sat them on the nightstand.

  “Though it was pretty hot seeing you kick butt.”

  He grinned again. “I should show you some moves.”

  “Yeah?”

  Then he proceeded to twist me and pin me down. He wasn’t rough, just gentle enough. I laughed and shrieked. “Okay, uncle, uncle.”

  “There’s no uncle in wrestling.”

  Then he leaned forward, pressing me down. “You’re squishing me.” I giggled again and pushed on him.

  His door swung open. “What on earth is going on here?” Then a shriek from his mom. “Sorry, I didn’t know Kacey was here.” And the door slammed shut.

  Jack’s laughter grew louder as he rolled off me.

  “Did she think …” I said, trying to catch my breath from my own giggles.

  “Probably,” Jack smirked as he put his glasses back on. I should be happy he showed any kind of happiness on his face, but I couldn’t help but be embarrassed.

  “You have to tell her nothing was happening.”

  He ran his hand over his head. “I’m sure she’s happy about it.”

  “What?” I shrieked, feeling my face grow warm.

  “She’s been wanting me to get a girlfriend for a few years now.”

  “Having a girlfriend and fooling around are two different things.” I pushed on his chest.

  “Maybe, but she wouldn’t care if we were.”

  I felt my face flush as many times as I stopped with other boys, if Jack tried, I might not have stopped him. “There are enough people in this world that think that about me.” I sat up, patting down my now mussed hair from our wrestling match. “I don’t want your mom to think that when it isn’t even true.”

  “You’re right. I’ll make sure she knows weren’t fooling around.”

  I looked down at my phone. “I probably should get home anyway.”

  “Okay.” He stood up.

  “Really, you’re going to just let me go that easily?”

  He looked at me with that blank, serious stare. “You said you needed to get home.”

  “I said I should get home, didn’t mean I needed to.”

  “What’s the difference? If you should get home, then you should go home.”

  I gathered my books in my bag. Jack put his shoes on his feet, then smoothed out the wrinkles in his bedspread. That kind of made me want to mess them up again, just to see what he’d do. He held the door open for me as we walked out of his room.

  “Mom, I’m taking Kacey home.”

  “So soon.” She appeared out of nowhere right in front of us at the bottom of the steps. She had on sweatpants and a fitted t-shirt. Much different than the white lab coat and formal gown from the last two times I’d seen her. “You can’t stay for dinner?”

  I looked at Jack who shrugged. “Your mom feeds me.”

  No one spoke of what him mom walked in on, even though it was purely innocent. I wanted her to know that. I felt like if I said something now it would make things even more awkward. So I went along with it, unable to look her in the eye as I talked.

  “I have homework.”

  “Oh.” She looked confused, rightfully so, from Jack then to me. It was about the dumbest thing I could think of considering Jack had been my official tutor for months and now my unofficial tutor. It really looked like we were just making out and not working on homework the entire time I’d been in his room.

  “Well, I would love for you to stop by when you can stay for dinner and I’m not working.”

  “And when is that again, mom?” Jack asked.

  “We’ll have to make plans.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, but glanced at the door. My escape. By the time she had another day off, I will have hopefully forgotten this entire encounter. I should have just stayed in his room longer and avoided her. But then what would she have thought about that? And why was I caring about what my boyfriend’s mom thought of me? I never have before.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  I was surprised to see the hood of my car open when we pulled into the driveway. Greg’s SUV parked by the curb.

  I stepped out of Jack’s car in confusion after telling him goodbye. I stared at my car. A low rumble of voices behind the hood. I walked around to see Greg, Evan, and Gavin all bent over the engine.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, the faint smell of grease dangled in the air.

  “Hey, Kacey.” Evan looked up with a pleased smile.

  Greg grinned and waved. “Your mom said it’s been sitting here awhile.”

  “Yeah?” I looked at Evan who was just smiling ear-to-ear.

  “I think we got it,” Greg said after twisting something under the hood.

  “Can I try it again?” Gavin’s face was grease-smudged.

  “Go ahead, Sport,” Greg said. Sport? That was such a dad nickname.

  Gavin hopped off the stool he’d been standing on and ran to the driver’s side. He climbed in. I watched his little head disappear, and then a small whine came from my engine.

  “Try it again,” Greg said.

  It whined again.

  “Go on.”

  The car roared to life. It was louder than I remembered, but it was running.

  “Looks like you got your wheels back.” Evan propped his elbow on my shoulder. He looked down at me. “I never noticed how short you were before.”

  “That’s because you’ve grown a million inches.” I ducked out from under him and walked toward Greg.

  "We’ll have to take it for a test run, of course, but I think I figured it out.” He shut the hood with a thud.

  “I call shot gun!” Evan shouted.

  “It’s my car.” I pushed him out of the way as I hurried to the passenger side.

  Gavin climbed into the back seat.

  The car had a stale, musty smell to it after sitting here for months. It continued to idle as Greg climbed in the driver’s side. That was hopeful. I hadn’t been able to get it to run this long since it sat her
e.

  He revved the engine. It was stuffy in here. Cold too. It hadn’t been driving since early fall when the days were still warm. I’d never used the heater before. The vents smelled like burning dust.

  “Sounds good.” Then he tilted his head and squinted down at the dash. “But it’s hovering on E.”

  “I know.” I always waited until the gas light came on to put any in it. Getting gas was such a chore, one that I had missed since I’d been back to pre-license days. Kind of like prehistoric, but not.

  “What is this crap on the radio?” Evan leaned between the seats.

  “My car, my choice.” I turned the volume up, using my elbow to jab Evan back.

  I began to text Jack and tell him that he didn’t have to give me a ride to school in the morning, but then I hesitated. I’d miss our morning commute. Maybe I’d drive to school the day after tomorrow.

  “We did it.” Greg said as we zoomed down the highway. Gavin sat high and looked out the window. Evan leaned back, stretched out in the back seat. I looked at Greg. He wore his wire rimmed glasses and had a little bit of scruff on his chin. He was thick, big like a beast, but kind like a teddy bear.

  On the back of my seat, Evan drummed to the music he’d claimed he didn’t want to listen to.

  Greg looked in the rearview mirror. “Feels good to fix an engine, don’t it, Sport.”

  A warmth spread in my chest. For a second I felt like I was with family.

  Gavin’s smile wide and toothy. His head bobbed quickly. “Yeah.”

  “Who wants ice cream?” Greg turned at the first stop sign.

  “I do. I do,” Gavin bounced.

  “Yeah man,” Evan said.

  Greg looked at me.

  I nodded, because I never did get to finish the ice cream at Jack’s earlier. Not that Jack’s lips weren’t better than ice cream. When my mom and Greg dated before I never remembered doing anything with just Greg and not her. I think I liked it. We pulled into the ice cream place and all piled out of the car. Greg said he could get my muffler fixed, too. I guessed that was why it was so loud.

  Once we were sitting at the tall table, Gavin’s legs swung back and forth. Ice cream smeared on his face, as well as the grease from earlier. My mom would have at least made him clean that up before she let him out in public. I had been too excited about my car to think about it.