She dolled herself up with braided hair and extra makeup, a shirt with a touch of skin, and a light jacket she kept unzipped that didn’t hide much of her figure. Peak fall had bouts of warm or cold weather. It’d be perfect if it weren’t for the small cast on her arm.
Timothy came hustling with his usual breakfast for two and a wave with a smile. But he had something tucked into an arm—his synthesizer.
When he jumped in, she spotted dark circles around his eyes. “Did you sleep?”
“Not at all,” he smiled. His jaw seems normal as it did last night, and he’s speaking as one should.
Anxiety replaced with excitement seems to have different effects on people, she thought. She slept like a log, thrilled with Timothy's development. He looked to lean in a little. It was better than his usual frozen state. She leaned in, following his lead, and he kissed her.
Smiling, she asked, “Bringing that thing to school?”
“Yeah. The music teacher wants to see the synthesizer. She said she likes my music and was curious.”
She nodded, proud of Timothy and his music. The drive to school was peaceful with a shared quiet comfort.
The street alongside the parking lot still had fire engines lined up, but balloons had been tied to the ladders this time, and the fire hoses would shoot water over the road in a rainbow arch whenever a vehicle drove by. The lack of communication from her old friend group has kept her in the dark about the Clearspring movement to help Liam. A sign said 20k raised with a thank you. Sarah looked up the price earlier for a hand surgery, and it’s not that expensive, and she could afford one. But a surgical rush job might increase the price, hence the 20k. The massive scoreboard on the field flashed colors and scrolled, “Surgery Successful!” A bunch of footballs and heart emojis bounced around following the text.
“He got the surgery yesterday? The day of?”
“Yeah,” Timothy said, “I saw it on the local news after a game last night.”
“You watch the local news?”
“No, but it flashed across the screen with breaking news and showed drone footage of our school.”
Most of the news is about the city, so that surprised her. The entire state may have heard about what happened to Liam’s hand.
The water shot over the car as they drove by. They thought that was cool. Once parked, Timothy got out, and she was next to him so fast he almost had a heart attack. Holding on to his arm. The synthesizer in his other arm made it somewhat awkward for Timothy, but he didn’t want to let go and ruin the moment.
“A lot of people are staring.”
She looked confused and reminded herself that Timothy is practically a ghost in the school. “You’ll get used to it.”
With their first steps through the door, Jesse approached them. “What’s going on here?”
“Got a new boyfriend.”
Jesse’s heart sank a bit, but not too surprised. “That was fast.”
The look Jesse and Timothy gave each other was uncomfortable, which Sarah noticed like running into an ex or an outcast trying to sit next to you in the lunchroom.
“It felt right.”
Jesse nodded, her dark hair swayed with it. “Cool. I was wondering if you wanted to study together later?”
Sarah was always down to just do homework next to a friend. The occasional banter after flipping through some pages or solving math problems made the evenings more fun. “Sure.” She looked to Timothy. “You too?”
***
Jesse didn’t say anything while sitting in the back of the car. She didn’t want to fight with her de facto boyfriend for the front seat. The two in front leaned in and touched elbows on the center console.
Once they made it to Sarah’s, they didn’t take long to get comfortable in her room and begin doing their homework. However, Timothy did spend time interacting with Twain before getting started.
Sarah got off the floor and asked them if they wanted anything to drink. They nodded, and she hustled downstairs, grabbed three seltzer waters, and came back up. She was quick.
And Jesse and Timothy scootched away from one another.
“What’s going on?” With the cans of soda stacked, she carefully put them down so they didn’t topple over.
“Nothing,” Timothy sighed.
“I was just curious about Timothy’s new jaw.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
A slow nod told the two she wasn’t buying it. “Ok,” she continued doing her homework, trying to pretend nothing did happen.
***
The ride to drop off her friends was quiet, but her and Timothy’s arms connected on the console as earlier. She dropped Jesse off first. And as soon as she backed out of her driveway, she said, “Did something happen between you and Jesse?”
The thought of Liam and Alicia ran through her mind. Was she wrong? She’s seen that same look between her friends before. Now, those two, Liam and Alicia, are dating. Were all boys like this? Did Timothy share any traits with Liam?
And now her newest friend. Jesse. The same look, the same posture when she reentered the room.
“Nothing happened,” Timothy said.
Or was Jesse trying to make a move to get them to break up? Was she bi? Or only attracted to girls?
She had changed her life to be less chaotic. More down to Earth. Closer to someone with less egocentric behavior. Someone who kept improving. He showed his personality piece by piece, like a chef bringing out a new dish after finishing the previous, and it kept improving. Was this Timothy’s personality? Another dish after dessert?
She looked at him through the corner of her eye, and he seemed normal and not worried about what she said about Jesse.
But man, did it irk her.
“You don’t do much for me,” she said, out of the blue.
“What do you mean?”
“I do all the effort. Driving you around, keeping you safe at school. I practically had to get naked to get this far in the relationship.”
“I’ll do mo—”
“I can’t have another Liam on my hands.”
***
She groaned as she came in through the garage door, saving the sound of her frustration for when she had a family audience. Bri was cleaning off her plate as Mr. and Dr. Carr watched her from the table, and she trudged up the stairs to her room.
The dad stopped his wife as she got up, “I got this,” he said, and then her scream bellowed through the house. “I may have volunteered too soon.”
Dr. Carr chuckled as he made his way to her room. His daughter was lying flat face-first on her bed, her phone on the floor.
“Break up? Thumbs down on your socials? Bad test grade? Fell during cheer practice?”
She rolled over with an arm on her forehead. “I think perhaps a breakup.”
He sat on her bed. “Your loss.” She did not find that funny. “Joking, joking. So what happened?”
“I said he needed to do more. I think I made him feel bad.”
“Well, I’m sure that’s a feeling Timothy is used to.”
“He didn’t say anything as he got out of the car.” She sighed. “He reverted back to how he was. He didn’t push back or defend himself.” He turned straight at her, focused on her words. “It looked like those two were getting close. I saw the same thing with Alicia and Liam, and now those two are together. I wonder if Liam had cheated on me.”
“And you think Timothy would do that?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t think Liam would.” She hid a tear.
He nodded. “Well, uh. I’m pretty sure those two hate each other.”
She bolted up into a sitting position. “What?”
“They hate each other.”
Her dad, who had no clue what teenagers were doing, somehow had special intel. “How do you know this?”
“When I drove them home from the hospital, for your wrist. He showed me a recording.”
A recording? “Like, on his phone?”
He nodded. “He pretended to send you a text as Jesse began berating him in the emergency room lobby. When I drove them home, and after dropping Jesse off, I said it was his lucky day driving two cheerleaders and—” He fake coughed as he saw his daughter sneer at him. “Then he said he wasn’t so sure Jesse liked him. Then he played the video for me in the car. It started mid-sentence, and the camera recorded his feet, but she wondered why anyone like you would spend time with Timothy. That you and she belong together. I’m guessing she’s gay, but she was open about her jealousy towards Timothy. But it was bad. She swore at him constantly. He said he started the recording to help prevent any rumors.”
“Why didn’t he say that?”
“Were you being aggressive?”
“Maybe.”
“Like Jesse was to him? He wasn’t able to say much in the video he showed me. It’s just how he is.”
She sighed, fell back, grabbed her phone off the pillow, and texted him. No reply. “I’m going to have to make it up to him.”
“Probably.”
“How? He hasn’t responded yet.”
“It’s been two seconds.”
“Every boy I’ve texted has never taken this long before.”
Mr. Carr didn’t mind paying for Timothy’s jaw surgery. Now that Timothy somehow taught Sarah humility, he wanted to buy him a private international airport.
“I’d give him a little space for now.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know. Let him be for a bit.”
“Like a few hours?”
He chuckled. “Start with a few hours, then a day, and then a few days, and then you need to push him a little to find out what’s going on.”
Considering she slept at his house the same day she broke up with her boyfriend, this came to be some new advice to use.
“I can do a few hours.”
“That was a joke, wait until tomorrow.”
She groaned. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you know this?”
“I was that kid.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was that kid that everyone called a dork or nerd. Well, not everyone, I had my group of friends. I even went to that same school. My fondest memories were with them despite how horrible high school was.”
She found that hard to believe. Despite all the ways he can embarrass his daughters, like an artist performing their magnum opus, she knew she lucked with having an awesome dad.
“Is that why we moved here?”
“Yes and no. The university is only twenty miles away, and there’s room to build here. Talent is nearby, the commute around town is short, and there are lots of paths. Small town feel with all the culture of an educated population. Art galleries, restaurants, and there’s now a small comedy club. All that is new here. Plus, I can give back to the community a bit that raised me.”
That raised him? Then what are they doing to Timothy? They’re torturing him like the grim reaper performing on his magnum opus.
“Timothy doesn’t have that group of friends.”
“Yeah, he has it harder, judging from the video he showed me. But he does have you. So, maybe it was all worth it. Maybe that’s why he’s too afraid to respond, he might think he’ll lose you.”
