“What are you having?” he asked me, glancing back down at the menu.
“I’m going to have the Lumberjack stack, with pecans and blueberries, and ask fr blueberry and maple syrup and a side of bacon,” I told him.
“That’s six huge pancakes!” he said, staring at me like I was crazy.
“Then you’ll just have to help me eat it,” I teased.
“I’m having a double order of chocolate chip and Nutella pancakes,” Henry said.
“Strawberry crepes,” Rusty said. “Henry, you’re going to get diabetes if you keep eating like you do.”
“It’ll be alright. It’ll sort itself out if I do once I get Made. I mean,” he said, catching himself, “before I get Made to do all the proper adult shit. I’ll graduate from here and have to eat granola, right? Part of the proper adult shit.”
Shannon laughed. “Granola? Are you suddenly going to become a grown-up or a hippy?”
“Hippies can run companies, look at Ben and Jerry. Ohh, if I get to be a hippy, that means I can still eat like this ‘cuz I can smoke weed and get the munchies?”
“You’re crazy,” I laughed. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“You do that, and instead of helping run your dad’s company, you’ll be off in a van with a dog solving mysteries,” Rusty told him.
Henry looked at him cooly. “And you’d be my Fred.”
Rusty rolled his eyes. “It’d hurt if it weren’t so true,” he sighed dramatically.
“Cool. Let me know when we meet our Daphne and Velma,” Henry said.
I shook my head at them, looking apologetically at the waitress as she brought us our drinks. Then I noticed her name tag. Her name actually was Daphne. How much had she heard?
“Let me start by saying I am not joining any Scooby gang,” she said. “But I will take your order if you’re ready.”
Shannon’s hand flew over his mouth, and he bent over in laughter.
“Sorry, I can’t take these guys anywhere,” I told her. I rattled off our order as the other two guys just stared at her in surprise.
“I didn’t know she could hear us,” Henry mumbled as she turned away.
She raised her hand in the air then and waved it. Yep, she could still hear every word.
“I should find a rock and crawl under it now,” Henry said.
“I’d let you, but then who would I have to torment?” Rusty asked him.
I laughed. So this is what being a normal teenager was like. Right here, there was no Family, no monsters, no march of relentless years. Just four guys, in a booth, hanging out. Me, with two genuine friends and a boyfriend. I wished it could last forever. All too soon, Our meal was over and we were hurrying to make it to class after grabbing the books we’d left behind.
14
Ispent every possible moment I could with Shannon. Most of the time, Henry and Rusty were there, too. I knew they were trying to stop me from getting in too deep with Shannon, but they were far too late. I had fallen hard and fast for him and he for me.
The day of the open book test came and went and I passed it with flying colors. The work was starting to make sense to me, and I began to have a real glimmer of hope that I could pull off what the Family expected of me. Then it was mid-terms, and Shannon’s time with us grew shorter.
“I have to present a joint project for American Lit,” he said. “I’ve been paired with a guy named Joe. I’ll have to spend a lot of time in the library with him to get it done.”
I kissed him on the forehead, eager to smooth away the wrinkles there his distress caused. “It’s okay, baby. I’ve got a paper to write for English Comp and the guys, and I have had to study for a big final in Biochemistry. We’ll meet up for dinner at the cafeteria every night and can Facetime before bed. Then when it’s all done, we can go celebrate with pizza, burgers, and milkshakes, yeah?”
“I guess,” he said, his smile wobbly. “It’ll just be hard, seeing you in the hallway and at the library, but not being with you,” he pouted. He was adorable. There was nothing childish about him; his pouting was always playful without any hidden agendas. I was a lucky man.
“It will, but it’s just a week,” I reminded him.
