Something Like Summer (12 page)

There was a lull in
conversation as the meal neared its end and they all became tired
and full. The mood was meditative until Ben’s sister decided to
break the silence.

“
Janny swears she saw you
driving around in a Mitsubishi yesterday.”

“
A what?” Ben asked,
buying for time.

Karen rolled her eyes. “A
black sports car. She was next to you at a stoplight and got a good
look at you.”

Maybe he should have denied
it, but Ben didn’t see what he had to hide. He had earned his
driver’s license last year, and it wasn’t criminal to drive around
in someone else’s car.

“
Yup, that was me,” he
said. He didn’t elaborate, enjoying being enigmatic about
it.

“
Whose car were you
driving?” his mom asked.

“
Who cares,” his dad
interrupted. “I’m just happy he’s actually using his license. We
should break out the champagne!”

“
The car belongs to a
friend of mine,” Ben answered his mom while smiling at his
dad.

“
Do we know this friend?”
his mom asked. “Is it this Tim person?”

“
Tim who?” his sister
prodded.

“
None of your business,”
Ben shot at her. “Yeah, it’s him,” he said to his mother. It felt
good to keep Karen out of the loop. That his mom already knew and
that his sister didn’t irritated Karen and made Ben even happier.
As it turned out, he had chosen a bad time to push her.

“
I’m surprised you admit
it,” Karen said, a wicked gleam in her eye. “When Janny saw you
school wasn’t over yet.”

“
What are you saying?” his
mother asked, while keeping her eyes on him.

“
It was still sixth
period,” Karen explained joyfully. “Janny has work leave so she
leaves after fifth period. Apparently Ben does, too.”

“
Is this true?” his father
inquired.

Ben didn’t need to answer.
His mother saw it all on his face. Denying anything would only make
it worse.

“
How long has this been
going on?” she demanded. “Have you and this friend of yours been
skipping school every day? What’s going on between you
two?”

“
Well, that’s not hard to
guess,” Karen interjected.

“
Be quiet,” his mother
hissed at her before turning her attention back to Ben. “What’s
gotten into you lately? First you lie to us about where you are and
who you’re with, and now you’re skipping school? I don’t know who
this Tim person is, but it’s clear that he isn’t good for
you.”

“
That’s not true!” Ben
protested, feeling betrayed. She
knew
how much Tim meant to him. He’d
told her, and now she was using it against him.

“
You may not think it’s
true,” she insisted, “but believe me it is. Anyone who asks you to
lie and encourages you to skip school--” She shook her head,
overcome with emotion. “Adam.”

“
You’re grounded,” his
father said on cue. “Starting now.”

“
Grounded from what?” Ben
asked incredulously.

His father looked to his
mother for help. “The computer?” he suggested.

“
For Christ’s sake, Adam!”
She glowered at her husband before redirecting her wrath to her
son. “You are grounded to the house. You aren’t going out with
anyone until further notice. And I’ll be calling your school to
make sure you are there the whole day, too!”

“
That’s not fair!” Ben
managed to shout as emotion constricted his throat. “I fucking hate
you!” he croaked to his sister before he ran upstairs to his
room.

Things only became worse
once he had slammed the door. Left alone, he had time to realize
the implications of this punishment. The last few days alone with
Tim, the romantic meal and whatever memories they would have made,
were all gone, forever stolen away from him by his stupid sister
and his treacherous mom.

* * * * *

Groggy and miserable, Ben
pulled himself out of bed at eleven in the morning and stumbled
into the shower. He had stayed up late, wrestling with the anger
lurching inside and listening to music that amplified these
emotions.

Before all of this he
called Tim to let him know that he wouldn’t be showing up after
dinner or even this weekend. Tim, while sympathetic that he had
gotten in trouble, didn’t sound as devastated as Ben had
hoped.

Once he was dressed, he
stomped downstairs for some cereal. Ben was scowling at the
selection when he heard the jangle of car keys. He turned to see
his mother with her purse over her shoulder.

“
Wanna go with me to the
store?” she asked in pleasant tones as if nothing had
happened.

“
No, thanks,” Ben answered
carefully. Maybe she realized how she had overreacted and would
unground him.

“
You sure?” she prompted.
“It’s your only chance to get out of the house today.”

He turned his back to her,
anger swelling up inside of him.

“
Well,” his mother sighed,
“your sister and father will be back any minute.”

Ben maintained his bitter
silence until he heard the garage door raise and lower again. He
counted to twenty before he dared move to the front windows to
check that her car was gone.

“
Dad? Karen?” he yelled,
just to be sure that he was alone.

Only Wilford responded to
his calls, panting happily as he trotted up to him.

“
You look like you need to
go potty,” Ben suggested. “Don’t you, boy? Don’t you?”

Wilford barked and leapt in
anticipation.

Ben smiled at his little
victory. There was no choice but to take the poor dog out for a
walk. Clearly it was an emergency. He threw on his shoes and gave
himself a once-over in the mirror before leashing Wilford and
escaping from the house. He ran the first block, just in case
either of his parents was on the verge of returning. Once that
obstacle was out of the way, he was home free.

He felt a wild sense of
liberation as he approached Tim’s house. So what if he got into
trouble? They could ground him all they wanted. Right now he was
somewhere his parents didn’t know about, somewhere safe. He would
have his weekend with Tim and they couldn’t do anything about
it.

Ben entered the house
without ringing the doorbell. He realized he might catch Tim in a
compromising situation by doing so, but the idea of finding him
jerking off only encouraged him to make his way stealthily down the
hall. It was a good thing that he did, too, otherwise he might not
have heard the girlish giggle before he entered the den.

A seductive murmur
responded to the giggle as Ben tiptoed the last few steps to peek
around the doorway, Wilford padding along behind him. Tim was on
the couch with his leg up on the coffee table. A girl was bent over
the cast, writing something on it with a pen. Her back was to him,
but Ben didn’t need her to turn around to know that it was Krista
Norman. Tim wiggled his foot, and she chastised him and giggled
again. He grinned back at her in satisfaction.

Ben decided to make a
silent retreat, but before he could do so, Wilford opened his mouth
and starting panting loudly. Tim spotted Ben. Krista began turning
to see what the noise was but Ben retreated down the hall before
she could see him.

“
Wait here,” he heard Tim
say to her.

“
Is someone here?”
Krista’s voice sounded panicked, as if she was already being
menaced by a gang of burglars.

“
It’s just my neighbor,”
Tim reassured her. “He promised to bring something by. Wait
here.”

Tim appeared in the hallway
and brushed by Ben, barely using his crutches as he hurried away,
gesturing for Ben to follow. They retreated all the way to the
front door before Tim turned to speak with him.

“
What are you doing here?
I thought you were grounded?”

“
I snuck out,” Ben
said.

“
Jesus, man! You almost
gave me a heart attack.”

“
Sorry. I wanted to
surprise you.”

“
That you did.” Tim
squatted down to pet Wilford. “Who’s this?”

Ben introduced
him.

“
You know, he looks oddly
familiar,” Tim commented.

Well, yeah, I walked him
past your house a million times before we met, Ben thought. “He
looks like Wilford Brimley,” Ben explained. “You know, the old guy
in the oatmeal commercials?”

“
Oh yeah,” Tim laughed.
“He totally does.”

“
That’s why we named him
that. He just needs a pair of glasses and the look is
complete.”

Tim chuckled and Ben joined
him. For a moment it felt like everything was going to be okay. Tim
would send Krista away, since she wasn’t important to him, and they
would have their day after all. All these hopes were blown away
when Krista’s voice called from the den.

“
Look, you can’t stay,”
Tim whispered. “I’m trying to get laid. I’m playing up the injury
thing like crazy, and she’s eating it up.”

“
Yeah, sorry,” Ben mumbled
awkwardly. “I, uh, yeah. Good luck, man.”

“
You, too!” Tim gave him
an amiable punch to the arm. “I hope you sneak back in without
getting caught.”

“
Yeah. Well, see
ya.”

“
Yeah. Wait!”

Ben turned around, that
last desperate spark of hope igniting.

“
I need my car keys
back.”

“
Oh yeah. Of
course.”

Ben handed them over and
then hurried to leave. His face burned bright with embarrassment
the whole way home. He felt humiliated and silly. How else did he
think this little game of his would end? Tim was feeling better and
his parents were coming home. He didn’t need Ben anymore. He would
be back in school soon with his ditzy girlfriend and asshole
friends, and Ben would be nothing more than an amusing memory, if
he was even remembered.

He didn’t bother to sneak
back in the house. Who cared if he was grounded now? Allison was
forbidden to see him and Tim had better things to do. There was no
longer a reason to leave.

Neither of his parents was
home, so Ben had his bowl of cereal and numbed his mind with
television. He barely noticed when they did arrive, ignoring his
mother’s request for help unloading the car. When their attempts at
communicating with him became too annoying, he turned off the TV
and went upstairs to his room.

The phone rang before Ben
could sit down on his bed. He picked it up irritably. It would only
be one of Karen’s annoying friends, but at least he could have the
satisfaction of hanging up on them.

“
What?” he snarled into
the receiver.

“
Benjamin?” came the
startled response.

“
Tim?” he asked, not
believing his ears.

“
Man, I’m glad I didn’t
get one of your parents. Are they still gone?”

“
Don’t worry about it,”
Ben insisted. “What’s up? Are you calling to brag or something?
Tell me you aren’t screwing her right now!” he joked, feeling
elated that Tim would call him for any reason.

“
No, almost,” Tim said,
his voice laced with frustration. “Came close, but she got freaked
out by the European standard.”

“
Okay,” Ben replied, not
understand what was being said or why.

“
Anyway, we got into an
argument and she’s gone.”

“
Sorry?” Ben
offered.

“
So you want to come
over?”

Well, of course he did, but he had
missed his chance. Sure, he could still sneak out and face the same
consequences that he had been willing to face an hour ago, but he
didn’t like the idea of playing second fiddle to Krista, of all
people.

Tim picked up on his hesitation.
“Maybe you and I can pick up where she left off,” he
said.

Ben’s mouth dropped open in
shock. His brain buzzed, analyzing what he had just heard and
trying to find any other interpretation of the words except what he
thought they meant. “I’ll be right there,” he said, slamming down
the phone.

Ben ran. He didn’t know
where his parents were, and he didn’t check. He was down the stairs
and out the front door in two seconds. Another twenty seconds and
he was in the safety of the park. Anywhere away from the road was
safe from his parents. Had they ever gone for a walk or ridden a
bike in their lives? His mind rejected thoughts of them and instead
turned to his destination.

Was Tim really inviting him
over to mess around? Jesus! Maybe there was a god! Something had
scared Krista away. Maybe it was just too big for her to deal with.
What was it he had said? The European standard? Did Tim measure it
in metric or something? Well, whatever. He’d soon find
out!

He found the door unlocked
and let himself in, heart thudding in his chest as he walked to the
den. Tim was waiting for him on the couch, fully dressed and
looking subdued and uncertain. Was he having second thoughts? Ben
hesitated in the doorway.