19
Katthew

“So, what are we doing on this supposed date?” I asked, trying to probe into whether he was asking me on an actual date or not. I hoped he was finally asking me out on an actual one, but I wasn’t sure.

“Hmm, let me think,” he said, pulling out his phone.

“I swear to God if you’re looking at that article again,” I said, peeking over to see he was indeed looking at that article again. “Can you seriously not choose something for us to do without that?”

“Ideas are hard,” he said, shrugging. He scrolled a little more on his phone before looking up at me again. “How about we hit up the local park, that sounds like a fun idea.”

“The park,” I said, thinking. “Sure, why not? What are we going to do there though?”

“They have a playground,” Matthew suggested.

“The playground,” I said, staring at him in disappointment. “We’re sixteen, Matthew, we’re not going on the playground.”

“Your loss, the monkey bars are lots of fun,” Matthew said.

“The monkey bars?” I asked, giggling. “Look, you’re tall enough that you can just walk on the ground while holding onto the bar.”

“Shame, growing up is terrible,” Matthew said, sighing. “Okay, we can have a picnic then.”

“Do I have to cook anything?” I asked, a little frightened.

“No, it’s fine,” Matthew said, chuckling. “Here, we’ll just bring some sandwiches and soda.”

“That I can do,” I said, smiling.

***

I breathed in deeply, the smell of the trees and nature making me smile. “Juniper Park is really nice, isn’t it?” I asked Matthew, looking behind me to see him struggling with bringing all the picnic materials.

“Yeah, I hope things go better than the last time we visited this park,” he said, dropping all he had in his hands onto the floor.

“Oh, shut up,” I said, knowing he was referencing the Jack incident. “I genuinely thought it would go better than it did.”

“This is why you should follow my advice,” Matthew said, sighing. “Look, let’s set everything up under that tree.”

He pointed at a rather large tree that provided plenty of shade underneath it. Perfect for a picnic. “Yeah, okay,” I said, quickly running up to it with the picnic blanket. I draped it over the grass to mark our picnic spot. “Here we are!”

“Thanks for carrying the blanket while I carry everything else,” he said, lugging the decently heavy picnic basket we brought along.

“No problem,” I responded, giggling. “You’re stronger than me, it’s okay.”

“Did we really need to bring four big bottles of soda?” he asked. “Can we even drink that much?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Better safe than sorry, right?”

“And four sandwiches? I’m pretty sure I can only stomach two,” Matthew said, shaking his head.

“Look, bringing too much is better than bringing too little,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Anyways, let’s eat.”

We both took a seat on the blanket, putting the picnic basket in the middle between us. We both took out a sandwich and took a bite.

“That tastes pretty good,” I said. We had just made basic submarine sandwiches, and they tasted better than I expected. Although my expectations for the food I helped make were always low. Mine was, as always, filled with mayonnaise.

“If I have a hand in making it, it tastes good,” Matthew said, shrugging.

“Yeah, but I also had a hand in making it, so wouldn’t that counteract things?” I asked, laughing as I remembered how badly cooking went for me.

“My force is just that powerful,” Matthew said. “How’d you never learn to cook, anyway?”

“Umm,” I said, tilting my head as I thought. “My mom just always made food for me, so I never learned.”

“Huh, I thought almost everyone would’ve learned by now,” he said. “What are you going to do when you get to college.”

“Subsist off ramen, of course, like every college student,” I said, giggling. Suddenly, a gust of wind picked up and had my hair fly onto my face and sandwich. I whined as I saw streaks of a light yellow in my hair. “My hair is covered in mayonnaise. What the hell.”

“I don’t think I brought a napkin,” Matthew said, digging through the basket. “Just wipe it off with the blanket, I guess?”

“Sure, screw it,” I said, picking up part of the blanket with my hand and wiping my hair with it. “That’s good.”

“Didn’t think you’d actually do that,” Matthew said, chuckling. “Here, let’s finish our sandwiches first before talking again.”

I tied up my hair with a scrunchie I kept around my wrist to make sure that wouldn’t happen again and nibbled on my sandwich. After a few minutes, we were all done eating.

“There’s a basketball court over there, let’s shoot around a little,” Matthew said, standing up.

“Are we just going to leave this here?” I asked, concerned that someone would steal our stuff.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine, I don’t think anybody would steal a blanket and a basket,” he said. “Come on, let’s go.”

***

There were some boys playing basketball on the court next to us, and they were kind enough to lend us a ball.

“Try shooting, Katie,” Matthew said.

I tried to shoot the ball, but it air-balled, missing the hoop entirely. “That’s not good,” I said, rushing to catch the ball before it rolled off somewhere.

“Try again,” he said after I came back with the ball.

“Got it,” I said, tossing the ball into the air. It missed again, hitting off the backboard and rolling off into the distance this time.

“Katie, you are terrible at this,” Matthew said, sighing.

“Look, it’s not my fault,” I whined, grabbing the ball again. “I lost a lot of strength since starting blockers. I just haven’t adjusted yet.”

“You say that, but I don’t remember you being that good in P.E. even before that,” he said.

“You should see me at P.E. now,” I said, laughing a little as I had flashbacks of my terrible performance. “And here I was when I started, thinking I’d do better than the girls since I had testosterone.”

“That was your mistake,” Matthew said, chuckling.

“How about you try,” I said, handing him the ball. “If you’re so good.”

“You know I’m good,” he said, sinking a shot he took right away. “That wasn’t much of a challenge at all.”

“Ugh,” I said, slumping my shoulders. “Fine, I guess, you are better than me at basketball.”

“I don’t think that was ever in question,” he responded, gently chuckling.

***

“Look, the playground’s right there,” Matthew said, pointing at the kid’s playground. It was empty, surprisingly enough, and it did give me a wave of nostalgia. I did play here quite often as a kid. “Are we seriously not going to go there?”

“I guess, fine,” I said, crossing my arms. “Only because nobody’s here.”

“Great,” Matthew said, going over to the swings. “Sit down, I’ll push you.”

I brushed the seat to make sure nothing was on it that would mess up my dress and sat down. I grabbed onto the chain and nodded. “Push me.”

“Here we go,” Matthew said, pushing me slightly. It sped up with each push, and eventually, I was flying so high that I was scared I’d do a 360.

“I think you can stop now,” I said, my voice quivering. I grabbed onto the chain tight, not wanting to fall off and get injured.

“We can make you flip though,” Matthew said, chuckling.

“I’d rather not,” I said as Matthew pushed me once more. “Stop!”

“Fine,” he said, letting the swing lose momentum. “A flip would’ve been cool though.”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said, rolling my eyes as I dragged my feet on the floor to slow down quickly. “You know, how about you get on it and I make you flip.”

“I doubt you even have the strength to push me that much,” Matthew said, rolling his eyes. “But sure, be my guest.”

“Let’s go,” I said, grinning. We swapped places, Matthew getting on the swing. I tried and pushed but he was heavy, real heavy. I was barely able to make him move much at all and eventually gave up.

“What was that about making me flip?” he asked, chuckling.

“Shut up,” I responded, glaring at him. “It’s not my fault I’m not strong enough.”

“It’s okay, you did your best,” he said. “Monkey bars next?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, running up to the monkey bars. I was still short enough that I would be able to climb on them with no problem. Sadly, my arm strength wasn’t enough to hold up my whole body, and I fell to the floor.

“Look, watch me do it better,” Matthew said. He was tall enough that he could hold onto the monkey bars easily while walking, and just walked past them all, grabbing the bars as he did. “I don’t know why you’re struggling with this.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, crossing my arms. “You’re tall enough that you just walked on the floor.”

“Well, it’s a valid method for completion,” he said, shrugging. “Not my fault you’re too short to walk on the floor.”

“Ugh, whatever,” I said, crossing my arms. I looked to my side to see that there was a group of kids approaching the playground. “I think I see some kids coming. Let’s let them have the playground.”

***

We went back to the picnic site, to see that luckily nobody stole our stuff. It was getting late now, perfect for some stargazing. We both lay down on the blanket, staring up into the sky.

“Do you know any constellations?” I asked looking up at the night sky and the many stars that shined down at us.

“A few,” Matthew said. “Look Orion is right there.”

“Orion?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“Who’s that,” he corrected. “He was a giant huntsman in Greek Mythology. If you look you can trace out his torso, then the bottom half of his body, and the shield and his arm.”

“I don’t see anything,” I said, squinting my eyes.

“Focus on that,” Matthew said, tracing the stars with his fingers so I could see.

“Oh, that’s it?” I asked, looking disappointedly at the pathetic huntsman. “It looks like something I’d draw in elementary school. Where’s his head?”

“The star on the top is meant to be his head,” Matthew said, laughing. “I know, it’s not all that spectacular.”

“I guess, it’s kind of cool,” I said, inching closer to Matthew. “It is just stars after all.”

“Exactly,” Matthew said, looking over at me with a grin on his face. I couldn’t help but smile back. “To the right, you can see the bull he’s fighting, that’s Taurus.”

“That’s the bull?” I asked, even more disappointed than I was by Orion. “That just looks like a stick bug.”

“Well, it’s meant to be a bull,” he said. “But I do get your point.”

“Exactly, it’s a stickbug,” I said, giggling. “The great Orion fighting a stick bug.”

“I bet the stickbug would win,” Matthew said.

“Yeah, Orion doesn’t even have a head. The mighty stick bug would sweep.”

“I have a question to ask,” he said, disrupting our conversation quite suddenly. “When I asked you if you wanted to go on a date, did you think of it as a date or a date date.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, knowing exactly what he meant.

“I mean, did you come along thinking it was just two friends hanging out, or did you come with me hoping it would be a little more.”

“Umm,” I said awkwardly, biting my lip. I got closer to him, to the point where we were almost snuggling, and whispered. “I hoped it would be something more.”

“Me too,” he said, his arm lazily drifting from his side to above my head. I took the opportunity to rest my head on it. “I really like you, Katie.”

“I think,” I said, trailing off as I thought wisely of the next words I should say. My heart was pounding so much though, both due to my proximity to Matthew and the words he just muttered. I just decided to answer with my honest thoughts. “I think I like you too.”

“That’s a relief,” he said, chuckling. I comfortably rested on his arm as we watched the stars twinkle. “Do you maybe want to take the next step?”

“What do you mean the next step?” I asked, this time also knowing exactly what he meant. I just needed some time to process what he was saying, so let him speak a little more.

“You know, maybe you could be my girlfriend,” he said, nervously glancing at my face. We both slowly turned so we were facing each other, lying on our sides now.

“Me, a girlfriend,” I said, my heart fluttering at the mere mention of it. “I, I think that would be good.”

“It would be?” he asked, smiling. “I guess that’d make me your boyfriend then.”

“I guess it would,” I said, beaming. My heart was thumping as our faces got closer and closer. Our lips eventually met, and fireworks went off in my brain as I struggled to process what was going on. For now, though, I decided just to enjoy the moment. Eventually, we had to separate though, as much as I wanted to stay.

“Katie I wouldn’t have been able to even guess that this would’ve happened a while ago,” he said, a little out of breath. “One day you’re telling me you’re going on a panty raid and a little over a month later, you’re my girlfriend.”

“I guess things change,” I said, giggling. “I didn’t expect this either a month ago, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m so much happier now. I used to dread every day when I woke up, just wanting to make it through school and play games. But now everything is so great. And now, I have you too.”

“You’ll have me for a long, long time,” he said. We were both smiling at each other like fools, but I just couldn’t stop. We stared into each other's eyes for a while, doing all the communicating we needed without a word.

“I suppose we should get going now,” I said, a little sad that I had to end the moment. It was getting dark though, real dark, and I know my mom wouldn’t approve of me being out this late.

“I suppose we should,” Matthew said, sighing as he stood up. We packed up all of our stuff and started walking back to my place. Matthew’s hand dangled at his side, and I couldn’t help but stare, wondering if it would be appropriate for me to hold onto it. After a while, I just mustered up the courage and just grabbed it. Matthew let out a surprised noise, looking over at me and then down at our hands. He smiled, and of course, I couldn’t help but smile back.

***

“Hi, Mom!” I said, opening the front door. I was still beaming, unable to stop myself after what had just happened.

“Sweetie, welcome home,” she said, coming up to the front door. “And Matthew too, of course. Who else would you have been hanging out with.”

“I was with my boyfriend, yes,” I said, giggling internally as I imagined what Mom’s reaction would be.

“Boyfriend?” she asked her mouth slightly agape. “Already?”

“What do you mean already?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“I mean, your crush on him was pretty obvious,” she said, laughing. “But I thought it’d take longer for you to admit you liked guys.”

“You knew?” I asked, my voice raising in pitch.

“Honey, anybody with eyes would’ve known,” she said.

“I guess it was that obvious,” I said, awkwardly putting my fingers together.

“It’s okay though,” my mom said, smiling at me. “I’m glad you now have that special someone in your life.”

“Me too,” I said, hugging Matthew from the side. He reciprocated by putting an arm around me.

“Ah, young love,” Mom said, chuckling. “Come on, you should get home now though, Matthew. It’s getting a little late, do you need a ride?”

“No it’s okay, I can take the bus back home, they’re not closed just yet.”

“Great, then you should get going before I get a call from your mom asking where you are,” Mom said.

“Bye, Katie,” Matthew said, waving as he opened my front door.

“Bye, Matthew,” I replied. I wanted to say something but was a little too embarrassed to. I ended up saying it, albeit in a whisper. “I’ll miss you.”

“What was that?” he asked, turning his ear towards me.

“Fine, I’ll miss you, okay,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Okay, okay,” he said, chuckling. “I’ll miss you too.”

Matthew left, leaving me feeling a little empty. After a quick talk with my mom about her expectations now that I had a boyfriend, I went up to my room. I sent Grace a quick text, telling her I got together with Matthew, and put down my phone. I sighed as I looked at my homework. I had a lot to catch up on since I spent my entire day playing.