Chapter 14

Sally welcomed us with the usual jolly grin upon her pudgy face and held a sample of her newest grand idea.

“What's this?” Gabe asked while picking up a miniature pizza the size of a tablespoon from the tray in Sally's arms.

“They are my latest masterpiece of course!” she exuberantly chortled, “Why, try one for yourself, Gabe!”

He took a thoughtful bite of the tiny pizza, “I'll have ten boxes!” he joked.

We all laughed, and Sally piled ten boxes of the pizzas into Gabe's arms lightheartedly.

“I was just kidding!” he snickered.

We ended up taking one box of pizzas after we paid Sally a few dollars at the cash register. Gabe and I rode all the way back to my house while he held the box of cheesy snacks in his left hand. He, of course, was the master of riding bikes with no hands. I still needed some learning to do.

Once we arrived to my shabby place, Gabe parked his bike behind a nearly dead bush in the yard, and we trudged in through the front door.

“What do you want to do?” I asked him while taking the box of pizzas out of his hand.

“How about you call your friends while I put these in the micro-wave.” He replied, snatching the box right back out of my scrawny fingers. 

“Fine,” I stuck my tongue out at him and dilly-dallied to the phone.

I dialed Christine's number first before Melanie's. She was usually the planner type of person, so if I called her first, it would make our shopping trip be a little more official. 

“Howdy!” she cheered as she answered the phone.

“Hey Chris, it's Anna.”

“Hey girl! How have you been? We haven't chatted for a while!”

“Pretty solid. So I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping tonight.”

“I'd absolutely love to! But first, let me tell you something! Jake kissed me yesterday! He /kissed me! Eeee!” She squealed. 

“That's great, Christine. So do you think your sister can pick me up at Melanie's? I haven't asked her yet, and if it doesn't work out I'll just call you back.”

I hated talking on the phone.

“Okay, cool! Yeah, my sister can probably take us. So, what, six o'clock at Mel's?”

“Sure.”

“Alrighty! See you then!”

“Bye,” I hung up, and immediately started dialing Melanie's phone number while Gabe stood in front of the microwave oven. 

“Yay! My best friend is being social!” He joked.

“Shut up,” I remarked.

He could sometimes be almost as irritating as Christine.

“Hello?”

“Hey Melanie! It's Bel. How are you feeling?”

“I'm well, thank you for asking!”

“Sweet. So are you up for shopping at six tonight? Christine can pick us up at your house.”

“Sure, that'd be fun.”

“Cool, see you later!”

“Kay. See you then!” she hung up. 

I slouched over on the plastic dining chair and watch Gabe as he was mesmerized by the revolving plate of mini pizzas. 

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” Gabe counted down.

Ding!

He pulled the hot plate out of the oven and brought them over to the table. 

Each individual pizza was covered in melted mozzarella cheese and tiny sliced pieces of pepperoni and sausage. Steam rose to the ceiling as I blew on the roasted pizzas.

“These look /so/ good.” I beamed while taking a one inch pizza off the hot plate.

“They do.” He said, with half of his pizza already finished. “Aren't you hungry?” He asked while taking the last bite.

“Can't a poor girl take her time while eating something so delicate and yummy and not forking it down in three seconds?”

“Right, sorry.” He chuckled while hoisting up another pizza.

Once the lunch was finished, Gabe washed the dishes while I did the laundry. The laundry room was right of the half bathroom in the front hallway. The whole time I kept the door wide open so I could talk to Gabe while he scrubbed the dishes.

We watched some hunting channel on the old geezer T.V after cleaning the rest of the house and played soccer outside outside for a little while.

Before I forgot, I ran upstairs to look under my matress. There were a some dollar bills and a couple of dimes and nickles from moving lawns, garage sales, and lemonade stand with Gabe.

As soon as five forty five rolled around, Gabe and I walked over to see if Mrs. Smith could take me to Melanie's house. She, of course, replied with a cheerful “yes” and took me straight to Melanie's place.

Her house was a one story light blue home with several colorful flowers and bushes. It reminded me of Gabe's house in several ways, but you could say her house was a little bit more antique and fragile because of the Victorian trimming around the porch and white shudders on the windows.

I thanked Mr. Smith for taking me and knocked on the front door.

Annabel greeted me with a friendly smile and hug and let me in to her invited home. 

The wood fire was crackling in the corner next to a velvet chair and book.

“What are you reading?” I asked.

“Oh, it's just my math textbook.”

I lifted up the thick textbook and dropped it back down on the side table. 

“Dude, that thing is heavy!” I said while massaging my wrist.

“I'm in advanced math, and they give us a lot of homework.”

“Wow,” I gawked.

Suddenly, we heard an abrupt honk from outside.

This was my time to be a normal person. This was my time to reach out and be the girl I never got to be.