Research: Romance

friday i'm in love

"I know something you don't know." AJ sings quietly from beside me. 

The two of us work to clean up breakfast in the kitchen while everyone departs to get ready. Our family has a tradition of playing baseball the day after Thanksgiving, and luckily today is the last sunny day before the storms start rolling. 

Rolling my eyes, I sing back, "I don't care." 

He snorts, as if my lack of interest is a blatant lie, "Oh, so you don't care that I know you and lover-boy were making out in your room last night." AJ raises his voice, "MWAH- MWAH- MW- ouch!" 

The plastic plate I'm drying in my hand falls into the sink with a clatter after I throw it at him. My dad's voice can be heard from the other room, "What was that?" 

"Nothing!" I screech back. AJ snickers and I shoot him a death glare, "Shut up." 

He shrugs, pleased with himself. Nora comes in, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. She places a cup in the dishwasher and passes a look at AJ. Then the two of them are smirking at me. I concentrate on picking up the plate from the sink and washing it again. 

Nora clears her throat, "So, a little birdy told me you and a little birdy played your own game of charades last night. One word, four letters, seven minutes..." Her eyebrows wiggled excitedly. 

I shake my head at her insinuation and laugh, "Your little birdy deserves to be fired for false claims... and weak mindedness." 

"Hey!" AJ laughs, flicking water at me.

Facing Robin again downstairs after what happened was bad enough, but the suggestive looks from my family for the remainder of the night were far worse. At least, the ones I caught. To be totally candid, I spent the majority of last night staring at my shoes and screaming internally.

I've been thinking about that line a lot lately...  I think If a memory had the power to kill me, it would be that one. Then I'm reminded of him being struck with a look of pure regret and virtually sprinting out of room not two seconds after. That's when I decide otherwise. 

Robin and I started a new game since then: the "it's fine" game. We played it all last night and during breakfast. The rules are to never look at one another, and we can only use words of polite necessity. For example: "Will you pass me the butter?" "Sure." "Thanks." 

It's a riviting pass-time and not painful whatsoever...

"You must be a bad kisser," AJ remarks ever-so-helpfully, "I'd work on that if I were you." 

Grimacing, I try to summon all the patience of my ancestors, "Would you stop. He's in the other room! And I'm not taking kissing advice from the guy who said it's okay to use tongue when playing spin the bottle." 

"First of all! I shared that suggestion under the strict impression you already had your first kiss. Which makes it your fault for trying to take poor Cameron Hastings to first base before either of you were properly skilled." AJ replies defensively.

When I go to fight him on the matter, he raises his voice, "Secondly! Your boyfriend is showering upstairs. So we are free to tease you all we'd like until he's done." 

"Yeah, done taking all the water! He's been in there forever!" Joey screams from the other room, making it clear to me that everyone is listening in to the conversation happening in the kitchen. My heart skips and I look panicked at Nora who gives me the reassuring look I need. 

"Rosie is at the store getting lunch stuff for baseball. She went with your mom, the little ones, and gran." She tells me, patting my arm kindly. 

If I was noticeable, then poor Rosie's little crush on Robin was obvious. While everyone knows that it's all a bit of pre-teen whimsy, and bound to fade in a day or two, I didn't want her feelings to be harmed by careless remarks. So, conversations regarding the "r-word" as my family so clandestinely started to call it, were off limits while Rosie was around. Opportunistically, I started to sit next to Rosie a lot.