FicWad

It was an overcast but otherwise warm day and Chris and his best friend, Joy were helping out at the pizza shop before the predicted thunderstorm late that afternoon. Joy glanced up from watering one of the plants and sighed. “Not again.” She shook her head and set the watering can down. “What again?” Chris asked. “Robbie. He keeps following me” Joy replied. “Robbie from math class?” Chris asked, looking up at her. “Yeah. Ellie says he has a big crush on me which is obvious but he’s just annoying”Joy explained. Chris glanced over at Robbie who was sitting across the street, staring at them. “Oh. Okay?” Chris said, looking back over at Joy, a little amused. “It’s not funny. He’s really annoying! He follows me everywhere and Ellie even said that he’s planning to ask me out soon” Joy took the watering can and handed it to her mom who gave them both a weird look before going back inside. “And what are you going to tell him?” Chris asked, mischievously. “I don’t know. I’m just dreading it” Joy replied with another sigh. Chris gave her a sympathetic look. Gizmo came outside and glanced from one to the other in confusion. “Why so gloomy? And who is that walking towards us?”he asked. “Oh no” Joy murmured. Robbie was crossing the street and heading to the shop. Chris glanced at her then at Gizmo and got a curious look in his eyes. “Uhhhh....Chris? What are you thinking? Whatever it is, stop thinking it” Joy whispered to him. Chris didn’t say anything. Joy sat down in one of the nearby chairs and looked worried. Chris excused himself for a second and ran inside. Robbie came up and sat in a chair across from Joy, smiling, nervously. “Umm..hi, Joy”he said. “Hi”Joy glanced over at Gizmo in a silent plea for help. “I was wondering if.... you’d like to go someplace sometime?”Robbie continued. “Uhhhhh...” Joy started but noticed that Chris was back. And suddenly, he didn’t look happy. He glared at Robbie, angrily and exclaimed,”She’s my girlfriend, you know.” Joy stared at him, in shock. Gizmo took a step back and ran from the scene. Inside, Chris’s dad, who had just taken a drink of water, started choking and both of their moms glanced at each other from across the room. Then Joy’s dad came in with a stack of boxes and looked super confused. “What did I miss?”he asked. “My son just said that your daughter is his girlfriend”Chris’s mom explained. Joy’s dad dropped the boxes and glanced outside. Robbie got up and looked even more nervous. “Sorry. How was I supposed to know. And I’m going to wish you luck because you’re going to have some real family issues. Bye!” Robbie headed out the gate and down the street. Joy stared after him then looked at Chris in amazement and surprise. “And you can thank me for that. Problem solved.” Chris flashed her a triumphant smile and when back inside. Both sets of parents stared at each other then at Joy and Chris in utter confusion. “He’s not actually your boyfriend, right?” Joy’s dad finally asked. “No but now the entire school is going to think so for the rest of the year. But on the bright side I don’t have an annoying admirer anymore and the whole school already had their suspicions so really, nothing bad happened” Joy replied with a smile. She followed Chris inside and left all four parents staring at each other again. Robbie continued to run down the street and stopped at a house on the corner. Knocking hastily he then waited. A girl answered and looked at him expectantly. “Well? What happened?”she asked. “Everything we hoped would happen” Robbie replied with a smile. The girl smiled too and gave him a quick thanks before disappearing inside. Meanwhile, Chris and Joy were upstairs doing homework when Chris stopped and glanced at Joy. “Was that too much? Too...extreme? What happened out there?”he asked. “Maybe a little bit. I don’t mind if Robbie tells the whole school though. It was worth it seeing how surprised he was” Joy said, looking down at her homework. “Yeah. I wanted to know if I should have told him to just stop or something.”Chris said. “No. You were fine. I told you I don’t mind it” Joy replied. Chris looked relieved. “Good. I thought you’d be angry with me” he said. “Nope. You should try it with someone else next time and see how they react” Joy suggested. She settled down on one of the pillows and glanced at him with an amused smile. “Maybe I will” he said, smiling too. He turned back to his homework again with an occasional look out the window at the now pouring rain. They both tried to focus but after helping out all morning at the pizza shop and adding the rhythmic, steady downpour, it didn’t work out. When Chris’s mom came to see what they were doing she found them both fast asleep on the bed, homework and all. She stood in the doorway for a second before smiling softly and turning to leave.