section 9

(spell check was so not cooperating with me tonight, sorry)

The group dispersed slowly. The older kids got in to their cars while the less fortunate ones hung around and waited for their parents. Polly handed me a packet of information for me to read through and some forms for my parents to sign; they needed their permission to use me in their graduate program thing. I sifted through them as I waited for Dad on the curb.

“So, what do you think?” It was Lyle. He sat down next to me and leaned his forearms against his knees. His brown hair kind of drooped in to his eyes but he did nothing to go and fix it.

“About the group?”

“Well… yeah.”

“I don’t know.” I didn’t dislike the group, but I wanted to.

“I didn’t really like it either. I love Sophie, but getting things off my chest with people that understand them feels so much better than getting things off my chest with my friends. They just don’t understand, you know?”

“I don’t really talk about Andrew with my friends.”

“At all?” he seemed surprised for some reason.

“I mean, a little. Like, when I have to cancel plans cause I have to babysit or something.”

“One of those parents?”

“What do you mean?” I had thought my parents were unqiue, but maybe this was normal for someone like me, someone who had an autistic brother.

He gave me a pitiful look. “The parent that gives child A all the attention and ignores child B.”

“That’s a type?”

“Yeah. You’re not alone.” This was news to me. “It happens a lot.” I wrapped my arms around myself, it was cold but goosebumps were still running up my arm. “My tenth birthday was at Chuckie Cheese’s and Sophie screamed the entire time. We were asked to leave after fifteen minutes; it was so embarassing.”

“I didn’t even have a ninth birthday. My dad gave me fifty bucks three weeks afterwards and made me promise to not say anything to my mom,” I challenged.

“My mom forgot to sign my report card and I had detention for a week.”

“I had to eat a peanut butter sandwich from the cafeteria because Mom forgot to pack my lunch—”

“That’s not that bad,” Lyle interrupted and I held up my hand for him to stop.

“I blew up like a balloon; turns out I’m allergic to peanuts. I had to go to the ER.”

“We went on a family vacation last year and I was left at the hotel when they left to go home,” Lyle one upped.

“One time,” I turned towards him on the sidewalk, “while I was at the bus stop before school across the street from my house, my mother ran up and down the street in her bath towel trying to catch Andrew while he ran up and down the street.”

He brushed the lock of hair out of his eyes and smiled. “My mom forgets my name,” he said it slowly and without much emotion.

“Ouch. That sucks. I guess you win.” I had to give him credit, my parents had forgotten a lot of stuff since Andrew was born and things started going haywire but they had never forgotten my name.

“It’s not a competition. At least,” he shurgged, “not one I want to be a part of. But, not everyone is like those parents on TV. Not everyone can juggle it.”

I leaned back, letting the cement and rocks dig in to my palms as I leaned back on them.

“You’re Dad gonna be here soon?”

I looked over at him. “How’d you know my Dad was picking me up?”

“He remembered your birthday. I figured your mother had more important things to do then pick you up.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, that’s for sure.”

“So?”

“Oh, yeah.” I looked down at my watch. He was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago. “Uhm, he probably got caught up doing something.”

“Well, you wanna ride?”

I debated. I knew I wasn’t supposed to accept rides from strangers. But I knew Lyle. The point of me joining this group was for me to make new friends, Lyle could be a new friend. I studied him a little more carefully. His eyes were a really pretty slate blue and his freckles didn’t make him less beautiful, they made him unqiue. I went back to his eyes again, they weren’t just a pretty shade of blue, they were kind and interested. Interested in what I was saying, what I was feeling. It seemed almost completely foriegn to me.

Nodding, I said, “Sure.”

And if took me to the woods and he killed me on the way home, then so be it, my parents deserved it for ignoring me like this.

Lyle got up and started walking to the parking lot. There were only three cars left and I assumed two of them belonged to Polly and Carter. The other…

“Wait…” I said under my breath. Lyle turned back to me, his hands reaching in to the pocket of his jeans and pulling out a set of keys. He dangled them in the air as if to say “come on.”

Lyle walked over to the passenger door of the sedan and opened the door for me. “Thank you.” His car was fairly clean, cleaner than most people my age but messier than, say, my parents. I peaked around the back of the seat when I clicked the seat belt in to its lock, there were sweatshirts piled on the seat and several empty fast food cups and bags. A booster seat was clipped in behind me.

“Sophie’s small for her age,” Lyle explained. He must have caught me looking.

“You drive her around a lot,” I commented.

“Yeah, both my parents work. I take her to t-ball and therapy and such.”

“She plays t-ball?” I hadn’t really thought of anyone having autism or down syndrome or the like and being able to play sports. I just kind of figured that that was one of the things that they weren’t able to do.

“Yeah, on a special league. She’s not very good,” he laughed, probably recalling the last game she had played, “but she really enjoys it.”

“That’s really cool,” I said softly.

“Where do you live?”

“Uhm, over in Lakewood. On East Harvard, off of University.”

“Oh, okay, I know where that is. I’m over on Wesley, on the other side of the park. You know, if your parents want I can give you a ride from now on. I’m only a few blocks away from you.” He pulled out of the parking lot as Polly and Carter locked up the building.

“Uhm, yeah that sounds great. I’ll talk to them about.”

He pulled his phone out from the center console of the car and threw the small thing at me, “Here, type your number in. I’ll shoot you a text later.”

I typed in my information and set the flip phone back in to the console. I rested my elbow against the door and leaned my head in to my hand.

“Hey… do you like frozen yogurt?”

“I love frozen yogurt,” I said quickly. I wouldn’t be going now though.

He thrummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he stopped at the light ahead. “You know… there’s this great frozen yogurt place around here. You wanna go?”

word count: 1236

grand total: 10,000