Part 26 (1/2)
”That's not too diffi cult an accomplishment, Alex.” I smacked her leg. ”Ow! Cancer leg!”
”Always with the cancer. And was that a cancer fart you just made?” I waved my hand in front of my face.
Becca rolled up in hysterics. ”It's not my fault! It's the meds!”
We didn't mention Leo for the rest of the day, but that night I reviewed what was said and still came to the conclusion that I needed some s.p.a.ce from him. Everything we did together just felt too good. Sooner or later, that would turn to s.h.i.+t as all good things did.
I'd rather put an end to it myself than watch it unravel or blow up in my face.
After work the next day, I decided to fulfi ll a f.u.c.k- It List entry- number 9: Bake cookies for the janitor.
I chose cla.s.sic chocolate chip because the recipe was right on the bag. When it came time to mix in the chips, I lunged my hands into the batter instead of using a mixing spoon. The small chunks of choc- olate and batter rolled in my palm with a ma.s.sage- like eff ect. I could've stood there all day, until my brothers barged in and tried to fi nger their way into the bowl.
”Stop!” I yelled, and whacked at their hands. ”These are for someone else!”
”Alex has a boyfriend,” sang the twins.
--1 ”You guys are t.u.r.ds. I'm making them for the school janitor.”
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”Alex is dating the school janitor,” AJ and CJ chimed in unison, as if they shared an idiot brain.
”Get out of here.” I pushed them out of the kitchen.
They gave me an idea, though. Maybe I could soften the blow to Leo with some cookies. A sort of let's be friends peace off ering. And these were real, homemade ones, not fresh from the fridge impostors.
The janitor couldn't possibly eat all of the cookies anyway.
After the cookies fi nished baking and I doled out a few to appease my annoying brothers, I packaged them neatly into two Ziploc bags.
One I labeled ”To: Mr. Cooper, From: an appreciative student.” I wavered over what to write on the second bag, how to address it, how to sign it. In the end, I simply wrote, ”Leo.”
He'd be fi ne. I'd be fi ne. We didn't even know each other that well- mostly in the biblical sense, as they say. ( Were they really doing all that in the Bible?) I would keep myself busy with school and work and Becca, and he'd go back to what ever it was he did before me. He could start smoking again. I bet he wouldn't miss me at all.
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CHAPTER.
24.
Armed with two bags of cookies, I picked up Becca for school.
On her head was a brilliant blue, bobbed wig.
”Attention much?” I asked as she got into the car.
”This may be my biggest moment in the spotlight,” Becca declared.
”This will be one of many, Becca. Soon you'll star in a Holly- wood blockbuster, date a movie star, burn out, land on a worst dressed list, then have a miraculous comeback in some brilliant indie fi lm, which will garner your fi rst of many Oscars. I will be the only person you thank, of course.”
”You have this all planned out, don't you?”
”Yes. And my career will go like this: Straight out of high school I write the next big horror franchise, totally revolutionary. I'll go on to a lucrative career in writing and directing, and I'll fall in love with Norman Reedus.”
”Who's Norman Reedus?”
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”You're kidding. You must have cancer brain to forget s.e.xy hick Daryl from The Walking Dead. ”
”The one who always looks dirty?”
”They all always look dirty.”
”The one with the crossbow.”
”That's him.”