He ran stop signs and once a black Camaro almost killed him. He sat at an angle in his seat so he could watch her. He watched her face.
She wasn't a good student. She didn't pay that much attention in class. She always sat with the same group of girls and one guy. They looked like high school friends. Jonah wondered if the guy was her boyfriend. On Friday she kissed the guy in class and Jonah figured he must be. He felt let down, betrayed. He had been watching her for two weeks and he felt like he knew her. She knew he was watching. She smiled at him sometimes when she came in. Once she waved. He looked down and rubbed his hands on his old jeans, but he felt like he was special.
He tried to be among the first out the door so he could watch her walk down the hall. She didn't look at him then, but laughed and skipped along with her friends. He heard them call her Mary.
Once she came down his side of the row to get to her friends. He tucked his knees to the side and she sidled right in front of him. She was wearing a green skirt and he could see her panties outlined under the cloth. He wanted to reach out and touch her.
Sometimes she wore glasses. She must be nearsighted. At first Jonah was put off by this obvious defect in her, but when she turned toward him he thought the glasses made her look even cuter.
The guy was definitely her boyfriend.
Jonah didn't want to give up on her though. He still watched her.
~
Jonah took a drink of his milk, grabbed his backpack and pulled out a book. His mother called. He didn't answer, but stood and walked into the bedroom.
"You're awake," he said. His mother lay on the big queen sized bed. There was an oxygen tank on a stainless steel hand-truck next to the bed. Plastic tubes stretched from the tank, marring her face. She had the sheets pulled up and her head was small on the big yellow pillow. She had cancer.