20
“Okay, well, I’ll leave you two to your CNN. Anne, it was nice meeting you.,” Tommy Sr. said, chuckling just a little at his son’s discomfort.
“It was nice meeting you too, sir,” Anne said as Tommy Sr. turned back toward the door.
After what she thought was enough time for the awkwardness to wear off, Anne asked Tommy if he was playing baseball this year. His simple “No,” seemed to close the door on any real conversation. After they had been there about 90 minutes, Mrs. Homer called down the hall to tell Anne it was time to go. The two teenagers said goodbye, and Anne walked to the kitchen. The three women walked into the living room exchanging goodbyes, and then they were gone. Tommy breathed a sigh of relief, and after a couple of minutes turned off the TV and went up to his room. He was sitting at his desk with his homework in front of him staring into space when his mom knocked on his door, and slowly let herself in.
“Tommy, are you feeling OK?” she asked gently.
“I feel fine,” he said.
“Well, you sure didn’t act fine with Anne. Miss Dawn called and said you barely spoke to her. She thinks you’re mad at her. Was it something she said?”
“We just don’t have anything in common,” he said.. No one could be mad at Anne, he thought to himself.
“We just thought you’d be more talkative around a girl you like so much.”.
“Like? What makes you think I like Anne Homer?”
“Tommy, everybody sees the way you stare at her when you don’t think anybody’s looking. She’s even mentioned it to her mother. And that poem you wrote for English, everybody knows it was about her.”
“I never stare at her, and I’ve never written a poem about her. It was just for a good grade.”
“If you say so, but what about the Christmas presents you’ve left on her front porch for the last three years?”