Apparently Smart

“I promise I will keep my temper in check.” I finally said. “I’ve been doing much better.”

“You and I both know that I don’t peddle in promises.”

Now I let my head sink back down to look at him. He is hunched over in his chair, elbows on his knees and hands tucked under his chin. His expression is somehow both neutral and disappointed. “I’ve been doing better.”

“You do better every summer.”

This is true.

“Even Mom thinks I’m improving.”

His left eyebrow twitched, which was a facial tic I had learned to recognize meant that I had just said the exact wrong thing.

“How is everything with your mom, since you brought her up?”

“Hmph.” I decided it would be best to go back to looking at the ceiling. “I don’t know why I did that.”

“Just…just tell me how she thinks you’re improving.” His voice wavered. Mine was currently attempting to collapse in on itself like a black hole.

“She…” I stop and count to five in my head. “…we haven’t fought about anything in weeks. She noticed. I was trying not to.”

“Why were you trying not to?”

“Because it shouldn’t matter that I’m calm. It shouldn’t be celebrated that she doesn’t think I’m some kind of animal.”

“I don’t think she thinks—”

“—She has mentioned numerous times that she is going to purchase me a muzzle for a birthday or Christmas gift.” I glance down at him. His face is somewhere between horrified and bemused. “I think she treats it like some little joke between us now, but we all know it wasn’t always like that.”

“If you think she thinks it’s a joke, then tell her it’s not funny and that you do not want to hear it.”

I almost laughed. “So you want me to start a fight?”

“If her words hurt, you have to let her know that. I’ve had the same conversation with you many, many times.”

“I’m improving.” I said. “I keep it all in here.” I looped my hand around my head.

“That’s not really good, either, but it is better than screaming.”

“See? Improvement.” This time I laughed. It was a very light, stilted chuckle. It sent a tickle through my throat and I ended up hanging off the chaise coughing into my fist while Ken hovered between a seated position and standing, waiting to see if he needed to give me medical attention.

“Corey? Corey, are you okay?”

Two thoughts dance together in my head as I walk to school. The first is that I should be prepared for Lake to continue to ignore me. That one has taken the lead and is stepping all over the feet of its partner, because that other thought trying to keep up is that, even if he does, I’m not going to be able to ignore him.

In some ways, that was already how we had spent most of our time interacting with each other. He would valiantly attempt to pretend that I wasn’t about to do something terrible to him, and I would still do the terrible thing.

This time is different. This time I don’t want to do a terrible thing.

Or, I don’t think that he would think what I want to do is terrible. For that to be true, he’d have to believe that I haven’t at all noticed how he’s acted toward me since our conversation Monday afternoon.

It was just like I told Liz. He’s teasing, and I think two can play at that game.

Then I get to the parking lot and see his Jeep towering over all the other cars. I see him open the door and jump out, then stretch and yawn. I am directly behind him when he first rolls up the sleeves of his rainbow hoodie and then, a moment later, decides to pull it off over his head and toss it back into his Jeep.

If he had taken his time, this would not have been an issue. But in his apparent rush to get it off he also pulled the t-shirt underneath it over his head as well, leaving him standing in the middle of the lot with his bare back facing me.

I stare.

I stare so hard I almost walk into one of the arched pillars along the sidewalk breezeway. His shirt goes back on quickly, but it doesn’t matter. It was less than ten seconds of his flesh hitting my retinas. If I needed one final piece of evidence that he is not the tiny yet gangly boy that I bullied in gym class, it is this.

His shoulders are still his shoulders, just like I remember them from AQUA, though now they aren’t disguised under the club’s blacklights. His back has enough definition that even from this distance, in this hazy morning sunlight, I could see shadows where his muscles peak and valley. And, if that was not enough, my eyes caught a hint of bright fabric climbing up from beneath his jeans.

He is wearing pink underwear. Lake Williams is wearing neon pink underwear.

And whatever heat he felt in the air that made him want to remove his sweater is now nothing compared to the blaze that has engulfed me and sent me rushing for the front doors and into the closest bathroom to throw water on my face.

She came in through the bathroom window.

When their parents start to date, two seventeen year olds are forced to spend time with each other and start to fall for one another, only for their parents to have a nasty break up and attempt to put their now secretly dating children at odds with each other.

A boy plays Cyrano for two of his friends, one of which he secretly likes but does not attempt to sabotage.

I somehow managed to write 420K words. Some of the words were harder to get out than others.

That was good.

I completed four different drafts, and nobody but me has read much of any of them.

That was not fun.

I wrote this a while ago, but am only just now going through the process of editing it and decided to post it on Wattpad instead of trying to get it traditionally published. First four chapters are up as I post this but more will be coming soon.  Nothing Scientific About It (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/story/358412223-nothing-scientific-about-it

 Everyone said Finch House was haunted, but Emma Baker never saw the ghost of Eleanor Finch over the eighteen years she lived there, no matter how much her or her childhood best friend and neighbor Cade Carter tried.

 Now, six years after Emma left Finch House to chase a boy and seven years after Cade was kicked out of his house by his parents for the terrible act of turning eighteen, Cade has purchased Finch House from Emma's mother and he wants to finally catch Eleanor. What begins as a simple night of ghost-hunting becomes a journey into past relationships neither of them were ready to relive. 

Let me get this out of the way up front - I loved this movie.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that, because I write cutesy rom-coms, I also enjoy them immensely. Probably. So what?

I am about to use the word "problem" a few times in this next bit, but I am not going to be using it in a derogatory manner. Not really, anyway.

The problem with this film is that it's a Pixar film, but it's not really a kids film. Kids aren't exactly the target demo for formulaic romantic comedies, no matter how adventurous the character design and world-building are.

ELEMENTAL is essentially a Hallmark movie, and that's the problem. If you love those kinds of sappy stories, like I do, then you will be drawn into this and end up crying just like I did. Kids though? Kids aren't going to be as captivated by the subtexts of immigration and racism even if they are experiencing the same sorts of things in their own lives.

Honestly, bout the only thing this was missing was them involving a random holiday somewhere in the background.

So yeah, this movie has a potentially large audience of all those people who can't get enough of Candace Cameron and Danica McKellar every Christmas, but there was no way Disney was going to try to market it as a more adult piece of animation. Thus, they didn't really market it at all.

There's some t-shirts, books, and a few figurines and plushes, but nothing like they would ever do for their usual aimed-straight-at-kids movies, and that really stinks, because I would love a Wade Funko Pop right about now.

I am fine with Pixar wanting to grow up and reach older audiences. Animation doesn't have to be just for kids, but if they are going to be making more attempts at stories like this, they need to get the marketing machine on the same page and push the brand even harder as storytellers for all ages and less as "owned by Disney, so mostly just cartoons like them but styled slightly differently"

"I love romantic comedy movies/books and I can not believe you hate them. Please understand I will be referencing them forever and ever and you will be forced to get used to it."

"I used to love romantic comedy movies/books until _insert relationship_ fell apart, now they make me sick."

Any subplots revolving around single parents dating where the parent and their date are obviously compatible but the MC hates it because reasons.

"I know everything there is to know about relationships despite never being in one." (and boy am I surprised to learn I really don't know everything because I've fallen for you)

Regrets and cigarettes

Two things I never want addicted to

But they’re the only things I taste