The aroma of garlic and something vaguely Italian hung heavy in the air, a stark contrast to the internal turmoil churning within me. "Coming," Jon shouted again as he headed towards the kitchen.
Bethany had set the table for two, a simple affair with placemats and cutlery. She beamed as Jon entered the kitchen, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "Spaghetti Bolognese, your favorite! Well, one of them anyway," she chuckled, placing a generous portion on one of the plates.
“Thanks, Mom,” Jon mumbled, taking a seat at the other side of the table.
"So," Bethany began, twirling spaghetti around her fork, "anything interesting happen at school today?"
"Uh, just the usual," Jon replied hoping to deflect. "Mr. Henderson gave us a pop quiz in history. I think I aced it, though." He added, praying that Karyn was good at History.
The conversation continued in that vein for most of the evening. Bethany spoke of work, of her plans for the garden, of the upcoming family reunion. Jon tried to listen nodding and offering the occasional "uh-huh" or "Really?" as he had other things on his mind that night.
After dinner, Jon and Bethany settled on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, ready to watch the movie Bethany had chosen which turned out to be a rom-com.
Later that night, as Jon lay in Karyn's bed, unable to sleep, he looked around the room in the dark. What kind of lesson was he supposed to learn from living her life? So far the evening had been pleasant. The meal was great the movie while boring wasn’t the worst he had ever seen. The worst thing had been what he was wearing well at least it wasn’t a dress. He wondered how Karyn’s evening had gone at his house well that and how he was going to get out of this situation. Around midnight he eventually fell asleep.
A few streets away Karyn was sitting in Jons bed. She was also having some problems getting to sleep. She thought back on her evening. Jon’s Mom had welcomed her as she would have done her son which to all intense purposes she was at the moment.
Mikey had been fun, she could see how much he looked up to his older brother not that he would ever say so. Zoe was just Zoe the typical goth girl. Karyn could see that beneath all of that dark makeup she was just trying to get her mom's attention. She had never seen Zoe in that light before but then again she had never spent that much time with her before.
Jon probably never noticed any of these things before. Typical man, she thought sitting there. He wasn’t quite as bad as the rest of the boys at school, but then again he was a man. Maybe spending some time on the other side of the gender divide might help him in the future. The switch might do her some as well at the very least she could enjoy the time away from the stares from the boys.
