I watch Mark open it up before Mom covers my eyes and slowly I'm walking into my bedroom, or to the banister to be thrown over cause I can't see anything. I get in and get turned around before the hands are removed from my eyes and I see it. The TV, almost as long as I am tall and as wide top to bottom as Mark and I standing side by side, is stuck to my wall, along with that is the small to medium entertainment center with a game console and about twenty different games. Mom grabs a remote and turns the whole thing on as I am dumbstruck, okay this is pretty amazing.
"Mom and I were talking and when we looked at everything this was the best idea we could come up with for amazing belated birthday gifts," Mark says hopeful.
I have to think for a minute about the whole situation. Is it buying my affection or repayment for past shit and is there a difference? I'm not sure but the rest of the family is either moderately traumatized or proud of Mark, I think only Beth is traumatized. The whole set up is amazing and I don't know what to do about the situation since it's Mark who is working the good and Mom who has been living on my 'don't give a shit side'. Is she trying after all this time? Now I'm confused, I actually sit down at my desk since that chair is swiveled so it can face everything and think about this whole thing. Everyone is waiting for some major reaction out of me and thankfully it's Abby that saves it.
"Mom he's speechless, Mark you two did amazing," Abigail says and I watch Mom and Mark, mostly Mom, smile.
"It's just so much, I don't know," I say the words and keep it ambiguous.
Mark and Mr. D clear everyone out of my room so I can sit back and take it in. Make up or bribe it is going to suck to have to give this up in a few months regardless. Do I leave with everyone trying though? Will they stick with it and make their changes permanent? I'm just not sure and now I don't know if I want to talk to Mom about everything or not. My evening is spent quietly except for Abby coming into my room to see what games I have and immediately informing me that three of them are better on the PC because you can mod them. Personal opinion I say but I've never had anything like this at all in my life. My major gifts I've received have always been clothes or small items and once a debit card from Mr. Delauter when I turned sixteen. Sleeping comes a little later than expected, that thing is going to take up a lot of free time.
Thursday comes and goes with no major incidents other than Bridget being friendly around me and Abigail making it a point to interact with me at school. Carlos and his boys are waiting in the wings for me to be alone or catch me off guard but I'm paranoid thanks to being a pin cushion once and don't want to find out what he'll have them do for an encore. Mom is still waiting for something big to happen between her and me after the massive gift but she isn't pushing it by hanging all over me. Again I suspect Mark's influence and now that sounds weird with Mark being the one that figured shit out between him and I first.
Friday and I'm looking at a potential weekend of hardcore gaming for the first time in my life. I don't know how I'm supposed to survive on soda, snack food and no shower for two days but I figure if people can get online and make money doing it and post videos I can survive it once. I get to lunch time and grab my bag lunch, our cafeteria actually makes them for you to buy and carry instead of taking a tray, and head in the opposite direction of my former eating spot. I haven't seen Sydney at all since she made her case about me lying to her. I didn't lie, I just didn't tell her anything really.
Ever have one of those moments where you think the world is fucking with you and it isn't? I mean you begin to think that you're being set up but it's not. I'm walking with a sack lunch and see one of the few females, not girls, at my school that gives Bethany a run for her money. Jenna Christianson, 5'9" barely d cup breasts that have been known to defy gravity, an ass that can stop traffic and legs that go all the way to heaven. Light ginger hair down to her shoulder blades and deep hazel eyes. I'm not making this up. She's an amateur model and dancing enthusiast and most of this is on her personal modeling site. How much she wrote and how much people said and they took is up for debate but it's also insanely accurate. Now back to my paranoia she's sitting on a stone bench outside alone, as in not a soul around as she sits sadly looking into her phone. I look in every direction to see nobody around before approaching.
"Are you alright," I ask and Jenna looks up from her phone.
"Yes… No… I don't know," she says and lowers her head again.
"I mean I'll listen if you want to tell someone about it," I offer and Jenna sniffles, her sniffles sound sexy.
"My boyfriend… Ex-boyfriend Brandon Clarke, you heard of him," she asks and I don't think many people haven't heard of him," Well we broke up a couple weeks ago."
Brandon Clarke is the guy that you'd expect to be an all star running back, he started on the Varsity squad as running back and he hasn't been benched since. It wasn't half way through his sophomore year that he started dating Jenna and they've been a power couple that you'd see in the adult world. Black superstar athlete and a white supermodel, the headlines write themselves but now they're broken up.
"Well then he's a moron," I state and she gives me a dismissing look.
"He's not the problem I am, sooner or later I was going to lose him and it's just sooner than later I guess," Jenna says, somehow upset," And now he's been dating his way through the cheerleading squad and any other girl he can find."
"Well that is his choice, he decided on quantity instead of quality," I say it and wonder where the hell it came from.
"He what," Jenna asks confused.
"He wants to run around with a bunch of seventy or eighty percent girls then let him. He let the ninety eight percent woman go. I'd say it's his loss," I tell her, trying to be nice.
"That's nice of you to say but who are you," She asks and I shrug.
"I'm nobody. I've been out of school for a couple weeks and was in the hospital for most of it," I state explaining for the first time where I've been in the most vague terms.
"Nobody is a nobody, there is something about you that makes you special," Jenna says and it's like she's the world's greatest motivational speaker.
"Well thank you for saying it pretty lady," I nod my head to her," I say find someone who will appreciate everything you are and then just be happy. Happiness is the best revenge, is what I've heard."
Jenna smiles at me and I just became the nice guy to help the pretty girl. Now to take my battered and mildly scarred face back to the hole so I can eat my lunch, I depart with a light wave from Jenna and find a quiet spot to eat in peace and quiet. The rest of my day is quiet and I make it home on the city bus again even though Abigail was waiting for me in the parking lot. I know she was waiting because she messaged my phone while I was at the stop asking where I was.
Friday evening comes and goes and I spend most of that night gaming online and finally pass out at one in the morning. I'm an early riser and my body forces me awake so I can go about my basic workout. I can't go running, mostly because I don't want anyone to see that I'm almost one hundred percent so it's the basics of stretching, push ups and sit ups. I get done and go right back to bed to sleep. My day keeps to a basic of food, gaming online and offline since I don't like having people insult my mother despite our history, and a little socializing with Mark who is constantly asking when do I think I'm going to be up to working out again. I keep it vague but honestly I'm thinking I need to come out of my 'weakened' state and do something.
It's about an hour away from dinner when I'm told I have a visitor and make my way down the stairs to find Jenna standing in the foyer waiting.
"Well it didn't take long to see that you're not actually a nobody," Jenna greets me as I get down the stairs.
"Okay, hi and what are you doing here," I asked confusedly.
"Taking your advice, I'm going to find someone who appreciates me and my ninety eight percent self," she says with a smile and I nod.
"I'll call my brother, he'll be thrilled," I tell her with a smile and she shakes her head.
"How about you take a shower and put on some very nice clothes and I'll drive us to a very nice restaurant so we can have a wonderful evening and talk about things we both want like appreciation," Jenna says with a smile and considering the dress she's wearing, thin straps with tight form fitting curves and red, yeah I'm gonna head back up right now and shower.
Mark is living in the big brother zone trying to pep talk me while I actually do everything I'm supposed to from cleaning, brushing, grooming and dressing before I return downstairs and find Jenna waiting there talking with Mother and Beth who is asking about four million questions and getting absolutely no answers. Jenna sees me, I put on one of the two suits I own, black suit, white shirt and black tie, and for some reason she smiles. I feel amazing as we leave home and I walk her to her car and get the door for her before hopping in the passenger side.
"Mind if we go somewhere a bit pricey," Jenna asks and I think for a second.
I nod and smile which Jenna sees and smiles back as we head away from home in her VW Beetle. I'm watching her a little out of the corner of my eye and I have to wonder… How did I get so lucky?