Becca by Dean Krystek

and was more pissed off when he
couldn’t.”
    “I told him I talked to
you…only I said you were Josh—who you are but not really. I can’t
lie to him, so I didn’t really tell a lie. Anyway, he might come back
again to talk to you because he thinks something is up.”
    “I see.”
    “No you don’t. He doesn’t
trust me. Oh…well…maybe he has reason to—or thinks he does.” She sighed
heavily. “He doesn’t want me to date anyone but Greg, but he thinks I’m
screwing Greg because Greg told his father we were, and his father told mine. But
we’re really not, and even if Greg wanted to, I don’t know if I would. But I’m
thinking that my father probably wants me to screw Greg so that I won’t
revert to my old ways and get mixed up with someone he doesn’t like. At the
same time, he’s worried that Greg is losing focus because of all the screwing. But
Greg lost focus all by himself. And on top of that, my dad thinks that I’ve got
my sights on a guy named Josh—who is you of course. I’m not saying I have my sights on you, but he thinks I do because I told him I’d talked
to you…I mean a guy at the gas station and that’s why I was a little late
getting home. He came around to the gas station to see if he could spot this
guy Josh and he did, but he didn’t know it. He wanted to see if Josh
looked like—” She paused and stared at the street in front of the car for a
second. “It would drive him insane if I was getting mixed up with a guy like
you…oh, I’m sorry, Josh—”
    “A guy like me?”
    “I’ll explain…later. But
this is all so complicated, ain’t it? And I’ve said too much. I need to shut
up.”
    “So shut up.”
    “But I can’t. I mean…when
I’m with you, all I want to do is talk.”
    “Yeah, I know what you
mean.”
    “You do? I’m confusing
myself.” She offered a weak smile.”
    Bert shrugged as he
processed the information just thrown at him. “I d o understand,
whateveryournameis. Believe me.”
    She smiled now and patted
his hand. “You’re funny.”
    “You’ve told me that
before.”
    “And you’re really nice.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Thanks for listening to
me.”
    “My pleasure.”
    “Really?”
    Bert nodded. “Yup.”
    “So what’s with us?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We hardly know each
other and we’re talking like we’ve been friends for a long time.”
    “Yeah, crazy, huh.”
    “Can I ask you
something?”
    “Sure.”
    “Have you ever had
a girlfriend?”
    “No.” Bert shook his
head. “I think I mentioned that before.”
    “Yeah, I probably wasn’t
listening. Why in the heck don’t you have a girlfriend?”
    “You sound like my
mother.”
    “And what’s your answer
to her?”
    Bert said, “I’m too dark
for some, too light for others.”
    She favored him with a
long stare at the next stop sign.
    “You know, there is no go sign. You can go now,” Bert said.
    She shook her head slowly.
“That’s crap.”
    “No it’s not—there’s no
go—”
    “I mean about you being
too dark or too light. That’s crap.”
    “It’s the truth.”
    “You’d make a great
boyfriend.” She stepped on the gas. “And that’s not flirtery; that’s flattery.”
    “Why thank you. At the
next street make a left.”
    She turned down the
street and then, at Bert’s gesture, pulled over to the curb. “Is this where you
live?”
    “Yup. This is it.”
    She smiled and then said.
“Thanks for having coffee with me.”
    “You’re welcome. Thanks
for inviting me.”
    She nodded, sighed, and
said, “And now I must face the wrath of my father. I walked out on him.”
    “You were arguing?”
    “Not really…well, yeah,
because he accused me of messing around with Greg.” She paused and then said
suddenly, “Some guy went to Vietnam because of me.”
    The subject changed surprised
Bert. “What? He went to Vietnam for you?”
    “No, because of
me.”
    “Uh…well....” Bert was
not sure how he should respond. Her gaze gave