In My Shoes by Adrian Stephens

drink a lot of soda, so if people see you
drinking a lot, they might notice the change. Plus, I want you to
keep my girlish figure intact,” she said with a smile.
    “Thanks,” I said, taking the Pepsi. “I’ll do
my best. So what do you drink?”
    “Water. I drink milk or orange juice in the
morning. Usually milk with dinner. But mostly water. How about you?
What do you like to drink?”
    “I prefer Pepsi, but I’ll drink anything that
is available. I’m not very picky.”
    “So, I can drink whatever I want and nobody
is going to look at me funny?” she asked as a matter of fact.
    “No, probably not.” Do people really pay that
much attention to things like…what I drink?
    “Okay,” she said. “That’s good to know.” She
grabbed a bottled water, we gathered up our things and headed for
her car.
    “I’m not allowed to have anyone drive my car,
so you had better drive. If I drive, anyone watching would see you
driving my car. My parents would take my car away for a week if I
did that.”
    “No problem. I can drive.”
    We got in her car, backed out of the garage
and headed toward my house. With her car, my house was only about
30 minutes away. Now that I knew where she lived, I knew how to get
where I was going.
    “Can I ask you something?” I asked.
    “Didn’t you just do that?” she said.
    Why do people always think that’s funny? I
didn’t respond and eventually, she said, “Ask away.”
    “Well…I know we agreed to cooperate to get
through this.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Well, you are being almost nice to me right
now. With the way that things went this morning and yesterday, and
with what your mom told me you said about me yesterday…”
    “Oh no! What did she tell you I said?”
    “Well, she didn’t get into specifics, but she
said you seemed proud of how you treated me yesterday.”
    I looked over at her and saw what looked like
shame on my face. Again, the expression wasn’t quite mine, but it
was on my face.
    “I wasn’t proud of myself for saying what I
said to you. I was frustrated at how the day went yesterday. You
were the third guy to come up to me and I was beginning to feel
like a piece of meat. The first two guys were arrogant and one was
crude. Your antics in class just added to my annoyance.”
    I wanted to interrupt her, to tell her that I
wasn’t goofing off in class, but I didn’t think that would help at
the moment. I let her continue without saying a word.
    “When you came up to me, I was kind of fed
up. I waited to hear what you had to say, and it sounded like you
were headed down the same road as the other two guys. I was more
proud of myself for standing my ground. I tend to be too polite,
and sometimes I feel like certain people take advantage of
that.”
    She stopped for a minute as I drove in
silence. After a minute, she continued her thought. “I don’t really
know you that well, and don’t think for a minute that I’m over you
flashing your friend. But…I may have taken my frustrations out on
the wrong guy. Time will tell. If so…I’m sorry.”
    “Thank you,” I said.
    “If so,” she emphasized,
“you’re…welcome.”
    “So,” I continued, “That still doesn’t
explain why you are being so nice to me now.”
    “I like to think that this is the way I
normally am. I’m not really being nice as much as I’m being polite.
I’m usually this way with everyone.”
    “Well,” I said with a smile, “that’s what I
thought before yesterday.”
    “Look,” she offered, “maybe we should just
start over.”
    “Sounds good to me,” I said. “Maybe after
this is all over…”
    “Yeah, don’t push it,” she stopped.
    Maybe after I grow on her a bit…
    It didn’t take long before we were pulling up
to the curb in front of my house. My house is a single story house
built in the early 90’s. It doesn’t really stand out in our
neighborhood. All of the houses are single story and they are all
painted in shades of brown. After seeing