Chapter 9

Keith and I arrived at Candy’s place just as Bug was being put into a Police car. We could hear him yelling, “That punk should have stayed away from my sister. He sure picked an odd time to grow a pair. I just wanted to scare him away from my little sister. That little...” A lot of the stuff he yelled is stuff a person really shouldn’t say in public.”

I frantically looked around for my friends. I found them wrapped in blankets by an ambulance.

I ran up to them and cried, “Oh, my God. What happened? Candy, Josh, are you going to be okay?”

Josh looked a little confused at first then when he looked in my direction he said, “I couldn’t let him hurt Candy. Ow. I shouldn’t smile or laugh, or move my face or hand. Ow.”

Candy wrapped her arms around Josh. And in doing so lost her grip on her blanket and exposed the fact that all she had on under it was her birthday suit. She let go once he winced.

“He was so brave. At first ... Why did you try to cover Keith’s eyes?” She asked. And I pointed to her body. She looked down froze long enough I was starting to worry. Then she eventually recovered herself, “Oops, this is embarrassing. As I was saying Josh was caught off guard and Bug started beating on him. Josh was down and when Bug only had time to slapped me a couple of times then Josh pulled a George McFly and punched Bug right in the face. They fought for a while then the police came. We think Josh broke his right hand.”

“Your right hand? But that’s your dominant hand. Can I see it?” I asked. I’m no doctor but with how his hand looked I would say it was broken. “Way to go Josh. You’re totally a hero.”

“He’s my hero,” Candy said affectionately. Then in a mock jealous voice, she said, “You can’t have him. Not even if you promise to share your man with me.”

Did she just glance at Keith? Does she know?

“You have a man?” Keith asked.

“Yep. He is the most amazing guy I’ve ever met.” I added, “Sorry Keith, you’re maybe a close third. Maybe fifth.”

“Okay, I’ve only been your guardian for how long now? Should I be offended or honored that I might be the third of fifth most amazing guy you’ve ever met?” Keith did a good job of acting offended.

“You two shouldn’t get into something that could cause a scene in public. Not when you live together,” Josh said.

Candy’s face went from all smiles and blushing to scared, “Oh no, my parents are home.” She ran inside and soon came back out dressed in a simple and easy slip-on outfit and handed Josh his clothes. “I couldn’t find your underpants sorry.”

Two people walked up that looked way too young to be parents of someone in their Junior year of High School. The woman looked like she could have been a ballerina and the man, the man looked scary tough. The woman walked up to Candy and signed something with her hands. Candy just rolled her eyes.

When the man spoke I was surprised. He had a nice soothing voice, ‘Please don’t roll your eyes at your mother. You know she worries.”

Candy spoke and signed, “I know. I’m sorry but her question was just so ... sweet and embarrassing at the same time.”

Her mom signed something again. And Candy signed back.

Her dad, “I’m sorry honey. I didn’t know that Bug would be home to interrupt your study date with your boyfriend. I guess it might be too late to help him. I hate to say it, your mother and I failed him.”

Keith whispered in my ear, “I think we should leave them alone. This is a private family matter.”

As we were walking to our car we heard Candy yell out in excitement.

“I wonder what that was about. I guess I could ask her in school. Unless she emails me or texts me. Let’s go home,” I said. I wondered why she looked scared when she saw her parents. That would be something I could ask her later.

On the car ride home, Keith asked me how my day at school was. I filled him in on what April had talked to me about when it comes to the fan film.

“Hmm. Sounds like something that would be perfect for you. I can’t wait to find out more. Like what kind of character you’ll play. Or what my role would be,” Keith replied to my story of the day.

“I don’t know about that. I said I’d want to do it in the heat of the moment. But I’ve never really had any acting experience. That much I can remember,” I said as I was starting to freak out about the idea of doing that film.

“I could help you with that. I did some acting in my day,” Keith said.

“What? You did? When? You’re not just saying that are you?” I asked.

How could I have forgotten something like that? I raced through all of my memories but I couldn’t remember him acting. I did remember him being interested in it but nothing else.

“I sure did. I can even show you a video of one of the plays I was in. But it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. It’s way too late to watch it now.,” he smirked at me.

“That’s it. You’re joking. Don’t take me wrong I think you would be a great actor. Anyone who’s such a great lover would have to be. God nothing I’m saying now is coming out of my mouth right,” I rambled on.

The next Monday at school Josh ran up to me and said, “Sign my cast?”

“Josh, how are you? I couldn’t reach you all weekend. I was worried about you man,” I said as I took the marker.

“Sorry I spent most of the weekend trying to convince my parents not to press charges against Butt, I mean Bug, and to not sue my girlfriend’s parents. And guess what. It worked,” Josh proudly stated.

“You are amazing Josh,” I said and kissed his cheek. I laughed when I saw his blushing face. I looked off into the distance and added, “Here comes another girl that thinks so.”

“Hands off my man,” Candy teasingly said. “Did you hear the rumor that Miss Simmons was here last week?”

“Seriously? Where in the school? And I missed it? Dang, it. I’d have loved to see her hot ... Uh ... conversations with the school staff. Yeah, those were always fun to watch,” Josh told us.

With hands-on her hips Candy sternly said, “You know that would have been more convincing if you weren’t making the hand gesture of cupping her breasts.” She laughed. “Seriously though, I wouldn’t recommend her being one of your free cheats.” She looked at me and explained, “Before this handsome devil and I started dating we both agreed that we could each have at least one person that we could have some form of a sexual relationship with. Just as long as I don’t impulsively get knocked up by the guy and he doesn’t do the same with the other woman. We’d need to talk it out first.”