Who is my boyfriend? Ha. Good question.
Truth is, I’ve sort of been torn between these two guys: Jake, my long-time boyfriend—a great guy, a nice guy, the right guy (according to all my friends)—and Lucas.
Lucas (according to all my friends) is the wrong guy. Very wrong.
See, a couple years ago, Jake’s brother, Wade, was killed in this car crash, and Lucas was driving the car. Lucas spent two years in jail for it. Then he got out, moved back here to Chatham Island, and, well, to make a long story short, I fell for him big time. Not that big time, just, you know, kisses that stopped the moon in the sky and made my knees rattle.
I haven’t told Jake yet. Maybe he won’t care.
No, that’s stupid. Of course he’ll care. He loves me, he hates Lucas. The thought of me with Lucas will . . . I guess I don’t know what it will do, except that it’s bound to start trouble in our group. Living on a small island like this, it’s very difficult to ignore how other people feel. And to show you just how popular Lucas Cabral is around here, his own father is planning to send him away. Mr. Cabral’s very old-fashioned. He says Lucas brings shame on his family.
My friend Aisha thinks I’m being an idiot and that bad things will come from my being with Lucas. But I can’t really believe that my loving Lucas could ever result in anything bad. I mean, it’s love, right? And love conquers all. At least, I think it’s love. Does probable love conquer all?
Probably.
Boyfriend? Don’t start with me on the subject of boyfriends. There’s this guy named Christopher who thinks he’s my boyfriend. He thinks we’re destined to become boyfriend and girlfriend because we’re like the only two black kids on Chatham Island, if you don’t count my little brother.
But I don’t go for destiny. I don’t go for fate. I am a rational person who is not going to be swayed just because some guy thinks he’s hot, and everyone else I know thinks he’s right for me. Zoey’s the romantic in our group, which is why her life is a mess. I don’t turn my life around just because some guy with a cute butt comes along.
Did I say that? What I meant was, I don’t turn my life around just because some guy with a big mouth comes along. That’s what I meant to say.
Anyway, if I wanted a boyfriend, there’s a whole big world of opportunity: black, white, brown, yellow, red. I’m open-minded. And I make my own decisions. I’m my own woman.
So the answer is no, I don’t have a boyfriend.
And if I did, it wouldn’t be Christopher.
Don’t have a boyfriend, never really wanted one. To me a guy is about as necessary as a training bra is to a python; as necessary as an inflamed appendix; as necessary as an electric blanket in hell.
See, that’s my three-part comic tautology rule: If you’re doing funny examples, do them in threes. Yes, tautology. Look it up. Use it in your next English class and watch you teacher fall over in a dead faint.
Of course, there is this one guy—Zoey’s brother, Benjamin.
Yes, he is my sister Claire’s boyfriend, but that’s a mere technicality. He doesn’t really love her. I mean, how could he? We’re talking Claire, whose soul is an automatic icemaker. I’m sure that if Benjamin ever thought about it and realized how much I like him, he’d immediately see that we’re right for each other.
If he ever even noticed that I’m alive. If he ever bothered for one second to realize that I am not just his buddy, that I am a young woman, and, by the way, not a complete gorgon or anything. If he ever MANAGED to pay the SLIGHTEST bit of attention to the fact that he’s the ONLY guy I’ve ever been interested in in my LIFE, the arrogant, self-centered TOAD . . .
Well, then I think we’d be just right for each other.
I suppose Benjamin is my boyfriend. Either that or he hates me, I’m not sure. And I’m not sure how I feel about him anymore, either. A lot of things are up in the air since I remembered.
See, I honestly didn’t remember; that is the truth. You have to understand that. For the longest time I tried to remember; at least I believe I tried. I would never have let Lucas go to jail for me. I would never have kept silent for those two years if I’d remembered.
But now I do remember. I was driving the car when Jake’s brother, Wade, was killed. Me, not Lucas.
Benjamin suspects the truth. No one knows for sure except me and Lucas and, unfortunately, my father. But Benjamin suspects.
My dad was just trying to protect me. He guessed the truth right from the start, but he made a deal with Lucas and Lucas stuck to it. Why? I don’t know. Lucas used to be in love with me, that’s one reason. Plus my dad said he’d help Lucas’s father out with his business.
And now, if I tell the truth, I don’t know what would happen to my father. And if I tell the truth, Jake is sure to turn against me, and I was just starting to realize how much I like him.
But if I don’t tell the truth . . . then what kind of person am I?
Who’s my boyfriend? Who’s the guy I love? Benjamin? Jake? Is there even some lingering feeling between me and Lucas? Like I said, I don’t know anymore.