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just how long I would be able to keep up the charade of pretending everything was ok.
    I knew that she had noticed me staring at her, and she always smiled when she caught me stealing a glance. If only she knew what I was looking at. I was no ace with women, so I didn’t exactly know how she was taking this newfound attention. Was that smile a polite, come on now, Jackson , or was it a how you doing kind of smile. I assumed she just wrote me off as your average seventeen-year-old male.
    Alby was thin, but still had some curves. She packed on more muscle than you would have thought possible for someone who didn’t look like a bodybuilder. Some of that had to do with her being athletically gifted, but most of it came from her being dedicated to the gym. She was captain of the school’s volleyball team. You could see her from a mile away, the bright blonde ponytail bouncing slightly as she walked. The top of that trademark ponytail added a few inches to her already impressive six-foot height. The good news for me was that I was almost one hundred percent certain that I had been placed firmly in the friend zone. That meant when I got caught staring, it was more of a laugh-and-forget-about-it kind of thing, and that was exactly what I needed right now.
    Senior year came and went without too much actually happening. I had continued to see things, but as they became a more consistent part of my life, they also became easier to ignore. Who cares if that guy’s teeth are a little too sharp, or if Alby’s ears are just a little too pointed? As long as I could sneak through the day without staring awkwardly at too many people, it was a win. Somehow, through all the craziness, I had managed to keep my grades up and, while I wouldn’t be headed to the University of Arizona right away, I would be able to knock out some credits at community college and then hopefully transfer in later.
    The best part of community college was I got to stay in our newly built house for at least one more year, and save some money for off-campus housing when I finally transferred to U of A. I wanted to make as much money over the summer as I could; that way, I would be able to focus on my studies during the semester. I had been looking for a job for about a month when I got a call from Alby.
    “Yo, fire-starter, what’s up?”
    “Damn it, you know I hate when you call me that, Alby. What if I started our calls by saying, ‘Yo, what up, Albalicious’?”
    She laughed into the phone. It was a sweet sound to hear. “Ok, ok, I’ll stick to something less dramatic. Anyway, my uncle just called me, and it turns out the guy who was going to work with me overnight at his copy shop just took another job. He doesn’t want me working there alone at night, so if you haven’t found anything yet, the job is yours.”
    I managed to complete a little fist bump in the air without dropping the phone. “Hell yeah. Thanks, Alby. That sounds awesome. He isn’t trying to pay us like four dollars an hour or anything, right?”
    She laughed again, music to my ears. “Since you asked, it pays nine seventy-five an hour, plus all the horrible coffee you can drink. Best news for us is he basically needs us there just to stock supplies. No real customers come in to make copies at 2 a.m. There is a sweet TV in the back, so we can have a few movie marathons every week.”
    “This job just sounds better and better. Light work, good pay, and more time with my best friend. Thanks for doing this, Alby.”
    I could almost hear her wink before saying, “No problem, fire-starter. See you Monday.”
    I couldn’t help but laugh. She just had that effect on me. Even though I hated when people called me that, coming from her it was almost a gift instead of an insult. Having a job locked in place freed up the rest of my weekend. I was looking forward to enjoying my last weekend of freedom before I became a working man.
    Recently, I had started my love affair with running. I wasn’t