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father, his whereabouts, if we’ve talked, or anything pertaining to him. All it’s doing is aggravating me, and I don’t feel as though that’s healthy for me. I know this seems rather blunt, and I truly mean no disrespect to you, but I can’t deal with this talk any longer,” I said. I was winded after all that and couldn’t speak any more.
    “Thank you for your honesty, Theodore. I’m sorry if I have stressed you out with the subject matter. If you’d like, we can continue talking about other subjects, and maybe in the future explore your relationship with your father again,” she said.
    “Thank you,” I replied, as a weight was lifted off my chest.
    We didn’t talk about much else during the session, as I’d exploded at her with only ten minutes left, but I felt relieved and confident—especially since she took it so well. I knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, and I hoped my mother wouldn’t hear about it, but sometimes other people’s feelings don’t matter when yours are on the line.
    After the session, my mom dropped me off at Martin’s to study for a history test we had coming up. Suffice it to say we didn’t do much in terms of studying, instead playing Call of Duty and getting our butts handed to us by a ten-year-old in the Netherlands who called us swear words that I knew to never repeat.
    As we played, my phone buzzed beside me and I looked down quickly to see it was Belle.
    “Hang on a minute,” I said as I set my controller down.
    “Dude! You can’t leave me hanging!” Martin exclaimed in panic.
    I’m going to be home in forty minutes. Are you there? Swing set? she asked.
    I’ll be there, I replied.
    “So I’m going to have to get going in about twenty,” I told Martin, fearing his reaction.
    “Boy, that girl has you wrapped around her finger,” he said.
    “No, she doesn’t,” I said.
    “I’m kidding, relax. You and I took an oath in the seventh grade to always support each other if we found a girl. Now all that’s left is for you to hook me up with one of her friends. I wouldn’t mind Jillian. Her hair smells like roses,” he said.
    “You’ve been sniffing her hair?” I asked.
    “Well, no, but she flipped it my way and I couldn’t help but smell. This is all I’ve got going for me,” he said, laughing.
    “I’ll see what I can do on the friend front. It might help your cause if you’ve known one of them since childhood, though,” I said.
    “Well, there’s Tricia, but she never shared back in the first grade,” he said.
    “What does that matter today?” I asked.
    “Hey! It matters a lot! People like that never change, and I need some give and take in a relationship,” he said.
    “You should just be happy to get a relationship,” I said.
    “True, but you still have to have standards,” he replied.
    We played a little more, finally getting a kill on someone, then I packed up and he dropped me off at home. I set my things inside, crunching on a few mints, and walked out back. She was there, sitting on the swing, her phone screen lighting up her face. She noticed me coming and put it away as passing fireflies softly lit up her face and guided the way.
    “What’s up?” she asked.
    “Just got home from Martin’s. Did something happen?” I asked.
    “No, why?” she asked.
    “You asked me to meet you out here. Didn’t know if you needed something,” I said, sitting down.
    “Nope, just wanted to see you,” she replied.
    “Oh, cool,” I said, as my hands began to get clammy.
    “So, I was thinking about that dinner invitation you gave me the other day,” she said.
    “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. If you changed your mind or something,” I said, automatically thinking the worst.
    “Theo, calm down. I’m not canceling anything. I want to do it. I was going to suggest that I make you something. Maybe at my house this weekend?” she asked.
    “You don’t have to go through all that trouble for me. I feel bad,” I