Rich took a seat on the bench and rested a leg over the other. The rabbit looked up from the creek and stared at him. He recognized the look as the one animals sometimes had when they were scared. A blank, almost comical stare that was simply to tell if you were a predator or not. He had seen the exact look before many times, and now that he thought about it, the same look on a white rabbit like this one. The rabbit drooped its head but didn't drink from the water. He thought it was still trying to figure out what he was about. Rich let his head roll back and closed his eyes, recalling that day long ago when he had seen the white rabbit at the grocery store.
4
It was early in the morning on a weekend and his mom had just gotten ready to go out. She asked him if he wanted to go to the grocery store and he said no. When he thought about it, he remembered that Kelly Young just started working as a courtesy clerk. She was the prettiest girl he knew for real and just the other day she talked to him for the first time in almost two years. For a sophomore in high school, that was a damn long time, and he wasn't about to let that happen again. He heard his mom's car start up and he ran for the door.
He plucked at the handle a few times before she unlocked it. His mom had been smiling. "Change your mind, huh," she asked. There was laughter rising in her voice and he could hear it. He could feel his cheeks getting red, as if she knew why he
had changed his mind.
"Yep. Can I get anything?" he said. The laughter came out as she nodded her head and she started to pull out of the driveway, cocking her head back around the seat to look for traffic. He noticed the shirt she was wearing and recognized it as the one dad got for her last weekend. It was a small shirt, too tight on her in his opinion, but pretty damn cool. Plus dad got it for her for no reason and that was always pretty cool too. Adults were boring he thought, but when he saw things like that he thought maybe they were all right. Most of the time they were arguing or working and never making time for themselves or their friends. In a way, things like the shirt seemed to him they might still be alive sometimes.
At the store Rich split off to go straight for the Axe body spray. He had seen this really cool commercial about how when you wear it, all of the girls come running to you while you're in the shower. Silly really, but who knew, maybe it could help him catch Kelly's attention. He remembered on time when a girl complimented him on how he smelled so good when he wore his dad's cologne once. And after all, it couldn't hurt to smell nice.
There were many options and they were all different colors. Kilo smelled like an old man sweating and ass at the same time. Phoenix was too damn powerful to tell what the smell was supposed to be. Clix smelled a lot like the his dad's cologne and that meant it only one thing - he had a winner. He thought about waiting to buy it to use it, but he had already sprayed all of the others in the air to test them. He sprayed most of his chest, making sure to be pungent. After he was done the bottle seemed a little lighter than before and he grabbed a brand new can from the back of the shelf. Then he went searching for miss Kelly Young, possibly the love of his life at this point.
His mom was in the next isle and Rich almost bumped into her on his way out of the one with the Axe. As soon as he saw her, he took a few steps back. The last thing he wanted right now was his mom there when he was talking to Kelly, especially because his mom had the tendency to point out
every girl to him, be they cute or totally hideous, and tell him loudly enough for the girl to hear her. She just didn't understand how it worked! He was definitely sure that his grandparents weren't there when his dad made the moves on her, so why was she constantly around?!
On check stand 3, the one with more than five people in line, was Kelly Young, bagging for an elderly woman. This was his chance, he thought. His chance to talk to Kelly and seem cool, maybe tell her 'hey, we should sit together in English or Drama class sometime,' and have her comment on his great smell. And suddenly his heart did what it did best when he hated it the most; it beat like it was a construction worker's hammer trying to break through his chest. He tried to swallow his nerves and a big ball formed in his throat. He tried to rub it away but his hands were too sweaty and he didn't want to ruin his good smell. Now everything seemed to be shit and he started to consider going in the express lane, where only one person was in line.
You only live once, he thought, and trudged on toward the check stand that Kelly was bagging for. She was just finishing up the old woman's groceries when Kelly asked if she needed some help out. And as sure the sun was bright, Kelly Young assisted an old woman to her car. His chances were ruined. His hopes were crushed. His heart stopped completely.
The line went by fairly fast after Kelly was gone, a great different compared to before when everything seemed to happen in slow motion. He supposed it was probably because of his damn near nervous heart attack. When he got up to the register he put his Axe body spray on the moving belt.
"Richard, right?" a sweet voice asked. He turned and saw what he least expected. Kelly Young leaned over part of the check stand to get a better look at him, pushing her hands in her pockets and popping her butt out into the air. Her blond, medium length hair fell down just right so the sun could shine through and illuminate it like she was an angel.
"Yeah. How are you doing, Kelly," he said, and after a second thought he regretted that he didn't say something cool like 'yeah, you're Kelly right?' with a pause before her name. The checker interrupted and what happened next was possibly one of the most embarrassing moments in Richard White's life.
"Four nineteen," he said.
"Oh...." Rich mumbled. One thing about Rich's plan to get the girl that he overlooked was getting some money from his mom to pay for the body spray. When he really thought about it, he wasn't sure the body spray was good to show off to Kelly, especially when he was using it to impress her before he had even purchased it.
Just in the nick of time, Rich's mom came into the line and handed him a five dollar bill. He could barely reach to grab it, let alone think of an excuse for Kelly. The checker took it from him gladly and Kelly assumed a more normal stance as a courtesy clerk, ready to bag his item.
"I could have paid, but thanks mom," he said.
"That's your mom? I like her shirt," Kelly said.
"Yeah. Hey, so we should sit together sometime in Drama class or something," he said. It was more of a desperate attempt to mend the damage his mom had just done and he immediately regretted saying it. As he got his change Kelly made a really weirded out face and to him she looked pretty uncomfortable. Which meant no.
"Sure...." she said and grabbed the body spray. First she grinned, then she laughed in a way that made him feel stupid. "Enjoy your Axe."
'Enjoy your Axe.' Which he knew meant 'I don't think we'll be sitting together.' He grabbed his bag and started to walk out. As he was about to pass Kelly Young she caught him. "Did you put some on already?"
The gig is up, he thought, but still struggled to think of a line. "Yeah, I guess I just couldn't wait," he said, sounding more confident than he thought he would. She laughed, this time in a good way that was the same laugh he heard in class when she was with her friends.
"It does smell pretty good. See ya," she said. With that he started toward the door. He turned around and noticed his mom checking out of the stand next to him. She smiled and he knew what was going to happen next.
"She's a cutie!" she said. He thought it was definitely loud enough to reach Kelly but he still had hope.
"Mom..." he said and turned around. She looked at him with almost the same weird face, but with a small smile emerging. His cheeks flushed (he could feel it) and he put the rest of his mom's groceries in the cart. Before they started toward the car he said bye to Kelly again but she didn't hear him.
On the way to the car Rich gave his mom a dirty look. "What?" she asked.
"You kinda made me look like a 'tard," he said.
"Oh, I did not. So what did you get?" she said. Rich took out his Axe body spray and showed it to her. The face she made was both good and bad, both 'I understand why you did' and 'that's a waste of money.' While he loaded up the car, his mom said something about forgetting her customer card at the check stand and ran back inside the store. He closed the trunk and rounded the car.
What a bust, he thought. Kelly Young was right there and she even remembered his name. She even
talked to him first. And it all ended so horribly. He sat on the front bumper of the car and looked into where the trees started about six feet away from him. On the other side was the cemetery, a place that he hung out on weekends despite being creeped out by it. He started to daydream about Kelly and how the whole thing could have gone better.
A small movement in his peripheral vision snapped him back into reality. He didn't exactly see where it came from and he surveyed the bushes without much luck. He could see his mom coming out of the store while she tucked something into her purse. The bushes moved again and this time he saw where it was. He didn't approach it, but craned his neck and peered in. A white rabbit hopped out of the bush and froze on the asphalt with a blank stare. He jumped a little and crouched to see it eye to eye. The rabbit stared at him for some time and vice versa. A feeling rushed into him, some mixture of excitement and happiness that made everything that had just happened seem better. He smiled and started to rethink the whole ordeal with Kelly. She had talked to him, right? She knew his name. She said
sure to him sitting by her, which couldn't mean no exactly, and it's not like he was now obligated to do it. There was a great opening for a new conversation by itself. Things actually weren't that bad.
His mom came back and opened the door. The rabbit ran back to the bushes and beyond, away from the noise. Rich climbed in the car with a smile on his face.
Untold 
Linear Mode
