Free Just Friends by Dyan Sheldon

child – privacy, no one with whom you have to share everything, no one who borrows your things all the time or bosses you around, no rivalry for affection – but there are times when Josh wouldn’t mind having a few siblings to distract his mother’s attention from him. And this, of course, is one of those times. If he had nine brothers and sisters the President really could call him and she wouldn’t notice.
    He turns around. She’s smiling as though she asked an innocent question, but the screwdriver’s pointing at him like a finger.
    “Nobody. Just a girl. From school.”
    “And does this girl have a name?”
    No.
    “Yeah, sure she does. It’s Jena.”
    “Jena Capistrano?” How does she know that? How can she know that? Josh stares at his mother as if she has just revealed herself as the ancient goddess Isis. Disguised as a mild-mannered school librarian… “The girl who just moved into the Featherlanes’ old house? Across from the Minamotos?”
    He could have saved a lot of time by asking his mother to introduce him to Jena.
    “Yeah. That’s her.”
    “She’s cute.” Hannah smiles as if she’s trying not to laugh out loud. Smirking. That’s what she’s doing; his mother’s smirking at him.
    “It’s nothing like that,” says Josh. “We’re just friends.”
    “Jade says the father seems a little rigid and authoritarian.”
    “He was in the army.”
    “And the army’s still in him, according to Jade.” She puts down the screwdriver, ready to chat. “So what’s the daughter like? It can’t be easy for her, losing her mother like that. And I bet he’s not easy either – or used to being the go-to parent.” Is there anything this woman doesn’t know?
    This time it’s his phone that rings. Thank God. He grabs it from the counter as if he’s snatching it from the path of an oncoming train, and turns his back on his mother again.
    “So what’s with you and bird girl?” Ramona, of course, would know all about the swallows returning to Capistrano – her musical knowledge is also eclectic. Nor is she a girl to chase you around the bush if she can simply trample the bush into the ground and confront you directly. “You know she came over and asked me for your number.”
    “Yeah, she said.” Of the scores of things it never occurs to Josh to wonder about right now is why Ramona gave Jena the number for the landline and not the one for his cell. “Nothing’s with us. We’re just friends. She’s in Burleigh’s class with me. She wanted to know something about the homework.”
    “Really?” He has the feeling Ramona may be smirking, too. “I saw you guys in HJ yesterday.”
    Of course she did. This is what he means about life being ironic. It just never lets up.
    “Did you?”
    “Uh-huh. You were right in the window. Like you were dummies advertising back-to-school clothes. Well, not you. But she could’ve been.”
    One of the problems with living in a small town is, of course, that it’s small. And, in this case, laid out in such a way that anyone looking out the window of the Moon and Sixpence would have a good view of anyone sitting in the window of the coffee bar across the street.
    “Were we robbing the place or were we just drinking coffee?” asks Josh.
    “I don’t know about her,” says Ramona, “but you don’t drink coffee. So probably you were having tea. But I guess you were too busy talking for her to ask you about the homework then.” Definitely. Mo is definitely smirking. “Or your phone number.”
    “Yeah,” says Josh. “I guess we were.”
    Ramona sits at the counter of the Moon and Sixpence, working on a display of macramé jewellery. Her mother has gone to choose some handmade wooden bowls and the sales assistant called in sick, so Ramona has been left in charge. It’s a quiet afternoon, which suits Ramona’s mood. Museful. She can’t stop thinking about Jenevieve Capistrano and Josh. Ramona is used to thinking about Josh, but until yesterday the