Free In My Shoes by Adrian Stephens

“What?”
    “Well, I hope she didn’t catch on to the fact
that I wasn’t at Mike’s house much last weekend.”
    “Oh, sorry. I thought that was a pretty safe
story. I thought you spent a lot of time at Mike’s on the
weekends.”
    “I do. I just didn’t last weekend.”
    “Well, she didn’t seem to notice. I’m sorry,
I was just trying not to be anti-social. That one just got away
from me a bit.”
    “That’s okay. Nobody’s perfect.” His tone
seemed a little more than forgiving.
    “That sounded leading. Did something happen
at my house?”
    “Well, your dad asked if I wanted to watch Twilight tonight for movie night. I might have mentioned
that Kristen Stewart is hot.”
    “You what?”
    “I know, I know! I’m sorry. I wasn’t
thinking. I think I played it off okay, though.”
    I turned in my seat to look at him. “What
could you possibly have said to play that off?”
    “Well, I realized what I said right away.
Your dad was kind of just looking at me. I told him that all of the
guys are sooo in love with her right now, and it drives me crazy.
Then I told him that I liked the guy, what’s his name?”
    “Robert Pattinson?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Did you say Robert Pattinson?”
    “No, I couldn’t remember his name.”
    “So after telling my dad that Kristen Stewart
is sooo hot, you told him that you really like what’s his
name?”
    My voice was getting louder, and I could tell
he was getting a little nervous. “Yeah, but it seemed to work for
him. He just said ‘okay’ and left.”
    “What else could he do after that? Jake,
you’ve got to be more careful than that. I don’t want my family and
friends getting funny ideas about me because you’re being a guy in
my body.”
    “I know, I’m sorry. It’s not like you were
perfect either. Look, we’ll get better at this.”
    I stopped and calmed down a bit. “I wish we
didn’t have to get better at this. I don’t understand why this is
happening.”
    “Do you think we are being punished?” he
asked.
    “I thought about it. For that to be true, I
think we would both have had to do something similarly wrong that
was deserving of this. I don’t know about you, but I know I haven’t
done anything so bad that I deserve this.”
    “Do you believe in God?” he asked.
    “I most definitely believe in God. Although,
I don’t remember reading about this in the Bible.”
    “Well, maybe God wants us to be
together.”
    I laughed. “Nice try. God doesn’t work like
that. He doesn’t just force people to be together. We all have free
will to make our own life decisions. If we didn’t, how could we be
judged on our choices?”
    “I guess you’re right. But then, what else is
there?”
    “I don’t know. I’m guessing that we will find
out when the time is right. In the meantime, we’ve got a lot of
work to do, so we don’t make any huge mistakes. Let’s start by
getting you a phone. Well, actually you have my phone. Let’s start
by getting me a phone. We can stop at Target.”
    “Okay,” Jake agreed. “I’m guessing Mike
didn’t bring my homework by this morning?”
    “No he didn’t.”
    “I figured. Mike doesn’t usually get out of
bed until eleven or so on Saturdays. After we get the phone, let’s
just go by his house and pick it up.”
    “Sure,” I said.
    Jake was driving, heading in the direction of
Target. “You know, it’s really weird being driven around in my own
car. You are the only person who has ever driven my car, other than
me.”
    Jake just smiled. My smile, but not quite the
same. I looked out the passenger side window. “You know, your mom
told me that I need to be careful with…well me. She thinks I’m
going to break your heart.”
    I turned to look at him, and he was blushing.
He gave a quick glance in my direction, and then looked back to the
road. “Well, are you?”
    “Only if you get the wrong idea,” I said.
“Jake, when this is all over, don’t go getting any ideas about us
being