I didn’t dare look up, and spent what felt like an eternity staring at her flip-flops as she walked toward Kay and I. Before I knew it, her pretty legs were inches in front of me. I looked up, my gaze rising from her jean shorts and shapely hips to her blue tank top to an annoyed-looking face crowned with strawberry-blonde hair. I felt an embarrassed grin crack my face as I slowly stood. Sue was intimidating even if I was six inches taller!

“My little brother, Jeffrey, here says he gave the quarter I gave him to play Pac-Man to your sister,” she said, her sapphire eyes making me feel like Superman was burning a hole in my head. “When I asked him why, he said it was because she told him he and her brother would be in-laws, so he’d better be nice to her.”

“And she called me a ‘meanie’!” injected Jeffrey, pointing a tiny accusatory finger at Kay, who hid behind me.

My cheeks burned and sweat beaded on my forehead.

Awkward silence.

“Is there something you need to tell me, Joey?” asked Sue.

I said the first thing that came to my mind: “Ever played Pac-Man?” I gestured at the machine next to us. “It’s a classic.” I felt like such an idiot for thinking a yellow, dot-eating hockey puck could save me.

“You’re avoiding the question,” said Sue.

“See that,” I said, pointing at the high score flashing on the screen. “That’s my score. It took me forever to pull that off.”

Sue snickered. “Now you’re lying. Those aren’t your initials.”

“Yes, they are!” I said, adding an uneasy smile.

“Unless you’re a pervert or the unluckiest kid in the world, I doubt your initials are ‘B-R-A.’”

“What?!” I looked at the screen. Those were the initials.

I slapped my forehead.

Sue shook her head. “I need to go.” She glanced down at her little brother. “Come on, Jeffrey.” She tugged on his hand, and they walked past us.

Holding my sister’s hand, I clenched my fist and pounded the Pac-Man machine. Somehow, the game started, and I stared at the dusty floor as the familiar Pac-Man music played, and I heard a few waka-wakas and then the sad sound of that yellow hockey puck popping like an electronic balloon.

Suddenly, I turned around and shouted, “Sue, wait!”

There she was with her hand on the door, ready to leave with her little brother.

Dragging my sister along, I rushed toward Sue. Finally, I stood there, and my words just spilled out like water over Niagara Falls:

“I’m sorry I’ve had a crush on you since freshman year but I could never tell you and I made the mistake of telling my baby sister who’s too smart for her age and she has this weird charm with boys which scares me because she hasn’t even reached puberty and she swindled your brother and sorry but I hope that doesn’t mean we can’t go out.”

For several long seconds, she stared at me. Finally, she blinked and said, “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

I was taken aback. “Is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?”

“It was a ‘yes,’ idiot!” she said, smacking me in the shoulder. It actually hurt.

“Well…maybe we could go swimming at the beach. Want to go see a blockbuster movie at the drive-in theatre? I think Seabiscuit vs. Secretariat is playing.”

“I still have to watch Jeffrey tonight. And what about your sister?”

“They…can come along.”

Sue smiled. “So is it a babysitting job or a double date?”

I was dumbfounded. “…both.”

My crush-suddenly-turned-girlfriend laughed.

I smiled as our eyes met and lingered.

“No fair!” interrupted Kay, ruining our moment. “Now I won’t ever get to ride the Wild Mouse!”

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