Senior Year Box Set

“Haven’t you ever been curious about what your boyfriend gets up to when you’re not around? My PIN is double oh eleven,” I shared.

I could see her mind working, but her curiosity won out. I hit pay dirt when I found her photo storage app. It had pictures of her and her friends from before she moved here. I realized that if we’d met in middle school, she would have been way out of my league. I found several pictures of a guy who looked older.

“Who’s this?” I asked.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she complained.

I showed her where I kept my photos online.

“That’s an ex who was in college,” she explained.

I could see how she’d go for him. But I couldn’t figure out why a good-looking college guy would date a high school girl.

“Why did he date you?” I asked.

If looks could kill … Then it struck me.

“You dirty girl,” I teased.

“You’re one to talk,” she said, showing me the picture of Adrienne and me naked.

We’d been on a photo shoot getting spray-tanned when one of the other models had snapped the picture. Adrienne thought I’d deleted it and would kill me if she found out I’d kept it. I was still a guy, and there was no way I would delete that picture. But I thought I’d hidden it better.

“How did you find that?”

“Please! When you stick something in a folder called ‘Secret Pics,’ you surely didn’t think that wasn’t the first folder I would open?”

She had a point when she said it out loud like that. I really was a ‘stupid boy.’

Tim came back and sat on the bench between us.

“What are you two doing?”

“Playing Game of Phones,” I answered.

“I’m sure I’m going to regret this, but what are you talking about?”

“We traded phones and are learning more about each other.”

“You must have deleted everything before you gave it to her,” Tim guessed.

Brook showed him the picture of Adrienne, and the poor boy looked like would have a stroke.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re letting her see what’s on your phone?”

I just shrugged.

“You mean you don’t trust Tami with what’s on your phone?” Brook asked and then went in for the kill.

“What are you hiding?”

Tim decided to go back to his seat.

“What do you think he wanted?” I asked.

Brook just smiled and resumed going through my life.

◊◊◊

We arrived home in time to go to Granny’s West for dinner. Dad and I met my mom, grandma, uncle, Caryn, and Megan. I was happy when they said they still had prime rib left over from last night’s special.

“How was your trip?” Uncle John asked.

“I think David might have figured out where he plans to play football,” Dad shared.

“Michigan,” I announced.

I had a little smile when Dad took over the conversation and told them about our trip to Michigan and Ohio State. He seemed to know more about what had gone on than I did.

Over leftover cheesecake, we got down to business. Mom commented that we should come for a family dinner each Sunday night if we could help eat all the leftovers from the weekend.

Caryn caught us up on the businesses. Kent had made offers to both Aubrey Dunham and Clare Thomas to join our management company. She then had other news to share.

“I talked to Saul yesterday. They’re going to send over the scripts for your J-drama. He suggested that you’ll need to hire someone to help you learn your lines.”

“I guess now is as good a time as any to talk about my time,” I said, and everyone turned to look at me. “Over the weekend, I’ve had some time to contemplate what’s going on in my life. To get to the point, I’ve decided to focus on me and try to be a more normal high school kid.”

“Not that I don’t agree, but what exactly do you mean?” Uncle John asked.

“I want to focus on four things: football, keeping my grades up, recruiting, and Brook.”

“What do you plan to do with your other responsibilities?” Caryn asked.

“That is where you all come in. I need your help. The business responsibilities are starting to overwhelm me. I suspect it’s also a burden for you to always make sure I’m in the loop about everything. Our last meeting was a good example. I don’t really need to know that Kent wanted to hire more people. I trust that you and my dad can decide whether it makes sense or not and move forward on something like that,” I said to Caryn.

“What do you want to be involved in?” Caryn asked.

“I’ll let you decide. The only ground rule I will have is I don’t want to spend more than a couple of hours a week on business-related matters. If that’s taken up with our weekly meeting, then that means I’m not available to go shoot videos for real estate. Megan keeps my calendar. If you need me for something, go through her to set it up,” I explained.

“What about your Japanese lessons and learning the scripts?” Caryn asked.

“Call Hana Yamamura and find out if she’s available for one night a week for two hours. I would prefer it if she came to our house, and tell her we’ll feed her. I’m sure a college student would appreciate a home-cooked meal. Plus, I owe her for feeding me when she tutored me last time.”

“Do you have a preference on what evening?” Megan asked.