Read Online Just Friends by Dyan Sheldon - Free Book Online Page A

into his head: “If My Friends Could See Me Now”. Though not Carver; Carver would be in the kitchen, checking out the eggs.
    Jena does most of the talking.
    Josh is used to talking to the guys. Movies. Games. School. Funny stories. Music. TV shows. Bulletins on hunger. Families and extraterrestrials. How many species go extinct every day, how much plastic is in the oceans and the ethics of artificial intelligence (Carver); the difficulties of intergalactic colonization, conspiracy theories, arthouse vs Hollywood movies and whether or not Martin Scorsese is past it (Sal). None of them are really into cars or motorcycles, but they make up for that with conversations on bicycle maintenance and space travel. Indeed, if you don’t count Josh’s mother, Ramona is the only other female he’s ever conversed with regularly and at length – and Jena, of course, is nothing like Ramona. Ramona’s interests are eclectic, to say the least – ranging from the history of clothes and the development of music to
barro negro
pottery and
The Simpsons
. When they were up at the Minamotos’ cabin last summer, he and Ramona had a two-hour discussion one evening about anchorites. It was interesting at the time – she knew a lot more about them than he would have thought – but it wasn’t what most people would expect from a teenage girl. Jena, however, talks about regular, everyday things – movies and TV shows he’s never watched, bands and singers he’s never heard of, books he’ll never read – never once mentioning an obscure composer or the Coen brothers or the latest scientific report on the effects of habitat destruction. She does, like Ramona, mention the school play – but, unlike Ramona, she loves
Bye Bye Birdie
. Jena has to be the most normal person he knows. Which is something else he likes about her. Normal people don’t usually gravitate towards him. He doesn’t wonder why she does.
    “You know, I’m really glad you climbed our tree,” says Jena over their second drink. “Or we might never have become friends.”
    Friends. They’ve become friends. It wasn’t so hard after all.
    “Me, too.” He’ll never say another bad thing about the Minamotos or their dog – not even if Georgia O’Keeffe bites him again.
    “You’re easy to talk to. You know, for a boy.”
    Josh laughs. “Right.” Like Jenevieve Capistrano has had no practice talking to boys. “Is that because I look more like an owl?”
    “No, you idiot.” She flicks a brownie crumb at him. “It’s just – I don’t know, boys…” She shrugs. “It’s nice to just be friends with a guy, without wondering what his motives are. ’Cause there’s always something. You think you’re just watching a movie together and the next thing he’s sticking his tongue in your mouth.” From her expression you’d think her coffee was sour. “Or you send them a picture or tell them a secret and the next thing you know it’s all over the Internet. I mean, that never happened to me, but it’s happened to girls I know. It can be really creepy and gross. So it makes you cautious, you know? Only, I can tell you’re not like that.”
    He couldn’t be, not even if he was really as devious as the Snake in the Garden. He doesn’t do social media.
    “Not at all? Are you serious?”
    “Absolutely.” And he paraphrases Emily Dickinson’s poem about not wanting to be public like a frog and admired by the bog. “Rititnitit.”
    Her smile feels as if she’s squeezed his hand. “Wow. You are really different. Maybe that’s why talking to you is like talking to a girlfriend.”
    Is that a compliment? It has to be a compliment. Maybe. He thinks of the popular boys at school, but can’t imagine anyone telling any of them that talking to him is like talking to a girl. Not without getting hit.
    “You do know I’m not a cross-dresser, right?” Leaning forward with a mock-serious face. “There’ll be no borrowing my clothes or anything like that.”
    Jena