Divine by B.L. Teschner

gray walls and were
bordered with posters of classic cars. There were three car lifts
along the length of the room, each one hoisted high in the air with a
vehicle positioned on top.
    Jonah pointed toward
the other end of the narrow building. I could see the back of a man
with short brown curly hair standing at the last car lift, working
next to a red Suburban. He seemed to be jotting notes down on a
clipboard.
    “ There he is,”
Jonah whispered. “What do you want to throw at him?”
    I had thought long and
hard about that question. First of all, I didn't know Tommy, so I
didn't want to throw anything at him that would seem like I was being
mean. The best thing I could come up with was flinging a hair tie at
him.
    I nodded to Jonah and
stuck my hand in my sweatshirt pocket, pulling out a black scrunchie.
    Jonah laughed through
his nose. “Are you serious?” he whispered.
    “ Yeah, I don't
want to hurt him.”
    “ Don't worry, you
could throw a chainsaw at him and it wouldn't hurt him.”
    “ I'll stick with
the hair tie.”
    He nodded at my choice
and began walking slowly toward Tommy. I followed his lead and walked
along with him, stopping when we made it up to the second lift. With
a nod of his head, he put his finger in front of his lips and made a
shushing gesture, giving me the okay to throw my item.
    I put my pointer finger
through the scrunchie and pulled it back with my other hand, aiming
it at Tommy like a sling shot. Shooting Jonah a sideways glance to
get a second okay, he nodded once, giving me the go ahead to proceed.
I released my black hair tie into the air but I had aimed too high;
it soared above Tommy's head. To my amazement his hand flew above him
and he stuck his finger through the center of my scrunchie, catching
it and leaving it spinning like a ring in a ring toss game.
    “ Nice try,”
he said lazily as he turned to face us, still holding it in the air
with his finger through it.
    Jonah and I broke out
in laughter. “See, I told you,” Jonah reminded me. “He
can catch anything.”
    “ You were right.
Hi, I'm Summer,” I introduced myself.
    He handed me back my
hair tie and then extended his hand for a shake. “Nice to meet
you. I'm Tommy, as you well know.” He smiled at me with
friendliness, not at all irritated by my throwing attempt.
    “ Yeah. Sorry I
flung that at you. Jonah's been talking about you a lot and I just
had to try my luck at throwing something.”
    He let out a quiet
chuckle. “Don't worry about it. You should see the stuff that
the guys in here throw at me.” He pulled a pen out from his
shirt pocket and chucked it teasingly at Jonah.
    “ Hey, stop that,”
Jonah laughed as it hit his shoulder and fell to the concrete floor.
“I can't catch like you.”
    “ Yeah, we've
already established that that's not your area of expertise.”
    Jonah shook his head
with a sarcastic huff of a laugh. “Yeah, I guess so.”
    “ So what are you
guys going to do this weekend?” Tommy asked, quickly changing
the subject.
    Jonah crossed his arms
and shifted his weight fluidly from leg to leg. “We're going to
see that Divine Intervention concert I was telling you about.”
    Tommy shook his head.
“Oh yeah, that's right; I forgot. You ever see them before?”
he asked me.
    “ No, but I heard
that they're really good.”
    “ Yeah they can
get pretty wild. It's a good thing you've got Strong Jonah here to
protect you.”
    I gave Jonah a curious
look. “Strong Jonah, huh?”
    He
looked down at the protruding muscles of his crossed arms and laughed
shyly. “I'm not that strong,
Tommy,” he retorted back to him with a twinge of irritation in
his voice. “But,” he continued, looking up at me, “I'll
make sure that nothing happens to you.”
    His eyes connected with
mine in a moment of tenderness. I held his stare and smiled softly
back at him, aching with the desire to see how strong his body really
was.
    “ Awe, how sweet,”
Tommy teased in a high-pitched voice.
    “ Shut