Divine by B.L. Teschner Page A

up, Tommy,”
Jonah chuckled as he bent over and picked the pen up from the ground,
throwing it back at his pestering friend with the fling of his arm.
    Without missing a beat,
Tommy stuck his hand up and caught it right before it hit him in his
face. “You'll never hit me,” he smirked.
    Jonah smiled and shook
his head in agreement. “Yeah I know, but I'm going to try for
the rest of my life.”
    “ Bring it on, my
friend,” he gleefully egged him on.
    Jonah laughed and
reached over to pat him on the back. “Alright Tommy, I've had
enough of your shenanigans for one day. We're gonna get going.”
    “ Okay, well, have
a nice time at the concert you two.”
    “ We will,”
we said in unison.
    I reached out and gave
his hand another shake. “It was nice meeting you, Tommy.”
    “ You too. See you
next week Jonah.”
    “ Okay. Have a
good weekend.”
    Jonah smiled at me and
nodded his head toward the exit, silently asking me if I was ready to
go. I nodded, returning the same expression, and walked with him back
to the office where Lou was.
    “ Alright Uncle
Lou, we’re outta here. Have a good weekend.”
    Lou looked up from his
auto magazine, his glasses low on his nose. “Okay kids, have
fun at the concert. Don't do anything I wouldn't do . . .” he
said, giving me a wink over the thin metal frames.
    “ I can't make any
promises,” I said with a chuckle as I followed Jonah outside.
    We stopped in our
tracks at the sight of the pouring rain. “Sorry I don't have
anything to hold over your head this time,” he said as we stood
underneath the short metal awning that hung above the door.
    I looked over at him
with a smile. “It's okay, I can handle a little rain. You
following me over to my house?”
    “ Yep.”
    “ Okay,” I
nodded. “See you over there.”
    We darted away from the
awning's shelter and hurried through the dropping water to our
vehicles. I pulled out my keys with haste and tried to unlock my
door, but they fell out of my hand and splashed into a puddle at my
feet. “Of course,” I huffed as I bent down and picked
them up, trying another attempt. My second try was successful and I
hopped onto the seat and immediately started the engine to blast the
heater.
    My cell phone chimed
with Jonah's ring tone and I took it out of the pocket of my
sweatshirt to answer. “Hello?” I giggled as I looked over
at him in his truck.
    “ That was
awesome. Only you would drop your keys in the middle of a downpour.”
    I couldn't help but
laugh. “Yeah, yeah. I had the feeling you were going to give me
a hard time about it . . .”
    His free hand raised up
in defense. “I'm not giving you a hard time; I'm just making
fun of you . . .”
    “ That's the same
thing!”
    “ No, it's not the same thing, I promise.”
    “ Oh yeah?”
I challenged him with a smile. “How so?”
    He sighed heavily into
the phone with a mild laugh. “Well, if I were giving you a hard
time I wouldn't be laughing right now. But, since I am laughing at you, and quite hysterically, I might add, I'm making fun
of you . . .”
    “ Okay, well, get
your laughs out while you can because I'll be waiting for you to do
something for me to laugh hysterically at.”
    “ Well,” he
smiled, “I'm sure I'll do something soon.”
    “ You always do.”
I shook my head with a grin and hung the phone up, ending our call.
He always knew how to make any negative thing that happened to me
seem better.
    Jonah followed closely
behind me as we drove down the crowded street toward my house. At one
point we stopped at a red light and his truck towered behind me, the
bass from his sound system booming so loud that it drowned out the
piddly music that was playing from my mom's factory speakers.
    When I pulled into my
driveway he parked behind me and walked over in the drizzle.
    “ Jeez, your bass
is super loud,” I noted as I opened my door. “It rattled
the whole car when you pulled up behind me.”
    “ Yeah, that's yet
another thing my mom gets