Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend by Lili Wilkinson

George.
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜What’s she like when you’re not having fun? When you’re sad?’
    I think about this. ‘She bought me a Snickers bar when I failed a Maths test last year,’ I say. ‘And when I had tonsillitis in Year 7 she came over each day after school and told me what I’d missed.’ I smile. She wrote me a letter in every class, and tied them with a pink ribbon for me to read the next day. ‘She’s a good friend,’ I say. ‘Or at least she was.’
    â€˜What was the fight about?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ I say. ‘She was really drunk, and she wanted to dance with Ben. She was all over him, and I got angry–’
    I stop because I honestly think I might cry or throw up.
    â€˜So she’s jealous,’ George says.
    â€˜But that’s not fair!’ I say, my voice going wobbly. ‘She has a new boyfriend every five minutes!’
    George smiles his serious smile. ‘Don’t you think that’s why she’s jealous?’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Why do you think she has a new boyfriend every five minutes?’ he asks.
    I shrug.
    â€˜Maybe,’ says George gently, ‘Maybe it’s because she hasn’t found the right one? And so she’s trying and trying to find one she has a connection with, and you stroll in and find the perfect boy on the first go.’
    I hadn’t thought about it that way. I frown at George. ‘Are you gay?’ I ask.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜It’s no big deal if you are,’ I say. ‘You just seem awfully perceptive for a boy.’
    He laughs. ‘I’m not gay.’
    I’m not sure I believe him.
    â€˜Can I ask you something?’ George says. ‘When Tahni was “all over” Ben – what did he do?’
    I think about Ben’s hands on Tahni’s waist.
    â€˜Did he blow her off?’ asks George.
    â€˜No-o,’ I say. ‘He didn’t want to hurt her feelings.’
    â€˜So he hurt yours instead.’
    â€˜It wasn’t like that,’ I say.
    â€˜But he danced with her.’
    â€˜Yes, but he didn’t want to.’
    George makes a skeptical face. ‘And he told you that.’
    I bite my lip.
    â€˜Sounds like a really nice guy, your Mister Perfect,’ says George.
    I think about Ben leaning towards the blonde girl with his special half-smile. I swallow.
    â€˜He is nice,’ I say. ‘He is perfect. You don’t understand.’
    â€˜Understand what?’ George says. ‘That he’s a player?’
    â€˜You don’t know what he’s done for me,’ I say. I think about what would have happened if Ben hadn’t kept my secret. Who cares if he was talking to some girl? He’s allowed to talk to other girls. I talk to other boys. There’s a boy in my freaking bedroom! Doesn’t mean I want to pash him (shudder). I’m turning into one of those creepy overprotective girlfriends who deletes girls’ phone numbers from their boyfriends’ mobile. I need to chill. Ben wouldn’t have kept my secret if he didn’t like me. He wouldn’t have spent almost all of the party kissing me on the couch. He wouldn’t look at me the way he does if he didn’t feel the same way I do.
    â€˜I don’t expect you to understand,’ I say to George. ‘Relationships are complicated.’
    â€˜Why wouldn’t I understand?’
    I don’t want to say this, but I do anyway. ‘It’s obvious you’ve never had a girlfriend,’ I say. ‘You’re too much of a weirdo.’
    George’s lips go very thin. ‘Of course it is,’ he says. ‘Obvious.’
    He reaches over and takes his folder. ‘I should go,’ he says.
    â€˜George,’ I say. ‘Wait. I’m sorry. That came out the wrong way.’
    â€˜No it didn’t,’ he says, smiling a self-deprecating smile.