It's a Love Thing Read Free

“Fine, after the dishes are washed and put away,
which is your job tonight, I want you in the shower, and you will
put clean clothes on, including underwear. Do you
understand?”
    I nodded at her way too judgmental
statement as she left. “Clean clothes. You’d think I wore the same
thing day after day.” I scratched at the dried ketchup on my Anime
shirt.
    After dinner, dad cleaned the kitchen
for me so I could make some headway into my cricket book, much to
my mother’s dismay.
    “ Sweetie, the boy needs to
concentrate on his studies if he is going to succeed in life.” Mom
shook her head at my father's complacency and went downstairs to do
laundry. Dad was so easy to manipulate. I smiled and dropped onto
the sofa in front of the dormant fireplace, tossing my legs up over
the top.
    "Pete, I do wish you'd learn to sit
like a gentleman. Dropping like that is hard on
furniture."
    "'K, dad." I read the next four pages
of the bug book, still wondering why anyone would consider having a
bug in their home as lucky. Sometime later I heard my parents head
to bed. Now on page twenty, I felt proud of my accomplishment. By
page twenty-two I was fast asleep.
    “ Ouch,” I mumbled at the
slight twinge in my side and rolled over onto my stomach. Something
thudded on the floor next to me. My half-asleep mind reminded me I
was reading a book. It must have fallen onto the floor. Oh well, it
was safe, it’s not like we had a dog.
    A few seconds later I felt it again.
“Ouch.” This time the pain was more intense, and it hit me square
in the back.
    I was having a heart attack! My mother
warned me this would happen if I didn’t start exercising and
cutting back on the junk food. I jumped to my feet and grabbed my
chest. I’m too young, this can’t be happening.
    “ Please, God, don’t let me
die. I promise I’ll never eat Spongy Crèmes again!” I bargained
with God, as I struggled to get air into my lungs. “Oh no, my lungs
are now collapsing!” Or maybe I was panicking.
    Then I heard it. A small
tinkling sound. A small tinkling laughter to be precise. I spun around
to find a six-inch girl—correction: a six-inch totally hot girl,
floating next to the fireplace.
    “ If I had a nickel for
every time I heard that promise, I could retire,” laughed the hot
little mirage. She was dressed in an iridescent green gown that hit
halfway down her calves. She had the tiniest little pink shoes on I
had ever seen, and her . . . wings were a golden translucent color.
They sparkled when the light caught them. She held a small stick in
her hand, and a tiny shimmer of light emanated from the
tip.
    Leave it to me to dream up
a six-inch babe. If I even tried to kiss her, I’d end up biting her
head off. Bummer. I lay back on the couch, kicking the stupid
cricket book out from under my foot. “No more bug books. I’ll read
the CliffsNotes tomorrow,” I promised myself. I turned back onto my
side and tried to imagine the six-inch girl as a five-foot -six-inch girl.
If I was going to dream of a hot girl, she might as well be a tall
hot girl.
    “ Whoa, pungent boy. You’re
not sleeping on the couch tonight. We have a lot of work to do
starting tomorrow and I need you to be fully rested. Sleeping on
this lumpy thing isn’t going to cut it.”
    “ Go away, bug girl,” I
muttered to my figment. “OUCH! Cut that out!” I complained, rubbing
my backside where another sharp jolt of something clearly stabbed
my butt cheek. I thought you didn’t feel pain in dreams. “This is
my dream, and I’ll decide where it is going to take place. And
there will be no more pain!”
    “ Get up and go to your room
or I will zap you again.” She was a bossy little figment, to say
the least.
    I sat up and stared hard at the
floating pygmy. “Listen, Tinker Bell, I’ll sleep where I want
to—Hey, don’t point that thing at me!” I demanded, climbing
backwards over the couch. Her wand was pointed directly at my
heart. My healthy heart, thank you