As y’all may have heard me say earlier, things have been going good for me a lot these days. I have been getting straight A’s in my subjects. Jewel Wellington is my girlfriend, and that has done amazing stuff to my jr high school social status. Mamaw says I am acting better, and even Shady is being more fun to be around it seems like.

I guess with every good thing comes a bad thing, and my bad thing happens to be with Stinky, and Tank. Now Jasper is so thrilled I have a girlfriend, he has one too. He met her right about the time Jewel waylaid me in front of Mullard Muldoon in the hall. So he is pretty much ok with it. But, the other day Stinky, Tank AND Jasper all rode their bikes to my house. They only live a mile or so up the road pretty close to each other, but I was wondering, what would make my three best friends come over after school all this way on their bikes?

It was Friday evening when they rode up, and I was out feeding the critters, and doing all my after-school chores. Mamaw was doing her laundry, and hanging it out on the clothesline, even though she has a brand new dryer. She says that it makes the clothes fresher, and I tend to agree. Anyway, my three best buds walk up and I could tell something was up. I didn’t even know they were coming over, and I went to talk to Mamaw, who of course somehow knew that they were.

Mamaw told me that Jasper’s mama had told her in town, that my friends were coming over and would it be ok? Of course Mamaw said yes, but she would NOT tell me why. They had some things they wanted to discuss with me and that is all she said. Oh boy I was thinking, what have I done now that even Mamaw knows about my friends coming here before I do.

We all said howdy and walked into the house, and Mamaw had already set four places at the table, with a cake, some rice krispy candy on a tray, and a big jug of sweet tea with ice already in our glasses. It wasn’t suppertime yet, which made me wonder, so finally we all sat down. It felt like a professional meeting or something, rather than a shadowy get-together of friends I didn’t even have any idea about? I started to get that sick feeling in my gut like something ain’t adding up here.

“Say fellers, what is all this about? I didn’t even know y’all was coming over?” I asked politely because Mamaw was still setting stuff on the table. Just then, Mamaw called Shady and Uncle Muddy and said, “Y’all two come outside on the back porch with Mamaw, Pete is having a meetup with his school buds and they probably want a little privacy.”

And with that, Mamaw, Shady and Uncle Muddy left through the back door to the other side of the house, just like that and sat out on the porch. Now I was really confused! “What is this with Mamaw knowing y’all coming over, and I didn’t even know?” I was a little angry that I was left out of my own household happenings, with my own family for my own meeting I didn’t even know about.

Jasper spoke first, “Pete, you know that we both have girlfriends, right?” That’s Jasper, always to the point. I replied, “Yep, and I am happy for both of us.” Jasper shook his head and said “Yes, that is happy for me and you, but our other two friends don’t see it quite the same way.” Jasper nodded his head at the other two, “C’mon boys, Stinky, Tank you fellows tell Pete what y’all told me.”

Stinky spoke first, and immediately Tank started crying. Stinky said, “Pete, we don’t mean to be a bother, and you know all of us here loves you to death, but I think you forgot about me and Tank, with that new pretty girl you are going with. Jasper still talks a lot to us, but its like you may as well be on the moon these days, and we don’t eat no lunch together no more. You spend every bit of recess, lunch and breaks with Jewel.”

Suddenly the light came on in my brain. My friends were feeling sat on! Dang! “Why God,” I thought, “why does it always have to be this way?” ” A feller gets something good, and suddenly everyone around him is upset, and boo hooing over it. “But no Pete, don’t get mad.” I thought, “just listen. Maybe we can get it all sorted right out.”

Tank didn’t even dive into the snacks, he just started talking through sobs, “Pete, you my bestest buddy ever in the whole wide world, and my only buddy other than Stinky and Jasper.” Tank continued, halting between sobs, “But I miss you bad and its only been a few weeks, but its like you left me and Stinky and Jasper all alone with nobody. Jasper won’t say nothin’, but I know he misses you too. He has a girlfriend and he has time for us. Why don’t you? You ain’t the same to us anymore, and we are sad over it. And we don’t know what to do, or say.” Tank grabbed a snack and started munching, so that made me sort of feel better, but not by much.

When I heard what Tank said my heart sank right out of my chest, and slid right down to the floor. Blap! There it went, on the floor. I spoke as softly as I could manage, aching like that for my friends, “Y’all, I still love y’all, you all know that. But this all happened so quick, and I ain’t quite sure how to run all of this around, and put it up in the right places in my mind just yet.”

I told them, “Its kind of confusing; on one hand I got this beautiful girl I have loved forever suddenly talking to me, and that dude Mullard who y’all know I can’t stand, hating me because of it. And all of these other people at school are now treating me like I am the best thing since sliced bread, and I don’t know half of their names. And now y’all are hurt because I spend too much time around her, and I really don’t know how to sort it all out.”

I went on further, “Y’all obviously care about me, or y’all wouldn’t be here, and while I am glad y’all boys come over on your bikes, I can’t help but wonder why y’all didn’t just ask me at school?” Tank piped up, not crying anymore and half-chewing, “Because we can’t get to you, you always surrounded by people! And I don’t think them people are like us, they probably will not never like me and Stinky neither!” Tank was almost yelling; I had never heard Tank raise his voice in my life.

I replied, “Boys we just gonna have to figure this thing out, like we always do. I didn’t have any single clue that I was disrespecting y’all, and I tell you now with all my heart I am sorry. I never meant no hurt, no disrespect or anything. I just wanted, and still want to be with Jewel. But I ain’t hurting y’all while I do it, so we gotta come to an agreement.”

They all agreed when Tank said, “You the one always figgering out the stuff for us Pete. You gotta do it somehow this time too.” I gave them my solemn promise that I would do whatever I had to to get this mess sorted, and make my friends feel better, “so help me or a cat ain’t got a climbing gear.”

All the boys nodded, and had a good time finishing off the snacks, Tank ate almost ALL of the rice krispy snacks, and drank half the tea. By the time it was about to get dark, they all went on the porch and said goodbye to Mamaw and the family. Then they rode off. They seemed happy enough, but now I had to figure out how to fix this mess. This mess I didn’t even know I was making. Like I said, y’all pray for me.