I turned back around, partially in shock, partially in frustration and maybe just a smidgin of astonishment. It was one of those times where you hoped a charter bus full of seasoned adults would pull-up so you wouldn’t have to make strange small talk.
“Umm, what kind of cheese?”
I turned back to answer and looked at his face. Maybe looking was the wrong way, I was fairly sure I had stared to try to get a reading from him as he looked at me.
Well, maybe he was just waiting for my response.
“Provolone,” I replied as I looked away quickly as that moment, I felt like dropping to the floor in utter embarrassment on how I felt inside. I mean, I was on the squad to be closer to Melissa. I chose to be on it to see the girls.
Yes…yes, I did it to talk about it later, perhaps in group therapy or at a bar, but…the more I thought of it the more I was kind of put off at myself. It was a Hell of a time to have a crisis of the mind as I couldn’t understand why I was feeling that way at all. Maybe if I tried to do a low, manly-sounding growl I could assert dominance over the situation.
“Do you go to Wyatt?”
Wyatt was a special arts school a few miles away, but they had a rather good football team for an arts school.
“No, I’m from Roosevelt.”
“A Ranger huh?”
“Yeah. I’m one of the cheerleaders.”
The record scratched very loud in my head as he continued to lay multiple slices of cheese. The meat also appeared to be more than what was normally placed on a sandwich.

“I thought you were.”
“Really?”
“You got the build.”
I only nodded at that as I had to wonder what he would have said if he did not think it would annoy me.
“My name’s Tony.”
“Lin”
“Short for Linda?”
“No, just Lin,”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m okay,” I replied with a slight smile and a wave of my hand.
There was a short delay as he continued to pile on vegetables and oils, so much that I was convinced the sandwich would break apart if he tried to close it.
“Well, would you mind if I asked you something?”
“Go ahead.” I’m thinking, ‘this night’s been kind of funny already, so, what the hell…ask away’
“Can I have your number?”
I’m sure I had a dumbstruck look on my face.

My face.

A part of me was glad at times that I didn’t have to shave as much as anyone else had to. Melissa and mom would sometimes comment on “Mr. Babyface”. I tried to grow a goatee, but it was nigh invisible and itched like mad, so I shaved it off and cut myself in a few places.
My face and my hair, now behind my face, MIGHT have made me look a bit feminine. I had to wonder if hanging around the other girls of the squad…OTHER girls?
No, I was one of the two guys brought on, but I wasn’t like Mike. Nope, wasn’t like him at all.
“I’m. I’m a guy.”
“And?”
I admit, I didn’t have a response to that.

“I just mean, I like what I see and hear,” he said as he folded the sandwich over with a large knife, not breaking eye contact with me.
“Seriously?” I asked with eyes wide open.
The bread looked flawless. It was like ones on a commercial: ultimate perfection.
“Never had anyone tell you that before?”
“No, I can’t say I have.”
He wrapped the footlong in multiple sheets of folded paper. Grinder origami, I suppose as he spoke:
“Just never sure about how people feel. You run to embrace people you think have a connection and they don’t understand, or we think they won’t. I used to feel that way. But, one day, I decided to throw it all to the wind and go for my dreams.”
“Impressive,” I replied as he threw the hoagie into a bag in what looked like a bartender trick.
“No, you are impressive, Linda. Don’t forget your chips.”
“Lindell. My name is Lindell.”
I picked up a random bag of chips.
“Which do you prefer?”
“I go by Lin.”
“Go by however you want to, stupendous one.”
He handed me a pen and a ‘Subclub’ card.

I pondered for a second on whether or not to leave my number. I mean, I could clearly see I was being hit on and, to be honest, it was euphoric. I could never recall anyone flirting with me. I think I sorely misinterpret politeness as flirting. Melissa never flirted with me. She was a friend; she had always been just a friend. I could be Thomas J to Melissa’s Veda and be killed by bee stings before it got through my head that it was never going to happen between us. Maybe we were too much alike and, most likely, I was in the permanent friend zone and was oblivious.
Or, maybe we were just supposed to be friends and Melissa knew it…maybe she knew more about me than I did…and that I shouldn’t have won a position as one of the guys on the cheer squad.
“I’ll be at cheer camp this week,” I said as I wrote my number down.
“Then please expect my call next week when you return, my cute one.”
“You think I look cute?”
“Absolutely,” he replied as he traded the card for the sandwich. “And let not another tell you otherwise.”
“Thank you.”
I grabbed the bag—the chips had been placed in the top—most likely in the moments that my attention was distracted.
“It was my pleasure. Is that your mom?”
I turned to see mom standing outside the door with her hand pointing at a non-existent watch on her wrist.
“Yeah.”

“What took you so long” Mom asked as we got back into the car. True to form, it was freezing cold and what little hair I had on my legs bristled.
“We were talking a bit.”
“About what?
“He goes to Wyatt.”
“You sound, chippy.”
I couldn’t see mom’s expression in the darkness, but it sounded like she was smiling.
“I’m not, chippy, as you say, I just feel better about things at the moment.”
“We may need to come back to this place so I can ask him what he did to the kid I sent in to get me a sandwich. Also, this feels like it weighs a ton.”
“Probably does. I think he triple-stacked it.”
“How much was it?”
“Nothing,” I said with a shrug.
“Are you telling me that he just threw on an obscene amount of everything and just gave it to you?”
“The chips too.”