…grinned sheepishly. \u201cFair. But if I\u2019m honest, I\u2019ve been using the garage thing as an excuse. Not just because the street is full or my dad needs the driveway. I think I wanted a reason to talk to you. Even if it was a terrible one.\u201d<\/p>\n
I blinked. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard shifted awkwardly. \u201cI\u2019ve had a thing for you since high school. But you were a senior, and I was just the kid next door. I thought maybe if I annoyed you into conversation\u2026 I don\u2019t know, maybe you\u2019d see me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him, stunned into silence. This man-child in a band t-shirt and pajama pants had just flipped my world upside down.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you saying you blocked my garage on purpose<\/em>?\u201d I finally managed.<\/p>\n \u201cNot at first,\u201d he said quickly. \u201cAt first it was genuine. Then\u2026 I noticed you always came over, even if you were mad. I started to look forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the dumbest thing I\u2019ve ever heard,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n He nodded. \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n I took a deep breath. \u201cAnd the raccoons?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely deserved them,\u201d he replied, holding up the gloves again. \u201cTruce?\u201d<\/p>\n I hesitated, then took them. \u201cTruce.\u201d<\/p>\n We spent the next hour cleaning up his car. It was ridiculous, messy, and strangely fun. At one point, I laughed so hard I nearly dropped the sponge when the raccoon returned and sat at the edge of the driveway, watching us with judgmental eyes.<\/p>\n When we finished, we stood side by side, both soaked and covered in suds.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know,\u201d Richard said, \u201cnext time I want to ask you out, maybe I\u2019ll just bring flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n I looked at him, surprised again.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd not block your garage,\u201d he added quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cSmart move,\u201d I said, smiling despite myself. \u201cVery smart move.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, it turns out, people do learn\u2014eventually. Even if it takes a raccoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …grinned sheepishly. \u201cFair. But if I\u2019m honest, I\u2019ve been using the garage thing as an excuse. Not just because the street is full or my dad needs the driveway. I think I wanted a reason to talk to you. Even if it was a terrible one.\u201d I blinked. \u201cWhat?\u201d Richard shifted awkwardly. \u201cI\u2019ve had a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}