It's a lot like a bad dream

 Amy wasn't expecting all this attention. It wasn't even Christmas. And to think it all started when she mentioned to Eli in a text, late one evening that her friend Junie was trying to score a date for her. Junie was seeing Darry now and he had a friend named Topher. 

"Let's just upgrade this now," he'd text back and Amy wasn't sure what Eli meant. Yes, they'd known each other forever and it wasn't until recently that he thought they should text which turned out to be a random thing. He was busy with mowing yards and keeping up with his science and math classes his Freshman year. But usually, they kept in contact at least once a week. Evidently, he hated high school. 

"What are we upgrading?" She'd wanted to text back, but she didn't and now he showed up for Thanksgiving. Actually, at Amy's house which lead to where they went for Thanksgiving. 

Obviously, it gave her parents something to talk about. By the end of Thanksgiving, her mom was at Amy's and she was left in shock. Amy didn't know what to think.

"Maybe, your parents are getting back together," Junie said at school.

"No, I don't think so." Amy didn't see that happening. "My mom was just being weird. Like she didn't want to leave me alone. We never talk. She's very silent." She went on to tell her how her dad was OK about Eli being around. "I doubt I see him again."

"But he stayed all day," Junie said that had to count for something.

"Well...it's not like with you and Darry," Amy shrugged it off. "I know him. I know how he gets mad when he loses a game. I have smelled his farts. He can do whatever he wants around me. He doesn't seem me as a girlfriend." She didn't mean to be such a downer about it, But she wasn't expecting anything romantic.

"But he's cute," Junie smiled.

"Oh, everything is cute to you lately," Amy couldn't help to be sad. What if she was more like her mom than she realized? Maybe she didn't want to share her dad or have anything to do with her mother. She was used to the silence and now it seemed her mother wanted to know everything there was to know about her and Eli.