Johnny and the limit

Johnny felt strange actually wanting to go to school. Usually he wanted nothing more then to spend the day at home paying tinymon or going to park but today was different; today school would be the only safe place for Johnny to hide from Mary. He needed more time to process what was going on. Things had happened so fast. Two days ago his life was normal (relatively speaking) and now… now he had to figure out how to deal with deal a sister whose creepy romantic crush on their neighbor had in fact transferred over to him. He didn't want to hurt Mary's feelings, she was his sister after all and a bit more emotionally unstable then Johnny had ever imagined. There had to be a way to get her to back off without destroying her heart or making her snap and use a crazy invention to either kill him or make him love her.

After finishing breakfast Johnny began a slow walk out the front door and towards the bus stop. He didn't want to admit it but the little voice that wanted to spare his sisters feelings was not the only little voice wrestling for control of his mind. Despite how creepy it had been waking up and realizing that his dream with Mary had been real he couldn't deny how wonderful the "dream" had felt. It wasn't just the physical component that was distracting him though. On some level it felt good having Mary chasing after him. He liked the idea of having a girl care so much about him even if it was someone he grew up with.

"You haven't been listening to a word I've been saying, have you?" Dukey asked Johnny as they approached the bus stop.

"What? Oh, sorry… My mind was somewhere else." Johnny replied.

"You've seemed a little spaced out all morning. Why don't you tell me what's up?" Dukey suggested.

"I don't think so… it's just too weird." Johnny replied.

"Oh come on, you can tell me. We're best friends… compadres, amigos… You can tell me anything."

"I think this might be the exception to that…"

"Come on, spill it! You'll feel better."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

"And you promise you won't laugh?"

"Of course."

"And you promise you won't tell ANYONE?"

"Of course… I mean, who could I tell? Your sisters are the only ones who know I can talk. Plus who would believe a rumor from 'the kid with the weird hair disorder?'"

"Alright…" Johnny said with a sigh before taking a long breath, "So it turns out that Mary was buying that video game for me yesterday and I'm pretty sure she faked the flyer for the butcher shop so she could get me all alone so she could tell me that she has a crush on me."

"Right…" Dukey replied, trying to hold back his laughter, "Are you sure you're not just misinterpreting this? I mean, maybe she bought you the game as a present for being nice to her… girls do that sometimes you know?"

"Nooooo… no no no… I am totally not misinterpreting this! Plus you said you wouldn't laugh!"

"Sorry. Why are you so certain?"

"Because she told me yesterday she wanted to have some private "snuggle time" on the couch while watching TV."

"Ok, I'll admit that sounds weird but I don't think that constitutes proof she has a crush on you."

"Oh yeah, well she hid a message in my pancakes this morning asking if I wanted to go see a movie with her!"

"Again, maybe she's just trying to be friendly. You know, or maybe she's trying to butter you up for some new, horrible experiment."

"She promised to protect me from any of Susan's dangerous experiments if I went out with her!"

"Ok, that's hard to explain." Dukey admitted.

"Plus," Johnny said before sighing again, "She snuck into my room last night and I thought I was dreaming and… umm… things happened."

"What kind of things? And where was I when all this happened? Mars?" Dukey asked, not believing Johnny's crazy story.

"You were there… just asleep."

"Oh I call bull on that! If anything had happened I would have woken up! It was just a dream."

"No, I thought it was a dream too but I know it wasn't now."

"Oh yeah? How do you know for certain?" Dukey asked, still appropriately skeptical.

For a third time in only a moment Johnny sighed before reaching into his backpack, "I found these in my bed this morning."

Dukey's jaw dropped as he looked at the delicate, girly undergarment Johnny produced from his bag.

"Please tell me you just broke into her room and stole those so you could play a joke on me. Please tell me that's what's going on."

"Sorry." Johnny replied, "You demanded to know what was wrong."

"I didn't expect this though!"

"Yeah, neither did I."

"What are you going to do about this?"

Spotting the bus approaching from down the street, Johnny quickly shoved his sister's panties back into his backpack. As the bus grew closer, Johnny grew less and less certain he'd be able to stand a whole day of school thinking about what he should do.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do… deal with this right now!" Johnny spouted as he jumped head first into some nearby bushes.

"You're going to deal with this by hiding in the bushes? Great plan!" Dukey said sarcastically.

"No, I'm going to skip school and have a talk with Mary."

As he watched the bus stop and then drive by Johnny wondered to himself which would win: the voice telling him to tell the truth and tell Mary she needed to back off or the voice telling him to tell the truth and tell Mary he wanted to be with her.