Johnny and the limit

The next morning as Johnny waited outside for his school bus, Dukey who had been unusually quiet even after moving out of earshot of his parents finally decided to speak up.

“So, do I need to ask or are you going to just tell me what you did?” Dukey asked.

“I didn’t do anything!... I mean, wait… what do you mean?” Johnny replied, instinctively denying at first before realizing he wasn’t even sure what he was denying.

“I don’t know what you did but you must have done something seeing Mary was giving you weird looks all throughout breakfast.” Dukey explained.

“Oh, you noticed that too?  Yeah, it’s nothing; I just help her with a problem last night.”

“Last night?  When?  I didn’t see you test anything last night?”

“It wasn’t a test… and you were sleeping.”

“If it wasn’t testing some new invention, what did you help her with then?  I mean let’s face it, besides being a guinea pig there isn’t much you can do to help them that they can’t just make a robot to do instead.  Besides videogames of course.” Dukey replied with a chuckle.

“First, ouch.” Johnny said sarcastically, “and second, she was having some weird girl moment… babbling something about being ugly and having a freak out; you know, normally girl stuff.”

“So how did you help her?”

“I told her she wasn’t ugly.”

“And that’s it?” Dukey asked, starting to sound a bit nervous.

“Yeah… pretty much.”

“What do you mean ‘pretty much’?”

“Well, I may have said she was prettier and calmer and nicer then Susan and that I didn’t understand why people liked Susan better ‘cause it totally should be the other way around.”

“Oh… wait, you said all that?” Dukey asked, starting to panic a bit while the bus approached from the distance.

“Yeah, no big deal.” Johnny said as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Yes big deal!  You know your sisters are girls and girls are more sensitive and emotional then boys, Mary especially.  Susan always bossing her around, Gil and Eugene ignoring her, your mom and dad treating the two of them like they’re tied together at the hip… Don’t get me wrong, Mary’s got a good life but it’s not ideal. You made her feel special in a way no one else ever has.  You have to be careful otherwise things could get really complicated and weird.”

Johnny was silent for a few seconds as the bus approached.

“So, I guess it’s probably a big deal then that she gave me a long, creepy kiss on the lips before she left my room last night then?” Johnny asked almost rhetorically.

“WHAT?” Dukey yelped from surprise just as the doors to the school bus opened.

“Did your dog just talk?” The bus driver asked sounding astonished.

“No!” Johnny replied quickly as he hopped on the bus.