the love life of joel hoagland (page 2)

Joel smiled, and kept silent, hoping that his silence would be intriguing, instead of revealing how nonplussed he really was. He glanced in the rear view mirror, and noticed a police cruiser had fallen into traffic behind him. Instinctively he tensed, for no good reason. His license was in good order, and his dad’s vehicle registration was in the glove box. Nonetheless it always made him nervous when Lakewood’s finest followed him.

“Well?” Tamara asked, “Are you?”

“Why do you ask?”

“It just seems like I never see you with any girlfriends.”

Joel took a right turn on Alhambra to see if the cop would quit following him. The squad car turned a lazy right onto Alhambra.

“Joel, what are you doing?” his sister asked. “Tamara lives on Nichols.”

Now Joel was flustered. It was stupid to change course because of a police car on his tail, and he felt it showed how much Tamara’s question had distracted him. “No, I’m not gay.”

“Are you sure?” Tamara seemed unconcerned by his route change.

Joel thought about Tamara’s gambit. She was essentially daring him to prove his sexual orientation, and there was really only one practicable way to do that. But Joel hated, almost more than anything, to be predicted by a woman. It would be quite some time before he learned the value of that.

Joel decided that this conversation had ended unsatisfactorily for him, and resigned himself to the disappointment. In his rear view mirror, the police cruiser’s blue and red lights came on, and both girls turned around to look.

In your comment please indicate which of these options you choose and give a reason why.

A. Joel says, “Come to think of it, I haven’t really seen you with any boyfriends, Tamara.”

B. Joel says, “I have a girlfriend, but she lives in North Carolina.”

C. Joel says, “Is everybody buckled up?”

D. Joel ignores Tamara and decides to attempt another right turn to see if the cop is actually signaling him to stop or not.