The Front Seat

Kyle has a tendency to sit with me in the back seat. I can tell you, from memory, exactly what would happen if he and his mom were to pick me up in their car.

I lean against my window, my shoulder resting against the pane as my eyes continuously raked across the street. My finger is tapping against the glass to a silent tune that I make up as the seconds roll by.

I hear the tires. I hear the engine. My body stands straight and I crane my neck to make sure that it's his car.

It usually is. So I grab whatever belongings I need, stuff them deep into my pockets, and run outside to meet them on the sidewalk.

They roll to a stop near my place on the sidewalk and Kyle waves at me from the front seat. His smile is wide, his cheeks a little flushed as his window is rolled down. "Hey dude," he greets, and I smile and reply with the same greeting.

I open the back door and greet his mother, whom smiles at me warmly and asks me how I'm doing.

And at this moment is when Kyle opens his door and languidly jumps from his seat to the sidewalk. As I'm answering his mother I hear his door slam, then he's suddenly behind me, lightly pushing the small of my back to hurry and get myself inside.

My lips tug upward and I make my way all the way over to the other side, even though it involves me climbing over the middle seat and dodging random items on the floor of the car.

But I do it anyway because it happens every time. I'll know for sure that as I climb, Kyle will be waiting patiently for me to get past the middle, and then he'll pull himself inside and sit on the seat I would have normally taken. We both would buckle ourselves in and he would slam his car door shut, just to get his mom off about the right way to treat a car.

And we would listen, and smile together, and I would lean forward so he could whisper something quietly in my ear.

I would accept the hand the lightly holds mine and glide my thumb across the soft skin, just to see his eyes smile.

Kyle has a tendency to sit with me in the back seat. It's something he's been doing for a while.

And even though it's annoying to have to climb over two seats every time he picks me up, and even though his mom bothers him every time about just riding in the back from the beginning if he was just going to be there anyway, I would never ever give it up. Because it's Kyle.

It's one of those small, everyday things that he does that I wouldn't change for the world.