He smiled so broadly, I almost sank beneath the water and drowned from happiness. “No big deal. Doesn’t cost me anything. And I like you, Runt,” he gave me the gym class name, but it had no sting. I sort of liked it.
“I like you, too Park. And I never said that to a jock before.”
He laughed aloud. “The jock and the runt,” he mused. “We make quite a pair.”
Fortunately, he went back to his friends, or I’d have made a fool of myself trying to make something out of that remark. I stayed in the pool another thirty minutes before getting out without embarrassing myself.
That evening, I got something of a shock. It was getting along toward closing time at the store when the door opened and Park Fogelson walked in.
“Hi, Runt. What time you get off?”
“I close up in five minutes,” I said, too
