Luna’s tail dropped to touch the floor. “Very comforting,” she said sarcastically.
“Do you have any better ideas?”
Luna sagged. “No.”
It was well past noon the next day by the time Luna gathered up her courage. “Toby,” she began, “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
“Okay, shoot,” said Toby.
“I’m guessing you’re wondering why I’ve been acting so weird lately, right?”
Toby pretended to think hard. “Hmm. Now let’s think about this. I’ve been asking you for days what was up. Yeah, I guess you might say I’m a little curious.”
Luna swallowed. “Well, there’s this guy I kind of like, if you see what I mean…”
“Uh-oh,” said Toby with a grin. “I guess I’d better warn him, huh?”
Luna forced a laugh. “Very funny. But seriously, do you think I’ve got a chance?”
Although he tried to deny it to himself, Toby was just a little bit jealous and a lot disappointed. ‘Oh, well,’ he thought, knowing better than to say it out loud, ‘At least it’ll shut Pete up.’
“Hello?” Luna badgered. “I said do you think I have a chance?”
Toby shrugged. “I guess it depends. Who is he?”
Luna intended to say that it was someone Toby might know, but when she opened her mouth, out popped that horrible word, “You.”
Toby looked at her sharply. “You’re kidding, right?”
‘Oh, no!’ thought Luna, trying not to panic and failing miserably. “Well, um, see, I, umm…”
Toby looked her very hard in the eyes. “Luna, please tell me this is some kind of joke.”
She took a deep breath. ‘Here goes nothing,’ she thought, mentally forcing her tail to come out from between her legs. “Well, Toby, I’ve been thinking about it. We’ve been friends for a long time now, and I was thinking maybe…”
‘Oh, please, no,’ thought Toby. ‘This is not happening.’
“I really like you, and…”
Toby had heard all he wanted to hear and more. “Bye!” he said, running off.
“Toby!” called Luna, running after him. “Toby, wait! I…”
But Toby was gone.
Toby ran, trying to get what had just happened out of his head. He didn’t stop until he had run at least three blocks. ‘This is just great,’ he thought. ‘Pete’s been on my case about Luna being my “girlfriend,” and now it turns out she really does want to be my girlfriend.’ “I’ve gotta figure out a way to deal with this,” he said to himself. “There’s got to be a sane answer to this.”
But try as he might, nothing he could think of seemed right. He didn’t like the thought of just not talking to Luna anymore. Crazy or not crazy, she was still his friend. Tell her “Thanks, but no thanks?” What if she persisted? There was only one thing he could think of to do: get help.
Toby went to his father’s house. ‘If anyone knows how to deal with a problem like this, he should,’ he thought. He didn’t want to barge in, so although there was a pet flap he scratched on the door.
“I’m coming,” said the familiar voice of his father. A moment later Rex poked his head through the door. “Toby?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
“I have a bit of a problem,” Toby said. “And I was hoping maybe you could help.”
Rex came the rest of the way out the dog door. “Well, I’m off duty right now, but okay, let’s go.”
“Um, it’s not a police dog kind of problem, Dad,” Toby explained. “It’s more of a sit-down-and-talk kind of problem.”
Rex nodded, relieved that he wouldn’t have to go outside and face the cold. “Okay, come on in.” He re-entered through the pet flap, and Toby followed.
The two of them sat down by the fireplace. “So what’s the problem?” asked Rex.
Toby wondered where to begin. “Well,” he said, “Luna was acting kind of weird last week, and today she was telling me about this guy she likes, and I asked who it was.”
“Jealous?” asked Rex.
“No, of course not!” Toby exclaimed. “But it turns out the guy she likes is…” he hung his head, almost too embarrassed to speak. “…me.”
Rex’s eyebrows lifted a notch. “Okay, didn’t see that one coming,” he said. “So what’d you do about it?”
“Well, I ran.”
Rex winced. “As much as I hate to put salt in a wound, that may not have been the smartest thing to do.”
“What would you have done?” asked Toby.
Rex smiled. “I probably would have done the same thing.”
Toby snorted. “I can see why you think it’s so funny. You don’t have to worry about it.”
Rex shook his head no. “Now, son, I’m not trying to laugh at your expense. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how serious this is.”
“So what should I do?” asked Toby.
Rex sighed. “Well, you have to understand a few things about girls,” he began.
“Oh, no,” groaned Toby. “Not ‘The Talk.’ One of the guys had The Talk with his dad, and now they’re not speaking to each other.”
Rex rolled his eyes. “Well, this is a bad sign,” he said. “But don’t worry, I’ll try not to embarrass either one of us too much. And if you’d rather not have ‘The Talk’ right now then perhaps later would be better. But there are a few things you do need to know right now.”
Toby groaned. “Fire away,” he said.
Rex nodded. “Well first of all,” he began. “At Luna’s age, it’s perfectly normal for her to be attracted to boys. And since she knows you and spends a lot of time with you, it’s not so surprising that she’s zeroed in on you.”
Toby let out a groan, dropping to the floor and putting his paws over his head as if he were facing a firing squad. “So what you’re saying is that by being her friend, I’ve been setting myself up for this all this time?”
Rex smiled. “Well, I wouldn’t say that. But then, I should have guessed it would sound that way. Personally, I’d say it’s kind of flattering that out of all the boys in Nome, she likes you.”
“Flattering?” asked Toby. “Flattening is more like it if you ask me.”
Rex laughed. “I suppose it’s only natural for you to think that. They say girls start liking boys before boys start liking girls. But tell me, how do want this to play out?”
“I don’t know,” answered Toby. “I guess it would be good to wake up and find out this was all a nightmare.”
Rex slapped Toby on the shoulder. “Ow!” said Toby. “What was that for?”
“I was testing to see if you’re asleep,” answered Rex. “Next solution?”
Toby thought about it. “Well, don’t crushes usually wear off?”
Rex shrugged. “Sometimes,” he answered. “And sometimes they don’t.”
Toby didn’t like the sound of that. “Did you ever have a problem like this?”
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Thanks. I thought it was pretty good.
