3. Boys Are Weird

3 Boys Are Weird I helped Arlo bring his stuff in from the car. "This is going to be fun!" I told him as we climbed the stairs. "We can have a slumber party!" Arlo grunted again. When we got to my room, he covered his eyes like he was shielding them from the sun. "So much pink," he moaned. "It's

blinding me!" "Very funny, Arlo," I said. "What are you hiding behind your back?" he asked after he uncovered his eyes. "Oh, nothing important," I told him. "Just my secret diary. It's not for you to read." "I don't want to read your dumb diary," he said. "Good," I told him. "Because you can't. You're not allowed. It's secret." "Well, if you won't let me read it, then I want to," Arlo said. He snatched the notebook out of my hand.

"Hey, give that back, Arlo!" I shouted.

I tried to get my notebook away from him, but he wouldn't give it to me. He sat on the floor in the corner and started reading it. There was nothing I could do. I unrolled a sleeping bag on the floor. After a few minutes, Arlo closed my notebook. "First of all," he said, "I'm not your boyfriend. I'm not even your friend. I'm your sworn enemy for life."

Arlo is always saying things like that to me. But I know he doesn't mean them. My mother is a psychologist, and she told me that when a boy really likes a girl, he will say he doesn't like her. That's what boys do.

And the more they say they don't like you, the more they really like you. So obviously, Arlo is in love with me. Boys are weird. "Who wants a toasted marshmallow?" my dad hollered from downstairs. "I do!" Arlo and I hollered back. (Who doesn't like toasted marshmallows?) We ran downstairs. Our dads had fired up the grill in the backyard and gave each of us a really long stick so we could toast marshmallows. Arlo stuck his marshmallow right into the fire, and then he waved it around like a torch. "Look! I'm in the Olympics," he said, running around the backyard. Then he slid the blackened marshmallow off his stick and ate it. Ugh, gross! "You're eating pure carbon, you know," I