The Mohawk Boy

I sat on Tyler’s couch in his living room, thinking once again about the kid with the glasses. He had a Mohawk-like hairstyle. He had it cut so that there was a little more hair growing down the middle of his head, and he always spiked it up at school. I liked it. I thought it was unusual.

“You know that kid at school with the glasses and weird hair?” I asked Tyler. I immediately felt bad, though; I hadn’t meant to say weird.

“Yeah,” Tyler answered me, “You mean John.”

“John?”

“Yeah.”

I knew Tyler knew who I was talking about. He didn’t mean the John that bothered me during P.E. The guy with the glasses was named John, too.

Jesus, I thought, I know way too many people named John or Joseph or something. People need to stop naming their kids names that start with J.

But now I knew his name. I didn’t really care that his name started with a J at all. I was just glad that I knew it.