“I know,” she said miserably. “Who cares if I learn to play piano anyway?”
“I thought you liked it?” I pointed out and shut the locker door. Over Mandy’s shoulder I saw Tad coming down the hall. I made sure to meet his eyes and smile before looking back at Mandy.
“Well, sure. When it doesn’t get in the way of my shopping.”
I laughed. “How about we go shopping tomorrow after school? I’m sure getting a ride to the mall will be a piece of cake.”
“You could always have Brett drive us,” Mandy said, smiling ruefully. “His Audi is totally hot.”
I smiled and leaned in and whispered. “So is he.”
Tad stepped into earshot right behind Mandy. “He is definitely easy to look at.”
Tad frowned. “Mandy!” I said, pretending to be shocked. “You have a boyfriend.”
“I can look,” she shrugged.
I cleared my throat loudly and straightened making sure to smile widely. “Oh, hey, Tad!”
Mandy’s eyes widened and then she spun around. “Hey, babe.”
“Who are you talking about?” he asked, searching her eyes.
“Who?”
“The guy you are just looking at?” he replied, smoothly.
Mandy waved his comment off. “No one. Just the guy Kelly is going with.”
Tad glanced up. “You’re going with someone?”
“I’m not going with him. He just wants me to.” I replied, and tossed my hair over my shoulder.
“Even better, he’ll totally drive us to the mall if he’s trying to get you to date him,” Mandy said.
“When?” Tad asked.
“Tomorrow,” Mandy answered. “I need clothes.”
He rolled his eyes. “You have enough clothes for half the school.”
“I wish!” she said. Mandy bounced up and kissed him on the cheek. “Gotta get to Mr. Harvey’s room or I’ll be late.”
“See ya,” he said.
“Call me!” she said, but I wasn’t sure if she meant me or Tad.
When she was gone I smiled at him.
“Still need that ride home?” he asked.
“For sure.”
“C’mon,” he gestured and we walked down the hall together toward the exit doors leading to the parking lot.
Tad drove a red Ford Capri and it was always spotless. That told me how much he loved his car.
“I love your car,” I sighed, like it was dreamy. “It’s so rad you have your own.”
“Makes it easy to get around,” he said and opened the passenger door for me. I moved to get by, my body coming into contact with his. His eyes flared, but he didn’t say anything.
He didn’t have to, I knew he liked it.
In a way, I was doing Mandy a favor. Clearly Tad was a cheater waiting to happen.
I watched him jog around to the driver’s side and slide in. When he looked over at me, I gave him a smile.
“What kind of music do you listen to?” he asked, opening up the glove box to reveal a ton of cassette tapes.
“I like just about everything,” I said.
He plucked one up and slid it into the tape deck. Music filled the car as he fired up the engine.
“You going to Aaron’s party this weekend?” I asked. “It’s probably going to be tubular.”
“Wouldn’t miss it!” He nodded.
“Think Mandy would mind if I borrowed you for a dance?” I reached over and ran a finger down his arm.
His cheeks flushed and he shook his head.
Some guys were just too easy.
For most of the ride home I asked him about himself, the sports he played, his car. He ate it up and I choked it down.
He was a nice enough guy, I guess. But man, he was just too eager. I wondered if he agreed with everything I said because he was agreeable, or if he just thought that’s what I wanted to hear.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a long ride to my house and soon we were pulling in the driveway. “Did you want to come in for a minute?” I asked. “My mom makes great cookies.”
Please say no.
“Wish I could, but I have practice.”
“Now?” I gasped.
He nodded.
“I hope I didn’t make you late?”
“Nah, it’s cool. Coach won’t care. Besides, couldn’t just leave you to walk. A beautiful girl like you just might disappear.”
I giggled. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“Everyone does.”
“Do you think I’m prettier than Mandy?” I asked. “Because I think she’s gorgeous.”
He hesitated.
I leaned forward and rested my hand on his arm. “Forget it. That was a terrible question to ask. Of course you think she’s prettier than me.”
His hand covered mine. “Actually, I think you’re prettier. But don’t tell her I said that.”
“My lips are sealed.” I smiled. “Well! I better run. I’ve made you late enough!”
“I’ll get the door for you.” He hurried out of the car and around to open up the passenger side for me.
“Thank you,” I said. “You’re a gentleman. Too bad you were already taken. Thanks for the ride.” I gave him a little wave and started away.
“So if I wasn’t,” he paused, “taken, would you be interested?”
I smiled a catlike smile before I turned back.
“Of course. Who wouldn’t be?” I said. My eyes widened and I rushed over toward him. “Please don’t tell Mandy I said that. I feel just awful! She’s my best friend. It’s just…”
“Just…” he prodded.
“Just sometimes it upsets me when she looks at other guys. You know how she said she thought Brett was hot? He’s not the first guy she’s said that about. You’re just such a great guy. I mean look, you’re making yourself late to a practice just so I didn’t have to walk home.”
“She checks out a lot of guys?” he asked, frowning.
“She just looks.” I waved it away. “As far as I know. It’s really not a big deal.”
“Right,” he said, totally unconvinced.
“I upset you.” I frowned.
“Guys don’t like to hear their girlfriends are looking around at other guys,” he explained.
I went forward and hugged him. “I’m sorry.”
I smiled into his shirt when he hugged me back. I lingered a few seconds before pulling away. “I just thought you needed to know.”
He nodded. “Thanks for telling me.”
He started to walk away, but I grasped his hand. “Tad?”
“Yeah?”
I went forward and pressed my lips to his. I felt his shock, but it instantly changed and he kissed me back. I didn’t let it go on for long, and there definitely wasn’t any tongue.
When I pulled back, I swiped at his lower lip where there was some lipstick and smiled. “For luck today at practice.”
“Thanks,” he mumbled, looking a little dazed. When he walked back to his car, I couldn’t help but notice a little extra swagger in his step.
I stood there and watched him pull away. He waved through the window and I waved back.
Soon as he was out of sight, I walked to my front door. Tad was just like the rest of these guys. Predictable.
He’d be mine by the end of the week.
Bag your face! – a colorful way to tell someone to shut up.
My bags were packed and sitting beside the front door when I got home from science club. I might have been alarmed if it wasn’t for the chaos going on beyond the bags.
Well, that and the fact my bags weren’t the only ones by the door. Clearly, this wasn’t me being tossed out of my own house for no apparent reason.
In the background there was some annoying sound accompanied by new voices. “Mom!” I yelled over them.
“Eric,” Mom said, appearing from the direction of the family room. “I didn’t realize it was already this late.”
“Uh, what’s going on?” I asked. “Shouldn’t
you still be at work?”
My mom worked for a local doctor’s office as a receptionist. She worked good hours, but it was still early for her to be home.
“I should be, but the family room has become our own personal indoor pool,” she replied with a sigh.
Obviously, this was something I had to see for myself. I dropped my book bag by the rest of my packed stuff and headed toward our new pool.
The second I stepped down into the sunken living room, my shoes made a squishing sound. I would have looked down, but I was too busy staring at the water dripping from a hole in the ceiling.
The plaster was soaked and crumbling, and part of the section still where it should be looked heavy and bowed. The water stain, while clearly the least of our worries, was still epically large and commanded some attention.
There were two men in white jumpsuits with these big vacuums (that would be the loud sound and strange voices I heard) sucking up the puddles of water that saturated everything.
I stepped further into the room, my shoes sucking up the water like a sponge, and looked up into the hole where the ceiling use to be.
I was no plumber, but I knew a burst pipe when I saw one. This one hadn’t just burst either, it exploded. The metal pipe hung crookedly from the ceiling, a huge hole in its side—so large the pipe was almost in half. Water dripped from it every so often and landed on the men below.
“How did this happen?” I asked.
“Bad pipe,” one of the men shouted over the vacuum.
Really? I wouldn’t have guessed.
I backtracked out of the family room to where my mom hovered in the door. “I don’t know,” she said. “I got a call from Gladys next door. I guess she heard the sound of the ceiling coming down when she was gardening outside and called me at work.”
“For once, her nosiness comes in handy,” I quipped, pushing at the glasses on my nose.
Mom smothered a smile. “Now, Eric, be polite.”
That was polite. I didn’t bother to point it out though. Clearly Mom had a bad enough day. Course, most moms would probably be shrieking and having a fit about their carpet and furniture right about now. She wasn’t though, she just seemed mildly annoyed.
But my mom’s dealt with worse. Something like a burst pipe probably seems like a piece of cake compared to what my father put her through.
“So, I’m guessing the bags by the door mean this mess won’t be cleaned up by tonight?” I asked.
“I’m afraid not. And due to the hole in the pipe, the water for the entire house is shut off until it can be replaced. Since this happened they’re also going to check around to make sure we don’t have any other pipes about to blow.”
“How long until it’s fixed?” I was already making a list of things I wanted to grab from my room.
“Probably a week or so. Hopefully cleaning the water up now will minimize the damage to the room and it can dry out. Then the ceiling will need to be repaired.”
“We can’t just stay here?” I asked. Staying in a hotel room with my mom was the very last thing on my list of life goals. In fact, it was the last thing after my last thing. I’d rather hang out with Pee-Wee Herman than sleep in a bed right beside her every night for the foreseeable future.
“We need water, Eric, and the men need to be able to work without worrying about disturbing us.”
“How are we going to pay for all this?”
For the first time since I walked in the house, a stressed look came into her eyes. I felt bad for saying that before I thought it through. I was pretty positive we didn’t have the money for this. By the looks of things, it wasn’t going to be a cheap repair. Plus a week in a hotel… that was going to cost.
“Don’t you worry about that,” she replied, quickly getting rid of the stress on her face. “I’ve got it taken care of.”
I wasn’t going to tell her I knew she was lying. Anger at my father filled me. I knew the burst pipe wasn’t his fault, but everything else was. The reason she was lying to me was.
“I’m just gonna go grab a few things out of my room,” was all I said, and headed toward the stairs.
She nodded. “I already packed your clothes and things.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Give me a minute then we can go to the hotel.”
I was halfway up the stairs when she said, “We aren’t staying at a hotel.”
“Where are we staying then?” I asked.
“Marcie Ross has invited us to stay at her home.”
“We’re staying at the Ross’s?” I asked. Maybe I inhaled too many chemicals in science club today. I could have sworn she just said I would be staying at Kelly Ross’s house.
“Well, yes. Wasn’t it nice of Marcie to ask? It will be much more comfortable for us than a hotel.”
Comfortable was not the word that described what I was feeling right now. I must have had a constipated look on my face because Mom frowned.
“I thought you and Kelly were friends? You used to play all the time.”
“That was in first grade, Mom.”
“So you aren’t friends anymore?” she asked, shifting a little, like it was just occurring to her that maybe this arrangement would be less than ideal.
Kelly doesn’t even know my name.
“We, uh, sort of belong in different circles,” I said. Why I felt the need to sort of defend the fact Kelly would rather die than talk to me or acknowledge we used to know each other at all was something I didn’t want to think about.
“Well, this will give you a chance to reconnect,” she said with a broad smile.
Parents were delusional. It’s like the minute they graduate, they get a bad case of amnesia and forget how brutal high school really is.
Once again, I said nothing. At least this way Mom wouldn’t have to pay for a hotel. That definitely would help with expenses.
I continued up the stairs to my room. I was going to be living with Kelly Ross for a week.
The most popular girl at school.
The most un-liked girl at Edward Little High. I wonder if Kelly knew I would soon be invading her perfect little world?
She was not going to be happy.
Not like I was jumping for joy either. At least her house was big. Maybe I could avoid her all week. I could pretend I was at the hotel that just minutes ago I had been wishing I didn’t have to stay in.
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Me, Eric the science geek, in the same house as Kelly the man-eater?
This was going to be interesting.
Burn Out – a druggie. Usually a derogatory term.
When you’re small, life is uncomplicated. It doesn’t matter who you are so much because you have the freedom to figure it out. You don’t have to think about other people’s opinions, or how the people you chose to surround yourself is a direct reflection of yourself.
Life was simpler back then. I still remember running around with my hair in tangles, bare feet and chocolate on my mouth. I was carefree. My biggest worry was what time I had to go to bed and being inside before it got out dark out.
My best friend in the world was a boy and we didn’t like-like each other—there was no competition between us, there was no pressure at all. We just were friends.
Time passes though, and relationships change. People pull away and others yank you in a different direction.
One day you look at the person you thought you would always know… and they’re a stranger.
“I can’t believe you invited them to stay here!” I told my mother. “How embarrassing!”
My mother looked up from the dinner she was making. “How is offering a friend a place to stay when their home is under construction embarrassing?”
“He’s not in the same crowd as me, mother,” I said, barely holding on to my patience. She would never understand.
“I didn’t know you had to be in the same crowd with someone to be nice to them,” she observed, almost like this conversation was boring
to her.
“What will people say?” I worried. “A science geek in my house!”
Mom set down the big spoon she was using to put the meatloaf into a pan and looked at me as I paced.
By the way, I was looking totally fresh in a pair of hot pink leggings, purple leg warmers and a white top that totally showed off one of my shoulders. My hair was still teased to perfection. When I got home I gave it a backcomb and then sprayed it with some extra White Rain just to make sure it stayed.
“I thought you and Eric were friends.”
“That was a whole other lifetime ago!”
“Kelly Ann Ross, I expect you to be nice to that boy. His mother is a dear friend of mine and I will not have you being anything but the girl I raised you to be toward her son.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I muttered.
“Especially after everything he’s been through,” Mom went back to her meatloaf.
“What do you mean?” I asked picking up a carrot stick and biting into it.
“It doesn’t matter. Being nice matters.”
“You sound like an after school special.” I rolled my eyes.
“Kelly!” my mom admonished. “I’m serious.”
What would Mandy say when she found out? What would Tad think? And Brett? My reputation was on the line here.
“Remember that time you got your hair stuck in the chain on the swing in the backyard and you cried and cried and cried?” Mom mused, like it was a fond memory.
“Of course I remember,” I replied, eating another carrot. “I was sure my hair was going to rip out at the root. The way it pinched and tugged, it hurt so bad!”
Mom nodded. “I could hear you screaming from all the way upstairs in my bedroom. By the time I got downstairs though, Eric was already getting you free.”
I smiled a little at the memory. I guess it had been kind of funny.
We’d been on the swing, twisting it around and around as we took turns sitting on it. When we let, go the swing spun around wildly as it unwound and the entire world rushed by in a blur, leaving me feeling slightly woozy.
It had been fun, up until my long blond hair got twisted up with the chain and almost ripped it out. That first tug hurt like the devil and I remember digging my heels into the ground to stop the swing from turning anymore.
1982: Maneater (Love in the 80s #3) Page 2