“I’m kinda glad they did.”
“Why’s that?” I ask, hip checking him.
He does it back and I almost trip. He catches my arm before I fall completely. “Because we haven’t spent much time together lately. I miss my friend. Just hanging out. The two of us. Not anything sexual or anything. Just friends. Like the good old days.”
“In the good old days, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”
He laughs. “Last year, at this time, we were half naked in your kitchen.”
“Don’t remind me,” I tell him, feeling my cheeks get hot. It’s not like I want to do that again. Not with him anyway, but that day we had record breaking heat between us. It was intense. I look forward to experiencing that again. Just not with Trav, if you know what I mean.
“What are you talking about? That was fun. I think we can talk about it without getting all weird. It’s not like we’re doing it now. We’re just talking.”
“I know. Let’s just talk about something else.”
“Hey, did Mrs. Fuller tell you what they’re having?” he asks.
“Yeah, it’s a boy.” I can still picture her telling me all the details. She’s due in December over our holiday break. She won’t be coming back to school until the middle of February. Mrs. Gelson is due in November. “They’re going to have a blast raising kids together.”
“I bet their kids get married. They’re going to grow up together and fall in love.”
The back of my hand flings across his chest. “They’ll be cousins, sicko.”
He holds up his hands, shielding himself from me. “Oh, shit. That’s right. I forgot.” We both laugh. “Okay then, I bet he protects her from all the boys in high school.”
“Yeah, much better.” I elbow him in the side. “But wow, Trav, when did you become such a romantic.”
He tosses his arm over my shoulder. “It’s Andi. She has me watching all the old classic romance movies. They’re in black and white. Cheesy as hell, but she loves them.”
“And you love her?”
“I think I do, Meg.” I look up at him with a smile. “I can totally understand what you and Alex have now. It’s a cool feeling.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, Megster. I’m happy for you too.”
“That means a lot to me, Trav.”
“I know. And I mean it.”
We walk the rest of the way to my house in silence, enjoying our friendship and the special bond we still have.
“Wanna come in?” I ask.
“Nah, I’m gonna go to Andi’s. Maybe I can get her to sketch me naked.”
Chapter 5
“Mom, have you seen my ASB shirt?” I’ve turned my room upside down looking for it and we have to wear them to the game tonight. Everything seems out of place. I haven’t had much time to organize or keep things tidy.
My mom shows up at my door holding the black shirt. “What time do you have to be at school?”
I take the top from her and quickly put it on. “Five. They’re coming to get me at four so we can pick up some snacks.”
“And then what?” She stands in the doorway leaning against the frame.
“There’s the game and then we might go to a party.”
“What time are you going to be home?”
“What time do you want me home?” I wiggle my brows up and down at her.
She smiles. “One should be fine. But call us if you need anything.”
“Need anything? Like what?”
She comes in and takes a seat on my bed. Oh god. I shouldn’t have asked. “Like a designated driver.”
“C’mon, Mom.”
She holds up a hand. “I’m not stupid, Meg. I was in high school once. We probably should have had this talk a long time ago. Anyway, just be safe.”
“We always are.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re finally getting out. You’ve been cooped up in your room since school started.”
“I know. I thought senior year was supposed to be a breeze. My classes are hard. I’m so over math. I’m tempted to just drop it and go to a community college.” We have homework every day. It’s only a few problems but those few take forever to solve.
“Sorry, kiddo. That isn’t going to happen. Tough it out. You’ll be fine.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Thank god for ASB and being a teacher’s aide or I’d be stuck at home doing more work than I already am.”
“It’s a good thing you finished your foreign language requirement over the summer or you’d really be up a shit creek.” She’s right. I really wanted to be Mrs. Fuller’s TA, so I enrolled in the local community college to take sign language for the last two summers. My original plan was to complete the minimum two semesters, but I liked it so much, I decided to go for a third. It helped that Keesh and Steph joined me.
“No more talk about school. It’s making my brain hurt.” I flop down on the bed next to her.
She lies back beside me. “How about boy talk? How’s Alex?”
“He’s doing well. Classes have started for him so he’s really busy. I miss him though.”
“Of course you do, honey. When is he coming home for a visit?”
“Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
“Wow. That’s it.”
“Yeah. Whenever he comes home a lot, his grades suffer. And he wants to make sure he does well so he doesn’t have to repeat any classes and stay up north any longer than he has to.”
“Because of you?”
“Maybe.”
“Are you considering going to Berkeley too?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. I haven’t thought about any schools.”
She sits up and pats me on the thigh. “Well you better start. This is it, Meg. Time to start planning.”
Ugh. She’s making my brain hurt again.
“Yeah. No problem. I’ll get right on that. After the party.”
It’s Spirit Night. The first home football game of the season. We have a stellar team this year. Finally. They won their first three games so I’m excited to see what we can do on our home turf. Ethan, our star defensive back, doesn’t have to carry the team anymore. He’s had some wiggle room since our offense has been scoring. We have a new quarterback who can throw and the receivers are actually catching the ball. I’m still not convinced the coach isn’t putting glue on their hands to make it stick. How did these fumbling fools learn how to catch all of a sudden? Dom says it’s the QB. They’ve made a connection. Whatever.
The best thing the coaches did this year was recruit Eric to be their kicker. A point here, and three for field goals makes a difference. Not many high school teams have a good leg. But we do. Eric loves it. All he does at practice is run and kick balls. Perfect conditioning for soccer, his real sport of choice.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck in the handball courts getting our float ready for the class parade so we don’t get to see the first half of the game.
“What are you thinking about, Meg?” Keesh asks.
“Our football team.” I must’ve been zoning out.
She hands me some balloons. “Well, work and think at the same time. We need to hurry.”
Roars of cheering can be heard from the bleachers. Damn it. I missed something good.
“Touchdown Tigers,” Josh yells as he runs back toward us.
“Hey, if I can’t watch the game, neither can you,” I scold him.
“Then who would give you all the highlights?”
“I’ll watch them on ESPN.”
To this he laughs and starts tying balloons. We always get balloon duty. It sucks, but beats getting dirty with all the paint and glitter. Andi is all over that stuff. She’s a creative soul. Our float is going to kick ass with her in charge. She painted our letters, S-E-N-I-O-R-S, to look like they are on fire.
When we’re done, we walk the two red balloon columns over to the float so they can be attached at both ends of the flatbed truck.
“That’s awesome,” I say in awe of Andi’s work. It’s the first time we’ve seen it all put together and not in pieces on the ASB room floor.
She’s created a sexy volcano scene that looks like hot red lava is really flowing out of it. The theme this year is chemistry. I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard until they explained each class was going to be a classic element. We got fire. The juniors got water, sophomores got earth, and the freshmen got air. The ninth graders always get the shaft.
“Dude, what do you think?” Andi asks as she jumps down from the truck. Paint is smeared all over her clothes. Her hands are varying shades of red. She looks like she’s been dipped in a tub of colorful glitter.
“That’s bad ass,” Keesh says.
“I can’t believe you did all that,” Steph adds.
Andi waves them off. “Don’t be silly. I didn’t do it all by myself. Everyone helped.”
I cut her off. “But it was your vision. I couldn’t have dreamed up something like this.” I whip out my phone from my pocket. “I gotta get a picture and send it to my mom and Alex. This is amazing.”
“Wait. Let me turn on the eruption so you can get the fire coming out of the big volcano.”
She jogs over to the truck again.
I look over at the girls. Keesh mouths, “Fire?” Steph looks a little scared. Does someone have a fire extinguisher?
“You ready?” Andi yells. I nod, holding up my camera to capture the scene. And then we see it. A glow starts coming from the peak of the volcano. Seconds later, red, orange, and yellow metallic material bellow from the center. She must have a fan in there somewhere to keep the action moving.
“That is the coolest thing ever, Andi.” She’s standing beside me now. “Where were you our freshmen year when our float looked like that?” I point to the pathetic display of air behind us which happens to be a bunch of yellow balloons. And that’s it.
“Travis and his dad made the eruption work. I knew what I wanted but didn’t know how to make it happen. But he did.” She stands tall, obviously proud of her work.
“Damn, we’re winning again. That looks hot!” Josh says.
“Where did you disappear to again?” I ask. His smile says it all. “Did you tell Shayna to cheer for us?”
“What do you think?” he asks, his palms to the air.
“I’d be surprised if you said anything at all. You have lip gloss all over your face,” Keesh teases him.
He scrubs his hands all over his mouth. “Do I really?”
We all start cracking up. Keesh points to him and says, “Gotcha.”
“Looks like I’m the mac daddy again,” Josh says, tossing an arm around both me and Keesha.
“You wish,” Keesh says, removing his arm.
He puts it back, then gathers her in a headlock before he makes a loud kissing noise to the side of her head.
“Don’t fight it, girls. You know you want a piece of this. I’ll take care of you while your men are away. Wouldn’t want you to be lonely.”
I scoot away from him, and go to Keesh’s side and pull her away from him. “Oh, we’re not lonely.” Stepping face to face with my friend, I slowly slide my hands down her sides to her waist and then rest them on her ass. She hangs her hands around my neck and we inch closer together little by little, creating the ultimate suspense as we lean in for a kiss. But just before our lips touch, we both back away. “Just kidding,” I say as we walk past Josh.
“Oh my god. You guys are killing me.” He jogs to catch up with us. “Do it again. Please.”
“Shut up, horndog. Let’s go dance and maybe we’ll put on a show for you later.” Keesh tugs on his hand and leads him to where everyone’s dancing in Eric’s backyard.
“I’ll do whatever you want if you do that again.”
He’s such a guy. Watching him and Travis kiss would not make my panties wet at all. But watching two girls together makes a guy want to blow his load. I don’t get it.
I lift my hands in the air as I shimmy on the dance floor mixing with all the people who are already sweaty from getting their groove on. The song switches and Pitbull blares through the speakers. Oh yeah. Time to get this party started.
Everyone starts rapping, “I party like a rock star … ” My body immediately responds to the familiar beats. By the time the song is over, Keesh and I are in the center of a circle of dancers. Everyone is watching and yelling, “Go girl, go girl,” as we break it down, getting low to the ground and rising back up again with each thrust of our hips.
I step away from the crowd to catch my breath as a new song starts.
“I knew that would get you going,” Eric says, holding out a red plastic cup to me.
I take it and look inside. “Beer?”
He nods.
“Hey, great game. Three field goals. You’re kicking butt.”
“Thanks.” His smile widens. I’m sure I’m not the only one to compliment his game. “Where’s the rest of the gang?”
“Date night for the couples.” I feign gagging with a finger to my mouth.
“That’s okay. You look like you’re having fun without them.”
“I am. School’s been insanely difficult. I miss Ben like crazy. So it’s nice to just let go and dance.”
“You haven’t heard from him yet?” I shake my head. “Has Alex?” A little shake again. “He’ll get in touch as soon as he can. Finish your drink so we can dance.”
I drain my cup and set it down on a nearby table.
Eric holds out his hand and I take it. With his other hand he pulls his iPod out of his pocket and runs his thumb through a bunch of songs. “Got it.” He taps on the screen. The Anthem begins as he pushes his device back in his pants. He lifts his hands and starts clapping to the beat. “Let’s see what you got, Meggie.”
Chapter 6
While the school days seem to go by so slow, it still doesn’t feel like I have enough hours in the day to get more work done. I’m killing myself with the math homework to ensure I get extra credit on the tests. I need as much help as I can get. I’m sure I failed the last one. I haven’t gotten anything higher than a C on any of the ones before.
I drag myself to physics. Alone and feeling sorry for myself. I basically have back to back math classes. And it’s getting on my nerves.
The door opens almost knocking me out. I put my hands up just in time to catch it and I slide past other students on their way out.
And that’s when I see him.
“Hey, Meg.” Brody sucks me into a tight embrace pushing our faces together. I throw my arms around him and kiss his cheek. My day just got better.
“Omigod. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you. I missed you all summer.” And I really did. My geeky lab partner from chem last year totally grew on me. And I kept wondering how his love life was working out. I expected him to text me all break with questions about what to do in the girl department, but he didn’t. I can count on one hand how many times we connected.
“I missed you too. That’s why I switched classes. Shit’s been crazy busy so I figured this would be the ultimate Megster-Brodster time.”
“How did you manage that?”
“Mr. Dunhill loves me. He even let me sit next to you, lab partner.” His smile reaches all the way to his eyes.
“Get a room,” Amy sneers as she pushes past us.
I look at Brody and realize we’re still locked in each other’s arms. He shrugs.
“A room? Why? When I could do it Amy style and drop my pants in a dirty restroom.”
“Amy. Megan. That’s enough,” Mr. Dunhill says as he enters the room from the other door that leads to his supply room. “Keep it up and I’ll send you to see Mrs. Flores.”
“No, thank you,” Amy protests.
I step away from Brody. “Sorry, Mr. D. But I don’t mind. We go way back. We’re her regulars.”
“I don’t doubt that,” he says. “Just sit down and be quiet.”
Brody and I
retreat to our desk in the back of the room and spend the rest of the class catching up by writing notes back and forth in my notebook.
Now, if only he could be in my calculus class too, everything would be perfect.
After checking the mailbox when I get home from school, I stop in the kitchen and drop a stack of ads and envelopes on the kitchen counter.
“Anything?” Mom asks.
“Nope.”
Dad puts a hand on my shoulder. “Just keep writing him. He’s reading your letters and I’m sure he appreciates them. He’ll write when he’s able to and when he’s ready.”
“I know. But it sucks. I thought it was hell when Alex left the first time but at least I could still talk to him. I can call him right now if I wanted. But I can’t call Ben.”
“Honey, you have no idea what the military is like. The little time he has to himself, he’s probably just trying to recover from all the training, both mental and physical. You need to stop moping and think about him. Be supportive.”
Oh great. Now my dad is giving me a lecture. “I am supportive. I didn’t throw myself at his feet and hold on to his leg while he was leaving.” Though I considered it. I even thought about running him over with Josh’s truck. Just to break his leg. Nothing serious. Just enough to deem him disabled and unfit for war.
“I bet you wanted to,” Mom says.
My dad and I chuckle. “I did.”
“Next time you write, just make sure to tell him you’re proud of him and you’re honored to have him as a friend. Tell him you feel safer knowing he’s out there protecting you.” My dad runs his palm down the back of my hair. I look up at him and he gives me a sympathetic smile.
“Thanks, Dad. I will.”
Dear Recruit Ben Calloway,
Hey! It’s me again. Remember me? Haha. How could you forget? How many letters have I sent you? Like one a day, and twice on some. I should just send you a book. But that’s not allowed, so little notes will have to do.
No packages? What if I wanted to send you nudie magazines? Or what if a girl wanted to send you her panties sprayed with perfume? No fun! But I guess you’re not there for fun. Don’t worry though. I’ll take up a collection of worn chonies from the girls at school and they’ll be waiting for you when you get to visit. Ok. Maybe not. That sounds gross.
Double Threats Forever (Double Threat Series) Page 4