Much Ado About Something

by Michelle Ray

  The door opened and Dogberry and Verges emerged from Mr. Robertson’s office. As Dogberry looked at the crowd, he stood tall, smoothed his greasy hair, and said to Bryce and John, “Finally everyone gets to see what villains you really are.”

  “Villains?” John sneered. “Nice word. But they already know you’re an ass.”

  “Oh,” exclaims Dogberry, his face convulsing, “everyone hear that? I am an ass. I am a computer genius, but I am an ass. Write that down, someone. I am an ass!”

  Mr. Kerwin took Verges and Dogberry by the shoulder and ushered them out of Ms. Crouse’s office. “Come on boys, let’s get back to the A/V room.”

  “So you think they’ll let you back here?” I asked Clay.

  Clay shrugged. “Dunno. I’m not sure I want to come back even if they do.”

  “Why?”

  “This place makes me kind of sad. Even if they prove I didn’t send the video, I still accused Hope. I still made her feel bad.” He leaned his head against the wall and looked up. “This year has sucked.”

  “Maybe we can still make it right. You have to come back.”

  Beatriz

  Maggie waved me into the hallway. “I didn’t know what Bryce was going to use it for,” Maggie whispered. “I didn’t even want him to film us.”

  “But you let him do it anyway, Maggie,” I said louder than I should. “Don’t you have any sense of pride or dignity? God! You’ll do anything to get a guy to like you.”

  Everyone passing was listening, but I wouldn’t stop.

  “I’m not like you, B. Guys as nice as Ben aren’t interested in me.”

  “Cuz you—” I stopped as I came to understand something that I ought to have earlier. “Wait, you knew that was you on the video weeks ago. You knew and you never said anything.”

  Maggie’s pink face flushed deeper.

  “All this time!” My voice rose. “You let everyone think that my cousin was cheating with Bryce and you let her dad think it was her on that video and — Jesus! I thought you were my friend.”

  “I am your friend, B.”

  “You must be kidding. Get away from me. Go in and stand with your boyfriend. Or is he even that? He just uses you!” I stopped myself, and felt kind of bad for her. Though not bad enough to keep from whispering, “You’re pathetic, Maggie.”

  Ben

  Glad I wasn’t the one pissing B off this time.

  Beatriz

  My heart had almost slowed by the time Mr. Robertson came out and explained that Clay was welcome to return to Messina if he wished, and that his time away would count as a suspension. In addition, all record of Peter and Ben’s suspension would be erased.

  My uncle’s face pinched as he said, “But Clay—”

  “Leo, I can imagine what you will say and I understand where you are coming from. I have all along. But the deception by John and Bryce was intentional and vicious in nature. The police will be contacted, as well. They have done what we all suspect Clay of doing, and they will receive that punishment.”

  My uncle started to argue, but Mr. Robertson held up his hand imperially. “Thank you all for coming. I need to deal with the others now, if you will excuse me.”

  I considered spitting at John and Bryce or saying something damning on my way out, but I couldn’t think of the words. My mother did it for me.

  “What kind of parents raise such boys?” she asked the Crotaluses and the Krunks.

  John’s father looks up from his phone and slowly replied, “What kind of women get their kicks from whistle blowing? Not enough blowing at home? Like mother like daughter, from what I hear.”

  My dad ran forward and shoved Mr. Crotalus, and everyone started to yell. Other parents pulled them apart and the secretary called for security, but Mr. Robertson ran between them and demanded that everyone go home.

  Virgil Verges In lieu of thanks for the expulsion of Bryce and John, I’ll settle for not being punched in the back or tossed into any more pools.

  Beatriz

  On my way out, I got a text from Bryce:

  I’m sorry about hope. Sorry 4 everything.

  I showed Clay and Ben. “Seems like there’s enough regret to go around, but it can’t be undone.”

  Clay’s face pinched. “No, it can’t.”

  I felt sorry for him. He was so sincere and I remembered how much he liked Hope, and how Hope lit up when she talked about Clay. Once upon a time.

  “I gotta get back to my own school,” Clay explained, tugging at his uniform blazer with the crest of our rivals.

  “You’re coming back, right?” I asked.

  “Not sure.”

  “Better crop of girls over there, from what I hear,” Ben offered, just as Bexley Sambadi came scampering over and threw her arms around Ben.

  “I knew you’d be found innocent!” Bexley squealed and then she kissed him smack on the lips.

  I ran.

  Ben

  I pushed Bexley away. “What’s wrong with you?”

  I turned to look for B, but Bexley grabbed hold of my face. “What’s wrong with you? The joke is, I actually want you, while uptight B doesn’t. She dumped you and you can’t let it go. You’re ridiculous, Ben.” She started to cry and took off.

  “Wow,” said Clay. “You’ve still got the magic touch with the ladies, my man. You gonna use those sweet moves at the dance?”

  I groaned. “Ugh, the dance. I forgot all about it.” I looked at him and begged, “Say you’ll come. Be my date.”

  He laughed. “I’m all yours.”

  Maggie O’Toole I’m closing my account. The online threats have been almost as much fun as being told off in person. Thanks for your support.

  * * *

  “So my son’s record will be cleared?” Mr. Chen asks.

  “Completely,” the lawyer answers. “Aren’t you happy about that, Clay?”

  Clay shrugs and says, “It won’t bring her back.”

  17

  Clay Chen Change can be good. Even when it means going back to something familiar.

  Beatriz

  I arrived early at the dance as always to be sure the set-up was done correctly, and sighed to think how last time Ben was waiting in the parking lot so we could go in together. Incredibly, his car was already parked and I couldn’t help but look to see if he was in there. For a second I thought he was, and — what? Waiting for me? Nope. It was a shadow and some wishful thinking. Then again, what would I do if he were waiting?

  I guessed Ben was already getting things set for a dance that neither one of us seemed thrilled about. At least I hoped he was working. If he was in the gym flirting with someone, I swore I would just go home.

  Ben Richardson I hate whoever thought up Valentine’s Day.

  Ben

  I was working with the delivery guy to secure the balloon arch to the basketball net. B had been right when she (begrudgingly) offered decoration advice at a meeting, saying balloon arches would change the room. It did look great.

  Then she walked through the door and she looked great even in her jeans and t-shirt holding a dress I knew would look killer once she put it on. Though I’d rather see her taking it off.

  What was wrong with me? I was pining. Pining! What the hell? I was not a guy who pined. Did guys even pine? Well, if they did, then I was pretty sure that was what I was doing. But I wouldn’t talk to her. I was like a stubborn Rapunzel up in tower refusing to let my hair down. Great, I was in the role of the girl. And thinking in metaphors. Or maybe that was a simile. B would know. I hated her. No. I still loved her. And missed her.

  I thought things would change after the truth about the video had come out, but they didn’t. I guess the Bexley thing didn’t help. Neither did the fact that I didn’t go talk to her or text her or anything. I kind of thought she would come to me. I wanted her to make the first move, but after a few days of looking at me expectantly, she had stopped making eye contact all together.

  Beatriz

  I saw Ben at work
with the balloons, so I sauntered over, trying not to seem too eager. I didn’t want to flirt. I didn’t really want to even have a conversation, but not talking to him would be too obvious. Like I was trying to get his attention by not talking to him.

  I’d thought after the truth about the video came out, things would change. I kept waiting for him to, like, talk to me, but he never did. He avoided me completely and chatted with other girls and hung out with Peter a lot.

  I started to email and text him a dozen times about what had happened with my uncle, but it seemed like it was too late. Ben was healing, so I had to deal with it as best I could. By being totally depressed and avoiding him. Obviously.

  “Looking good,” I said from the bottom of Ben’s ladder, nearly kicking myself for the flirtatious words. What was wrong with me?

  “I tried something new with my hair,” he joked, flipping his imaginary tresses.

  I smiled before I could stop myself. “I meant the arch. Ben, really important question: Would you call the color of those balloons blush or cherry?”

  His mouth twisted. “I couldn’t give a crap. Honestly, B, how can girls fill their brains with such junk?”

  “You’d have to ask a girl who does, Ben.” Just then the Vaill twins giggled into the gym, and I gestured at them. “Speak of the devils. What should we give them to do?”

  “Is the food table gonna be out with the tickets?”

  I nodded.

  “Sounds like the perfect place for them to work.”

  “That’s where I’m supposed to be.”

  He shrugged.

  “Thanks.” I grimaced at the thought of their ear-splitting enthusiasm bouncing off the walls for the next hour plus. Then out of curiosity and masochism, I asked, “Where’s Sula?”

  Sula was Ben’s date. Yay.

  I’d found out from Peter. He’d explained, “Ben was sick of the issue and Sula was available.”

  I tisked. “She likes you, Peter. You should have asked her.”

  “She likes me?”

  “Yes.” I laughed. “I think you’re actually worse at dating than me.”

  “She likes me?” he asked again.

  “Oh my God, Peter. Seriously?”

  He’d gotten a distant look in his eyes. “I didn’t think . . . I thought Sula and I were friends.”

  “You are, but haven’t you noticed she’s always sitting next to you and touching you?”

  His searching look told me that he hadn’t. “She’s great, but dating a friend is tricky.”

  I shifted my weight. “No joke.”

  “Well, you and I will both be alone, so maybe we can dance a little. It’ll be fun.”

  “It’ll be something,” I’d thought, but had agreed.

  • • •

  So here we were a week later, with Ben explaining, “Sula’s with Peter at dinner. They went with Clay and Kai.” Clay had decided to come back to Messina after all, but didn’t want a date for the dance. In fact, it took a lot of coaxing to get him to agree to come at all.

  “A table of boys all to herself. Sula’s version of heaven.”

  “And yours?” Ben asked, jumping down from the ladder, landing just a little too close to me.

  “I thought you knew me, Ben.” I looked at him more sadly than I meant to. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”

  I could kick myself. Why was I incapable of remaining breezy?

  Ben

  I watched her leave, wrangling the girls to help set up as she went. In charge, she was at ease. With me, she seemed so pained. I hated that.

  Graduation was only a few months away. We’d just have to wait it out.

  Beatriz

  Set up finished and we all changed. Our friends came in and everyone admired everyone else. It made me miss Hope. And it made me miss Ben.

  “You look hot!” exclaimed Peter, and I realized he was talking to me.

  “Oh. Sula does, too.”

  “But I already told her that,” said Peter, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Tell her again.”

  Peter looked at Sula and said hesitantly, “You really do look amazing.”

  “Thanks,” she said, smiling wide.

  A slow dance came on and we all stared at each other, not sure what to do next. Finally, I said, “Ben,” and everyone looked at me with surprise. Like I was going to ask him to dance. Please. “I think Peter wants to steal your date. You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

  Sula straightened up and smiled, and, without taking his eyes off of her, Peter said, “Yeah, Ben, you wouldn’t mind, right?”

  Ben said, “Not at all.”

  Sula and Peter walked off hand in hand, like Hope and Clay had not so long before, and suddenly a tear was in my eye.

  I cleared my throat. “The twins and I have ticket sales covered, so you all go inside.”

  One song played and then another, while I stood in the reverberating entry feeling hollow.

  After a half hour, Clay came out of the gym “B, I need you to come with me.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  I hated surprises.

  Ben

  I’d been brought to the green room behind the stage, and told it was a surprise. Then Clay dragged B in, and my stomach dropped. B hated surprises. Everyone knew that. And from the excited glimmer in Sula’s eye, I got a terrible feeling it had to do with B and me.

  As soon as the door closed, Sula pulled out her phone and the screen lit up with my face. “Listen you two,” she said, “we’re kind of sick of this game you’ve been playing, and this tension — unnecessary, I might add — is taking its toll on all of us. So we took matters into our own hands.”

  She hit play.

  “I’m gonna ask B to the dance,” said a recorded voice from off screen.

  It was Peter.

  God, I remembered this day. I didn’t know the bastard was recording the conversation. I reached out for Sula, trying to get the phone from her, but Peter blocked my way.

  “Just trust us,” Peter whispered.

  The recorded-me sat up swiftly and asked, “B? Why?”

  “Because you haven’t,” recorded-Peter says.

  “Wait—”

  “Why? You said yourself you’re not getting back together. So what’s it to you? Geez, Ben, you have such a February face. What’s with the gloom and doom? It shouldn’t matter if I ask her out, right?”

  “I — It doesn’t. Do what you want. But be good to her, okay? She’s sensitive. You might not know that but she is. And listen to her stories because even though you sometimes think they’re going nowhere, if you let her get all the way to the end, you’ll see that all the pieces fit together. And she’s funny. Mean-funny sometimes, but funny.”

  “I know.”

  Every muscle in my body was tense. My eyes darted to B, but she was staring at the screen expressionless, so I looked back.

  “But did you know the girl can sing? I mean, it’s amazing. Of course she can sing, right? She’s so good at everything that you almost forget that it’s abnormal to be this perfect. And her—” Recorded-me breaks off and looks Peter dead in the eye. “Forget it, Peter. I’m not okay with you going to the dance with her.”

  “We’re going as friends, Ben.”

  “No. You can’t — Just don’t.”

  I watched myself leave the screen and remembered that I’d left Peter’s house even though we were supposed to have gone for a run. I’d also had to sit in my car to catch my breath before driving away.

  Onscreen, Peter turns the camera on himself and says, “He still loves her.” The image of Peter’s face freezes and then the screen goes black.

  Beatriz

  I was rooted to my spot even though I wanted to bolt out of the green room and go . . . where? I wanted the comfort of a friend, but my friends did this to me. How could they?

  But Ben had said those things to Peter about me. He thought I was amazing. But I knew that. What did this chang
e? Nothing. My stomach churned and I was suddenly afraid I would puke up the rice crispy treat I ate an hour ago.

  “You son of a bitch!” cried Ben. “How could you show that?”

  Sula hit a button on her phone and my face appeared on screen. I was at lunch laughing. Ben froze.

  “I’m going to the dance with Ben,” says Sula off screen.

  “Peter told me,” I say tightly on the video. There’s a pause, and then I add, “Why, Sula? Why Ben?”

  “I think he’s fantastic. And you’re obviously not getting back together.”

  “Jesus, Sula. Why do you have to—”

  “Tell me why I shouldn’t.”

  I blink rapidly. “Because you’re my friend.”

  “I like him, B. It could turn into something.”

  “Yeah it could and — Whatever. You’re not his type anyway.”

  “I thought his type was anything female.”

  “He’s not like that. It’s a façade. So much has happened to him that no one knows about. A lot of times when he’s acting like a jerk, he’s just doing it to protect himself. And even when crazy things are going on in his personal life, he’s so thoughtful. He’ll remember a song you were singing and download it, or bring you your favorite snack just because. He’ll make you feel better just by sitting nearby and looking at you with his gorgeous eyes . . . Oh, Sula, please don’t get together with him. I can’t watch him be like that with you. I can’t.”