Something New

by Amanda Abram

  He grinned. “It is. And now that I’m no longer playing the role of Boyfriend’s Best Friend, I can finally stop being annoying to you.”

  “Lucky me,” I said as my laughter subsided. I moved to get off the couch, but Dylan’s hand shot out and lightly grabbed my arm, stopping me.

  “Wait.” The amusement was gone from his face now. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Okay. What’s up?”

  “Elijah stopped by earlier,” he replied. “He told me about the conversation you two had after school today.”

  I lowered my gaze to my lap. “Oh yeah?” I kept my voice cool and casual.

  “Yeah. He was excited, to say the least.” He paused for a moment. “Are you getting back together with him?”

  I didn’t answer right away. I didn’t know how to. I honestly didn’t know if I was ever going to get back together with Elijah. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to truly trust him again. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about him anymore. Just a week ago, I was madly in love with him.

  Now, I didn’t know what to feel for him.

  I sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve at least agreed to be friends with him. To take things slow.”

  Dylan nodded but remained silent.

  “What do you think I should do?” I asked, even though I hadn’t planned on asking for his advice. “Do you think I should take him back?”

  His eyes snapped to mine. “You want my opinion?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “I doubt that.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Let me guess—you think I should take him back with open arms? I’m assuming that’s what he would want you to tell me, anyway.”

  With a humorless chuckle, he raked a hand through his hair. “That is what he wants me to tell you, but I’m not going to.”

  I blinked at him in surprise. “You’re not?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Why not?

  He moved closer to me and rested his elbow on the back of the couch. “Because it doesn’t matter what I think, or what Lauren thinks. And it doesn’t matter what Elijah wants. What matters is what you think and what you want. You need to follow your own heart on this one.”

  I couldn’t help but snicker at that. “Wow, Dylan, that was kind of cheesy.”

  The tips of his ears turned the slightest shade of pink. “My mom watches the Hallmark Channel a lot.”

  “Good excuse,” I said with a giggle, but it quickly faded. “What if I don’t know what I want?”

  He considered my question for a moment before answering. “Then Elijah will just have to wait until you do. There’s no rush to take him back. You need to be sure that’s what you want. Otherwise, you’re just going to get your heart broken again.”

  Slowly, I began to nod. “You’re right.”

  “And maybe Lauren’s right as well,” he continued. “Maybe you should try the whole rebound thing. It might make everything clear to you.”

  “I was going to try the rebound thing tonight, but then you bribed me into staying here and watching a movie with you instead.”

  “You’re welcome, by the way. Trust me, you don’t want to rebound with an Ellsworth Prep guy. Like I said before, they’re all dicks.”

  “Okay, then who should I rebound with? The guys at our school aren’t exactly lining up at my door to ask me out.”

  “That’s because a lot of them don’t even know you and Elijah broke up.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I doubt that. News travels fast. I’m sure even the cafeteria ladies know by now.”

  “Well, trust me, Cass, there are plenty of guys who’d be willing to date you.”

  “Oh yeah?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Name one.”

  He opened his mouth to answer, but when he failed to come up with one, he raised his eyes to the ceiling as if hoping the list of names would be written up there.

  “That’s what I thought,” I said.

  “Okay, so maybe I don’t have any specific names, but I honestly can’t think of many guys who would turn you down. You’re beautiful, kind, smart, fun to be around—what more could a guy ask for?”

  My breath hitched in my throat as I tried hard not to blush at his words. I wasn’t sure anyone had ever called me “beautiful” before, not even Elijah. And as for the other compliments—did Dylan really mean them, or was he just trying to make me feel better?

  Either way, I now felt terribly awkward, so I just said the first stupid thing that popped into my head. Playfully hitting his arm, I teased, “Whoa, Romeo. Maybe I should rebound date you.”

  He stared at me for a moment before chuckling and lowering his head, muttering something under his breath so quietly, I couldn’t make out his words.

  “What?” I asked.

  But he didn’t have a chance to answer before he was interrupted by the sound of the front door suddenly bursting open and banging into the wall next to it. We both turned to see Dylan’s mom stumbling into the house and clumsily trying to close the door behind her.

  I don’t think she was aware that Dylan and I were in the room at first, because when she finally turned around and saw us, she gasped and placed her hand over her heart.

  “Oh, hey kids,” she said breathlessly. “I didn’t see you there.”

  “Mom,” Dylan said, his voice tight. He moved away from me on the couch. “Where have you been all night?”

  She gave him a snort that turned into a giggle. “Gosh, you sound like a parent.”

  I could hear him inhaling sharply next to me. “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

  Mrs. Meyers dropped her purse onto the floor and slowly began to remove her jacket. “The girls took me out for a night on the town. I may have had a margarita or two.”

  “Great. Just great,” Dylan mumbled, dragging a hand down his face. I had a feeling this wasn’t the first time he’d had to deal with this.

  “I’m gonna head out,” I said quietly, getting up from the couch. I had a feeling that things were about to get uncomfortable.

  “Oh, hello, Cassie,” Mrs. Meyers cheerfully greeted me. “It’s so nice to see you again.” She unsteadily walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. Leaning in, she frowned. “I heard about what happened with Elijah. I’m so sorry.”

  The smell of alcohol on her breath was so strong, it nearly brought tears to my eyes. “Thanks.”

  She pulled me into a tight embrace. “I know what it’s like to be cheated on, you know, so if you ever need somebody to talk to who understands, you can talk to me.” She pulled back and held me at arm’s length. “That boy was crazy to kiss another girl. You’re so pretty.” She caressed my hair with the back of her hand, getting her fingers tangled in my waves.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Meyers.”

  She laughed. “Oh, dear, please—I won’t be Mrs. Meyers for much longer. You can call me Ms. Harris instead. Harris is my maiden name.”

  “Mom,” Dylan hissed, shooting up off the couch. “That’s enough. Cassie needs to get home.”

  She looked taken aback by his stern tone of voice. With raised eyebrows, she let me go and took a step backward. “I’m sorry.” She glanced between me and Dylan with a curious look on her face. “I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

  I could feel my face flush at her suggestion as I shook my head. “No, you weren’t. We were just hanging out, watching a movie.”

  “Oh.” Mrs. Meyers’ face twisted into a look of disgust as her hand shot up to cover her mouth. “Excuse me,” she said before hurrying out of the room, presumably to go throw up.

  Once she was out of the room, Dylan let out a sigh of frustration. “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s okay.” I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. This probably wasn’t the first time his mother had gotten drunk since his father had dropped his bombshell on them—and I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be the last time. “I’m gonna go.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Dylan led me to the front door and opened it
for me.

  I grabbed my jacket from the banister and put it on. “Thanks for the introduction to Die Hard, and for the twenty bucks.”

  “My pleasure,” he said with a smile. When I stepped out the door, he added, “Drive carefully, okay?”

  I nodded. “I will. See you on Monday.”

  “See you on Monday.”

  I turned to leave. When I was halfway down the front steps, his voice called out behind me.

  “Oh, and maybe you should.”

  Confused, I stopped and glanced back at him over my shoulder. “Maybe I should what?”

  With a small smile, he simply said, “Goodnight, Cass,” before retreating inside the house and closing the door behind him…leaving me all alone on his front steps, trying to figure out what exactly he was talking about.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “I think I’m in love,” Lauren breathed into the phone the next morning.

  I balanced my own phone between my ear and my shoulder as I pumped a glob of mousse into my hand. Lauren had interrupted my daily beauty routine by calling me only two minutes after I stepped out of the shower, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from doing what I needed to do. I had to get the mousse in my hair while it was still wet, or I was going to be in for a lousy, flat hair day.

  “With the guy Tiana set you up with, I assume?” I set the phone onto the counter and tapped the speaker button before proceeding to scrunch the mousse into my hair.

  “Actually, no,” Lauren said, her voice now filling the bathroom.

  My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What do you mean, no?”

  “I mean I met someone else at the party,” she said. “Brett, the guy Tiana set me up with, was a complete tool. He talked about himself for like an hour and then asked if I wanted to go make out in a bedroom. I was like, ‘Um, thanks, but no thanks’ and ditched him. And then I met Jake.” She finished with a sigh.

  “Jake? Who’s Jake?”

  “The boy I’m in love with!”

  “Yeah, I get that, I just mean, who is he and how did you meet him?”

  “Funny story,” Lauren said. “I was in the process of ghosting Brett when I literally bumped into this boy and he spilled his entire drink all over both of us. He apologized profusely to me, and then I apologized profusely to him. We laughed about it, and then he told me about how club soda is supposed to be good at getting stains out. So, we went in search of club soda, couldn’t find any, but we found some ginger ale instead and wondered, would it work to get stains out? Well, it didn’t, so then we laughed about that. And since we figured our shirts were already ruined, we experimented by using all sorts of other beverages to get the stains out. Such a dorky thing to do, I know, but we had such a good time. We started talking and getting to know each other, and before I left the party with Tiana, he kissed me! But it was so romantic. He didn’t shove his tongue down my throat like I’m sure Brett would have. No, he was a gentleman and so sweet, and Cassie, I’m in love!”

  I stared down at my phone and smiled, even though she couldn’t see it. “Wow. That was quite a meet-cute.”

  “I know, right?” Lauren squealed. “Anyway, he asked me out on a date tonight!”

  I plugged in my hair dryer and set it beside the sink. “That’s great, Laur. I can’t wait to meet him.”

  “Great, because you won’t have to wait! We’re going on a double date tonight!”

  “Oh yeah? With who?” I asked, but as soon as the question was out of my mouth, I knew what the answer was: with me. She and Jake were going on a double date with me.

  “With you, silly,” she said. “Oh, and his best friend. Now, I know you don’t like blind dates, and I know you said you had to approve of a guy before I set you up with him, but trust me, if his friend is anything like he is, you’re going to love him.”

  I frowned into the mirror. The last thing I felt like doing was going on a blind date. With anyone.

  “I’ll have to ask my parents.” While they would probably say yes, Lauren didn’t have to know that. Claiming my parents said “no” was always an easy way out of any situation.

  “Okay. Well, I’m going shopping with my mom in a little bit. Talk to your parents and text me when you get an answer.”

  “Will do,” I said. “Have fun.”

  “I will! Talk to you later! Bye!” Lauren ended the call before I could respond.

  When I was done blow drying my hair, I joined my parents and Caitlyn in the kitchen, where they were all finishing up with their breakfast.

  “There’s a plate of pancakes next to the stove with your name on it,” Mom said when she saw me.

  “Thanks, I’m starving.” I walked over and grabbed the plate of chocolate chip pancakes—my favorite—and brought it over to the table.

  “So,” I said, sitting down across from Caitlyn and reaching for the syrup, “Lauren was wondering if I could go on a double date with her and her new boyfriend tonight.”

  Mom took a sip of her coffee and shook her head. “Sorry, sweetheart, no-can-do. Tonight’s family game night, remember?”

  Every month, my parents, Caitlyn and I devoted one Saturday night to staying in as a family and playing board games. Once I turned fourteen, I started thinking game nights were lame, but I couldn’t have been more relieved to hear this month’s game night was tonight. It would be the perfect excuse to skip the double date, especially since Lauren knew how important those nights were to my family.

  She wouldn’t even question it.

  “Oh, bummer,” I said, feigning disappointment.

  I must have feigned it too well because Mom quickly said, “But you’re more than welcome to invite them over here to play some games with us.”

  Even if I had wanted to, I wouldn’t have. “Nah. I don’t think Lauren wants to sit around playing board games on her first date with this guy.”

  Mom nodded. “I just figured I’d offer.” She raised her coffee mug to her lips to take another sip and paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Hey, why don’t you invite Dylan to join us?”

  “Dylan?” I asked with a mouthful of pancake.

  “Yeah!” Caitlyn said brightly from across the table. “Great idea, Mom!”

  I swallowed my food. “Why would I invite Dylan?”

  “I don’t know. You two seem to have become good friends lately.” She set her mug down and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “And I heard about what’s going on with his parents.”

  My shoulders slumped forward. “Seriously? Where did you hear about that?”

  “My hairdresser,” she replied. When she saw my horrified expression, she added, “It’s a small town, people like to gossip.”

  If my mom had heard about Dylan’s parents from the hairdresser, there was a good chance everyone had heard about it. Poor Dylan.

  “I just think maybe he could use the distraction,” Mom continued. “And we’d love to have him over, right dear?” She turned to my father.

  Dad glanced up from the newspaper. “Another male besides me at game night? Heck yeah, we’d love to have him over.”

  “Why don’t you give him a call?” Mom suggested to me.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m pretty sure Dylan has better things to do on a Saturday night than play Scrabble with the Briggs family.” Like go to a party or hang out with his guy friends doing guy stuff.

  Still, I didn’t hate the idea of him coming over. It would maybe even be kind of fun.

  “Oh, what the heck,” I said, shoving another forkful of pancake into my mouth. “I’ll give him a call after breakfast.”

  “Yay!” Caitlyn jumped up from her chair. “This is going to be so much fun!”

  “I haven’t even asked him yet,” I reminded her as she ran out of the kitchen, but she pretended not to hear me.

  After I cleaned my plate, I went upstairs to my bedroom and dialed Dylan’s number.

  When he didn’t answer within four rings, I was about to end the call when he picked up.
r />   “Hello?” He sounded groggy, like my phone call had woken him up.

  “Oh, hey, Dylan,” I said, suddenly feeling nervous for no reason. “This is Cassie.”

  “I know,” he said. “What’s up?”

  “Did I wake you?” I glanced at my alarm clock. It was only eight-thirty. Why did I call him so early on a Saturday morning?

  “My alarm was just about to go off anyway. What’s going on?”

  I sat down on my bed. “Oh, um, I was just wondering, do you have plans tonight?”

  There was pause on his end. “Plans?”

  “Yeah. You know, like, are you going anywhere? Doing anything?”

  Another pause. “Why do you ask?”

  Suddenly, the whole idea of inviting him over to play board games with my family seemed like a bad one. But it was too late now. I was in too deep.

  I held my breath for a moment before saying, “Because I was wondering if maybe you’d like to come over to my house tonight for Family Game Night?”

  I could almost hear the smirk forming on his face. “Family Game Night?”

  “Yeah. One night a month, my family and I hang out and play board games all night. And I was just sort of wondering if maybe, I don’t know, you’d like to join us?”

  There was another pause on his end, this one much longer than the other two. In fact, I had to wonder if he’d hung up on me.

  “I know it sounds lame,” I continued, “but we’ll be ordering tons of Chinese food too, if that helps entice you at all.”

  That got his attention. “Will there be Kung Pao Chicken?”

  “Of course, there will be Kung Pao Chicken.” It was my favorite. I made sure my parents ordered it every time.

  “Okay, then, I’m in.”

  I blinked in surprise. “For real?”

  “Yeah, sure. Why not? Sounds like fun. What time should I be there?”

  “How about six?”

  “Sounds great. See you then,” he said and promptly hung up.

  Mom poked her head in my room. “Did you call him? Is he coming?”

  “Yeah, actually, he is,” I replied.

  Mom smiled. “You look happy about that.”

  Only after she said that did I realize I was grinning. I cleared my throat, wiped the grin off my face and shrugged. “It’s cool. Whatever.”