Saving Face (a young adult romance)

by Dell, T. J.

  “Sweet.” Brent grabbed the box from her. “Go change. I’ll put a DVD in.” And he walked carelessly into her family room. Just as he’d done a thousand times before. She really had to get a hold of herself.

  When she was changed, she came back downstairs to find Brent spread out on her couch; his feet propped up, one hand reaching into the cereal box, and watching the opening scenes of the first Harry Potter movie. He knew she preferred Richard Harris to Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore. The sight was so familiar. Just Brent hanging out, watching a movie. Alyssa happily joined him on the couch.

  “I had a good time tonight Lyssa. Mostly.”

  “Mostly?”

  “Yeah, well you pretty much go to school in a John Hughes movie. But I like Tommy and Beth. And you were there—I like you.”

  “Thanks.” She snorted a little. “I like you too.”

  “Hillfield’s homecoming is next week. If you want we could go.”

  Did he sound nervous? No. Brent never sounded nervous. “Like a date?”

  “I don’t know, Lyssa. I just thought you might want to go. And I can hardly take someone else. Do we have to make a big deal out of it?”

  “No. I mean yes—we should go.” Alyssa recovered quickly. Of course it wasn’t a real date. “I’ll get Beth to go dress shopping with me.”

  “What’s wrong with the brown dress? I liked it.”

  “Coffee. It’s not brown. And you don’t wear dresses like that twice.”

  “Girls are dumb.”

  “Yeah well—at least we don’t have cooties.” Alyssa stole the Lucky Charms box from him.

  Chapter Ten

  It was Wednesday before Beth was free to go to the mall with Alyssa. That was cutting it a little close, but she’d been regretting bailing on Beth for dress shopping a few weeks before. And shopping alone didn’t sound like much fun. “I like the red one.” Beth was saying as she passed several choices over the top of a dressing room door. “Red would look good with your hair.”

  “I was thinking green.” Alyssa mumbled from inside. Jenn’s dress had been a perfect emerald green satin. Exactly the shade of Brent’s eyes.

  “There’s a green one in this pile. But I don’t think you should limit yourself to one color just because of what Jenn said.”

  Stupid Jennifer. “I’m not. I just like green that’s all.” She opened the door wearing a floor length moss green shift with a filmy overskirt.

  “Very nice. Better than Jenn’s for sure.”

  “I hardly remember Jenn’s dress.” Alyssa said aloud, while inside she loudly and emphatically agreed that this dress was way better than Jenn’s. “This is the one.”

  “Wow. I’ve never bought a dress in under 30 minutes before.” Beth started hanging the discarded options on the dressing room rack. “It does seem like it was made for you though. Want to get some dinner as long as we’re out?”

  “Chinese?”

  Beth wrinkled up her face. “I’d rather anything else. There’s a Mexican place in the food court that’s pretty good.”

  Enchiladas in hand, they found a table in the food court. “Can I ask you a question?” Beth asked after a moment.

  Alyssa nodded.

  “What’s really the deal with you and Brent?”

  Alyssa started choking. “Sorry, umm spicy.” She said after sucking down half her soda. “What did you mean?”

  “Look if it’s none of my business that’s fine. I just thought… well he only just asked you to his homecoming? Your dad was kinda surprised he was going with you last weekend, and sometimes you seem to forget you even have a boyfriend.” Beth shook her head. “Just so you know—I think Pete’s a jerk. So do half the kids at our school. And only Jenn thinks she’s important. Mostly people ignore her.”

  Busted. Beth was a lot more perceptive than she’d given her credit for. “Brent and I—” What could she say? Lying was getting to be so exhausting and confusing. “We are still figuring things out, I guess.” She finished a little lamely. It was basically true.

  Beth seemed to accept that—even if it was lame. “Well your dress is perfect. Make sure to take pictures okay?”

  The rest of the meal conversation was dedicated to more interesting and superficial topics. Such as Tommy’s crazy obsession with his car:

  “Really! He made me take off my shoes before getting in last week!”

  And the rumor that their chemistry teacher was actually a member of witness protection. “It would totally explain why he needs to check his teacher edition every ten seconds. It’s the blind leading the blind in that class.” This was from Alyssa but Beth was nodding in agreement.

  And of course about Lisa Thompson’s sudden disinterest in Pete. “I guess she wasn’t too happy about him drooling all over you at the dance”

  “I don’t think I’d say drooling. He was just drunk. I am glad he left quietly though. Wasn’t it smooth the way Brent just handled things?”

  Beth looked like she was trying not to smile. “It was. Very Smooth.”

  When Brent picked her up on Saturday night there were fewer butterflies. This was because she’d been preparing herself all day for the sight of him in formal wear.

  “I’m glad you bought a new dress. It’s nice.” Brent commented when they found a table in the Hillfield gym. This was the first time Alyssa’d been to the exclusive private school. She wasn’t sure why, but the fact that this room largely resembled her own school’s gym only with different a different color scheme really surprised her.

  “Thanks.”

  They’d driven over in Brent’s car, but a group of his friends were saving them seats when they arrived. James, Liz, Matt, Ella, Patrick, and what was his date’s name? Sandy maybe? She would have to wait for someone else to speak to her and try to catch her name then.

  “We’ve heard a lot about you Lyssa.” Liz spoke up when Brent was off getting them drinks.

  “All good I hope.” Alyssa offered a shy smile. This was a new smile for her because she wasn’t usually a shy person. But what had they heard about her?

  “Oh, yeah.” James put in. “Brent says you throw a mean long ball.”

  “And that you know everything worth knowing about hockey and every other sport worth watching.” Patrick added.

  “And that’s good?” Alyssa’s real smile came out.

  “Yes!” All three guys said at once.

  “He also told us you organized a charity carnival for the hospital.” Liz shot her date a pointed look. “And that you’re something of a math whiz.”

  “She carried my ass through Trig last year.” Brent returned to the table with a couple of sodas.

  “You were doing fine. I just double checked his homework every now and then.” Alyssa blushed. It was nice, she thought, that Brent was talking her up to his friends. Usually when someone complimented her it was on cheering, or on her appearance. This was way better.

  “Okay so who’s your favorite hockey player?” Patrick asked her.

  “Current player or overall?”

  Patrick grinned. “Overall”

  “Bobby Clarke. Hands down. Loyalty is important to me—he spent the most seasons as a Flyer. Plus he was the youngest ever NHL captain in 1972, until Schoenfeld in 74.”

  The boys looked stunned and a little impressed. Actually a few of their dates looked impressed too.

  “Schoenfeld didn’t play for the Flyers.” Patrick accused lightly.

  “Never said he did. He was with Buffalo.” Alyssa chirped happily.

  “Alright, alright! My date isn’t a party trick.” Brent was chuckling as he stood up. “Dance with me Lyssa.”

  He tucked her just under his chin and settled into a slow swaying dance step. “I like your friends.” Alyssa was talking against her shoulder.

  “They like you too. It’s funny isn’t it?”

  “What? That your friends like me?” Alyssa pulled back to look him in the eye.

  Brent laughed and spun her around. “No. That you�
�re just meeting them and that I never knew Beth or Tommy before… all this.”

  “You’ve known Beth and Tommy since we were all kids.”

  “You know what I mean, Lyssa.”

  “Yeah, I guess I do.”

  They had a great time. Dancing, joking, sharing stories. It was hands down her best date ever. Alyssa was happy to play 20 questions with all of Brent’s friends. They included her like she’d known them for years. That was a big perk of being Brent’s best friend. He had this way of making himself a part of the crowd and towing her along with him. He was never the center of a party—that would have been too much pressure. But he was always there, moving with the action.

  At the end of the night Brent and Alyssa were some of the last to leave. Even then Alyssa was reluctant. Here, away from the labels and pressures of the past few weeks, she felt happier and more relaxed than… well than ever. And those butterflies in her stomach? They weren’t all bad; she was kind of getting used to them.

  In the car on their way home they sang along with the radio at the top of their lungs. Alyssa thought they did Still Rock and Roll better than Billy Joel. Wheezer’s Buddy Holly was more difficult, but really did anyone know all those lyrics? She was out of breath when they pulled into his driveway.

  “This was fun, Brent. I’m glad you asked me.”

  “Well I guess that’s better than I appreciated it.” They both laughed at the memory of their first fake date. The laughter drifted off into silence. Leaving the air between them charged with light tension. There was a whole ‘new territory’ feeling about this night. Alyssa wasn’t totally sure she liked that—but neither did she want it to end.

  “Are you going to invite me in?” Alyssa asked after a few moments of quiet.

  “I’m still thinking about it.” Brent’s whisper was close to her, and Alyssa realized they’d been leaning toward each other. In the dark of the parked car she couldn’t read the expression on his face. But excitement was breaking out in her blood stream, and her body hummed at the idea of kissing him.

  Kissing Brent! Whoa! Alyssa straightened up. She didn’t want to kiss Brent. Brent was her buddy. They played Mario Cart and helped each other with their homework. “I think I’m tired. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She bolted out of the car and down the sidewalk toward her house.

  “Lyssa! Lyssa, wait!” She could hear him behind her but she wasn’t stopping for anything.

  Brent called her cell phone three times before she turned it off. She left it off all weekend. Even though that meant going to Pop’s by herself, and having to play chess. Her mind was running a mile a minute. Brent had almost kissed her. She was pretty sure anyway that he’d been going to kiss her. In the daylight and out of her fancy dress it was hard to be sure exactly what happened. Probably she could ask Brent. Right. Like that was gonna happen.

  The strangest part was that she couldn’t even decide if she wanted him to kiss her. At the time— sure she’d wanted it. But kissing Brent would change everything. And she wasn’t very sure she wanted things to change. Besides, until that moment Alyssa had been pretty well convinced that Brent wasn’t attracted to her. He’d never said anything anyway. It must be all this fake dating—they were buying into their own hype.

  On Monday Alyssa left for school really early. Just in case Brent tried another breakfast ambush. At some point she was going to have to face him, this was not that time. Before she talked to Brent she needed to get her head on straight. First order of business—put the kibosh on the boyfriend charade. Of course how does one go about stopping a rumor? Lucky for her Jennifer’s incessant prying finally came in handy.

  At lunch, when Alyssa settled into her seat next to Beth at the cheerleader’s table, Jennifer, as always, began digging for gossip. This time she got some.

  “So what were you and Brent up to over the weekend?” Jenn asked even before her butt was completely in the chair.

  “Actually. Brent and I decided we weren’t working out. We are going to cool things off, go back to being friends.” Alyssa hoped she sounded nonchalant, but just in case she took two big bites of her taco salad to cover any betraying facial expressions.

  “That must be hard.” Jennifer didn’t bother trying to cover up her grin. “Was he seeing someone else? A girl at Hillfield I’ll bet.”

  “What!? No.” Alyssa was horrified. She didn’t want them to think badly of him. What had she gotten him into?

  “Brent would never do that.” Beth piped up, but she shot a questioning look at Alyssa. “You don’t have to explain to us—it isn’t our business.” She continued staring pointedly at Jennifer.

  “No, it’s okay. I just don’t think we were meant to be more than friends I guess. Brent is a great guy.”

  “Oh now I get it.” Jenn started again, completely disregarding Beth’s death stare. “This is about Pete. Now that he’s available again, you just drop poor Brent. That’s just awful of you. He loved you for all those years, and you were just using him? Poor Brent.” Jenn was shaking her head. “He could probably use a friend to talk to right about now.” The grin was back.

  Alyssa would have been livid with Jennifer, accept that at the moment it was very clear to her that Jenn actually was just as sad and pathetic as Brent had claimed, and not really worth being angry at. Besides in a roundabout way she was kind of right. Alyssa had used Brent. Even if she was reasonably sure he hadn’t been pining for her. After all he’d gone out of his way the past three weeks to avoid kissing her, and he never paid her any romantic compliments. She’d actually come right out and asked him several times if he thought she was pretty, and he always found a way to avoid answering. Everyone knew that was just a diplomatic way of saying no, not really. Then again… he had almost kissed her in the car. Crap. She was going to have to have that conversation sooner than she’d planned.

  “Alyssa? Are you paying attention?” Beth was waving her open hand in front of Alyssa’s eyes.

  “No, I’m sorry what were you saying?”

  “Nothing very important. Do you want to go someplace and talk? Someplace private?” She shot another less than subtle look at Jenn.

  “No. I’m fine really. Just tired.”

  Beth nodded. She looked like she wanted to say something else but instead she went back to her own taco salad.

  Chapter Eleven

  That night Alyssa sat in her room from the moment she’d finished dinner until the moment she saw the light come on next door. Every five or so minutes she’d just about get up the nerve to call him, but she always chickened out before hitting send. With the light on she knew he must be home, so there wasn’t going to be anymore avoidance.

  Alyssa crawled out of her window, and tapped lightly on his. He answered immediately.

  “Should I make you sit on the roof all night?” He joked lightly.

  “You probably could. I think there is a distinct possibility that I deserve it.”

  Brent pulled a face. “Get in here Lyssa.”

  Alyssa climbed in. Normally she would make herself comfortable—maybe plop down on the floor, or even lounge across his bed. Now she just stood awkwardly shifting her weight from side to side. “We broke up.” She finally managed.

  “I thought we might have.” Brent was sitting in his desk chair, watching her with those super intense eyes of his. “Care to tell me why?”

  “You’re supposed to be happy. You hated being my boyfriend. And anyway things were getting a little confused.”

  “Okay.”

  That was it? Two days of ignoring his phone calls. The entire school was mad at her for leading him on and then breaking his heart. Well maybe not the whole school, but some of them. He was just going to sit there and stare at her? No. Way. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

  “What am I supposed to say, Lyssa?”

  “I don’t know! Something! How did you know we broke up? I mean that I told people… whatever—how did you know?”

  “Jenny wants to help me work
through my broken heart.” He replied sarcastically. “What did you tell people?”

  “I tried to keep it simple, but you know how she is. Now everyone hates me for leading you on, since you’ve been pining for me since we were ten.”

  Brent laughed. Was her imagination or did he laugh at her a lot lately? Of course laughing was better than some of the other scenarios she’d been picturing. Maybe this would be the end of it and they’d be Alyssa and Brent again. Just like before.

  “That does clear up some of her phone call. Are we going to talk about Saturday night?” He leaned back in his chair slightly, his eyes unblinking.

  Damn. Maybe she wasn’t going to get off that easily. “If you want to.” He just tilted his head at her. Clearly he’d been expecting a little more from her. “Was it real? The date I mean, was it a real date?”

  “Do you want it to be?”

  “Brent! Now is not the time to play therapist with me. Have I been leading you on?!?”

  “What?” Brent looked surprised.

  “Well I didn’t think so— I mean I know you aren’t interested in me that way, but Jenn and Sue seemed so sure…”

  “How do you know that?” He might as well have been asking after the weather forecast. His tone of voice gave nothing away.

  Stressful tears started pricking at Alyssa’s eyelids. Stupid girl hormones! She fought them off. “Well you don’t… I mean it’s fine, but you’re not attracted to me so…” He raised his eyebrows at her. “I ask you all the time. You never say I’m pretty. But that’s okay.” Alyssa rushed on.

  “Come on Lyssa! You own a mirror, you know you’re gorgeous.” Brent sighed at her. She had honestly thought that relieving him of fake boyfriend duties would get her out of sighing range. “I didn’t think you needed to hear that from me. What was I supposed to say? It would have been weird if I mentioned it every time you took my breath away just by walking into a room. But okay. Yeah, I’m attracted to you.”

  “Oh man!” Alyssa crumpled to the floor.