“The one and only,” Beth said, crinkling her nose. “He’s nice enough, but I don’t really want to say yes. If and when he asks me, I’ll just tell him I’m already going with you. Then we can tell Bea that you offered to take me so that I’d have an acceptable excuse to turn Josh down.”
The plan sounded simple enough and believable enough. “Beth, you realize if we go through with this, nobody else will ask you because they’ll think you’re taken. If by some miracle things work out with Bebe and me, you won’t have a date to the dance.”
She laughed lightly and waved her hand, dismissing my concern. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll find someone at the last minute. Unlike Bea, I don’t have a problem asking a guy out. If worse comes to worst, I’ll just go stag. It won’t be the end of the world. In fact, I’ll enjoy my night as a solitary woman if it means you two finally get together.” She smiled, and I could tell she meant every word she was saying.
“Are you sure you want to do this? It has the potential to backfire in a major way.” I had to make sure Beth was all in before we did something so stupid.
“Of course,” she said as she leaned across the seat and wrapped me in a big hug. She pulled away, grinning as if she were the lovesick fool instead of me. “Operation Cam and Bea Forever is officially underway.” I’m not sure I’d have called it something so cheesy, but I had to admit, the name had a nice ring to it.
BIANCA
The team meeting didn’t go as long as I’d expected. Coach Lambert dismissed us, and I made a beeline for the locker room. I was going so fast I almost missed Brady coming out as I headed in.
“Hey, Bea, you done already?”
“Yeah, it was a short meeting. You haven’t even been over to the library yet, have you? I can find a ride with one of the girls, if you need to go. I totally understand.”
“No big deal. I can research now or research later. That’s the beauty of the Internet; it’ll still be there whenever I get around to using it.”
I chuckled. Brady was funny. I wanted to run in and take a shower, but I didn’t want to make him wait if he needed to get home. “Are you in a hurry?” I asked, “or do I have time to take a shower?”
“That depends…”
“On what?”
“On whether or not we’re still going to 7-Eleven?”
“And why does that matter?” Was he going to tell me I smell bad? I mean, I do, but I didn’t think we were at that point in our relationship yet.
“Because if I’m just taking you home, then I know you’ll get to shower pretty soon. But if we’re going on a Slurpee date, I figured you might want to be clean.”
“Are you suggesting that I smell bad?” I teased in mock horror.
“No.” He gave me a wry grin. “You’re too far away from me to come to that conclusion. What I’m saying is that I don’t want to find out if you smell bad. Sweaty basketball player and Cherry Slurpee don’t make for an appetizing combination. Trust me, I know.”
I laughed at his candid comment. “Well, in that case, give me ten minutes. You’ve already showered. I don’t want to be the only sweaty basketball player ruining the flavor of our drinks.”
“Cool.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ll just wait right here.”
I nodded and rushed into the locker room. I showered super quick, even washed my hair. Thank heavens I had some body spray, but I wished I’d had a toothbrush. But nobody goes to school in the morning thinking, Better pack my toothbrush; never know when you might get some lip action. I pulled out a stick of cinnamon gum. It would have to do. I strolled out of the locker room nine minutes from the time I walked in.
“Dang, you really meant ten minutes, didn’t you?” Brady looked thoroughly impressed.
“Why so shocked? I’m a woman of my word.”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a girl get ready so fast.”
“You’ve seen a lot of girls get ready, then?” I couldn’t resist; he’d walked right into it.
Brady turned pink. “That’s not what I meant… You know what I meant.”
“I know what you meant, silly boy. I guess I’m not like other girls.”
“You know, Bianca, I’m starting to realize that.” He smiled and threw his arm around my shoulder as we walked toward the parking lot.
Brady drove an almost new Dodge Charger. You can tell a lot about a person based on the condition of their car. Brady’s car was immaculate…and sexy. I shudder to think what my car says about me. If it wasn’t for Beth being part owner and taking better care of it than I did, my car would probably scream Disaster ahead, turn back now. We reached the passenger door, and Brady opened it for me.
“Merci beaucoup, monsieur.”
“Je vous en prie, mademoiselle.”
“Hey. You know French?” I was hoping to impress him with my mad linguistic skills, but I didn’t expect him to surprise me with his.
“Not really.” He laughed. “I only took one year, then switched to Spanish because I thought it would be more practical.”
“Good choice. I took two years to get my language credit out of the way, but now I wish I’d picked something I could use.”
Brady hopped into the car and headed us toward 7-Eleven. He got a cherry Slurpee and I picked a Coke one, complaining about how they should have carried a Diet Coke flavor. He offered to pay for my drink but let me buy instead at my insistence. Once we were in the parking lot, we decided it was ridiculous that Cherry Coke wasn’t a flavor. That would have been the bomb. So we decided to play Dr. Frankenstein and combine our Slurpees. Brady did the mixing and lost quite a bit on the pavement. He also got a bunch on his arms, which he tried to slurp off while holding both cups.
“I wonder if that’s why they call them Slurpees,” he said, licking the last bit of sticky juice off his arm. I laughed at his joke, and he handed a now Cherry Coke drink back to me.
“You should have left it. Brown and red arms are a good look for you.”
On the way to my house, we decided to see if we could have an entire conversation in French before we reached our destination. This was a total bust because we didn’t know how to say much more than “Ou, est la bibliotheque?” (Where is the library?) or “Je voudrais un peu de pain.” (I would like some bread.)
“I’m outraged,” I claimed, once I realized we wouldn’t be having a sexy French conversation. “Who comes up with the curriculum? A bookworm with a craving for bread? They definitely aren’t preparing us for a summer abroad.”
“Yes, let’s file a complaint with the school board,” Brady agreed as he pulled up to my house. He left the engine running but got out of the car to open my door for me. “Thanks for hanging out, Bea.”
“Thanks for the ride.” I stood there, looking at him, not sure how to end the conversation. Did I shake hands with him? Give him a high five? Were we on hugging terms now?
Luckily, Brady made the decision for me. He leaned in for a quick hug and headed back to the driver’s side. “See you tomorrow. It’s been fun.”
I smiled and waved as he drove down the street. Pretty good for a first non-date, or whatever it was. I hadn’t had fun with a boy other than Cam in a long time. It felt pretty nice. I headed toward the front door, when I saw Cam and Beth in our car, wrapped in a tight embrace. They pulled away from each other and Beth said something, but I couldn’t make out what it was.
Had they been in the car this whole time? They’d left the school like an hour ago. What could they possibly be talking about? It must not have been a bad thing, because Beth was smiling…and so was Cam. Don’t be jealous. It’s probably nothing. Cam and Beth hug all the time. Not usually alone in parked cars, though…
I walked to the front door and pretended like I hadn’t noticed they were there. I’d been having such a good time with Brady, and one look of Cam with my sister put me right into a foul mood. I couldn’t let him have control over my emotions like this anymore. As I stomped up to my room and threw myself down on the bed, I made a decision. I was going to m
ove on from Cameron Bates, even if it killed me.
. . . . .
The next day in government class, Cam and Beth made me play middleman. As usual, we were seated alphabetically. I was a Bianca sandwich, with Beth seated in front of me and Cam directly behind. It started with Cam whispering in my ear.
“Hey, Bebe, can you pass this up to Beth?” He handed a tightly folded note over my shoulder. It had the end tucked in the way we used to do it when we were kids. So that nobody could “accidentally” peek at what was written inside. I did as I was told and tapped Beth on the shoulder with the note.
She took it from my hand without looking back, opened it, read it, then quickly scribbled something and folded it back up. She did the whole pretend to stretch thing and dropped it behind her on my desk. Before I could pass it back to Cam, he whispered in my ear again, snaking his arm around my side, hand outstretched. “That’s for me.”
I wanted to tell him a big fat DUH, but I also didn’t want to get busted for passing the note, so I slipped it into his hand. A minute later, the note reappeared over my shoulder and I handed it off to Beth once more.
What was going on? I hadn’t passed a note since freshman year. Weren’t we a little old for this? Why not just text her? What was so important that it couldn’t wait until after class? I wondered if it had something to do with them sitting in the car for so long yesterday afternoon. I was mildly annoyed that they’d ask me to risk the wrath of Mr. Collins by passing a note during his lecture. He wasn’t dumb, and he wasn’t very nice, either. He’s the type of teacher who’d pick up the note and read it out loud.
Mostly, I was annoyed they’d folded the note in a way that prevented me from taking a peek before I passed it. If I ran the risk of getting in trouble, the least they could do was include me. Were they even going to tell me what they were talking about after class? I hated it when people kept secrets from me.
After a few more passes, I pulled out a pencil and scribbled on the outside: I’m not passing this again. Talk to her after class. Then I handed it back to Cam. I was getting irritated that they had something so secret between them. I know Cam and Beth are friends, but I was feeling selfish. He should have been passing secret notes with me, not Beth. They weren’t the secret note passing kind of friends. Until yesterday, I didn’t think they were the sit in a parked car for a really long time having a heart-to-heart and hugging at the end kind of friends, either. Cam didn’t even do that kind of stuff with me.
A thought occurred to me. Was Cam having a hard time with something? Who would he go to if he were sad or upset about something really important? I’m not a very good listener, so it makes sense that he’d talk to Beth if he were struggling in some way. I felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe I was too busy being a hormonal teenager to realize that Cam might need me to be a better friend.
I didn’t get the note back, so I sat there, trying not to let my mind wander as I listened to the lecture. After class, Beth got up in a hurry. “I’ve got to run. My lab partner was sick yesterday. I said I’d meet her early so she could copy my notes. See you fifth hour, Bea. Bye, Cam.” She slung her backpack over her shoulder and scurried out the door.
I turned to Cam. “What’s with all the super secret note passing? You thinking of going back to middle school?”
“Haha, funny girl.” Cam’s sarcasm was thick. It didn’t escape my attention that he hadn’t answered my question. Avoidance was never good.
I tried to get serious for a moment. “You know, Cam, if you ever had a problem, you could always talk to me, right? Beth isn’t the only good listener in our family.”
Cam pulled me into a hug and rested his head on top of mine. “Of course I know I could talk to you. You’d be the first person I’d ask if I needed something or tell if I had a problem.” He let go and pulled back to look at me. “The note was just some questions I had about Mr. Collins’s lecture.” He was smiling, but it also seemed like he was holding back.
Bull crap. If the note was about class, he would have leaned over and asked me the question like he normally did. I wanted to call him out on the lie, but that wouldn’t have helped me discover the truth. It would have given fuel for the fib monster to grow bigger. “Ok, whatever,” I responded, a little snippy.
I gave him a forced smile. “I’ll see you in chemistry,” I called over my shoulder and walked away. I shouldn’t be so annoyed. Cam was allowed to have secrets. He was allowed to talk to Beth about them if he wanted to. He was as much her friend as he was mine. Just because I had a sick obsession with him didn’t give me the right to act like I owned him. I hated that I was jealous. I wasn’t really this person; only when it came to Cam.
At lunch I sat in my normal spot with the team, but I was in a grumpy mood so my participation in the conversation was lacking. I picked at my food, obsessing over what could have been in that note. What was so secret that they needed to exclude me? My feelings were hurt. I needed to stop acting like a spoiled baby.
My eyes had been bouncing between Cam and Beth across the lunchroom. I don’t know what I expected to see. Secret hand signals, perhaps? Maybe they were going to sneak off together. But they were focused on their friends like they always were. Like I should be now.
I was feeling bad about thinking something was going on when I noticed Cam trying to get Beth’s attention. Her eyes roamed the cafeteria, like she was looking for someone. She finally noticed Cam, and he held up his hands to his shoulders, mouthing something to her. She responded by shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head no. They were having a whole freaking conversation with their eyes. I couldn’t do this. It shouldn’t be a big deal that there was something between them which didn’t involve me. But I was aggravated anyway. I needed chocolate. I got up and left without saying good-bye to my friends, heading for the vending machine outside the locker rooms.
Finally, fifth hour rolled around. We were playing basketball today in PE. This was good news for me, because I needed to blow off some steam. I changed into my uniform and headed out to the gym as Coach Lambert (who was also the phys ed teacher) blew the whistle, signaling the start of our five-lap warm-up. Beth jogged up behind me, Angelica in tow.
“Hey, Bea, how was your lunch?”
“Fine.” My answer was clipped. “How was yours?”
“Oh, you know, same-old, same-old.”
If Cam wasn’t going to tell me what was up, Beth surely would. We didn’t keep secrets from each other. Well, if you don’t count the fact that I never told her who I liked. But we had an understanding where that matter was concerned, so it didn’t feel like I was keeping secrets from her. I looked at her and casually asked, “So what’s up with all the note passing between you and Cam in government today?”
“Nothing, really. He’d just heard a funny joke about cheerleaders this morning. He was bored, so he thought he’d tell it to me.” She smiled as if she were actually recalling a funny joke.
I was hoping that her story would match his so that I wouldn’t have to be mad about them lying to me, but deep down I already knew it wouldn’t.
“Oh yeah?” I pushed. “I want to hear it.”
“I don’t remember how it went. I’d probably butcher the punch line without reading it first. But it was pretty funny.”
My ass it was funny. “Ok, well maybe I’ll ask Cam to tell me later.”
Angelica picked that moment to grace us with her thoughts. “Speaking of Cam, do either of you know if he has a date for homecoming yet? I was kind of hoping I could get him to ask me…”
Beth hesitantly answered, “I don’t think he has a date yet. At least he hasn’t mentioned it to me. You know Cam, he never asks girls out. Getting him to ask you might be difficult.”
I was feeling vindictive. The words that popped out of my mouth were something I normally wouldn’t have said. “You know, Angelica, maybe you should ask him. If you really want to go with him, that’s probably the only way to make it happen.”
“Really? You think he�
��d say yes?” Angelica asked with uncertainty.
Beth whipped her head toward me and gave me a look that screamed What in the hell are you doing? We both knew that Cam didn’t have the least interest in Angelica Valdez. I think he liked it when she threw herself at him because it stroked his ego, but he’d never go out with her. He’d told us so. I knew it was wrong to set Angelica up for failure, but she bothered me, and right now I didn’t care. It’d serve Cam right.
Of course there was the slight chance that he’d feel bad letting her down and actually say yes. It’d pretty much suck if Angelica ended up as Cam’s date and I had to listen to her giggle and compliment him all night long. I guess if he said yes, then I deserved what was coming to me for suggesting it in the first place. I was willing to risk it.
“You’ll never know unless you ask.” My smile was sickly sweet. “But if you’re going to ask him, you’d better think about doing it soon. Cam’s a hot commodity. You don’t want to risk someone else asking him first.”
“Oh, you’re so right. Thanks, Bianca.” She smiled at me as if we were actually friends. We’d finished running, and Angelica headed to the middle of the court to stretch. I started to walk over behind her, but Beth grabbed my arm and held me back.
“What are you doing? Cam’s going to be so angry if she asks him to homecoming and he finds out you’re the one who told her to do it.” Her look was a mix of worry and surprise that I’d do something so underhanded.
“Who am I to decide who Cam takes to homecoming? For all I know, he secretly likes Angelica and is dying for her to ask him out. It’s not like he doesn’t keep other secrets from me. Maybe I’m doing him a favor. Besides, you’re always getting on my case to be nicer to Angelica. You should be glad that I was supportive.” I’m fairly certain the bitterness was seeping from my pores.
“Bea, that wasn’t nice. That was just a sneaky way of being mean. Cam will turn her down, and you know it. Then she’ll be really depressed and I’ll have to give her a shoulder to cry on.” Beth was right. Of course I was being mean. But if she had to deal with the fallout of a brokenhearted Angelica, it served her right, too. She’d lied to me just as much as Cam had.
Perfectly Oblivious (The Perfect Series Book 1) Page 8