“Maybe he’ll turn her down, but maybe he’ll say yes. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” I smiled and left her standing mid court. I always played with the boys on basketball day because it gave me more of a challenge. Beth shook her head and headed over to stretch with Angelica. I knew she was disappointed in me, but right now I didn’t care.
Coach Lambert blew the whistle to dismiss us ten minutes early so we could change. I’d worked up a pretty good sweat, so I threw my hair up in a ponytail and went to the shower to rinse off. The extra time it took me guaranteed that I was the last person to leave the locker room. I rushed out the door because I still needed to swing by my locker and grab my chemistry book.
As I approached it, I saw Cam at his locker and Beth at hers, but in addition there was a very flirty Angelica Valdez standing between them. She was leaning in close and had her hand resting on Cam’s forearm, no doubt working up the nerve to ask him to the dance. I smirked to myself. This should be interesting. I was about to reach my locker so I could have a front row seat for the drama unfolding, when Josh Sutton walked up to Beth, some of his marching band friends in tow.
Josh was a nice kid but kind of dorky. He was super smart, and I knew he had multiple honors classes with Beth. He wasn’t really ugly so much as his personal hygiene habits could use work. He didn’t smell bad or anything, but he had greasy, stringy hair and oily skin, causing some serious acne around the jaw. He always looked like he’d rolled out of bed and come to school without bothering to get ready.
Josh was like the king of the marching band crew. They all adored and looked up to him. I’m not sure what it was. He was on the drum line, so I guess that was kind of cool. He must have had a really good personality. I’d never had much of a conversation with him, so I didn’t really know. The one thing I did know is that he had a super huge crush on Beth. For once in my life, I wasn’t envious of her.
Everyone stopped talking as Josh cleared his throat and said, “Hey, Beth.”
“Hi, Josh, what’s up?”
“Well, I wanted to ask you…” Josh looked around at the crowd and then down at the floor. “I mean, um, would you be interested in going to the homecoming dance with me?”
I saw the stressed out look in Beth’s eyes. It was so slight that I bet nobody else picked up on it. I had to hand it to Josh. He had some major balls; kudos to him. However, I knew Beth didn’t want to go to homecoming with Josh. The dance was a formal and supposed to be a magical night full of romance. Not an evening of small talk designed to keep your date from getting his hopes up about a good night kiss.
For a second I forgot about being pissed at her, and my instincts to jump to her rescue kicked in. Beth never said no to a boy who asked her out. I had to keep her from ruining her evening just to make sure Josh’s feelings weren’t hurt. My mind was searching for a good excuse when Cam stepped up first.
“Oh man, Josh dude, I’m sorry.” Cam linked his arm with Beth. “Beth already has a date. I asked her this morning.” Beth didn’t look surprised by this revelation. I thought that Cam just said that as an excuse to get Beth out of a date with Josh. Seeing her reaction made me wonder if she knew it was coming. Is that why they were passing notes this morning? Was Cam asking Beth to homecoming? Kind of lame for Cam to do it in a note.
Beth smiled sweetly at Josh. She placed her hand on his arm as she spoke. “I’m so sorry, Josh. I would have loved to go, but you’re just a day too late. Bad timing, huh?” Beth’s apology seemed sincere. Probably because it was. She may not have wanted to go to the dance with him, but I knew it was killing her to disappoint and embarrass him in front of his friends.
Josh looked crestfallen, but he held his chin high and took the rejection like a man. “It’s ok, Beth, no worries. I’ll just have to make sure I ask sooner next time.” His smile was forced. I was gaining a newfound respect for Josh Sutton. He was being very big about this.
Josh turned around and started to leave, but Beth kept hold of his arm. “Will you at least save me a dance?” she asked as she nodded her head toward Cam. “This big lug might have asked me first, but he doesn’t have to monopolize my whole evening.” There’s the Beth I know. She was a fixer, and she wouldn’t be ok with just telling him no.
Cam threw his hands up in surrender. “If the lady wants to dance with you, I won’t be able to stop her. Go for it, man.”
Josh smiled for real this time. “Well, since I’ll have to ask someone else now…” His eyes deliberately shifted to Angelica as he looked her up and down. “I don’t know how my date will feel about me ditching her to dance with you. I guess we’ll have to play it by ear.” I was surprised by his casual who cares response. Like he wasn’t just rejected by the prettiest girl at school in front of all his friends. Damn. He was good. I was starting to see why the band geeks worshiped him. Josh had mad confidence.
“Fair enough.” Beth laughed, and somehow the world was right between them. I don’t know how she does it. They said their good-byes, and Josh left with his friends. That’s when I remembered that Angelica had witnessed this whole exchange. She stood there, stiff as a board, face so red I thought her head might explode. She looked at Beth and opened her mouth to say something, probably to call her a nasty name, but then closed it quickly. Tears were welling up in her eyes, and it was clear that she’d felt betrayed. Then Angelica did something completely uncharacteristic. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum like I’d expected, she turned around and walked away.
“Angelica, wait…” Beth called after her, but she was already halfway down the hall.
“You asked her this morning, huh, Cam? When were you guys going to tell me? Is that what all your secret note passing was about?” I glared at both of them, then took the cue from Angelica and turned around, heading for the chemistry room. As I walked away, I heard Beth mutter something about damage control, and she took off after her friend.
“Bebe, come back here,” Cam pleaded. I stopped walking but didn’t turn around. “Bianca, please come back so I can explain.” He never called me Bianca unless he was being really serious or he was really in trouble. I almost caved. His voice sounded pained. But I was hurt and angry, and that was enough to help me resist his request. I shook my head no and called out to him without turning around. “I’m going to be late for class.” Then I walked away.
CAMERON
“Bianca, please come back so I can explain.” I rarely called her Bianca unless I was in trouble with her, and right now, I’m pretty sure I was in very hot water. She ignored my request and left for class without me. Damn it. I turned around and banged my head against my locker. Angelica had looked super pissed. I’m not sure what that was about, but Beth took off after her before I could ask. I knew this whole homecoming date thing was a bad idea. I picked up my backpack and headed for Mr. Gardner’s class. This wasn’t how today was supposed to work. At least we were lab partners; she couldn’t ignore me for the whole class.
I walked into chemistry as the bell rang, and I noticed that the lights were dimmed and the projector was turned on. Crap. I totally forgot that we were watching a movie today. Mr. Gardner always told us that we could sit wherever we wanted when we watched a movie—as long as we stayed quiet and paid attention. I looked at our table, and sure enough, Bebe wasn’t at it. She was sitting between Brady and Mike. Great, not only had I pissed her off, but I’d pushed her straight into the arms of my competition.
“Mr. Bates, please find a seat; we’re ready to start.”
“Yes, sir.” I stared at the table where Bebe sat. It was already pretty small, and having three people at it didn’t leave much room. Not to mention that Bebe was sitting between Brady and Mike. Clever girl. Even if I pulled up a stool to the end of the table, I wouldn’t be able to have a private conversation with her. I slumped down at my own table, resigned to defeat.
While the movie played, I kept glancing at Bebe and Brady. They were whispering quietly, and she was laughing like he was the funniest guy on the
planet. They were sitting pretty close, touching shoulders, actually. Probably so that they wouldn’t get caught talking. Luckily, Mr. Gardner noticed.
“Bianca, do I need to send you back to your seat?” Bebe shot me a glance. Yeah, she’s breaking the rules. Make her haul her ass back over here.
“No, Mr. Gardner. Sorry. I promise we’ll be quiet.” She looked at me again, just to make sure that I got the point. She really didn’t want to talk to me right now. True to her word, Bebe stayed quiet for the rest of the movie. She and Brady continued flirting back and forth by writing notes on a piece of paper in front of them. Maybe they’d be stupid enough to throw it away at the end of class so I could see what was so damn funny. The bell rang, but Bebe picked up the note and shoved it in her backpack, then walked out with Brady by her side.
Today was a drill day at basketball conditioning. We alternated each day between running/lifting and basketball skills. Normally if there was partner work, we were encouraged to pair up with someone from our team. But today, Coach Lambert asked us to pair up boy/girl. She wanted the girls to practice shooting around an opponent that was taller.
I looked at Bebe, but she ignored me and walked straight over to Brady. I guess I knew that was coming. At least during practice she was all business so I didn’t have to witness them fawning all over each other. My frustration was wearing on me. I couldn’t fix the problem if I couldn’t get her to talk to me. She couldn’t ignore me forever; I’d corner her in the car. Even if she wouldn’t talk back, she’d be forced to listen.
Coach Adams blew the whistle and called the practice. I showered as fast as I could and hurried out the door to catch Bebe before she escaped. I stood outside for fifteen minutes, but Bebe didn’t immerge. She couldn’t hide in the locker room all day. I was getting ready to send one of the girls back in after her, but Beth walked up behind me. “Don’t bother; she’s already gone.”
“She can’t have gotten ready that fast; there’s no way I missed her. I was in and out in like five minutes, and I’ve been standing by the door since I walked out.” There wasn’t another door exiting the locker room, unless she snuck out through the gym. Darn, I didn’t think about that. Beth opened her phone, scrolled through her texts, and read one out loud.
Bea: Skipped a shower. Don’t wait for me. I’m catching a ride home with Brady.
I slid down the wall in frustration and parked it on the floor with my head in my hands. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She was supposed to hear about the homecoming arrangement from us, after the fact. When we could control how the story was presented. Not witness it unfolding firsthand. She’s so pissed she won’t even look at me, much less talk to me. She practically leapt into Brady’s waiting arms. I don’t think she’s very jealous right now.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Beth sat on the floor next to me. “I think jealousy is half of the problem. The other half, I’m pretty sure, is the note passing, for some reason. She gave me the third degree during fifth hour, wanting to know what we were talking about. I didn’t know what to tell her, so I made up something about you being bored. Said you were telling me a funny cheerleader joke you’d heard.”
“Damn.” I banged the back of my head against the wall repeatedly as I sighed. My poor head was taking a beating today. I probably deserved it. “I guess you and I don’t have a super special neighbor sense, do we?” I asked. Beth looked confused. “Bebe asked me about the note passing, too, right after you left government. I told her that I was asking you some questions about the lecture.”
“Ah, I see,” Beth said. “We were caught in our lie. No wonder she’s upset. I don’t know who’s more mad at me, Bea or Angelica.” Beth looked like someone had kicked her puppy.
“What’s up with that, anyway? What was Angelica so pissed about?”
“She was getting ready to ask you to homecoming, right before Josh showed up.”
“She what?”
“Yeah, she was asking Bea and me during PE if you had a date for homecoming yet. I told her that I didn’t think you did. Bea suggested that she should go ahead and ask you, since you have that no asking girls out rule.”
“Why would she do that? She doesn’t like Angelica any more than I do.”
Beth gave me a look, suggesting I was less than intelligent. “I’m guessing she did it to retaliate. She only told Angelica to ask you to the dance after she realized that we’d been lying to her about the note. Bea can be pretty mean when she’s angry. I’m kind of mad that she dragged Angelica into it. I deserve it, but she doesn’t.” I wasn’t following, so I waited for her to expound.
Beth sighed. “Why do you think Angelica was so angry? I told her that you didn’t have a date to the dance, and then thirty minutes later you told Josh that you’d asked me this morning. Right in front of her. She thinks I flat-out lied to her.”
“Ouch.” I winced. “I’m so sorry, Beth, I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t, you couldn’t have. Don’t worry about it.” Her smile was sad. She put her hand on my knee and used it to provide leverage as she stood up. Then she turned around and offered me a hand. “Let me worry about Angelica. I know the problem with Bea is just as much my fault, but I think she’s more likely to listen to you.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” I let Beth help me up, and we walked to the car.
“Please, you got that girl whipped. Why do you think she’s so mad at you? She wouldn’t be ignoring you if she didn’t care…a lot. Just give her a few hours to calm down. You need time to figure out how to beg for forgiveness anyway.” She elbowed me playfully in the side.
“What should I say to her? I’ll probably only get one chance to make this right. I can’t screw it up.” Fear was creeping into my gut. It might already be too late.
Beth hooked her arm through mine as she spoke with sympathy and determination. “Cam, there’s only one thing you can tell her. If you want to fix this, you’re going to have to tell her the truth.”
My heart sank. That’s what I was afraid of.
. . . . .
I spent the afternoon checking my phone. Waiting for some indication that Bea was ready to talk. But she didn’t call, and neither did Beth. I stalled as long as I could. At eight o’clock, I sent Beth a text. I wouldn’t be able to sleep until this was taken care of.
C: Have you talked to Bebe yet?
B: Nope. It’s been radio silence all afternoon.
C: Do you think she’s cooled off at all?
B: She’s sitting on the couch with a quart of rocky road and watching Love & Basketball…
B: What do you think?????
C: Crap that’s bad.
B: Yep.
C: I’m coming over. Don’t let her slam the door in my face.
B: Not sure I can stop her. Good luck.
I put my phone back in my pocket and looked in the mirror. I changed into her favorite shirt of mine, and sprayed on some of the cologne she liked. It couldn’t hurt, right? Then I walked across the street to pay the piper. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Bianca’s dad answered.
“Well, hello, Cameron, what can I do for you at this hour?”
“Sorry it’s so late, sir. I need to talk to Bianca; is she home?”
He called into the family room, “Bianca, sweetheart, Cameron is here.”
“Tell him I’m not home!” she yelled back, with the obvious intent for me to hear. Mr. Barnes eyed me suspiciously.
“We had a fight today. I came to apologize.” Mr. Barnes’s smile was sympathetic. At least one person in their house still liked me.
“Bianca.” He used his stern parent voice. “Don’t be rude. Please come to the door.”
I heard the television pause, and she walked into the kitchen, probably to put the ice cream back in the freezer. She was in fuzzy pajama pants and a T-shirt that had a picture of a stick figure with a basketball in its head in place of a brain. She had big, furry slippers on her feet and her hair piled high on her
head. I couldn’t help but smile, she looked so adorable. Even when she was mad at me. She came to the door and stood there with her hands folded across her chest, silent and staring.
Mr. Barnes cleared his throat. “Ahem… Why don’t you two go out on the porch so you can have some privacy?” He flipped on the front porch light and pushed us out the door, shutting it behind us. Bebe walked over to the porch swing and sat down. I followed and stood in front of her. “Can I sit?” I gestured to the swing beside her.
“Depends; are you here to feed me more lies?” The question still hurt, but it didn’t have as much bite as I expected. Maybe she had cooled off a little. I took a seat next to her.
“Bebe, you didn’t see what you thought you were seeing, and you didn’t give me or Beth a chance to explain.” She didn’t argue, so I pushed on. “I am going to explain everything, but first I owe you an apology for not being truthful with you about the note.” She made a grunting noise but otherwise stayed silent. “The only reason Beth and I lied was because we didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“Lot of good that did,” she muttered as she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.
“Beth came to me with a problem yesterday. She heard a rumor that Josh Sutton was going to ask her to homecoming this morning. She was freaking out because she didn’t want to say yes, but she didn’t have an excuse to say no, either. I told her that if Josh asked her, she should tell him that she was already going with me.”
Bebe looked up at me. “Is that the truth?”
“I swear. The note we were passing this morning was me finding out if Josh had asked her to the dance yet. I needed to know if I should pretend we were going to homecoming together or not. She told me he hadn’t, and I asked her if she knew when it was going to happen. That’s what the entire conversation was about, nothing more.”
“If that’s all you were talking about, then why the big secret? Why lie to me?”
Perfectly Oblivious (The Perfect Series Book 1) Page 9