Sit, Stay, Love

by J. J. Howard

  “Well, that’s one mystery solved,” Lily said.

  We heard the town’s loudspeaker crackle. The head judge told us that the winners were about to be announced. I felt my stomach jump as I gathered up Potato and we hurried over to the judges’ table. We were just in time to hear that the German pinscher had won, followed by the Havanese. The rest of the rankings were written on a large whiteboard propped in front of the makeshift stage.

  I rushed over to read the results. It didn’t take long to find Potato’s name—since this show wasn’t formal, we could stick with Potato as his show name. He was listed next to last—just above Peanut, the distracted dachshund.

  “Next to last,” Eric said. “Well, at least it’s not last.”

  I picked up Potato and gave him a kiss. “Good job, buddy—even with my defective pocket hole, you came in penultimate!”

  “Pen-what?” Lily asked.

  “Penultimate means ‘next to last,’ ” Eric said.

  I grinned at him. “Yeah, but it sure does sound better, doesn’t it?”

  “If it weren’t for the pocket hole, he would’ve done really well,” Eric was telling Lori the next day, filling her in on Potato’s show business debut.

  Lori frowned sympathetically. “You shouldn’t make Cecilia feel bad about the pocket,” she told him. “She lost most of her clothes in the fire a few weeks ago, remember?”

  Eric turned to me in surprise, holding the crate liner he’d been about to rinse off. “What fire?”

  I glared at Lori. “Well, my house sort of burned down,” I said, not meeting his eyes. “I mean, not down as in to the ground, but it got condemned after the fire, so …” I trailed off, feeling embarrassed at having to tell this story to Eric. The Chungs’ house—wiring and all—was super new.

  “I didn’t know,” he said quietly. I realized Lori was heading back out front after dropping the bomb about my house. I could hear the click-clack of her sparkly shoes as she made her escape. “I just figured you always lived with your aunt. I’m really sorry.”

  “Not your fault,” I mumbled, untangling the hose from around my feet and drying off the plastic liner he handed me.

  “I didn’t mean … hey, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s cool.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I didn’t feel like talking about it.

  “So, what’re you up to next weekend?” he asked me, and I looked up quickly in surprise.

  “Is there another dog show?” I asked.

  Eric smiled and shook his head. “No.” He looked away from me and hosed off another crate liner. “I was just, um, wondering if you wanted to go with me—and Lily—to the Spring Bash?”

  The Spring Bash? The school dance had barely registered on my radar, because I’d never planned to go. “I thought Lily was going with Joey Lewis?” was the only thing I could come up with as a response. I knew Lily had had a crush on Joey forever, and she was super excited when he’d texted her last week to ask her to the dance.

  Eric still wasn’t looking at me as he reached for the next dirty crate liner from the pile. “She is—I just meant that the four of us could go. You would get to hang out with Lily … and you and I could go as friends. What do you say?”

  As friends. I tried not to let those words sink in, or wonder why they bothered me.

  “I’m still trying to figure out what you said,” I told him. Eric seemed to let out a breath he’d been holding. “I’ve never been to one of those things,” I admitted, blushing. I thought of what Mel would say, and Lori, and Dad. About me coming out of my turtle shell some more. And it had been kind of nice, being out of that shell—spending time with Lily, and even Eric. “I guess it might be fun,” I said at last.

  “We can celebrate Potato’s first show,” he added.

  “Okay, sure,” I said. He smiled and went back to the hose, cool as a cucumber.

  I watched him, feeling totally confused. Did Lily know he’d asked me to go to the dance? Had she put him up to it? He’d gone to almost ridiculous lengths to make it clear he was asking me just as a friend. Which was fine, I thought. After all, a few weeks ago, I’d hated the guy. But now …

  When I got home from O.P., I climbed the stairs to my borrowed room. I took the little cup from the bathroom and watered my cactus, as I did every week or so.

  Whatever the circumstances, I, Cecilia Murray, was going to a school dance! I opened my closet. Too bad my cousin hadn’t left behind any fancy dresses. I’d have to talk my aunt into taking me shopping. I hoped I could survive the ordeal.

  I sat in front of the computer to try to Skype Mel, but she wasn’t online.

  She was probably out doing something social. And come Saturday, I would be, too.

  Buy a dress

  Get a haircut (ask Aunt Pam to take me)

  Figure out how to do makeup (ask Mel and/or Lily for help)

  Find accessories (can’t let Potato be the only one with bling)

  “No, just smile in a normal way,” my dad was saying as he held up his phone to take a picture of me and Eric before the dance. We were standing outside Aunt Pam’s house. Thankfully, she was out with friends; I didn’t need her witnessing this humiliation.

  I responded by crossing my eyes and sticking out my tongue at him.

  “Well, that’s much better,” Dad said.

  Eric seemed nervous for some reason. He kept checking his watch like we were late to catch a bus or something. I thought maybe he was worried that Dad was going to sit him down for some kind of manly talk before we got out of there.

  “He does realize we’re just going as friends, right?” Eric asked me as my father continued to document the event. Suspicion confirmed.

  “I told him,” I sighed. I got it. We were just friends. Why was he making such a big deal out of it?

  “Put your arm around her! She won’t bite,” Dad called.

  “I might bite you,” I snapped. Dad’s face fell, and then I felt immediately guilty. “It’s just, we’re going to be late for the dance,” I explained. Meanwhile, I was relieved that Eric hadn’t put his arm around me, as instructed.

  “I guess I’ve got enough.” Dad almost smiled at me. “I’ll bring the car around—you two wait here.”

  “I can’t wait until we’re old enough to drive ourselves,” Eric said as Dad went off to get the car.

  “Me neither. Look, I’m sorry about my dad …”

  He made a waving motion with one hand. “Nah. He’s fine. My dad can be much more embarrassing, I promise. One time, he brought all of our dogs to my first big school event as student council president. It would have been fun, if Sulu hadn’t barfed all over the principal’s shoes,” he said with a laugh. We started walking down my aunt’s driveway toward the curb. “Hey, so why are you walking like that?”

  I sighed loudly. “Well, I’ve never actually walked in heels before …”

  Two days ago, Aunt Pam had taken me shopping, and she’d been in heaven. At first, I’d been miserable as we wandered around the mall but then slowly but surely, I started to actually—maybe, sort of—enjoy myself.

  Especially when I’d found a beautiful dress and went to try it on. It was black and sleeveless, with a black ribbon that tied around the waist, and a pleated bottom that swirled just a little when I twirled around in front of the mirror. But the best part was that the top part had a dusting of tiny sparkles that caught the light.

  “You’re too young to wear black,” Aunt Pam had argued. “You should wear color.”

  “I like black,” I told her.

  “She looks good in it! And black is very in right now.” That was FaceTime Mel on my aunt’s phone. I gave my best friend a grateful smile. Aunt Pam finally listened when it was Mel’s fashion opinion. My aunt always said Mel’s clothing was “very becoming for a young woman.”

  So we got the dress, and then I even let Aunt Pam drag me to get new shoes—the strappy black sandals I now wobbled in. The heels weren’t even that high, but when all you wear are Co
nverse sneakers and flats, any sort of heel is kind of a problem.

  Still, I couldn’t help enjoying the feeling of being dressed up. Earlier today, Aunt Pam had taken me to get my hair cut. When I got home, I changed into my new dress and the shoes, and then stood in front of the mirror that hung on the back of the bathroom door. Now that my hair was shorter, it wasn’t quite so flat. I’d very carefully added a little bit of the brown eyeliner Skype Mel had shown me how to use. Then I put on some tinted lip balm and stepped back.

  The mirror was a little old and cloudy, but as I studied my reflection I could swear I looked kind of … pretty.

  Then, when Eric had rung the bell at my aunt’s house, looking handsome as ever in a navy-blue suit, his jaw had dropped when he’d seen me.

  “Hey … um, Cecilia … ?” Eric—Mr. President himself!—had been speechless.

  “It’s me.” I laughed, though Eric had still looked dazed. Which may have been worth the whole shopping expedition with Aunt Pam.

  Now Eric was still looking at me like he barely recognized me as we got into Dad’s car. Lily was riding to the dance with Joey Lewis, so she’d meet us there.

  Dad dropped us off, and we walked across the wide entrance to the school, me concentrating very carefully on not falling in my new shoes.

  Lily came running up to us as soon as we walked in. She was wearing a pink dress. I wouldn’t normally say I was a fan of pink dresses, but hers was really cute and matched her personality. It was cheerful and had a wide sash of darker pink. She wore little pink flats to match.

  “C—you look amazing!” She hugged me, then pulled back to examine the dress. “This dress! And I love your shoes.”

  “Thanks.” I shifted from one foot to the other. “I may need to hang on to you for support.” I looked around. “Where’s Joey?”

  Lily shrugged. “Unknown. He doesn’t dance anyway, so he’s really more of a photo prop. You wanna come dance?”

  “Where did Eric go?”

  Lily pointed. “Over there with the basketball boys, where else? Come on.” She dragged me by the hand and pulled me with her into a circle of her other friends—Allie Cross and a few of the pep squad members. They all smiled at me when we joined their group. I felt awkward at first, trying not to look silly in front of these popular girls, but then we all started talking about how hard Mr. Key’s last test was, and I stopped feeling uncomfortable at all.

  Allie and a few of the others said they liked the next song and went to go dance. Lily turned to me and said, “Punch?” I nodded, following her off the floor.

  We walked over to one of the little tables and I saw Eric was sitting there, talking to a very pretty girl I’d never seen before. I felt a stab of something that felt like jealousy.

  Eric stood up when we approached. “Hi,” he said. He seemed sort of awkward all of a sudden. “This is Destiny,” he said to me and Lily. “She goes to Northridge—she’s here with Austin.”

  “Hi,” Lily and I said in unison to Destiny, who was very tiny and had extremely shiny blond hair.

  “So, Eric,” Lily said, “since I can’t find Joey, how about you go get some punch for me and your date?” As she said the word date, she gave Destiny the side eye. Lily knew Eric and I were going as friends, but I appreciated her protectiveness of me all the same.

  “I love punch,” I added, then winced as I realized how dumb that must have sounded.

  Eric looked confused but he didn’t say anything else before going off to get us some of that punch I loved so much.

  Lily and I sat down. “So you go to Northridge,” Lily said to Destiny.

  “Yes. It’s in Winchester.”

  “Yep.” I nodded. “It sure is.”

  Several seconds passed in awkward silence.

  Lily stood up abruptly and pulled me along with her. “We’re going to the bathroom,” she told the other girl.

  “Okay. Bye.”

  “She’s quite the conversationalist,” I said to Lily as she dragged me with her away from the table.

  “I was just going to say the same thing about you! I mean, using a smaller word, but still. What’s up with you? Do you know you’re being weird?” It was clear Lily’s bathroom trip was just an excuse to confront me away from Destiny.

  I considered her words for a second, then nodded. “I really think I am.”

  Lily let out an exasperated breath. “Well, do you know why you’re being so weird?” I knew she was trying to get at something, and I thought I knew what it was, but I chose to stay quiet.

  I shook my head.

  Eric appeared then, carefully carrying four cups of punch. Lily and I made our way back to the table.

  Eric handed the fourth cup to Destiny, who accepted it with a flirtatious smile. Ugh. Lily was looking from me to Eric. We all sat down and drank our punch. Lily made another attempt to talk to Destiny. “So what kinds of activities do you do at your school?”

  “I’m on the dance team,” she said, but then didn’t offer any more information.

  “Great.” Lily nodded, then started looking around the gym—possibly for Austin Fuller, Destiny’s missing date.

  Eric wasn’t holding up his end of the conversation at all, which was very unusual for him. He spent most of his time looking down at his punch or making the occasional joke about the DJ’s song choices. Was he nervous around Destiny? Or maybe he’d been blinded by her shiny hair.

  Why does this all feel so weird? I’m just here with Eric as a friend. Why should I care how he acts around Destiny?

  After what seemed like a long time with the four of us sitting there in mostly awkward silence, Austin and Joey came over. Lily stood up and took Joey’s arm, and I was relieved when Destiny flitted off with Austin.

  The tension between Eric and me eased, but then came back with a vengeance: A slow song had started.

  Eric stood up, too, and moved around to my side of the table. I’d been sitting with Lily on one side and Destiny on the other.

  “Do you want to dance?” he asked.

  I felt a stab of nervous fear go through my stomach. I’d never danced with a boy before. I’d seen slow dances in a million movies and TV shows, but this was different—this was real life.

  Mutely, I nodded, stood up, and then tripped and started to fall forward. Eric reached out fast and caught me.

  How embarrassing! “The heels,” I reminded him. Then a moment of inspiration hit. I held on to his arm as I took off both shoes. I bent and picked them up with one hand. I realized then that I was still holding on to his arm with my other hand.

  “Better?” Eric asked me.

  “Much.” I smiled up at him, back to my normal height. And, hopefully, back to being able to walk.

  I put the shoes on the chair I’d been sitting in and followed Eric out to the dance floor. Very slowly, he put his arm around my waist. My heart jumped at the sensation, but I tried not to blush. We both moved to the music. It was a song I’d never heard, but I liked it right away.

  The song sped up a bit. Eric pulled me just a little bit closer to him. I looked up at him, swallowing hard.

  “Thanks for bringing me to this,” I told him, searching my brain for something clever to say.

  “You’re welcome. I thought you could use a night off from saving the world’s dogs.”

  I studied his face. A lot of times when people said stuff like that, they were making fun of me. But it didn’t seem like he was. I hoped he wasn’t.

  “I should thank you for coming with me,” Eric added. “After all, I know this stuff isn’t really your thing.”

  “No, I like dancing. And it turns out I don’t mind dressing up either. Just maybe not in heels …” I realized that I was rambling, so I trailed off, looking down at my bare feet.

  “For someone so quiet, you always have a lot to say,” Eric said in an amused voice. He lowered his head so that it was close to mine.

  I stared at him. “I know,” I said. “Sorry. But if it makes you feel any better,
eventually I talk too much with everyone.”

  “And here I thought I was special.”

  You are, said the voice in my head, and I’m sure the surprise I felt showed on my face. I tried to think of something safe to say out loud, but I couldn’t think of anything. The song ended then, and we stepped apart.

  “Thank you for the dance,” I told him. I felt butterflies in my stomach, then mentally tried to shoo them away. We’re just friends, I repeated to myself. But with that dance, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was maybe something more.

  “No problem.” He grinned and led me back to the table, where I sat back down beside Lily. Her friend Emily from pep squad was already talking to her about some girl who used to go to school with us, someone I didn’t know. I told Lily I’d be right back and put on my shoes, wobbling painfully toward the bathroom.

  When I left the restroom, I started to turn the corner back toward the gym when I heard my name.

  “Eric, man, I just gotta ask. What are you doing with Cecilia Murray?” It was Austin Fuller’s voice. I froze in my tracks.

  “She’s that weird girl in our history class,” I heard another voice say.

  I heard Eric laugh and say, “She’s just a friend of my sister’s.”

  My heart pounded. A small part of me hoped that Eric and I had made some sort of connection tonight, a bond deeper than just puppy co-trainers. Certainly a bond deep enough for him to defend me against less-than-nice comments.

  Eric was saying more, but I needed to get out of there and clear my head. I kicked off my shoes in anger, leaving the dreaded things behind. I quickly grabbed my backup sneakers from my locker and used the phone behind the desk in the library to call my aunt’s house. My dad didn’t understand why he had to pick me up at the back of the school. And when I got into the car, he also wondered where my shoes were, but when I didn’t answer, he didn’t push.

  I ran upstairs as soon as we got home. I knew Lily would wonder what had happened to me, and I wished I had a phone to text her. I’d just have to explain it to her on Monday.

  The problem was, I didn’t even know how to explain. Why had Eric’s words hurt so much? Eric had told me straight out that he was only asking me to the dance as a friend. He hadn’t really done or said anything so horrible. Or had he? He’d flirted with that Destiny girl. He’d called me a friend of his sister’s—not even his friend. And he’d laughed at me along with his friends, not even bothering to defend me when they called me weird.