“I think we better go now,” I panted.
“You’re right,” Brennan said, pulling away.
I arrived home a few minutes later, bursting to tell someone my good news. I tried to call Rachel, but it went directly to voicemail. Damn! I’d have to wait until she picked me up in the morning.
I rushed up the stairs, still anxious to talk to someone. Ellie and I weren’t the kind of sisters who confided in each other, so I quickly walked by her room. I had a good relationship with my mom, so I was happy to see that her light was still on. She often stayed up late reading in bed, especially when my dad was out of town. She had a hard time falling asleep when he wasn’t home.
I poked my head in her door, and whispered, “Hi, mom. I’m home.”
“Kind of late for a school night, no? I know tomorrow is Friday and all, but still.”
“Sorry. Brennan picked me up from practice, and then I was so hungry that we stopped at Carol’s Diner to grab something to eat.”
“Just give me a call or send me a text next time, okay?” I was relieved that my mom didn’t seem angry, just a little worried.
“Sure,” I said, apologetically. I started to walk out of the room, but then I hesitated. I couldn’t keep it inside any longer, “Mom, can I tell you something?”
“Of course,” my mom said, closing her book and patting the empty side of the bed next to her.
“Brennan asked me - ”
“To the prom? I knew it. I knew he was going to ask you. I’m so happy for you,” my mom gushed, hugging me.
“No, no mom, he didn’t ask me to the prom,” I couldn’t keep the disappointment out of my voice. Even though I was thrilled he asked me to go on vacation, I still really wanted Brennan to ask me to the prom.
“Really? Well, what then?” She looked at me curiously.
“He asked me to go to Florida with him and his family over spring break.” I was so excited that I spoke quickly. “Isn’t that so cool? He’s playing in a baseball tournament down there, and then they’re all going to Disney for a few days.” I felt my face flush, worrying how my mom would respond.
“Oh,” my mom said, not hiding her surprise. “I knew you two were getting serious, but this is a little unexpected.”
“Will I be able to go?” I asked, hopefully. “Please,” I pleaded. “I love watching him play. And you like Brennan.”
My mom nodded. “You’re right, I do like Brennan, but I don’t know how I feel about my teenage daughter going on vacation with him and his family.” She sat up in bed and shifted uncomfortably.
“Mom – I’m eighteen. I’m going away to college in a few months.”
“Don’t remind me. I’m not ready for all of this,” she sighed heavily.
In order to assuage her fears, I added, “I promise nothing’s going to happen. I’ll be sharing a room with his four year old sister, Madison.”
“I’ll have to think about it. And of course your dad and I will need to talk it over together.”
“I know. I’m just so excited. I finally have a boyfriend - a nice, kind, smart, and handsome boyfriend. I really care about him mom – a lot.” I smiled like a girl in love.
“I know. That’s what worries me.” She squeezed my arm.
“This is important to me, mom. Really important,” I stressed the word really. I held my mom’s gaze for a long time, making sure she understood how much I wanted her to let me go on this trip.
Finally she nodded her head.
“You’ll put in a good word for me with dad, right?” My eyes filled with worry.
“Is that why you told me tonight, so that I could help you convince your dad?”
“No, I told you because I was so excited I had to tell someone!” I laughed, and my mom laughed too.
“Okay, I’ll talk to your dad, but I can’t make any promises.”
“Thanks, mom,” I said, giving her a big hug. “You’re the best.” She squeezed me back. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” she said, opening her book to read again.
***
“Wow, you look tired,” stated Rachel when she picked me up for school in the morning.
“Thanks a lot,” I said, pulling down the visor and checking my reflection in the little mirror. “I do look like crap.” I sighed and rummaged around in my backpack for some last minute makeup. “I overslept. I had a hard time falling asleep last night, and then when I finally did fall asleep, I was so tired that I slept right through my alarm.” I applied some eye makeup and lip-gloss. “There. That’s the best I can do.” I pushed the visor back up. “Do we have time to stop for a coffee?”
“We do, if there isn’t a line.” Rachel drove through a yellow light.
“You haven’t asked me why I had a hard time falling asleep.”
“Okay. Why did you have a hard time sleeping?” Rachel asked, being a good sport.
“Because Brennan asked me - ”
“To go to the prom. OMG. We can go double,” Rachel shouted and just missed hitting a car.
“What is with you guys?” I grumbled under my breath.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.” I braced myself for Rachel’s reaction. “It’s just that Brennan did NOT ask me to the prom!”
“He didn’t?” Rachel asked, sounding confused.
“No, he didn’t…but…back up a second – you said that we could go double. Which must mean…that…Kyle asked you?” I looked over at Rachel and she was beaming! I guess that explained her crazy driving and the fact that she just missed hitting another car. I put my hands on the dashboard and silently prayed that we’d make it to school in one piece. I felt bad about being so involved in my own drama that I hadn’t even noticed how happy my BFF was. I turned all my attention to her now, “Tell me how he asked you?” I asked enthusiastically.
“He didn’t ask me.”
Now it was my turn to be confused. “What?”
“I ASKED HIM! I kept thinking about how I didn’t want to back off. I like him so much that all I want to do is spend time with him, not push him away. And he’s so shy I was worried that he was never going to get up the nerve to ask me, so I said ‘fuck it’ and asked him. He said, ‘YES’, he said ‘YES’,” Rachel shouted. Her tires squealed as she pulled into a parking space at Starbucks and hit the brakes.
I gave her a big hug. “Congratulations! I’m so happy for you!”
“Thanks,” she said shyly. “I hope you’re not mad that I asked Kyle instead of following through with the rest of the steps.”
“Of course, I’m not mad.” We rushed inside and ordered our coffees. “I’m happy for you. The steps are only meant to be a guideline. It’s great you didn’t need them all. You’re supposed to stop when you’ve reached the goal, to get a cute date to the prom, whether that takes three steps or all ten!”
“Oh, good.” Her shoulders relaxed. “I’m glad you’re not mad.”
Within a few minutes we were back in Rachel’s car, speeding to get to school on time. If I was late again I was going to have to serve detention.
“Hey, if Brennan didn’t ask you to go to the prom – what did he ask you?”
“He asked me to go to Florida with him and his family.” I smiled brightly.
Rachel stomped on the brakes. “Shut up!”
“Damn it!” I shouted as half of my coffee spilled down on the front of my shirt.
“Sorry,” Rachel apologized. “I just got so excited for you.”
“It’s okay.” I wiped uselessly at the stain with a napkin that she handed me.
“Wow, this is HUGE! This is bigger than Prom. Are your parents going to let you go?” Her voice filled with worry.
“I don’t know yet.” I shrugged. “ I told my mom, and hopefully she can convince my dad to let me go.”
“They have to say yes. They just have to,” Rachel proclaimed, as she grabbed her bag out of the car. Suddenly the bell rang, announcing that we were late. “Shit, I gotta go! We’ll talk at lunch,” s
he called over her shoulder, as she sprinted in the direction of her first period class. Her teacher was nice and would look the other way if she was only a minute or two late.
“Okay,” I shouted back.
I took my time walking to class. I thought about skipping all together, because either way Mr. Perkins was going to assign me detention, but in the end I didn’t want to miss seeing Brennan. He smiled when I walked in.
“Well, well, well, Miss Abbott. Nice of you to show up,” Mrs. Perkins said, noticing me as I tried to slip in the classroom.
“Sorry, I’m late,” I mumbled.
“You’ll enjoy detention, no doubt.”
I groaned inwardly and took my seat. Tracy turned around and smiled at me with pleasure. She got off on the fact that I was being punished for my tardiness. I glared back at her.
“Now we can begin class, hopefully without any more interruptions,” Mrs. Perkins stated, giving me a disapproving look. I wasn’t sure what I’d ever done to her, especially since I was one of the few students who actually did the readings, but it was clear she didn’t like me. “I hope you all read the assigned chapters, because there is a quiz.”
The majority of the class moaned, while Brennan and I exchanged a knowing look.
Mrs. Perkins put the multiple-choice quiz up on the SMART board and asked Tracy to pass out the clickers, electronic personal devices that we used to enter our answers. Mrs. Perkins knew by the time we were finished exactly how everyone did, including which questions each student missed. I could see by the look on her face that most of the students hadn’t done well, again. She sighed heavily and slumped into her chair.
I grabbed my binder and held it up against my chest, daring her to start reading to us. I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when Brennan and I walked out. I glanced over at him to see if he was still okay with the plan I hatched last night, and he gave me the thumbs up sign. I gave him one too. Sure enough, Mrs. Perkins opened her battered copy of “The Catcher in the Rye,” and instructed the class to do the same.
Brennan and I stood up at the same moment, grabbing our backpacks. We headed toward the door.
“Just where do you two think you’re going?” snapped Mrs. Perkins, looking frustrated and unsure.
Brennan spoke up, “We both did the reading like you assigned, so we don’t need to sit hear and listen to you read it to the rest of the class.”
“Well, you can’t just walk out of here.”
“Check our quizzes – I bet we both got perfect scores,” I added, smiling with a sense of power.
“I don’t need to do any such thing,” Mrs. Perkins pushed her chair back and stood up. “Even if you both did get them all right, you can’t leave class.” Mrs. Perkins’ face was red, and she was starting to sweat.
“Sure we can,” said Brennan, taking a step closer to the door.
“I’m calling the principal immediately and informing him of your disrespectful behavior.”
“Go right ahead,” I replied, smartly. We walked out holding hands.
As soon as we got out in the hall, we took off in a run toward the closet exit. We didn’t have much of a plan. Reaching the edge of the soccer field, we collapsed, laughing our heads off.
“Did you see the look on Mrs. Perkins’ face. I swear any punishment that we receive will be totally worth it,” I giggled.
“I agree,” Brennan chuckled. He paused to brush the hair off of my face. I could feel his heart beating rapidly next to mine. Rolling over and pulling me on top of him, he asked, “Now what?”
I drew a shaky breath. “Now you kiss me until we need to leave for our next class,” I whispered, my voice catching in my throat as he stared down at me with hungry eyes. I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I like how your mind works,” he smiled, cradling my head between his hands.
Slowly he bent his head to kiss me, the whole world ceased to exist. I forgot all about school, detention, spring break, and prom. None of it mattered when I was in Brennan’s arms.
His kisses were slow and intimate - a sort of promise that there were many great things yet to come. Brennan took his time exploring my mouth. I was gasping for air by the time he turned his attention to my neck, kissing the sensitive spot behind my ear. My hands roamed underneath his shirt, feeling his strong back, pushing him closer to me. I could never get close enough.
“I love you,” I whispered, in between kisses. It took several seconds for my brain to catch up with what I had just said. I hadn’t even realized it was true until I heard myself say it, but I knew it was. However, I was terrified about how Brennan was going to react to my confession. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to slip out,” I apologized, practically tripping over my own words. I sat up, covering my mouth with my hand.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I feel so stupid – that’s why.” My face was red and I felt like I was on the verge of tears. No guy wanted his girlfriend gushing all over him, saying that she loved him. Guys were scared of girls like that. It caused them to run in the other direction – and fast!
I stared at my feet.
“I don’t understand.” His voice filled with confusion. “Look at me.” Brennan gently touched my chin, lifting it to face him.
“It’s just that everything has been so great between us, and I went and ruined it,” I sputtered, trying my best to explain. “I know you don’t feel the same way about me, and that’s okay. I don’t want you to feel awkward around me now. Please, let’s pretend I never said anything.”
“You want me to pretend that I didn’t hear you say that you love me?” He shook his head in disbelief.
I nodded my head, yes.
He chuckled, “You silly girl. I can’t pretend that I didn’t hear you.” He was smiling in a way that made my insides melt.
“Why not?” I asked softly.
“Because I’ve been waiting to tell you the very same thing.” He pierced me with his blue eyes, “I love you, Josephine McCall.”
“You do?” I choked. I was completely taken by surprise. However, I desperately wanted to believe his words were true.
“I do.” He lightly brushed his lips against mine. “Why do you think I invited you to go on vacation with me and my family?”
“Because…I’m your good luck charm?”
Brennan laughed. “No, I invited you because I love you, and I want to spend time with you.”
“Oh,” I said quietly, letting everything sink in.
Next thing I knew, we were tangled up, kissing each other again. Only this time there was a sense of urgency about our kisses. We stayed that way until we heard the bell ring, signaling the end of first period. Brennan helped pull me to my feet, and then we took off running and laughing back toward school.
As we settled into our seats in math, I wondered if the students around us knew that something had changed. I felt different. Could they sense that Brennan and I had just confessed our love to each other? I couldn’t stop smiling. I looked over at B-Man, and he looked just as happy as I did.
Mr. McCormick took attendance and asked the class to hand in their homework. As he was collecting it, the classroom phone rang.
“Sure, no problem,” he said, and then hung up.
“Brennan,” he nodded at him, “Josie,” he nodded at me, “you’re both wanted in the main office. You are to go directly there,” he warned.
“Okay,” we answered at the same time. We gathered our things and left. We both knew why we were being summoned.
We slowly walked to the main office and sat down in the hard plastic chairs. I was in such a good mood from what happened out on the soccer field that I didn’t even care that I had been called down to the Principal’s office for the first time ever.
The principal called us into his office one at a time. In the end, since it was a first offense for both of us, and we were both model students, he let us off easy with a phone call to our parents and a week’s worth of det
entions.
Detention was the easy part – sitting in the cafeteria working on homework for an hour every day after school with Brennan across the room. The phone call was the hard part -my mom wasn’t going to be happy with me when I got home.
***
“I can’t believe it,” My mom said, meeting me at the back door.
“What?” I said, hoping that she was referring to something other than the fact that I had skipped out in the middle of class. My parents took school serious.
“You know what I’m talking about, Josephine Rose. The principal called me today.” She looked mad. She had her hands on her hips and her feet were shoulder width apart.
I cringed inwardly, but stood my ground. I really hadn’t done anything wrong. “Yes, I know. He said he was going to call you.”
“Don’t take that light attitude with me.” I nodded, and looked briefly at my toes. My mom continued, “He said that you and Brennan cut class. What’s this all about? You’re a straight A student. I expect this behavior from Ellie, but not from you.”
“Exactly- I did my homework. I left because I shouldn’t have to sit there for an hour while the teacher reads to the class because nobody, other than Brennan and I, bothered to do the assignment.”
“That is hardly the point,” she huffed, not really listening to anything I had just said. “You can’t just walk out in the middle of class.”
“I think Mrs. Perkins needs to do a better job and actually teach something. All she does is cater to the idiots in my class.”
“Josie,” my mom said, shocked.
“Well it’s true.” I shifted my bag.
“What has gotten into you lately?” My mom frowned. “First you’re out until 11p.m. on a school night, and now this. Is it Brennan? I thought he was a nice boy, but now I’m not so sure. You’ve never acted rashly like this before.”
“It was my idea to skip out on class – not Brennan’s,” I said defensively.
The Perfect Prom Date Page 11