My Stupid Girl

by Smith, Aurora

  She ate most of it.

  I didn’t say much. I answered questions that were directed at me but contributed nothing to the ongoing conversation. I was actually surprised by these people. They didn’t really all look the same, like I had always thought. Now that I paid attention to each one, they were pretty different from each other. I had thought this whole time that Lucy was a preppy Christian girl but after getting to know her, and meeting the other people at her church, I realized that I was painfully wrong. I was more of a stereotype than I always thought she was. She wasn’t really preppy; she was more of a hippie chick. All of Lucy’s beauty was natural. Her waist-length hair was almost always down. I suspected she didn’t wear much makeup – only when the occasion called for it, not because she was simply going to be seen. She didn’t wear makeup like I did, or like the supermodel sitting right next to me. She didn’t wear much jewelry, either. I noticed that the other girls all had earrings, necklaces, and sparkly things in their hair. I had never seen Lucy wear anything like that except for a little pearl ring on her left ring finger. Lucy didn’t seem like she was concerned with a lot of things that I assumed most girls were concerned with.

  Rachel got a side salad with fat free dressing, ate three fries, then complained about pigging out. Lucy ate most of my sandwich and shared the fries with me, and then asked me if I wanted to “share” a milkshake. I ordered one for each of us. The nice part about it was that Lucy had the best body out of all of the girls. Lucy was still slim, but like Betty Page; the girl filled out her jeans. It was natural and made her stand out without even trying.

  There was one girl at the table with pitch black hair, up in a kind of 50s do. She wore bright red lipstick and pink cheeks. Her lightweight sweater was straight out of the 70s. Finishing off the look were bell bottoms and bright red Dock Martins. She looked rad. Again, not at all what I expected a popular religious girl to look like. The boy next to her wore skinny jeans, a big thick hooded shirt, short spiky hair, and glasses. Next to him was a girl who looked like she belonged in Chess club, in fact I recognized her from school and was almost certain that she was in the Chess club. She was quiet and seemed completely comfortable being among people who looked nothing like her, just like retro girl and skater boy.

  Then sat Mike, Rachel, Christina and Evelyn. Evelyn was right next to me at the table. She wore a look that said she already knew what I knew and anything that I might someday know. She was the littlest of the three, almost too skinny. She had a thin face and eyes that stood out. They were a pretty blue, almost pale blue, like the sky right after a freak sun shower. She flicked her food around on her plate, not eating any of it and not talking to anyone. She was obviously not one for conversation. I was actually relieved she was sitting next to me. I didn’t really have to try.

  To my bewilderment, Rachel kept casting sweet looks over at me then putting her arms around Mike. I could tell by the way Mike kept looking over at Lucy and me that Lucy was the one he would rather be sitting with. I felt kind of bad for the guy.

  Wait, no. No I didn’t.

  Despite the stunning woman on his arm, I couldn’t help wondering about Mike. How it would feel to have Lucy break up with you? I wasn’t technically dating Lucy, but the thought of not being with her was paralyzing. It was just slightly more paralyzing than being with her.

  Every once in a while, Lucy would put her hand on mine or play with the back of my hair. I flinched a couple of times, but for the most part it didn’t bother me that much. She never touched the hair around my face, though, which was a relief. She knew I didn’t want her to touch it and never questioned me on it. That was one of the many things that I was beginning to really appreciate about her. That and the Betty Page look. And the thick long hair. And the lack of weird sparkly things. And the ability to put away a solid meal without whining about calories. So many things to admire.

  “So, David,” Rachel leaned in towards me. I cringed. “Tonight we are going bowling at Lauren Lane Bowling Alley; would you like to come with us?”

  “Bowling?” I repeated, like an idiot.

  “Yes, David. It’s this game were you roll a ball down a lane and try to hit some pins at the end.” She smiled wickedly. Everyone laughed, even Lucy.

  “I’ve heard the natives speak of it, but I have never played.” I pulled my hand away from Lucy’s for laughing at me.

  “You’ve never gone bowling?” Mike snorted into his drink.

  “Shut up Mike!” Lucy’s voice was a little harsh. I let her touch my hand again.

  “So, do you want to come?” Rachel repeated the question, staring straight at me. I felt Lucy lean in, her lips brushing my ears.

  “David, you don’t have to go.”

  “Are you going?” I asked, under my breath.

  “I haven’t given it much thought; I was just happy to be hanging out with you.” She smiled that smile as she answered me. I heard a few snickers from the group when she said that. I sighed, put on my big boy underwear, and turned my attention away from those deep eyes. I looked directly at Rachel.

  “Can I invite some friends?” I asked.

  “Like who?” Her voice was casually interested, but I noticed her lips turning down just a little bit. Ha! I was going to see this through. I wasn’t doing another social outing with this group where I was the only one who felt out of place.

  “My friends,” I replied simply, enjoy vagueness.

  “Yes, that’s a great idea!” Lucy sounded enthusiastic. Rachel smiled and nodded at Lucy’s words. I suspected she wasn’t as excited as Lucy was, but whatever. Battle won. I smiled gratefully at Lucy and laughed to myself at the thought of my guys at a bowling alley.

  * * *

  “David, I don’t mind just hanging out with you and going to bed early. It’s been a long weekend.” She spoke softly as we drove into her driveway.

  “You don’t want me to go?” I asked her, making sure to turn on the sad face.

  “No,” she laughed, “it’s not that. I just, I don’t want you to feel like you have to hang out with these people to get me to like you.” She was straightforward, another thing I liked.

  “Honestly, I kind of want to see my friends bowl with a bunch of church folk.” I smiled at her. She cut off the engine in the car and looked at me, holding my eyes and thinking. Then she laughed and leaned over to hug me. She held on to my neck and didn’t let go for a whole minute. After my initial shock, I reciprocated whole heartedly.

  “I kind of want to see that, too.” She whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine. “But for now, can we please take a nap?”

  The mention of sleep was like a slap of cold water. Yes. I needed sleep, a lot. A nap sounded amazing. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually slept. The last two days were whirlwinds. The idea of a nap with Lucy was its own kind of awesome, but my brain instantly went into a downward spiral of how badly it could go here, at her house. Dads are not huge fans of that kind of thing, I’ve heard.

  “Are your parents home?” I looked nervously at the house.

  “They go to the later service at church. They won’t be home till after two if they don’t go out to lunch afterwards.” She was explaining lightly, not at all concerned. Which didn’t actually make me feel less nervous.

  “Oh.” I was torn, glad they weren’t there because I got to spend some time with Lucy, but I didn’t know what would happen if they came home and saw me napping with their daughter. One thing I had noticed about Lucy was that she wasn’t 100% awesome at thinking things through. But I followed her anyway. My other options were to sleep in the car, which would get cold really quickly, or drive somewhere else to sleep. Which seemed silly with the nice girl walking up to the incredible house, expecting me to follow her.

  She opened the front door and a warm, clean smell met me. Tall ceilings and a big stairway to the second story loomed in front of us. Each wall was painted with a different, bright color and decorated with beautiful art work.

  “M
y mom painted that,” Lucy said when she noticed me staring at one painting.

  “Wow, that’s cool.” I turned around to fully look Lucy in the face.

  “What?” She touched her face nervously.

  “Nothing, I was just saying that I liked it.” My voice was innocent.

  “You gave me a funny look,” she insisted. I looked down at the ground for a second to gather my courage and then up at her again.

  “I was just thinking that you are absolutely amazing.” It took all of my might to say what I was thinking, but I did it. She smiled at me and put her head to one side like she did whenever she was about to say something profound.

  “Are you talking about me or you?” She made a point to make it sound as cheesy as it was, and making fun of what I had said to her the night before. I pulled her in for another hug, a better version of the car-hug she’d sprung on me earlier. We stood there for a moment, her head resting on my chest and my nose close to her hair. How do girls make their hair smell so good?

  “Let’s watch a movie and fall asleep,” she started pulling me into the beautiful living room but I broke away.

  “First, I’m going to invite my friends to the alley tonight.” I backed away from the living room and pulled my cell phone out. I walked down the hallway, back toward the front door as I dialed Johnny’s phone number. Lucy stayed in the living room, plopping down on an oversized couch and flipping on a huge TV.

  “Hello?”

  “Johnny!” I said happily.

  “David?” He sounded confused.

  “Yeah dude, what’s up?” I could not contain my joy.

  “Seriously, who is this? I don’t recognize this number and it sounds like I’m talking to a fairy princess.”

  “Harsh man,” I said, realizing he was messing with me.

  “Wow, what’s wrong? You okay?” He sounded concerned all of a sudden. I guess I didn’t really call to chat all that much.

  “Nothing’s wrong. My grandma got me a cell phone.”

  “Ah, cool. So what’s up man, did you get sick?” For a second I wondered if Lucy had been keeping them updated without telling me, then remembered that a bunch of people had gotten food poisoning that same night.

  “Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous. Did you?”

  “I was throwing up for about twelve hours,” Johnny admitted with a groan. “I couldn’t go out of town with my family to go see my sister.”

  “I totally forgot about that,” I admitted, ruefully. I needed to pay more attention to random details. “But, I have something for us to do tonight.” I switched to super-excited cheerleader voice for that bit.

  “Yeah, like what?”

  “Bowling!”

  “Bowling…” He let that hang in the air for a minute, not appreciating my carefully crafted sarcasm.

  “Not really bowling so much as a night full of making people uncomfortable.” I chuckled at the mental image.

  “Nice, who will we be freaking out?” He was already on board. I knew that’d get him.

  “Lucy’s friends from church asked me to bowling with them tonight,” I admitted.

  “Ha! Hey, Isaiah.” I heard Johnny turn away from the phone, not even answering me. “The Christians want us to go bowling tonight.” I heard several voices laughing, like all the guys were there.

  “Dude, how did that happen?” He asked between fits of laughter.

  “At lunch.” I said quietly. I should have thought this through before I called. I was not counting on everyone being together on the other end of the line.

  “What were you doing out to lunch with them-- Oh man, it’s Sunday! Please don’t tell me you went to church with Lucy today?” Johnny was passing the news along to everyone before I even had time to reply. I heard shouts of amazement from the group.

  “Do you want to come or not?” I asked, wishing I’d come up with a game plan before I called him. I was definitely going to have a new nickname, now.

  “Heck yeah man. Laurel Lanes?”

  “Yeah. 4:30.” I hung up the phone with an irritable snap, and then smiled. I loved those guys; they were all jerks and completely moronic, but they were great. I knew that they would rise to the occasion and pull out all the stops for me. It was going to be a fun night, even with a new nickname to deal with. I looked around at the many paintings again, took a deep breath, and headed back down the hallway.

  I walked back to the living room were Lucy was curled up on the couch, an old black and white movie on the big flat screen TV.

  “This is one of my favorite movies.” She patted a spot next to her.

  “Cool. What is it?” I chose a spot on the same couch, but not way too close, just in case her parents walked in.

  “Arsenic and Old Lace. It’s a classic.” She smiled serenely, and turned back to the film.

  Honestly, I could have cared less what we watched. I was happy to be hanging out with her, finally alone. The movie ended up being pretty funny, though. It was about two old ladies who seemed sweet and normal but weren’t. They lived with their crazy brother who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. Other stuff happened but I don’t remember much of it. She scooted over to sit right next to me, without taking her eyes from the movie. I laid my arm out, hand up, hoping that Lucy would hold it. She didn’t, but she did take the back of her fingernails and lightly scratch my forearm.

  Ok, I have never had anyone do this before. Most people probably have a parent or someone tickle their forearms before they hit driving age, but it was a first for me. It was the coolest feeling, like my whole body relaxed all at once. I could have sunk into the couch and died. Literally died and gone to heaven. Apparently, it wears out whoever is doing it, too. I noticed Lucy’s eyes getting heavier.

  I was tired but would not fall asleep until she did. I wasn’t going to miss a second of this. Her arm got heavier until, eventually, it stopped on the muscle of my upper arm. Her head drooped to my shoulder. Stray hairs were tickling my face but I didn’t care. I laid my own head back on the oversize cushion and thought about all the crazy amazing things that had happened to me this weekend. Even the memory of getting sick was making me smile. The way Lucy stayed with me the whole day, taking care of me and making sure I was okay, was indescribable. I was falling for this girl and it was completely her fault. I tried, many times, to talk myself out of it, but she was pushing herself into my heart.

  In the back of my mind I knew that this could end badly. Anything that I enjoyed was always open for destruction. Right now, though, I was too happy to dwell on that, which was, in itself, a miracle. I was just happy, really happy, and totally content. And very tired. I closed my eyes, exhaustion took over me, and I fell asleep. I fell asleep with Lucy sitting next to me, in a beautiful home, watching an old black and white movie. Amazing.

  * * *

  Somehow I talked Isaiah and Johnny into riding with Lucy and me to the bowling alley. It wasn’t that hard. They were dying to see me and Lucy together. The two of them sat in the back of Lucy’s car, looking around like they were at Disneyland. I could tell by Johnny’s face and the way his eyebrows went up every time we spoke that I was going to get made fun of like I’d never experienced before. They were all loving it. I could just feel their evil little brains storing away at every glance and word, to use against me at a later time. I actually didn’t mind, though. Either of those guys would have given their right arm to be in the front seat with this girl.

  “Johnny, your house is nice.” Lucy looked in the rearview mirror as she spoke to him.

  “Yeah, thanks. It’s pretty cool.” Johnny answered, looking nervously at me. I answered him with a wry smile that said, “I know you are uncomfortable and I laugh at you, sir.”

  "Do your parents hate you or something?" Isaiah broke the uncomfortable moment with a direct question for Lucy.

  "What?"

  "You couldn't get them to buy you anything better than an Acura?" Isaiah’s voice was politely inquisitive.

  Lucy didn’t even repl
y, she just reached over the seat back to smack his leg. In response, Isaiah’s body looked like it was melting. He was speechless. I turned around and glared at him. He solidified quickly, slightly embarrassed (which was not normal for Isaiah) and looked out the window. I was ticked a little. What was it about this girl and dorky boys? They dropped like flies around her.

  "Is Michelle coming?" Lucy surprised me with the question.

  "She said she would rather paint her nails bright pink and then wash her cat," I said squeezing her knee, hoping she wouldn't be offended.

  "She has a mean cat," Isaiah informed Lucy, quietly.

  "Bummer." Lucy’s lips went down in a frown.

  "Why?"

  "I just wanted to get to know her."

  I realized she was making an effort to know my friends. As much as it hurt me, I figured I could give hers a break. I made a mental note to keep it low key at Laurel Lanes.

  We drove into a parking spot right next to the door of the bowling alley at 4:30, exactly. Lucy grabbed my hand as we headed in and all four of us walked through the doors together.

  Every single person bowling in the lanes and all the people playing in the video game arcade turned to look at us. The whole place literally froze. I would have felt very uncomfortable if I didn't have two of my three best friends with me. I can only imagine what Lucy looked like, a hippie girl walking in with her hand held by a Goth boy, flanked by a misfit like Johnny and a guy covered in black from head to toe. She seemed completely at ease, however, and didn’t even seem to notice the group staring at her. They lost interest quickly and went back to their games.