Love Off-Limits

by Whitney Lyles

  “So are you doing anything for Jeremy’s birthday this year?” Matt asked as he rolled down his window too. “The party you threw last year was great.”

  Natalie hadn’t forgotten that Jeremy’s birthday was a week before Halloween. He’d be seventeen. She knew he’d probably be expecting another big party. Last year she’d orchestrated a beach bonfire party. She remembered cuddling up next to him while they’d toasted marshmallows with all his friends. She remembered how warm she’d felt in his arms, how things had been so comfortable between them. “I’ll probably organize another party. I’m not sure where yet.”

  “Bowling would be fun,” Matt suggested.

  “Bowling? I hadn’t even thought of bowling.” This was probably due to the fact that she didn’t have an athletic bone in her body. She liked to watch sports, and that was about it. But bowling could be fun. It wasn’t like she had to tackle, kick, or run after anything. “That’s not a bad idea.”

  “They have rock-and-bowl at the bowling alley on Friday nights. The radio station broadcasts there, and they play good music the whole time you bowl.”

  “Jeremy would probably love that. I’ll invite all his friends.”

  “I can help with anything,” Matt offered.

  “Thanks.”

  They chatted about the paper and the other articles that students were working on. “You going to the dance?” Natalie asked.

  “No date yet.”

  “You? No date?” Did she sound like she was flirting? Because she hadn’t meant to sound like she was flirting. “I mean…what I mean was that I just thought this would be something you wouldn’t want to miss out on. I mean, this is our junior year and we only have two more Howl at the Moons left.”

  She didn’t even sound like herself. Why did she feel so uncomfortable? She tried to squash all her funny feelings by encouraging Matt to find a date. “Any ideas about who you would like to go with?” she asked.

  He seemed as though he were squirming a little at the question.

  “You do! You totally have a crush on someone.” She was curious.

  He smiled and shook his head. “No, I don’t.”

  “Why don’t you have a girlfriend, Matt?”

  His smile faded slightly and he shrugged. “I don’t know. Guess I just haven’t found the right girl. Not everyone is as lucky as Jeremy and you.” They were at a stoplight and he turned to look at her for a moment. He looked at her in that way that made her feel as though he had nothing else in the world to look at or think about. This is just the way Matt is, she told herself. This is the way he looks at everyone.

  “We’re here.” The sound of Matt’s voice was distant at first. “Natalie?”

  “Uh-huh.” She snapped out of her daze. “I mean, yes. Oh, we’re here.” She reached for her seat belt.

  “I thought I’d lost you for a minute there. What are you thinking about?”

  “Oh, just school and the article,” she answered quickly.

  He nodded. “Good. We need lots of ideas for this.”

  They waited for a hostess to lead them to a booth. Natalie didn’t need to look at the menu to know she wanted a large basket of cheese fries with a side of ranch, and a Diet Coke.

  Matt scanned the menu for a couple seconds, then set it down. “I think I just want cheese fries.”

  “That’s what I’m getting. You want to just split a huge basket? Maybe get some mozzarella sticks too?” she suggested.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Matt pulled a folder out of his backpack and placed it on the table. “So, here is what I’ve started. I made a copy for you.” He slid a couple sheets of paper across the table.

  It was mostly just couples costume ideas jotted down, and some ideas for the quiz. She scanned them. Couples from around the world, couples from different time eras, movie theme couples, sports couples…

  “What if people want to go with their friends to the dance?” she asked, and then realized this was so something she would ask in her current state of mind. “I mean, you know that every year a group of girls and guys go together with no specific dates.

  “True. I thought about that. We’ll have to come up with some singles ideas too.”

  They began to brainstorm—bouncing all kinds of ideas off each other—pausing only when their food arrived. “For the couples around the world idea a samurai and a geisha would be pretty cool,” Matt said.

  “Love it.” Natalie added it to the list. “And for America we could put Uncle Sam and Betsy Ross or just dressing in all red, white, and blue.”

  “Great idea.”

  “And for different time eras we could date all the way back to the prehistoric era with cavemen. Oh! And even Pilgrims. Then there could be the whole Southern belle theme and the gangsters and flappers for the twenties.” She dipped a fry in ranch dressing, and Matt picked up her thoughts where she left off.

  “Then the fifties, and the hippies in the sixties. Yeah, I mean, the list goes on and on.”

  “I have the best idea. We could even put an opposites category in there. Like, someone could go as ‘the past’ and go as a caveman and someone could go as ‘the future’ and go as a robot.”

  Matt loved the opposites idea. “How about hot and cold? One person could come in full beach attire and the other could come in a ski suit. People wouldn’t even need to buy a costume for that. All you’d need is a bathing suit and a snowboarding outfit.”

  “Maybe we should do an affordable costume column too. Where people could just find the simplest things in their house to make a costume from. I once read a book where the character went as white trash, and all she put on was a white trash bag. She just cut holes for the arms and the head.”

  Matt tossed his head back and laughed. “That is hilarious!”

  They had fun brainstorming costume ideas, and Natalie couldn’t believe how easy it was to come up with things when she had a creative partner. They decided they would give only a few specific costume ideas for each general theme. The article was meant to inspire people to come up with their own ideas, and to have as much fun as Natalie and Matt were having while coming up with ideas.

  They still hadn’t even discussed the quiz when they polished off the last cheese fry and mozzarella stick. With the two of them working together, the article would be a breeze.

  “I’m gonna head to the boys’ room,” Matt said, excusing himself.

  It was a couple seconds after he left when Natalie realized she felt a little surge of irritation in her mouth—specifically in the upper front teeth region. Alarm hit when she sensed the familiar feeling of something stuck in her tooth. She’d had something stuck between her teeth this whole time? She ran her tongue over the spot, and sure enough, it detected something hard and foreign. What was it? An herb from the mozzarella stick crust? Or had it been there since her granola bar and Doritos binge at lunch? She wanted to die. What she needed to do was run to the bathroom. However, all of their stuff was on the table, including Matt’s wallet and backpack. She picked up a spoon from the table, and tried to examine her mouth in the reflection. But the spoon was too tarnished. She ran her finger over the spot, but whatever was in there was stubborn. She lifted her front lip and snarled in the window next to her. Maybe she could see from her reflection. But she could only see the outline of her head.

  This was horrible. She reached for her glass and began to swish Diet Coke vigorously between her cheeks as though it were mouthwash. She was midswish and looking chipmunklike when Matt appeared out of nowhere. She spit her Diet Coke back into the glass.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  She didn’t want to open her mouth too wide and expose whatever was lodged between her two front teeth. “I’m fine,” she said between gritted teeth. Her voice sounded funny through her clenched teeth.

  “Did you see someone outside? Someone from school?” he asked as he slid back into the booth.

  She shook her head this time.

  “I thought I saw
you smiling at someone outside.”

  “It was just a dog.” She was still speaking through her gritted teeth. She sounded like she was underwater.

  “You sure you’re all right?”

  She jumped up. “Will you excuse me for a minute?”

  She didn’t wait for his answer. She scurried to the bathroom and quickly removed what appeared to be mozzarella stick crust. She decided this might go down as the most embarrassing moment of her life. She’d rather wear the Dalmatian suit to prom. How long had he been staring at fried food residue while she was rambling on about costumes of the world? She wanted to die.

  When she returned, he was reading over his notes.

  “Everything all right?” he asked.

  Natalie smiled big. “Great.” I just want to drive off a cliff, but thank you for acting like you never noticed the food stuck between my teeth.

  He lifted his eyebrows. “All right, then. Back to business.”

  She was glad he could forget her mozzarella mouth and move on so quickly. This would haunt her until she was senile.

  It was hard to focus after that. Natalie was jittery and weird and wished she could just feel normal. If it had been Jo or Vinny, she wouldn’t care. Or even Jeremy, for that matter. That’s when she admitted it to herself. Sitting there in Denny’s, wishing for floss, she realized that she had a crush on Matt. It was more than a little attraction. She felt butterflies, and felt self-conscious, and everything people feel when they’re falling for someone. This realization made her feel terrible. What if Jeremy was checking out other girls, or Jo? The truth was, she didn’t know. She convinced herself that the only reason she felt this way was because she was confused—period. She wasn’t thinking straight. These were crazy-person thoughts. She needed to come to her senses. He was cute. That was it. Who could blame her for feeling a little giddy around him?

  She needed to get out of there, quickly.

  “Listen, why don’t I just do the quiz myself? You have so many other things to deal with at the paper. And I’m not that busy, so I’ll do it.”

  He looked surprised. “Really?” he asked with hesitation in his voice.

  “Positive.”

  “Wow, thanks, Nat. This makes my life easier.” He raised his Diet Coke glass. “To more Denny’s meetings,” he said.

  Their glasses clinked. “To more meetings.” Her heart skipped a beat.

  Six

  Natalie made a conscious effort not to tap her foot on the carpet as she waited for Jo’s grandmother, Seto, to finish reading her teacup. Jo sat next to her on the couch, flipping through an Us Weekly, occasionally lifting her head to comment on someone’s lack of fashion sense.

  “Look at what the Olsen twins are wearing in this picture. Would someone please fire their stylist already?”

  Natalie had already taken her turn with the magazine while Seto had read Jo’s cup. She glanced at the picture, though. “I know. And they have such cute faces. Why do they dress like that?”

  Having Seto read one’s cups was the ultimate treat. It wasn’t often that Natalie met people who could see the future, and Seto was a master as far as she was concerned. They always had to wait for Seto to offer her services. According to Jo it was rude to ask to have your cups read. When Seto did offer to read their cups, which was once every few months, it was like the best day of the month. They always invited Vincent to join them, but he said he’d rather not know. He said that hearing things in advance might change the way you act and it could affect the future. His thinking made sense to Natalie, but she still couldn’t resist peeking ahead. She’d never been one to wait until Christmas Day to see her gifts for the first time. She hated suspense.

  Seto and Jo referred to the fortunetelling custom as “reading cups” or “reading tea leaves,” but Natalie never saw any leaves in there. After she managed to get the tea down her throat, Seto flipped the cup over, and what looked like mud streaked the inside of the special porcelain cup in veiny little rivulets. The muddy mess inside spelled out Natalie’s fortune.

  Today, Jo didn’t seem happy with her fortune. Jo always wanted Seto to focus on her love life. When Seto revealed that the cup said there was someone out there for Jo, a smile had flashed across Jo’s face. However, when Seto said “but,” the smile quickly faded. Seto proceeded to share that Jo wasn’t ready for “this someone.” It was going to take time. “How much time?” Jo had wanted to know. But Seto had only given the vague answer that it all depended on Jo. Natalie had hoped Seto would be a little more specific when it was her turn.

  The tea had tasted like dirt mixed with a strong dose of herbal vitamins. Natalie often thought it would taste like a vitamin if you chewed it. Not to mention the tea was loaded with caffeine and always left the girls wired out of their minds for the remainder of the day.

  After she’d taken the last sip of tea, she’d prayed for answers about her complicated love life, her job at the school newspaper, and whether or not her parents would find out that she’d failed a recent geometry test. Then she’d watched Seto, looking for signs of worry. A hard one to read, Seto always examined the mug with her eyebrows slightly raised, occasionally letting out little interested sounds as if she were either pleased by what she saw or totally puzzled. Natalie could never tell. A knot tightened in her stomach, and she understood why Vincent avoided the tradition.

  As Natalie waited for Seto to finish, she tried to read her for any clues as to what she saw in there. Would Seto really tell her if disaster was on the horizon? Would she say, “You’re going to end up heartbroken and alone for the rest of your life. Scandal is waiting”? It was Seto. She’d practically become a surrogate grandmother to Natalie. Chances were she would sugarcoat the reading a little.

  Finally Seto spoke. A native of Iran, she had a thick accent. “This is very good.” She pointed a wrinkled finger inside the cup. “You see. You have the lion’s head in here. This shows strength. You are very strong. It is a very good sign. You are powerful and you can do anything you vant to do.”

  Natalie and Jo exchanged excited glances. So far Natalie liked it.

  Seto continued. “You have been very vorried lately. You vorry about yourself and other people too. But maybe you think too much. Maybe you think too hard. You know vhat I mean?” She looked up at Natalie.

  Natalie nodded.

  “You don’t need to vorry so much. Let some things go.”

  Now Seto was starting to sound like her mother. Natalie knew she worried way too much.

  “I see a young man in here. No wait, two young men. They care for you and you care for them too. Very much.” Natalie felt a chill run up her spine. Two guys? How would Seto know this? There was no way Seto could know how she felt about Matt. She’d only admitted it to herself less than an hour ago, and even if she had known all along, this was so top secret. She wouldn’t even let Prints William in on this one.

  Seto continued. “It’s confusing to you. But don’t vorry. Everything vill be fine. One of the boys is a someone who likes you…vhat do you call him? A hidden admirer?”

  Natalie and Jo chuckled. “You mean a secret admirer, Seto?”

  “Yes, secret admirer.”

  Well, now Natalie knew it couldn’t be Matt. He’d always acted as though Jeremy and Natalie were a match made in heaven. He wasn’t attracted to Natalie.

  “He may give you something you can hold in your hand.” Seto sat up and leaned forward as though something important was coming. “Be careful. You try very hard to balance things, but something might be hard to balance. Just be careful.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just, you know, vatch what you do.” Seto handed the cup to Natalie. “All right, now I vant you to turn the cup upside down and make your vish.”

  Natalie took the cup and turned it upside down onto the saucer. She thought about what she wanted to wish for. Clarity. Peace of mind. The vision to figure out what she should do with her crazy love life.

  Seto looked in the cup, an
d then at Natalie. “I see you have made your vish, and you vill get him.”

  Him? Had she subconsciously been wishing for him…meaning Matt? She didn’t even want to think about the answer.

  Natalie noticed Jo raise her eyebrows. “Him?”

  Natalie shrugged, then thanked Seto for the reading.

  Seto was the coolest grandma, and Jo’s whole family was pretty cool too, for that matter. Jo’s older sister, Sam, was off at college. Her parents traveled the world constantly, leaving Jo in the care of Seto. Seto was kind and funny, and best of all she went to bed early. Whenever they spent the night, they had Jo’s whole mansion to themselves.

  Natalie’s family life couldn’t be more opposite. Her parents never went out of town. Grandma Jones dominated the remote control and snored so loud a neighbor once complained. Her brothers were hooligans. Throw Prints William and the cat into the mix, and it was an insane asylum.

  After Seto was finished reading their cups, Jo and Natalie made sundaes and watched a rerun of My Super Sweet 16 with no interruptions. Paradise. Going to Jo’s house was like going to a fancy resort—not that Natalie knew what it would be like to go somewhere fancy. But the high ceilings and polished hardwood floors were extravagant. Their front door alone was taller than the first story of Natalie’s house, and they had glass cabinets, and frescoes painted over their ceilings. Everything was clean and clutter-free at Jo’s. At Natalie’s house, fur and her brothers’ dirty cleats could always be found on their stained carpet.

  “So, announcements for the Howl at the Moon court will come out tomorrow,” Jo said.

  “I know.”

  “Don’t be so glum. Do you know how many girls would kill to be in your position?”

  “I know, but it’s just hard to explain. I mean, I still really care about Jeremy, but I’m telling you, I just don’t know if he’s the right guy for me. Sometimes I just think we’re kind of opposite. We might be better off just being friends.” She thought for a moment. “But then on the other hand, maybe I’d really miss him if I broke up with him.”