by Amy Sparling
“I’m glad we’re friends,” I say, looking up at him. Please say something, I think. Don’t just let me get away with calling us friends. Say you want to be more.
His smile reveals his shiny white teeth, and that little crinkle in his eyes. “I’m glad we’re friends too.”
Chapter 19
I see Mom glaring at me through the window as I approach the Magpie. At first, I think it’s just a trick of the light, and her face looks angrier than it really is, but once I rush inside, leaving the pouring rain behind me, I can tell for sure she’s pissed. I just don’t know why.
She’s standing behind the front counter, her hair pulled into a messy bun with strands hanging down her face. Thin lines crease her forehead and her eyes are narrowed and looking right at me.
“Hey,” I say, acting like I can’t see the annoyance in her expression. I set my backpack down behind the front counter and look at the store. “Wow, there’s actually shoppers here.”
“A dozen of them,” Mom says. “Why are you late? You’re never late.”
“Oh…I had tutorials—”
Mom rolls her eyes to the ceiling. “I know about the tutorials. I’ve been filling in for you for a month now. Today you’re forty-five minutes later than usual and we’ve been busy.” She gestures toward the door where the sky is darker than ever and the rain is really pouring now. I managed to get from Jonah’s car to the store without getting too wet by sticking to the overhanging eaves that line the boardwalk stores.
“I’m sorry,” I say as I straighten a stack of business cards on the counter just for something to do. “I didn’t realize we’d be busy.”
“We’ve been much busier lately, especially with the new book selection, and it’s very hard to run this place by myself, Natalie.”
Her nostrils flare and I know she could go on griping at me, but a woman comes up to ask her a question about the handmade glass vases. I take the opportunity to leave the counter and I wander around the store saying hello to customers and straightening up the merchandise. As much as I’d loved having frozen yogurt with Jonah, now I’m regretting it a little bit. I had no idea we’d be this busy, but people tend to stay in stores longer when it’s raining outside. I should have thought of that.
Still. Mom should be happy, not pissed. We have customers! We’re making money. This is a good thing. And so what, even if she is mad at me. More customers mean Jack Brown can’t talk us into selling the store.
After we close the Magpie for the night, Mom seems to have gotten over her anger at me. We earned four hundred dollars today, which is a huge sales day for a Tuesday, which is usually one of our worst days. Mom seems happy about it as she counts the money from the register.
I want to tell her about my grades getting better, but I’m afraid that’ll make her think of tutorials again and then she’ll go back to being annoyed with me.
At home, I head up to my room and that’s when all of the stuff in my real life comes back to me. At work, it’s easier to shove aside thoughts of guys and dates because I have to focus on the store. But now, at nine o’clock on a school night, when my hair is wet from my shower, and there’s nothing to do but lie awake in bed, I start thinking about it all again.
Jonah made it pretty clear that we’re friends. That’s a good thing, I guess. I don’t need some stupid teenage love triangle between Caleb and Jonah—I just need to focus on one guy I like. I stare at my phone and pull up my text messages. Besides April, the last text I have is from Jonah. It was all the smiley faces he sent me for my test grade. Below that are texts from my mom, my aunt Sheryl, and Jessica from my chemistry class who wanted to know the password to ChemXLabs.
And even further down the list is Caleb’s name. ha ha. Be there to pick you up in five mins
I click on the message and send him a new one. He kissed me, and I want to get to the bottom of this. Does he like me or not?
Me: I’m sick of this rainy weather!
I turn on my television and flip through the channels as I wait for a reply. After twenty minutes, my phone beeps.
Caleb: me too. Fuckin sucked setting up for OL today.
It takes me minute to know what he’s talking about, but then I remember that Operation Lunch is tomorrow. Every year, the student council throws an outdoor lunch on campus to raise funds for whatever charity they’ve chosen this time. Local businesses donate pizzas and burgers and stuff that the school sells for charity, and we all eat outside and play games. I guess he had to set up the game booths today in the rain.
Me: That sucks
Caleb: tell me about it. I don’t know why they make the football team do it every year. We have a perfectly capable baseball, basketball, and soccer team. Smh
Me: haha…at least it’s for charity? You could put it on your college applications
Caleb: no need to suck up on applications. They all want me for football
I don’t know what to say back, so I decide to be the mysterious girl again and I leave him hanging. He doesn’t write back though, and I wonder if he finds me mysterious or just boring.
***
At lunch the next day, April and I meet up at her locker. Everyone is excited for Operation Lunch because a local pizza shop donated fifty macaroni and cheese pizzas in addition to the normal ones. April wants to try it out, so we get in the long line in front of the pizza food truck.
Luckily, yesterday’s bad weather went away last night and today is bright and sunny again with a cool breeze brought in from the storm.
“So I texted him last night,” I say, keeping my voice low so no one in line can overhear me.
“Which him?” April asks.
I give her a look. “There’s only one guy in my life.”
She tilts her head. “Technically there’s two, but you’re too scared to admit it.”
I’m not a violent person, but I get the sudden urge to stomp on her foot to make her shut up. Instead, I say, “I texted Caleb. He didn’t really seem too interested in talking to me.”
“He’s a dude,” she says with a shrug. “You have to lay it on thick to get a message across to them.” She folds her arms across her chest and looks out at the courtyard. I follow her gaze.
There he is. Caleb and his football friends are tossing around a football. The picnic benches that line the courtyard are filled with cheerleaders and other popular girls, who are picking at their food and watching the boys show off. Caleb’s right in the middle, wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. He intercepts a football pass and holds the ball in the air, doing a victory pump.
I can’t believe he kissed me. A guy as popular as that, with gorgeous eyes and the perfect athlete’s build. I must look like I’m swooning pretty hard because April smacks me in the arm.
“Move,” she says, gesturing to the food line which has moved forward about five steps since I’ve been zoning out. I catch up with her and glance back at the courtyard.
“Your dating life is so fascinating to me,” April says.
“Shut up,” I tell her. I can’t seem to stop looking at Caleb, who is now leaning over and allowing one of the cheerleaders feed him pizza.
I roll my eyes and turn back to face April.
“Ouch,” she says, glancing at Caleb. “Are you sure you like him?”
“He made the first move on me,” I say defensively. “He asked me out. It’s not my fault I like him…it’s not like I’m hopelessly crushing on him… I mean there has to be a chance, right? He kissed me.” I say the last part as quietly as possible.
She shrugs. “I just think the two guys in your life are such total opposites that it’s kind of hilarious. I wouldn’t pick Caleb, if I were you. I’d pick him.”
She turns her gaze toward the parking lot, where a section of it has been roped off for the game booths and food vendors. The band has set up their annual face painting booth, which is something they have to fight for because every year the administration tries to shut them down since going back to class with painted fac
es is kind of a huge distraction.
Jonah’s not in the band, but he must have volunteered anyway because he’s wearing a white smock from the art room to protect his clothes while he sits on a stool with a pallet of paint balanced in his left hand.
Mrs. Mindy, the elementary special education teacher, is standing next to him with a few younger kids in tow. They must have walked over from the elementary across the street. A little girl with a disability is sitting in a folding chair next to him, clutching a baby doll in her hands. She looks scared, and Mrs. Mindy is talking to her.
Jonah says something that makes her smile. She points to the board of face paint designs, choosing a pink heart. When Jonah leans forward to paint her cheek, she shakes her head and starts crying.
Mrs. Mindy kneels down beside her, but the girl’s focus is on Jonah. I can’t hear what he says, but whatever it is, it makes the girl smile. She pushes out her baby doll toward him and he paints a pink heart on the doll’s cheek.
The girl is all smiles now. After contemplating it for a few seconds, she turns her cheek to Jonah. Mrs. Mindy beams as Jonah paints the heart on the girl’s cheek to match the one on her doll.
“Oh…my…God….” April breathes. She clutches my arm while we both watch the scene unfold. “Is that not the most adorable thing ever? He’s good with kids,” she says, tugging me forward as we move up in line. She puts a hand to her chest. “I want a guy like that.”
My heart aches in my chest, and if life were perfect, of course I’d choose Jonah. I shove down the pain I feel as I tear my eyes away from him and focus on the food truck instead. “He’s all yours,” I say, trying to act like I don’t care.
“No he’s not,” April says. “I would never take a guy from you. I’m just saying, I want someone like him.”
I shrug and look back at Caleb, trying to find something redeeming in the way he’s gloating around the courtyard like he’s the king of football. “Jonah just wants to be friends, April. I can’t keep thinking about him or talking about him, okay? It’s too painful. I need to focus on guys who do like me.”
She looks like she wants to object but I press my lips together. “I’m serious. Let’s not talk about him anymore.”
We get our pizza and choose a shady spot under some oak trees to eat lunch. We don’t say much, and I know we’re still thinking about the Jonah thing. It was insanely adorable how well he made that little girl laugh and forget about her fears. It tugs at my heartstrings. But I’ve made a rule not to talk about Jonah, and I’m going to stick with it.
“Umm,” April says when lunch is almost over.
“What?” I say, but it’s too late. Whatever she’s looking at behind me has just walked up and sat next to us.
Jonah takes a long sip from his can of Cherry Coke. “Hey. Can you believe they actually held this thing on April first?” he says, glancing at April who looks like her eyes are about to burst out of her head. Luckily, he has no idea that we were just talking about him.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“April Fools’ Day.” He shrugs. “They scheduled Operation Lunch on a joke day, so I was afraid people wouldn’t take it seriously. Luckily, they did.”
“Wow, it’s April already?” I glance at April, who nods.
“It’s the best month of the year!” she says in this goofy way. “When I was a kid, I called it me month.”
“I guess I wasn’t paying attention,” I say, realizing my birthday is only two days away. I’ll be eighteen and a legal adult. Too bad I don’t feel like one. “This year is going by fast.”
There’s an awkwardness in the air that I’m positive Jonah picks up on. “Sorry for barging in,” he says, bending back on his knees. “I won’t take long. I just wanted to ask about your work hours.”
I lift an eyebrow. “At The Magpie?”
He nods. “You said you work after school every day?”
“Yep. Until six. Why?”
He takes another sip from his drink. “I just wanted to check out the books.”
“You can buy a book anytime,” April says with a hint of flirtation in her voice. “Why does Natalie need to be there?”
I could kill her for what she’s implying, but Jonah just smiles and stands up. “You’re right,” he says with a chuckle. “See you at tutorials, Nat.”
We watch him walk away just far enough to be out of earshot and then I glare at April. She holds up her hands defensively. “Sorry, Nat. The boy wants to see you after school,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows. “Plus he called you Nat. Casual friends don’t give each other nicknames.”
“I said we aren’t talking about him anymore.” There’s a lump in my throat and it feels hard to breathe, but I think that’s just my heart’s way of telling me I totally screwed up. I should have been nice to Jonah from the start. Maybe he would have liked me in the way I like him.
“I don’t think you’re over him,” April says softly. “I’m just calling it like I see it.”
Caleb and his friends jog past us, chasing after a ball that got kicked way too far.
“Let me prove it to you,” I say as I gather up my courage. I cup my hands to my mouth and yell, “Hey, Caleb!”
He looks around, and then nods when he sees me wave at him. “Sup, Natalie?”
I’m aware that a few people are still out here, some of them looking in my direction. I don’t care. I have to prove to myself that I’m over Jonah once and for all. “You wanna go out me with on Wednesday?”
Beside me, April gasps. My heart beats so fast it might explode, and I watch Caleb’s eyebrows shoot up at my unexpected invitation.
“Yeah,” he calls back as someone tosses him the ball. “Sounds fun.”
Chapter 20
Caleb tosses the football back to some guy and then I have his full attention. As much as I’ve wanted just that, having Caleb’s eyes on me is kind of intimidating. I wonder how many people are watching this exchange right now. April has slipped off somewhere, probably to give me time alone with him, but I kind of wish she was here right now.
“So what’d you have in mind?” Caleb asks, giving me a grin just like he had when we’d kissed at the arcade.
“Wednesday,” I say as we walk. I’m not sure what I want to do, and I probably should have figured it out before I yelled his name and asked him on a date.
“This Wednesday?” he asks, lifting an eyebrow.
“Yep. The third. Should we go to the beach and hang out at that bonfire that’s always lit?”
He nods. “Yeah, I could do that. But why Wednesday? Why not the weekend so we can stay out late?”
“It’ll be April third, which is my birthday,” I say with a grin. My answer makes him stiffen.
“Your birthday? Am I supposed to get you a gift?” He laughs and holds open the door to the school for me. “I wouldn’t even know what to get.”
“No, not at all,” I say quickly, hoping he doesn’t think I asked him out just to get free stuff. “I just wanted to have a chill night. Maybe we can get a cupcake from Gigi’s on the boardwalk then hang out by the bonfire?”
“Uh, sure,” he says after thinking about it for a few seconds. Down the hallway, some guy calls his name. He nods at him, holding up a finger to signal that he’ll be right there. “Just text me or something.”
And then he jogs to catch up with his friend, leaving me in the crowded hallway after lunch, reeling over my newly found confidence. I asked a guy out. And he said yes.
The next two days fly by, and the next thing I know it’s Wednesday, April third. My birthday. Mom’s still asleep when I leave the house in the morning, so I don’t bother waking her up. When I was a little kid, she’d make me smiley face pancakes and let me open one present before school. Now that I’m older, birthdays really aren’t a big deal. Sometimes I miss being a kid.
April is waiting for me on the sidewalk when I leave my house. Usually we meet in the middle of our houses, but today she’s holding a gift bag piled high with
tissue paper.
“Happy birthday!” she says, rushing up the steps to my porch. “I thought I’d meet you here so you can leave your gift at home and not have to lug it around all day.
I grin as she hands me the bag. “Thank you,” I say before I even open it. I didn’t realize how bummed out I felt about Mom sleeping in until now. It’s not every day that your daughter turns eighteen.
April has given me a new Circle E Candle in my absolute favorite scent, Barefoot Beach. It’s the big one too, the one that costs more and is harder to find in stores. I clutch it to my chest. “You are an angel,” I say as I close my eyes and hug the candle. “Thank you so much.”
She grins and gives me a hug. “You’re totally welcome. Mom and I found it like three months ago when we went to Dallas, and I’ve been saving it for you.”
I head back inside to drop off my gift and Mom’s still not awake. Oh well, I tell myself. I’m an adult now. I don’t need my mom to wish me a happy birthday.
“So have you talked to Caleb yet?” April asks on our walk to school. Although we haven’t texted at all since Operation Lunch, Caleb has said hi to me in the hallways yesterday and the day before.
April has been telling me to chat him up through text, but I never do. I contacted him first last time, and I’m waiting for him to contact me this time. I shake my head.
“He knows it’s your birthday today, so he better freaking text you,” she says. “If not, I’m going to kick his ass.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s a guy…guys are dumb, remember?”