Over My Head

by Marie Lamba

  I pull my hand away. “So you both sit and laugh about me? Then you take her to bed?”

  “What? Who told you that?”

  “Who do you think?”

  “Trish.” Cameron runs his fingers through his hair. “Sang, what can I say? It’s not like that at all.”

  “What is it like?”

  “It’s like this.” He brushes a damp strand of hair from my cheek and presses his warm lips there.

  I feel like I’m filled with boiling water.

  “You never slept with her?”

  “No.” He kisses me again. “And I’ll talk with her about all this, okay?”

  Be brave. Take the plunge. “Cameron, there’s this party,” I say in a rush. “It’s next Friday. It’s dressy. Semi-formal. A birthday party.” Inner cringe. Why did I say that? It’s like I’m asking him to a kiddy thing with balloons. Feeling defeated, I mumble, “I thought, maybe, you might come with me.”

  “Sang, I have to go back to campus next weekend.” He rubs his neck.

  “You’re going? So soon? What about that paper you sent your professor?”

  He shakes his head. “No luck.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m going on Saturday. But you’re talking Friday night, right? No, wait. I think I have a thing then.”

  “Sure. A thing.” The hot water that filled me a minute ago turns to ice. I shiver and wrap my towel around my shoulders. If only I could pull it over my head and disappear. “No problem.” I mince over the sharp gravel back toward the pool complex.

  “Sang, hold on. What time’s the party?” he says, suddenly by my side again. When I tell him six, he says, “Well that’s cool, then. My thing’s not until much later.”

  “Really?”

  “I don’t need to rent a tux or anything, do I?”

  “Just wear a tie. And a jacket.”

  “Yeah. I can do that. I want to go.”

  Miracle.

  Chapter 21

  “Just twenty-five bucks. It’s the last time I’ll ask.”

  “But you haven’t paid me anything back yet. I wanted to fill this up for Mom and Dad.” Doodles pulls the lid off the glass cookie jar and peers inside. “How am I supposed to do that if you keep emptying it out?”

  “I told you I’d pay you as soon as Mrs. Schnapps pays me. I need to get a present for Anna’s birthday. The party is in one week. You don’t want me to show up without a present for her.”

  “Why don’t you make her something?” Doodles slides the jar onto her bookshelf.

  “Yeah, right. I’m sure she’d really appreciate a bunch of construction paper bookmarks.”

  “Hey,” Doodles says, tightly crossing her arms. “That’s what I gave you for Christmas.”

  Crap. “And I love them. I use them all the time. But that’s a sister present, you know? Please, Doodles.”

  “Well,” she says, her arms loosening, “on one condition. You have to help me with my yard sale. It’s my newest business. Help me find stuff and set it up. I’m having it tomorrow morning.”

  “Fine.” I go for the jar.

  “And you have to pay me back.”

  “No duh.” I spill out the money onto her bed and count out twenty-five dollars’ worth of ones and quarters. I scoop the balance back into the jar. It really doesn’t leave much.

  “We can start by making signs right now,” Doodles says. She pulls a box of markers from under her bed. “I’ll get the poster board from the basement. You wait here.”

  “Actually, I have to run out. But we can do it later.”

  She kicks the marker box back under the bed. “But the yard sale is tomorrow.”

  “I know. Tonight, okay? Right after dinner. I promise.”

  I load my purse with the bills and quarters, and Raina and I walk into town in search of a birthday present for Anna. Later, when Cameron is on his dinner break during his evening shift at the pool, he’s going to meet me for a little while. Every moment with him counts.

  I hate to admit it, but each time we pass a side street or turn a corner, I hesitate, half expecting Trish and Liselle to jump out and attack. We wander through the usual shops: A Special Gift, Poor Richards. Nothing seems to click. I’m looking at some cute stationery in the Doylestown Bookshop when Raina says, “You don’t think Gary will mind going with me?”

  “To the party? He asked you, didn’t he?” For a moment I wonder if he tried to ask Michelle.

  Raina nods. “I just wonder…”

  I set down the stationery. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Only, did you make him ask me?”

  “No. I didn’t even know he was going to. He did that on his own.”

  She wrings her hands. “I am just a little nervous. This is America. Everything is so different. I don’t want to embarrass you.”

  “How can you possibly embarrass me? Raina, just look at you. You are coolness itself.”

  She rolls her eyes.

  We decide to visit Hari at Coffee & Cream. When we push open the door, it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine to the dimness of the coffee shop. The place is empty. There isn’t even anyone behind the counter.

  “Hello?” I call out. Nothing. I shrug and we’re about to go when I hear something tumble in the back of the store. Hari bursts through the door behind the counter, tying his blue apron. His hair is all messed up. “Sorry,” he says as he rushes to the sink. “Be with you in a minute.”

  I raise my eyebrows at Raina while Hari washes his hands and dries them with a towel. He turns. “Oh. It’s you.”

  “What happened to you?” I say.

  “Nothing. Why?” He leans his hands on the counter, trying to look casual.

  “Well, for one thing,” I say, “your hair.” Raina smiles.

  “Crap.” Hari looks at his reflection in a giant copper coffee urn, fixing his hair with his fingers. “I can’t work like this. I can’t.” He goes to the sink and lathers up his hands again. Again dries them with the towel. “She’s crazy,” he whispers and points to the back room.

  “Michelle?”

  “Shhh,” he whispers. “She’s all over me. She’s talking about our future and it’s creeping me out.”

  “She likes you.”

  “Like a stalker.”

  “You must be into her. You two keep going out.”

  He raises an eyebrow. “It’s summer, Sang. Nobody’s supposed to take anything seriously in the summer.” He sighs. “Anyway, what can I get you guys?”

  “Anything that’s free?” I say and smile sweetly.

  Michelle saunters out of the back room, wearing her usual khaki T-shirt and camouflage pants beneath her blue apron. She’s adjusting her wavy brown hair and looking pretty pleased with herself. “Hey, Sang.”

  When I introduce Raina to her, Michelle says, “Glad to meet you. We’re practically family now, right?” She walks behind Hari and he jumps, nearly spilling the two cups he’s about to hand us.

  After this, Raina and I walk over to Twenty East Limited, the most amazing used jewelry store ever. We pick out a vintage charm bracelet for Anna, with hearts and pianos and musical keys hanging from it—she loves playing piano, so hopefully she’ll love this gift. When we leave the shop, I suck in my breath. Across the street, Trish’s sidekick Liselle sits in a black Beetle convertible. Beside her is David Jovanovich. Liselle catches sight of me, leans over and kisses David smack on the lips, and zooms away.

  *****

  “How much are these?” a woman asks, holding up a paper cup full of assorted markers. It’s Saturday morning and I’m helping Doodles with her little yard sale.

  “A nickel each,” I say. “Poopsie, give me that.” I try to take away a little stuffed cat she’s gnawing on and she growls. “Fine. Keep it then.” Satisfied, Poopsie settles in the shade under the card table with the toy.

  “The markers are a dollar,” Doodles says. “A dollar each.”

  “No one’s going to pay a dollar for a
n old marker,” I say.

  “How do you know? Maybe they’re the exact markers this lady’s looking for.”

  We both look up, but the lady is gone. “You scared her away,” Doodles says.

  “Your prices scared her away. That, and your great selection.” Our driveway has a sheet spread on it with a few teddy bears that were too ugly for even Doodles to love, a beat-up old pair of her roller blades, and a waffle maker Mom once got from Grandma for Christmas.

  We’re sitting on white plastic chairs behind the wobbly card table—what Doodles calls the ‘money counter.’ On the table is a shoebox holding a few quarters and a dollar. “Well, Doodles, looks like you should go back to the ice-pop business.”

  Nobody comes. I lean my chin on my fist and think about meeting Cameron yesterday during his dinner break. After shopping in town with Raina, she headed home while I waited for him on the corner. He zoomed up in his Mustang exactly on time and whisked me over to Nat’s Pizza. We shared some pizza (he ate most of it), and the whole time he sat beside me with his arm around my shoulders for all the world to see. We talked as if we were the only ones there. “I can’t believe you’re going away,” I said. He gave me a heartbreaking look and kissed my cheek.

  I wanted to say: Don’t go. Tell me you’ll come back to me. Tell me this is real to you too.

  But I didn’t.

  “Hey.” Doodles nudges me. “A customer.”

  “Megan?” I say. “What are you doing here?”

  “Shopping.” Poopsie wags her tail and scratches at Megan’s knee. “Hey there, cutie,” Megan says. She rubs the dog’s ears and picks up the waffle maker. “Will you take ten for this thing?”

  At the same time that Doodles says no, I say yes. “But I marked it forty-five,” Doodles complains.

  “We’ll definitely take ten,” I say.

  Megan hands Doodles a twenty.

  “Sorry. I don’t have change.”

  “Go inside and get some, goofball,” I say.

  “Goofball is not a very nice term,” Megan says.

  “Yeah, well, I’m not a very nice person.”

  Doodles nods. “You got that right.”

  I glare at her and she goes inside. Megan shifts from foot to foot. I study my cuticles. “So,” I say, unable to take silence anymore. “You like waffles.”

  “Not really.”

  “Interesting.”

  She sets the box down. “Look, Sang, I want to say something to you and I’m just going to say it.”

  I lace together my fingers. “I’m listening.”

  “You hear something like this and you know it can’t be true. Right? It can’t.” She starts pacing around the driveway. “How can it be? When everything is so perfect. When you’ve been nothing but sincere and kind. What could I believe? It came right out of the blue.” Megan picks up a stuffed turtle with a squashed face. “There’s only one explanation. Lies.”

  “So that’s what you came to say?”

  Megan sets the stuffed animal on the table. “David is like this turtle. I know he’s a little different. Some people say strange. Okay. Everybody says strange. But that’s what made him so perfect to me, you know? I thought I was special to see past all that and see the real him. And that’s partly why I couldn’t believe he would ever cheat on me. Who would he cheat with?”

  Megan picks up the turtle and does this dry sob. “He didn’t even deny it. Can you believe that? I mean, I go to the library to get some guidebooks on Europe, and right there at the entrance are David and Liselle. And she’s acting flirty and hanging on his arm, you know?”

  “I’m so sorry, Megan.”

  “So I say to him, ‘What’s this?’ And he says, ‘I guess I’m busted.’ Busted. Like I’m the police or something.” She drops the stuffed turtle onto the drive. Poopsie nabs it and drags it into her lair. “This was supposed to be a surprise. That’s what he said, Sang. A surprise. Can you believe it? Like, surprise! I’m cheating on you, you lucky girl. He said he didn’t want me to find out until Anna’s party.”

  “Why?”

  “He must be taking her. What else can it be? Sang, you were right about him. David is strange and odd and it turns out he’s mean too.”

  “Oh, Megan. I don’t know what to say.”

  “When you told me about David, I hated you. I should have hated him.” Her eyes fill. “Oh, Sang. Can you ever forgive me?”

  I stand and take her hand. “Megan, I can do better than that.”

  *****

  “So I was wondering if you’ve got a friend that she can go with. Someone really nice and nice looking,” I say looking up at Cameron, who is high atop the lifeguard stand. He’s like a Roman god on a throne. For a second I picture him wrapped in a toga with golden leaves woven in his hair. In his hand, instead of a whistle, is a sizzling thunderbolt.

  “I don’t know,” he says, scanning the water, looking cool in his shades. “It’s going to be tough. Most guys are busy on a Friday night.”

  “Early Friday night, remember? Please?”

  Cameron looks down at me, and I see myself, with a big cheesy smile, reflected in his sunglasses. “What’s wrong with her?” he says.

  “Nothing.” I give a nervous laugh. “See? She’s right over there.” I point to Megan, who’s wearing her polka-dot bikini and sitting on the edge of a lounge chair at the opposite side of the pool. She gives a cheerful wave.

  Cameron lowers his glasses and squints at her. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Megan starts walking around the pool toward us.

  “So you promise?” I say, fast. “I can count on you?”

  “Sure, why not?” He pushes his sunglasses back up, blows his whistle, and points to two boys wrestling in the water. “Hey, knock it off.”

  “Thanks, Cameron,” I say.

  “Sure thing.” He swings his whistle and grins.

  I hurry to Megan, heading her off midway. “We’re set.” I grab her arm and pull her back toward the lounge chairs.

  “OOOOOO! Is my date older and luscious like your man over there?”

  “Of course.” I hope.

  “I want to meet Cameron,” Megan says, pulling me back toward him.

  I drag her to a halt. “You think that’s wise?”

  “Why not?”

  I can’t think of a tactful answer.

  “So come on.” She scurries to his stand. “Hello there,” Megan says. “Cam the man. Woo. It is way too hot hot hot.” She fans herself and mumbles, “At least somebody is.”

  I elbow her. “Cameron, this is Megan.”

  Cameron glances down. “Hey.”

  “Wow. Your legs are really hairy,” Megan says. “Not that that’s a bad thing. Unless you are a girl.”

  He takes off his sunglasses and stares.

  “Big kidder,” I say.

  “I’m not saying you are a girl,” Megan says. “You are so not a girl. Look at you. Those muscles. That chest. And girls can’t have their boobs hanging out like that. Not that your boobs are like a girl’s. Not that they’re hanging out. Not that you have boobs.”

  “Megan!” I say.

  “Sorry. I’m sorry. He’s just…” She covers her mouth, turns on her heel and marches away.

  “Isn’t she great?” I say, sounding cheerful.

  “Great.” He scans the pool. “I know just the guy for her.”

  “Cameron, please. Nobody weird.”

  “Stan’s cool.”

  “Stanley? His name is Stanley?”

  He puts his shades back on and says, “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Sure. It’s just—”

  “Look, I get out of here around seven tonight. How ’bout I see if he’s around and we pick you both up and hang out for a while? That way you get to check him out and I get some more Sang time.”

  I want to spend every moment that I can with him. But how will I sneak out with Megan and two college guys in a Mustang? How will I avoid Mom and Dad and even Hari without Cameron
and his friend figuring out that I’m so lame I actually have to sneak around to see them?

  “Just give me your cell and we’ll work out the details,” he says.

  I don’t even have a cell.

  “Sound okay, babe?” he says.

  I hang onto the lifeguard stand for strength. “Yeah. Okay.”

  Chapter 22

  “But it’s Saturday night. I feel bad ditching you,” I say. I’m standing in front of my mirror wondering what to do with my hair. Down, like always? Up in a ponytail like always? I study the scratches on my face. They’re healing pretty fast.

  “No no,” Raina says. “Not at all. I’ll hang out with Hari and Doodles and catch up on my emails. I haven’t been chatting with anyone since—well, you know.”

  I nod. “Are you holding up okay?”

  “I am absolutely fine.” She turns on my computer. “What about you? Are you ready for the big double date?”

  “Never ready,” I say, sucking in my cheekbones and applying blush.

  The phone rings. “Got it!” I chuck the blush brush and dive for the phone.

  “Hello?” I say at the same time as my dad on the extension downstairs.

  “Is Doodles there, please? This is Bethany.”

  “I’ll get her,” my dad says.

  I click the phone off. “How am I supposed to get Cameron’s call if my Dad keeps hovering over the phone? He’s terrified that the call is going to be from Seattle and one of us will find out something is up.”

  “He’s protecting you, is all.” Raina taps away on the keyboard. “Good intentions.”

  “Like your parents.”

  She stops typing.

  “What makes them think they know exactly what’s right for you, anyway?” I say. “Why can’t they just trust your judgment? I mean, so someone is a different religion, or is older. That doesn’t mean he can’t be perfect for you.”

  I pull my hair into a bun, but I look way too much like my mom, so I immediately pull it out. “If my parents weren’t so uptight, I would definitely have Cameron meet them. I wouldn’t have to go sneaking around. When you think about it, it’s really their fault we lie to them. What choice do we have?”