Double Threat My Bleep (Double Threat Series)

by Julie Prestsater

  “I know huh,” he mutters through a snicker, “but I don’t think I’ll make it home before Thanksgiving.” I’m frowning. I’m trying not to say anything. I don’t want to make him feel worse than he does. “It’s pretty expensive to fly back and forth…but once school starts, time will fly by so fast…the next thing you know, we’ll be eating turkey together, watching the Cowboys kick some ass on the flat screen.”

  “Turkey sounds good. Seeing you sounds great. But, you can watch football with my dad, while my mom and I plan out our attack on the mall.”

  I hear a slight chuckle on his end. “Deal,” he says. “So, tell me more about everyone. How’s everything going? I miss all you guys.”

  “We all miss you too,” I respond. “I miss you.” I can feel my face burn with sorrow. I can’t get emotional. I’ve cried the last two times I’ve talked to him. It’s just hard, having him so far away. But I have to remember, it’s hard for him too. At least here, I have all our friends. He’s so far away, and he’s alone. “Everyone’s doing great. Dom and Steph are just as cute as ever. Jonathan and Keesh are still nuts. They crack me up, they’re more like brother and sister than a couple. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them kiss, have you?”

  “I’ve never even seen them hold hands.” He chuckles.

  “’Yeah well, I’m counting on Josh to save me from gagging over all the PDA once school starts,” I mutter. “He’ll be a loner like me.”

  “Erika’ll probably sneak on campus and visit you guys. She’s so whipped. She could be hookin’ up with some college dude, but she’s…” Alex’s commentary comes to a screeching halt.

  Whoa. Does he realize what he’s saying? He obviously stopped himself. A little too late though. I get what he was about to say. Come on now. He’s not any different than Erika. He could be hooking up with some older bitches, and I wouldn’t even know about it. They’re in the same boat, mature college students going out with us scrawny high school peons.

  “But she’s what, Alex? What were you going to say?”

  “Nothing babe.”

  Really?

  Nothing?

  “Interesting,” is all I can think of to say. Do I really want to start this conversation? We just professed our love to each other. I don’t want to ruin it with any bull.

  Alex must feel the same way. All I hear is the low steady hum of him breathing.

  I’m first to break the silence. “Well, it’s getting late. I’ll talk to you tomorrow sometime.”

  “Yeah, it is. I’ll call you.”

  “Whatever…sounds good. Bye,” I say, nonchalantly.

  “Bye, Meg.”

  How do things change so quickly? Just five minutes ago, I could’ve done cartwheels across the football field. I was so excited about Alex telling me he loved me. But then, seconds later, he’s all, Erika can have any guy she wants and she’s with this toddler instead. Well, he didn’t use those words exactly, but that’s the way it sounded. He may as well have added, What the heck am I thinking? I’m going out with this little girl, when I could have a hot piece of sorority girl ass.

  Yeah…like I’m going to get any sleep tonight.

  Ugh.

  Boys are stupid.

  Chapter Three

  Didn’t I wake up late last year too? I swear, first days of school are never easy. The tardy bell rings as I whip open the door to my first period class. I scan the room. Whew. The teacher has her back to me, tapping away at her computer. Keesh waves me over. Thank you. She saved me a seat next to her. Within seconds I’m sitting down, tearing open my bag, and fishing out my binder. I take out a pencil just in time for the teacher to flip the light switch off and the Powerpoint on.

  First period biology. What’s with getting science first thing in the morning? I hope this lady doesn’t drone on like Ms. Caldwell did last year. I was one day away from stapling my eyelids open to stay awake in her class. Oh my gosh, she should not be able to teach in the morning. It should be illegal. She should get arrested for torturing students before noon.

  Mrs. Centeno, I think that’s her name, taps on the electronic board, and music blares from the speakers. It’s the Black Eyed Peas, Let’s Get It Started. Oh my, this song is so old. She starts clapping. No she didn’t. Does she know she’s like…old? I can feel my face getting hot. I’m embarrassed for her. My classmates are all looking at each other like WTF.

  “Is she serious?” Keesh leans over and whispers to me.

  I shrug.

  “At least she’s got the beat.” Keesh joins in on the clapping. “Come on, Meg.”

  I just stare at her. Then I hear others join in as well. Leave it to Keesh to get the party started.

  What the hell. I put my pencil down and raise my hands to clap too.

  Mrs. Centeno is walking around the room, clapping, and swaying to the beat. By the time the music finishes, there are only a few students who are still sitting still. Amy is one of them. Dang. It’s bad enough I have this crazy teacher first period, now I have to deal with Amy too. Life is not fair.

  Well, what did I expect? I guess crossing my fingers, wishing, and praying isn’t enough. If only I could’ve paid off the counselors to make sure I didn’t get any classes with Amy, this year would be great. No such luck I guess. Chances are we’ll probably have at least two more classes together today.

  “Welcome back,” Mrs. Centeno yells, drawing my attention away from ex-friend. Maybe I’ll like this lunatic after all. “It’s nice to be back on campus after such a great summer…” Yada, yada, yada.

  “She was a little different,” Keesh says, squinting from the brightness of the sun.

  I put my hand up to shield my eyes. It’s taking awhile for me to adjust from the darkness of the classroom. “Ya think?”

  Keesh looks around. “What do you have next?”

  “Same as you dork. We have all but fifth period together, remember?”

  She’s totally distracted, turning her head in all directions, and taking quick glances here and there.

  “Oh yeah, let’s go then.”

  I grab for the water bottle sticking out the side of my backpack. “What’s the rush?”

  “I wanna get a good seat.”

  “Bull, you’re looking around like a crack addict. Who’re you looking for?” I know the answer to the question already. “I don’t see Jonathan.”

  “Yeah, well good. I don’t wanna see him.” Keesh starts walking away.

  I start after her, picking up my pace to catch up. “What the hell, Keesh. What’s going on?”

  She ignores me, walking up the stairs to our math class, like I’m not right behind her. Something’s obviously wrong, but she’s not ready to tell me. I decide to back off. We take the last steps to our class in silence.

  As we come around the corner, Keesh stops suddenly. I look up and see him. Stephanie and Jonathan are standing at the door talking.

  “What do you wanna do?” I hope she doesn’t say she wants to leave. I’m all for a day off from math, but not on the first day. She doesn’t answer. She takes a deep breath and keeps walking.

  “Babe,” Jonathan squeaks out before Keesh puts her hand up for him to stop.

  “Steph, Meggie,” she states, looking each of us in the eye. “You need to make a decision. You’re either my friend, or you’re his.” She motions to Jonathan, but doesn’t even look his way. “You can’t be both. So choose. Is it me or him?”

  Steph and I look at each other and then at Keesh. The answer is simple. “You,” we both say together. Keesh turns around, walks into class, and we follow.

  “Keesha, c’mon,” Jonathan whines from the doorway. Our teacher gives a stern look in his direction, and I can hear him stomp away.

  Okay, this is going to be a good one. What the heck could’ve happened in a matter of three days. Seriously, they were just fine at the party, and now she’s all you have to choose. WTF.

  We slide into some seats near the back of the class. Not too far back to look like slac
kers, but not too close to the front to look like we care.

  “Okay, spill,” I whisper, since the bell already rang.

  Keesh rubs her hands on her pants. She’s nervous. Her hands are sweaty.

  “Wait till ASB, I hear this guy is totally strict.”

  Steph and I look at Keesh, and then sit up straight and stare at the front of the class.

  Keesh always has the lowdown on all the teachers. And she’s usually right. I’m not about to get into trouble the first day of class.

  “Ahem, I can already see we are going to have a talking problem in this class. I wouldn’t expect it from honors students,” the Nazi utters. He looks around the class and his eyes focus on me, like a freaking laser beam burning a hole through my body. “You.” He points to me. “Switch seats with…” he scans the class, “him.” He points to a kid in the front row center. Are you kidding me? Seriously. Why me?

  I glance at my girls, grab my stuff, and move to the front. As I settle in my new seat, in the front freaking row, I glance to my left and right. Effing classic. I actually laugh out loud. Okay, more like chuckle. I’m now sitting in between Amy and Eric. With all the distraction of Keesh and Jonathan, I didn’t even notice either one of them come in.

  Great.

  Just great.

  Math class couldn’t have been over fast enough. I had to take mad notes, on who knows what, to keep my mind occupied. Of all things, I just wanted to laugh. So I kept writing and drinking water like I just got back from months in the Sahara, just so I could stop thinking about how I was wedged between Amy and Eric.

  Really, I had no choice. What was I supposed to do? Just laugh. Laugh through the entire period. How could I explain that to my super strict teacher? Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Whatever-your-name-is, I can’t concentrate because you just made me sit in between my two worst enemies: my ex-boyfriend who decided to cheat on me and screw my ex-best friend on multiple occasions, and that said ex-best friend.

  “Meggie, are you okay?” Steph puts her hand on my arm.

  “Yeah, totally. I just gotta pee,” I say, steering our group toward the nasty girls’ bathroom.

  They follow me in. “No kidding, you guzzled like two water bottles. What’s up with that?” Keesh jokes.

  “I would’ve drunk more if I hadn’t run out. I was trying to keep myself from laughing like a crazed lunatic.”

  Steph calls over the stalls, “Why were you going to laugh?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just when I looked over and saw them there, it was the first thing to come to mind. It’s just so jacked up, it’s funny. I guess.”

  Steph and Keesh begin to laugh.

  I walk out of the stall, and head to the sink. “Why are you guys laughing?”

  Steph wipes her eyes. “Because you’re right. It is kinda funny.”

  “And sad,” Keesh adds.

  “It’s like a really bad joke.” I dry my hands and we walk to our next class.

  Sign language. There is no way I could stand another year of Spanish class, so I convinced my parents to allow me to change foreign languages. It’s kind of weird American Sign Language is considered foreign, but I’ll take it. And of course, my girls decided to change too.

  So here we go.

  My phone vibrates as I’m about to go into class. “You guys go ahead and save me a seat, I just got a text.”

  “Ooo…I wonder who-oo,” Steph teases.

  They walk into class, looking back at me with cheesy grins.

  I flip open my cell.

  thinking of u. Hope ur 1st day is goin good ;)

  Alex has to be the cutest and sweetest boyfriend ever. Here he is texting me, while he’s hundreds of miles away, probably taking a break from his grueling college classes.

  OK here…cant wait 2 tell u bout 2nd prd

  The bell rings. Crap. I’m late.

  I wait a second to see if he texts back.

  “Are you coming in?” a tall blonde asks. I’m assuming this is my teacher. She looks at my phone in my hand, out in plain sight. “And make sure you turn that completely off before you come in or it will be mine before you can even take it out to check the time.”

  Whoa. She’s a tough one. I press the power button on my cell and watch the images fade away. Maybe we should have stuck it out in Spanish.

  Time flies when you’re signing the alphabet. Over and over again. And I mean, over and over again literally. Most of us know it already. I think all kids try to learn to sign, at least letters. Well, at the very least A, B, C, D, and E, for testing purposes. LOL. Really, the only letters I ever forget are P and Q. So it seems like review more than anything. A no-brainer.

  I can totally use the relaxation after last period being so tense.

  I press the power button, yet again, on my way to ASB. It seems like forever before it’s completely on and functioning.

  No messages. Hmmm. Alex didn’t text me back.

  Whatever. I close my phone and try to catch up on the conversation Keesh and Steph are having.

  Chapter Four

  ASB is the usual madhouse. Kids are packed in the small room, bags are tossed everywhere, and glitter sprinkles the floor already. Last year, the glitter wasn’t noticeable until at least a month into the school year. On day one, the class looks like a tornado of sparkling posters has blown through. I guess we’re getting an early start on the festivities this year.

  Thankfully, we’re all on the same committee, and Amy isn’t in the class. It’s bad enough I have a class with her, I don’t want to have to plan school events with her too. I’m sure I’ll see both Amy and Eric in either English or history. I just hope it’s not both classes. I’m crossing my fingers. Maybe I’ll be lucky and I won’t ever see them again.

  “Welcome back, Tigers.” Mr. Mitchell shouts over the commotion, and almost immediately the class is silent. “I said, WELCOME BACK, TIGERS.” The class hollers back, and claps. “Now that’s more like it. Today, I’m going to be meeting with the officers…but I’d like the rest of you to make up some posters with info about this week’s events and get them put up around the school. It’s great to see you all back. Let’s welcome the freshmen before we get to work.” We all boo and laugh. The ninth graders lower their heads. Did we look that sad last year? “Okay, let’s get started. Get to work.” With that, he turns around and heads into his office with a trail of class officers following behind him.

  Whew. He’s gone. Time to relax. It’s been a stressful morning already and I need a breather.

  And Alex still hasn’t texted back yet. I need to stop thinking about it. He’s in college. He probably doesn’t have tons of time to be texting me all day. I should be happy he even thought to text me this morning.

  “So spill it,” Steph demands, dropping some poster paints on the cafeteria table.

  “Huh?” I respond.

  “What?” Keesh adds.

  Steph rolls out some poster paper on the table. “Don’t act all innocent, Keesha. What’s happening with Jonathan?”

  I almost forgot. Here I am wrapped up in my own drama that I forgot about Keesh being pissed off at Jonathan. And so pissed they actually broke up.

  “Don’t we have work to do?” Keesh tries to avoid the question.

  Let the interrogation begin. “Work, shmerk,” I begin, “I can multitask. You talk, and we’ll listen.”

  She raises her brow at me. “Whatever.”

  I hold a brush up to her. “Seriously, Keesh. Just a few days ago, you two were all hugged up and now all the sudden you’re all ‘it’s me or him’ and you hate him. What’s the deal?”

  “I thought you said you could work and listen at the same time. All you’re doing is talking.” She snatches the brush from my hand and starts writing on the poster.

  “Blah, blah, blah.” Steph leans forward in her chair and looks up at Keesh. “Enough already. Tell us. Stop screwing around.”

  Keesh gives me the brush back and sits down. She gives Steph a brush too. Then, motions
to the posters. I start working on one, and Steph works on another. Keesh sighs, and puts her face in her hands. “He’s pulling an Eric.”

  I fumble with my brush, and smear paint across my sign. “He’s what?”

  “He’s pulling an Eric?” Steph blurts. “What does that mean? Is he cheating on you?”

  “No, he’s not cheating,” Keesh responds, softly.

  “Then what? I don’t get it.” I’m totally confused.

  Keesh turns her face away from us. I hear a slight sniffle. I think she’s crying. Or trying not to cry.

  “Come on, Keesh,” Steph says, “You know you can talk to us. We’re your girls.”

  “I know I can. I just feel so stupid. I can’t even keep my man happy.” Keesh takes a deep breath. “Jonathan wants to get a little freaky deaky and I don’t want to, so now I see him checkin’ out anything with tits and an ass.”

  “Oh, c’mon. He’s a guy. It wouldn’t matter if you got busy all the time, he’d still check out anything that walked. All guys do, even Dominic.”

  I chuckle at Steph’s bluntness. “She’s right, you know. Just because Eric’s a jack ass, it doesn’t mean Jonathan is gonna go out and find any old hole to dip his stick in.” Keesh busts out a laugh. I knew that would do it. “But seriously, Jonathan isn’t like that. I mean, has he done anything other than look?”

  “No, but…I know he will. If I keep saying no, what else is he gonna do? These dumb boys are always complaining about blue balls or something. It’s not like he can’t take care of that all by himself. But if I’m not gonna give it up, it’s just a matter of time before he finds some skank who’s more than willing to jump my man’s bones.”

  Steph lets out a chuckle before saying, “C’mon now. Give the boy a chance. I don’t think he’ll let you down. He totally adores you.”

  “Yes, he does. He’d do anything for you. Did you see his pouty little face? He’s walking around on his first day of school like someone stole his puppy. It’s sad. You gotta talk to him and work it out,” I add.