Something New

by Amanda Abram

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Congratulations are in order,” Mrs. Andrews said brightly the next afternoon, eliciting worried looks from almost every boy in the room. We knew what was coming; a couple of students from the second period class had already spoiled it for us.

  “You are all now proud parents!”

  A few of the girls squealed and clapped their hands at the news. But not Lauren, who sat back in her chair and pouted. “Oh great, I’m a single mom,” she mumbled so only I could hear.

  Subtly, I glanced over at Elijah to see how he was taking the news that he and Hannah were going to be parents. He didn’t look thrilled. Neither did Dylan, who was slouched back in his chair, staring at his desk with a furrowed brow.

  I guess someone was in a bad mood.

  “Fortunately,” Mrs. Andrews continued, “you won’t be given an egg or a doll to carry around with you. Instead, this is just something else you will need to work into your budgets. I’ll be going over a few things you’ll want to keep in mind, such as childcare costs, basic needs…”

  I drowned her out as I found my gaze turning back to Dylan. He seemed to be zoning out on Mrs. Andrews as well. The corners of my mouth turned down as I began to wonder what could be bothering him. He’d been acting off all day. Dylan usually never passed up an opportunity to harass either me or Lauren, but he hadn’t so much as said hi to either one of us all day.

  What’s up with Dylan? I scribbled on a piece of paper and tossed it onto Lauren’s desk when Mrs. Andrews’ back was turned.

  Lauren read the note and glanced over at Dylan before jotting down a quick response and returning it to me.

  I don’t know, she’d written. PMS, maybe?

  I held back a snort as she and I exchanged smirks.

  When class was over, I told Lauren to go ahead to her next class without me, and I made my way over to Dylan.

  “Hey,” I said as he shoved his notebook into his backpack.

  “Hey,” he replied with a lack of enthusiasm. Was he mad at me? Had I done something to piss him off?

  “Are you okay?” I asked him cautiously.

  He looked surprised at my inquiry, like I was the first person to ever ask him if he was okay. “Yeah,” he said, but his voice was unconvincing. Whatever was wrong, he didn’t feel like talking about it.

  I kept my eyes pointed forward and held my breath as Elijah and Hannah passed behind me.

  “So,” I said once they were gone, “we’re parents now, huh?”

  Dylan flung his backpack over his shoulder. “Yeah.” He forced a small, strained smile and tilted his head in the direction of the classroom door. “I’ve gotta get to my next class.”

  “Right. Me too.”

  He was turning to leave when something dawned on me: Lauren was staying after school again today and I was going to need a ride to work.

  “Oh, um, Dylan?”

  He turned back around. “Hmm?”

  “Would you be able to give me a ride to work after school today? Lauren can’t; she’s got practice.”

  “Sure,” he said, and I was relieved to note he didn’t even sound all that annoyed at the request. “I’ll meet you at your locker at the end of the day.”

  I nodded. “Okay. Thanks!”

  He gave me the small smile again before exiting into the hallway.

  There was something bothering him. And after school today, I was going to find out what that was.

  ◆◆◆

  Dylan and I engaged in nothing but small talk during the ride from school to work, and I could tell something was still wrong. When he finally pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car to let me out, I unbuckled my seat belt and turned to face him.

  “Okay, Dilly, spill it.”

  He whipped his head in my direction and narrowed his eyes into a glare. “Stop calling me ‘Dilly’. The only person who’s allowed to call me that is Vic from the gym, and that’s only because I’m too afraid to tell him not to.”

  “Sorry,” I snickered. “But seriously, what’s going on? You haven’t been yourself all day.”

  Dylan sighed and removed his hands from the steering wheel. “It’s nothing.”

  “It’s not ‘nothing’. I can tell when something’s wrong, and something’s wrong. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not really. But even if I did, you have to get to work.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have to clock in for another half an hour. Why don’t you come in with me? You can have a cup of coffee—on me—and we can find a private spot to talk.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  “Come on.” I got out of the car and walked around behind it, so he’d be unable to back out of the parking space—at least not without running me over first. And since he’d pulled into a space right in front of the building, he couldn’t pull forward either.

  I crossed my arms over my chest as he glared at me through the rearview mirror. I could only imagine the grumbling that was going on inside that car. He knew how stubborn I was; he knew I would stand there for the next thirty minutes if I had to.

  I grinned at him when he emerged from the driver’s side door, but he didn’t grin back.

  “One cup of coffee and minimal talk.”

  “Deal.” I grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and pulled him toward the entrance.

  “Hey, Cassie,” Jade cheerfully greeted me as soon as we walked through the door. Her gaze flickered past my shoulder at Dylan. “Oh, look, it’s the phone thief!”

  Dylan cocked an eyebrow at me. “Seriously? That’s what I’m known for around here? Because I took your phone that one time?”

  “Yep.” I smirked as we walked up to the counter. “The phone thief and I would each like a large coffee. I’ll take my usual, and he’ll have—”

  “Just regular black, thanks,” Dylan finished for me.

  I made a face at him. “Ew, really?”

  “Um, are you judging my coffee preferences?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Oh yeah? Well, what’s your ‘usual’?”

  “Decaf hazelnut with extra cream and extra sugar,” I replied proudly.

  “Decaf?” he scoffed. “What’s the point?”

  “The point is that caffeine makes me jittery, but I still like the flavor of hazelnut coffee with extra cream and sugar.”

  “And the extra sugar doesn’t make you jittery?”

  “Are you judging my coffee preferences now?”

  He folded his arms over his chest. “Yes, I am. How does it feel?”

  With a mock harrumph, I flicked my hair over my shoulder and looked at Jade for support.

  But she didn’t provide me with any. Instead, she just flashed us both a wicked grin and handed us our coffees.

  “Thanks,” I said, reaching into my pocket for some cash.

  Before I could get it out, Dylan had removed his wallet from his back pocket and was handing Jade a twenty.

  I snatched the money from his hand. “Hey, I told you the coffee was on me.” I took out my own twenty and held it out to Jade while placing Dylan’s back in his hand.

  “I’m not going to let you pay for my coffee.” He thrust his money back in Jade’s direction.

  “Would you two cut it out?” Jade pushed both of our hands away. “Neither one of you are paying. It’s on the house.”

  “But—” Dylan and I both protested in unison.

  Jade held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. Go enjoy your free coffees.” She motioned to a man behind us who’d just walked in. “I can help you, sir.”

  “Thank you,” Dylan mumbled to her as we both stepped out of line.

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said.

  “You’re welcome.” She gave me a weird smile before turning to the man and taking his order.

  I pointed to a door behind the counter that read Employees Only and said to Dylan, “Let’s go out back.”

  “But I’m not an employ
ee.”

  “Jade doesn’t care,” I assured him. “I used to bring Elijah back there all the time.”

  Taking my word for it, he followed me into the employee break room, which was a tiny but private room next to Jade’s office. It consisted of one table with a couple chairs, a love seat, a mini fridge and a microwave.

  Closing the door behind us, I sat down at the table. “Have a seat.”

  He obeyed, sitting in the chair across from me. “Okay, Cass, why did you bring me in here? Why do you want to talk to me so bad?”

  “Because I want to know what’s wrong. Something’s wrong, I can tell.”

  Dylan sighed and slouched back in his chair. “It’s nothing. Just home stuff.”

  “Home stuff?” I echoed.

  “Yeah. My parents.” A muscle in his jaw twitched as he stared at his cup of coffee. “They had a huge fight last night. Their worst yet.”

  “Oh.” I stared down at my own coffee, suddenly feeling bad for having forced Dylan to divulge information he wasn’t comfortable divulging. He’d alluded to things not being great between his parents before, when he mentioned his dad was rarely ever home for dinner. I guess I just figured his father worked a lot or something.

  “My dad stormed out of the house,” he continued. “And as of this morning, he hadn’t come home yet.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “Do they fight often?”

  I half-expected him to scold me for being nosy, but he didn’t. If anything, he almost seemed relieved to be talking about it.

  “Not a lot, no. Sometimes it feels like they ignore each other more than anything. Which is just as bad, I suppose.”

  I swallowed and nodded as I struggled to think of the right thing to say. “Well, I’m sure your dad will come home soon. Sometimes, people just need some space, you know?”

  “Yeah.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I know it’s not a big deal and I shouldn’t let it bother me so much, but I guess this is what happens when I keep it all bottled up; it starts to get to me.” He drummed his fingers on the top of the table. “I don’t have anyone to talk to about this stuff.”

  “That’s not true,” I said, shaking my head. “You have me.”

  Without thinking, I placed my hand on top of his as a way of showing friendly support. But only after my hand touched his did, I realize it was kind of a weird thing for me to do. Dylan and I weren’t close. We weren’t the type of friends who went to each other for advice or consolation. I was always just his best friend’s girlfriend. He was always just my boyfriend’s best friend. And now that we no longer had Elijah linking us together, it made no sense for either of us to be providing comfort to one another. Yet he was there for me after I caught Elijah with Hannah, and now I fully planned to be there for him with whatever was going on between his parents.

  I moved to take my hand away, but then Dylan’s surprised gaze caught mine and I froze.

  Lowering his eyes to the table, his hand slowly began to rotate until we were palm-to-palm. “Cass, I—”

  The door flew open next to us, halting his words.

  “Hey, Cassie,” Jade said, stepping into the room, “do you know where—” She stopped when she saw us, her eyes zeroing in on our joined hands.

  I quickly jerked my hand away from Dylan’s and blinked innocently up at her. “Do I know where what?”

  “Um…” Her voice trailed off as she glanced up at the ceiling. “You know what? Never mind. I just remembered where it is.”

  “Where what is?”

  “Not important. Carry on!” Suppressing a smile, she backed out of the room and shut the door behind her.

  “Oh-kay,” I said with a chuckle. I turned back to Dylan. “What were you going to say?”

  He pushed a hand through his hair. “I was just going to say I should head home. See if my mom has heard from my dad yet.”

  “Okay, cool. My shift’s about to start anyway.”

  We both pushed our chairs back and stood as a realization dawned on me. “Oh, hey, we haven’t even discussed our child yet.”

  Dylan smirked. “You mean Dylan Jr.?”

  I shook my head. “It’s a girl, not a boy.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me.”

  “Okay, well, Dylan can be a girl’s name too, I think.”

  “Maybe so, but we’re still not naming our pretend daughter Dylan.” I yanked open the door to the break room and led him out into the main area of the coffee shop.

  “We’ll discuss this later,” he said, stopping in front of the exit.

  “Yes, we will,” I agreed.

  We exchanged a smile before I followed him out the door.

  “Hey, Dylan,” I said. “In all seriousness, if you want or need to talk about anything, you have my number, and you know where I live.”

  “Thanks, Cass.” He unlocked his car door and opened it. “And the same thing goes for you, if you ever need to talk about, well, you know.”

  I did know. “Thanks.” I gave him a small wave as he got into the car and started it up. He waved back before backing out of the parking space and pulling out of the lot.

  When he was gone, I went back inside and headed for the break room again to grab my hat and apron. I was pulling my hair back into a ponytail when Jade poked her head in the room.

  “Okay, young lady, you’ve got some explaining to do,” she said, opening the door all the way. She placed her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows at me.

  “About what?” I asked. I finished tying the elastic around my ponytail and put on my hat.

  “What’s going on between you and Hunky McLumberjack?”

  I snorted. “Who the heck is Hunky McLumberjack?”

  “The phone thief. The boy you were flirting with on the way in and on the way out. The one I just caught you holding hands with.”

  I felt a blush creeping onto my cheeks and hoped Jade couldn’t see it. “We weren’t flirting. And we weren’t holding hands. He’s going through something right now, and I just placed my hand on his for a second to comfort him, and…Wait, why do I need to explain this to you?”

  “You don’t. I’m just nosy, and I want to know what’s going on between you two.”

  “Nothing is going on between me and Dylan,” I assured her, grabbing my timecard and punching in.

  “Why not? You’re no longer with Elijah, and Phone Thief is ridiculously dreamy.” She paused. “Oh, wait, how old is he? What I meant to say was that he would be ridiculously dreamy if he were older.”

  I giggled. “You can say whatever you want, but just because you find him ‘dreamy’ doesn’t mean I do.”

  Jade blinked at me. “You don’t find that boy dreamy? What’s wrong with you?”

  I threw on my apron and sighed. “Dylan’s just a friend. And barely one at that.”

  “If you say so,” she said in a singsong voice. “But I do think you two would look cute together.”

  I shuddered at the thought. “You’re crazy, Jade,” I said, brushing past her and leaving the break room.

  “Am I?” she called after me. “Or are you just blind?”

  I declined to respond as I took my place behind the front counter, but the answer was obvious. If Jade truly thought Dylan and I would be cute together, she was clearly insane.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “We should have ordered more than one pizza,” Caitlyn whined as she grabbed the last slice from the box.

  I’d forgotten our parents had a business dinner to attend that night, so when my dad picked me up from work, we stopped on the way home to get a large pizza for me and Caitlyn to have for dinner. I, for one, was stuffed after eating my half, but Caitlyn was still acting like she hadn’t eaten in weeks, despite being about to eat her fourth slice.

  “Where do you put it all?” I asked, motioning to her waifish frame.

  “Hey, I’m a growing girl,” she said through a mouthful of crust, cheese, and mushrooms.

  I just shook my head as I grabb
ed the remote and started flipping through the channels. “Is there anything good on tonight?”

  “I think there’s a marathon of Baker’s Dozen on the Cooking Channel,” Caitlyn replied with hopeful eyes.

  Caitlyn was in love with reality TV. Baker’s Dozen, a cooking game show where thirteen people competed for the chance to win their own bakery, was her absolute favorite. I had seen a few episodes, and I had to admit it was entertaining, despite the fact I hated reality shows.

  I punched in the numbers for the Cooking Channel on the remote and handed it to her. “I’m going to get some more water. Can I get you anything?”

  “Another pizza?” she joked.

  “Ha-ha,” I said, rolling my eyes. I was just about to step out of the living room when the doorbell rang.

  Caitlyn and I exchanged a curious look. “Did you order another pizza?” she asked.

  “Caity, if you mention another pizza one more time—”

  The doorbell rang again, cutting off my threat. With a sigh, I walked over to the front door and opened it, having no clue who could be on the other side.

  To my surprise, Dylan was standing on our front porch, hands in his pockets, staring down at our welcome mat.

  “Dylan.”

  His head snapped up, and right away I could tell he was upset about something. “Hey,” he said, his voice strained. “Sorry to bother you, but…”

  I stared at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

  “What you said earlier about if I needed to talk to someone…does that offer still stand?” His eyes pleaded with me to say yes.

  I didn’t even hesitate. “Absolutely.” I stepped aside to let him in.

  Caitlyn managed to tear her attention away from her show. “Hi, Dylan!” she cheerfully greeted him with a wave.

  He flashed her a small smile. “Hi, Caitlyn with a C.”

  She beamed at the fact he was still calling her that and turned back to the TV.

  I closed the door behind him and said to Caitlyn, “Hey, Dylan and I are going to be in the kitchen for a bit, okay?”

  In response, she made a shooing motion at me with her hand and said to the TV screen, “Really, Grant? You’re making a compote? Again? C’mon!” She shook her head in disgust.