Be Mine

by Sabrina James

  “You never asked me to the dance,” Natalie told him.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “No, you didn’t. You just assumed because we were dating that we were going together. Just like everything else. You always called the shots. You never consulted with me on anything. You expected me to go along with everything you decided.”

  “So you’re dumping me because I never let you pick a movie?”

  “No!” she exclaimed in frustration. “You don’t get it, do you? You liked the way I looked and that was about it. You never liked me, the person I was on the inside, because you never bothered to get to know me. Why do you think we did so lousy on that romance test yesterday?”

  “Does Leo know you?” Tom sneered.

  “Yes, he does,” Natalie said. “He knows everything about me.”

  Tom pushed himself away from Natalie’s locker. He stared at her from head to toe and then shook his head in disgust. “You better make sure to take a picture of yourself and then save it.”

  Natalie didn’t understand what Tom was saying. “Why?”

  “Because you’re not going to look like that much longer. Once you start dating Leo, you’ll probably become as fat as he is. Then North Ridge High will have Blubber Boy and Blubber Girl.”

  Before Natalie could react to Tom’s words, something went whizzing by her head.

  And straight into Tom’s face.

  Natalie’s mouth dropped open in shock as an aluminum pie pan slid off Tom’s face, leaving behind a mask of whipped cream, chocolate pudding, and chunks of graham cracker crust. She whirled around and saw a sheepish Leo.

  “I made it in Home Ec for Bonnie,” he explained. “I was talking to Lisa last night and she told me Bonnie isn’t feeling too well. She’s coming down with something. I was going to bring it by her house and I came to see if you wanted to tag along. But then I heard what Tom said to you.” Leo shrugged. “Even though I’m opposed to violence, I couldn’t let him talk that way to you.”

  Natalie sternly waved a finger in Leo’s face. “Don’t you ever do something like that again!” she scolded him.

  “I won’t,” a contrite Leo promised as a sputtering Tom wiped off his face.

  “Because you’ve wasted a perfectly good dessert!” Natalie laughed, hooking her arm through Leo’s and walking away from Tom. “Now we need to find ourselves another chocolate cream pie. Only we’re going to eat this one!”

  Eden stood in front of Dexter’s house, her feet frozen in place.

  She couldn’t move.

  All she had to do was walk to the front door and ring the doorbell. Then when Dexter answered the door, she’d ask him if he wanted to go to the Valentine’s Day dance with her. Easy enough.

  So why couldn’t she do it?

  What was she so afraid of?

  The answer came immediately.

  Rejection.

  Even though Angie had told her that Dexter liked her, she was afraid of showing him her feelings. Whenever she’d shown a guy her feelings, he’d hurt her, and she didn’t want to be hurt again. But somebody needed to make the first move. If she didn’t, who knew when Dexter would? Or if he still wanted to. There was still his secret admirer to deal with. She might make Dexter forget all about her.

  “Eden? Is that you? What are you doing here?”

  Eden turned around and found herself facing a surprised Dexter. He was holding a bunch of pink heart-shaped balloons that said BE MINE. Eden had a feeling the balloons weren’t for her.

  “Another gift from your secret admirer?” she asked, trying not to sound jealous and wishing for a pin to pop every balloon.

  “Yep.”

  Eden forced the words out while keeping a smile on her face. “She must really like you.”

  Dexter blushed. “I guess.”

  Have you forgotten me already? I’m supposed to be the girl you like. Me! Not her! Is sending you a few gifts all it takes to get you to fall for someone? If that’s the case, I’ll max out my father’s credit card!

  “So what are you doing here?” Dexter asked again.

  Eden’s mind scrambled, trying to make up a story that made sense. Why hadn’t she thought this out ahead of time?

  “Eden?”

  She held out her wrist, showing off a silver charm bracelet. “I lost one of my charms and I think it might have fallen off when I was over on Saturday night. Do you mind if I look for it?”

  “Come on in,” Dexter said as he searched his jacket pocket for his house keys.

  Once inside, Dexter headed up to his bedroom with the balloons while Eden pretended to search the living room. What did she do now? There was no missing charm. She hadn’t even been wearing the bracelet on Saturday night! Luckily, Dexter hadn’t remembered. Now all she had to do was work up the courage to ask him to the dance by the time he came back.

  “Find it?” Dexter asked when he came back downstairs.

  Eden jumped from the couch cushion she was flipping over. He was back already? She saw he had changed into a pair of sweatpants and a longsleeved T-shirt. “I must have lost it somewhere else. Sorry to have bothered you. I better go. I’m sure you’ve got lots of homework to do.”

  Dexter walked her to the front door. “Is everything okay, Eden? You seem kind of jumpy. Jittery.”

  That’s because I don’t know how to ask you to the dance!

  “I stopped at the Frosted Cupcake on the way over and had a latte,” she explained. “Too much caffeine.”

  The phone rang and Dexter excused himself, heading into the kitchen to answer it. He walked through a swinging wooden door, leaving Eden to wait by herself in the hallway.

  Even though she knew she shouldn’t eavesdrop, Eden couldn’t help herself. She needed to know who Dexter was talking to. It could be her competition!

  Eden tippy-toed to the kitchen door, pressing her ear against it. It was hard to hear the conversation on the other side, but from what little she could hear, Dexter was laughing. Laughing! Girls always tried to make guys laugh when they were flirting with them. That could only mean one thing. He was talking to her!

  She needed to know what she was up against. Eden pressed her ear more closely against the door, wanting to hear things more clearly. As she did, the door unexpectedly swung inward and she fell to the kitchen floor, flat on her stomach, right at Dexter’s feet. He stared down at her in shock.

  “I’ll have to call you back,” he said, hanging up the phone and returning to Eden as she struggled to stand up.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, helping her to her feet.

  Eden was totally embarrassed. What did Dexter think of her?

  “What were you doing?”

  Eden couldn’t take the suspense any longer. She had to know. “Were you talking with her?”

  “Her?”

  “You know. Your secret admirer. The one who’s trying to take you away from me!” she blurted out.

  “Take me away from you? Eden, are you feeling okay?” Dexter stared at her with concern. “Did you hit your head when you fell? You’re not making any sense.”

  Eden knew actions spoke louder than words. So instead of answering Dexter’s questions, she threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss.

  “What was that for?” a stunned Dexter asked when Eden pulled her lips away from his.

  “I’m crazy about you, Dexter King. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it. You’re sweet and you’re smart and you’re thoughtful and any girl would be lucky to go out with you.” Eden paused and then exclaimed, “I want to be that girl! Will you be my date for the Valentine’s Day dance? That is, if you don’t already have a date.”

  “Who would I go with?” Dexter asked.

  “Your secret admirer.”

  “I don’t even know who she is.”

  “Weren’t you just talking to her on the phone?”

  “I was talking to my friend Ozzy.”

  “So you don’t know who’s been crushing on you?”

  “I
don’t know and I don’t care.” Dexter closed the distance between himself and Eden, lifting a hand to her cheek. “Want to know why?”

  “Why?”

  He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Because you’re the only girl for me.”

  “I am?” Eden asked in disbelief.

  Dexter nodded.

  “I am!” Eden happily shouted.

  At that moment, Angie, Yvonne, and Thelma burst into the kitchen.

  “Yay!” they exclaimed. “It worked! It worked!”

  “What’s going on?” a confused Eden asked as Dexter’s sisters danced around them. “What worked?”

  “Our plan!” Yvonne exclaimed.

  “What plan?” Dexter asked, sounding just as confused as Eden.

  “We’re your secret admirer,” Angie confessed.

  “It was us!” Yvonne cried. “Us! Us! Us!”

  “We wanted to make Eden jealous and it worked,” Thelma said.

  “Somebody had to get the two of you together. Otherwise you’d still be pining away for each other,” Angie explained. “After I told Eden that you were crazy about her, I decided she needed a little push. When a girl knows that another girl is interested in her guy, she’ll do whatever it takes to snag him.”

  “We sent you those gifts,” Thelma explained.

  “I picked out the balloons!” Yvonne shouted.

  Eden couldn’t believe Dexter’s sisters had been so sneaky. Luckily, she had played right into their hands!

  “Listen to your little sisters, Dexter,” Eden said. “They so know how the female mind works!”

  When Jennifer got home from school, she found a package waiting on her doorstep. It was a square box wrapped in red foil with a pink bow on it. The card attached had her name on it.

  She instantly recognized the handwriting.

  It was Will’s.

  Another fake Valentine’s Day present.

  She snatched up the box and brought it inside, shaking it against her ear. It didn’t make a sound, but she wasn’t the least bit curious about what was inside. Why should she care? The gift didn’t mean anything. Just like the rose petals hadn’t meant anything. It was all for show.

  After hanging up her coat, Jennifer tossed the box on the couch in the living room and headed into the kitchen. There she found Sheba sitting in front of the sliding glass doors. Outside, on the other side of the glass, was a yowling tomcat missing one eye.

  “Even you have a valentine!” Jennifer told her cat.

  After grabbing a handful of Oreos, Jennifer went upstairs to her bedroom. She hadn’t found a dress the day before, so she needed to search through her closet. It didn’t matter what she wore, though. Will wasn’t going to notice.

  Flipping through her hangers, Jennifer pulled out an emerald green satin silk dress with spaghetti straps. She’d only worn it once, to her cousin Julia’s wedding in November. When she bought the dress, her mom said that the color went perfect with her hair and skin tone and she’d been right. She’d gotten tons of compliments at the wedding.

  Now that she knew what she was going to wear, she had to decide on how to do her hair. Up or down? If she wore it up, like she had at the wedding, she’d look more sophisticated. If she wore it down, she’d look hotter.

  Definitely down.

  She was putting the finishing touches on her makeup when the doorbell rang. That had to be Will. Since her parents were staying in the city after work to celebrate Valentine’s Day, she had to answer the door. She wasn’t used to walking in high heels so she went down the stairs slowly, holding on to the banister so she wouldn’t fall.

  When she opened the front door, Will whistled at her as he stepped inside.

  “You don’t have to do that,” she said as she closed the door behind him.

  “Do what?”

  “Pretend like you’re interested. No one’s watching.”

  “I wasn’t pretending.”

  Jennifer walked past Will to get her coat out of the hall closet. “Whatever.”

  Will touched Jennifer’s arm. “Are you mad at me?”

  Jennifer casually stepped away from Will so his hand would fall off. She didn’t want him touching her because she liked when he touched her. After tonight, there would be no more touching. She had to start getting used to it. “Why would I be mad?”

  “You tell me,” Will said. “This isn’t about Kristy, is it?”

  Jennifer laughed. “Kristy? I haven’t thought about her at all,” she lied.

  Will placed a hand on Jennifer’s shoulder, turning her around. He studied her from head to toe. “You look really pretty, but something’s missing.”

  “Missing?”

  “You didn’t open up the gift I left for you.”

  Jennifer had forgotten all about it. She dropped her coat on a chair and went into the living room to retrieve Will’s gift. When she returned to the front hall, she found Sheba meowing and rubbing herself against Will’s legs. Traitor!

  “She likes me,” Will said, petting Sheba on the head.

  “All the girls like you,” Jennifer said as she tore away the wrapping paper on the box. When she lifted back the lid of the box, she gasped. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Nestled against a bed of black velvet was a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant.

  The same necklace she saw Will buying yesterday.

  But he had bought it for Kristy Jenkins, hadn’t he? She’d seen Kristy wearing this necklace in the photo Claudia had shown her. What was going on?

  “Aren’t you going to say anything?” Will asked, stepping closer. “Do you like it?”

  “Did you get a discount on these?” Jennifer asked. “Buy two and get twenty-five percent off?”

  “Discount?” a confused Will asked. “What are you talking about?”

  Jennifer angrily waved the box in Will’s face. “I saw you buying this necklace yesterday afternoon. This is the same necklace Kristy Jenkins was wearing last night.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Claudia took great pleasure showing me a picture of the two of you and I saw it on Kristy’s neck.”

  “I didn’t buy that necklace for Kristy, I bought it for you.”

  “Really?” Jennifer skeptically asked.

  “I did,” Will insisted, his own temper starting to flare. “Why are you being so suspicious?”

  “You’re the one who’s called the Heartbreaker, not me.”

  “When Kristy came to see me on Sunday afternoon, she was wearing the necklace,” Will explained. “I thought it was pretty, so I asked her where she bought it.”

  Jennifer hadn’t expected to hear that. If he hadn’t bought the necklace for Kristy, then that meant . . .

  “You bought the necklace for me?” she squeaked, all her anger draining away. “Only me?”

  “Uh-huh.” Will took the necklace out of the box and stepped behind Jennifer, fastening it around her neck. “You never know when you’re going to need to buy a present for someone special.”

  “Someone special?” she asked in disbelief.

  “I don’t know how you did it, Red, but you’ve gotten under my skin,” Will whispered into her ear. “You drive me crazy! But you also make me laugh and smile and I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun hanging out with someone. I don’t want it to end after tonight.”

  Jennifer wanted to pinch herself. Was she dreaming? This couldn’t be real, could it? Will was telling her the words she’d been longing to hear!

  “You don’t?” She turned around, gazing up at Will from between lowered lashes.

  Will shook his head. “I don’t. What do you say we try this for real?”

  Before Jennifer could answer, Will pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss. It was a long, slow, deep kiss that was just as wonderful as the last one he’d given her. It was the perfect Valentine’s Day kiss.

  “So, will you keep going out with me?” Will asked when the kiss ended. “Will you be my girlfriend for real?�
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  “Yes,” Jennifer laughed, giving Will a hug. “Yes yes yes! But just one thing.”

  “What?”

  “Stop calling me Red!”

  “Where’s Claudia?” Eden asked Natalie as they stood on the dance floor of the auditorium and waited for Principal Hicks to announce which couple had been voted Most Romantic. “I haven’t seen her all night. This is the moment she’s been waiting for.”

  “Don’t know and don’t care,” Natalie said as she held Leo’s hand. There had been some stares when they’d arrived together but then they had ended. Not that the stares had bothered her. She didn’t care what anyone said. All that mattered was being with Leo.

  Mindy Yee, who was standing behind Eden and Natalie, stuck her head between them. “Didn’t you hear?”

  “Hear what?” Natalie asked.

  “You mean you don’t know?” Mindy gasped, a look of glee washing over her face as she got ready to drop her bombshell. “Claudia’s got chicken pox!”

  “No wonder she was scratching like crazy at lunch!” Eden exclaimed.

  “No one knows where she could have gotten it,” Mindy said. “Little kids usually get it and I can’t see Claudia hanging out with little kids.”

  Natalie locked eyes with Leo. They knew exactly where Claudia had gotten the chicken pox. From Bonnie. Because like Claudia, Bonnie also had them. They had found out when they had visited her that afternoon.

  “She’s home in bed covered with pink calamine lotion,” Mindy said. “I went to see her on my way to the dance. She was not happy.”

  But it serves her right for being so mean! Natalie wanted to say. What goes around comes around.

  Eden giggled, clasping a hand over her mouth. Then she started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” Mindy asked.

  “Claudia said she wanted to wear pink for Valentine’s Day,” Eden chuckled. “And now she is!”

  “And the winners for Most Romantic Couple are . . .”

  “Think we’re going to win?” Will asked Jennifer as they waited to hear which couple’s name would be announced.

  “I don’t know. And it really doesn’t matter to me.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Jennifer snuggled closer to Will. “Because I got exactly what I wanted for Valentine’s Day.”