Saving Face (a young adult romance)

by Dell, T. J.

  Saving Face

  By: T.J. Dell

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  It was probably too late to ring the bell. Alyssa Maddow stood outside on the sidewalk in front of her best friend, Brent Carter’s, house. She pressed the glow button on her cell phone. 11:43— definitely too late to ring the bell. Ms. Carter worked at the post office and she usually worked early so she would most likely already be asleep. Brent might be asleep too, come to think of it. Making up her mind Alyssa continued down the sidewalk to the next walkway—her own.

  Alyssa and Brent had been next door neighbors for as long as she could remember. Longer than that actually. Ms. Carter had been her babysitter when Alyssa was still just a baby. That was back when she was Mrs. Carter. After the divorce she had kept the last name but switched to Ms. Back then Ms. Carter hadn’t worked at the post office. She hadn’t worked anywhere. Even after they were old enough for school Alyssa had still gone to the Carter’s afterwards. Her entire childhood was a blur of memories that all starred a blond-haired-green-eyed boy.

  It was Ms. Carter that taught her how to cook, because Alyssa’s own mother was a terrible cook. That didn’t matter so much since Mrs. Maddow was a doctor, and when you’re a doctor it isn’t particularly important if your meals come out of a microwave. Alyssa got tired of frozen dinners by the time she was nine, so she started watching Mrs. Maddow fix dinner. Brent learned too. He said it was stupid girl stuff, but that was better than playing alone.

  Brent and Alyssa were the best sort of best friends. They had plenty in common, and even when they didn’t they each made the effort to show some interest. So Brent had learned how to cook, and Alyssa had started reading comic books. Her favorite were the X-Men. He teased her mercilessly when she admitted to having a crush on Gambit—the New Orleans bad boy super hero with a Cajun accent. Alyssa might have been more embarrassed, but after all if he told anyone she could always share his dirty little secret—he made the best quiche.

  Alyssa let herself into the house, yelled to her dad that she was home, and jogged up the stairs to her room. Alyssa’s room had changed a lot over the years. When she was five it was pink and decorated with cute little teddy bears and bunny rabbits. When she was eight her parents took her to a real ballet, and the bunnies and bears were replaced with graceful dancers in pretty tutus. By the time she turned 12 she had convinced her mom to let her repaint the walls a pale shade of green, and the pretty dancers had been replaced by posters of boy bands, and cute TV stars. Now, at 17, those posters were mostly gone too. The walls were still green, but they were decorated instead with photographs. Brent was really getting to be a very good photographer, and she had a lot of his best landscapes framed.

  She was pretty sure she’d embarrassed him by insisting he sign and date each print before sealing the frames, but she was serious when she said he would be famous one day. And when he was making millions working for national geographic she could sell her photos, and quit her much less satisfying job in retail. She didn’t want to work in retail, but with her skill set (okay her lack of a skill set) it wasn’t looking like she’d be finding anything much better than a position at the local sporting goods store anytime soon.

  Walking into her room Alyssa toed out of her sneakers, pulled off her cheerleading uniform and pulled on gray sweatpants with her favorite faded Philly Flyers tee-shirt. More comfortable, she crawled onto her bed. What a terrible night. At least it was Friday and there wasn’t going to be school in the morning. But there would be school eventually, and when your mom is a doctor you never get to play sick.

  Even though it was almost midnight she wasn’t tired. Alyssa sat up and looked out her window and into Brent’s. Dark. Brent’s bedroom window was so close to her own that they had had no trouble hopping back and forth when they were kids. Alyssa’s dad put a stop to the window crawling when they started high school. He said it wasn’t appropriate anymore given the changes their bodies were going through. Really, he said changes their bodies were going through! It was so embarrassing. Also it never really mattered—she still crawled over there occasionally when she was feeling too lazy to walk over the appropriate way and use the front door. Alyssa reached for her cell phone and texted her friend.

  Alyssa: R U Home

  Brent: Nope, why?

  Alyssa: just wanted some company, call me later?

  Brent: Im on my way see you in 15

  She should probably be feeling badly that Brent was cutting his evening short. She knew his curfew wasn’t for another hour and a half yet. Brent was eighteen—no driver’s license restrictions. Plus his mom was way trusting. Alyssa was pretty sure that even after her birthday in a few months her mom wouldn’t raise her midnight-on-weekends-eleven-on-school-nights curfew. Not that her parents were unfair. She could always get curfew extensions for special occasions. And the Carter’s house had become sort of exempt from curfew years ago. They knew she was safe there. Anyway Brent was probably on his way home; he wouldn’t have left in the middle of anything important.

  Suddenly it struck Alyssa as odd that she didn’t know where Brent was. Usually, they spent most of their free time together. It was a little strange to think he was off having fun without her. Of course they rarely spent Friday nights together. Not since she’d been old enough to date. And it was dumb for her to think he sat around the house on Friday nights.

  Alyssa went to the local public high school and she spent most of her Friday nights out with a boy, or some of her other school friends. Tonight she had been at the football game and then at a party. Brent used to go to school with her, but when they reached high school he was accepted at the Hillfield academy, a pricey private school across town that his dad paid for as part of the divorce agreement. At some point he’d been seeing a girl named Melissa from Hillfield, but he hadn’t mentioned her in a couple weeks. She supposed he might have been at a Hillfield football game. Of course the game would have been over a couple hours ago.

  “Lyssa?”

  Brent’s voice sounded muted through the glass. She opened her window and saw his familiar face hanging head and shoulders out of his window.

  “Wanna come over?”

  “Will it wake your mom up?” Alyssa was already scrambling over her windowsill.

  “Nah, she’s on a date. Come on.” He held out his hand and helped her hop the short distance between the low roofs and climb into his window. “Your parents gonna be worried?”

  “Mom’s at the hospital and dad never checks on me before bed. Even if he did I’m sure he would call here before panicking.”

  Brent nodded as he settled himself into his desk chair. Alyssa sat on the floor leaning against his bed and drew her knees to her chest. Brent was fiddling with his lap top, not particularly concerned with playing host to Alyssa. She loved that about their friendship. He never felt the need to force conversation, or change his routine to fit her. She could just sit here enjoying his company while he did whatever he was doing. It looked like he was transferring photos off his camera. Brent’s bedroom had changed less over the
years. About the same time she painted her walls green, Alyssa convinced him to paint his blue. Originally Brent wanted green because then their rooms would have matched, but in her 12 year old wisdom Alyssa explained that boys liked blue.

  So the walls were still blue. And the same cream colored area rug covered most of the hardwood floor in the center of the room. One corner of it was stained purple from a grape Icee they had let melt in its paper cup a few years ago. A bookshelf stood in one corner still crammed full of comics that had gone untouched for years. Any newer books were piled haphazardly on top of the shelf or balanced lengthwise across the rows of comics. Another shelf held a small TV and several video game consoles; the floor directly in front was strewn with game cases. Boys were such slobs. Alyssa crawled over to them and started snapping games back into their cases, and making room for them on a shelf.

  “Something wrong Lyssa?”

  She turned to find Brent leaned forward in his desk chair, hands propped on his knees, and his eyes trained on her.

  Chapter Two

  “How can you tell?” Alyssa didn’t bother denying her sour mood. There was very little you could hide from someone who had known you all your life.

  “You only clean up after me when something’s wrong. Things not going too well with Pete?” His tone betrayed an I told you so he was clearly fighting to hold back.

  Pete was Alyssa’s boyfriend. Well her ex-boyfriend. They had been dating since the beginning of the school year. Head cheerleader and captain of the football team—she’d been sure was fate. Brent wasn’t so easily convinced. This was probably because Pete had smashed Brent’s Batman lunchbox in the fifth grade. At the time Alyssa, of course, had been just as mad as Brent, but that was seven years ago and she figured it was time to let it go.

  “We broke up!” Alyssa flounced backwards taking up most of the throw rug with her outstretched limbs.

  Brent cocked his head to one side waiting for her to continue. He knew she’d start talking when she was ready to; no point in asking questions until she did.

  Alyssa lay where she was for a moment and then rolled onto her side to face him again. “Do you want to make out with me?”

  “Sure.” Brent looked surprised— and skeptical of her sincerity.

  “You don’t want to know why?”

  “Nope. I’m more of a make out first—ask questions later kinda guy.” He winked and wiggled his eyebrows at her.

  “It was awful. We went to a party after the game, and I caught him with that slut Lisa Thompson! And I do mean caught. He went on and on about why Lisa was so much better for him than I ever was. In front of the whole school!”

  “You want I should give him the old one-two?” Brent swung his fists through the air punching imaginary Pete. Alyssa smiled, and almost laughed. Brent always made her feel better.

  “No.” She sighed and rolled back onto her back. “I’m not all that upset really.”

  He probably could though, she thought. Brent had always been a little soft and squishy when they were kids, but last year he took a weight lifting class to cover his PE credit for school. And he liked it, so the routine stayed even after the end of term. Actually now that she thought about it Brent was downright attractive. Not that he had been unattractive before, well she hadn’t really noticed one way or the other before. He still had the same shaggy blond hair as always and the same green eyes. Only now his arms bulged beneath the fabric of his long sleeved tee shirt, and when he moved the cotton pulled nicely against a flat stomach. He’d traded his glasses for contacts a few weeks ago (a birthday gift from his mom) and now there wasn’t anything to draw attention away from his eyes. Which were a very striking shade of green.

  “So this is you not upset?” Brent twitched a disbelieving smile at her.

  “This is me humiliated. First he tried to weasel out of it by accusing me of being hung up on you. He kept saying he wouldn’t be surprised if we were sleeping together. When I set him straight about that he started in on how unfeminine I am. Apparently guys don’t want to talk sports with their girlfriends. He said no wonder I couldn’t even turn you on and that I was probably a lesbian.” She paused to take a breath

  “So you think you’re a lesbian?” Brent ignored the implied insult to him.

  “No, of course not. But if we were sleeping together than other people wouldn’t think it either!” She was being melodramatic and she knew it. Tomorrow she would think of a realistic solution to her impending social downfall.

  “So you want to have sex?” Brent took on a bored indulgent tone of voice.

  “Be serious for a minute Brent! I am so sure you imagined your first time to be with me, on your floor, and in my old sweats!” He just stared at her. Actually he looked a little surprised “Brent?”

  “Okay, so if we aren’t going to have sex… wanna play Mario Cart?”

  “What was the look for?”

  “It’s nothing Lyssa.” She punched him in the arm. “It just wouldn’t be my first time. Not that it was a serious possibility anyway.” Brent handed over a controller and settled on the floor against the bed.

  “What!”

  Brent rolled his eyes. “It isn’t a big deal Lyssa”

  “No. Of course not. Everyone’s having sex, but me! Pete, Lisa, even Brent! Who are you having sex with?”

  “At the moment? No one. I am just trying to get a game of Mario Cart going.”

  Alyssa was undeterred. “Brent! I tell you everything!”

  “You’re a chick. It’s different, chicks talk more.”

  “Come on—who? Is this a macho thing? Cause you don’t have to have to be macho with me.”

  Brent rolled his eyes again. “I just don’t think it would be polite. Anyway we go to different schools Lyssa; I doubt you would know them.”

  “Them! Plural?” Alyssa’s eyes went wide. “So you’re what? Doing it in the bathroom between classes?”

  “Sure, because I go to school in a porno flick. I do date Lyssa. You know …pick the girl up, take her to a movie…” Brent rolled one hand in an et cetera et cetera motion. And then, seeing a genuine measure of anguish on his friend’s face, he got serious. “It’s cool Alyssa don’t let that jackass Pete or anyone else tell you when you’re ready.”

  Alyssa was horrified. “How did I not know this? My best friend is the Hugh Hefner of Pennsylvania.” Shaking her head, she picked up her controller. “I am totally gonna own you Carter.”

  Brent chuckled, acknowledging the end of Alyssa’s dramatics.

  “Is that where you were when I texted you?” Alyssa asked without taking her eyes from the TV.

  “Was I having sex? No. I don’t think it would have been very good manners to take any calls during sex.”

  “No, dummy. Were you on a date?”

  “Not a good one.”

  Alyssa nodded, mollified, and concentrated on the screen.

  Chapter Three

  The next morning Alyssa woke up at 7:00 am despite the fact that she had been with Brent until after 2:00. She was a little sleepy, but staying in bed wouldn’t do anything to fix her social problems. Damn Pete. She should have known better—he was basically an ass. But come on! Head cheerleader and the captain of the football team? It should have been perfect. No way was she showing up at school to face that humiliation without some kind of game plan.

  Wiping the steam from her bathroom mirror, Alyssa tried to decide if she was prettier than Lisa Thompson. Her brown hair, which her mom called chestnut, hung just past her collar bone. When it dried she knew it would bounce up to graze her shoulders. She liked her hair. She liked her eyes too. Also brown, they were a nice shape—Lisa Thompson had really big eyes. Satisfied with the view Alyssa shimmied into a pair of blue jeans, and a stretchy white turtle neck. She wasn’t vain, but she wasn’t dumb either and she’d never had any complaints about the way she filled out her cheer uniform. So no way was Lisa Thompson prettier. Showered and changed Alyssa walked back into her room to start strategizing. S
he screamed.

  “Jesus Lyssa!” Brent caught her before she fell backwards.

  “Brent. You scared the crap out of me! You can’t just crawl through my window—what if my dad caught you.”

  His face wiggled in an amused way. “I came through the front door; your dad let me in. I just wanted to ask you to go to the corn maze with me today. And I would have called, but you left your cell at my house last night.” He held the phone out to her.

  “Oh. Well, whatever.” Alyssa waved off the moment and took her phone from him. “I can’t go today; I have serious angst to suffer through.”

  “Sounds fun.” He commented wryly. “You love the corn maze. We could race.”

  “You’d lose.” Alyssa was starting to waver. “Do you know how popular the corn maze is? It’s gonna be crawling with people from school.”

  “So you are going to hide out here forever? Lame.” Brent could tell she was caving. “Come on Chere.” He said reaching for his best Cajun accent (and it wasn’t very good) “I’ll do my Gambit voice all day. One drunken party isn’t going to ruin your social standing. C'est la vi.”

  The Gambit voice did it for her. “All right, but if we see anyone I know…”

  “You can hide in the corn.” Brent finished for her.

  The corn maze was actually one of Alyssa’s favorite parts of the fall. The town really went all out with a huge corn maze, lots of food vendors, hay rides, games, and all sorts of other fun stuff. The maze itself was always really impressive. They advertized an average of 90 minutes to find your way out. Alyssa usually made it in 45. Most years she went so many times that by the end of the season she could walk through it blind folded. One year Brent had bet against her doing just that and at the end of that day Alyssa was the owed one homemade quiche. She hadn’t gotten around to it this year yet though. And the season was half way over. Being seniors was extremely time-absorbing. Plus Pete hadn’t been interested. Really Pete had only been interested in one thing—something Lisa Thompson was a little freer with than Alyssa.