by Beth Reekles
“How did you end up together, then? Stop me if I’m being rude. I’m trying for politely inquisitive.” He grinned. “Just, nobody’s really talked about what happened with you two. It seems kind of taboo or something.”
“Not taboo,” I said. “It’s just that not everyone knows the whole story. It’s kind of complicated.”
He shrugged. “I’ve got all night. Or, at least until your dad gets back and you kick me out.”
I smiled and tucked my feet up on the couch underneath me. “Well, it all started with a kissing booth….”
And when I was done, Levi simply said, “It’s nice that Lee forgave you and that you two are still such good friends. I never had a best friend like that. I mean, I had best friends, sure, but not like you’ve got Lee.”
I nodded, because I wasn’t sure what to say. Times like tonight, I felt like I didn’t “have” Lee much at all. We both turned back to the TV—some documentary on the History Channel. And after a few minutes, my cell phone rang.
Noah.
I answered, mouthing “One sec” to Levi.
“Hey!”
“I just got in from a party. I wish you were here. I’ve got this bed all to myself and it’s incredibly lonely. I miss you.” He was slurring his words a little, and yawned, long and loud. I blushed a little.
“Much as I’d like to be there and…um…cuddle up with you, can I call you back in a second?”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just…have company.”
But Levi was standing up. “It’s okay, I should probably head off now anyway. I promised my mom I wouldn’t be home too late.”
I nodded, and told Noah to hang on just a sec as I walked Levi to the door. He slipped on his coat and picked up his car keys. “I’ll see you at school on Monday?”
“Yeah. Thanks again for tonight. I’ll repay the favor sometime.”
He smiled brightly. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Back in the living room, falling across the couch with my feet dangling over the armrest, I clicked to turn the call into a video one. Noah appeared on the screen, lying on his side with his handsome face half smooshed into a pillow. I couldn’t help but smile, seeing him—it made my heart swell.
“Hey. Sorry.”
“Who was that?” Noah’s voice was more awake now but still a little less-than-sober.
“Levi.”
“The new guy Levi?”
“No, the old Levi.” I rolled my eyes. “Remember I said I had to babysit Brad tonight, because my dad’s not back till late? And Lee was supposed to hang out with me?”
Noah propped himself up on one elbow so I could see him better. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. I wished he was here, or I was there. His mouth twisted to one side. “Let me guess—he ditched you for Rachel.”
“Yup. But he’s taking me shopping tomorrow as penance, and buying lunch. Anyway, he sent Levi as a replacement co-babysitter to keep me company. Which was okay, actually. He’s a pretty nice guy. Funny. Easy to talk to, you know? Everyone seems to like him.” I smirked. “The girls definitely seem to like him. He’s got a lot of admirers, the way I hear it.”
“Should I worry I’ve got competition, Shelly?” Even though his voice was slow, his tone was unmistakably teasing. His blue eyes glittered even through the phone screen.
“Oh, totally.”
He laughed.
“How was the party?”
“All right, I guess.” Then, “I miss you.”
“I miss you more.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“What’re you gonna do about it? You can’t tickle me into submission all the way from Massachusetts.”
“Oh, believe me, when I see you next I’ll have to pack in weeks of tickling you’re owed.”
I grinned, laughing softly. We carried on talking a little about college, school, our friends—though Noah seemed to ask more questions than he answered. I got the feeling he was avoiding talking to me about something, but it was such a small, silly, nagging thought I chose to ignore it. I was too happy seeing him, talking to him. I thought about confiding in him how it felt like Lee and I were drifting apart, but I didn’t want to risk it getting back to Lee and upsetting him, so I decided it was better to keep that to myself.
As we spoke, in hushed voices, I felt an ache somewhere inside. Not exactly in my chest, or my stomach, but just a deep-rooted all-over kind of ache. I missed him so much. More than anything, I wished I could be curled up next to him with his arms around me, the rise and fall of his chest beneath my head, his fingers teasing my hair. I watched his lips moving as he talked, thinking about how much I wanted to kiss him. Noah’s voice got slower, heavier as we spoke, and he sank back down into the pillow.
A car drew up outside—Dad was home.
“I should go,” I said, just as Noah yawned again. “My dad’s back. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he mumbled, half asleep. “Sweet dreams.”
He hung up then and left me smiling and feeling fuzzy inside, and I walked out into the hallway just as my dad was hanging up his coat.
“Oh, bud, you didn’t have to wait for me to get in.”
“You know I always do. How was the conference?”
He just pulled a face.
“Sounds like you guys had a wild time.”
He smiled tiredly. “As always. How was Brad?”
“An angel,” I said, with no hint of sarcasm, and quickly explained that Levi had come to keep me company. “Brad loved him.”
“I think this Levi guy is gonna have to be my new go-to babysitter. Come on, it’s late. Way past your bedtime, bud.”
Chapter 5
I plucked the pickle out of my burger, dropping it onto Lee’s plate with a look of disgust. Now that that was disposed of, I dug into my cheeseburger with extra bacon and gave a moan of appreciation, grease dribbling down my fingers.
“I should hope you’re enjoying it, for eighteen dollars,” Lee muttered, but when I looked up, he was grinning. We were at the food court in the mall, and he’d picked the restaurant. It was more expensive than our usual haunt; he was trying to soften me up and apologize for yesterday.
“It’s worth every dime,” I assured him, wiping some rogue mayo from the corner of my mouth. Lee asked me how the evening hanging out with Levi had been, faking horror that he might have been replaced as Brad’s new favorite person.
“I should’ve known Brad would like him,” Lee said. “Everyone seems to like the guy.”
“I heard he was nominated for prom king at his last school. I’m telling you, Lee. You keep bailing on me, you’ve got some serious competition.”
It was a joke, but he at least had the decency to look a little concerned.
We were both too stuffed from our meals to order dessert, so we spent some time wandering around the mall and window-shopping. Lee pointed to a couple of signs in windows declaring HELP WANTED—INQUIRE WITHIN but I told him it was useless. I’d already applied to every one he noticed. The few times I did get a reply, it was only to say that I “wasn’t the right fit” or that they were looking for someone with more experience.
It sucked, but I wasn’t especially surprised.
Once we’d walked off our lunch, Lee bought us both ice-cream cones from a stand in the food court.
“You know,” Lee said as we ate our ice creams, “we’ll probably have to come shopping again in a couple weeks for the Sadie Hawkins dance. I need a new suit jacket. My old one’s too small across the shoulders.”
“Oh yeah?”
He flexed his muscles. “You know, since I’m the next star of the football team now.”
“Yeah, yeah, you have guns, I get it. So, Sadie Hawkins—that’s not just a rumor, then?” I asked, but I was scrutinizing Lee. He’d
been going to the gym with Dixon over the summer vacation and practicing more football with Noah. He was bulking up. He wasn’t as big as Noah, but he was getting there. His arms were larger—I hadn’t noticed until now, but the newly toned muscles in his arms were straining the sleeves of his T-shirt.
“Ethan Jenkins told me yesterday,” Lee answered, not seeing me staring at his shoulders and arms. Ethan was the new head of the school council, since Tyrone had left for college. We hadn’t had a meeting yet this year. Just as I thought it, Lee said, “And before I forget, there’s a meeting Wednesday at lunch. Ethan told me that, too.”
“Sure, whatever. Now, focus on the major new development here: Sadie Hawkins dance. Did Ethan mention a date? Theme? Do you have any more information for me? You know I’m a sucker for a school dance.”
“Oh, crap, now you’re freaking out. I shouldn’t have told you.”
“I’m not freaking out!” I protested, maybe a little too vehemently. More calmly, I said, “I’m not freaking out.”
“I think it’s, like, the first weekend of November or something? I wasn’t really listening. But I do remember he said it was only gonna be in the school gym. Nowhere fancy. He said they’ve cut the budget this year, like, a lot, so they’re doing Sadie Hawkins instead of the usual Winter Dance, and they’re gonna save most of the budget and the profits from fund-raisers for the Summer Dance.”
“That makes sense, I guess.”
Lee started telling me about some new football play Coach Pearson was making them learn, but my eyes drifted, assessing dresses in store windows. My mind was half on the dance and half on the fact that, actually, I could really do with a job after school to help pay for a new dress.
“Shelly?”
“Huh?”
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Sure. One of the juniors fumbled the ball too many times and Coach had him run laps.”
“You were thinking about the dance, weren’t you?”
I hung my head slightly in confession. I didn’t want to bring up the job thing again right now; Lee knew I’d been trying to get something, but I didn’t think I could handle yet another pitying smile over it. “Maybe.”
“Thinking about who you’re gonna ask?” he guessed, and I could have sworn I felt all the blood drain from my face. I’d forgotten that about the Sadie Hawkins dance: the girls asked the boys.
Crap.
“Wanna go to the Sadie Hawkins together?”
I knew what his answer would be, but I remained hopeful. Lee was my best friend, after all. We’d been to loads of dances together, before—well, before Rachel.
Predictably, his face fell, before scrunching up with apology. “I’m sorry, Shelly. You know I would, but…”
“No, no, it’s fine. Totally. I shouldn’t have asked. Of course you’ll go with Rachel.”
“I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. She’s more important to you. I didn’t say it out loud, because I knew it would sound spiteful and jealous, and I was feeling kind of spiteful and jealous. Instead, I said, “You can’t ditch your girlfriend to go to a dance with me. I’m sure that’s overstepping some kind of boundary. Rachel’s nice and all, but even she’d hate that.”
“I’m sure Dixon would go with you, as friends, if you asked him.”
I shrugged. Dixon would probably have offers from other girls. He might not have been conventionally attractive, but he was charismatic and funny and sweet.
“Maybe Noah will be home the weekend of the dance?” Lee suggested brightly—a little too brightly. Neither of us actually expected that to happen, and I wasn’t going to hold out hope. Besides, Noah didn’t even like school dances. He’d gone to them before because that was what the whole football team did, but he didn’t enjoy them so much. He’d made a big display of asking me to the last Summer Dance and asking me to be his girlfriend in front of everyone, but…
“He’s a college boy now,” I said, trying to joke about it. “Way too cool for some stupid high school dance.”
Would he laugh at me if I asked him? Would he come home for a weekend and go with me? Was it even fair of me to ask him to come all the way back here just for some dance?
Lee reached over and slipped his fingers through mine, squeezing my hand. I squeezed back before letting go.
We wandered around a couple of stores, and while I was still busy wondering how I could bring up the dance to Noah, I noticed Lee checking his phone and getting agitated. He kept almost saying something.
I kept waiting for him to say something. I wasn’t sure what, but something.
Eventually, I grabbed his arm, yanking him to a stop near the fountain.
“What the hell is going on with you? You’re acting weird.”
“I have to talk to you.”
The words sent a pang of dread through me. I forced out a laugh and said, “Lee, are you…are you breaking up with me?”
He rolled his eyes, but the grim look stayed on his face—eyebrows pulled low and close together, eyes downcast, mouth twisted, nostrils flared.
“Okay, now you’re scaring me. What’s wrong? Is it Noah? Did something happen with Rachel last night? Lee?”
“I didn’t see Rachel last night.”
“Huh?”
“You assumed that’s where I was, and I didn’t tell you otherwise, but…I let you think I was with Rachel. I didn’t bail on you last night to see Rachel.”
“Then…then where were you?”
The only time I’d kept anything from Lee was when I was sneaking around with Noah. I’d kept it from Lee because I didn’t want to hurt him or ruin our friendship. But it wasn’t like I had a sister Lee was sneaking around with, so what secrets did he have to keep from me?
“Football.”
“Wait, hang on. You…lied to me because you were at football practice? None of this makes sense.”
“It wasn’t practice.” Lee hooked his hands behind his head, leaning back. “It was initiation. A bunch of guys who were on the team last year organized it. They said we couldn’t tell anyone, so when I bailed on you, and you assumed it was because I was hanging out with Rachel…”
“Why couldn’t you tell anyone?”
“I don’t know, it was just a thing. It wasn’t like they threatened to kidnap someone we cared about if we told,” he added, lightening up a little and flashing me a fleeting grin, “but I just…I guess I wanted to be part of the team, you know?”
“How come you didn’t just tell me earlier?”
“I don’t know. But someone just posted a photo on Facebook, and I wanted you to know before you thought I was lying to you. For the record, I never lied.”
He gave me a steady look.
“Oh, come on! This is so not the same thing.”
“I’m just saying. I didn’t lie. I just let you think it.”
I chewed on my lip for a moment. “No, it’s…it’s fine, Lee. It’s no big deal. Initiation. I get it.”
“It sounds so stupid now that I’m saying it, but it seemed really important last night. Being part of the team, you know? And they were pretty intimidating about it. Like, they took this shit really seriously.”
“Yeah. I get it. Hey, stop looking so worried.” I patted his cheek, smiling. Although, keeping secrets from me—and over football, no less—was very un-Lee-like behavior. “So, can you tell me what the initiation involved or, if you tell me, does that mean you’ll have to kill me?”
Relaxing, Lee laughed, and after swearing me to secrecy, he told me how they’d all snuck into the school, and the new guys on the team had had to get through this kind of obstacle course to the locker room, and the first guy to make it there won….
“Well, they never said what the prize was, but I get the feeling it’s just winning the respect of the rest of the team.”
/> “Obstacle course?” I wanted to know.
“Oh yeah. Not like, hurdles and shit, though. So, the rest of the team hid on the way to the lockers with pies and Nerf guns and stuff, and they set up trip wires, and they’d put butter in one of the hallways, so we were all sliding everywhere.” He laughed. “That’s one of the photos they put up—a bunch of us on our asses, sliding down a buttery hallway.”
“Oh my God.” I snorted, reaching for my phone. “I cannot wait to see this. You’re in it, right?”
“Only a little, and not on my ass.”
“Did you win?”
“Of course. C’mon, Shelly, it’s like you don’t even know me. Yeah, I won.”
I found the photo, on Jon Fletcher’s profile, and giggled so loudly a few people looked over. “Oh my God. I hope this makes the yearbook. The janitor is going to lose his shit on Monday when he sees this.”
“Oh, no, they cleaned up after. The rest of the newbies on the team, they had to clean up because they didn’t win.” He paused. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you last night.”
“No, Lee, don’t—you can stop apologizing. I totally get it. I mean, I don’t have to like it so much, but I’m not mad at you or anything. I swear.”
“Pinky promise?”
“Always.”
Before we left the mall, Lee insisted on going into the video game store to find something. “I need to win your brother back somehow. I can’t risk losing both of you to Levi from Detroit.”
Chapter 6
It was Tuesday afternoon, and once again, Lee was not spending time with me.
Much as I tried, it was hard not to feel bitter about it. I kept telling myself I was happy for him, and I liked Rachel. But it stung every time Lee would come up to me with that spanked-puppy look on his face and take a deep breath, and I’d know he was about to blow off whatever plans we might have had before he even got a syllable out. I’d suggested hanging out as a trio a few times, but even I knew they wanted some space and that I needed to step back.
