by Sandy Hall
He was ready to go. His mom was not.
Apparently she needed to buy towels. Lots and lots of towels. And then the perfect shower curtain to go with those towels. He suggested perhaps that she select the shower curtain first and then the towels to match it, but apparently that was a bad idea. Some sort of interior design faux pas that he didn’t understand.
“This is for Flora Ramos’s engagement party next month! She wants a particular kind of towel, and I want to make sure it looks just right!” his mother said.
Henry got the heck out of that area, because if he knew his mom at all her next topic of conversation would be Jacinta Ramos and how she still couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to the prom with her. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he was going with Amelia. He’d let his mom hold on to the Jacinta fantasy a little longer.
He was wandering back toward the electronics thinking maybe he could get his mom to also buy him some new earbuds when he saw a familiar face in front of him.
Oh man, this was going to be awkward.
It was Cameron. Cameron who used to be his friend. And there was no stepping around him.
“Hey,” Cam said.
“Hey, you work here?” Henry asked, gesturing toward his name tag and obvious red vest.
“Yup.”
“So you quit baseball to start a lucrative career as a Target employee?”
“Basically,” Cameron said.
“And how’s that going for you?”
“Not bad, not bad. I’m trying to save up some money for college. My stepfather claims he can pay for everything, but I would really rather not get involved with him.”
Cameron only ever referred to his mom’s husband as “my stepfather,” never by his first name and definitely never as “Dad.”
“How’s everything going with Landon?”
Cam laughed uncomfortably. “It’s going. Landon is…” He trailed off. “You don’t really care about this.”
Henry didn’t want to agree with him, but he also couldn’t disagree. He cared the amount anyone would care that his fellow human had to live with that jackass Landon Rittenbacher. Just thinking the name made Henry’s face wince in pain.
“You can admit it,” Cam said.
“No, actually I was thinking for the millionth time about how terrible it must be to have to share a house with Landon Rittenbacher.”
Cam chuckled and cleared his throat. “How’s baseball going?”
“Oh, you know. Not bad, not great.”
Cam made a few more feeble attempts to engage Henry, trying to make small talk, but Henry was terrible at small talk and he couldn’t understand why Cameron wouldn’t put him out of his misery and walk away.
But then Cameron blurted out, “My mom’s pregnant!”
“Oh,” Henry said, unsure of how to respond.
“I haven’t said that out loud to anyone.”
“Oh, wow,” Henry said. “It’s a lot to take in.”
Cameron nodded and toyed with the edge of a price sticker that was coming off one of the shelves.
“You know, man,” Henry started. He had no idea where that thought was going. He didn’t know what Cameron needed or wanted from him.
But then his mom appeared like an angel from the bathroom accessory area.
“Cameron!” Henry’s mom said, holding out her arms and pulling him in for a tight hug. Cameron’s red hair looked practically radioactive next to her dark black.
“How are you?” she asked as she pulled away. “How is your mom?”
“She’s good, thanks.” Cameron shot Henry a look that Henry interpreted as “please don’t mention the pregnant thing.”
Henry kept his mouth shut.
“It’s been too long since we’ve seen you around the house,” Henry’s mom said, rubbing Cam’s arm. “I was saying that to Henry last week.”
Cam had the decency to at least look embarrassed. It was his own fault that he and Henry weren’t friends anymore, not that Henry was going to say anything like that in front of his mom.
“Yeah, I’ve been working a lot. I have two jobs actually.”
“Two jobs! That’s too many jobs! You should be seeing friends and playing baseball. Those should be your jobs!” Henry made a mental note to use these words against his mother the next time she forced him to work at the family store after a long day of school and baseball practice.
“I know,” Cam said, frowning dramatically. “But you know how it is. The money is going toward college.”
Luckily Henry’s mom seemed to take that for what it was worth and let the topic drop.
“Well, we should get going, Henry,” she said.
“Yeah, sure,” he said at the same moment that Cameron was paged over the loud speaker.
“Good seeing you,” Cameron said as he jogged away.
“Such a nice boy,” Henry’s mom said as they made their way to the front to check out.
She paid for Henry’s T-shirt without even noticing since he slipped it in between the full set of towels she’d selected for Flora Ramos.
On the drive home she asked Henry for the millionth time what happened between him and Cameron. And for the millionth time Henry didn’t have a good answer for her.
“We stopped liking the same stuff,” Henry said. “It happens. Friends grow apart sometimes.”
She tsked as she merged onto the highway. “He could probably use a friend.”
“I know. I tried a million times last summer. He didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to do anything.”
“Maybe try some more,” his mom said.
Maybe he would. But he would do it on his own terms and not just because his mom thought it was a good idea.
Chapter 12
Cameron
The day after he ran into Henry at Target, Cameron was working the dinner shift at his second job at the pizza parlor. He worked there most days after school until around dinnertime, but they asked him to stay late Monday night since the busboy called in sick. He didn’t mind staying. It was better than going home to spend the whole night in his room, bouncing off the walls and wishing he were somewhere else.
He was going pretty quickly through the latest stack of dirty dishes when he heard a commotion out front. He took a quick peek out of the swinging doors, but all he could see was the long hallway that led off to the restrooms and a little sliver of the front door. Not exactly a prime view of the dining room.
A minute later the lone waitress on duty that night came into the kitchen out of breath. “The high school baseball team is here. Apparently they won some kind of big game tonight,” she said dramatically. “And they need like a million pizzas right now.”
Cameron chewed his lip. He wasn’t one of the chefs, but he would certainly be pulled in if they needed help with the assembly line of toppings.
“Not a great night to be understaffed,” the chef said.
The waitress nodded and blew her bangs out of her face. “When are we not understaffed?”
Seeing as how no one had spoken to Cameron yet, he finished the dishes in the sink and then jumped in to help with the pizzas. It really wasn’t as bad as the two had made it out. The varsity baseball team only had twenty members. Hopefully Cameron wouldn’t be asked to serve them. He hadn’t talked to any of the guys on the team since he abruptly quit and wasn’t sure what kind of reception he would get.
The chef left to grab something from the walk-in freezer, and in the minutes he was gone someone came through the swinging doors. When he turned it was his boss, Eddie. Everyone called him Eddie, not Ed, not Edward.
“Cameron,” he said.
“Hey,” Cameron said, keeping his hands busy.
“I know you asked for June first off,” he started.
“Yes. It’s prom night.”
Eddie sighed. “I’m sorry. But I don’t have anyone else to work that shift. You know how it is. But I can get someone here around six to relieve you.”
“Oh,” Cameron sai
d. “That’s okay, I guess. The dance starts at seven, and we can’t get in after eight. But if someone comes in at six, that gives me plenty of time.” Cameron was babbling; he knew it, Eddie knew it, but he had to talk his way through his nerves.
“Good,” Eddie said. “You keep working on those pizzas.”
Cameron nodded.
He squeezed Cam’s shoulder before he left. “Maybe someday you’ll have my job if you keep working so hard.”
Cameron schooled his face to keep from cringing as the door swung closed behind Eddie. He worked all these jobs to get out of this town, not to take over Eddie’s job managing his pizzeria.
Not that there was anything wrong with owning a pizzeria. Cameron just had his sights set to something different. He didn’t know what that was, but ever since Laptop Girl had asked him what he wanted to do with his life way back at the beginning of the year, he’d been rolling a bunch of different ideas around, and none of them included owning a pizzeria in the town he grew up in.
Laptop Girl.
What was he going to do about Laptop Girl?
Did he risk losing his anonymity by warning her he might be late for the prom? What if he missed the first slow dance because he couldn’t leave work when he needed to?
Maybe he needed to consider a different way of identifying each other.
After work that night, he sat down and typed a message on his phone so that the next time the laptop cart was out in English class, Cameron would be ready with an amendment to how he and Laptop Girl would recognize each other.
I had a new idea, his message began.
Or not a new idea. But an amendment due to my concern that one of us will get stuck in traffic or something the night of the prom and miss the first slow dance.
The “or something” made it less of a lie, Cameron told himself.
It’s hard since I don’t know exactly what this room looks like, but why don’t we meet at 8:15 somewhere near the DJ station. And we’ll still both have something lime green to recognize the other. And who knows, maybe we’ll notice each other long before then. I feel better about having a more concrete meeting time rather than just waiting for the first slow song. What if they don’t play any slow songs?! I know, I know. It’s the prom, they’ll play slow songs.
Anyway, hopefully you’re into the idea. I still can’t wait to meet you.
Cameron felt better already.
Cora
Cora was in the back seat of Teagan’s car after the baseball team’s big win at semifinals. It was dark outside and cozy in the car after the long afternoon spent cheering Jamie and the rest of the team on at the game that would help send them to the first round of the state championship.
This was one of those times that Cora had special dispensation to be out on a school night, and she had convinced her friends to go to the game with her so she wouldn’t have to drive with Jamie’s parents. Teagan and Josie were happy to oblige.
After stopping for dinner on the way home, Teagan was speeding so that she’d be home in time for her favorite Tuesday night show.
“But don’t you record it? And can’t you just watch on the Internet tomorrow?” Josie asked.
“Obviously, but half the fun is watching it with everyone else on Twitter,” Teagan explained. “Like what did people do during commercials before live tweeting?”
“I think I’m going to break up with Jamie,” Cora said. As soon as the phrase left her lips she felt a wave of relief fall over her, like all the tension she’d been holding in her shoulders for the past month was gone.
“What?” Teagan and Josie said at the same time.
“But he’s perfect,” Josie said, shaking her head. “Everyone wants a Jamie.”
“Well, maybe it’s time for someone else to have a Jamie. Maybe that’s my gift to the world.”
Teagan looked at Cora in the rearview mirror. “Seriously? You’re not joking?”
“I’m not joking. And he’s not perfect for me anymore. Something has changed with us lately. I don’t even know what it is, but every time I think about spending the next four years with him at school, it’s like I feel tied down or something.”
“Wow,” Josie said. “I feel like my parents are getting divorced.”
“Your parents are divorced,” Teagan said.
“I feel like my parents are getting divorced all over again,” Josie amended. “Happy now?”
“Yes,” Teagan said. “But not about Cora and Jamie breaking up. It feels really abrupt from the outside.”
Cora shrugged. “Not to me it doesn’t. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. It’s like, I love him but I’m not in love with him. And because he’s great doesn’t mean we’re great together or that we have to stay together forever.”
“That’s pretty brave,” Josie said.
Cora tipped her head to the side. “Is it, though? Like, we’ve been together a long time, probably too long by high school standards. And we made all these plans to stay together in college. Is that even healthy? There’s like a huge buffet of people out there. I might not even really like boys?”
“So you’re breaking up with him because you’re a lesbian?” Teagan asked.
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean, I might be like bi or something, I haven’t even really considered other people because I’ve always been with Jamie. You guys have had a million crushes each.”
“You’ve had crushes,” Josie pointed out.
“On celebrities. But in real life it’s almost like I’ve been blind to everyone who isn’t Jamie. I don’t know. I guess my point is, it’s time to try something new. We’re not married. Why do I always act like we are?”
“Because you’re a good and loyal person,” Teagan said.
Cora had to smile at that. “Thanks.”
“It’s true, you really are,” Josie agreed.
“Do you really think you’re bi?” Teagan asked. Cora couldn’t see her face, but her voice was normal and not strained as if she was worrying Cora was about to try to make out with her.
“I don’t know,” Cora said. Her thoughts drifted for a moment to the way her lab partner Madison’s hair fell in front of her face when she was using the microscope. Cora had always admired the way Madison’s hair fell, but maybe she was really admiring Madison.
“Well, if you are, that’s cool,” Josie said. “I don’t mean, like, I just mean, I’m cool with that.”
“Yeah, me too,” Teagan said.
“Thanks,” Cora said, grinning at her friends’ slightly awkward declaration. And she knew it was true when the subject changed.
“What are you going to do about next year?” Teagan asked.
“That is a good question,” Cora said. “It’s too late to switch schools. My parents already put down a deposit. I might just have to suck it up and go to BU. And it was my idea to go there in the first place!”
“It’s a big school, so maybe you won’t have to see him that much,” Teagan offered.
“When are you going to tell him?” Josie asked.
“I don’t know. I want to do it like right away. I feel like I’m lying to him at this point, but I don’t really want to break up with him before prom. That feels sort of mean, you know?”
“I guess. I don’t know what’s meaner,” Teagan said. “Isn’t it a little bit like stringing him along at this point?”
Teagan pulled up in front of Cora’s house, and Cora leaned against the front seat to look at them. “Thanks, you guys, for listening and for saying nice things to me.”
Teagan put the car in park. “Of course and always.”
“Now go home and watch your show.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Teagan said, saluting Cora.
“Text me if you need me,” Josie said.
“Yeah, me too,” Teagan said.
Cora didn’t want to leave her friends and go out into the cool night air, but it was time. Teagan honked as she pulled away from the curb, and Cora felt like maybe she’d be able to acc
omplish this. Like maybe she’d be able to break up with Jamie. She definitely felt better suited for the task now that she knew she had her two best friends by her side.
Chapter 13
Lizzie
The laptop cart was ready and waiting at the front of the classroom when Lizzie walked into English class Friday afternoon. The cart had been absent for nearly a week.
About time, Lizzie thought. She had missed their conversations.
She opened up their shared document to see what else he had to say. After Lizzie read the brief message a couple of times, she worked on writing back for most of the rest of the period. She couldn’t stop smiling, just thinking about the reality of meeting him. Though Mystery Boy was right, it was better to have a concrete time to meet up.
After telling him she agreed with the new plan, she added some more thoughts.
Is it weird that even though we still don’t know exactly who the other person is I suddenly feel a lot more vulnerable? (Don’t worry; I’ll answer that for myself. Yes. It’s weird.) I guess the idea of meeting you and you meeting me and therefore meeting each other. Yeah, so that’s super redundant.
But anyway. I’m really glad you want to go with me. Or meet me there. Are we going together if we’re meeting there? I don’t know how that works.
Lizzie wrapped up the message soon after that, feeling like she was babbling an awful lot. The rest of the period dragged on, but as soon as the bell rang Lizzie sprinted off to her locker.
Two seconds after she got there, Madison came up next to her.
“So,” Madison said, her eyes wide with an unspoken question. “How was English class?”
Lizzie leaned against her locker and sighed dreamily. It was proof of Madison’s loyalty that she didn’t make fun of Lizzie’s heart eyes.
“He wanted to talk more about logistics and meeting up and everything. He keeps saying how happy he is that we’re going to meet.”
Madison let out a loud whoop and leaned on the locker next to Lizzie’s, getting comfortable. “And you’re obviously pleased with these developments.”
