The Crushes

by Pamela Wells

  He grinned.

  She took in a deep breath, hoping to calm her rapidly beating heart. “I mean, yes, I’d love to go. Sunday at Bershetti’s at, say, seven?”

  “Sounds good.” He continued to fidget with his keys. “I’ll see you then.” He tipped his head by way of saying good-bye. Kelly waved, feeling like the biggest goober in the world. At least he hadn’t taken back the dinner offer. That was a good sign, right?

  FIFTEEN

  Rule 20: Take chances and appear to live life on the edge! (Guys like danger.)

  Raven handed the vanilla frappé to the woman on the other side of the counter. “Thanks,” she said, putting a smile on her face, hoping she didn’t look as crappy as she felt.

  Working at Scrappe wasn’t the same without Horace around. It seemed quieter. Duller. Raven was counting down the days. Only seventeen more to go.

  Seventeen? She exhaled. That seemed like forever.

  She ran hot water through the espresso machine and picked up the dirty dishes. “Hey, Katie?” she called to the other worker. “Since it’s slow, I think I’ll take my break if you don’t mind.”

  “No, go ahead.”

  Raven escaped to the back of the store and went to her mother’s office. She sat on the pumpkin-colored suede couch, tucking her legs up beneath her.

  Checking her cell phone, she found a text message waiting for her.

  Call me as soon as u can.

  It was from Horace!

  Raven hit number two on her speed dial, her heart rate increasing with every ring on the other end.

  “Ray,” Horace said when he picked up the line. “How are you?”

  Raven’s heart seemed to drop right out of her chest. “Better now.” She smiled to herself, laying her head against the back of the couch. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  “I miss you, too.”

  “So, tell me, what have you been doing over there in Detroit?”

  Horace told her about going to a baseball game, checking out the Motown Historical Museum, and going to a few local music hangouts.

  “The music here is awesome,” he said. “Me and you should come here together next summer.”

  Raven closed her eyes, imaging it. It’d just be her and Horace in a car driving across country without her mother nagging her in the background.

  “Hey,” Horace said, bringing Raven out of her thoughts, “I was at this place the other night and this guy I met, Tommy, told me about a contest coming up. It’s a singing contest.”

  “Oh yeah? Like American Idol or something?”

  “No. It’s a search for a backup singer for that pop singer, Kay-J.”

  Kay-J had the number one song on the billboard charts for the last ten weeks in a row. They were probably capitalizing on her fame by doing a reality show about finding a backup singer. Sell it while it’s hot, right?

  “That sounds cool,” Raven said.

  “I think you should enter.”

  Raven laughed. “Yeah, right.” She thought Horace was joking, but when he didn’t respond, Raven said, “You’re serious?”

  “Of course I am, Ray. You’re a wonderful singer.”

  She blushed, smiled. People had been telling her for the last three years that she had a great voice, that she was destined to be a star, but none of those compliments compared to Horace’s.

  “I don’t know, Horace. I mean, it’s in New York for one. My mom would never let me go, and two, backup singing for Kay-J? I don’t think I’m that good.”

  “You are, Ray. You just can’t see it.”

  She clutched the phone harder knowing that she had to get back to work but not wanting to hang up.

  “I’ll think about it, okay?” she said.

  “Okay.”

  “I should go. I’ve been on the phone”—she looked at her cell screen—“for twenty minutes. Katie’s probably wondering where I’m at.”

  “Text me later, then,” Horace said. “Love you.”

  Every time he said those words, Raven’s throat felt like it was going to close completely. Love, real love, was such a huge commitment!

  “I love you, too,” she replied. She said good-bye and went back to work.

  “Have you researched any colleges?” Mrs. Valenti asked as Raven swept the front of the store.

  Raven, her back to her mother, rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah.”

  After a pause, Mrs. Valenti said, “Well? What did you find?”

  Despite the fact that Raven’s mom had accepted her daughter’s love of music, she was still dead serious about Raven going to college. And an Ivy League university at that.

  Mrs. Valenti had visions of Yale and Harvard and Princeton dancing through her head. Raven would be satisfied with graduating high school; anything beyond that, she didn’t really care. She wasn’t even considering college. If she hated high school, wouldn’t it be fair to assume she’d hate college just as much?

  What she wanted to do was graduate, take a road trip, play music, and see what happened from there. Her mother had spent the last ten years planning her life. Raven just wanted to go off the grid, live outside the rigid expectations of her mother. And those plans included Horace. Detroit would be their first stop and then…Nashville? Raven didn’t do country, but Nashville did have an undeniable musical culture.

  Raven propped the broom up against the wall. “I really like the looks of Yale.”

  Like she’d ever get in there. Seriously. She was more likely to win a clown contest.

  “Yale has such a pretty campus,” Mrs. Valenti said. She whirled around on her heels and headed toward the back room, her flats clipping along the ceramic tiled floor. “I have a new brochure I picked up the other day. I’d forgotten about it until you said something. Let me go grab it in my office.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Raven said, wishing she could put her headphones on right now so she wouldn’t have to listen to her mother.

  Jordan sauntered up. “Mom driving you nuts?” She was still in her uniform from Bershetti’s—black pants, white button-up shirt—but looked stunning.

  “She won’t shut up,” Raven muttered. “You wait until you’re a senior.”

  “Oh, I can wait.” Jordan sat at one of the black café tables when Raven resumed sweeping. “Hey, did I tell you what Nicholas did?”

  “No.” Raven straightened. “What?”

  “He texted me this—here, I’ll just show you.” She pulled her cell phone out and scrolled through her messages. “Look.”

  Hey new grl---ur doing good

  “Isn’t he sweet? I was all worried that I sucked because I was messing everything up, and he must have noticed how upset I was. Then I got this text message. Anna said he asked Dee for my number, and she gave it to him.”

  Raven smiled. Her sister’s excitement was infectious. “That was nice of him.”

  “I know, right?”

  The bell above the front door dinged. Raven and Jordan looked over.

  Blake and Mil-D entered. Blake led the way as always, Mil-D sauntering behind, his body swaying like a sumo wrestler’s.

  “Hey,” Blake said, tipping his head Raven’s way.

  A smile spread involuntarily across her face. She squashed it quickly.

  “We close in about fifteen minutes,” she said.

  Jordan whapped her on the arm.

  “What?” Raven raised her brow.

  “Stop being such a jerk.”

  “I’m not.”

  Blake and Mil-D made their way to the counter and ordered two drinks from Katie.

  “Why are you so mean to him?” Jordan whispered. “He’s cute. And super nice.”

  “Because…” Raven couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse.

  “Because why?”

  “Just because, okay?”

  Grabbing the broom again, Raven swept a pile of dirt and straw wrappers and tossed it in the garbage with the dustpan. She tried escaping into the back room before Blake had a chance to say anything else to her,
but he stepped into her path.

  “Hey, you busy tonight?” Blake asked.

  No. She, in fact, had no plans.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Because me and Blake here”—Mil-D came up behind Blake, an Italian soda in his hands—“we were wondering if you wanted to go over to the skate park for some F-U-N.”

  Blake craned his neck around. “F-U-N? What—dude?”

  “What?” Mil-D shrugged. “Some fun, son.”

  Jordan giggled. “Are you guys always like this?”

  “Like what?” Blake said.

  “Like brothers?”

  “Yes,” they both said in unison.

  Raven wanted to laugh, too, but that’d ruin her whole I’m-not-affected-by-you act. “I should get back to work,” she said instead and made another try for the back door.

  “Wait, Raven.” Blake blocked her escape yet again. “Come to the skate park with us. It’s no fun when I have no one to show off for,” he said jokingly.

  Do not smile! Raven thought. “I really don’t—”

  “We’ll come,” Jordan interrupted. “What time should we meet you there?”

  Raven widened her eyes at her little sister, trying to project annoyance. Jordan only grinned.

  Raven had never been to the Birch Falls Skate Park before and maybe if she had, she would have recognized her new neighbor the moment she met him. His face had been painted graffiti-style on one of the concrete skate ramps with his name below it in big, bold letters. He was in between Tony Hawk’s face and Bam Margera’s goofy grinning mug.

  “This is so cool!” Jordan said as she and Raven found an open spot on the concrete wall.

  Raven had to agree, the atmosphere was a lot more alive and inviting than she’d first thought. Big floodlights lit the half-city-block-size area. Onlookers formed a loose circle around the park. There were a lot of girls watching, chatting; little kids stared in awe, taking note of the bigger kids’ moves and skills.

  Raven scanned the skaters’ faces for Blake. It wasn’t hard to spot him. The crowd was thicker near the far end of the park and growing by the second.

  Blake was on his board, building speed as he aimed for a ramp in the middle of the park. He bent at the knees, and just before he crested the top of the ramp, jumped, flipping his board. The crowd responded with whistles and hollers.

  “That was so cool,” Jordan said.

  Pretty soon, Blake had the whole park to himself, everyone having gathered on the sidelines to watch. He took more ramps, slid down railings, flipped his board as he sailed over stairways.

  And the bigger the trick, the more Raven tensed waiting for him to land perfectly.

  By the end of the run, she was cheering along with the crowd.

  Blake skated over to her and kicked up his board. “What do you think? Did I do okay?” Sweat covered his face in a shiny veil. He took off his hat and handed it to Mil-D. He flung it into the crowd and a group of girls screeched and fought to pluck it from the air.

  Was Blake that big?

  Apparently he was.

  “Wanna try?” he said, running his hand over his close-cropped hair.

  Raven raised a brow. “Try what?”

  “Skating.”

  She started to shake her head, but stopped. Why not try? Blake probably thought she was a cold, uptight jerk. She’d been acting like one, after all. Why not show him she could have fun? That she was adventurous?

  “All right.”

  “Uh, Raven?” Jordan straightened. “You’ve never even been on a skateboard.”

  “It can’t be that hard.”

  Mil-D laughed.

  “Hey!” Blake yelled across the park, gesturing to a girl to come over. She obliged. “Can my friend here use your pads for a second?”

  The girl nodded quickly. “Yeah, no problem.” She pulled apart the Velcro on her kneepads and handed everything over to Raven, no questions asked. Either the girl was extremely giving or Blake was like a god to these people.

  “Are you sure?” Raven said.

  “Yeah,” the girl said.

  Blake took the helmet from her and stuffed it on Raven’s head, clipping the strap beneath her chin. “You’re going to need that,” he said with a grin.

  Raven looked down the concrete ramp. It didn’t look that big when she was standing on the sidelines, but right now, it could have been a three-story drop and it would have looked the same.

  “Come on, Ray!” Jordan yelled.

  “You’ll be fine,” Blake said behind her.

  “You said that every other time and I fell every other time.”

  He shrugged. “You have to fall, that’s how you learn.” His green eyes watched her and her alone. There were at least thirty other girls at the park, all of them seemingly watching him, but he didn’t notice. Or if he did, it didn’t affect him.

  Raven took a breath and looked out over the ramp. If she didn’t go, she would so be dubbed a chicken. And she wasn’t. She wanted to show Blake and everyone else watching that she wasn’t afraid of anything, most of all embarrassing herself.

  She rolled the board over the edge. The front half hung in the air, only her left foot keeping it in place.

  Here goes nothing, she thought and put her right foot on the front of the board, her weight propelling her forward, down the ramp. She made it to the bottom, and several people cheered. For her? She didn’t know, but she could hear Blake behind her hollering.

  “Wooohoo!” he yelled. “You did it, Rave.”

  Rave? Blake had given her his own nickname. Had he done that on purpose? And did she even like it? Yes, she decided, yes she did.

  She flung her arms up victoriously, but lost her balance. The board scooted out from under her and shot forward. The world went up as Raven fell down, landing on her hip. Pain shot down her leg and up her rib cage.

  “Raven!”

  “Are you okay?” Blake said.

  She laughed, rolling over on her back. She was going to be so bruised tomorrow. “I’m fine,” she said. Maybe even better than fine.

  SIXTEEN

  Rule 16: Be interested in things that interest him!

  Rule 37: Learn to listen! Do not just talk about yourself!

  “Hey, Sydney?” Quin said from the doorway to the media room. “Can you grab me”—he looked at a sheet of paper in his hands—“Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers, Peter Pan, and anything Care Bears?”

  “Sure,” she said and went to the movies lined up neatly on the shelves. She scanned the spines of the movie cases and found the Scooby-Doo one quickly. Peter Pan was a harder find—it was all the way on the bottom shelf next to the Bob the Builder movies. What was it doing there? Maybe someone needed to alphabetize so the movies were easier to go through.

  A project for another day? She’d have to talk to Quin about it. He might think she was a huge dork for enjoying something so methodical, but if it’d help the West Wing, who cared?

  Movies in hand, Sydney went to West Two and found Quin in room 412 with the new patient staying overnight after surgery.

  “Boo Brothers right here,” Quin said, turning on the TV.

  The little boy, Seth, clenched his hands into fists and waved them about in the air excitedly. “I love this movie,” he said. “It’s my favorite,” he said to Sydney.

  “Oh yeah?” She handed the case to Quin, and he put the disk in the DVD player.

  Seth hit the button on the bed to bring his head up. “Yeah. This is the funniest Scooby-Doo one. Probably. Well…I like Zombie Island, too.”

  “Cool,” Sydney said.

  Quin hit the PLAY button and a movie preview came on. “My favorite Scooby-Doo,” he said, “is the one with Johnny Bravo.”

  Seth laughed. “Oh yeah! Johnny is such a dork.”

  Quin nodded emphatically. “Right on, dude.” He dimmed the overhead lights. “Enjoy your movie. If you need anything else, let us know.”

  “Okay,” Seth said, snuggling into his blankets.
r />   In the hallway, Sydney turned to Quin. “You watch Scooby-Doo?”

  He cleared his throat. “Well…you know…Scooby is pretty cool.”

  Sydney grinned.

  They passed out the other two movies and officially ended their shift.

  “Want to grab something to eat with me in the cafeteria?” Quin asked after they’d punched out.

  “Um…”

  She was rather hungry. And she’d been planning on getting something fast-foodish anyway. Her mom was in Hartford for the night, and her dad was going to some dinner for work, leaving Sydney to fend for herself. She’d talked to Drew earlier on her break in hope of making dinner plans with him, but he had already agreed to go to the movies with Todd.

  “Sure,” she said to Quin. “I’m starving.”

  The cafeteria at Children’s Hospital had the best salad bar ever. Sydney hadn’t checked it out before, instead going with something quicker like a pre-made sandwich, but was she going to change that.

  She’d gotten a Styrofoam container full of lettuce, grilled chicken pieces, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, and croutons. And they had their own brand of ranch dressing that—as Kelly might put it—made it awesome.

  Quin had gotten a club sandwich and now sat across from Sydney in one of the booths along the huge floor-to-ceiling windows on the back side of the cafeteria. The sky was dusky outside and smoke-gray clouds covered the sun, turning it into a white glowing orb off in the distance.

  “I wish I had my camera on me,” Quin said just as Sydney was thinking the same thing.

  “You’re into photography?”

  He looked at her, furrowing his brow. “You are, too?”

  “Yeah. I actually won the amateur photo contest that the hospital put on.”

  “Yeah!” Quin pointed a finger at her and smiled. “I thought my sister said you won, but I was talking to her on my cell at the time and she kept breaking up. Congratulations.”

  Sydney couldn’t help but grin. “Thanks.”

  “That contest is a huge deal around here,” Quin said. “I couldn’t enter it because my sister works here. You should be proud of yourself.”

  Sydney hadn’t talked about it much, but she was proud of herself. The feeling she’d gotten that day was better than any feeling she’d had from passing an academic test.