Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge

by Cindy K. Green

  I eyed all three of my friends as they waited expectantly for my answer. It really would be strange not to see them every day. I finally broke out into a smile. “OK, let’s do it, but nothing drastic. Simple. And I’ll talk to my mom. She might possibly let me out for a couple hours if I’m home early.”

  “I’ll talk to her,” Amy said all full of confidence.

  If anyone could convince my mom to commute my sentence, it was Amy, but this was something I had to do. I excused myself from my friends and hurried downstairs with trepidation beating in my heart. I found Mom working on her computer in the den. “Hey, Mom.”

  She looked up from the screen. “What’s up, daughter?”

  I took a calming breath. “I know I shouldn’t even ask, but I need to go to the homecoming bonfire tonight.”

  “You need to, do you?”

  “Yes, I need to talk to Luke and make some things right with him. I know I messed up with you and dad, but I also hurt Luke in the process.”

  “I see.” She seemed to be mulling my request over in her mind. “Ordinarily, I would say no, but it sounds like you are trying to rectify things and own up to your mistakes. We can’t baby you forever. You are almost seventeen, as you like to remind me.” She smiled.

  “So I can go?”

  “Yes, your dad can even drive you tonight. And in exchange you can clean and mop the kitchen this weekend.”

  “Deal.” I grinned.

  ~*~

  “You look great,” Amy whispered in my ear. She locked arms with me as we walked down the sidewalk path, which led to the lake.

  “I do not,” I whispered back. I did, though. I totally did. I just needed a little more pumping of my self-esteem before seeing Luke. Excitement hummed in my heart and floated over my skin like a luxuriant lotion.

  It was dusk and an immense moon appeared low in the sky even before the radiant sunset had completely disappeared. Warm, brilliant, glowing colors glistened off the sand as we moved closer to the throng of party attendees while the pungent smell of burning timber hung in the air. A couple guys sat close to the fire strumming familiar songs on guitars.

  I played with a strand of my recently clipped tresses. Amy had done wonders with my hair. I had layers and fluffy bangs. Alisha had outdone herself with my make-up. I typically only wore some mascara and a little powder. Yet, I still didn’t feel overdone. On top of that, they’d somehow put together an outfit out of my own closet that looked cute on me. They were geniuses. Geniuses, I tell you.

  Alisha moved in close to me as we walked. “Just be yourself and act nonchalant when you see Luke. Then you can assess his mood and see if you can explain things.”

  Nonchalant? Me? She had to be joking. How could I be me and nonchalant? They were like diametrically opposed to each other. I just nodded. What else could I do?

  We were still several yards away from the lake, but I could make out the faces of many of my classmates. A nervous chill crept up my back. I slowed down and eventually came to a stop. “You know what? Maybe I can’t do this after all.”

  “Andi, you better,” said Angie. She motioned near the bonfire. “Unless my eyes deceive me, that’s Stephanie Ruiz and her lap dog, Julie, sitting on the bench next to Luke.” She was right.

  I too spied Stephanie cozily settled there beside him. What did that mean? Had Stephanie ingratiated herself all on her own accord or had Luke invited her? Were they together now? My confidence started gurgling down the black hole of my cowardice.

  Amy jerked my arm. “You still want to do this, right?”

  “Yes,” I answered and surprisingly, it was a strong and sure response. “Yeah, I totally do.”

  “Oh, great, what is he doing here?” Angie asked, looking like she might pull up one of the trees nearby and hurl it across the grass and sand. “I am so out of here.” She started to turn away when I grabbed her arm.

  “Don’t go just because of Josh. If I can do this, so can you. Besides, I might need your support…from all of you guys.” I eyed each one of them.

  “Fine,” said Angie, “but I must like you a lot to put up with this. What’s Josh doing hanging with the Aubrey crowd, anyway?”

  “Don’t look at me,” said Alisha. “I haven’t seen him since the movie night at Amy’s.”

  “I bet he showed up with Stephanie,” surmised Amy. “Didn’t you say they’d been hanging out together a lot these days, Lis?”

  “Yeah, they do.”

  “Solidarity, sisters,” I said to them all.

  “Solidarity,” they all repeated as the group of us headed toward the party.

  When we made it down the hill to the bonfire, several friends of Alisha stopped to say hi. Dion even came over to Amy and they started talking.

  I still had a hard time believing they weren’t crushing on each other. They could have fooled me. Oh, right, they already had.

  Angie attempted to ignore Josh, who was totally acting obnoxious with his shirt off while doing one armed push-ups in front of Stephanie and Julie. But he wouldn’t leave it at that.

  “Horowitz,” Josh called out to Angie. “You gotta stop stalking me. It’s like illegal in this state.” He chuckled at his own joke and Stephanie joined in with him.

  Angie, on the other hand, clenched both her hands into fists, and I thought for sure we would see blood—as in the blood oozing from Josh after she attacked him. “I believe, stalking is illegal in all fifty states,” she shouted back.

  The drama concluded with Angie going over to Matt Everwood as he played songs on his guitar. Matt was a good friend of her brother, Seth, as they’d played basketball together for Aubrey. Angie and Matt started talking, and then she convinced him into letting her play his guitar.

  I couldn’t help taking quick peeks at Luke. He looked really good in a dark blue, sleeveless t-shirt. He’d left the bench beside Stephanie and started playing some beach volleyball. The exercise had reddened his cheeks, and he slicked back his hair with perspiration.

  When our gazes met, he seemed surprised to see me, as if my presence had thrown him off guard. He gave me a small smile from the corner of his mouth. It was like an I’m-not-mad-at-you/we’re-still-friends kind of smile.

  Seeing it dampened my spirits more than if he’d ignored me. It meant that things really had altered between us since the last time we were together, and I hated that.

  Worst of all was when Stephanie gave me a conceited glance as she tossed her hair and went closer to watch Luke. She even brought him a sports drink.

  I tried not to watch, but it was hard not to. Seeing them together made me question why I was here. Had Luke already moved on? Had he really cared so little for me?

  Just then, Josh came over to me. “Beanpole, looking good.” He sort of paced around me like a predator as he yanked a t-shirt back over his head. “I love the new look.” He tugged a piece of my hair.

  I smacked his hand away and was fully ready to slap him in the face as well, but I didn’t exactly want to make a scene. Not tonight. “Josh, leave me alone.”

  Instead of dealing with him or having to watch Stephanie with Luke, I took the easy way out and walked off and up the hill to where the restrooms were located. Around the corner, I found a drinking fountain. Yeah, what I really needed was a sip of tepid, metallic-tasting water. I’m sure there were lots of things to eat and drink near the bonfire, but here I stood drinking this horrible stuff and wondering why I had even come. I mean, I had promised my mom I would clean the kitchen this weekend in exchange for a night out, but it seemed to have been a waste of my time.

  While wiping the disgusting water off my chin, I spotted Josh as he came around the corner. “Andrea.”

  “What do you want now?”

  “Hey, I’m sorry. I’ll stop with the whole Beanpole thing. Will that make you feel better? Truce, OK.”

  For one solitary second, I almost believed him. He sounded so much like the Josh I remembered. The Josh, who, in middle school, had been my friend. The guy who hu
ng out with us and played cool songs on his guitar and never once taunted us for our horrible singing.

  “Um, O-K.”

  “I mean, I really think your hair looks great.” This time he gently reached out and touched my hair and let his hand rest on my cheek.

  It happened so quick that it took me a minute to realize what he was doing. I guess I just never thought he could be such a perv, accosting me like that.

  Before I had a chance to push him away, Luke turned the corner and saw us in what probably looked like an intimate moment. His face scrunched up and he whipped back around without saying a word.

  I shoved Josh away from me. “Why are you such a scum?” I jogged off to try to explain to Luke, but he was already way down close to the bonfire, approaching where Angie and Matt where singing. He must think I’m like the worst kind of decomposing algae at the bottom of a pond.

  I tried to hang out with my friends and have a good time for the next hour, but I had lost the ability to have fun. Another volleyball game started, and I noticed Stephanie playing on the same team as Luke. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take.

  Dion had a speaker and microphone set up. He started going on and on about how they were going to cream the other team tomorrow during the homecoming game.

  Even Coach Thomas took his turn at the mic, psyching up the crowd.

  Twenty minutes later, after some bozo threw a watermelon into the fire just to see it explode, I knew I was definitely ready to leave. This had been a mistake. I didn’t even have a chance to say one thing to Luke.

  Amy approached me and handed me a soda. “Sorry things didn’t go so well with Luke tonight.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I just want to leave.” I opened the soda and took a sip.

  “Alisha and Mike are going out for some fro-yo. I bet you could get a ride with them. I’m going to stay and help Dion and his parents with the clean up.”

  I didn’t want to get any frozen yogurt. I just wanted to go home, bury my head under my pillow, and die. Things had definitely not turned out as I’d hoped. “No, I’ll just call my dad and he’ll pick me up.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Not really. I don’t actually want to see my dad at this exact second.”

  The party started winding down. Stephanie, Josh and Julie left together in Josh’s sports car. Good riddance.

  I walked with my friends up to the parking area. Mike loaded up his car with a bunch of friends including Alisha and Angie.

  Luke started to back away. “See you later, Mike. I gotta get home.”

  Amy stopped Luke before he moved on. “Do you think you could take Andrea home? She’s still not feeling the best and Mike’s car is stuffed to capacity, anyway.”

  Luke firmed his lips together and glanced at me. His eyes spoke volumes. He hated me. I’d almost expected him to say something to that effect, but he didn’t. He began to nod his head “yes” and his mouth softened. “Yeah, I can take her.” There was no excitement to his tone. It oozed with self-resignation.

  I didn’t even have a chance to yell at Amy for this totally malevolent idea of hers. All I could do was give her the evil eye as I followed Luke to his car. Embarrassment engulfed me. Embarrassment because of everything that had gone on between us, embarrassment at Amy’s totally out-of-line suggestion, and just plain embarrassment to be alone with Luke. I hadn’t even worked out what to say to him about this morning, and now I had another item to explain.

  Should I just blurt out that I’m a total idiot, please forgive me? I could kill Josh right now and Amy right after that. Lately, I’d become very homicidal in my thinking.

  Angry and hurt as he had to be, Luke still opened my door and shut it after I took a seat. My hands shook in my lap as I waited for him to get inside the car. Lord, help! I’ll need every bit of Your wisdom if I’m going to get myself out of this fiasco.

  Luke got in, put on his seat belt and started the car without looking at me. Without one single word coming from either of us, we exited the park and pulled out onto the street. I actively wracked my brains trying to figure out what to say.

  “So, you cut your hair.”

  I was taken aback for a second because Luke had spoken first, and I so hadn’t been expecting it. I figured it would be the silent treatment all the way.

  “Uh, yeah, I mean, Amy did it today—this afternoon.”

  “Glad to see you’re feeling better.” He glanced at me, but it was quick and cursory.

  “I guess. It’s amazing what those pain pills can do.”

  Nothing. No response from Luke. In the past, he would have given me a big smile and his eyes might have twinkled even with the minimal light shining inside the car.

  “I want to thank you for the CD. It was great. I listened to it with my friends today. They really like Requisition Believer, too. We might get a whole groupie thing going on around here.” Once again I’d crashed and burned in the jokes department. He was a hard audience tonight. Could you blame him? “You know we still need to study for Geometry,” I ventured.

  He couldn’t turn me away when a grade was on the line, right?

  “If you’re sure you still want to.”

  “Luke…”

  Luke raised his hand to me as we stopped at a red light. “It’s cool. I understand. You liked being friends, but you’re just not into me as more than that. I get it.” His voice raised an octave on the last few words. They came out a bit harsh, too.

  “No, you so don’t get it. That’s not it at all.”

  “So, what is it? Because I’ve been straining to understand what happened between us and to somehow find a way not be mad at you.”

  “You aren’t mad at me?”

  “No,” he yelled. “At least, I’m trying not to be.”

  “Then why are we shouting at each other?”

  “I don’t know.” This time a minuscule smile cracked on his face, and his voice sounded calmer. “I just want to know why, Andrea.”

  I opened my mouth to divulge everything, but then I found that I couldn’t do it. Wasn’t it better to just leave it vague? It wouldn’t change anything. He’d just know what a loser I was.

  “It’s just with everything going on—the recital and everything—I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m sorry, but it’s not like you won’t have an even better time with Steph.” I pressed my lips together to stop myself from sticking my foot into it again. What was I doing? Accusing Luke of things I didn’t even know for sure instead of actually explaining my own stupid blunders. Sabotaging myself, that’s what I’d done.

  Luke looked mad—like he had back by the drinking fountain. I could read the anger even from his profile by the way his jaw tightened and his mouth curved downward. Could he really want nothing to do with Steph? Or was it because of Josh? Didn’t he know me well enough to know that I hadn’t encouraged him and that I would never want any attention from that jerk?

  Luke stopped the car on the side of the road.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, with an odd creeping sensation moving up my neck. I was in for it now.

  He twisted his head toward me. “I’m not going with Stephanie to homecoming.”

  “Then why was she with you almost the whole night?”

  “It’s not like I can control where she goes. What was I supposed to say? It’s not like I have a girlfriend.” Oh, yeah, he was heated, and yet the way his eyes swirled around all angrily totally mesmerized me.

  I crossed my arms so I’d appear mad, and to ensure that I wouldn’t look into his fascinating eyes again. “Well, you should take Steph. She’s popular and always a hoot to be around. I mean, personality galore.” It was like I couldn’t control the words coming out of my mouth.

  Luke made a huffing sound, and then turned the car back on. We both remained quiet the next couple minutes, and then I realized he’d passed the entrance to my subdivision.

  “Where are you taking me?” It’s like I imagined he was kidnapping me. He
wasn’t. I hoped.

  “My house.”

  “Your house?” I literally gulped loud enough to hear it inside my head.

  “I have your Geometry homework. I thought you might need it. I forgot to leave it at your house this afternoon.”

  “Oh, well, thanks.”

  “No problem.” He didn’t look at me, and he still sounded way mad.

  A couple minutes later, we arrived at his house. This was a new subdivision that they’d built just last year. Even in the dark, I could see that Luke’s house was cute—small, but cute—with latticework around the windows, flowers growing by the front door and matching bushes planted in a row along the flowerbed. That’s when I saw them—the daisies. The same daisies Luke had been giving me this week. They were planted in between the bushes by the front door. A guilty pang reverberated in my heart.

  “My Mom’s home, but she won’t care if we say we’re studying.”

  “Great, because the last thing we need is more anger around here.”

  He didn’t even offer me a glance at that comment.

  I noticed his shoulders move a smidge as if he had laughed silently. I could only wish. I knew if I could get Luke to laugh at me again then things might fall back into some semblance of the way it was with us before everything got so complicated.

  19

  Luke unlocked the door and held it open for me.

  I stepped inside onto a nice, light-colored wood floor. “For Sale” signs were stacked together in the corner next to the door, and a navy blue blazer with a realtor name tag for “Karen Ryan” hung over a closet doorknob. Moving boxes were set here or there around the room, but it was fairly neat and orderly.

  I entered through an arched doorway leading into the living room. On the fireplace mantelpiece were picture frames. Among them, I noticed one of a teenage girl in a cheerleading uniform and another one of a ten-year-old Luke and the same girl with an arm around each other while holding melting popsicles. This had to be the elusive sister.