Dating: On the Rebound

by Stephanie Street

  Oh dear.

  My stomach rolled. Not only was I going to have to participate in the committee for the dance, but I was going to have to work closely with a co-chair and I had no idea who that person was going to be.

  Letting my hands fall to my side, I glared at the ceiling. “Ugh!”

  For the second time that day a broad shoulder knocked into mine. This shoulder wasn’t as polite as the first. Instead of a smile, I got, “Better keep moving, nerd girl.”

  It was Dustin Hart. I was still reeling from my conversation with Ms. Lowe and rather than tuck my head into my shoulders like I usually would, old Tierney reared her head and glared at him.

  “Rude,” I sneered with all the attitude I could muster. It was so out of character Dustin stopped and stared for a second before a grin split his face. He lifted his arm and pointed at me, one eyelid dipping into a wink.

  “Right on, nerd girl,” he called out before disappearing into the crowd of students making their way to their next class.

  Damn.

  This day was shaping up just perfectly. One for the books even.

  After inhaling a deep, cleansing breath, I tucked my head down, partially obscuring my face with my hair. I just had to keep a low profile, something I’d perfected over the last eighteen months, and everything would be fine.

  After a morning that felt out of control, the rest of the day passed without incident. I went to class and sat in the back, no more group assignments or assigned seating. At lunch, I found a quiet corner of the library to eat the sandwich I’d packed from home and read the tale of Lady Clarissa Blackthorn who had been kidnapped from her father’s carriage and carried out to sea by a vagabond named Dirty Jack and held for ransom. I had a feeling Dirty Jack wasn’t a scoundrel at all, but a man named Lord Jack Cavendish, Lady Clarissa’s secret crush. I was anxious to get this stupid meeting with Mr. Hoffman over with so I could curl up in my bed and finish the story.

  The halls were mostly empty. I’d sent a text to Hannah letting her know I had to stay. She responded that she was going to try out for the dance team, so she would be staying after and getting a ride home with her friend Delany Castle. One less thing to worry about.

  Taking a deep breath, I paused just outside Mr. Hoffman’s classroom. He taught American History and the walls outside his class were decorated with pictures of the current and former Presidents of the United States. I glanced to my right and came face to face with President Trump. His smug smile seemed to be telling me I could do this.

  Huh. Showed what he knew.

  Steeling myself for what was sure to be an excruciating half hour, I pushed the door open and entered the room, reassuring myself I could handle this. I’d handled worse. This wasn’t even the first Homecoming dance I’d helped plan.

  I was wrong.

  So. Wrong.

  “Tierney!” Mr. Hoffman boomed with a smile as soon as he caught sight of me. “So glad you could make it.” He began making his way to me since I’d stopped dead half a step into the room. He must have sensed I was ready to run. “Come and meet your co-chair. Although, you probably already know each other.” Mr. Hoffman herded me into the room without touching me like I was an injured animal.

  I kind of was.

  “You know Noah, right?”

  Noah.

  Of course, it was Noah.

  “Hey, Tierney,” Noah greeted so casually I wanted to smack him. How dare he! Didn’t he know he was ruining my life with just his mere presence? First, lab partners and now this! I couldn’t do it. I needed less Noah, not more.

  Noah must have recognized the frightened rabbit look on my face because he jumped to his feet and made a grab for my backpack.

  “Here, let me help you with that,” he grunted as we engaged in a pointless and embarrassing tug of war with the strap. He could have easily ripped the bag from my fingers but was obviously trying not to hurt me. Noah shot a quick glance at Mr. Hoffman, who was looking at something on his phone, before turning back to me with a determined look in his eyes that seemed to say if I’m stuck doing this, so are you.

  Like hell.

  I pulled harder to get my backpack out of his grip.

  “Okay, guys,” Mr. Hoffman finally looked up from his phone to see my backpack suspended between Noah and I. “Yeah, so just put that down and we’ll get going on this.”

  I smiled at Mr. Hoffman and let go of the backpack.

  “Oomph,” Noah grunted in surprise as the full weight of it fell into him.

  “Thanks, Noah,” I said taking a seat, making sure to leave an empty desk between myself and Noah.

  He glared. “No problem.” He hefted my backpack onto the seat behind me and instead of returning to the seat he’d been in when I entered the room, he sat in the one next to mine.

  I shot him a dirty look and got a raised brow and a smirk in return.

  Goodness, he was hot.

  Stop it. Stop it. Stop it, I admonished myself, wishing my hormones would get in sync with my brain and broken heart.

  Mr. Hoffman seemed oblivious to the subtext, sitting with his hands folded on his desk and a cheerful smile curving his lips. “Okay, well, to be honest, I’m gonna have to let you guys hash this out on your own. My wife is a couple days away from having our first baby and I’ve got to get home before she gets the idea to kill me in my sleep.” He gestured to the packet of papers Noah and I both had on our desks in front of us. “Just look at the lists and come up with a plan. I have a stack of catalogs for most of the vendors and the rest you can look up online.”

  Mr. Hoffman stood and shrugged into a jacket. He picked up a leather messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder before handing me a sticky note with a dollar amount written on it. “There’s your budget. Be sure to stay within that amount unless you want to plan some fundraisers on top of planning the dance. Be sure to turn out the light and close the door before you leave. Thanks for all your help, guys.”

  And then he was gone, his hard soled shoes echoing in the quiet hallway as Noah and I listened in stunned silence.

  4

  Noah

  Well, this was just perfect. There was nothing like getting stuck with a person who apparently hated your guts twice in one day.

  “I can’t believe this,” Tierney murmured under her breath.

  I didn’t even fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Look, princess, you volunteered.”

  All shyness gone, Tierney turned in her seat to face me, her hazel eyes shooting fire. “Don’t call me princess.” She sat up straight in her chair. “I prefer Duchess.”

  “What?” This chick was crazy and I’d had just about enough with crazy chicks.

  “If you’re going to insult me at least do it right.”

  I searched her face to see if she was serious. I couldn’t tell, but she did look angry. “Duchess? What does that even mean?” Duchess definitely wasn’t in my vocabulary.

  “A Duchess is the wife of a Duke.” Her lip was curled and everything about her expression and body language said she thought I was an imbecile.

  “A what?” I shook my head. This was ridiculous. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just do this. I have to go to practice.”

  “You play football?” she asked, her nose all scrunched up with disgust.

  “No, I don’t play football.” I used to, but not anymore.

  “So, practice for what?” I’d never heard Tierney talk so much since I’d known her and with the way she was acting right now I wished she’d go back to being silent.

  “Basketball,” I answered through clenched teeth.

  She squinted her eyes at me. “It’s not basketball season.”

  Good hell. I was beginning to think I’d imagined that brief moment of attraction I’d felt earlier. “I know it’s not basketball season. We play league ball.”

  I could tell she was trying to decide if she believed me or not. Why would I lie about basketball?

  “Whatever. Let’s just get this done.
You obviously don’t want to be here any more than I do.” I picked up the papers Ms. Lowe had given me during my last period when I worked in the office as a runner.

  Tierney picked up her packet and began reading through it. I hadn’t had much time to look at the information before this meeting. Apparently, neither had she. It was quiet as we both read through the packets, but then she started muttering under her breath.

  “Oh, my gosh.”

  “I can’t believe this.”

  “How did I get roped into this?”

  “No. No. Just no.”

  I couldn’t take it any more. “Would you mind? What is your problem, anyway?” Jeez, this girl!

  She turned to me and I was struck again by her hazel eyes. They were gorgeous with brown and gold and green flecks.

  “What is my problem? Did you see this?” She pointed to a paragraph toward the end of our checklist of tasks we needed to complete to make sure the dance went off without a hitch.

  I scanned the paragraph but I couldn’t see what had her so bent out of shape. “So?” I shrugged.

  She gaped. “So?” She huffed. “So?”

  I was beginning to think I was in the middle of the Twilight Zone or something. Maybe Tierney was having an out of body experience. How could I have thought this girl was delicate? The Tierney sitting beside me wasn’t acting anything like the Tierney who’d trembled at the touch of my finger this morning.

  I raised my brows. “Yeah. So?”

  “It says the co-chairs are in charge of taking tickets and are expected to stay for the dance. I don’t do school activities. I don’t do dances. And especially, more than anything, I don’t do Homecoming!”

  I started to scoff. She was making a big deal out of nothing. Girls loved dances, didn’t they? All the ones I knew did. Trina was gaga over them. In fact, she’d been harassing me non-stop about Homecoming, wondering if I was going to ask her to go with me.

  Uh. No.

  Hell.

  I dropped my head into my hands. I was surrounded by crazy women!

  Okay.

  I took a deep breath. I could do this.

  I gave myself a few moments to wallow before lifting my head and attempting to unravel the tangled web that was female thinking.

  “Why don’t you do Homecoming?” I asked figuring I’d cut to the chase. If she didn’t do Homecoming, there had to be a reason. If I knew the reason, maybe I could help her get over it or deal with it or whatever. And seriously, why had she volunteered for the committee if she didn’t do dances? Nothing about this whole day was making any sense.

  Apparently, asking why she didn’t do dances was the wrong thing to do because as soon as the words left my mouth, shy Tierney reappeared. And as much as I’d been hoping for shy Tierney just three minutes ago, now I was tempted to shave that damn curtain of hair she’d closed herself off with from her head.

  Which honestly, would be a travesty.

  I gripped my own hair with a groan. I didn’t have time for these kinds of games. “Look. I don’t know why you volunteered for this if you didn’t want to do it-”

  “I didn’t volunteer. I got steamrolled!” she shouted from behind her hair.

  I sighed. “It doesn’t matter. We have to do it. I need activities for college applications and you…must need this for something, so-.” I glanced at the time on my phone before standing and running my hands through my hair again. “I really have to go, so let’s plan to meet- when?”

  “Never,” she mumbled, her face in her arms on the desk.

  “Oh, good. I’m glad I got stuck working with a child,” I said even while acknowledging to myself that my response wasn’t much more mature than hers. I got a reaction, however, which I suppose was what I wanted in the first place.

  Tierney stood, glaring at me with eyes that would have slain me if they were weapons rather than a pair of really pretty eyes.

  “I didn’t ask for this!” She swept her arm between us.

  I held her gaze with a direct one of my own. “I. Don’t. Care. All I need to know is if you’re going to do it, because I have too much going on to take this on by myself. Are you going to help me or not?”

  Everything in the room stilled. All I could hear was the sound of both of our breathing until I was sure she was going to back out of everything and I’d have to tell Ms. Lowe we needed to find another co-chair.

  However, in keeping with the rest of this insane day, Tierney surprised me.

  “I’ll do it,” she said, although it looked like it caused her physical pain to utter the words.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Good.” I pointed at her. “But no more psycho Tierney. We don’t have time for that shit.”

  She was back to shooting daggers at me, but I didn’t care. I needed her to be all in and that was that.

  “I am not psycho.” She pronounced each word distinctly, her eyes narrow slits.

  I let mine drift heavenward while hiking my backpack further up on my shoulders. “The last fifteen minutes beg to differ.” I moved toward the door, calling over my shoulder as I left her sputtering. “Check your schedule. We can decide on a time to meet tomorrow in first period.”

  Outside, the hall was empty except for one lone figure leaning against the wall, lying in wait.

  Trina.

  Could this day get any worse?

  “I have practice.” I didn’t even stop, just kept walking. I knew it wouldn’t stop her and it didn’t. She fell into step beside me, her arm curling through mine. I’d spent countless hours making out with this girl, but right now her touch gave me the heebie jeebies.

  “Aw, come on, Noah. I just want to talk to you.” Her grip tightened when I tried to pull away.

  “We are done talking. We are done everything.” What was with this girl? And how had I not known about the crazy?

  She brushed off my words with a shake of her head. “Let’s talk about Homecoming. I already have my dress. It’s white. I think you should wear a classic black tux with no color accents. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re crazy if you think I’m taking you to the Homecoming dance.” I’d never physically hurt a girl, but getting Trina off my arm was happening. I pulled away again, this time more forcefully. I managed to get her to let go but not without four long scratches down my forearm from her nails. “Dammit, Trina!”

  She flinched even though I hadn’t raised anything more than my voice. I swore under my breath and headed for my car again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tierney exit the school. She walked with her head down, but I could tell she’d seen me with Trina. I clenched and unclenched my fists wishing for something to punch to unload my frustration.

  “Noah!” Trina wasn’t giving up.

  A quick glance at my arm showed two of the scratches were dripping with blood. I hurried my pace, reminding myself I wasn’t a violent person. I wasn’t scared of Trina as much as I was scared of what I was tempted to do to her if she didn’t leave me alone.

  Once I reached my car, I opened the door and shoved my backpack into the passenger seat, sliding into the driver’s seat right behind it. I slammed the door closed almost in Trina’s face, immediately locking the doors and starting the engine. I drove away with screeching tires.

  A look in my rearview mirror showed Trina still calling after me her hands waving in the air. I shook my head, a hysterical laugh bursting out.

  Crazy. Town.

  League ball was what we did when it wasn’t summer or the regular basketball season, which meant we played in the fall and spring. After a long-ass first day of school, dealing with Tierney and Trina afterwards? Let me just say, I was ready to play some ball.

  “Look who it is, boys! Mr. Perfect,” Jared Castle, a junior who played forward, called over the noise of dribbling basketballs and squeaking sneakers.

  “Shut up, Castle,” I scowled catching the ball he passed to me.

  “Rough day, Noah?” Mateo asked, jumping as he released a ball in a perfect arch that didn�
��t even touch the rim as it sailed through the net.

  We’d played ball all summer long, but this last week everyone had last minute family vacations or other obligations that made it difficult to get together on the court. This was just what I needed. My teammates. A basketball. And no distractions.

  “You could say that,” I replied, dribbling the ball to the goal for a lay-up.

  “Couldn’t be any worse than mine, man. Suck it up.” Luke Hines used his body to nudge me out of the way so he could steal my rebound.

  I frowned. “Why? What happened?” I hadn’t heard anything, but that didn’t mean squat. As a senior, I didn’t see much of Luke and the other juniors.

  I guarded Luke as he dribbled toward the basket.

  “Didn’t you see our parking spot?” Luke asked, his face a mask of anger and frustration.

  “No, man. Why?” I paused and Luke held the ball against his side. The other guys stopped, too.

  Luke glanced at Jared, his best friend.

  Jared picked up the cue and started talking. “Somebody vandalized Luke and Piper’s parking spot.” Jared shook his head. “You know, the same old shit.”

  I did know. Piper was tall, really tall and she’d been the butt of many a bully’s joke since we were little kids. Luke took a lot of flack as well because she was his sister and almost as tall as him. We were all quick to come to her defense, their defense, but it was impossible to be there for everything.

  “Let me guess, Jack and his buddies?” Jack Fawcett was the resident asshole at our school and never passed up an opportunity to make Piper feel small.

  Luke nodded. “You got it the first time.” His jaw clenched before he went on. “He started in on her at lunch, too. Calling her names and just being his usual jerk self.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t get it. Sure, Piper was tall, but she was also one of the best basketball players at our school, hell, the state. Male or female. Plus, she was beautiful and sweet and one of my best friends if truth be told. It made me spitting mad to think of Jack and his friends hurting her every chance they got. I wanted to pound his face.