Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards (15 page)

“Right. Everyone thinks I’m a slut, and now the only guys who’ll ever ask me out are ones with social diseases.” She turned to Josh. “You wouldn’t date a girl who had that type of reputation, but you’ll stand by and let Chad Warren give me one.” Josh switched through radio stations, punching the buttons with more force than the task needed. “This isn’t my fault, Elise. I didn’t date the guy.

I didn’t take you to parties and make you act like a complete fool.”

“Chad is spreading lies about me,” she said, “and you don’t care.”

“I do care,” Josh said. “That’s why I told you not to date the guy in the first place.” Neither one said anything after that.

Elise was right about the rumors not blowing over. In fact, if they’d been a weather front, I’d say they settled in and showered on her. By ten o’clock I’d heard three different, very creative accounts of Elise’s supposed encounters. I denied each story, whereupon the teller of the story would look at me smugly and murmur, “Oh Cassidy, you’re so naïve.”

At lunchtime, Elise ate at my table. The first thing she said to my friends was, “Just to dispel any rumors you may have heard, I want you to know I share more in common with the Virgin Mary than a two-syllable name.”

“And what would that be?” Caitlin asked. “Your Jewish ancestry?”

Elise opened her lunch sack stiffly. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” Faith said, “But Mary had an angel to vouch for her.”

Caitlin opened her milk carton and slid in a straw. “You’re not thinking of claiming an immaculate conception are you?”

“Forget it,” Elise said. “Forget the whole comparison. She bit into her sandwich and chewed angrily, then stared off across the cafeteria.

I kicked Caitlin under the table.

She spoke to Elise again, this time with more kindness. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t think most people hold it against you. I mean, who could resist Chad Warren?”

“I could,” Elise said. “Despite what everyone thinks, I’m not about to be somebody’s one-night stand. I have some self-respect.” She put down her sandwich and pushed herself away from the table. “This is amazing. No one believes me.” Elise stood up and stalked off toward the exit. I went after her. She was out of the cafeteria by the time I’d caught up to her. “Don’t leave,” I told her. “Faith and Caitlin didn’t mean to give you a bad time.”

“Yes, they did. They did it with glee.”

“Give them a chance. They’ll forget about it tomorrow.”

“No, they won’t. Your friends have hated me ever since I dated Chad.” She kept walking, heading toward the front door. I wondered if she planned on walking all the way home without her coat. I had a half an hour until my next class started. I kept pace beside her.

“They don’t hate you.”

“The worst part about it,” Elise went on, “is my friends aren’t any better. Do you know what Kaylee’s reaction to all this is? She thinks it’s funny.

Every time she sees me in the hallway she yells, ‘How was he?’” My other friends keep asking me for details about who else I was with, like my life is some sort of sordid soap opera. I’m never coming back to school. I hereby drop out.”

“You can’t do that, Elise. That’s letting Chad win.”

She flung open the front door and a gush of cold air hit us. She strode outside anyway. “I suppose you feel vindicated now. Josh and his high horse are both riding around on cloud nine. He keeps saying, ‘These are the consequences you get when you make bad choices.’ Well, it’s not my fault Chad turned out to be such a creep.”

“Which is why you can’t run away and let his side of the story stand.” Dirty bits of snow sat on the steps, tracked up from the parking lot. I avoided it as much as I could. “I’ll help you set people straight. After all, it could have been me this happened to. I wanted to date Chad too.” Elise stopped then; stopped and stared wearily off at the parking lot. “No one would have believed it about you,” she finally said. “Because you’re not the kind of girl who got kicked out of her last high school for vandalism, and who made out with Cole Rider in front of everybody, and who got wasted at parties. But me, well, I’ve set a really great precedence for myself.” She let out a long sigh and folded her arms for warmth. “I hate it when Josh is right.”

I gestured to the school. “You don’t really want to drop out. Let’s go back inside.” She glanced at the building but didn’t move. “If I stay, then anytime a guy asks me out I’ll wonder if he’s expecting something from me.”

“You’ll just have to make sure they know where you stand.”

“That will make for some interesting first date small talk: Would you please pass the butter, and by the way, I’m not a slut.” She put her hand over her eyes. “And to think I ever made fun of your date with Bob.”

I started to laugh, but she didn’t so I stopped quickly. I cleared my throat and pretended I had been doing that all along. “You’ll get through this.” She still didn’t move, didn’t head back toward the school.

I was beginning to shiver. “You’ve told me all along that I needed more carpe in my diem. And I think you’re right.” Elise raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“But seizing the moment isn’t about partying. It’s about recognizing the good things in your life and appreciating them. It’s about making your friends laugh when you can and crying with them when you can’t. If you need me to cry with you, I will. But don’t drop out of school. I need you around to help me laugh.”

She looked out across the parking lot, then back at the school doors. “You still need lots of loosening up.” I took a step toward the school. “Right. And besides, I need you in the car so I have an excuse to see Josh. He wouldn’t take me to school if you dropped out.”

She let out a grunt. “Yes, he would. He takes you home when I’m not around.”

A took another step toward the school, then another. “But it would be awkward.” Elise reluctantly followed me back to the stairs. “So are you saying you want to get back together with Josh?”

“Maybe. A little bit. Okay, yes. But don’t say anything to him about it.”

“Hmm.” Elise was silent for the rest of the way up the stairs, but she wore a thoughtful expression.

That expression worried me. We’d come to the school door. I opened it and stepped inside, letting the warmth engulf me. “Really, Elise. Don’t say anything to Josh.”

“I won’t,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t help things along.”

“The last time you tried to help along my love life, I wound up at the police station.”

“Details, details.”

We walked back to the cafeteria. I don’t know why I looked at the other side of the room. Perhaps it was my built-in, Josh-is-near radar working.

At any rate, I saw him. He, Troy and Jared, strode across the cafeteria. They stopped in front of Chad’s table.

I grabbed Elise’s arm. “Look!”

We walked to our table, watching as Josh talked to Chad. We couldn’t hear what was said, but it was easy to see from their facial expressions that neither was happy. Chad turned deeper and deeper shades of red. Josh leaned in towards him. The general level of noise in the cafeteria dropped as people noticed what was going on.

Finally, Josh and his friends walked away. When they were a safe distance removed, Chad, in a loud voice, called them members of the horse family.

Josh turned and called back, “You’re lucky you didn’t touch my sister, Warren, or it wouldn’t just be your football that gets kicked downfield.” The crowd hooted. Chad called a few more obscenities from his safe distance.

Josh shook his head and kept walking. He never saw Elise and me watching. He never looked at anyone in the crowd.

“Wow,” Caitlin said.

Faith followed Josh with her eyes. “I second that.”

Elise smiled broadly and picked up her sandwich. “I have the best brother ever.” I kept my gaze on Josh’s retreating back and on his broad shoulders and his wavy black hair. “Yes, you do.” Elise nibbled at her sandwich happily. “He almost makes up for the rest of the Benson crew.” I had been over to her house enough times to know her brothers and sisters. “Actually, the rest of the Benson crew is pretty great too.”

“Naw,” Elise said. “They’re hopeless. But maybe the new baby will have some redeeming qualities. It could be another little Elise or Josh.” I ate my lunch, every once in awhile glancing over to where Josh had been.

Elise sent me a sly smile. “I’ll think of a way to help you. Something really subtle.” I shook my head at her. Elise could be many things, but subtle wasn’t one of them.

* * *

He was sitting in his car reading a physics assignment, but he looked up when I got close. “Where’s Elise?”

“I don’t know.” Plotting someplace probably. I turned and scanned the parking lot. Maybe she was waiting somewhere until she was sure I sat down in the car next to Josh.

Josh let out a sigh. “She didn’t ditch school, did she?”

“I doubt it.” I got into the front seat. No sense in letting Elise’s plotting go to waste. “She’s been in a good mood since lunch when you threatened to treat Chad like a football.”

Josh flipped his physics book shut. “I couldn’t help myself. The guy seriously ticks me off.”

“He deserved it,” I agreed. “And Elise thinks you’re the greatest brother alive now.”

“That’s a step up. I’ve been a mega pork ever since I broke your heart.”

We saw Elise then, hurrying across the parking lot to the car. When she reached us, she was out of breath but smiling. “Hey, thanks for defending my honor at lunch, you big brute.”

“You’re welcome,” Josh said. “But that’s not a habit I want to form, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She opened the back door and tossed her backpack onto the seat.

“Where have you been?” Josh asked.

“I was talking to Bob.” She sat down with a bounce and scooted her backpack over. “He says I can rejoin chess club. He even said he’d show me some of his grandmaster moves.”

As Josh started the car, I turned in my seat to talk to Elise. “Bob offered to show you his moves?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Elise said. “And besides, you said he fair game.”

“Uh huh. Watch out for Bob’s putting-his-arm-around-you move. That one nearly broke my nose.” Elise’s expression clouded. She clicked on her seatbelt with slow deliberateness. “Wait, you don’t think Bob is being nice to me because he thinks I’m easy, do you?”

I shook my head. “He’s not that type. We went out on two dates and he never even tried to kiss me.” Elise relaxed. Josh raised an eyebrow at me.

“And Bob is a gentleman,” I added. “He always held open doors for me.”

“Ah,” she said, “That’s so sweet.”

“Ah,” Josh said tapping his thumb against the steering wheel. “I’m stuck in the car with Bob’s fan club.” Elise smacked his shoulder. “I thought you liked Bob.”

“I do,” Josh said. “He’d be good for you. You should date him.” Then Josh glanced at me, probably to see if I was upset by the idea of Elise taking a second guy from me.

“You should,” I told Elise.

Josh smiled. I saw it even though he’d turned and was keeping his eyes on the road. I just wasn’t sure what it meant.

* * *

“Now aren’t you glad you moved to Pull man,” I said, “instead of wherever the Sonoran Desert is?”

“Arizona,” Josh said.

Maybe I am a geek at heart. I found it incredibly attractive that Josh was smart enough to know where the Sonoran Desert was.

Bob texted Elise back, and she read his message and squealed. “Gross. There’s a kind of wasp that paralyzes spiders, then lays their eggs inside the spiders so that when the babies hatch they have something to eat.” Josh shook his head. “You’re undoing all of my work with Bob, Elise. Now he’s going to think girls like hearing this sort of stuff.”

“Elise,” I said firmly, “for the sake of womankind you have to put a stop to this right now.” I held out my hand to her. “Give me the phone.” She didn’t. And she did the same thing every day that week. She also came late to the car after school, which I never complained about because it gave me time to sit and talk to Josh. He didn’t complain either. I wasn’t sure whether that was because he liked talking to me, or whether he was just glad Elise was interested in a guy who wasn’t likely to be arrested in the near future.

Elise told me she liked Bob because he was the polar opposite of Chad, but I knew there was more to it than that. She was reverting back to her original persona. A smart girl. A fun girl, but a smart girl too.

The next Monday after school, Elise came to the parking lot on time and asked Josh to drive her to Bob’s house before we went home. “I’m asking him to the Tolo, so I need to put stuff in his room before he gets home.” She held up a bag full of plastic ants. “I’m going to spell it out on his carpet. Perfect, huh?”

Josh started the car and drove through the parking lot. “Does anyone know you’re coming?”

“His sister left the door unlocked for me.” Elise leaned forward to see the clock. “I asked one of Bob’s friends to delay him at school, but I probably only have fifteen minutes max.” She jiggled her bag. “I hope I have enough ants.” More jiggling. “That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.” A few minutes later we pulled up to Bob’s house. A snowman with an Einstein hairdo sat in the middle of the lawn. Classic Bob.

Elise opened her door. “You two wait here. I don’t need your help.” She sent us one of her wicked smiles. “Find something fun to do while I’m gone.”

So subtle.

After she went inside, Josh turned in his seat to survey me. It suddenly felt different than the other times we’d been alone in the car. He wasn’t busy driving. We weren’t scanning the parking lot waiting for Elise to show up. I didn’t know what to say. The only sound in the car was the low hum of the heater.

Josh was still studying me. “You’re not mad at Elise for going after Bob, are you?”

“No. He’s just a friend.”

“Oh.” Josh nodded, considering this. “Is there anyone you like more than a friend?” My gaze went to Josh’s. Why was he asking? Was he just making small talk or did he have a personal interest in the subject?

He was looking at me intently, his blue eyes locked on mine.

I shrugged. “There might be.”

“Anyone I know?”

“Maybe. You know a lot of people.”

Josh put his arm on the back of his seat, his fingers nearly brushing against my shoulder. “What’s he like, this guy?” Normally I wouldn’t have admitted to anything, but I was tired of all my moments with Josh being ordinary, safe. This was one I was going to seize. “He’s the usual sort of guy that girls get crushes on. Smart. Funny. Really responsible.”