Boy Swap (15 page)

There. I did it. I want to put my hands over my eyes and hide but I can’t tear my eyes away from his. I can’t tell what he’s thinking as he digests everything I just spewed at him. Well, he didn’t run away from the table screaming so we have a good start here.

“Brooke,” he begins.

Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound like a lead-up to a, “yeah sure.”

“I like talking and spending time with you too. It’s been cool getting to know you this past week. But…”

There it is. The “but.” The part where the guy tells the girl to hit the road. “I know, I know, ‘you’re just not that into me,’ right?” I say, quoting the
Sex in the City
writer guy who made that line famous.

“That’s not what I was going to say,” he says. “You’re really smart, and funny, and beautiful…”

I can feel my cheeks redden. He thinks I’m beautiful.

“And I totally would be into you,” he pauses briefly, “if I wasn’t into somebody else.”

Ouch. There it is. “Cassie?” I ask, like I’m not already completely aware that he’s been dating her for a million and a half years.

He nods. “We’ve been together for a long time and I just wouldn’t feel right cheating on her.”

Ack! The irony is too much.
He
wouldn’t feel right cheating on
her
. She probably hasn’t been faithful to him for more than two minutes of their entire relationship but he’s staying faithful to her.

We’re both silent for a moment until I can finally speak. “I understand. You’re a good guy, Carter.”

He shrugs. He doesn’t look too happy about being a good guy at the moment.

“Well, I had to give it a try, huh?” I say, trying to laugh it off. I gather up my stuff, like I suddenly have somewhere I need to be. I stand up and Carter grabs my hand. My skin instantly tingles from his touch. How does he not feel the tingles too? I feel my face growing redder and I look toward the door to avoid looking at him.

“Hey,” he says softly. “Can we still be friends?” He rubs his thumb gently across my fingers.

Not the “Can we be friends?” thing. In other words, can we pretend that we will be friends but really never talk again and just be awkward around each other?

“Sure,” I say. “Why not?” I reluctantly take my hand back and walk out of the café and down the sidewalk that winds around the building. I’m not sure why but I peek into the café window and see Carter still sitting at the table, leaning on his palms.

*      *      *

“Where’s the coffee?” Lizzie asks, sitting up on the bed when I walk into my room.

Ah shoot. I forgot to bring back lattes. “I was thinking Oreo cookies and cookie dough ice cream sounded better for breakfast. What do you think?”

“Yum,” she says, actually looking happy for the first time in three days.

“Be right back,” I say.

Lizzie leans back onto my pillows and clicks on the TV to Saturday morning cartoons. As I’m backing out the door, she looks up at me again and gives a half smile. “Brooke, it’ll be all right. We still have each other.”

I nod and leave the room. I know she thinks I’m still upset about Chris and I’m going to let her go ahead and think that. It’s not like I can tell her what just happened anyway. I’m not even sure what I’m so upset about. Is it that I couldn’t get a swap and get back at Cassie? Is it because Delaney’s right and I’m too big of a loser to hang with the popular crowd? Is it because I really, truly have feelings for Carter? Or, all of the above?

I grab a breakfast tray and start piling on our super sugary/fatty breakfast. I’m about to head back to my bedroom when I realize we have nothing to wash all of this down with. What the heck? I grab two glasses from the cupboard and some chocolate syrup from the fridge. Chocolate milk is definitely the right beverage for this breakfast.

*      *      *

It’s Sunday morning and I’m still in a funk. Lizzie had to go home early yesterday afternoon for an actual, real dentist appointment. We didn’t meet back up to do anything Saturday night. Chris never bothered to call. Probably off with Cassie somewhere. And Carter would have no reason to call since he rejected me. For the first time in a long time, I spent Saturday night home alone with my parents. We were sitting on the couch, watching terribly sappy romance movies. Well, Mom and I were. Dad fell asleep pretty quickly into the first one. At one point, I scrolled through the guide and saw the pay-per-view WWF Saturday Showdown and my heart ached. I almost clicked on it just to feel closer to Carter for a few minutes. I’m such a loser. Everything has gone so wrong.

I’ve had a lot of down time in the last half day. A lot of time to really think about everything that has been going on lately. And I’ve decided that this whole Boy Swap Club was one huge, gigantic mistake. Sure, it pissed off Delaney that I was in her world for a while. But even that enjoyment was short-lived. I mean, what did it really do for me? Yeah, it did boost my popularity. But it isn’t like I was boosted up to prom queen or anything. It was just a one-level, maybe two-level boost. Missy and I did get close because of the BSC. But that could have developed on its own, too. Maybe. And the scarf. I pick up the pale pink scarf off my nightstand and pull it through my fingers. It’s a nice scarf. But it isn’t as important to me as it once was. I mean, I don’t feel like I need it any more. I can always buy a different scarf if I really want a scarf. In fact, I’m getting sick of having to wear it all the time and trying to figure out new ways of incorporating it into my outfit. I throw it back on my nightstand.

I’d have to say that BSC hurt me more than it helped me. It basically broke my heart. Twice. It took Chris, whom I loved (and still do maybe just a teeny tiny bit), away from me. And it took away Carter, whom I could have loved.

I’m so done with the Boy Swap Club. It’s time to let Cassie know. I walk over to my computer and launch my e-mail program.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Re: BSC

Dear Cassie,

I am turning in my notice. I no longer wish to participate in the BSC. Please let me know how you’d like me to return the scarf.

Sincerely,

Brooke

I hit Send. There. It’s done. Things can’t go back to the way they were, obviously. Nor do I want them to. But at least I no longer have to pretend that I’m still dating Chris. I’ll talk to him at school tomorrow and let him know that it’s over between us. I’ll be single again and maybe less popular, but I don’t care. My old friends are great. My old life was great.

I get up to stretch my legs. There are some old slices of apples that I had forgotten about on my desk and I slip them into the bird cage for Baby. “It’ll all be over soon, Baby. I’m getting myself out of this mess.”

Baby looks completely annoyed and grumpy. She’s looked like this a lot lately. I think she’s had it with her Chris, too.

I look at Chris Jr. and an idea hits me. “Hey guess what Chris Jr.? It’s moving day! This is your official thirty-second eviction notice. Sorry I didn’t have time to type something up.” I walk over to my window and push it open; I’m immediately hit with the cold air. I quickly retrieve Chris Jr. from the cage. “No time for long goodbyes to Baby, buddy,” I whisper, and I toss him out the window. There. That’s one Chris out of my life. One more to go.

A smile spreads across my face. That felt really good. And I’m sure Chris Jr. will be just fine. He’ll fly south to Florida for the winter and hook up with some chicks.

I return to my desk to log off from my funmail account when I notice there is a reply e-mail from Cassie already. She must be online right now. Sigh. I double-click on the e-mail and read.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Re: Re: BSC

Sorry Sweetie, but you signed a contract stating your willing participation for “no less than three months.” You’ll have to wait until then to quit. Try to enjoy it. And don’t be so quick to swap again (I’m guessing that is what this e-mail is
really
about). It takes skill, hon’. Observe and learn. And next time, shoot for a guy more at…um…your level.

Laters,

Cassie

What an evil witch! She can’t be serious. Can she? No freaking way. She can’t force me to stay in this stupid club. Or maybe she can. I can’t exactly remember what it is that I signed. And they wouldn’t give us a copy of the contract either. Oh this sucks. I can’t even recall the ramifications if the contract is broke. Do I need to get a lawyer? My mom would freak. Ack! What do I do? Am I totally stuck in BSC?

Chapter 24: Bloomer Tumor

I can’t believe we have this stupid band/flags/dance early practice this morning—especially considering I got almost no sleep last night. I was up way late thinking about what to do about the BSC, Cassie, Chris…ugh. I’m in a really, really sucky situation. I don’t see how I can get out of this contract. I thought about telling Cassie to flip off and refusing to participate. But I don’t know what her friends would do. What if it’s something really horrible? I think I have to ride out the two months, which I don’t know if I’ll survive. Two more months of having to “date” Chris and close my eyes to him dating Cassie. I mean come on—this is cruel!

I’m sitting on the bleachers, waiting for the practice to start. Lizzie isn’t here yet. And Chris is across the gym setting up his drum set. I cover my mouth to yawn and Chris waves to me. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I give him a small wave and then turn away. Man, he irritates me now. He showed up at my house at 6:30 this morning to drive me to practice. I told him my mom would take me but he said there was no need and he hadn’t seen me all weekend and missed me. Yeah, right. I’m so sure that the entire time his tongue was down Cassie’s throat, he was thinking of me. Jerk.

Emma is sitting next to me on the bleachers assembling her flute and I spot her sheet music. “Ah crap. I left my music in Chris’s car.”

“You still have some time before practice. Run and get it.”

“You’re right.” I walk over to Chris, who is talking with some of the other guys in the percussion section. “Hey,” I interrupt.

“Yeah, Babe?”

Blech. Babe. “I think I threw my music in your trunk when I got in this morning. Can I have your keys?”

“Sure, Babe.” He fishes his keys out of his pocket and drops them in my hand.

“Thanks,” I say half-heartedly and roll my eyes as I walk toward the gym doors. I pass Cassie on the way, warming up with the rest of the dance squad. She gives me a cheery wave and I glare. I hate her. Delaney is staring at me blankly. When I catch her eye, she quickly fixes her gaze on some fascinating thing on the ground. At least things are back to normal with her.

I pop open the trunk of Chris’s rusty little Ford Focus and root around, searching for my music. It should be somewhere near the top—I didn’t throw it that hard. Ew, he’s got lots of dirty clothes back here and old take-out containers. I rifle around some more. Yuck! A melted popsicle still in the wrapper. I never realized what a slob Chris is. I push aside his extra jacket and see something barely sticking out of the right pocket—something dark and shiny that doesn’t look like it would belong to him. Huh. I grab it between my thumb and index finger and slowly pull out small, black…bloomers? Not quite panties. Definitely more like the kind a thing a cheerleader would wear. Or…someone on the dance squad. I peer closer at the bloomers and flip them around. There is a big gold star on the right butt cheek. Where have I seen this before?

Oh, hell no!

These are Cassie’s bloomers! The gold star means dance squad captain! Well that is IT. Cassie violated rule number three of BSC, “Don’t go all the way with any of the swapped guys,” and I can’t even quit the stupid club when I want to? No freaking way. I am so going back in that gym and kicking some bloomers-missing ass.

I stomp into the school, pumping my fists, in preparation for the blond hair that I will momentarily be pulling out of Cassie’s head in chunks. I have tunnel vision for the gym door and I don’t even hear Carter calling my name until he’s right in front of me.

“Brooke, what’s wrong? You look like you’re going to explode,” he says.

I look at Carter and look at the gym door. And before I take another step, I do burst. Everything comes flying out of my mouth.

“It’s that horrible Cassie!” I scream at him, louder than I intend to. After all, none of this is his fault. “I know you think she’s
so perfect
and you’re
so faithful
to her but she’s been cheating on you with my supposed boyfriend Chris for a while now. Hell, she’s cheated on you with everyone’s boyfriends. She set up this scam club and lured all of us into it just so she can date our boyfriends and we can’t say boo about it. She’s not just a member, she’s the flippin’ president. It’s called the Boy Swap Club. Ask her about it. Go ahead. She’s making my life miserable! She got me to sign this contract, which I never even got to read I might add, giving her full access to Chris and she won’t let me out of it. She’s got everyone loaning out their boyfriends, mostly to her, like some crazy undercover library! And, now I find out she even slept with Chris! Look!” I shove Cassie’s bloomers at him.

Carter turns the bloomers over in his hands, examining them. He sees the gold star and I see his jaw tighten. He balls up his fists and looks at the gym door. I swear if you really could see steam coming from someone’s ears like in the cartoons, he’d totally have it pouring out right now.