Candid (True Images Series) (12 page)

We had a small house, but I didn’t think we’d be too crowded with six people. Then, thinking of our living room, I had a sickening thought. The chances of our living room being clean enough for company were practically non-existent. I hoped I’d have time to clean it up before anybody got there.

Thirty minutes later, at 6:45, I turned onto our street with three pizza boxes heating up the threadbare seats of my
rustmobile
. The first thing I saw as I got to our house was Lee’s truck pulled up to the curb. Great, the one person I would have liked to be late was 15 minutes early.

I pulled into the driveway next to my mom’s car and went around
to get
the pizza. As I lifted them off the seat, Lee was already beside me, ready to take them. I handed them over and said, “Hey there.”

“Hey. I hope you don’t mind that I’m early. I wanted to get some time alone with you.” Then, glancing at my mom’s car, he said, “Well, sort of alone.”

I was extremely frustrated at what his first impression of my house would be, but I couldn’t help the flutter in heart. I had to admit, being alone with him sounded good.

Since he seemed to have the pizza ok, I grabbed my backpack and led the way. He followed me up the steps to the porch and waited as I opened the door.

“Well, come on in, but don’t mind the mess. Give me a minute to pick up the…” The words died on my lips. Coming through the front door, I was amazed at what I didn’t see.

I
didn’t
see laundry piled on the couch, shoes scattered around the door, half-finished canvases leaning against every wall, or paint clouded mason jars holding brushes in the window sills. What I
did
see was my mom winding up the cord of the vacuum cleaner in an immaculate living room. It actually looked really awesome and right then I loved her terribly.

“Oh, you brought pizza home, huh? I was going to make spaghetti, but I guess you’ve got it covered. If you want, I’ll go ahead and make some cookies though.”

I was still so overwhelmed right then that I couldn’t process her question until Lee spoke up behind me.

“Well, I would love some, Ms. Whitfield.”

“I’ll get to it then. Sienna, why don’t you let Lee come inside? You’ve got him trapped in the doorway.”

Realizing she was right, I hurried to move out of the way. While I went to go put my backpack in my room, my mom directed Lee to put the pizzas down on the kitchen counter. When I came back into the living room, Lee was studying a painting my mom had done of me a few years ago.

Our house had an open floor plan, so I could see my mom gathering ingredients for her cookies only a few feet away. She would be listening to every word we said, and it made me feel kind of awkward.

“So, who did you invite over?” I asked Lee, trying to sound casual.

“Will is coming later. He gets off work at 7:00 so he’ll be a little late.”

I pretended to be disappointed “Oh. Not Michael Fine?”

Lee’s smile was lopsided as he shook his head. He glanced over at my mom like he was also trying to judge what he could say in front of her. “He’s the last person I’d bring over here.”

“Too bad,” I teased. Turning towards the kitchen I asked, “Hey, Mom, would you mind if we went out on the porch to wait for the others to get here? They should be here anytime.”

She hesitated, clearly trying to determine the dangers posed by her daughter sitting on the porch alone with a
boy
. A little to my surprise, she nodded her head a fraction, just enough for me to see. I didn’t wait for her to change her mind, but motioned for Lee to follow me.

As the screen door slammed behind us, I led the way to the porch swing. We sat in silence for a while as the swing slowly drifted back to stillness and twilight fell. The street lights had come on around my neighborhood, but we sat in shadows. The air was humid and sweet around us. I took deep breaths of it as I tried to relax- a pointless attempt considering that I was alone with Lee in near darkness.

“So, have you ever talked to your mom about whether she’s dating Mr. Greeley?”

“No. I keep hoping she’ll tell me on her own, but she hasn’t yet. ”

“Was she in there when you got called into the office today?”

“No, but the principal had already talked to her about it. I think Mr. Greeley was in there as both my teacher and my moral support.” 

“That would have been interesting to see how they acted around each other. What happened in there today anyway?”

“Basically, the school’s not going to let me put any photos that I take during school hours on my blog anymore. Brittany and Jordan have been complaining and they got their parents involved.”

“But how can they stop you?”

“Well, for one thing, they can take away my photography privileges at school if I don’t cooperate. I don’t want that, and neither does Mr. Greeley. Plus, since my mom’s a teacher, they can put some pressure on her to put her foot down. I thought I’d save her the embarrassment and just agree.”

“You don’t seem too upset about it.”

“I was at first, but I’m okay with it now. As Mr. Greeley said, there are plenty of other places to get my pictures. I’ll just have to be a little more social from now on.”

“That explains what we’re doing tonight.”

“Not really. I’m being social, but not for my photography. Tonight is just for fun.”

Lee put his arm up around the back of the swing as he turned to face me, which made the swing sway softly back and forth again. He leaned closer and said, “That’s good to know. So what do two friends do to have fun when they’re alone in the shadows?”

“Nothing, if they’re smart.”

“I don’t feel like being smart. I feel like seeing what it would be like to kiss you.”

It was hard to talk when you couldn’t breathe, but somehow I managed.
“Probably not much different than any other girl.”

“I doubt that, but why don’t we find out? You seem to like experiments.”

Strangely, my first thought was to wish I had my camera. He looked so heartbreakingly perfect right then. The shadows emphasized the depth of his dark eyes and the masculine lines of his faces. But no camera could have caught the way he seemed to consume the night with his presence. He was so tall and so close that he seemed to surround me as he leaned closer.

Time paused in expectation as his lips hovered so sweetly close to mine. I had a second to decide that I couldn’t let him kiss me, but it wasn’t long enough for me to pull away. His kiss barely brushed my mouth, though, before he drew back quickly. Caught somewhere between delight, guilt, and confusion, I looked around to see why Lee had sat up so quickly. That’s when I head a car door slam and saw Parker striding across the lawn towards us.

Oh shoot.

Parker stood silhouetted against the streetlight on the curb in the growing darkness. Every line of his body spoke anger, but he said nothing. He just stood on the steps like a threatening storm. I finally realized that his feelings for me were stronger than I’d ever guessed.

“Hey there, Parker.”
Why in the world did I sound guilty? I didn’t have to answer to him for anything.

My greeting seemed to untie the final knot in Parker’s restraint. “So let me get this straight. You can’t go to a movie with me, but it’s totally cool to sit out on your porch and make out with
him
.”

“Be quiet! What are you trying to do, bring my mom out here?”

“Oh, so she doesn’t know, huh? All this junk about you guys just being friends is only a cover, isn’t it? You’re such a
freakin
’ liar.”

Lee was on his feet then. His voice was quiet but angry. “Look man, I don’t know who the heck you are, but
don’t talk
to her like that.”

“You don’t know who I am? I’ve been friends with Sienna since the third grade. She’s known you for, what, a couple weeks? And suddenly she’s ready to change who she is and sneak around behind her mom’s back to be with you? Who the heck do
you
think you are?”

“Parker, don’t freak out,” I pleaded. “It was one little kiss. It’s not like we’ve been dating or anything.” I said in a desperate voice barely louder than a whisper.

The snorting sound Parker made was descriptive if not very attractive.
“Like you would have only kissed once if I hadn’t gotten here when I did.”

Troubled, I answered, “I don’t know what would have happened. But Parker, I swear I’m trying not to break my mom’s rules. I can’t help how I feel.”

“I don’t think he cares so much about whether you’re breaking your mom’s rules as that you aren’t breaking them with him,” Lee said. His words were brutally accurate and I flinched.

Parker didn’t hesitate to respond, “As you said, pretty boy, you don’t know me. Maybe I do have feelings for Sienna, but I would never do anything to hurt her. Messing up her relationship with her mom would kill her. Maybe you ought to consider that before you take this any further. You can have any girl in school. Why don’t you leave Sienna alone?”

I didn’t know Lee well enough to understand his temper, so I was relieved when Lee replied carefully, “Look, Sienna is the only girl I’m interested in, so you can forget that. I get that you guys are friends, though, and that you have a history with her that I don’t. But I respect her and I would never do anything to hurt her. You can trust me on that.”

Sincerity rang true in his voice, but all Parker said was, “I hope so, man.”

“All right.
Well, I’m going to go inside and let you apologize to Sienna for calling her a liar.”

I faced Parker, listening for the sound of the screen door slamming behind Lee to let me know when we were alone. He must have caught it though, because all I heard was the soft clack of the door against the frame.

A few seconds later, I almost laughed when the porch light came on. Apparently Lee didn’t want to leave me alone in the near darkness with another guy who had feelings for me. Then, I heard the distant but warm tones of his voice as he talked to my mom in the kitchen.

Parker didn’t seem to be in any hurry to say anything so I took the chance to study him closer than I ever had before. He wasn’t as tall or good looking as Lee, but he was attractive in a geeky sort of way. I cared about him because he had always been there for me and we’d spent a lot of time together. I don’t know why I didn’t feel anything romantic for him, but I didn’t. I knew I still wanted his friendship though.

“I’m sorry, Parker. I didn’t mean for all of this to happen.”

“Yeah, I know. I am sorry I called you a liar. I was just totally freaked out when I saw….”

As his voice trailed off, I tried to think of a way to cheer him up. “We’re still friends though, right?”

He sighed. “Of course we are.”

“Good. And anyway, look who’s here.”

He turned to look over his shoulder to where I was pointing. Marisol was pulling up in front of Lee’s truck. Her speakers blared until she turned off her car, then she and another girl named Alyssa emerged from the car. They were way cuter and more stylish than I would ever be and they walked with a feminine allure I could never achieve.

I looked at the expression on Parker’s face and knew that he was going to survive the evening ahead. Trying not to laugh, I said, “Hey, if you’re really nice to
Lee
the rest of the night, I won’t tell Alyssa you wore superhero pajamas until last year.”

“Whatever, I did not.”

“No, but I could still tell her that,” I teased.

Before the girls even got to the porch, another car pulled up and Will jumped out. He looked a little nervous for some reason, but his smile was friendly as I introduced him to Parker. He knew the girls a little from basketball, and I couldn’t help noticing the way his eyes slid so often towards Marisol. I led everyone inside and saw that Lee and my mom had been busy lining up the pizza boxes down the counter and opening them up. Plates and napkins stood ready, as well as a pitcher of lemonade. I didn’t realize until I saw it that I’d forgotten to get soda.

Soon we were all digging into the pizza. My mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies came out of the oven soon after and were an instant hit. Nobody wanted to wait to eat them for dessert. The food was gone quicker than I could have imagined with the three boys piling their plates high. I tried to calculate how many hours I’d worked to pay for the pizza we’d finished off in about thirty minutes, but finally decided not to worry about it. It was worth it to have Lee here.

My mom disappeared into the garage that we’d converted into her studio, letting me know with her eyes that she would be keeping tabs on us. Marisol turned on a popular radio station and moved the coffee table so she and Alyssa could dance. Parker surprised me by joining them. I’d never seen him dance before, but I had to admit that he was pretty awesome at it.

Marisol didn’t wait long before flirting with Will and trying to get him to dance. Finally, she was successful. They looked kind of funny together. I’d never seen a Hispanic girl dancing with a red head before, but their smiles were nearly identical.

Dancing was not something I did in public if I could help it, so I got busy cleaning up the dinner mess. I put our plates in the dishwasher, and Lee offered to take care of the empty pizza boxes. I told him where the recycling bin was and began cleaning up my mom’s cookie mess. She was a great cook, but like her art, she was better at creating than cleaning.

When Lee got back, he continued to help me clean up. The kitchen was small, so we kept bumping into each other, but that was half the fun. We finished long before the others got tired of dancing, especially since a ballad had come on and they’d all gotten tangled up with each other. I was about to sit at the counter and watch when Lee pulled on my arm and swung me around to face him. Soon, we were dancing too, if you can call it that. Mostly, it was just swaying around with our arms around each other.

For a few minutes I was caught up in the pleasure of being held in Lee’s strong arms, wrapped in his warmth and woodsy scent. I looked up at him, and when he felt me move my head from his shoulder he met my eyes questioningly.