Double Threat My Bleep (9 page)

“Yeah, nice to meet you. Mr. Marino, we were hoping to get a picture with our favorite history teacher. Would you mind?” Keesh holds out her camera to this Playboy centerfold teacher.

“Sure, no prob.” A grin spreads across Ms. McGallian’s face and I know
she
knows what Keesh is up to.

“Oh my gosh, can anyone bring an ugly date for crying out loud. First, we get
Leeeeecha
, and then Mrs. Mc-what’s-her-name. C’mon now. Where do they find these chicks?” I whine, stomping back to our table.

“I know, right,” Keesh says.

Steph is less impressed or bothered by these uber-good-looking girls. “Agh…who cares?”

That’s all she can say. Who cares? I feel like I’m on an episode of The Hills and I’m the ugly friend they just bring along to make themselves feel better.

“Excuse me? Who cares? That’s my future husband right there.” Keesh can’t even keep a straight face. She starts busting up laughing, and we can’t help but laugh too.

“What’s so funny, babe?” Jonathan asks.

Keesh smashes lips with his. “Oh, I was just planning my wedding to Mr. Marino.”

“You know that’s only gonna be funny for like one more time maybe…and then after that…I’m gonna start getting pissed,” Jonathan remarks, looking down at her with pouty eyes. Poor thing.

Keesh playfully slaps him on the cheek. “You’re too cute Jon Jon…too cute.”

I chuckle, thinking about the way she handles him. I don’t think I
handle
Alex. Not right now at least.

“You wanna dance, Megster?” Josh asks. Now Joshie is what you’d call “too cute”. His big green eyes smile at me. He’s not like the other guys. He still seems like such a little boy at heart. I doubt Erica thinks that way about him. She’s probably introduced him into manhood. Josh sticks out an elbow for me to latch on to.

I take his arm. “Sure, let’s shake our bon bons.”

“What a nerd.”

“Thanks.”

Keesh and Jon follow us out to the dance floor to meet Dom, Steph, Travis, and Alisha. This should be interesting.

Josh cracks me up with his version of the stanky leg. This gets the other guys going. Dom looks so goofy with his big legs wagging back and forth. And Travis…he looks pretty dang good. He can dance, and a guy who can dance is pretty hot in my book.

A vision of Alex with his arms folded and eyebrow raised pops in my mind like a flash of lightening. I feel like he can hear my thoughts and see my actions from hundreds of miles away. Seriously, I haven’t done anything for him to be angry about. He doesn’t need to spy on me. Okay, so I was thinking Travis looks hot, but I’m sure Alex is checking out chicks in Berkeley. Just because I think someone is cute it doesn’t mean I want to hook up with him.

Unfortunately, I can’t get these thoughts out of my head. My freaky dancing turns into hands at my sides and bobbing from side to side. No frills, no booty shaking, not even any one-leg ups. Just some casual grooving to make my boyfriend proud.

Homecoming was hardly any fun. I’m not so sure I should’ve even gone. At first, it seemed to be a good idea. Joshie and I would go together and have a good time without Alex and Erica. But then, it turned out to be an evening of over analyzing every move I made, wondering if Alex would approve.

When did my relationship with him come to this?

Chapter Twelve

Just
a few more classes to go and then Thanksgiving break. My dad was just complaining last night about the length of our vacation. He said back in the day he only had two days off. He thinks schools are getting weak with these long breaks. I salute whoever decided to give us a whole five days. That’s just more time I can spend with Alex.

Mr. Marino is going on about someone who started a war or something. Give me a break, dude. None of us are listening. In less than an hour, we’re going to be out of here for an entire week. We’re not supposed to be learning anything right now. We’re supposed to be having a party and watching a movie. Instead this geek, however hot and sexy he may be, is trying to get us to do work. I don’t know if his deliciousness can possibly outweigh his need to debate every issue to its death.

Finally, he takes a breather. I have no idea what we’re supposed to do, but everyone is taking out paper. What am I supposed to be writing?

“What are we doing?” I ask Keesh.

“Hello. Nothing yet. He just said to take out a sheet of paper.” She glares at me annoyed. She is so serious in this class. Her focus is on Mr. Marino, and his ass, from the time she walks in the door. She’s going to get a freakin’ A in this class because of it. I wish he had that effect on me. LOL.

I follow my classmates and pull a piece of paper out of my binder. Like a robot, I begin jotting down my name, date, and period in the upper right hand corner.

“I’ve written your assignment on the board. Now, I’d like for you to choose a partner to work with. You will use the rest of the period to brainstorm ideas. A rough draft will be due upon your return. But there’s a catch….” He points to his fish. What a dork. “You cannot choose someone who sits next to you, in front of you, or in back of you. Now let’s get moving.”

What? He’s bunk. That means I can’t work with Keesh.

“Meg. Meggie…be my partner.” Travis is signaling for me to come over. Whatever.

I sit in the chair in front of Travis and turn around so we can brainstorm. I haven’t even looked at the prompt, so I turn back to the board—something about Michelangelo’s hands or da Vinci’s paint brush.

“What up? I haven’t talked to you since the dance,” Travis says.

“Has it been that long?” I shrug him off. But I know it’s been awhile. I’ve just been avoiding any kind of male contact so I don’t have any wandering thoughts about the cute boys around me. I’m totally missing face time with my boyfriend. Now I feel like whenever I see a guy I just want to hug him or hold his hand. I need that connection so bad right now—I want to be held. Omigod…I feel like a sappy romance novel.

“Yeah, you haven’t been around much.” He puts his hand on my arm and I jerk it back.

“Wow, I’m surprised you noticed. How’s Leeeeecha?” I sneer, dragging along her name to be—honestly, just to be rude.

“Whoa…is Meggie jealous?” He sticks his face really close to mine, smiling like a kid who just got a puppy for Christmas.

“Huh? Wha? No. Why would I be jealous?” I sound so stupid.

“Maybe you like me after all.” He backs away, fluttering his brows up and down.

“Well, obviously I’m not worth the wait…
after all
.”

“So you wanted me to wait?” Is that a question?

“No, what are you talking about? I never said that.” He’s totally twisting my words.

“I think I’d rather be da Vinci,” Travis says loudly. Mr. Marino strolls down our aisle. I look up at him and smile. He nods and keeps going.

“Yeah, I agree.”

When Mr. Marino is out of listening range, Travis gets right back in to it. “So you do agree. You wanted me to wait. You do like me. You’re jealous of Alisha. You wanted me to take
you
to Homecoming.”

“Wow, you got all of that out of me saying I agree. I was talking about da Vinci dumb ass,” I yell, but in a whisper.

The bell rings, I go back to my seat, grab my bag, and walk out of the class without saying one more word to Travis. How can one person be so gosh darn irritating.

Bad news. I’ve been so happy we have a week off that I never considered Alex wouldn’t be coming home this weekend because he doesn’t get a whole week. He won’t be home until Wednesday. How lame is that. What am I going to do until then?

“I’m flying back right after my last class. I should be home by two. My mom wants to take me to lunch, and then I’m all yours,” Alex explains.

“That sounds perfect. I can’t wait.” I’m gushing. “I want you to spend time with your parents too, but I wouldn’t mind if you spent the whole weekend here.”

“Yes, you would. You’ve got some killer shopping to do on Friday.”

“Oh, that. I told my mom I don’t want to be gone all day and night. So we’re just going to go for the morning. We’ll be back by the afternoon.”

“Awww, Meg, you don’t have to do that. I know how much you two love store hopping and fighting with the crowds. We have five days. Don’t change your plans for me.”

“Don’t be dumb, Alex. I can shop anytime. I’m not gonna waste a minute of those five days.”

“I miss you,” he says, quietly.

I smile. “I miss you too.”

Four days till Alex gets here. Four days of waiting. Four days of impatience. I may not have any hair by the time he gets here. Every time I run my fingers through my locks I yank out a million strands. So I’m exaggerating, but really…I’m going to die of boredom till I see him on my doorstep.

My cell beeps with a text.

wat r u doin?

It’s Keesha. She knows what I’m doing.

NOTHING. Y?

I wait for a text back. I hope she has something good planned. I’m ready to get out of the house. We didn’t go out after school yesterday so I’m itching to bust out of here.

we gna pik u up. Goin 2 da park :)

The park. Cool. It’s nice outside. I’m already excited about goofing around on the swings.

k. wat time?

b thr in 15 min

Just enough time for me to make up a story about where we’re going and brush my teeth. My parents don’t like us hanging out at the park at night. They’d much rather us hang here. They get all nervous if we’re not kickin’ it at someone’s house. I see their point. If we’re here, they know I’m not going to get in trouble. If we go hang at the park, a lot of stuff could happen. We could get arrested for loitering, for underage drinking, for disturbing the peace. But really—do they have to worry? Would I seriously do any of that? Well…not intentionally. Or I mean, we won’t get caught.

“We haven’t done this in such a long time,” Steph yells, and Keesh and I respond with a, “Woooooohoooo.”

It’s true. I can’t remember the last time we all went to the park after hours. Since my parents got the fire pit, and the projector, we’ve mostly been hanging out at my place.

We spill out of Dom’s van and skip to the play ground. Yes. We actually skip. Well, the girls do. The guys follow us in slo-mo. I swear there’s never a sense of urgency with boys. Unless they are trying to get in your pants. Otherwise, they mosey along like eighty year old men with walkers.

“Let’s see who can jump the highest,” I tell my girls.

“You know you can’t beat me,” Keesh says.

“Uh…I’m out. I’m not about to fall on my big ass again.” Steph sits in the swing and just sways forward and back. We all start to giggle. The last time we had a jumping contest, Steph was airborne for just a sec before she splashed down flat on her butt. She couldn’t even move for a while. We all thought she broke her ass bone. Once we knew she was okay, we couldn’t stop laughing.

I watch her in the swing, and can’t help but chuckle some more. “Okay, you just work that thing at that pace. Don’t even try to go any higher.” I leap into my swing and start pumping my legs like my life depends on it. Keesh starts doing the same.

“Dom,” Keesh yells, “You tell us who gets higher.”

When we get in sync, I begin, “One, two, three.” We are both in the air, and I land smack into Josh, and we both crash to the ground. Keesh lands like a friggin’ gymnast. If I could, I’d throw up a card with a 10.

“You okay?” Josh asks.

I stand up and dust off my jeans. “Yeah. You?”

He sits up and opens his back pack. “I will be.” Holy. Omigod. Josh has got a freakin’ bar in his backpack. What’s up with that?

“Dang, I didn’t know it was gonna be one of those kinda parties,” I tell him. I sit down next to him and get ready for a drink. Dom and Steph are smooching on the swings. Keesh and Jon are debating on who is going to go down the slide first. They kill me. Everything has to be a struggle with them. Josh hands me a cup. “So what’s the occasion?”

“Erica broke up with me,” Josh says. He opens a bottle of tequila and takes a swig. “Want some?”

“Sure, it’s no fun drinking by yourself…I don’t want anyone to think you’re an alcoholic.” He splashes a shot in my cup. “So what happened? I thought everything was going good.”

“Soooo did I.” He tosses back another gulp. I try not to inhale as I drink my shot. Ewww. I shiver. This stuff is nasty. Heat immediately makes its way from my throat all the way down to my belly.

“Well, what’d she say?”

“She’s tired of going out with a kid.” He tears handfuls of grass from the ground and tosses them back.

“You’re not a kid. She’s not that much older.”

“I know. I’m sixteen. She’s only eighteen,” he says, continuing to mow the grass with his bare hands.

“What? You’re sixteen already?” I didn’t know he was that old. Some of us just turned fifteen.

“Yeah, last week was my birthday.”

“Why didn’t you tell us? We could’ve had a party.”

“Erica wanted to go on a date…just the two of us.”

Bitch. First, she keeps Josh from us on his birthday, and now she breaks up with him. He holds out the bottle to me. Why not…just one more. Josh fills my cup a bit, and I down it quickly before I can change my mind.

I exhale forcefully, like I can spit fire. If I had a lighter, I probably could. “Okay, so what did she say? Why did she want to break up?”

“She’s been getting all bitchy lately because she wants to go out to these clubs dancing.”

“Why doesn’t she go then?” I interrupt him.

“She does, but she gets pissed because I can’t go with her. She said she doesn’t want to dance with other guys, but she doesn’t want to dance alone either.”

“Gimme a break. She can still go and dance with whoever. She doesn’t have to hook up with anyone.”

“That’s the thing. I think she does wanna hook up. The guys there can take her dancing anywhere.” He drinks another shot. “Shit, they can take her anywhere. They can drive. I can’t drive yet. I haven’t even gotten my permit.”