Entice (4 page)

“Hey, want some company?”

My head snapped up. My eyes widened. “Tanner.” I pushed the phone back into my jean’s pocket.

“You were expecting someone else?” He smiled.

“No, it’s just…I was sort of hoping…” My gaze flitted over to Haley. She didn’t even glance my way. Her attention was glued on Ian.

Following my eyes, he said, “She’ll come around.”

I sighed. “I hope so.”

“So, can I join you?” Tanner held up a brown lunch bag. “I mean, unless you’d rather eat alone.”

The last thing I wanted was to spend any more time by myself. Still, I couldn’t figure out why he was there. “Shouldn’t you be sitting with your friends?”

He shook his head. “Nah. It’s just the same old thing over there. Besides, just between you and me, that Ian dude is annoying.”

I giggled. Maybe Tanner wasn’t so bad, after all.

“So, that’s a yes?” He cocked an eyebrow.

I nodded. He slid onto the bench next to me, bringing with him the scent of musky cologne.

“So you and Haley got into a fight, huh?” He unscrewed the cap of his water bottle.

“She told you?”

“No, Ian sort of mentioned it to the group.”

Man, I really didn’t like Ian.

I opened my can of soda. “Yeah, well he’s the reason we’re not speaking.”

“It’ll blow over. Everyone can see he’s just the rebound guy.” Tanner brought his sandwich up to his mouth, and took a large bite.

“That’s what I thought too, but now I’m not so sure.”

“She was staring at Derek the whole time I was over there. If you ask me she’s just trying to make her ex jealous.” Mayo stuck to the corners of Tanner’s mouth. It made him seem so vulnerable. I turned away.

“I sure hope you’re right because I don’t want to lose my best friend to him.”

“Trust me.” He smiled.

I nodded. I wasn’t sure if I should or not, but oddly enough I did trust him.

“Haley!” I called after her when I spotted her in the hallway between classes.

She turned around, her lips pursed. “Yeah?” She raised her eyebrows.

“You gonna stay mad at me forever?” I gave her a wry smile.

She didn’t smile back. “Maybe.”

“C’mon, Hales. Don’t be like that.”

“I have to go. The bell’s about to ring.” She started to turn.

“Haley, I’m sorry.”

She turned to me briefly, her face unreadable and then walked away. Shocked, I stood frozen in place. The bell rang. A few students straggled behind, their shoes squeaking on the linoleum. I couldn’t believe Haley was staying mad at me. Having no idea how to fix things, I walked to class with a hollow feeling in my heart.

“Where are you going so early?” Mom called to me as I opened the front door. A rush of cool air hit me in the face. My sundress billowed around my legs. I shivered.

“Church.” I turned to Mom. Her hair stuck out all over her head in a mess of tangled curls. She wore her flannel pajama pants and a large ripped t-shirt.

“Why don’t you stay home today? I’ll make eggs for breakfast.”

“We don’t have any.”

“Well, then I’ll make pancakes.” She hugged herself. “Close the door. It’s freezing in here.”

“I’ve gotta go. Service starts in ten minutes.”

“What about pancakes?”

“I already had some cereal.” I took a step forward. “I’m gonna be late.”

“C’mon, stay home with me. We haven’t spent any time together lately.” She stuck her bottom lip out in a childish pout.

“And whose fault is that?” I snapped before I could stop myself.

“I know I’ve been spending a lot of time with Drake. But honey, I’ve never gone out with anyone like him before. I think I’m falling in love.”

“Good for you.” I couldn’t hold back the irritation. My mom fell in love as often as other women changed their socks.

“But I’m home today and I was hoping you and I could catch up.”

I hesitated. A part of me did want to spend time with Mom. But I couldn’t just drop everything the minute she was ready to be with me. I’d been doing that my whole life. At some point I had to draw the line. I flashed her an apologetic smile.

“Sorry Mom. We can hang out when I get home. I’ll only be gone an hour or so.” As I walked out the door, I caught a glimpse of disappointment on her face. Without thinking about it, I raced to my car.

I pulled into Grace Bible Church with only a couple minutes to spare. I cut the engine and bolted from the car. The parking lot was filled with cars. Only a few families still lingered outside. A young couple dragged a screaming toddler past me.

I had chosen this church because it was close to my house. But I also liked that it reminded me of Grandma’s church with how small it was and how the pastor was kind and soft-spoken.

I hurried inside, my strappy silver sandals clicking on the pavement. Just as I stepped into the foyer, a familiar face beamed at me. I took a step back in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“The same thing as you I suppose,” Tanner teased.

My face warmed. I guess it was a stupid question. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you here before.”

“Have you been coming here long?” He adjusted the collar on his blue shirt. His hair was spiked with gel, and his face was smooth. He smelled like aftershave lotion. My heart sped up.

“No, just since I got back from my Grandma’s.” Memories of my summer surfaced. I thought of Isaac and, even though I’d done nothing wrong, I felt guilty. Why did Tanner have to keep showing up everywhere I went?

“This is my first time. But I went to the youth summer camp and that’s when I accepted Christ.”

“You became a Christian over the summer?”

He nodded.

“Me too.”

“I heard.” Music started in the sanctuary.

“We better get inside,” I said. “Do you need to find your family?”

“They’re not here.” Disappointment crossed his features.

“Mine either.” I knew exactly how he felt.

A man, wearing a nametag , handed us a bulletin as we entered the sanctuary. We found two seats in the back row and sat down. As worship commenced, I tried not to think about how close Tanner was, or how cute he looked all dressed up. Instead, I closed my eyes, and attempted to focus on the lyrics and God. Only it was a losing battle. My thoughts drifted to Isaac. Was I betraying him by standing with another boy in church? Was it cheating if I found myself attracted to someone else?

These were the thoughts swirling through my mind all through the service. Several times I almost got up and ran out, but I knew that would be immature. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was cause a scene. When service ended, Tanner turned to me.

“Wanna go grab a coffee or something? We could go to Thatchers.”

It sounded so nice. Certainly better than heading home. It wasn’t like I had my pick of friends to hang out with now that Haley wasn’t speaking to me. But going to coffee sounded too much like a date.

“No thanks, I better head home. Mom wants to spend time together today.”

Tanner nodded. “I understand. Maybe another time?”

“I don’t know.” I bit my lip.

I saw disappointment in his eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings.

“It’s just that I sort of…well…I have a boyfriend.” People walked past us as they filed out of the church.

“Really?” His eyebrows raised. “I had no idea. Who is he?”

“Oh, you don’t know him. I met him over the summer.”

“So, he lives in California?”

The sanctuary was almost completely empty now. An older gentleman walked around, picking up stray bulletins off the pews.

I nodded.

“That’s cool. I only wanted to hang out as a friend anyway.”

Of course he did. I felt silly for thinking otherwise.

“Friendship sounds good.” I smiled.

After saying goodbye, I drove home. Orange, yellow and rust colored leaves blew across my windshield, scuttling like insects. I loved fall. I loved how the colors changed, how the air shifted. When I pulled into our house, I noticed that Mom’s car was gone. Seriously, she couldn’t wait for me for one hour? I raced home to be with her and she was gone? Now I would have to spend a long and boring afternoon alone. Anger rising in me, I stormed to the front door. After unlocking it, I stepped inside. The first thing I noticed was the smell. Something was definitely burning.

I raced into the kitchen. What had happened in there? Flour covered the already messy counters, dirty pans filled the sink.

The front door flew open. “Oh, I was hoping to make it back before you got home.” Mom rushed in, out of breath. In her hand she held several bags. She hoisted them up onto the counter. “I tried to make pancakes for you but as you can see it didn’t go so well. So, I went and bought more stuff. I thought we could make breakfast together.” She pushed her bangs out of her eyes. “What d’ya say?”

I smiled, my heart bursting. I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do. But I couldn’t say that. So instead I shrugged and said, “That’s fine.”

“Great. Well, change out of that dress. This is going to get messy.” With a cheesy smile on her face, she held up a giant bag of pancake mix.

I giggled and headed back to my room to change. Suddenly this day didn’t look so bleak after all.

Outside my bedroom window, the sun sunk below the clouds. The sky was painted in streaks of pink and purple, morphing together and resembling an abstract painting. I stepped over a mountain of dirty clothes and plopped down on the edge of my bed. Mom’s laughter drifted down the hall, causing irritation and jealousy to thread around my heart.

“We were having such a great time,” I whined into the phone. “And then Drake just showed up unexpectedly.”

“I’m sorry,” Isaac replied.

“Now they’re out there watching some horror movie he brought over. Mom doesn’t even usually watch horror movies.” I rested my head against the headboard of my bed, and let out a frustrated groan. It was one of the best days Mom and I had spent together in a long time. She even said we might go get ice cream or something later. But then he had to show up. “It’s almost like he planned to interrupt our day.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean to do that.” Isaac was always so reasonable. I was just being oversensitive.

“You’re probably right. I think he did want to hang out with both of us. I just had no interest in watching a scary movie. I’ve already lived one.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Isaac’s voice was serious.”Hey, how was church this morning?”

“Good.”

“You make any new friends?”

Tanner’s face flashed through my mind. “Sort of.”

“What do you mean sort of?”
“I did make a friend. I’m just not sure it’s someone I should hang out with.”

“Of course you should. You made a friend at church. That’s great news.”

“Yeah, I guess.” My stomach dropped at how happy he sounded. Would he be as happy if he knew the friend was a guy?

After hanging up with Isaac, I logged onto Facebook. It had been awhile since I’d checked on my cyber-friends. I scrolled down the screen with my mouse. I read the normal statuses about people’s Sundays spent at the mall or at the movies. Then Haley’s face appeared and I stopped, clicked on the picture. My chest tightened, my pulse sped up. The picture was of Haley and Ian, plastic beer cups in hand. I clicked on the next picture which was of Haley, Ian and Caleb chugging their drinks. Haley’s eyes were heavy lidded, her face flushed. I’d never seen her like this. Even when I dragged Haley to parties in the past she never drank. Haley had always been the good one, the rule follower. Staring at the screen, sadness descended on me.

I was losing my best friend.

Mustering up all my courage, I took a couple steps forward. It was the last thing I wanted to do. It would have been so much easier to just turn around and walk away, but it was necessary. This was ridiculous. I thought for sure after a weekend apart, Haley would come to her senses and things would go back to normal. We’d been friends since seventh grade, after all. And she’d been with this guy for less than two months. Certainly, she wouldn’t choose him over me.

I just needed to talk with her. Initially, my plan was to find her in the morning before class but she was nowhere to be found. So, I tried to locate her between classes but she wasn’t in her usual places. I was starting to think maybe she wasn’t at school today but then I spotted her at lunch. That’s how I found myself walking toward the jock’s table, ready to face Caleb and Ian.

Taking a deep breath, I walked right up to Haley. She looked up from her sandwich. Caleb’s roving eyes traveled up and down my body. I repressed the urge to shudder. Ian glared. So, clearly he didn’t like me now that he knew what I thought about him. That was fine by me. Honesty was the best policy, right?

“Haley, can I talk to you for a minute?”

My friend’s eyes shifted to Ian. Was she seriously looking to him for approval?

“Haley?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Fine.” She stood and followed me outside. The sun was warm. The air smelled like flowers and grass.

I turned to my friend. She frowned at me, and crossed her arms over her chest. My heart ached. I missed her and wished we could go back in time. I couldn’t believe she was still angry with me. It was so not like her.

“Haley, this is silly. You can’t still be mad at me for that dumb comment about Ian, can you?”

“What do you expect? You don’t like the guy I love.”

I almost burst into laughter.
The guy she loved?
Instead, I cleared my throat, and tried to keep my face neutral. “I never said I didn’t like him.”

“You said he was a loser. Same diff.”

“No, I didn’t say he was a loser.”

A ball sailed past our heads, almost knocking us over. A boy caught it a few feet away.

I smiled at Haley. “We better move. We’re in the line of fire.”

Haley moved with me until we stood under the awning outside the cafeteria, but she didn’t crack a smile. This was going to be harder than I thought.

“Haley, all I said was that I didn’t think Ian was good enough for you.”

Anger passed over her features and I rushed to speak before she ran off again.