Flat Broke (5 page)

I knew that Tina took Irish dance lessons three doors over from Auntie Buzz’s office and that if I timed it right, I could “accidentally” run into her while she waited for her mom to pick her up in the parking lot.

I walked down the street toward the dance studio. A bunch of girls came out and started heading toward me. Before I could even tell if Tina was with them, I panicked and jumped into the alley to hide. I needed a minute to compose myself, find the right words for Tina. I was crouched by the Dumpster, thinking, when a pair of sparkly pink gym shoes appeared in my line of vision.

“Hi, Kev. What’re you doing?” Tina asked. She didn’t look like she thought it was weird that I was lurking in a grungy alley by the garbage. No, she was smiling. Even as I wanted to die of embarrassment, the thought flashed through my head that she was a one-in-a-million kind of girl to be so cool about talking to a guy sitting next to a smelly garbage bin.

I stood up. I
tried
to stand up. I
meant
to stand up, but my legs must have fallen asleep while I was hunched down. I lost my balance on my numb legs and I … teetered. And tipped right over onto Tina. I’m not a big guy, but I fell hard and she wasn’t expecting it and I knocked her right over. Flat on her back on a pile of crumpled cardboard boxes to be recycled, with me right next to her.

She wasn’t mad or upset at all—even though I’d Flat Stanleyed her in a grimy alley and was now kind of frozen and couldn’t seem to make myself move away from her. She laughed and said, “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to surprise you like that.”

How … soft she was and how nice it would be to stay here in the alley until I came up with all the right and perfect words to tell her how incredible I thought she was and how badly I wanted her to feel the same way about me. And I was thinking maybe that should be my new plan, staying here with Tina forever, when I was yanked to my feet by a hand on the back of my belt. JonPaul hauled me up and away from Tina like he was picking up a rag doll.

“Ohmy
gosh
are
you
okay?” Sam extended a hand to Tina and helped her up too. “Wasit
arobbery
attemptin
broad
daylight?”

“I’m okay, and we weren’t being mugged. I … I tripped, and Kev tried to catch me, but I knocked him down too.” Tina laughed again and brushed herself off while I thought: I could go right ahead and die here and now. Life couldn’t possibly get any better than having Tina cover for me.

“
You
fell?” JonPaul didn’t try to hide his skeptical tone.

“Yes, I was running out of dance class and wasn’t paying attention and I ran right into Kev.”

She gave me a look. One of those looks that make you turn hot and cold and sweaty and cotton-mouthed all at the same time. “I’m having a bad week,” she continued. “The other day I dumped over the janitor’s bucket and nearly drowned some sixth graders on the southwest stairs.”

I opened my mouth to thank her for not making me look like an idiot in front of JonPaul and Sam and to apologize for the waterfall I’d been responsible for and to tell her how awesome she was to be taking the heat for me and that I wanted to send her flowers and open doors and throw my jacket on top of mud puddles for her to walk over and a million and one other great and romantic things that were roaring through my head. It came out, “Puddles.”

She didn’t even look surprised. And she must speak blithering idiot, too, because she said, so only I could hear, “Our secret,” and then, more loudly for Sam and JonPaul, “Oh, there’s my mom. Anyone need a ride?”

“Yes
thanks
ifit’s
not
out
ofyour
way,” Sam said, and dragged JonPaul after her to climb into the car that had just pulled up to the curb.