Miss Taken (16 page)

I thought about the couple of times Hannah
had slipped some snarky comments into our conversations at the
library. I hadn’t agreed, but I hadn’t stood up for Diana either. I
shifted uncomfortably.

“See?” said Diana. “I can tell by your face.
I knew she said something.” She didn’t look overly triumphant at
having been right, however.

A few long seconds passed and then she said,
“But, ohmygosh! Here I am, babbling on about me and here’s poor
you! Tell me what happened.” She put on her best psychologist face
by folding her hands in her lap and looking at me with a pitying
expression.

It was such a change from two seconds ago, I
laughed out loud. “Oh, you know. I’m feeling better.”

A few moments of silence passed with Diana
still gazing at me like I was a sad little orphan living in a
gutter.

Now that she had brought it up, the
expression on Ned’s face and his final words came flooding back to
me. The memory hit me so hard, my eyes started to well up.

“No you’re not, just look at you! Come, tell
me.” She took my hand, which made me start bawling. My eyes were
apparently on automatic refill and I couldn’t stop them. So
embarrassing. Between sobs, I told her what Ned had said, but I did
not mention Kyle’s role in the matter. It took about a half a box
of tissues to pull myself back together.

When I was finally composed enough, I looked
at her, waiting for her to start in on a discourse on the
millenia-old struggle of men vs. women, but she didn’t. Nodding
sympathetically, she said, “I know just how you feel. It was just
like that with me and Trey.”

I had to stifle a snort of derision at the
comparison. Her and Trey? I think their ‘relationship’ consisted of
saying ‘hi’ when they passed in the hall at school and two nature
walks. Ned and I had been on several dates. Well, maybe ‘several’
was a little bit of an exaggeration. We had been on two picnics,
even though one of those was with his mom. And we had sort of been
to a dance together, although we didn’t get to dance.

Of course, Diana did dance with Trey that
night, but that was all a set-up. And I exchanged Christmas gifts
with my genuine boyfriend, even though he doesn’t celebrate
Christmas and I managed to sound rude and obnoxious about the
fact.

Diana had given Trey some handmade
gingerbread cookies. He hoarded them and refused to share any with
me, but I didn’t really care because I don’t like gingerbread that
much.

But, whatever. Even if we haven’t been on a
ton of dates, Ned and I had done some serious facesucking and that
I’m positive Diana never did with Trey.

Well, I’m pretty sure she never did it.
Although she did appear somewhat disheveled that time they were
hanging out in the basement watching the ball game.

Oh God. Maybe Ned and I never were a real
couple in the first place.

Diana began striding about the room. “You
know, I swore I wouldn’t be like...” she lowered her voice so much
I could barely hear. “her.” She nodded at the door. “My mother
isn’t sick today. It’s Jerry, that stupid first-class jerk. They
had a fight, and look at her! She can’t even get off the
couch.”

Diana clicked her tongue in disgust. “I felt
just as crushed as you at first, but then I came home and I took
one look at my mom and I told myself that I refuse to be like
that.” Diana planted her practical low-heeled pumps firmly on the
floor in front of me. “So if you need to look somewhere for
strength, look no further than that couch out there.” She pointed
for emphasis.

I thought that looking at Diana’s mom would
more likely encourage sloth, vice and indulgent self-pity. Her
position on the couch was alarmingly similar to my favorite spot,
although it didn’t look like she arranged her clothes in a neat
contoured pile to best support her neck and lower back. And the
clothes I use are always clean.

I did my best to arrange my facial features
in a way that showed I appreciated Diana’s efforts.

“Besides,” she continued. “I’ve found someone
new.” Upon making that announcement, she smiled like the cat that
just ate the canary.

I didn’t think it did much to prove the
advice she was touting for me, however. She seemed to be bursting
to tell me who it was, but apparently also wanted to be cajoled
into the big reveal.

I played along. “So...who’s the lucky
guy?”

“Oh,” said Diana coyly, “I don’t want to say
anything at the present moment. We’re still in the early stages of
our courtship.”

Her maddening alternation between Modern
Woman and eighteenth century coquette was getting a little
irritating. Suddenly, a terrible thought as to who it might be
entered my head. “It wouldn’t by any chance be a certain
freckle-faced boy, would it?”

She disclaimed with a tinkly little laugh
that told me that was exactly who it was. I couldn’t break her
heart and tell her that Kyle was interested in me, not after I was
supposedly crying my eyes out over Ned.

“Okay, then. I guess I’ll just have to wait
and see,” I said with phony cheerfulness.

That popped her blissful balloon of intrigue.
It seemed like a good time to leave. In the normal order of things
Diana should have offered to have her mom drive me, but since her
mom quite possibly passed out on the couch, I wasn’t even
interested in having her mention the idea. I asked if I could call
my mom to have her come pick me up.

I said I would wait for my mother outside. We
both agreed on that one without having to discuss it. I would have
been embarrassed for Diana to have my mom see her apartment
too.

Diana got over her unhappiness about not
having been able to surprise me with Kyle being her new love
interest enough to come with me.

Either that or she wanted to make sure I
wasn’t going to stop off at Hannah’s to rat her out about the
Wonder Woman getup.

We talked about neutral stuff, school, the
weather. It felt strange and superficial after all the soul-bearing
we had just done. Diana seemed almost apologetic by the time my
mother got there. “See you tomorrow.”

I gave her a half-smirk. “Yeah. See ya.”

Mom had her legal-eagle eyes trained on me
from the moment I got in the car. “Have a nice afternoon?”

I shrugged. I really couldn’t think of
anything positive to say.

“Did you meet Diana’s mother?”

I turned sharply to look at her. How did she
know? “Why do you ask?”

Mom raised her eyebrows with a look of
feigned innocence. “I was just wondering if her mother was home or
if it was just you two alone.”

“Oh. Well, she was home, her mom. She wasn’t
feeling well.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

I studied Mom again to see what her angle
was. Maybe she didn’t have an angle. Maybe I was spending too much
time around conniving people.

At home, I spent more time thinking about
things. I was not pleased with what I came up with. The idea of
being thrown over for Diana was unacceptable, even if she was in
reality the consolation prize.

If indeed she was his second choice.

I didn’t want Kyle, but I also didn’t want
Diana to have him for reasons I could only attribute to
mean-spirited competitiveness.

I examined the case for each of us. 1) Kyle
had told me flat out that he liked me. But I had told him flat out
that I wasn’t interested in dating him. 2) He left those silly
Valentine’s gifts in plain sight at school, but I never checked to
see if he hadn’t left any on other girls’ desks. For all I knew, he
might have sprinkled ‘secret admirer’ gifts around the entire
female population of Nottingham. And 3) Kyle had most certainly
kissed me.

But how did I know he hadn’t kiss her as
well?

Robin Jane’s confidence in her powers of
perception were in freefall. I had been so wrapped up in my own
drama that I never looked around to see what anyone else was
doing.

Everything seemed to point to me and
yet...Diana had eaten lunch with him more than once and they were
in classes together that I was not, such as English and social
studies. He could have been wooing her with Shakespeare and
intimate knowledge of the Constitution at the same time he was
flirting it up with me over xylem slides and power drills.

I was going to have to talk to Diana again,
draw her out on the topic of their “courtship” to see if there was
anything to the claim.

Strange but true scientific fact: Female
spotted hyenas have a pseudo-penis which they display to show
dominance. They must also give birth through it.

I would much rather be an octopus than a
hyena.

Monday morning, I made a point of saying
hello to Diana before class. Her reply was polite if not quite
warm. Inviting her to meet me for lunch, however, thawed her
considerably.

Since it was necessary to reopen channels
with Kyle as well, I also said hello to him. He was a little
surprised after my week-long ice queen act, but by his reply he
seemed amenable to being friends again. So far, so good.

I was careful to speak to him before Ned got
there, not that it mattered. Ned went on acting as if I didn’t
exist, although I could tell he was hurting. At least, I hoped the
pained expressions I saw on his face in math were about me and not
just from doing trig equations. I felt actual aches, not just
because I missed our makeout sessions but also because I liked
helping Ned. Seeing that light come on in his eyes when he
understood something was worth the sacrifice of a few minutes of
kissing.

For the rest of my morning classes that I had
with Kyle, I continued to be polite while keeping a certain
distance. I had to talk to Diana before moving in for the
attack.

Diana met me with genuine smiles in the
cafeteria. We chatted about this and that and then I tried my best
to be delicate. “So, about this ‘new interest’ of yours. Does he
know how you feel?”

She twirled a fry coyly in her ketchup. “I
think so. At least, I’m sure my actions show how I feel.”

“Has he given you any...encouragement?”

Diana grinned even wider. “Well, yes, now
that you ask. I honestly hadn’t given him much thought at the time
because I was still with Trey.”

It took a force of will worthy of a Jedi
master to keep my eyes from rolling all the way back in their
sockets, but I managed it.

She continued, “He left me a Valentine ‘from
a secret admirer’ which I thought was Trey. But when we had
that...misunderstanding, I happened to mention it to Kyle. His
smile told all.’”

I didn’t need or want to hear any more. But I
was the one who had opened this pandora’s box, so I resigned myself
to listening to the end.

“Oh!” Her hand flew to her mouth. “Shoot. I
hadn’t wanted to reveal his name.”

Another monumental struggle against the eye
roll. “It’s okay, Di, I knew it was him already.”

“But how?”

Here I hesitated. Was it fair to burst her
bubble?

I told myself I had to do it. Not only had he
told me flat out how much he liked me, but he had also put his hand
on my thigh and kissed me for heaven’s sake.

I tried to soften the blow by only revealing
the minimum.

“I hate to break it to you, but he left stuff
‘from a secret admirer’ to me too.”

I might as well have kicked her in the
stomach. Her shock quickly turned to anger.

“You’re just trying to ruin it for me.”

“No...I -”

“Yes, you are.” Diana cut me off. “Just
because I’m not interested in your precious brother anymore, you
have to mess everything up for me. Well, let me tell you something,
Jane Grey, you may be Kyle’s biology lab partner, but you aren’t in
our English class, and he has recited some pretty romantic stuff,
making it clear that he is saying it all for me.” Diana crossed her
arms and dared me to defy her with her chin.

How’s that for gratitude. Here I am, just
trying to give her a head’s up that her lover boy is dipping his
poet’s quill pen in more than one pot of ink and this is the thanks
I get.

I got a little caught up in the moment.

Plus I was totally PMSing.

“Oh, well, I’m sure that’s very romantic. I
guess when he KISSED me at my locker on Valentine’s Day, it meant
nothing at all!”

The second I said it, I wished I could take
it all back. Diana opened her mouth so wide I could count the
fillings in her molars. Another reason she could stand to lay off
the sweets.

“What.” She spat the word out.

“Diana, I’m sorry, but it’s true. It’s why
Ned won’t speak to me. He saw us, so in case you don’t believe me,
he should be a credible enough witness. Although I’d really prefer
you don’t because I’m hoping he’ll forget what he saw and come back
to me.”

Her eyes turned flinty. If she could have
shot arrows out of them, I would be dead now.

“You...” She began. “How dare you!” She
paused again, as if waiting for a response.

I didn’t dare.

“You think you can just swoop in here and
take all the boys because you’re new and interesting
and...exotic!”

Oh God. Kyle had obviously lain the ‘exotic
island’ line on her too. She was practically screaming. It was
awful. I had to get out of there before the scene turned into a
full three-act drama.

I started gathering up my trash, but before I
could make my escape from scene 2, Diana slammed her hand down on
my brown bag and continued her rant.

“I can’t believe you would do this to me
Jane...” Then her eyes went wide. “Remember your promise.” Her
voice quivered with worry.

I really had wanted to stay friends with her,
but after what just happened, I didn’t know anymore. She had really
pissed me off by screaming at me when I was just trying to warn her
that Kyle might not be her ‘ideal suitor’ or whatever.