My Paper Heart (8 page)

I sighed. "I just..."

"Baby." He took my chin in his hand and made our eyes meet. "I'm not like that asshole from school. I won't hurt you like he did."

 I'd heard that one before too. I forced my head away from his grip and looked back down at the table.

"Fine, have it your way." Last time a guy said that to me it was Beau at Alpha Mu formal. He was mad because I wouldn't sleep with him, since it was my time of the month, and then went off and got a blow job from someone else's date behind the DJ booth. I looked over at Blaine with pleading eyes, hoping he wouldn't do that behind the Tasty Freeze dumpster.

No, he definitely didn't move from where we were. Instead he stood on top of the picnic table.

"Blaine, what are you doing?" I whispered looking up at him.

He shot a bright smile at me and winked.

"Attention people of Elsbury and Tasty Freeze guests!" Blaine cupped his hands and bellowed turning his hips and making a small circle on top of the picnic table. "This woman sitting at the table with me."

He pointed down at me, and I’m pretty sure my face was redder than the plastic picnic table.

"Is Libby Gentry and she is the most amazing girl in the entire world." By that time he had drawn quite a crowd of employees and patrons.

"We have been hanging out ever since she came here and it has been some of the best three weeks of my life." A big aw came from the crowd. "So in short."

 He knelt down on the table in front of me and lifted my chin up with his hand until our eyes met. "Libby, I'd make a fool of myself for you any day and if you don't say you'll be my girlfriend, I think the whole town might just run us out of the Tasty Freeze."

That night Blaine was the one to make the Facebook relationship request first, and I gladly accepted.

Chapter 11

Blaine and I had officially been together almost two weeks, and so he thought it would be great to take me to his house for Sunday dinner.

"It's just a little thing we do. My sisters come in with their kids and you can, I guess, officially meet my parents, though I think this whole town knows who you are."

Those were his words. We were sitting on our usual bench downtown, eating curly fries from Sam's on our lunch. Ever since our first date we were definitely a permanent fixture in the town. This was something people either loved or hated. Girls were jealous and would glare at me, but all of Blaine's buddies seemed to just clap every time he would kiss me goodbye or even answer one of my texts. It was a little annoying.

Random people would come up to me and say things like: good for you, about time somebody locked down that Crabtree boy. And I don't even know how many random texts and facebook comments I got from my sorority sisters back home.

But there was one person that definitely was not happy with our new relationship, and that was Britt. For a long time she was the only person for me to talk to in the whole town, and I guess she felt like she had been replaced by Blaine. I think if it were any other boy than her crush to end all crushes, it would have been fine, but since it wasn't, she acted as if I committed some sort of a crime.

I thought that I would need to get a new outfit to meet Blaine's family, since unfortunately my wardrobe at Aunt Dee's was limited to work clothes and lying around the house clothes. Aunt Dee had the idea that I take Thursday off of work and take Britt with me into New Orleans. She thought I could maybe get a new bedspread and some clothes, and just spend some time with Britt. I thought it would definitely be a good chance to talk to Britt, or at least just have some fun.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?  I can take the afternoon off." Blaine breathed on the other line. I could tell he was trying to speak quietly so that the rest of the road crew couldn't hear him.

"Blaine, I'm a big girl, and I have Britt with me. I'm sure we will be fine in New Orleans on a Thursday afternoon." I had him on speaker phone as I slipped a t-shirt over my head. I was almost shouting into the phone.

"But what if Brittany doesn't know her way somewhere?  How are you going to get around?"

I giggled. "Blaine, we're fine! We have our internet directions and if we get lost we'll just stop and ask for directions."

Blaine groaned.

"And besides, I need some girl time and shopping time. If you were allowed in my bedroom you would see that I have a bubblegum pink bedspread that badly needs to be replaced." I checked myself out in the mirror and put the phone back up to my ear, taking it off of speaker. "Besides, if you take off of work you will lose valuable money that could be used to get us more root beer floats."

I could hear him smiling on the other end. He did this cute little thing where he would blow air out of his nose when he smiled. "Alright Libby, well text me when you get home alright?"

"Alright, now get back to work."

I heard my bedroom door creak open just as I hung up the phone.

"You know if you'd rather go with Blaine than me, I understand." Britt was standing in the doorway swaying back and forth.

"Of course I want to go with you. I think Blaine and I spend enough time together, and I could definitely use some girl time." I plopped my phone in my purse and cracked a big toothy grin at Britt.

"Well I'm not much for shopping." Britt shifted back and forth on her flip flop clad feet.

"Well I think we can change that. Now come on." I stomped on over to her and looped my arm through hers. "I don't think the Grand Am goes over fifty, and I'd really like to get there before I'm thirty." It was the first time in a long time Britt actually cracked a smile.

∞

The whole car ride was almost silent except for the country songs that blared on the radio. Britt still seemed to be mad at me, but I was going to have a good shopping day no matter what. It was my first time in New Orleans and I just really wanted to see everything.

The French Quarter was every bit as beautiful as I imagined. I loved looking up at every single iron terrace and even getting my heels caught in the cobblestone street. I thought maybe I should have let Blaine take me there on our first date, but maybe he would have been as bored with me as Britt was. She seemed to yawn about every five seconds and would just roll her eyes every time I would squeal at a building I had seen in a movie.

"I think we've seen enough places Brad Pitt may have touched during
Interview with the Vampire
, can we go find whatever you need and go?" Britt sulked, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Fine." I almost skipped toward a boutique as Brittany dawdled behind me.

"But this is going to be fun!" I thought maybe if I just stayed positive then maybe Britt would too. A shop keeper nodded in our direction, but was busy showing a blue-haired lady a very expensive looking watch.

"So." Britt glanced at me from behind a rack of dresses. "Do you really like Blaine..?"

I held up a pale yellow sundress in front of me. I was definitely not sure if I could still fit in a size six, and I was beginning to wonder how this was going to work out for Kristi's wedding.

 I was also not looking forward to having this conversation with Britt. She always gave me second thoughts about Blaine whenever we would talk. Sometimes it would turn into something good, and sometimes it would just cause an argument.

"Well, yeah, I mean he is my boyfriend." I grabbed another dress off of the rack to keep my hands busy.

She looked down and shifted from one foot to the other. "I just don't understand how you knew I liked him, and then met him." She looked up and put her hands outward toward me. "Then you absolutely hated him, then after one night y'all are inseparable, and I have to just sit and watch you cuddle on MY couch with my crush to end all crushes."

I put the dress down and just looked at Brittany for a moment. What could I say?  Would anything really make it better?  I didn't want to just humor her and say there were plenty of other guys out there, and it would just be mocking for me to say she was too young for him anyways.

"You know." I sighed. "Before college not even a single guy looked at me."

Brittany rolled her eyes. "Oh please, like I haven't heard that ugly duckling story a million times before." She twirled her hair and in a mocking high voice uttered, "
don't worry Brittany, once you fill out you'll be gorgeous. You know when I was younger I got picked on all the time and I turned out okay
."

 She stopped with the mocking voice and twirling her hair. Then she looked straight at me with a determined look on her face. "People can say that it gets better all they want, but when you're living in the now, and you see every other girl in your class get a date, every other girl in your class even get looked at by a boy, and you get nothing but horrible nicknames and terrible stories to come home and cry about."

I could see the tears almost welling up in her eyes, but she pushed them back.

Then I thought about Brittany's mom. The beauty queen whose reign ended the night Brittany was conceived. I winced when I realized that it wasn't all about me this time. Brittany never would be the beauty queen that her mother was and would always be haunted with the memory of what became of her.

"You know what?" I walked over to her and put my arm around her. She was so short her head was practically at my chest. "This place is a bit out of my price range anyways. You want to get out of here? Maybe I'll take you to the batting cages?"

Britt actually looked up at me and smiled. "Really?"

"Sure. I'm not used to usually having a budget, but I'm sure we could find me a dress and a bedspread at Wal-Mart or something."

"So what about you and your boyfriend back at school anyways?" Brittany piped up as we walked toward the car. "I know you told me he cheated on you and stuff, but what does he think about you and Blaine?  If I don't like it he must really not like it."

I sighed. The last thing I wanted to talk about was Beau, and I could just imagine what he was saying about me to all of his fraternity brothers. "Remember how I told you that guys didn't even look at me in high school?"

"Psh, yeah and you act like I really believe that one." Brittany opened her car door and I slid in after she did. "You're blonde, tall, and skinny and you think I believe you didn't have guys begging for your number like they are here?"

"Well." I started the car. "See here's the thing. In a big high school, people don't even notice who you are if you're not popular. And with blonde wavy hair and being as tall as I am, I got the nickname Big Bird in middle school that just kind of stuck with me."

Brittany laughed. "You?  Big Bird?"

"It's completely true! Boys used to ask me how to get to Sesame Street and girls would constantly ask if Elmo and I had the same hairstylist."

"You definitely aren't getting picked on and called Big Bird now. You're like a sorority princess." Britt pointed out as I pulled out of the parking spot.

I took a deep breath. "Yes, I may have learned a thing or two about using a diffuser, and I may have joined a sorority, but honestly none of that would have ever happened if I didn't start dating Beau."

"Huh?" Brittany turned down the radio and looked straight at me. I caught her out of the corner of my eye, and her own eyes were filled with bewilderment. "
What do you mean if it wasn't for Beau
?"

"Since I was so painfully shy in high school, and since my mom and sister were in sororities in college, they thought I should rush. Of course the only reason any sorority even looked at me was because my mom and sisters were legacies." I took a deep breath.

"And then along came Beau. He was treasurer of Alpha Mu, one of the biggest fraternities on campus, and after meeting me at a party he immediately dubbed me Legs. He decided that my long legs and blonde hair where something that was actually desirable, instead of something that belongs on PBS."

 A stray strand of hair poked in front of my face and I pushed it back.

 "So basically if I hadn't met Beau I would still be Big Bird, and instead of being the sorority ditz I would have just been another dumb blonde girl."

"Wow." Britt breathed. "You actually are human after all."

I laughed. It was the first time all day that I think I had.

"Well, I guess I am if you say so. I guess I am just another broke human."

"So, do you think Blaine is going to be anything like Beau?" God she was full of questions.

"What do you mean?" I glanced at my blind spot before switching lanes then glancing back at Britt.

"He kind of has that player reputation and so did Beau. Aren't you worried about that?"

It was actually something I was very worried about. I didn't want to get hurt again like I was with Beau, and even though Blaine assured me over and over again that he was nothing like Beau and his playboy days were over, it was still always in the back of my mind.

"No...I mean yes...I mean." I took a deep long sigh. "I mean I really don't know. I'm always worried about it no matter how many times he tells me he's over that."

"Are you doing him?"

"
BRITTANY
!"

"Well it's an honest question." She laughed.

"What's with all the questions anyways?" I spotted the exit for Elsbury up ahead and veered over into the right lane.

"I just want to know. I mean we haven't really talked lately, and you know, just catching up."

"Well if you really must know. No, no we haven't slept together."

She leaned in closer. "Does that worry you?"

I shook my head and tilted it to the side. "Why would that worry me?"

"Do you think he could be getting it somewhere else?  Or maybe he doesn't find you attractive or something?" Britt rattled off.

"So I tell you that I get called Big Bird in high school and you go and tell me that my boyfriend won't sleep with me because he's cheating on me and thinks that I am ugly?" I was visibly upset now. My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I started speaking through clenched teeth.