Perchance (14 page)

             
I groaned, rolled my eyes and threw my hands in the air. I got up and started to walk back around the house.  I needed some cookies.

             
“Hey, you’re gonna leave me like this? Can’t I come in?”

             
I screamed around the house, “NOT YET!”
 

             
I didn’t sleep at all.  I tossed and turned and nearly texted Cooper about seven thousand times.  I got our lunches ready and then wrapped up some cinnamon rolls for him in aluminum foil.  Josie picked me up and she had a goofy smile on her face and gushed about how she and Troy had talked almost all night.

             
We parked and Cooper was sitting on the trunk of his car talking to Squeeky Blonde.  Well, she was doing most of the talking
and twirling
while he watched me walk towards him.  I went right beside him and tried to get away with giving him his breakfast without having my teeth enamel removed by the shrill of her voice. 
Josie waved ‘bye’ to me, her arm already linked in Troy’s.

             
I put it down next to him and turned to walk away.  He gently grabbed my shoulder and moved me to sta
nd between his knees
and put his chin on the top of my head while she continued to chatter about some kind of Homecoming Dance.  She slowed as he moved me in as a buffer but never stopped. 
He rubbed the tops of my shoulders for a while and I thought I might burst from the feeling it was giving me. 
He opened his cinnamon rolls and moved his head back to start eating. 
All I could do was stand there, frozen. 

             
“So Cooper, who are you going with?” I looked around and he was smiling at me while chewing and motioning that he couldn’t talk while he was eating.  He wanted me to say something? Oh, I’ll say something.

             
“Cooper’s taking me.” He nearly choked behind me.  Take that Mr. Not Yet.

             
She shot daggers in my direction and then at his. “Is that so?”

             
“Yep,” he finally swallowed. “I asked her a couple of days ago.” Liar, Liar, pants on…

             
“Well, see you later Cooper.”

             
She turned to go and I turned around and slapped him in the shoulder.

             
“What the hell?” I wasn’t really mad, but it was funny.

             
“Oh come on.  You saved me from her endless antics. I am forever in your debt.  Please don’t make a
gorgeous
stud like me go alone.”

             
“
Come on Cooper, cut the crap.” I could play around like nobody’s business, but I just wanted to be real with him.

             
He pulled me back between his knees; he was still on the trunk and looked down at me as serious as could be.  He took my hands which were on his knees and picked them up and put them around his waist. 
My limbs were suddenly made of jelly and I just let him do what he wanted with them.

             
He started at the crown of my head and with
a few fingers traced a chunk of hair
down to the ends.  I didn’t k
now my hair was so fascinating, but so glad he found it that way.

             
When he spoke I smelled my cinnamon rolls, “Ok, let’s cut the crap.  You have to know I’m crazy about you.  You have to.  No pressure.  School and studying always comes before me. But I don’t think I can take another day not knowing where we stand.”

             
“Where do we stand?”
It sounded like I was whispering to a baby.

             
“I want us to be a couple, together, but I know that you have other priorities. Is that what you want
?”
Why had my heart moved into my ears?

             
“Yes.
  But let’s take it slow, ok? I’m warning you though, i
t’s still your turn to make me breakfast tomorrow.”

             
He laughed and kissed me where my hair met my forehead. He slid down the car to stand in front of me and to
ok my backpack from my shoulder and held my hand as he dragged me along.

             
“Come on Pistol. You’re gonna be late.”

             
Did he just call me Pistol?

             
It felt like we had been in this state of limbo forever. 
It had been less than two weeks since I met her and I felt like it was a lifetime of courting.
I came here, hating the situation and hating how I got here, but there’s nowhere on Earth I would rather be right now. And now it wasn’t just me walking around thinking about it all the time, it was real.

             
We split at my locker and she walked down towards hers.  I saw her pull another note from her locker and I laughed this time.
  Yesterday it was funny
.
  Today, not so much.
Boy needed to lay off…and quick.

             
I got what I needed and walked up to her locker. As I walked past her, I ran my hand across her back, just far enough up for a gentleman, but far enough down to make her shudder.  She gasped and spun around, but I just kept on walking. 

             
How ya like them apples, pistol?

             
In third period we were supposed to be doing some kind of a study guide for the Chapter test on Monday, but Troy and I were passing notes back and forth like fourteen year old girls.  He was telling me about staying up all night talking to Josie and that she had already agreed to go to Tunica Hills on Sunday and he asked her to the dance. 

             
I didn’t give as many details, but did clear the air about whether Remi and I were together, which we were. Now I needed to see if she would consider the trip on Sunday.  If she wasn’t, I wasn’t going to go.  I was not going to be the guy who stood around while the
other
couple made out. 

             
After class we split ways, Troy to go find Josie and me to find Remi.  I heard giggling behind me and just did not even want to deal with it, so I picked up the pace. 

             
“Cooooooooperrrrrrrr.” I put my finger to my ear to see if it was bleeding.
Nope, not yet anyway.

             
“Yeah?” I yelled it over my shoulder. 

             
“I can’t believe you’re taking that Semi girl to the dance. I mean, you could go with me and I would
guarantee
you a good time.”

             
Did she just call her Semi?  Really?

             
I turned around quickly. “What’s your name again?”

             
“It’s
Chrissie
.”  The other girls giggled and it sounded like a cage of Sun Conures.

             
I cleared my throat, “Chrissie
, my girl’s name is Remi, not Semi, and you can give your
guaranteed
date to someone else.
  I’m not interested.
”

             
I turned back and Remi was there, standing in the entrance to the cafeteria.  She was looking smug as can be and I was actually glad that she saw all of that. 

             
I walked up to her and
kissed her temple
and we made for our tree.

             
Remi said she had stuff to do after school and t
hen she had homework.  She said she would
text me before she went to sleep.  Eric and I drove down to Zach
ary and ate at a Mongolian Bar-b-
que place.  He didn’t have to go in until nine that night, so we had time to do some stuff.  We talked about school and Remi.  He said something about my mom getting a new position at her hospital and she hadn’t even told me that.  Weird…I was going to have to ask her about it.
  Why was he talking to my Mom? I had been calling her every day.

             
We got home and I was stuffed.  Eric got dressed and went to work and I answered some e-mails from people in North Carolina.  I had friends, but none of them had called me, just e-mailed or poked me on Facebook. 
I had finished my homework earlier.  So I decided to make myself read some of the Bell Jar that was due on Monday.  It was so bloody depressing and I really didn’t want to read some of the girly parts about her girly parts. I slammed it shut and turned on my iPod.  I was almost asleep when my phone made a gunshot noise.  It scared the holy hell out of me, but then I remembered that I had changed Remi’s message tone to sound like a gun. 
The sound of a Pistol.

             
I looked at the phone with the earbuds still in my ears. 

             
Remi:
Still awake?

             
Me:
Yeah, listening to music. U?

             
Remi:
Not sleepy

             
Me:
Wanna talk?

             
Remi:
If ur not tired.

             
Me:
Nah. Call me.

             
The phone rang and I took out my earbuds. 

             
We talked until nearly midnight.  She started yawning and said we should both get some sleep. 

             
“Cooper?” I heard her
say
and she sounded far away
and drowsy
like she was falling asleep.

             
“Yeah Remi.”

             
“You’re so good to me.”

             
I hung up the phone before I said something she and I weren’t ready for.  Well, not me as much as her.  I needed to keep myself in check for her sake.  There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to help her be who she wanted to be.  And when she was finished, and all the way through, I would still be there waiting, hoping she was waiting for me too.

             
I woke up and the phone was glued to my face and it was playing “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane.  Cooper’s ringtone that he had set on my phone.  Waking up to Psychedelic rock…not cool.

             
“Hello?” I was not happy about being woken up by Paul Kanta…whatever his name was. 

             
“Hey there Sunshine.”
Seriously?

             
“What has you so darn chipper this morning?” I sat up and pried the phone from my face and put it on speaker, so I could get dressed.

             
“I was going to te
ll you what I found out from Troy.  On
Friday
s
we can go off campus for lunch.
And I was wondering…
”

             
I heard a horn outside. “Crap, I gotta go Cooper, Josie is already here and I’m not even dressed yet. See you at school.”

             
“There’s so many ways to respond to that Remi.”

             
“Shut it Neal.” I hung up the phone and scrambled to put my hair in a ponytail and grab the first pair of jeans and a white scoop neck t shirt I could find.  I ran to brush my teeth and would handle the rest in the car.