Saving Face (a young adult romance) (4 page)

“Pop?”  Alyssa shouted as she
walked through her grandfather’s door with Brent right behind her. 

            Most Sundays Alyssa drove over to the retirement
home to visit with her grandfather.  Pop complained a lot about having to live
with ‘all those old geezers’, but she suspected he was happier now than when
he’d been in his house all alone.  When she was younger her dad brought her to
visit on weekends.  Sometimes he still joined her, but more often than not he
stayed home.  Alyssa’s Dad and Pop didn’t always get along super well.  When
her dad made his excuses Alyssa would often call Brent. 

Pop loved Brent.  Because Brent
could, sometimes, beat him at chess.  That was a good enough reason all by
itself to bring Brent.  Alyssa loved her Pop, but she was terrible at chess. 
Pop used to go easy on her, but now that she was older she had to take her
lumps like a grown up.  Chess is super hard.  This day was one of those days
when her dad wasn’t interested in visiting and Brent cheerfully agreed to join
her. 

Stoneybrook retirement community was
very pretty.  All the buildings were surrounded by well manicured lawns and
gardens—and all those lawns and gardens were filled with pretty ornamental benches. 
Alyssa often wondered if this was because old people liked walks, even though they
needed to rest every ten feet.  Over the years Pop had been in several rooms. 
It seemed that every year or two he would have heart troubles and be moved to a
different room on a different floor with more nurses.  All the rooms were
really nice though.  And there were pretty common rooms on every floor.  On
Wednesdays Pop was in a Wii bowling league that met in his common room.  His
team was in second place.

Alyssa and Brent took awhile to
reach Pop’s room.  Every corner or alcove they passed on their way to Pop’s
room was crammed with fancy old fashioned chairs and sofas.  Sometimes those
sofas would be filled with familiar faces.  Weekly visits made Alyssa a very
popular person at Stoneybrook.  Charles at the nurse’s station wanted to know if
she thought the Flyers had a chance this season.  Of course they did!  Mrs.
Sloan stopped her to show off pictures from her grandson’s wedding, and Mr.
Petry needed help with his neck tie.

“Thanks Miss Alyssa, I gotta look
my best tonight.  Gotta date with Sofia you know!” 

Mr. Petry ate dinner with Sofia
Bunch every Sunday night, and every Sunday night he was brimming with
excitement.  Alyssa thought this was the sweetest thing she’d ever seen, and
anyway she could tie a tie pretty well.  Brent hung back a little today.  His
camera clicked away making Alyssa a little nervous.

Eventually they reached Pop’s room. 
The brass plaque beside the number 718 read: Alistair Maddow.  Like always the
door itself was open and the sounds of a baseball game could be heard in the
hallway.  Pop liked ESPN Classic and he didn’t like his hearing aid.

“Pop?”

“I hear you!”  The TV in the
sitting area clicked off, and Pop appeared from around a corner.  “You’re late
today.”

“Sorry.”  Alyssa mostly disregarded
his animosity—Pop was only cranky on the outside.  Walking over to him, she
hugged him lightly and kissed his wrinkled cheek.

“Good to see you Lyssa.  Steven.” 
Pop’s eyes clouded over when he reached out to shake hands with Brent.  Steven
was Alyssa’s father’s name.

“Pop, this is Brent.”  Alyssa
corrected him gently.  “You remember Brent.”  It was only lately that he’d been
getting confused, and most days he was as sharp as ever.  It made her heartsick
to see him this way.  When she was younger Pop had taken her fishing, taught
her to play ball, and how to throw a punch better than any boy she’d ever met. 
Now, sometimes, he seemed so old.

“Of course I remember.”  His voice
was sharp.  “You look different boy.”

“I’m sure I do, sir.  I’m not
wearing my glasses.”  Brent agreed easily.  As if he hadn’t been to visit
several times since getting contacts.  And as if the absence of those glasses
could suddenly make him lose three inches of height, and gain twenty pounds—not
to mention age him thirty years.  “How’s your bowling game?”

“You should see these old geezers
trying to bowl on that TV.  Terrible.”  Pop’s face lit up proudly.  “Bowled a
274 last week.  Never did so well at the real thing.”

“Congratulations.”  Brent lowered
himself into a chair and gestured to the chess board that always sat at the
ready on a small table. “Would you care for a game?” 

Brent and Pop played chess for a
little over an hour.  Alyssa curled up in an easy chair to watch.  All the
while the three of them chatted.  Pop asked Alyssa about school, and
cheerleading.  They spent a good bit of time dissecting the Flyers game from
the day before.  Pop thought they’d played sloppy and were lucky that St. Louis
played sloppier.  Alyssa was inclined to agree.  Brent figured a win was a win,
but he was concentrating too hard on the board in front of him to mention it.

When the game was over—Pop crushed
Brent—it was just about time for Pop to go down to dinner. 

“Well played Mr. Maddow.  I will
have to practice before I visit again.”  Brent picked his camera bag up.

Pop snorted.  “How old are you now,
boy?”

“I was eighteen last month sir.”

“Well then you’re a man now, bout
time you started calling me Al.  You take care of my girl here now—promise?”

“Yes sir.”  Brent shook his hand.

“I don’t need taking care of Pop.” 
Embarrassed, Alyssa chided him.  “See you next week, okay?”  With a hug and a
kiss the two friends left him to get ready for his dinner.

“Sorry about that.”  Alyssa said
when they’d reached the hall.

“About what?”  Brent wrinkled his
face, confused.  “I like your grandfather, Lyssa.  But I am starting to think
he must have been letting me win sometimes.  I really got my butt handed to me
today.”

Alyssa snorted—a lot like her Pop
had.  “No, way.  Pop doesn’t believe in
letting
people win.  If he did I
wouldn’t mind playing so much.”

Going to school was easier the
following week.  Alyssa had her car back, so there wasn’t any reason for Brent
to be mixing with her school life; the weekend had really helped her restore
that much needed balance to her life.  At lunch on Monday Beth was full of news
about the dress she’d bought on Saturday, and about how she was glad it was
blue because blue was Tommy’s favorite color.  The table of cheerleaders erupted
into discussion of dress colors, styles, and prices.

“What is Brent’s favorite color?” 
Jennifer asked sweetly the seat next to Alyssa.

“Brent likes green.”  Alyssa was
getting very tired of Jennifer.

“Oh, my dress is green you know.” 
Jennifer mentioned casually—although her casualness was betrayed by the catty
look in her eyes.  Jennifer was going to the dance with John, or Jake, or
James—Alyssa was pretty sure it was some J name. 

And not that she was jealous, but
Alyssa didn’t like the idea of Brent admiring Jennifer’s dress.  Maybe she
should rethink her own coffee colored gown.  Except she really liked its beaded
neck line.  No, she loved her dress and she wasn’t going to let Jenn get to
her.  This decision made Alyssa feel quite Brent-like and proud of herself. 
Until Jenn started asking about how they’d spent the weekend; and commenting on
how convenient it must be to have him right next door.  Alyssa accidentally
knocked her juice into Jenn’s lap.

“She’s so jealous.”  Beth offered
later.  “I bet Jeff will hate her dress.”

Jeff!  Why was it so hard for her
to remember the names of Jenn’s minions?  “I don’t care if she is jealous.  I just
wish she’d keep it to herself.”

“You’re right.  Brent wouldn’t do
that to you.  He’s not Pete.”

Alyssa decided not to mention that,
while Brent was extremely trustworthy, that wasn’t why she wasn’t jealous.  All
this pretending was starting to get annoying.

“Are you going to be at the
hospital on Thursday?”  Beth asked after Alyssa had been quiet for awhile.

The varsity club was sponsoring a
fall carnival for the children’s wing of the local hospital.  They had done one
the year before and it had gone so well they’d decided to make it an annual
event.  “Yeah.  I think I am in charge of bobbing for apples.”

“That sounds fun.  I’m at the
Jack-o-lantern table.  We should have signed up together.  We could have been
at the same booth.”

“That would have been good.”  Beth’s
relaxed comment startled her a little.  She really enjoyed Beth’s company, but
they didn’t usually go out of their way to spend time together.  Probably
because I am always so busy with Brent, Alyssa thought.  Also she thought it
was kind of a shame.  Having a close girlfriend would be nice; next time Beth
wanted to go shopping Alyssa resolved to make the time.  “What about Tommy—I
think he did the jack-o-lanterns last year.”

“Well the sign ups were before we
were together, so he’s in charge of one of the games.  We are riding over
together though.  Is Brent coming?”

“Oh, I hadn’t really thought to ask
him.”  Alyssa stammered.  Her last attempt at mixing her two worlds had hardly
been a stellar success.

“I know he doesn’t go here—but I am
sure the hospital won’t turn away his help.”

“You’re probably right.  I’ll
mention it to him.  But he’s been really busy lately with some class work so…” 
Alyssa let the sentence drop.  It was a pretty lame excuse anyway.  She would
have to ask him now.  Maybe she could try buttering him up first—let him beat
her at Mario Cart?  And it might be helpful if she showed up with some sort of
bribe.  Where could she get cinnamon roasted cashews on a Monday afternoon?

            “Am I going to regret accepting these?”  Brent
joked when he opened the door.  Alyssa was smiling and holding out a paper cone
brimming with, now slightly cold, cinnamon roasted cashews.  It was Wednesday. 
Alyssa talked herself into putting off seeing him until the last minute, but
she was going to suck it up and ask him today—since the carnival was in less
than 24 hours.

            “What?  A girl can’t just stop at the corn maze
and buy her best friend overpriced seasonal snack foods?”  Alyssa walked past
him and into his family room when he took the cashews from her.

            “Well gee, when you put it that way…”  The rest
of his sarcasm was lost when he downed a handful of the cashews before emptying
the rest into a bowl.

            Alyssa was ignoring him anyway.  Sitting on the
floor she began unpacking her back pack onto his coffee table and pulling out
her calculus homework.  “I need you to help me with my homework.”

            “You’re an ace at math, Lyssa.  What do you
really need?”

            “Well well, Mister Smarty-pants, it just so
happens that I don’t need help with calculus.  I just thought I would start on
my math homework while you proof read my Shakespeare paper.”  Alyssa was
pulling a second folder from her back pack and held this one out to her friend.

            Brent nodded.  He didn’t apologize, but he did
take the paper.  English was Brent’s best subject, but he knew Alyssa struggled
just to maintain the C she needed to qualify for cheerleading.  Sitting on the
couch Brent put their snack on the coffee table and began to read.  They worked
separately for the better part of an hour.  Occasionally Brent would comment aloud
on her paper, but he mostly made notes in the margin for her to use later. 
When he finished that he moved on to his own homework.  And they kept working
quietly until Ms. Carter served dinner.

            “Alyssa!  We haven’t seen you for dinner
lately.  Where have you been hiding?”  Ms. Carter commented as she spooned
homemade beef stew into three bowls.

            “Oh I guess I’ve just been busy.  Senior year
you know.” 

            “I do know.  Brent’s been busy too.  It seems
like just yesterday I was taking you two to story time at the library and
watching you play tag in the back yard.  Now you’re seniors and soon you’ll be
graduating…”

            “Mom…”  Brent groaned.  Alyssa giggled.  Ms.
Carter could sometimes be very sentimental.  It embarrassed Brent, but Alyssa’s
parents weren’t sentimental at all and she thought it was nice.

            “Okay!  Okay!”  Ms. Carter held up her hands in
defeat.  “Any who, Alyssa, tell me about the carnival at the hospital.  I hear
it is going to be even bigger this year.  What a wonderful thing you are doing
for those kids.”

            “What carnival?”  Brent’s eyes were wide as he listened
to his mother ramble.  “I didn’t know you were doing something at the
hospital.”  He turned to Alyssa.

            “Oh.  Well we did it last year too—the Varsity
club at school that is.  But you were already at your dad’s for the holidays
so...Anyway we are doing it earlier this year, tomorrow actually.  Umm.  I
thought you might want to come with me?”

            “Shakespeare paper my ass.”  Brent mumbled as he
went back to his dinner.

            “That’s a great idea!”  Ms. Carter took no
notice of the tension at the dinner table as she continued on about what a
great contribution they were making to society and what socially responsible
adults they were growing into.  Alyssa hardly tasted her stew.

            “Really, Lyssa?”  Brent finally spoke again
after they’d finished the dishes and he was walking her to her front door. 
“This is getting outrageous.  You never needed bribes or excuses to talk to me
before.  I would love to help at the hospital.  I would have done it anyway you
know.  Even without the boyfriend pretense.”

            “It wasn’t an excuse.  You know how bad I am
doing in that class!  If I don’t keep my grade up I won’t be able to cheer in
the spring.”  Alyssa shuffled her feet and refused to look him in the eyes. 
She shouldn’t have asked him.  She could have thought of something to tell
Beth.

            “Don’t split hairs Lyssa.  It was an excuse. 
Not in all of our lives have you ever needed an excuse to come over before.  Is
this really how you want to spend our senior year?  Everything is going to
change soon, and you are missing what’s left of high school.  And now you are
making me miss it too.”

            “What are you talking about!?”  Alyssa was
pretty sure she would be embarrassed later for shouting in the middle of the
street.

            “You.  Us.  This whole juvenile
I-have-a-boyfriend nonsense.  You are so important to me Lyssa, but this fake
boyfriend bit is getting old.  And it is making things weird with us.”  Brent
started pacing a small circle in front of her walk.  “Maybe, it wouldn’t be so
bad you know if you didn’t cheer in the spring.”

            “What!  What is it you have against
cheerleading?  You weren’t happy when I got chosen for head cheerleader, and
you’ve never bothered to come to my meets.”

            “I would come to the meets if it mattered to
you, but it doesn’t.  You don’t even like cheering!  Why aren’t you playing
softball, or soccer?  I would be at every game.”

            “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “I know enough.  I know this isn’t really you.” 
Brent held up a hand ticking off his points on his fingers.  “You hate
cheerleading.  You had a boyfriend you never liked, you have a crowd of friends
you can’t even trust to still be your friend if you’re single, and…”

            “Enough!  You don’t get to say that to me.  You
don’t go to my school.  You don’t know my friends.  And next year when you are
off at college I am going to need my other friends.”  Alyssa stomped off
towards her own front door.

            Much later that night Alyssa heard a knock on
her window.  When she pulled the cord to raise the blinds she saw Brent’s
rather large frame crouched on the low roof.  Oddly, the first thought to come
to her mind was how much bigger he looked now than when they’d been ten and
finding him outside her bedroom window was a daily occurrence.

            “What?”  Alyssa shouted through the glass just
to emphasize that she was still angry with him.

            “Open the window Lyssa.”

            “No.”

            “What did you mean?”

            “Duh.  I mean I’m not opening the window.  Go
home Brent.”

            “No, before.  You said ‘when
you
go away
to college’ why not when
we
go away?”

            Alyssa opened the window so they could stop
screaming, but she didn’t let him in.  Nope.  She left Brent kneeling on the
roof, in the cold even though it meant letting all that cold air in through the
window.  She was working on principal here.

            “I just don’t think I’m going to college that’s
all.  I’m gonna get a job or something.”

            “You heard back from Penn State?”

            “No.  I didn’t apply.”

            “We filled our applications out at the same
time.  Can I come in?”  Brent shivered dramatically.

            “No.  You may not.  I didn’t send it.”

            “Lyssa, what is going on?  It’s due in like four
weeks!  Please tell me you are just proof reading the essay again.”

            “Can we not do this now?  I’m freezing and I
want to close the window.”

            “You’re telling me.  If I knew you were going to
make me sit out here I would have at least put shoes on.”

            For the first time Alyssa noticed Brent’s bare
feet on the rough shingles.  She moved aside and let him climb over the window
sill.  “I just don’t think college is for me.  I’m not sure what I am going to
do yet, and I’m not good at anything like you are.”

            “Do your parents know?  Whatever, that doesn’t
really matter.  You are sending in the application Lyssa.  You are good at lots
of stuff, and how do you plan on deciding what to do with your life anyway? 
Can’t you decide while you go to school?”

            “It doesn’t matter.” Alyssa hadn’t meant to tell
him about the application.  Her half-plan from the day she decided not to take
the application to the post office was just to let him and everyone else think
she didn’t get in.  Now it seemed to be less than half of a plan.

            “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” 
Brent was staring at her.  Alyssa realized she must have been quiet for awhile. 
Well it was her room and she had asked him to go home.  So she could be quiet
if she wanted to be quiet.  “Lyssa?”

            “I’m not smart.  And that isn’t me asking for
pity or for praise.  You know what my grades are like.  And college is really
hard.  What’s the point?”

            “Who the crap told you weren’t smart?!”

            “SSSHHH!!!!  You’ll wake up my parents!”

            “Is that where this is coming from?”  Brent
didn’t have a lot of patience with Alyssa’s mom and dad.  They were less
traditional then his parents—even if they were still happily married.  They
weren’t bad parents they just weren’t as involved as Ms. Carter was when they’d
been growing up.  But they were good parents—she had rules, and a curfew, and
she was punished when she disregarded them.

            “No.  I told you.  I just don’t think I have the
grades to get in that’s all.”

            “You’re grades are good enough.  And you are
smart.  You just aren’t studious.  I can help you with your study habits if you
would feel better.”

            “Can we talk about this later?”  Alyssa was
tired.  The inside kind of tired.  When you don’t want to sleep, but you don’t
really want to be awake either.

            Brent just looked at her for a few minutes. 
“I’m sorry about before Lyssa.” 

            She just nodded.  It wasn’t the first fight
they’d ever had and she wasn’t really mad anymore.  Besides she was starting to
have a sneaking suspicion that he might have been right about some of it.

            Brent climbed back to his own room.  Alyssa laid
down and didn’t go to sleep for a long time.