Second Chance (44 page)

“I
t’s not
poison oak
.
I just think you had an allergic reaction—
”

“And someone has precious baseball practice and c
a
n’
t take me to the emergency room,
”
she says, her voice wavering.

Miles and I meet each other’s eyes
and he
gives me this look like maybe we should step in and help out
.

“
Come on,
I have some lotion you can use for the itching
.
Y
ou’ll be fine.”

Miles clears his throat and both of their eyes snap towards us
.
When Gray notices me, any trace of guilt on his face turns to pure
rage
.

“What are
you
doing here?” he asks
me, specifically, but Miles answers him
.
He

explains
he
invited us over for lunch and this, for some reason, an
noys
Gray even more
.

What’s his problem
?
Does everything I do piss him off
?

“What happened
to you
?”
Cat asks the girl
.

Kari
huffs
.
“Well, it’s nice that someone here cares about my medical condition.” 

I watch Gray’s face turn red and one of his hands lock
s
into a fist
.
Kari
bends down a
nd
runs her fingernails over her legs
.

“Stop scratching
.
You’re making
it worse,” Gray tells her
.

“It hurts!”

“
It wouldn’t hurt if you’d
stop scratching for two seconds.”

“It’s poison oak!”

“No, it’s not,” he yells back
.
I look back and forth between them and try to gauge whether this fight is mutual disgust or sexual tension
.
Gray reaches his hand out to touch
Kari’s
shoulder in an attempt to calm her down
,
but she swats it away with a hard slap
.

“Get your cheap
hands off
of
me,” she screams.

It’s probably time to
intervene, but I’m secretly enjoying the spectacle
.
I can’t
hangout
with
Toolshed
, but Gray
is free to
wast
e
a gor
geous afternoon on crybaby here
?

“Cheap
?”
  Gray
asks
.

“Yes
.
This is your white trash idea of a date
?
Hiking?
”

“White trash?
”
Gray
repeats
.
He looks more confused than angry
.
 

Kari nods
.
“
Very clever
ploy, Gray
.
T
his way
you get out of paying
for anything
.
”

He
looks at the ground like there’s a r
esponse written out on his feet
.
 

“It’s just a lame attempt
to get out of
spending money,
”
Kari demands
.

“I bought you coffee,
”
he mumbles
.

“Here’s some advice,
since you obviously nee
d it,”
Kari
shouts
.
“No woma
n actually like
s
hiking
.
Okay?”

“I love hiking,” Cat says under her breath
,
but
Kari
doesn’t hear her.

“And if
they say they do, they’re lying,
”
Kari says
.
Miles, Cat and I exchange grins.

“We don’t like camping and tents and bugs and sporting events,”
Kari
insists
.

“Hey,” Miles speaks up
.
Appa
rently
dissing
sporting events i
s going too far
.

I set my hand on his arm and stand
up
.
I offer to get some cortisone
for
Kari
.
This reminds her
of the st
inging red blotches on her legs
.
Her mouth starts to tremble and
she bends down and starts scratching
at
them again
.
My eyes flicker to
Gray and he looks guilty
.

“I think I’m having a severe reaction,” she says
.
“I’m starting to feel nauseous.”

“Probably because you slammed a gallon of coffee on an empty stomach,” Gray says
.

Before she can wind up and slap him again
,
I step between them
.
I offer to drive
Kari
to the emergency room if
it
would make her feel better
.
She sniffles and nods and Gray digs in
to his pockets and hands me his keys
.
His eyes meet mine and t
hey barely look grateful
.
More than anything, he’s furious
.
I get the sneaking suspicion it’s my presence that’s bothering him more than anything
.
It makes me feel sick to see this is how he reacts to me
.
That I
’m such a burden for him to bear
.
It’s making me doubt
, again,
what I’m doing here
.
The
harder I try to knock down his walls, the higher he builds them
.
 

Kari
stomp
s
down the steps and I follow her to Gray’s car
.
I yell that I’ll drop the keys
off
later
.
Gray’s already
disappeared into the house, the screen door slamming shut
behind him
.
I
turn
and
wave to Miles and Cat
,
who watch me with concern.

GRAY

I’m l
ying on my bed, blaring
Missed the Boat
, by Modest Mouse
.
The lyrics seem appropriate considering my
current disastrous dating karma
.
I’ve still got my
practice shorts on
and I’m icing my shoulder
.
I smell like sweat
,
my arm’s sore
,
and I need to shower and write th
at stupid book review for Psych
class
.
I pull my fingers through my hair and stare up at the ceiling
.
I feel terrible about
Kari
.
Maybe I deserved to be called cheap
.
Maybe she’s right
, that
I took her hiking so I wouldn’t have to fork over
sixty
bucks for dinner with a girl I might not have chemistry with
.

I
hear a knock at my balcony door and I sigh at the ceiling
.
Speaking of chemistry…

A
second later the door opens and
Dylan crosses the room
.
I can feel her presence like heat, like sun
rays touching my skin
.
M
y car keys land on my dresser with a clang
.
Out of the corner of my eye I see her
turn
,
and I think she’s going to walk right back out, but s
he
s
its down next to me on
the
bed
.
She props her elbow on my knee
and h
er eyes study
me
,
but I keep mine focused o
n a long, dark crack
i
n the ceiling
.
It
runs
from one end of the room to the other
.
I wonder why the ceiling doesn’t crash down
and for a second I’m jealous
.
I wonder how you can be strong and hold yourself together with cracks
stretching
through your entire surface
.