Spencer's Face (Buckeye Hawks) (12 page)

We ate our chips and drank
our Cokes, then headed back down. It was a lot easier going down, so there were
a lot more jokes. Sandy and Taylor were hilarious when they got together. They
had such a history together. They’d been best friends for a few years. Zane had
quite the history with Taylor, too. They’d been friends since the second grade.
They’d grown up together and knew each other really well. I was almost jealous
of him. But she did decide that she wanted to date me.

I tried so hard to make a
move and ask her out, but I never got the nerve. Well, we weren’t ever exactly
alone either. I didn’t want to ask her out in front of Zane or Sandy. I’d wait.
I wanted to be alone with her in case I screwed it up royally.

The more I got to know
Taylor, the more I liked her. I liked being included among her friends. She
seemed to like being around people a lot. Maybe that was because she was from
such a big family. She was really comfortable around crowds. She was my
complete opposite in that area. I’d rather be alone most of the time.

Taylor and Sandy rode the
motorcycle home after we’d climbed the volcano. Sandy drove this time. She
insisted that it was her turn. Damn she was really good too. One good thing
about Sandy driving was that I could see Taylor’s ass as they drove in front of
us.

“Damn.” I said, shaking my
head, not taking my eyes off of Taylor’s ass.

“You said that right.” Zane
said with too much enthusiasm, then shut up really quickly. “Sorry.”

I laughed at him. “You’re
right. She’s sexy as hell.”

“Did you ask her out yet?” he
asked me.

“No.” I told him. I was
embarrassed to admit it. “It’s hard to do when you’re surrounded by people.”

Zane laughed at me. “Do you
want me to ask her out for you?”

I shook my head. “I’ll do it
myself.”

At the house, we swam for a
couple of hours. Zane loved to swim at the house. Our pool was bigger than
theirs and had a better diving board. He would swim all day long if his parents
would let him.

“We should have invited
Taylor and Sandy over to swim.” Zane said as he dove off the board for probably
the fortieth time.

When he came up from the
water, I smacked him in the face with one of the foam noodles. “Why? Do they
wear bikinis?”

“Oh yah! They fill out
bikinis.” He said, as he dove for a noodle of his own. He jumped out of the
pool to grab another pool toy. “It took Taylor forever to finally fill out, but
it was worth the wait.”

“Late bloomer, huh?” Todd
asked as he walked out. He surprised us.

I laughed at Zane. He’d just
been busted. He had my aunt and uncle convinced that he was a choir boy. It was
going to be fun to watch him squirm his way out of this one.

“We were talking about her
college applications. It took her forever for her to finally fill those out.” Zane
lied.

Todd laughed at him. He was
onto him. “I was young once. She seemed like a nice girl. Spencer said you two
were friends.”

“We’ve been friends for over
ten years, since I moved to Arizona, and she moved from Gila Bend. We started
school on almost the same day. We were both new, so we kind of bonded.”

“She’s a nice girl?” Janel
asked Zane.

“Too nice.” Zane said
quickly.

“Has she ever had a
boyfriend?” Janel asked him.

“Ever had a boyfriend?” Zane
asked with disbelief. “She’s had several boyfriends over the years.”

“So she gets around?” Todd
asked Zane. “Spencer I don’t think we want you seeing this girl. We don’t want
you dating anyone who is loose.”

“Loose?” Zane asked. “No way.
You’re getting the wrong idea here. Taylor is the opposite of loose.”

“You said she had several
boyfriends.” Janel argued with him.

“Yes, but she doesn’t sleep
with them. She’s on the virgin list.”

“So why so many boyfriends?
Don’t guys spread the word nowadays about who will and who won’t?” Todd asked.

“Yes, but they keep trying,
thinking she’ll make an exception. She’s just about the hottest girl in
school.”

“Are we still talking about
the girl who milks cows?” Janel asked. She didn’t believe it. She asked the question
as if she thought Zane and I were crazy.

“You haven’t met her yet.
She’s really pretty, with a perfect body.” Zane defended her.

“They’ve only seen her after
she milked cows.” I said quickly.

“We’ve met her.” Todd asked.
“She was cute. She just needed to comb her hair, maybe put on some makeup.”

Zane laughed at them. “Let me
show you my prom picture.” He stepped out of the pool and picked up his pants
from a chair. He pulled out his wallet from his pocket.

I stepped out of the pool,
too. I wanted to see the picture. “I thought you went to the prom last year
with Mary.”

“I did. This was the year
before. My girlfriend had just dumped me the day before prom. Taylor bought a
dress that day and went with me, to cheer me up.”

He pulled out the picture of
him and Taylor. She was wearing a sexy black dress with shiny things all over
it. Her long hair was hanging in the front, but straight. Taylor was gorgeous,
a little flatter chested, but still gorgeous.

“This is her?” Todd asked. “She
doesn’t look anything like the girl Spencer brought home last Saturday.”

“She can go from the barn to
beauty queen in thirty minutes. She was the prettiest girl at the prom.”

“Looks like she cheered you
up, judging from the smile on your face.” Todd said to Zane.

“She’s my best friend. I’ve
never had a better friend than her. She’s the kind of girl that you can count
on no matter what.”

“So, what if she and Spencer
hook up and then it goes south? Will you two still be friends?” Todd asked.

“Sure. I think so. Taylor
never holds a grudge. She’s still friends with all of her ex-boyfriends, even
Jim is still friends with her.”

“Who’s Jim?” I asked quickly.
I didn’t know a Jim.

“James Hilton. He’s a junior
this year. They dated off and on for like a year. They’d go out for a month,
then he’d dump her or she’d dump him, then they’d get back together.”

“The James that all the girls
swoon over every time he walks by?” I asked. I was getting a little worried
now.

“That’s the one. They’re
still good friends. If I had to put money on her going all the way with anyone,
it would have been Jim. They were really close. They still are in a way.”

“But you don’t think they’ll
get back together?” I asked. Please say no. I’d hate that.

“No. They finally decided to
call it quits for good. Jim moved on to girls that would put out. Taylor keeps
dating other guys that keep dumping her. Now, she’ll date Spencer until he
dumps her for not putting out, then we’ll all be friends again.”

I couldn’t believe Zane said
that in front of my aunt and uncle. “I’m not going to dump her for that.” I
defended myself. I didn’t want my aunt and uncle thinking I was some kind of a
horn dog with no respect for girls whatsoever.

“It’ll be interesting to see
how long you two will last then.” Zane said thinking about things.

So, maybe I could date Taylor
for a lot longer than most of the guys she’d dated before. I hoped so. If she’d
go out with me, I was damn sure not going to dump her for not putting out. I
suddenly wanted to call her up and ask her out. I didn’t though. I didn’t want
to do it while Zane was around.

At the game Friday night, I
saw Janel and Todd walk into the game and walk up the bleachers to find a good
seat. That was so cool that they came to the games. Mom and Dad never came to
the games. I made my way over to them as they passed in the front row on their
way up.

“Hi Todd. Hi Janel.” I yelled
up to them from the track that circled the football field.

They looked at me and smiled,
then they turned away, then they turned toward me really quickly again. They’d
just now recognized me. “Hi, Taylor!” they said in unison. They came to the
fence and leaned over to talk for a minute.

“We didn’t recognize you.”
Janel said, laughing.

“I knew I shouldn’t have come
in after working in the barn all day.” I told them laughing. I was so
embarrassed that I looked so bad when I’d met them that they didn’t even
recognize me today.

“You look really cute all
dressed up in your uniform.” Janel said, patting me on the arm as if she was
trying to convince me of her sincerity.

“You mean when I wash all of
the cow poop out of my hair and take a shower?” I teased her.

She laughed at me

“We’ll know which one you are
tonight.” Todd said. “We’ll be watching your flips.”

I heard my name being called
from the field. It was Sally. “I’ve got to go. See you later.” I said to them
and turned to walk away.

“Our nephew is dating the
prettiest girl in school. I was hoping she was the one.” I heard Janel say with
excitement and pride.

I stopped in my tracks so I
could hear more. Yah, I know eavesdropping is sneaky, but who wouldn’t have
done it in this case?

“You weren’t that impressed
with her the other day.” Todd said to her sternly as if reprimanding her.

Their voices grew softer as
they worked their way up the bleachers. Darn it. Just when it was getting good.

I joined Sally and the other
girls. I watched the game as Spencer played. He was doing fairly well tonight.
I was cheering as hard as I could. I did a special flip for him when he ran with
the ball. Everyone was cheering for him. It was really exciting. We won the
game, so everyone lined up for our special hugs. When I came to Spencer, I
hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled at me as if I’d given him the
best gift in the world. Odd that he thought that much of the kiss.

“See you in the parking lot?”
he asked as we parted ways in the line. He slid his hand down my arm and
grabbed my hand, then acted like he didn’t want to let it go. It felt funny,
but really good. It felt like he was finally making a move on me. I was
ecstatic. Maybe he’d ask me out tonight. I hoped so.

“I’ll be there.” I called out
to him as I was pushed to the next football player in line.

In the parking lot, Sandy and
I waited on the guys to finish showering. While we were there talking, Patty
and Denise walked up. They asked for a ride to the party. That meant that I
would have to take them home as well. I knew the score. It also meant I would
have to find them when it came time to leave, and probably walk them to the car,
and hope they didn’t barf in it like DeeDee did last year. My poor car stunk
for weeks after that.

We all waited on the guys to
come out. When Spencer and Zane walked out, several of the other football
players walked out at the same time. After the winning games, the football
players were always in a really good mood. They congratulated each other and
patted each other on the back verbally and physically. They jumped all over
each other. I heard a lot of praise going Spencer’s way. Maybe carrying that
ball a few yards was better than I thought it was. Cool!

Spencer and Zane walked up to
us. Zane always tried to park near me, and he managed to get a spot right next
to me tonight.