Taking Chances (8 page)

“Spencer.” I blushed.

“Ooo! How long have you been together?”

“A few weeks.” I kept blushing. I knew my face was probably bright red.

“That’s sweet. He sounded nice. They said that he was in the crash, too.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “But we are both okay. We will both be at school today.”

“I want to meet him soon,” she told me. “You can’t just hide these things from me.”

I smiled. “Alright. I’ll make sure he meets you.”

Aunt Megan’s watch beeped. “Oh,” she said. “Sweetie, I have to go, but I’ll come see you guys later tonight.”

“Okay. Thanks for coming Aunt Megan.”

“No problem. I’ll call you later.” She hugged me and walked out the front door.

I began to put the groceries away and saw an envelope on the counter with my name on it. I opened it and saw a stack of twenty dollar bills. There was also a note next to the envelope:

Sydney,

Megan said there was a dance at school soon. I wasn't sure if you had anything to wear, so I asked Michael to leave you this.

Love, Mom

I smiled. Maybe my mom was changing. Maybe she cared more than I thought.

Lillian, Rebecca and I rode the bus to school that morning, since I didn’t have a car, and when I got there, Jacquie and Jeremy were at Spencer’s locker with him.

“Sydney!” Jacquie said as she saw me. She came up and hugged me and I smiled.

“Are you alright?” she asked. I nodded.

“I’m fine,” I told her.

“Hey, Sydney.” Jeremy said as I got to my locker.

“Hey Jeremy, hey Spencer.” I said. Spencer smiled at me, and Jacquie and Jeremy left to go to class.

“Are you feeling alright?” Spencer asked me when they left. I nodded.

“How about you?” I asked him.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “I never actually met your mom yesterday,” he said.

“Oh, yeah,” I agreed. “Well my stepdad wanted us home for some family stuff, so she was in a hurry.”

“Oh, well I'd like to meet her sometime,” Spencer said.

“Sure,” I said hesitantly.

Spencer then went on to tell me that we had been invited to Jacquie's on Friday for a little party she was throwing.

The rest of the week went by fast and I felt terribly...normal. Michael wasn't home all week, but my mom and Aunt Megan were there. Everyone began acting like a perfect happy family.

On Friday after school, Aunt Megan came over so she could meet Spencer before we went to Jacquie's. Maddie had left for the night, which made Spencer upset. He was planning on finally meeting my mom.

Spencer arrived just before six.

“Hey, Syd,” he said as I let him into the house.

“Um…Spence, I want to introduce you to my Aunt Megan. Aunt Megan, this is Spencer.”

“Sydney has told me a lot of good things about you, Spencer,” she said, shaking Spencer’s hand.

He smiled. “It’s nice to meet you. Sydney has told me many nice things about you, too, Miss…”

“George. I’m not married. But you can call me Megan. When people call me Miss George I feel too old.” She laughed. Aunt Megan looked at me and smiled. “So what is
your
last name Spencer? You look very familiar.”

“Stevenson.” he answered. “I live just down the road.”

“John Stevenson’s boy?” she asked, amazed for some reason.

Spencer smiled, “Yeah. You knew my Dad?”

“Yes, of course I did! He used to come over and help plant corn with his brother…Justin, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Spencer looked at me and smiled, excited that he was known.

“I’ve never met Justin, but I did know your mother, Lilly. She was a lovely girl. I knew your older brother, Joseph, too. I believe I’d seen you as well, but you wouldn’t remember. You were only a baby.”

“It’s nice to hear that you know me.” Spencer smiled kindly. “Sydney barely had a clue who I was.”

“That’s little Sydney for you,” Aunt Megan smiled. “Well, she’s not so little anymore. But she’ll always be my little Sydney Nicole.” She brushed a piece of my dark hair away from my face, and tucked it behind my ear. “You’d better take good care of her now, Mr. Stevenson.” Aunt Megan was jokingly stern as she looked at Spencer, her eyes raised in warning.

“I promise I will, ma’am.” He smiled.

Aunt Megan laughed. “Well, he knows how to be formal.” She shook his hand again.

“Are you ready to go, Syd?” Spencer asked me, still smiling at Aunt Megan’s comment.

“Yeah. I’ll see you later Aunt Megan,” I said as I walked out the door, taking Spencer’s hand.

Jacquie’s house was just down the road from mine; the opposite way of Spencer’s, so it took only three minutes to get there. The house was bigger than mine and painted blue with white shutters just like Aunt Megan’s in town. Jacquie’s long, concrete paved driveway was filled with cars and trucks. Loud party music could be heard from the inside of the house, and almost all the lights inside the house were on.

“Just a
little
party?” I asked, nervous. Spencer had said it was going to be like a little party. I didn’t know that Jacquie threw big parties.

“You know Jacquie,” Spencer said, just as nervous as I was.

Spencer parked in the driveway, and we both got out of the car. He wrapped his arm around my waist, and led me into the house. Once we got inside, Spencer said, “Wow!”

I nodded in agreement.

He led us through the crowds of people, and some greeted us as we passed, trying to find one of our closer friends.

“I’m going to try and find Jeremy. He has to be here somewhere.” I could barely hear him over the loud music.

“Er…I’ll go find Jacquie,” I replied. He left me, and I wandered around the big house.

There were people everywhere. People I didn’t even know. I had never been in Jacquie’s house, so I didn’t know where to look for her. I continued looking through the groups of talking and dancing people, trying to find a familiar face. Finally, I found Jacquie. She was standing in the white tile kitchen alone, taking cans of soda pop out of the fridge, and putting them on the counter. The kitchen was quieter than anyplace in the house. Jacquie turned around and saw me.

“Oh, Sydney! You’re here! I thought you and Spence were never going to show up!” She came over and hugged me. “Is he here?” she asked, looking behind me.

“Yeah, but he went to go find one of the guys,” I said. “Since when do you hold huge parties at your house?” I asked.

“I don’t do it very often. I’ve only had one or two, but I thought it was time for another. It’s cool, isn’t it?”

“Um…yeah, I guess. Where are your parents?”

“Out of town. Daddy is on a golfing trip in Arizona with some of his buddies from work, and Mom’s out of town until Monday, down in Springfield at another agriculture conference.”

“Oh,” I replied, looking around the large kitchen. “Your house is really nice,” I mused.

“Thanks. “She smiled. “Hey, can you hand me that box of cigarettes over on the counter?”

My eyes widened, and I winced at bad memories as I handed her the small white box. “You smoke?” I asked, disbelievingly.

“No, silly! Definitely not! My Dad does occasionally, and I don’t want these out where anyone can get them.” She stored them in a cupboard below the sink.

I sighed in relief. “You scared me for a minute there, Jacqs.”

She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,”

“Um…So, how do you find these parties fun exactly?” I asked Jacquie. Looking around at the dancing people and hearing the loud music almost noisy enough to hurt my ears, I wondered how anyone could like that.

“You’ll have fun sooner or later. This is just the beginning. The pizza hasn’t even come yet. Everyone here loves pizza.” She saw the nervousness in my eyes. “Syd,” she said. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fun. There’s no alcohol or anything, just pizza and pop. I promise. My parents take all the alcohol with them when they go. Don’t get worried, okay?”

“Okay.” I sighed.

“I’m surprised at you, Syd.”

“Why?” I asked.

“You’d think that since you’re from Chicago, you’d be used to big parties.” She opened a two-liter of Pepsi and poured herself a glass.

“I’ve never been to one,” I admitted.

“Really?” Her eyes widened. “Wow. If I were in your place, I’d be at all the big parties.”

“I’m more of a quiet person,” I told her.

“I know.” She smiled. “But I just figured…Well, that doesn’t matter. The real fun will be when everyone is gone and it’s only Annie, you and me having a sleepover!” She sounded super excited.

I nodded. The sleepover would be more fun than being around a bunch of people I didn’t even know. I was used to being alone, and I didn’t really like big crowds. Sometimes I’d be afraid of getting claustrophobic.

Jacquie took a sip of her pop, and said, “Now, go have some fun, girly! I’ll be out there in a bit.”

“Okay,” I said as I walked out of the kitchen.

I walked back into the living room, where everyone was dancing to the loud music.

“Sydney?” Matt called my name through the crowd.

“Matt?” I asked.

“Yeah. Hey!” He came over to me and put his arm around my waist.

“What’s up?” he asked me.

“Not much. What are you doing here?”

“Jacquie invited me. I used to go to school here, remember?”

“Yeah,” I mused.

“Here.” He began to lead me into one of the smaller rooms. “I can barely hear a thing.”

We entered a small family room, and sat down on a couch.

“There, that’s better.” He sighed. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Just a little sore.”

He nodded. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried about you,”

“I’m okay, thanks. You didn’t need to worry.”

He smiled. “I’m glad. So, what’s up down in Shabbona?”

“Not much.” I shrugged. “Just same old Shabbona.”

Matt laughed. “Yeah, I remember those days. DeKalb’s a little better, but not by much.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, unsure what to say.

“Oh!” Matt exclaimed. “I talked to my manager, and you should be receiving a call soon about your application.” He smiled proudly.

“Are you serious? Thank you so much!” I leaned forward and hugged him.

“No problem.” He chuckled, adjusting his black square glasses, and baseball cap like the one Spencer usually wore. “I think it should be fun working together.”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Sydney?” I turned around to see Spencer walking through the doorway of the room.

“Oh, hey Spence.” I stood, and he wrapped his arm around my waist. “Matt,” he said tensely as he saw him. Matt nodded in acknowledgement.

“Did you find Jacquie?” he asked me, again stealing a glance at Matt quickly.

“Yeah, she was in the kitchen.”

“Okay, I found Jeremy. Mike, Dean, and Annie are here, too.”

“Cool,” I replied.

 “Well, Sydney, I’m going to go meet up with some friends. I’ll see you later.” Matt smiled before walking away. “Hopefully soon.”

“What’s Matt so anxious about?” Spencer asked angrily as Matt left.

“He got me a job at Lakeview.”

“Oh.” He looked back to where Matt had just been standing.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t like that guy at all.” He shook his head angrily.

“Why?” I asked. “It seems as if everyone knows but me.”

“Bad memories, that’s all.” He didn’t look at me.

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “
You’re
my boyfriend.
Not
him.” He smiled and calmness came back into his amazing light brown eyes.

I stood up on the tip of my toes, threw my arms around his neck, and brought my lips to his. He put one of his hands on my back, and his lips moved eagerly, yet lightly restrained with mine. Most of his worries were gone. I would never leave him, and he knew that.

Chapter 8

INDESCRIBABLE LOVE

Somewhere near eleven, everyone but Jeremy, Jacquie, Annie, Michael, Dean, Spencer and I were gone. We all sat on the couches in the family room, watching TV. The guys left around midnight.

Jacquie, Annie and I decided we would sleep down in the gigantic living room, so we made a huge bed out of three blankets and a bunch of pillows. We ate chips and salsa, drank soda pop, and watched the chick flicks
P.S. I love you,
with Gerard Butler,
You’ve got mail,
with Tom Hanks, and
No reservations.
Watching
No Reservations
made me think about Spencer, because some of Michael Buble’s songs are in it. That night was probably one of the most fun nights I had ever had. Jacquie was right, the fun came eventually. We fell asleep at three-thirty in the middle of our third movie.

When we woke up, it was extremely bright out. I figured it had to be at least ten-thirty in the morning. I looked at my cell phone. It was eleven forty-five! Well, that was what we deserved after not falling asleep until three in the morning.…

“That’s the latest I’ve ever slept in,” I told Jacquie and Annie.

“This is my latest, too,” Annie said.

“Not mine. I slept in until three in the afternoon once,” Jacquie said.

“Are you serious?” Annie said.

“Yep. I had been at a party until about two-thirty in the morning, I came home wasted.”

“Wait, wasted, as in…you were drinking?” Annie asked, shocked.

“Yeah. I didn’t drink anymore after that, though. It was my first and last time.”

“That’s good that you don’t do it anymore.” I said, thinking back to that pack of cigarettes on the counter.

“Yeah. Even when I turn twenty-one, I’m not sure if I’ll drink. It made me feel like crap, and then it made me do things that I still regret.”

“Like what?” Annie asked.

Jacquie sighed. “I lost my virginity that night, with a college guy I didn’t even know.” she said, ashamed.

“How old were you?” Annie asked sadly, feeling genuinely sorry for Jacquie.

“I had just turned fifteen. But even though it was a few days after my fifteenth birthday, I was pretty much still fourteen.”

“I’m so sorry, Jacqs,” Annie said.

“It’s not your fault. It was mine. But that’s why I strongly suggest that you guys don’t drink until you’re legal. And even when you are, don’t get wasted. I love you guys too much to want you to do something stupid like I did. If you’re married by then, go ahead.” She giggled. Annie and I smiled. “But, my life plans were thrown away because of stupid alcohol. I was planning on not losing my virginity until I got married. It would be something that would give me pride. I would know that I was responsible enough to not do anything bad as a teenager. My cousin ruined her life and lost her pride, and I didn’t want to be like her. She was the one who threw the party. She was seventeen then, now she’s twenty and she’s already screwed up her life. She is single and raising two young children because their fathers abandoned them. She lives in Rockford, and her mom is taking care of the kids most of the time.”