The Dating Game (13 page)

Dan sat alone on the deck. He rattled the ice in his drink, sucked on the straw. He looked lonely.

Lina’s heart went out to him. How could that woman hurt him like this? She wanted to run to him and say, “You don’t need her! She’s not good enough for you!”

The waiter brought Dan the check. He put some bills on the table and got up to leave.

“We’d better move or he’ll see us,” Ramona said. “Come on, the newsstand.”

Lina wheeled her bike and hid with Ramona behind the newsstand. They peeked around to watch Dan put on his helmet, unlock his bike and ride away.

Lina wished she could follow him home, to see where he lived, but she wouldn’t do it with Ramona right there.

But maybe some other time…

12

The Male Mind Is Impervious to Logic

To:     hollygolitely, linaonme, mad4u

From: Your daily horoscope

HERE IS TODAY’s HOROSCOPE: LUNAR ECLIPSE! This is such a huge astrological event that it will affect all the signs in the zodiac. Alliances will shift, secrets will be revealed, identities will change. Go out tonight—if you stay home you’ll miss the fun!

I
like your new punk look, Mads, “Holly said in the car on the way to Mariska’s.” “It’s so not you.”

Mads had put lots of goop in her hair to make it messy, smudged her makeup, and tore holes in her t-shirt and tights.

“Tonight’s the night,” Mads said. “I’m roughing up my image. After tonight, there’ll be a new Madison Markowitz in town. When you think of me, you’ll think
bad girl
.”

“We could call you ‘Bad Mads,’” Holly said. “Or ‘Maddie the Baddie.’ Would that help?”

“No,” Mads said.

Mads, Lina, and Holly walked into Mariska’s party at 10:30, when it was already going strong. Claire and Ingrid lounged by the living room door, smoking. “Ooh, can I bum one?” Mads asked. Bad girls smoked, so she should, too.

Claire dug one out of her pack, complaining, “Do you know how expensive these are?”

“I’ll send you a check,” Mads said. “Thanks, Claire.”

Ingrid lit it for her. Mads took a puff. Ugh. The nicotine hit her blood stream and landed with a sickening thud in her stomach.

“You’re turning green,” Ingrid said.

“Give me that.” Claire snatched the cigarette away from Mads. “You don’t smoke. You’re just wasting it!”

Mads gladly relinquished the butt. So she wasn’t a smoker. Fine. Smoking wasn’t the only thing a bad girl could do.

“Have you seen Jake yet?” Lina asked Holly.

“No,” Holly said. “But I see Karl Levine brought a date.”

Karl Levine sat on the living room couch with the Friendly Fanny blow-up sex doll he’d talked about in IHD class. “I guess she’s about the best Karl can do, date-wise,” Lina said. “They should be here,” she added, meaning Jake and Walker. “Walker told me he was coming.”

Holly was nervous about seeing Jake. It had been two weeks since their double date with Lina and Walker. Jake never called. When she saw him at school, he said hi but not much else. She had a bad feeling. But maybe she was misreading him. Who could tell what a guy was thinking? Their minds seemed completely impervious to logic.

Walker, on the other hand, made it clear that he liked Lina, even though he didn’t push her. He’d already called her twice. And Lina didn’t care! It bugged Holly a little. She tried to play it cool like Lina. Why wasn’t it working for her?

“What’s with your friend Madison?” Sebastiano, wearing tight striped jeans and a leather jacket, materialized in front of them. He nodded at Mads, who was dancing wildly in front of three boys who gaped at her as if she were on crazy pills. “Is she channeling Courtney Love?”

“She’s trying to change her image,” Holly explained.

“Hmm. I think I can help her,” Sebastiano said. “I know the perfect guy—he’s an instant reputation-wrecker, and he’s conveniently here tonight. Dashiell Piasecki.”

“Who’s that?” Lina asked.

Sebastiano pointed to a tallish guy across the room with blocky shoulders and the boyishly conservative haircut of a politician. His blue polo shirt was tucked into his belted jeans.

“That guy?” Lina said. “I always thought he looked so uptight.”

“He’s a junior,” Sebastiano explained. “He might look like a golf pro, but word is he’s a player. He goes after anything that moves, as long as it’s female. Even better, he can’t keep his mouth shut. If Mads wants her little adventure advertised, Dash is your guy.”

“Looks like Mads has already sniffed him out,” Holly said. Across the room, Dash was pouring on the charm and Mads was giggling.

Lina elbowed Holly. “Hey—there’s Sean.” Sean walked through the living room, right past Mads and Dash.

Mads sensed Sean’s presence from the moment he stepped into the room. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, all the while talking and flirting with Dash.
Look at me, Sean
, she telegraphed.
This boy is a junior and he’s flirting with me
. He
doesn’t think I’m too young
. Sean glanced at Mads as he passed, then did a double-take. All right! He noticed her! He even recognized her through all the wild hair and makeup. But all he said was, “Hey, kid. What’s up?” Mads wanted to melt, even though she had the feeling he couldn’t remember her name.

That was okay. By the end of the night she’d make a name for herself, and he’d remember it.

“Hey,” Dash said. “Want a beer? Let me get you a beer.”

Mads followed him out to the keg on the back porch, where he poured two generous cups of beer. “Drink up,” Dash said, guzzling his.

“Yeah. Party!” Mads took a sip.

“You’re a cool girl,” Dash said. “I can tell.”

“Thanks.” He poured himself another beer and squirted a bit more into her cup, even though she’d hardly made a dent in it.

“I wish they served decent wine at these parties,” Holly complained. She and Lina were raiding the kitchen, looking for something to drink besides beer.

Through the open screen door they could hear the voices of people gathered around the keg on the back porch. “I had to get cable so I could watch Manchester United on ITN,” a low voice said.

Holly grabbed Lina. “It’s Jake!” she whispered. Talking about soccer as usual.

“What’s Manchester United?” a girl’s voice said. “Is it like an airline or something?”

“What do I do?” Holly whispered. “Should I say something? Should I ignore him? What should I do?”

“Shh! Someone’s coming!” Lina whispered as the screen door squeaked open. Jake, two other guys, and a girl walked into the kitchen, clutching beers. Jake cast a quick glance at Holly but said nothing. One of the girls opened the fridge and grabbed a few Diet Cokes. Then the group headed back outside and across the yard to the pool house.

“I can’t believe he did that!” Lina cried. “He just walked right by without saying hello or anything!”

“I know.” Holly’s heart beat heavily against her breastbone. She was about to do something stupid, and she knew it. The worst part was she couldn’t stop herself. The little Nancy Drew inside her always had to solve the mystery. Jake was acting weird and she had to know why.

“Hi, girls.” Walker appeared, beer in hand. “How’s it going?”

Holly tried to smile at him, but it was hard. His friendliness only underlined Jake’s coldness toward her.

“Hi, Walker,” Lina said. “Listen, do you know what’s up with Jake? He’s giving us the freeze. Ow!”

Holly mashed Lina’s toe with the tip of her shoe. She didn’t want Lina to tell Walker what was going on. She didn’t want anyone to know. But it was too late. Anyway, Lina got the message—she wouldn’t talk about it with anyone else.

“Really? That’s weird,” Walker said. “I don’t know. I’m not really close to him or anything.…”

“I’m going out to the pool house,” Holly said.

“I’ll come with you,” Lina said.

“No—you stay here with Walker,” Holly said.

“Holly—”

“I mean it.”

Lina watched Holly walk out the back door. She was worried about her. What was wrong with Jake? How could he treat Holly this way?

The pool house was a different scene from the main house—louder, darker, smokier. A few kids lingered by the pool, but it was a chilly night and most people took shelter inside. Jake looked up when Holly appeared, then looked away. He whispered something to his friends. One of the girls giggled. Holly wanted to turn around and run, but she stood her ground.

They were talking about her. But why? She’d hardly fooled around with Jake—there was nothing to say about their flop of a date the week before. But why should that stop anyone?

Holly stood at the edge of the room, alone, wondering what to do. A few kids bopped to a hip-hop CD. A trio of guys leaned against the wood paneling, talking, laughing, and looking her way. What were they expecting from her, a striptease? She walked boldly into the room as if their stupid rumors didn’t scare her.

Sebastiano snaked toward her, smoking a cigarette. “Hey, beautiful,” he said, leading Holly to a couch. “So, the details of your blind date are out. As your locker-neighbor, from now on, I’d really appreciate if I could hear these things directly from you, so
I
can be the one spreading it around.”

Holly steadied her nerves. “What details are you talking about?”

“Your super-hot date with Jake, of course. Apparently that rack of yours is amazing. According to Jake, you have earned the title of Boobmeister General, every inch of it.” He half-bowed toward her. She wanted to kick him.

“Let’s see,” Sebastiano continued. “You danced naked in front of him at his house, then you pounced on him and made wild, passionate love for hours. He finally had to drag you home by the hair, but you kept begging for more.…”

“He dragged me by the hair?”

“Okay, that little touch is mine,” Sebastiano admitted. “But the rest of it is pure hearsay.”

Holly couldn’t believe Jake was saying this. There wasn’t even one kernel of truth in it! She was never at his house, they were at Walker’s, and all they did was kiss a little. And he was a terrible kisser!

She didn’t get it. What did he want—to make it look as if he’d used her and dropped her? Was that supposed to make him look good somehow? Was he embarrassed because nothing happened on their date? That was his own fault!

She would never understand guys.

Two girls walked by, talking closely. “Which one is she?” one girl asked the other as they brushed past Holly’s knees.

“Shh! She’s right there!” the other whispered, loud enough for Holly to hear. They scurried away, giggling.

“So Jake’s trying to ride your rep to a bad-boy rep of his own,” Sebastiano said. “Age-old ploy. Of course, it will probably backfire once I start spreading your side of the story. But I have to warn you that people may not buy it. Not that it’s not believable. It’s just not as much fun to talk about.”

“Whatever.” Holly started to feel uncomfortable, the smoky, noisy, crowded pool house closing in on her. “I need some air.”

She pulled herself off the couch and went outside. She sat on a bench by the pool and wished she’d brought her jacket with her.

She knew about the double standard, how it was good for boys to have a wild rep and bad for girls. But why didn’t Jake just date her, instead of making up stories? Was he afraid of her? And then she saw an answer. If she dated Jake steadily—if she was Jake’s girlfriend—then she wouldn’t be a slut anymore. And Jake wouldn’t be a stud, he’d just be a guy with a girlfriend. He probably wasn’t ready for a girlfriend, anyway.

Rob Safran, one of the boys she’d noticed in the pool house, walked over and sat down on the bench. “Hey,” he said. “Are you okay?”

She glanced up at him, surprised. She knew who he was—they were both on the Community Service Committee, along with about a hundred other kids. She’d never given him much thought, but now that she looked at him she thought he was kind of cute. His thick, messy brown hair stuck out around his head as if he cut it himself. He had brown eyes and broad cheekbones that might have looked severe if it weren’t for the freckles dotting them all over, which made him look boyish and sweet.

But what was he doing here? Her antennae shot up warily—had he come to tease her? Torture her? Play some kind of joke? Time to bring back the tough girl act.

He sat down next to her. “You left the pool house kind of suddenly.”

“Everything’s cool,” she said. “I just needed some air. And that Nelly song was getting to me. If I hear it one more time I’m going to lose it.”

“Yeah, some stoner kept hitting repeat on the stereo,” Rob said. “You’re one of the girls who started that blog, aren’t you? The Dating Game? With those questionnaires and the matchmaking and everything, right?”

“Right,” Holly said. “It’s an IHD project.”

“God, IHD. What a stupid class. I took it last year. They should be honest and call it HWT: Huge Waste of Time.”

“What was your project?” Holly asked.

“I—don’t want to tell you. It’s too embarrassing.”

“Come on! What was it? I won’t laugh, I promise.”

“Shh! She’s right there!” the other whispered, loud enough for Holly to hear. They scurried away, giggling.

“So Jake’s trying to ride your rep to a bad-boy rep of his own,” Sebastiano said. “Age-old ploy. Of course, it will probably backfire once I start spreading your side of the story. But I have to warn you that people may not buy it. Not that it’s not believable. It’s just not as much fun to talk about.”

“Whatever.” Holly started to feel uncomfortable, the smoky, noisy, crowded pool house closing in on her. “I need some air.”

She pulled herself off the couch and went outside. She sat on a bench by the pool and wished she’d brought her jacket with her.

She knew about the double standard, how it was good for boys to have a wild rep and bad for girls. But why didn’t Jake just date her, instead of making up stories? Was he afraid of her? And then she saw an answer. If she dated Jake steadily—if she was Jake’s girlfriend—then she wouldn’t be a slut anymore. And Jake wouldn’t be a stud, he’d just be a guy with a girlfriend. He probably wasn’t ready for a girlfriend, anyway.

Rob Safran, one of the boys she’d noticed in the pool house, walked over and sat down on the bench. “Hey,” he said. “Are you okay?”