True Love and Magic Tricks (4 page)

“
You!” Lexie yells with a
smile on her face and goes to throw a fry at Ryan, but instead
tosses it in her mouth.

“
Caught,” Ryan says in
defeat.

“
Maybe if you ate some meat
you wouldn’t be so hungry, and wouldn’t need to steal my fries all
the time.”

Ryan’s nose crinkles. “I’ll stick to
my plain pizza, thanks.”

“
It’s not pizza without
pepperoni,” Lexie says, and takes a huge bite of her own
pepperoni-covered slice.

“
You’ll be the one with
clogged arteries one day. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure you take
your cholesterol pill.”

Lexie goes to throw another fry at
Ryan, and he opens his mouth in anticipation. Lexie stops herself
then looks at Kaylee. “You just saved me a lot of fries. Thanks. I
can’t believe I didn’t pick up on that.”

Kaylee tosses her arm around Lexie,
and I wait for Lexie to give her a confused and dirty look. She’s
not exactly the type of girl who hangs with other girls. Ryan and I
are pretty much her only friends.

“
Stick with me,” Kaylee
says, pulling her closer. “I can teach you a lot.”

“
You’re weird,” Lexie says,
and then actually starts laughing.

It hits me then. Kaylee isn’t like
other girls. She’s really not like anyone else. Which makes her the
perfect side to turn our triangle into a square.

***

After school Lexie and I meet at
Ryan’s Lincoln and wait for him to get out of History. Mr. Miller
always keeps them till after the bell.

Lexie leans against the passenger door
and her eyes wander to Sean Dixon. Why she likes him is beyond me.
Despite the fact that her home life is a mess, Lexie is a cool
chick and could do a thousand times better than that
ogre.

“
So,” I say in a sad
attempt to get her attention off him, as if that will help get rid
of her crush.

“
So?”

“
What do you think of
Kaylee?” The words are out before I even have a chance to stop
them. I reach into my pocket and pull out my deck of cards, keeping
my focus on the red design.

“
She’s weird, but she’s not
fake like some people.” Lexie rolls her eyes, and her gaze lands on
Sandy Nelson, who is across the quad talking to her minions.
“What’s going on with you two anyway?”

“
Uh…Nothing. She’s just
helping me with the talent show that’s all. Nothing
more.”

“
If you say so,” Lexie says
with a cocked eyebrow.

“
Ready to get out of here?”
Ryan runs up to us, and messes up Lexie’s hair. She smacks him good
in the stomach. When he recovers he pats my back and opens the
doors.

Lexie slides in the front seat, and I
get in the back. No yelling shot gun because the one time she got
stuck in the back, she put her hands over Ryan’s eyes, and he
almost took out Mrs. Peterson’s mailbox.

We drop Lexie off first. Ryan pulls up
to the house, where she and her mom live in a basement apartment.
Today her mom is sitting on the front lawn, her purse in her lap
and the contents spilled around her.

Lexie sighs and shakes her
head.

“
Come on. Let’s get her in
the house,” Ryan says, and gets out of the car. He meets Lexie on
the other side, and they both move like a united front to Mrs.
Boggs. I would help, but Lexie gets so embarrassed, it’s better for
her if I just pretend it’s not happening. I take out my cards and
start shuffling.

Ten minutes later, Lexie and her mom
are inside, and Ryan’s back in the driver’s seat.

“
Everything okay?” I
ask.

He shrugs. “Okay as it’ll ever be.” I
reach out and pat his shoulder. I can say it will get better, or
not to worry about Lexie because she’ll be just fine, but we both
know it’d just be me blowing smoke out of my ass.

“
So…I’m taking swing dance
lessons with Kaylee.” I didn’t mean to tell him. Ryan may be my
best friend, but there are some things you just don’t tell
people.

Shock flashes across his face, and he
stares at me like I just told him I was moving to Africa to live
with elephants. “You can’t even play Just Dance.”

“
I only tried it
once.”

“
And that was enough. Grams
still hasn’t forgiven you for breaking her favorite
vase.”

“
Still don’t understand why
it was on the coffee table.”

“
Because it had been
perfectly safe there since I was nine.”

“
With your grace, I’m
surprised you didn’t take it out sooner,” I say.

“
Touché.” His eyes go back
to the road. “Swing dance lessons, huh? You must really have it bad
for her.”

I don’t say anything. I don’t have to.
Ryan already knows.

“
When she jumped on my back
and dumped my water bottle on my head, I couldn’t believe
it.”

I smile at the memory of Kaylee’s long
legs gaining on Ryan. The way she leaped onto him like a snow
leopard attacking its prey. It was priceless.

“
She’s good for you,” he
continues. “You’ll balance each other out. Now don’t go stepping on
her feet and ruining it.” Ryan grins, then smacks my shoulder. I
rotate my arm to ease out the pain.

“
Thanks.”

No pressure. No pressure at
all.

Chapter 5

“I think the left is
smaller than the right,” I tell Mr. Pippi, my pet gerbil. He’s
gnawing on his food—and old copies of
Seventeen
—his cute white cheeks
puffed up. He’s adding as much to the conversation as he usually
does.

I slap my hands over my boobs and
wiggle them. My nose wrinkles as I watch myself in the full-length
mirror on the back of the door. “It’s definitely
smaller.”

Mr. Pippi scratches at the water in
his cage, and I strip out of my yellow Very Sexy Back String
Push-Up from Victoria’s Secret. I love that one, but if my boob is
all out of whack in it then I better go with something
else.

Even though this is not a
date.

It’s not.

But it sort of is.

My teeth pull at my lip. I slip on a
bubblegum pink front clasp and wiggle my boobs again.

I slump on the edge of my
bed,
Teen Vogue
and
Glitter
crunching under my butt as I flip to the quiz “Is he into
you?” that was in
GL
last month.

“
Okay,” I say to my gerbil,
“help me figure this out. On the one hand, Nate’s picking me up. So
that could classify as a date.” I stick my chest out over my
magazine, twisting a bit. I guess I’m satisfied with the boobage
ratio in this bra. “On the other hand, we’re not having food or
going out anywhere. So that could mean it’s not a date.”

I pull him from his cage when he
refuses to do anything but snuggle in the corner and
sleep.

“
Pay attention.” I point at
him then set his furry butt on my bright blue and yellow comforter.
He starts biting at my copy of
Seventeen
—seems to be his favorite
subscription—so I swipe all the magazines to the floor. “Have you
seen Nate? He’s adorable. Like I-could-totally-fall-in-love
adorable. So if I go about this all wrong, I could lose my
shot.”

Mr. Pippi puts his front paw on my
knee, and I pick him up and wiggle my nose with his. “You’re
totally right. I need to relax. It’s not like he’ll be seeing what
bra I’m wearing, unless I have a strap mishap.”

I pet his white furry head, put him
back on the bed, and skip to my closet. No nerves. Just fun. I can
do this. Whether it’s a date or not, I’m going to be me and he’s
going to be him and it’ll be magical. Pun totally
intended.

“
What do you think?” I ask
Mr. Pippi, holding my shirtdress up to my body. I’m about to fling
it off the hanger when my gerbil decides to take a nosedive off the
bed into my bottom dresser drawer.

“
Oh!” I squeal, pulling him
from a pair of yoga pants. “Brilliant thinking, friend! I can’t
exactly assist in something too dressy.” After setting him back in
his cage—where he promptly goes to sleep—I yank on my pink-banded
yoga pants and a bright purple camisole. This should be good for
any flexible things he needs me to do.

Oh right, I should probably stretch. I
take in a large breath and reach sky high, and then bend at the
waist to touch my sparkly toes. My blond pigtails swish by my
shoulders, and I shoot straight up.

“
Why didn’t you tell me?” I
scold Mr. Pippi, tugging my braids out. “I can’t look like a
five-year-old on this date. Or non-date. Or whatever!”

I let the strands wave over my
shoulders as I fling the elastics across the room next to the
shirtdress I discarded. Mom used to give me a lot of beef for my
room being a mess all the time, but Dad is never up here. So once
she moved out, I think there was this implied sign that said “Don’t
come in unless you want to be scarred for life.”

My heart gives a dull thump as I watch
Mr. Pippi snooze in his cage. This would normally be a girl thing
I’d do with Mom. She’d help me with my bra, my outfit, talk me out
of my crazy or join in my crazy.

When she moved out, I planned to go
with her. But I’d just gotten adjusted to high school, and I really
didn’t want to leave. So I stayed with Dad. Little did I know I’d
be friends with everybody and nobody all at once.

Smoothing my hair out, I put a smile
on my face and keep it there. Think positive thoughts. Nate-like
thoughts.

My braids give my hair a nice wavy
look, so I just spritz on some hairspray and pull a fresh
elastic—one that isn’t covered in knotted hair—around my wrist.
Just in case my blond locks get in the way of a magic sword or
something.

After applying my makeup and
scrutinizing every bump and curve of my body in the mirror, I turn
to Mr. Pippi with arms spread.

“
And the judge’s score
is…?”

He doesn’t move, still sound asleep
after his full meal of gerbil pellets.

“
A ten? Oh, you’re too
nice.” I wave bye, blow a kiss, and grab the big blue and black
gift bag I got for Nate. “Wish me luck!”

After hearing nothing but silence, I
put on a gerbil voice and squeak, “Luck!”

One of these days, I’ll have a human
friend to do this with.

***

My knees won’t stop bouncing as I wait
on the porch. My neck’s going to have one heck of a kink with the
way I’m cranking it to look up and down my street. Please tell me
he remembers where I live. He took me home last night after swing
dance, but it was dark. Houses look so different in the
dark.

But duh. I’m sitting on the porch.
Dead giveaway that it’s my house.

I check my phone for the millionth
time. So, I’m early. Like, way early. He won’t be here for another
twenty. I blow out a sigh, rumbling my lips. And because the sound
makes me giggle, I keep doing it as I trudge back
inside.

I flop on my cushy couch and peek
through the blinds. My hands are totally shaking, so I stuff them
under my butt so they knock it off. But it doesn’t work.

I pull out my phone. Gar… it’s been
one minute since I came inside. “Make time go faster!” I whine at
the clock and shake my cell as if it possesses a magic genie who’ll
grant my request.

Something whooshes outside, and I hop
to my knees and look out the window. A galloping horse takes off in
my tummy when I see a car that looks a lot like Nate’s pulled up on
the side of the road.

I bounce off the couch and swing the
door open, fixing the hair that just got caught in my lip-gloss.
“You look cute. Stop thinking, Kaylee,” I mutter under my breath
and put on a smile.

But when I look closer, there’s no one
in the driver’s seat. There’s no one anywhere.

Oh balls. I thought… I guess it could
be someone else. There’s still eighteen more minutes till Nate
needs to be here. My gosh. I’m such an antsy pants.