So I'm a Double Threat (Double Threat Series) (23 page)

“You really think it will be okay?” I’m totally sniffling now. I’m surprised Ms. Gelson hasn’t come over, or my girls.

He puts his arm around me and holds me tight. “Oh, babe, don’t cry. It’ll work,” he says, trying to comfort me.

I still cry. “I don’t know why I’m crying. I know everything will work out. I’m totally okay with this. I just feel all sad but I don’t know why,” I say, rambling.

“Meg, I’m sad too. I thought we were going to get married and shit. Be like high school sweethearts, or whatever.” 

“Hey, I gotta go get some air.” I step out of my seat and walk over to Ms. Gelson, with my hair in my face so my classmates can’t see that I’m crying. I ask her if I can go to the restroom. One look at my puffy red eyes and she shoos me out of class.

I fling open the door and start to walk quickly down the hall. I don’t get far before someone grabs my arm.

“Meg, what’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?” I try hard to focus through my tear-filled eyes to see who all these questions come from. It’s Ben.

“Oh shit, not now. Leave me alone,” I whine, trying to break free.

“Just tell me what happened. I’ll let go when you tell me you’re okay.” He looks at me frantically, with worry in his eyes.

“I’m fine, all right? It’s not like you freakin’ care, so go away.” I pull myself loose from his grip and start to walk away.

“Come on, Megan,” he argues. “You know I do care about you.”

I stop and spin around to look at him. “Are you freakin’ kidding me?” I pause for a moment trying to catch my breath. “You did nothing but play me at the beginning of the year. And then, all you’ve done since is talk shit. Oh, but yeah, you care about me,” I yell at him. It may have taken the whole school year, but right now, we are going to have it out. This has been coming for a long time.

He stares at me, his nose flaring. “I played you. Give me a break. You started talking to freakin’ Eric when you knew I was into you. I didn’t start talking to Vanessa until after that. You made me look like an idiot walking out of sixth period everyday all cuddled up with that asshole.”

“Give me a break. You think I’m stupid? I should have listened to Eric from the beginning and I would’ve never even thought twice about you. Don’t call him an asshole, either. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever known, unlike you,” I shout at him.

“Then why are you crying?” 

I forgot I was crying.

“Because...we broke up just now.”

“It’s about time you got rid of that loser. Are you sad or relieved?”

I hadn’t thought of that before. You know what? I think I’m relieved.

“He’s not a loser.” I still feel the need to stick up for Eric.

“Whatever. I’m not gonna argue with you. I’m just glad you’re done with him. You could do a lot better.”

“Oh really. Like with you? Yeah, right.” I smirk.

“No. I wish. Alex was right about me. I don’t deserve you, but
he
does. You and Alex belong together.” He smiles.

“Are you high?” I interrupt. “You’re freakin’ crazy. Did you forget he’s with my best friend?”

“No, and he needs to get rid of that skank.” He stops when he sees my expression. “Sorry, but you’ll see someday. That friend of yours is
not
a very good friend.”

It sounds like Ben is tossing out accusations, but I ignore him. I trusted him once and it didn’t get me anywhere.

“Whatever, I’ve gotta go before Ms. Gelson calls security or something.”

“Yeah, I’ve gotta go as well.” He pauses. He steps forward with his arm up, like he is going to hug me, but drops it and backs away. Good choice. It’s too soon for that. “It was good talking to you. I wish we could be friends again.”

I look into his irresistible baby blues and realize how much I’ve missed him. “Yeah. Well, maybe we can work on that,” I snap at him as I stomp off to class. I’m not going to be too nice to him, not yet anyway.

––––––––

I
s the entire school here, or what? It looks like Halloween in April with all the orange and black the fans are wearing. The school pride at Carver is amazing. Today is a big game for Josh. He’s pitching against our school rival, the Creekside Coyotes. There is so much pressure on Josh to do well. I almost feel bad for him. He’s only a freshman and he’s on varsity. Everyone treats him like freakin’ royalty on the field. I can’t believe it doesn’t get to him. Seriously, I can’t believe he even plays as well, as everyone says he does. He’s just so goofy when we all hang out, totally uncoordinated and awkward.

It’s a good thing we get to the field early or we would’ve never gotten a seat. We’re all here, the whole gang. It’s cool between Eric and me. It’s taken some time to get used to. Once in a while, we’ll catch ourselves leaning in for a goodnight kiss just out of habit. We both laughed uncontrollably last week when we left sixth period holding hands. We didn’t even realize it till Amy pointed it out. Now, it’s just funny when it happens. It’s a good thing we didn’t have sex, or we could end up doing it accidentally. Well, probably not.

“Damn, Josh looks good in his uniform,” Keesh yells. “Looks like I went out with the wrong friend.” She elbows Jonathan in the ribs.

“You can still have him if you want,” Jon throws it right back to her. “We’re not married.”

“As if that will ever happen.” She pokes him again. He throws his arms around her and hugs her closely. She looks up at him and plants a wet one on his lips. “You’ll just have to do. Maybe Josh can let you borrow his uniform,” she jokes. He releases her from the hug but holds her hand in both of his.

Keesh and Jonathan are back together, again. Seriously...we really need to meet new people. I refuse to get back together with Eric out of convenience.

“What’s up y’all? Did I miss anything yet?” Ben shouts as he makes his way up the bleachers.

“Josh struck out the first three batters, now we’re up to bat...no outs,” Alex informs him.

“Damn. He’s badass.” Ben takes out some sunflower seeds and throws a handful in his mouth. He passes the bag around for anyone to take some.

It was weird at first to have Ben around again, but we’ve all gotten used to it. He doesn’t go out of his way to talk crap like he used to, he just blends in. Alex was worried at first. He called me when he found out Ben and I had talked after my break up with Eric. He wanted to make sure Ben was cool about it and didn’t say anything to make me more upset. I assured him it was all good. Since then, Alex has been overprotective of me when Ben is around.

“Woooohooooo. Yeah.” Everyone cheers and claps. One of our guys hit a double sending a player home. Cool. The score is 1-0, in the bottom of the second. Josh still hasn’t given up a hit.

“I’m thirsty,” I announce. The sunflower seeds dried out my mouth. “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna go to the snack bar...does anyone want anything?”

Ben stands up. “I need a drink. I’ll go with you.” He starts taking the steps down in front of me.

“Yeah, I’m gonna get something.” Alex pops up and starts down the bleachers too. I catch Amy rolling her eyes behind his back.

I follow them down the bleachers and hear Ben scolding Alex. “You need to chill, bro. It’s not like I’m going to kidnap her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Alex denies the accusation.

“Man, come on. You don’t even let Meg out of your sight if I’m around.”

“Excuse me, guys,” I interrupt. “Can you stop talking about me like I’m not here?”

“Who says we were talking about
you
?” Alex smirks and winks at me.

“Whatever.” I sock him in the arm. “Just stop trippin’. Both of you. I can take care of myself. If I need either one of you, I’ll ask.”

“Well, fine then.” He smiles. “You can buy your own drink.”

“That’s a start, Alex.” I smile back.

“So what do you want to drink then?” he offers.

“Diet Coke, please.”

“All right, Miss Independent.” Ben chuckles. “That lasted like, thirty seconds.”

We just smile at each other, and I let out a small giggle.

The line is so long by the time we get back; it’s already the bottom of the fourth.

“Anyone hit off him yet?” I ask.

Dominic has his eyes fixated on the game, but gives us the run down. “Not yet, he’s been throwing hard, and his defense is backing him up. The Coyotes are going down.”

“The Coyotes are going down...down, down, down,” Keesh and Steph begin to cheer.

“Josh is up next,” Eric says, as I sit down next to him.

The batter walks, filling up the bases.

“Hey babe, what do you call it when you hit a homerun with bases loaded?” Steph asks.

“A grand slam,” we all shout.

“Damn, you don’t have to yell,” Steph shouts back.

Everyone is to their feet, screaming and yelling, clapping and hollering.

“No, you dork. Josh...he just hit a grand slam,” I tell her, shaking her with excitement.

“Holy shit. Oh shit. All right, Jooooosh,” Steph screams, as she stands and stomps on the bleachers.

It takes the rest of the game to calm down from the excitement. Josh is amazing. He
is
royalty. The game is so freakin’ exciting, I almost pee my pants.

It’s the top of the seventh, we only need three more outs and Josh makes history. Josh strikes out the first batter. The second batter pops up to the first baseman. And finally, the third batter hits the ball straight at Josh’s head. I want to close my eyes ’cause I’m sure his brains are going to splatter all over the pitching mound. But no sooner than the ball is hit, Josh just puts up his glove and catches the ball. The sound is a big slap as the ball reaches his glove. Man, his hand is going to hurt. That had to sting. He makes it look so easy though, like it’s just practice.

Game over.

Josh pitched a no-hitter against our school rival, the Coyotes.

“The Coyotes went down...down, down, down,” we all scream and yell.

We wait for the players to come out of the locker rooms.

We made signs in ASB saying, “Josh Rocks!” and “Josh is Our Hero!” just in case we won and Josh did a good job.

We hold them up as he comes out and he is jumping up and down like a little kid.

I run up to him, and give him a big hug shouting, “You’re freaking amazing.”

Everyone else does the same.

“You kicked ass.”

“You’re badass.”

“Damn, that game was off the hook.”

For the rest of the night, it’s all about Josh, as it should be. We go out for pizza and spend the evening talking about the game. We’re like ESPN going through the highlights. It never gets old...we just kept chatting away. Even all the girls join in the conversation. We’re all delirious, drunk with happiness and envy.

There isn’t anything in the world that could bring down this high...nothing at all.

––––––––

T
he year is flying by and coming to a close. I can’t believe in just a month, I’ll be taking finals, and the school year will be over. I’ll be a sophomore. We’ll all be in tenth grade. All but Dominic, Ben, and Alex. Dominic will be a big bad senior. I’m not too sure what Ben and Alex are going to do. Wait, I can’t believe we’ve never talked about it. I just assume they’re going to college—that’s what I’d be doing after high school—but really, I have no clue what their plans are. Maybe I’ve just never wanted to imagine high school without them, either of them.

Mr. Mitchell takes attendance and then gathers the committee chairs for a meeting. There isn’t much to do so we all sit around talking. It’s quickly interrupted by loud chatter and arguing coming from the meeting. I can’t quite hear what is being said, but it sounds heated.

The doors fling open and they all come out. The guys seem to be relaxed, but the girls stomp out like they’re throwing tantrums, as if someone just stole their compacts or something.

Mr. Mitchell rings his bell. “Okay everyone, take a seat. I’ve got some announcements.”

He waits for everyone to find a seat and be quiet. “Everyone needs to listen clearly...we’ve got some big decisions to make and the chairs thought it would be a good idea to bring it to a class vote...actually just the juniors and seniors will vote...but it affects everyone.

“We’re having a problem with Prom. Ticket sales are down and as it stands right now, Prom may have to be canceled.” Everyone gasps and there’s an instant spark of chatter. “Okay, okay, quiet down...I’m not done yet. We have no interest in canceling Prom but we need to sell tickets.

“We have two options. The first option is to change the venue...we can change the location of Prom to the cafeteria to cut costs.”

The girls groan. I doubt the guys care much.

“What’s the other option?” someone asks.

Mr. Mitchell continues, “Our second option is to open up Prom to freshmen and sophomores...wait, wait...let me finish. Half of ASB includes underclassmen. We can limit the sales to ASB underclassmen first. If we still need to sell more tickets, we can open it up school wide. Now I’ll take questions.”

A senior girl raises her hand and start speaking, “I don’t care who goes, I just don’t want it in the cafeteria.”

Another girl demands, “The only way I won’t mind is if it’s just the ninth and tenth graders from our class. I don’t want it to be the whole school.”

“Can we see how many of you would want to go?” Mr. Mitchell gestures to us.

I look around and hands start to go up. I look at Keesh and she says, “Why not?” So we both raise our hands. Amy and Steph are already going so they don’t really matter.

“By the looks of it, we could pull this off if everyone in the class bought a ticket, so let’s take a vote,” Mr. Mitchell explains. “On a piece of paper, write down cafeteria or underclassmen. When you’re finished, give the paper to me. Only juniors and seniors vote.”

We wait patiently for the votes to be tallied before Mr. Mitchell announces, “Looks like the freshmen and sophomores are going to prom. You all need to find a date and buy your tickets by Friday. We’ll reevaluate this plan at that time to determine if anything else needs to be done.”

The bell rings and we all crowd through the hall to escape the classroom.