Gilbert and Louis Rule the Universe: First Impressions (10 page)

“Yeah, but that was a dare.
And it was like for a second. We basically just bumped lips.
I mean, how does it work when you just want to kiss someone?
Do you ask them or does it just happen like in the movies?
Like you see each other and just move towards one another and then
mack
down?
Am I supposed to use my tongue?”
I am starting to panic.

“Huh,”
Maddy
thinks. “I don’t know.
What are you supposed to do with your tongue anyway, roll it around like this?”
Maddy
sticks her tongue out and tries to make circles with it.

“Gross.” I yell.

“Maybe more like this.”
I stick my tongue out and do my best impression of a movie kiss.

“
Ewww
!”
Maddy
howls.

She picks up the pile of clothes lying on the floor and throws them at me one by one as she sings.
“Leah and Winston sitting in a tree.
K-
i
-s-s-
i
-n-g.
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.”

We both crack up.

*   *  
*

I jump into the backseat of the car with Gilbert and her mom on Monday morning.

“Morning!”
I say.

“Morning,”
Gilbert’s mom answers.

“Hi,”
Gilbert says unenthusiastically.

Gilbert isn’t always a morning person and can be a little cranky on the way to school.

“I can’t believe only a week until the Christmas Tree Lighting.” I urge her on.

“Yeah,”
She answers and keeps on looking out her window.
That is weird.
Gilbert always talks to me about boys and weekend events.
Maybe it makes her uncomfortable because her mom is in the car and Gilbert isn’t allowed to date yet.
I decide not to push it.
I sit back and we are quiet all the way to school.
As we pull up to the school, Gilbert says, “I have to get to class early.
Bye Mom. I’ll see you later.”
As soon as the car stops rolling she jumps out of the car and slams the door without even looking at me.
Gilbert is down the hall before I even collect my book bag.

By the time I get to history class that day Gilbert is already in her seat.

“Hey,”
I say.

“Hey,” she answers back and continues to retrieve her notebook and pen out of her backpack.
This is getting fishy.
Is she bummed out about something?

“Is anything wrong?”
I ask her.

“No,”
she says, but she barely looks at me.
She is concentrating really hard on printing the date on her paper, like she is writing down the most important thing in the world. Dylan walks in, she looks up, and her face lights up.
He sits down in the seat in front of her and they start talking.

Huh, she doesn’t seem upset anymore.
That’s weird.

Jimmy walks into class with his eyes on the floor.
He slips into his seat without making eye contact with anyone.
I am glad.
I don’t know what I am going to say to him.
Seeing him makes me feel uncomfortable and feel
kinda
sick.
I am not sure why.

Gilbert and Dylan pass notes back and forth during class, but she doesn’t say a thing to me.
Even when I ask her what page the homework is on, she either doesn’t hear me or just ignores me.
By
lunchtime
I need to know what is up.
I catch up to her in the cafeteria line.

“Are you mad at me?” I ask Gilbert once we have gotten our chicken fillets and French fries.
We are walking over to our table.
The other girls are still in line getting their food.

Gilbert is silent until we sit down, then she says, “I don’t know, Louis.
You’ve just been
kinda
stuck up the past couple weeks.”

What is she talking about?

“What are you talking about?” I ask her.

“I just feel like you are always thinking of yourself first.”

“What do you mean? I think about lots of other people.”

“It just seems like it is always about you.”

“Whatever.”
I am floored. Is she kidding me?

“And you were really bitchy the other day.”

“How?”
How can she be doing this to me?
What have I done to deserve this kind of treatment?

“You guys were so mean to Jimmy.
You know, he’s not that bad a guy,” Gilbert says.

“But he totally embarrassed me in front of everyone!”

“That’s exactly it.
You are always so worried about yourself.
Don’t you think it was more embarrassing for him than it was for you?”

“Gilbert, I can’t even talk to you about this
anymore
.
You are being ridiculous.”

I get up and look around the room.
Now what?
I take my chicken fillet over to the table with the
Fab
Five.
They all look up in slight surprise when I sit down, but basically ignore me and go back to their conversation about something called a
Birkin
bag. I have no idea what the hell they
are talking about.
I just sit there and eat my sandwich in silence.
I can’t believe Gilbert is abusing me like this.
She is talking crazy.
There must be something in her water.

For the rest of the day, I put what Gilbert said out of my mind and focus on my date with Winston.
I am going to be fine.
Everything is going to be fine.
I just need to let Gilbert cool off.

*   *  
*

When I arrive home from school, I see my father’s car in the driveway.
That’s weird.
My dad works in the city during the week.
What can he be doing at my mom’s house in the middle of the afternoon?
I walk in the door and both my mother and father are sitting in the living room waiting for me.

“Hi, Dad,” I say rather
apprehensively
.

It is my mom who answers.
“Hi, honey.
We need to talk to you.
Sit down.”

My dad looks like he is fuming a bit.
What the hell did I do?

I put down my book bag and walk over to the couch.
I am terribly afraid of what is coming.

“Leah, we received your mid-term report card in the mail today,” my dad says as he hands it to me.
“What do you have to say for yourself?”

I look it over.
There are a few Bs and a couple of Cs.
There is even a U (unsatisfactory) for my citizenship grade in P.E.
Could that be because I always forget a change of clothes so that I can sit out?
I don’t know what to say.
It certainly wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.
I thought they had found out about the time I took a sip of the
Crème de Menthe
in my dad’s pantry.

“Young lady, you are grounded until you bring these grades up,” my mother says.
Wait, what the….
Is she kidding?
I have never been grounded in my life.

“But Mom, I…”

My dad cuts me off, “Leah, these grades don’t reflect your intelligence.
You need to spend more time on school work and less time concentrating on clothes and boys.”

I am suffocating.
The room begins to spin.
What does this mean about Winston and Saturday?
I am going to faint.

“You will come home straight after school and will only be allowed out of the house for dance class and studying.
No TV, no phone, no computer except for school work.
Is that clear?”
My mother asks.

“What about weekends?”
I whisper.

“Same goes for the weekends,” my dad answers.

“But I am supposed to go to the Christmas tree lighting.”
In my head, I am thinking about my date with Winston, only the most important event of my whole life.

“Well, I am afraid that is not going to happen,” is my dad’s response.

That is it, the tears start pouring out.
I run up to my room and slam the door.
I want to die.

I can’t believe this is all happening in the same day. Gilbert tells me I am being stuck-up and now I am grounded.
Why me? I hear my dad leave and my mom comes up and knocks on the door.
I don’t answer.

She whispers in.
“Leah, you need to focus on your school work.
Prove to us that you can do better and we’ll see about everything else.
Okay?”
I still don’t answer and continue to weep.
No Winston on Saturday, I am totally crushed.

In my mind, I have created a whole fantasy.
The night of the Christmas tree lighting, I am wearing that gorgeous cashmere sweater with my hot new jeans and super high black heels (even though I never wear heels; I can’t even walk in them.
How do ladies do it?).
I might even be smoking a cigarette—no, scratch that, cigarettes give you lung cancer.
But I look totally hot and mature.
Winston can’t resist me.
We are holding hands then at the end of the night as we are just about to part, he whispers to me, “Leah, you are incredible.
Will you be my girlfriend?”
I bat my eyelashes at him and say yes and then turn to walk away.
Just as I am leaving he calls my name, “Leah!” I stop and turn around.
He walks up, puts his hands around my waist, and kisses me.