Gilbert and Louis Rule the Universe: First Impressions (24 page)

From behind his back Riley seethes.
“No, now,” she says.

The blonde is clearly getting uncomfortable.
“I’ll talk to you later, Winston,” she says and takes off.

Winston finally turns and gives Riley his full attention.
“What?” Winston says all innocent.
I am ready to kick his ass myself.

“What are you doing flirting with that girl?
I thought we were going out.”
Riley’s steely veneer is cracking.
Her lower lip is beginning to quiver.

“Come on, Riley, we were just having fun
, you knew we weren't
exclusive
.”
From the look on Riley’s face she clearly didn’t know that.
Her eyes are getting glassy.

“But I thought you were my boyfriend,” she whispers.
The tears are starting to fall.

“Please, Riley, you wouldn’t even let me get to second base.”

I breathe a sigh of relief.
I am so glad she hadn’t done that with him, especially now that he is turning into such a
dirtbag
.

Winston goes on, “You and I didn’t mean anything.
Did you honestly think it did?”

Tears are rolling down Riley’s cheeks.
I want to look away or kick Winston’s face in, but I just stand there.
Gilbert grabs my arm for support.
Winston just looks disgusted and starts to walk away.
We all begin to move towards Riley to gather her up when we hear a male voice close by yell “Hey!”
Not a nice “hey.”
A stop you in your tracks “hey.”

I look up to see where the voice is coming from and there is Ralph walking up behind Winston.
“Hey!” he says again.

Winston turns to him, “What do you want, Ralph?”
He asks, all cocky.

Ralph turns to Riley. “Is this guy being a jerk to you?”
he asks.
We are surrounding Riley now.
The tears are still falling and a little snot is coming out of her nose.
Riley nods.

“What are you going to do about it?”
Winston sneers back at Ralph.

“This.” And with that Ralph makes a fist and hits him hard right in the face.

I can hardly keep myself from cheering.
Riley looks so surprised she starts laughing.

Blood is coming out of Winston’s nose. One of Winston’s skate buddies comes over too see what all the fuss is about.

“You asshole!
What is your problem?
Why do you give a crap?”
Winston says while trying to wipe away the blood.

Winston’s skater boy stands by his side trying to look tough in case anymore punches are going to be thrown.
On Ralph’s side, Jason and Dylan show up and are standing behind him.

“You don’t treat a lady that way,” Ralph says.

Where does he get this stuff?
It is just like in a movie.
I nearly
swoon
.

Sophie’s mom and dad walk in the room and see Winston’s bloody nose, Riley’s tear stained face, and the boys trying to look tough.

“What is going on here?”
Sophie’s mom says.
“Winston, are you alright?”

Winston uses the back of his hand to wipe some of the blood off and sniffs.
“
Yeah. W
e’re all cool.”

“I think you boys had better go.”
Sophie’s dad says to Ralph, Jason
,
and Dylan.

“But…” I start to protest.
Ralph had saved the day.
He is the hero and here are Sophie’s parents throwing them out of the party. Ralph turns to me.
His eyes silence me. “No problem, sir.”
Ralph says.
Ralph, Jason and Dylan start walking away.

I watch the boys head over to the door. My heart is beating fast.
I know I should stay and help Riley but as Ralph walks away it is getting difficult to breath.

“Riley, are you alright?”
Gilbert asks.

Riley, face still wet with tears, says, “Can you believe he punched him?”

As the boys walk out the door I feel an emptiness in my chest and my stomach hurts.
I turn to the girls, “I’ll be right back.”
And before anyone can stop me I run out after them.

“Ralph!”
I call after the boys.

Ralph stops and turns around to face me.

I run up to him, but I don’t know what I am going to say.
I stand on the sidewalk in front of Sophie’s house at a loss for words.

“Did you send that text to Alex from Dylan’s phone?” I don’t know why I choose this moment to ask that question, but it is all I can think of.

“Yeah.” Ralph says.
My head is spinning, I have so many thoughts and emotions running through me.
I want whatever I say to be just perfect, but my brain is a muddled mess.

“Cool,” is all I can get out.
We stand there, his eyes on me, my eyes on the sidewalk.

“Alright,” Ralph says, and turns around again.

“Wait,” I plead.

“What?”
Ralph says just to make me even more anxious.

“Nothing,” comes out before I can stop it.
I can’t get the words out.
I can’t tell him how stupid I have been, and that I want to take it all back.

“Alright then, later.” He turns his back and goes to rejoin his friends who are now
waiting for him at the end of the block.

I start crying.

“I’m sorry!” I yell after him. “I was wrong about you.”
Ralph pauses but he doesn’t turn around.

Somehow my courage is coming back to me. “I, I got this completely wrong idea about you, and I was just so, so stupid.
You are so nice and cool and cute and I blew it.
I blew my chances with you.”

Ralph turns around but I still can’t read his face.

“So now what?” he says and starts walking back towards me.

I stand there waiting for him and wipe at my nose with the sleeve of my sweater.

He is standing close to me now.
I can smell him.
A nice smell, a cute boy smell. I shrug my shoulders.
“I don’t know,”
I pause.
“I just wish…”
I can no longer look him in the eye.
He is so cute and I am a hot mess.

“I just wish I could have a do-over. That you would ask me out again.” I manage to get out.

“Is that what you want?”
Ralph asks.
I am not looking at him, but I can tell by his tone that he is smiling.

I nod, my eyes still on the sidewalk.

“Leah, will you go out with me?”

I look up at him to make sure he is serious.
“Really?”
I ask but his soft brown eyes already tell me that he is.

“Really,” he says.

I throw my arms around his neck.

“Is that a yes?” Ralph teases.

I nod into his shirt collar.

Chapter 26

Wednesday, February 3

Today’s Horoscope: Love comes to those who wait.

Ralph has to go back to boarding school the next day, but we hang out with each other all morning.
My mom invites Ralph over for breakfast.
I knew she is doing me a solid when she makes French toast instead of the muesli or some other nonsense that we normally eat. She really is on her best behavior; she only embarrassed me once when she told Ralph how I used to make these cute little farting noises with my mouth against my arm when I was a kid.
Don’t even ask how it came up.
But after breakfast Ralph calls my mom “cool,” which is a relief.
At least she didn’t blow it for me.
We spend the rest of the morning sitting on his lawn picking at the grass and talking before he has to go.
When his dad goes in the house to get his last bag, Ralph gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.
I nearly die.

At school everything is back to normal.
Gilbert and I are totally BFF.
We have this new thing where when we are bored in class we write each other’s names and decorate the letters. Don’t worry, I am still getting good grades in all my classes, but science is
soooo
boring.
Gilb
and Dylan are still hanging out and happy as ever.
He finally asked her to be his girlfriend on Monday.
When they were in math he passed her a note that said:

Will you be my girlfriend?

Check one:

□
yes

□
no

Clearly, she checked yes. Gilbert and I celebrated later that afternoon with fries and
milk
shakes.
Her parents are still totally in the dark, so if you see them don’t say anything.

Riley successfully got over Winston and now has her sights on a new eighth grade boy.
He is a friend of her brother’s and plays baseball.
We had Jason check into the
situation
.
Jason said he was sure Riley had a chance, but I don’t think that Riley or the boy are brave enough to do anything about it.
And if Riley’s brother finds out he will definitely kick the guy’s ass.
So I am not putting any money on it, if you know what I mean.
She and I are cool again.
We are planning
to go over to her house tomorrow to jump on their trampoline.
I totally need to work on my back flip skills.