Gilbert and Louis Rule the Universe: First Impressions (9 page)

“Well, we
gotta
go.
See you guys later,” I say.

“Yeah, later.”
The
Fab
Five say as they head to the register to make their purchases.

We reapply our lip-gloss and head to the movie theater.
Winston is there along with two other guys who I recognize as the skaters from Lakeshore.

We all greet and introduce each other and go over to pick out a movie to see.

“Let’s see
Blood Loss
,” one of the skater boys says and all the guys enthusiastically agree.

I turn to the girls, give them a big smile, and say, “Yeah, totally.”
A horror movie is perfect because it means we can grab the guys’ hands.

Rowan
tugs on my sleeve and whispers,
“I’m not supposed to see scary movies.”

“We will just tell your parents you saw
The Adventures of Jack and Jill
;
don’t even worry about it.”

But she still looks
skeptical
.
“Um, I might have nightmares.”

“You’ll be fine.
Come on, we are thirteen years old.
What could possibly scare you?”

We buy our tickets and are about to walk in when Jimmy walks up behind us.
Is our whole
friggin
’ school going to be at the mall today?

“Hey, Leah.
That’s so cool that we are both here.
What movie are you going to see?”

The skaters look at Jimmy with disgust.
I am trying to pretend I don’t know him.
He sees my ticket as I hand it to the attendant.

“
Blood Loss
.
Oh, cool.
Me too.
We can all sit together.”
He hands the attendant his ticket and follows us in.

“Maybe you should sit with your own friends,” Winston said under his breath, but Jimmy hears.
Fortunately, he doesn’t have a clue.

“Oh, I’m here alone,” he says like it is no big deal.

Great.

We all walk into the theater. The girls and I jockey around behind the boys so that when we enter our row I end up sitting next to Winston.
Poor Rowan is on the end.
Jimmy sits down next to her.
She gives me the hard stare and I give her a sympathetic shrug.
What am I supposed to do now?
I settle down into the seat.
Winston’s shoulder is touching mine.
It is all so thrilling.

The movie is totally scary which gives me lots of opportunities to grab Winston’s arm.
He even patted my leg on a couple of occasions.
I am in heaven.
I look down the row at Rowan.
She has her feet up on the seat and one hand over her eyes.
Her other hand is gripping Jimmy’s arm.
Jimmy looks like he is in pain, but lets her continue.
He seems to know she needs him.

After the movie the girls and I head into the bathroom to
regloss
.
Rowan splashes her face with water.
She looks totally sketched.

“Did you and Winston hold hands?”
Maddy
wants to know.

“We never ended up holding hands.
But we were totally touching each other,”
I answer while I check my nose for boogers in the mirror.

“You guys look so cute together,” Rowan says.

“Do you think?”
I ask, knowing full well we do.

All the girls agree.

“His skater friend is
kinda
cute,”
Maddy
admits.

“Yeah, you should totally go for it!”
we all encourage her.

“I can’t believe that Dylan had to babysit today.
That sucks so bad,” Gilbert says as she checks her phone for another text from him.

“I know.
It would be so cool if he was here,” I say as I fluff my bangs.
What do
I care?
Winston is right outside.

We walk out still giggling over our boy talk.
The guys are all waiting for us.
Including Jimmy.
He is standing a couple of steps away and when we head out of the theater he tags along like a puppy. I am so annoyed, but I try to keep my cool. We have about a half hour left before my mom picks us up so we go to The Bean and get mocha fraps.
Winston is so cool, he orders a cappuccino.
Jimmy gets a complimentary cup of water.

We sit down and make our circle tight enough so that Jimmy has to sit on the outskirts and peer over shoulders to be part of the conversation.
Maddy
talks the ear off the skater boy who simply nods and grunts answers.
But to her credit, by the time we get up they have exchanged
numbers.
I keep my attention on Winston.
I hang on his every word.
Whatever he says, I agree with.
Gilbert leans back and texts Dylan the whole time.

When we are outside waiting for our rides home Winston turns to me, “Do you want to go to the Christmas tree lighting with me next weekend?”

Of course I do!
Piermont puts on a Christmas tree lighting every year.
It is cute; practically the whole town comes down to the park one Saturday night in late November to see the mayor turn on the lights that are hung on a big pine tree.
Everyone in town except my parents, who apparently think the whole event is a bit cheesy.
The high school choir sings and elementary kids do a few songs.
I sang in it once in third grade long before I realized I can’t carry a tune.
Now there is no way I will sing in front of other people.
Sports teams sell hot chocolate and cookies to fundraise for their teams and there is a guy who dresses up as Santa who hands out candy canes.
I think it is the fat middle school librarian, but I can’t be sure.
It is all very
Americana
.
Twinkling lights, carolers, candy canes.
What could be more romantic?

“Yeah, that’d be cool.”

“Good, then it’s a date.”

He called it a date.
A date with Winston!
He is telling me he will call me when Jimmy walks right up on the two of us.

“Leah, may I speak to you for a moment?”
Jimmy asks.

“Sure."

“In private.”

Is this guy kidding me?
I take, like, five paces away from the group.
He can tell this is as far as I am going to go.

“Um, I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me,” Jimmy says.

“Go out, like, where?” I plead
ign
o
rance
when, in fact, I know perfectly well what he is asking.

“You know, date each other,” he says.
I am floored.
Is he blind?

“No, Jimmy.
I don’t like you, like you.
In fact, I am not even sure I like you.”

“But we are study partners,” he says, like that means something.

“Yeah, exactly, that’s all.”
I turn and walk back to my group.
My face is red and my hands are shaking.
Everyone has overheard.
I can’t believe Jimmy embarrassed me like that in front of all my friends.
Winston and the skaters are cracking up.

Winston yells over at Jimmy, “Hey geek, why don’t you go find some friends of your own to hang out with.
It’s pretty clear no one here wants you around.”

Jimmy finally gets it and hurries over to where his mom is waiting in their beat up Toyota
Tercel
.

The girls look at me like Winston is being
kinda
harsh.
I give them a look that says, “what do you want from me?” and turn to grab Winston’s hand as I say to him, “What a total loser, right?”

Chapter 9

Monday, November 16

Today’s horoscope: Look over your shoulder.
Something is blowing your way.

The rest of the weekend flew by.
Sunday,
Maddy
came over.
We were supposed to be doing our homework together, but instead we were figuring out new ways to put together outfits from the clothes in my closet.
Mostly it is an excuse to talk about my date with Winston.
I am so excited.
All I have to do is get through this week.

I pull a sweater
hoodie
out of the closet and hold it up for
Maddy
to see.
She picks up plain white tank top and my cut offs.
Totally cute.

“Do you think Winston will kiss you?”
Maddy
asks.

“I don’t know.
I mean, I am hoping we will hold hands, or he will put his arm around me.
I guess I hope that he kisses me at the end of the night.
But…” I stop.

“What?”

“Well…I am
kinda
nervous.
I've never kissed a boy before.” I admit.

“I thought you kissed Matt when we played truth or dare at the football game last year,”
Maddy
says.
She is right.
It was during the high school football game.
Our parents always dropped us off so we would get the whole evening to ourselves.
I guess they think we go there to actually see football being played.
Sometimes my friends and I watch the cheerleaders, but to tell you the truth, I can’t tell offense from defense or a first down from a touchdown, so I don’t usually spend much time watching the game.
Mostly, my friends and I run off to the park behind the stadium and gossip or chase boys.
One night we decided to play truth or dare with some of the other kids from my grade. One of the guys dared me to kiss Matt; we were both in sixth grade at the time.
I was feeling particularly
audacious
that night and so I walked up and laid one right on Matt’s lips.
But I didn’t like him or anything, and other than being kind of exciting, it wasn’t very romantic.
Maddy
remembers everything.