Major Crush (14 page)

A fter the game A llison and I went home to change.. Walter waited at A llison’s house rather than mine because her parents liked him better.

This was perfect for my purposes. It made sense for the three of us to ride together to Barry Ekrivay’s party a mile around the lakeshore.

Otherwise, A llison would have taken her car, and Walter and I would have ridden together. A lone.

More good luck: When she got into the car, A llison sat on Walter’s corsage. Now I wouldn’t have to make a bad excuse about how wearing it would poke a hole in my Tshirt.

That’s where my luck ran out. My heart sank as I drove near Barry s house and saw how far away I’d have to park to get a place on the side of the road. I’d hope it would be a small party, so fewer people would see me with Walter. But Barry didn’t throw small parties.

With every step down the driveway, I felt more nauseated. But there was nothing else to do. I put a smile on my face before I walked into the house crowded with the entire band and lots more people from school.

I kept telling myself that no one would notice Walter and I were together. A fter all, I’d driven him to parties before. Nothing had changed. Let me repeat: There had been no official receipt of corsage.

Something had changed. Gator Smith stopped me and congratulated me on “finally hooking up.” Then Tonya, Paula, and Michelle called me over and told me that Walter was “soooo cuuuuuuuuuute!” Oh, dear.

It wasn’t that I was embarrassed to date Walter, himself. Tonya, Paula, and Michelle were right. He was very cute. A nd he was fun to watch as he walked around the party. He just laughed when the trombones quizzed him on his beard and the drums called him “bus boy.” He was only a sophomore, but he carried himself well around the seniors. Which was better than I could do half the time.

It was more a feeling of complete revulsion. My head told me that Walter and I would make a good couple. Despite my head, my body flinched when he touched me. But maybe this was normal for new couples, and as time passed, people got over the vague feeling of nausea.

Like I knew!

A nd oh, let’s not forget that I wanted to keep myself open for Drew. Who did not even seem to be at the party. Who must have been off having a private moment with Cacey.

I had a couple of tricks to keep the pressure off. I tried to get A llison to stay with Walter and me. Sometimes I lost Walter in the crowd. When he found me, I suggested that we also find A llison because she was there alone.

A llison flitted from group to group. I needed her to cling to me, and I tried to communicate this to her with special looks. But there’s just so much you can get across with gritted teeth and a raised eyebrow, even to your best friend.

My other trick was to haunt the buffet. Yes, there was actually a catered buffet set up in the kitchen. Dad always said Mr. Ekrivay threw money at his children to make up for leaving their mother. I thought Dad had a lot of nerve to say this.

A nyway, the buffet was very good, and I’d skipped lunch. I’d eaten a huge supper, but I was trying to get away from Walter here. I went back so many times that Barry, who refilled the trays from boxes in the refrigerator, probably thought I was coming on to him.

On my seventeenth return to the rec room with my mouth full, A llison tried to tell me something. We were near the stereo speakers, and I couldn’t hear her. I thought she said she was leaving.

Panic! She couldn’t leave. What if Barry ran out of food?

She motioned toward the front door. I followed her out onto the porch. Walter followed me.

The huge porch was packed with outdoor furniture. The furniture was packed with people making out. I spotted Gator Smith and Elke Villa, who I guess had settled whatever problems the Evil Twins had brought up between them.

Juliet Ekrivay was there too, with a senior football player. For shame. She was only in the ninth grade. But I’d had an unusually chaste ninth grade myself. A nd it was her porch.

“I’m leaving,” A llison said.

“What?” I exclaimed in fake surprise. “Why so soon?”

“Nothing to keep me here.” She wore the pageant smile, but I knew she was upset. She might have been the only homecoming queen in the history of football without a date to homecoming. I was impressed she’d lasted this long without a meltdown. A s much as A llison ever had a meltdown.

I squinted to see what she was staring at in the dark. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust, but finally I saw the touch football game over on the lawn. Luther and Craig versus all eight girl trumpets.

“Take off your heels,” I suggested. “I’m sure they’ll let you play. You’re Miss Homecoming.”

“I hate this town,” she said.

Now she was looking at the cars parked in Barry’s driveway. That’s when I saw Drew. A nd Cacey. Leaning against the farm truck. Cacey lit a cigarette.

“A t least they’re not getting dirty with each other,” A llison said. “He hasn’t touched her hand.” I’d told A llison about the whole hand-whore episode.

“What?” Walter asked.

“Inside joke,” I said.

“But I’m on the inside,” he said. “A ren’t I?”

The three of us stood there awkwardly.

“So, I’m going home,” A llison said. The pageant smile had returned.

“How?” Walter asked.

“I’ll walk.”

“It’s dark,” I said. “Call your dad to come get you.” The more obvious plan would have been for me to take her home, but I was the Evil Triplet. My need to spy on my non-boyfriend overrode my desire to help my best friend.

She shrugged and said again, “I’ll just walk.”

“Let me take you,” I said half-heartedly.

“Oh, no,” she said, glancing over at Drew. “I don’t think your work is done here.”

If her comment offended Walter, he hid it. He put his hand on her shoulder. “You want me to walk you?”

“Sweetie. No thanks.”

I touched her elbow. “Call me to let me know you got there.”

“No prob. Ta.”

“Ta,” Walter and I said.

We watched her walk up the driveway, past Drew and Cacey. Cacey was too into Drew to notice her sister’s arch-rival. She eyed Drew and blew smoke out the side of her mouth, away from him, like an expert.

I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t seem smart to lean against a truck while smoking a cigarette. What if there was an explosion and Drew was blown to smithereens? Would Mr. Rush fire me and replace me with Clay ton Porridge? Did he see Drew and me as a package?

I turned back to Walter. He was looking in the direction I’d been looking.

Better to admit it. “I was just thinking the Evil Twin might ignite the gas tank.”

Walter watched Cacey and Drew for a few seconds more, then turned back to me without saying anything.

“You’re out,” I said.

“Of?”

“One-liners.”

“Oh!” he said. “I thought you meant I was out of the picture.”

“Thank goodness you’re back,” I said.

We laughed. Then his smile faded, and I felt mine disappearing too. We were talking about young love.

Weren’t we?

I looked back to Drew. He was kissing the twin.

A ck, Drew was kissing the Evil Twin!

He had his hand on her waist. Unh, that was supposed to be my waist! He used his other hand to brace himself on the truck, and he bent to kiss her, a long hot kiss.

Well, it couldn’t have been too hot a kiss, because she had the presence of mind to flick ash from her cigarette onto the driveway while it was going on.

I turned back to Walter. He was watching me.

Then I got an idea. It was the make-out porch. I could make out with Walter.

“Want to sit down?” I asked, nodding toward an empty—errr—love seat.

“Why not?” he asked.

I could think of a lot of reasons why not.

We sat close but not touching, and joked quietly about the other couples making out. We rated them each with an artistic and a technical score. We did not rate Drew and Cacey.

I offered Walter all kinds of hints, but he wouldn’t make a move on me. I sidled a little closer to him, so our knees touched, and gave him what I thought was a pointed look. I didn’t want to make the first move. He was still crushing on me, and it would be cruel to lead him on.

But if he made the move on me, I could be nice and just enjoy it while we were in public, and then explain that I wasn’t interested when we were alone. A fter I’d made my point to Drew.

The only problem with this plan was that Walter wouldn’t cooperate. He wouldn’t take the hint. Or he got the hint, but he was being stubborn for some reason.

I knocked my knee against his knee.

He looked down at our knees, but didn’t otherwise move.

I reached out and touched his hand with one finger.

This time he looked up at me, and I knew for sure he was being stubborn. He was too smart for this. There was a reason he’d gotten into the State School for Fine A rts.

We stared at each other, and the air was electric between us.

My cell phone rang.

A s I half-stood to pull it out of my pocket, I saw that Drew had turned toward me, with his arm still braced on the truck, very close to Cacey.

A llison was calling to tell me she’d gotten home okay. When I clicked the phone off, Walter asked, “A re you ready to go?”

I thought he knew I was crushing on Drew, and he knew I was only here to see Drew, and he knew he wasn’t helping me give Drew the proper show. But I couldn’t be sure.

Drew kissed Cacey’s neck.

“Yes,” I said.

I drove Walter across town. Neither of us said anything for the whole ride, which was probably the first time that had ever happened between us. Last year we couldn’t even shut up when we were supposed to be standing at attention on the football field in the drum line.

I pulled my car into the campground and stopped at the door of the bus. His mothers car wasn’t there, of course. The lights were off in the nearby trailers.

I was half-hoping he would jump out and go inside before I even turned off the motor, but I knew he wouldn’t. Something was going to happen. I turned off the motor.

We sat there in the quiet dark. I stared straight ahead at the bus. In the years since Walter had painted it brown, the paint had faded and cracked. The original yellow showed through.

The air around us began to spark again. We still weren’t doing or saying anything, but that was the whole point. The quiet was so strange, and it said everything for us.

Finally, after about two minutes of complete silence, I looked at him. He was watching me. I stared back at him. Something would have to give. I wondered why I didn’t give. He sat in the passenger side of my car rather than the drivers seat, but he’d have his license in November.

A nd he might not be as tall as Drew, but he was taller than me by quite a bit, and who knew how tall he’d be in a few months?

A nd he was very good-looking, with the expressive green eyes that always told on him. Now they were telling me that he had my number.

He knew I’d tried to lead him on. He was mad about it. A nd he wasn’t leaving this car until he got some. But he was going to make me wait.

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and wished I had my drumsticks. Better to meet the problem head-on, right? Still tapping, I said,

“A t the party. On the porch. You knew what I wanted.”

“Yes.”

“A nd you wouldn’t give it to me.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t choose to help the cause.”

“Fair enough,” I said. Suddenly I stopped tapping and pounded both hands on the steering wheel. “I can’t believe you’re playing hard to get!”

“Me neither.” He crossed his legs. “I’m afraid you’re going to take advantage of me.”

“I wouldn’t have to if you would take advantage of me first!” Time to bring out the heavy artillery. I used the line boys used on TV when they were trying to get a girl to have sex with them. “You would if you loved me.”

Of course I was kidding. But if I’d thought about it for two seconds, I could have predicted what Walter would say to that.

“I do love you.”

The air between us sparked until Ï almost thought I could hear the tiny explosions.

“But I’m still not going to kiss you in front of Drew Morrow just so you can make him jealous,” he said. “Or kiss you now because you’re horny for Drew.”

“Really?” I asked. “Then why are you still in the car?”

“Good point.”

Walter would argue with me all night. Oh, what the hell. I leaned over and kissed him.

A t first I thought he was stunned, and then I thought he was being a butt, because he wouldn’t kiss me back. He didn’t move. Tickling my face with his beard, I moved to the corner of his mouth to see if that worked any better.

Then he wrapped his arms around me, pulled me closer across the seat, and gave me this warm, deep kiss.

Walter was a great kisser. Not that I had a whole lot to go on. The last time I’d kissed a boy was at the movies in eighth grade. The wonders of PG-13 had gotten everyone excited, and I couldn’t quite manage to get away from Bobby Thompson. A fter that, nothing for three years.

The nose stud scared them off.

But even I could tell that Walter was doing this right. There wasn’t enough tongue to be gross, but just enough to wake me up. I mean, this boy was waking me up. It occurred to me that Drew wasn’t the only playboy in the band. Walter had spent part of last year working his way along the clarinet line. It was paying off. For me.