Unlovable (21 page)

The sun had all but disappeared over
the horizon, and the heavens shone in ribbons of orange and deep
red. It felt peaceful, and I walked slowly to drink it in. All too
quickly, the sky began fading to an inky black, the peaceful
feeling vanished, and I now felt unsafe. I tightened my grip on the
bag and continued for home, exhausted, mentally and
physically.

“
Hi, what are you doing out
here alone?” It was Booker Gatto in his police cruiser. He smiled
at me as if we were old friends while his eyes combed down my
scrubs. “Nice outfit. Do you work at the hospital?”

“
Hello.” I gave him the
short version of a long story. “I was visiting someone, and I’m on
my way home now.”

“
How are you getting
there?”

“
I was going to take the
bus, but I forgot my money.” I wondered how much trouble you could
get into for lying to a police officer. “I guess I’m
walking.”

“
Miss Brown, I’ll take you
home. I can’t in good
conscience
let you walk home alone.” Since I was dead on my
feet, I was glad he offered. I slumped down into his car and tried
not to fall asleep with the car’s gentle rocking.

“
How’s our mutual friend
doing?” he asked. I looked at him, bewildered. “Seth Prescott,” he
reminded me. I nodded; my mind was still back at the
hospital.

“
Yes, he mentioned he knows
your grandfather. They volunteer at the same charity, the Lunch
Swap.”

Booker laughed, “Lunch
Swap
is
Seth’s
charity.”

“
His
charity?”

“
Yes. His father started it
and after he died, Seth took over.” You could have knocked me over
with a feather. Seth Prescott, a senior in high school, owns the
Lunch Swap.

Oh, no! I had completely forgotten
about helping Seth today. I couldn’t call him and apologize since
we didn’t have a phone, and even if we did, I didn’t have his
number. Just when I thought it was impossible to feel any
worse.

Captain Gatto and I exchanged a few
pleasantries, he insisted I call him Booker from here on out, and
he dropped me off at my house. I hesitated on the porch, not
looking forward to the mess ahead of me, but I had homework inside
waiting to be tackled and standing on the porch wouldn’t get it
done.

I opened the door wanting to shut it
again straightaway. It smelled worse than I’d remembered. Dragging
out the cleaning supplies, I began scrubbing. Thankfully, we didn’t
have carpeting otherwise it would have taken a lot longer than two
hours to finish. After several more hours of grueling math
homework, I finally crawled into bed at 2:20 in the
morning.

When the alarm went off at
6:45 a few short hours later, it took every ounce of my
self-control not to chuck it across the room. While showering,
thoughts of not only my mother, but also of Seth were front and
foremost on my mind. I had misjudged him terribly, he was a pretty
terrific guy. He owned the Lunch Swap. How many eighteen
year-olds
did
charity work, let alone owned the charity?

After dressing, I started toward Mr.
Hoffman’s house to use his phone, meeting up with Gertie, my
elderly neighbor from across the street instead. She was letting
her demon cat inside and asked me in for a freshly baked cookie. I
explained my need to call the hospital, and she insisted I use her
new cell phone, a recent gift from her grandchildren. I followed
her as she waddled slowly inside. Her stupid cat I’d nicknamed
Lucifer was hissing and spitting at me the entire time.

Her home was smaller than ours, but it
had a welcoming ambience to it. The mouth-watering smell of hot
chocolate chip cookies permeated my nostrils, along with the stench
of litter box. My eyes turned to the cat and it hissed at me once
more.

There were small, hand-crocheted
doilies on the backs of all the chairs, and a large one covering
the middle of the couch. She had several worn area rugs throughout
the living room and kitchen, and two antique lamps that flooded the
room with rosy lighting. Her fridge was covered in photographs of
her children, grandchildren, and three recent additions. “My
great-grandchildren,” she pointed out proudly.

I made the call and thanked her for
the use of her phone. “Here, my dear,” she said, handing me a bag
of cookies as I was leaving. “Have a good day at school, and dress
warmly.” Homemade cookies, the last time I had them was when my
grandmother and I baked some the morning of our car
accident.

I rushed back over to my drab house to
finish getting ready. I just finished brushing my teeth when
someone knocked at the door. Fearing the worst, my heart
immediately began pounding.

Stay calm, Maggie. You
talked to the hospital, she’s fine
. Despite
my calming words, I ripped the door open so fast I was surprised it
didn’t fly off the hinges.

“
Seth!” I took a step back.
He wasn’t at all whom I had expected.

“
Aren’t you going to school
today?”

"Yes, I’ll get my stuff." I scooped up
my book bag and followed him out to his car.

“
About Lunch Swap on Sunday,
I’m sorry, something came up, and I completely forgot about it. I
owe you double time now.”

“
Don’t be silly. I
understand.”

“
I feel awful. We don’t have
a phone, so I couldn’t call you, not to mention I don’t have your
number.”

“
Don’t worry, Maggie, things
come up. Is everything okay?”

“
Ah, yeah, everything is
fine, really.” I debated for a moment about whether to tell him,
finally deciding against it. Too humiliating. Instead, I changed
the subject. “Did Mr. McSheehy ask about the shoes?”

“
Yes. I thought he was going
to start dancing when he found out you bought two pairs." We both
laughed as Seth did a dead-on imitation of Mr. McSheehy. It felt
nice to be distracted, even if it was for only a brief
moment.

“
Well,” Seth said, getting
out of the car, “I’ll see you at lunch.” He started to leave, then
turned back. “Are you sure everything’s okay? You look upset, and I
won’t even mention the dark circles around your eyes.” He ran his
index finger softly under my eyes.

“
Thanks for pointing out how
bad I look.” I playfully pushed his hands away.

“
Sure, what are friends
for?”

“
I had a ton of Calculus
homework last night, and I think I have the wrong book. Mine’s
written entirely in Japanese.”

“
I love Calculus! I’ll help
you with it.”

“
Nobody loves Calculus, at
least nobody normal does.”

He chuckled. “You’ll love it by the
time I’m done helping you, you’ll see. If not, I’ll kiss you so
long and hard, you won’t care about Calculus anymore.”

“
I don’t care about Calculus
now. And for the record, that was definitely flirting.”

He grinned innocently and left for his
class.

Between my lack of sleep and worrying
about my mother, I had a difficult time concentrating on school. By
lunchtime, my nerves were frazzled. Normally the cafeteria was
filled with loud shouts and laughter. Today, however, the room gave
way to low whispers and murmurings. I nervously sat down and waited
for Seth.

“
Hello, Maggot.” I cringed.
Apparently, the silent treatment Zack had been giving me was over.
He dropped into the seat across the table from me.

“
Hi.” I swallowed a less
civil reply. He had a stupid grin smeared across his face, looking
as if he were bursting to say something.

“
What?” I spit out
impatiently. I may as well let him say whatever he was dying to
say, maybe he’d go away sooner.

“
I hear your drunkard
mother’s in Detox at the hospital.”

Before I could react, Zack flew out of
his chair with the assistance of Seth, who had lifted him up into
the air. He dropped him forcibly onto his feet, causing Zack to
stumble and fall back a few steps. Seth followed. He arched his arm
back before throwing his fist straight into Zack’s jaw, sending him
flying across a table before he landed on his rear. To my surprise,
several people in the immediate vicinity cheered.

“
Her name is Maggie,” Seth
said before spinning back to me. “We need to talk—outside.” I
slipped on my coat as he placed his hand on the small of my back,
guiding me out into the parking lot.

“
I thought we were friends.”
His eyes were glowing.

“
We are.”

“
You have a pretty warped
idea of what friendship is, Maggie. I walked into my first period
and was cornered by Melody, who blabbered on and on about
how
my friend
spent the past day and a half in the hospital with her sick
mother. You couldn’t let me know?” He stood only inches from me,
his breath beating against my face as he lectured.

“
You could have mentioned it
this morning when I picked you up, Maggie, but no, you sat there in
silence, never saying a word.” He turned away and ran his fingers
through his hair before circling back around and
continuing.

“
This isn’t my idea of
friendship. I don’t know what you would call it, a convenience for
you, maybe, but friendship, no! Whatever it is, it certainly isn’t
what I want it to be. Maybe we shouldn’t
be
at all.”

I couldn’t take it, not on
top of everything else. My eyes filled with tears and I snapped.
“Wait here. I’ll go get a knife and you can plunge it into my chest
and finish me off!” Not expecting my reaction, his eyes flew open
widely. “Sorry I’m not one of your little cheerleader friends who
can pour their guts out to anyone who’ll listen.” My tears were
flowing wildly,
dang it,
and my entire body shook with anger. I needed to
leave and turned to do so when Seth stopped me, cradling me into
the warmth of his chest. It caused me to cry harder.

“
I’m sorry.” His voice was
now contrite as his hands stroked my hair. “I didn’t mean to add to
your problems. If you want to talk, I’m here. I’m done acting like
the village idiot.”

It was nice to be in his arms, it felt
as if someone actually cared about me. He listened, never judging,
nor criticizing, just listening as I told him what had happened
with my mom.

“
Do you want me to take you
over to the hospital after school to see her?”

“
That’d be great, thanks.”
The bell rang as he wiped a few stray tears off my face.

“
Did you know Hillary and
Zack broke up?” he said, taking my hand. “They dated for a total of
one week. It seems she wouldn’t sleep with him so he dumped her.
She’s so upset she’s telling all the girls he’s gay.” He chuckled.
“He can’t get a date, not with a girl anyway. I did hear Rick
Thompson from his science class wants to ask him out.”

“
Ugh, I thought Rick had
better taste than that,” I said.

“
We’d better hurry to
culinary class. Hopefully we’re cooking something delicious. I
didn’t have time to eat lunch you know. I decided acting like a
fool and harassing a friend was more important.” He pulled my hand
to his lips and kissed it softly. I faked an exaggerated shudder.
He laughed and kissed my hand again.

“
You know this could be
considered flirting.”

My warning fell on deaf ears as he
answered, “It sure could.”

Rounded the corner, we were greeted by
an ominous welcoming committee. “Mr. Prescott.” It was Vice
Principal Volkel, and Zack was standing next to her nursing a large
red mark on his chin. “Zack Finkle has accused you of punching him,
but it seems no one in the entire cafeteria saw what happened. Is
this true?” She looked at Seth in disbelief, only before he could
answer, Hillary appeared out of nowhere.

“
I saw the whole thing, Mrs.
Volkel.” Uh-oh, I remembered how much Mrs. Volkel worshipped
Hillary, Seth was toast. “Zack began clowning around in the
cafeteria, flirting with his girlfriend Maggo—ie here,” she pointed
at me with a brutal look in her eyes. “He tripped over his own two
feet, and Seth tried to catch him, accidentally hitting him in the
face. Zack made this whole thing up because he was
embarrassed.”

Mrs. Volkel turned to Zack. “Mr.
Finkle, that will be a week’s worth of detention for lying.” He
began to protest, as did Seth, except she ignored them both and
escorted Zack to her office by the scruff of his shirt. Hillary
didn’t say a word to us as she turned and walked away. I had little
doubt she was trying to score points with Seth.

“
Weird,” Seth said. We
walked down the hall, joking about the expression on Zack’s face as
he flew across the table. I laughed so hard my side ached. Once
inside the classroom we had a pop quiz, but no food. I slipped my
lunch out of my book bag and split the sandwich with him, along
with half the cookies. He tried refusing until I gave him a hard
glare. He drew a panic-stricken expression on his face and took the
sandwich, his hand shaking in mocked terror. What a
goofball.