Chapter 5

I woke Monday morning and stretched, yawning sleepily. I checked the clock and grinned. I’d slept the whole night. I bounced out of bed and went to the bathroom to get ready to face the day. I shaved, brushed my teeth and then jumped in the shower. I went to get dressed and put her shirt on to round it out before going upstairs.

Lilly was eating cold cereal at the kitchen table and I plopped down, pouring myself a bowl. She looked up and frowned at me. “Isn’t that the shirt that Emma was wearing last night?” she asked suspiciously.

“It is indeed. She wore mine home last night.”

“Kinky. Is that the only clothing you’re trading?”

“You’ll have to check for yourself,” I told her. “The jeans are mine and so are the socks.”

“I’ll live in suspense,” she told me sarcastically.

“Are we not having a good Monday morning?” I asked playfully.

“No I’m not. I was up half the night.”

“Anything bugging you?” I asked.

“Seriously? You’re leaving. What do you THINK is bothering me?”

“I’m sorry, Blue. It’s not because of you. You’ll be able to come visit and we’ve got Skype calls and I’ll try to visit when I can. I just ... Well, you were here through it. I want to give you guys a chance to shake it off.”

“I know. It’s just not gonna be the same,” she sighed.

“Things change, Lilly,” I said sadly. “Why don’t you give Donald a call and talk about it some. I have to talk to him this week myself. Want me to arrange dinner for the three of us?”

She thought about it, but shook her head. “No, that’s okay.”

I nodded. “Okay. It’s not gonna get any easier though. Just don’t let it go to the point where it starts getting harder.”

She thought about that while we ate and shrugged.

“So where’s Mom?” I asked, trying to scale back on using her name even though I still used it in my head.

“Upstairs in the shower. She had breakfast early and went up to get ready.”

“I guess meals can get back to normal after I leave. At least that’s something to look forward to, right?”

“I don’t particularly want to eat with them,” Lilly said darkly. “You shouldn’t have pulled me off Lana.”

“She said the same thing. I wanted to ask you about something. You asked Lana how many beds she’s been in. What’s up with that?”

Lilly grimaced. “I don’t want to say,” she told me sourly.

“Look, I’ve heard the rumors that she’s been traded back and forth too. I just want to know where you heard it and what you know.”

She sighed. “They’re not rumors Both of them have been with at least 12 guys. They told me that themselves.”

“At least? They don’t KNOW?!!?”

“Of course they know, but after they started listing off names, I stopped listening.”

I sat there, staring at my cereal, wishing I hadn’t asked, wishing I hadn’t heard the rumors, wishing I didn’t have that mental image in my head now. “Thanks for telling me,” I said dully. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m not touching them. God knows what they could have caught.”

“No kidding,” she muttered in disgust.

“Let it go, hon,” I said gently. “They both raved about how good sex with me was. Going from that to normal boys would suck. Imagine finding the best restaurant in the world and then it burns down. You’d look for a replacement restaurant and you’d keep looking ‘til you found a good one.”

“Not exactly the same thing. It’s not like you can get gonorrhea from the silverware at a bad restaurant.”

“Did they?” I asked, horrified.

She shrugged. “I dunno. I stay away from skank cooter. You should too.”

“Colorful as always, Blue,” I laughed. “I gotta go though. I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’re not driving in with Mom?” she asked.

“Nah. It’s a nice day out and she needs to drop you off. I suspect that Lana and Beck are riding with her too since Patty told me they’re taking Lana’s keys.”

“Yeah. That came up yesterday,” she confirmed. “Lana’s gotta be pissed about that. That’s her booty barge.”

“She’s grounded until New Years anyway. She’ll be dumped by next week.” I got up and got my backpack, throwing a couple of energy bars in the side pocket since I knew I’d never make it to lunch without them. I kissed Lilly and took off out the door before the next confrontation could start.

I ran the distance to the school so that I could be there when Tricia Saunders arrived. I saw her about fifteen minutes later and I stood up from where I’d been sitting on the low wall around the school grounds.

“Hello,” I said. “I don’t know if you know who I am or not,” I started, but she nodded and cut me off.

“You’re Matt. I’m Tricia,” she said quietly. She was pretty, but carried herself in a very shy manner. She bowed her head and let her mousy brown hair fall across her face like a screen.

“I know. You’re in a couple of my classes. Look, I found out about the rumor about you and me over the weekend. I just wanted you to know I didn’t start it. I’m really sorry if you got hurt by it.”

She looked up and cocked her head to one side. “I didn’t get hurt. I was sorry you got hurt by it. I heard that Lana Powers was your girlfriend over the summer and that she dumped you because of that.”

I nodded. “Yeah. She and her sister were both close to me for years until this. They ended up really hurt by it too,” I said, thinking of what Lilly said this morning. I wasn’t going to get emotional, I promised myself.

“Teasing you seemed to make them feel better,” she said bluntly and it made me laugh a little.

“I guess it did, but it really only made them forget how much it hurt them. I was actually dating both of them over the summer. When they heard, they believed it was true and dated other guys to try to hurt me for what they thought I did.”

“I heard about what happened on Friday,” she said. “Is that how you found out about the rumor?”

“Yeah. My sister finally told me.”

“That must be awful,” she said. “Finding out that everyone else knew before you did. I thought you knew. Otherwise I would have told you.”

“It’s okay, Tricia,” I assured her. She had a way of speaking without all the layers of bullshit that people normally used. I actually did like her. She reminded me of Carl. She did just remind me that this had gone down exactly like my parents’ divorce had though.

“I heard you talked to my mother the other night,” I said gently. She was still very shy and I wondered if she talked to much of anyone at school.

“Yes, she found out about the rumor over the weekend too. She wanted to find out whether it was true.”

“She never told me what you told her except that you remembered me from baseball,” I said, thinking of how she’d taken that as proof that I’d done it.

She shrugged. “I told her that I’d never done that with a boy. My dad was a little surprised when I told him why she’d called.”

“I can imagine. It’s not every day you get accused of having an abortion,” I nodded.

“Oh, it’s not that,” she said lightly. “I’m not very popular. He would have wanted to meet the boy I was going to have sex with. When I told him it was a rumor, a lie, then he calmed right down.”

“I’m sorry you got dragged into this,” I said sadly. “I know you said it didn’t hurt you, but that still must have been embarrassing to have to talk about it with a perfect stranger and your dad.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t mind helping you out. It sounded like you had a very bad weekend. I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner.”

“I’m not angry or upset or anything at you, but why didn’t you? If you knew, why not clear your own name?” I asked curiously.

She shrugged and made eye contact for the first time. “No one notices me. It was kind of nice to be noticed for once. People thought I’d had sex and that was kind of nice too. I never have, though I’ve thought about it if someone had thought to ask me.”

“I’m sorry I never noticed you at baseball,” I said sincerely. She was a very timid girl, but I got the sense that she didn’t have a mean bone in her body. She’d be the kind of girl that raised flowers for small children to pick and she’d feed stray cats because she couldn’t bear the thought of them starving. I liked her and I kicked myself for not noticing those qualities before.

“You apologize a lot,” she pointed out. “Why is that?”

I chuckled. “I’m apologizing to you because you deserved better. If I’d taken the time to talk to you at baseball, I might not have gone out with Lana at all.”

That made her eyes go wide. “I thought you loved her though?” she asked. “I heard some of the girls talking in the bathroom that you’ve been in love with her forever.”

I shrugged. “I was, but look how that ended up. The first time she heard a rumor about me, she believed it and broke my heart. If I’d been dating someone else, I wouldn’t have even talked to her this summer.”

“I never thought about it like that. Does she know that it was a lie now?”

I nodded. “I had a sprained ankle at the time I was supposed to be talking you into getting an abortion. The girls were making sure I had someone with me full-time in case I needed something. They never thought about it until I pointed out that they would have been in the room for any call I could have made to you. I think that made them feel stupid.”

She nodded shyly. “I wish they’d just asked me. I would have told them I’ve never been with a boy. It was a silly rumor”

“It’s done now,” I said lightly. “All we can do is move on. Don’t worry about it.”

“Does that mean you’re going to make up with the Powers sisters?” she asked curiously.

“No, I understand that they’re sorry and that they got taken in by a lie, but I’m still very hurt. They’ve done a lot of things just to cause me pain. That’s going to take time to forgive and even then, there’s no way I could forget about it and go back to the way things were.”

She nodded. “I understand. I wondered if you were going to make up with them after I talked to your mother.”

“We all talked. They live next door to us and our families have always been close. It wasn’t a fun chat.”

She nodded, but said nothing for the moment so I decided to change topics.

“Are you going to the Halloween dance on Saturday?” I asked curiously.

She shook her head. “I almost never go to the dances.” She got a faraway look in her eyes and I got the sense that she wanted to. She was too shy to ask anyone and too shy to get noticed.

“I hadn’t planned on it either,” I confessed. “I didn’t have anyone to go with.”

“Me either,” she said with a shrug.

“Do you have a costume?” I asked, probing.

She shook her head. “I normally just pass out candy at home, but we only got 4 kids last year. There’s not much trick ‘r treating any more.”

“Let’s get costumes and go,” I said suddenly. “We’ll get costumes that match and go together.”

Her eyes got really big when she thought about it. “You really mean it?” she whispered and my heart went out to this girl who’d been overlooked by everyone, me included.

“Absolutely. Would you go to the dance with me on Saturday?” I asked solemnly.

She looked like I’d given her diamonds and I suppose from her perspective, I had. She threw her arms around me and chanted “Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”

I grinned and put my arms around her. We hugged tightly and I was really glad I’d come early. “I guess now we have to figure out costumes,” I pointed out.

She let go of me and scrunched up her nose. She was actually more than pretty when she wasn’t busy hiding. “I dunno. Maybe we could go looking after school?”

“That sounds like a good idea. I’m gonna make a call though and see if I can get a head start. My girlfriend’s father does special effects for movies in California. He might know a good place to get costumes out here.”

“You have a girlfriend?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

I nodded. “It’s really complicated, but she’s okay with me seeing other girls. If you’re not comfortable going to the dance with me because of her, I understand,” I explained gently.

“So would that make this like you mentioned you were dating both the Powers sisters in the summer? Or would we be going as friends?” she asked. She didn’t seem upset, but sometimes it was hard to judge a girl’s moods.

“It depends on what you’re comfortable with,” I said. “I would like to take you as my date, but if you’d prefer we go as just friends, I’ll be happy to be your friend too.”

I’d said the right thing. She grinned at me. “Is your other girlfriend coming with us?” she asked brightly and we both laughed.

“Let me call her and find out,” I said, relieved.

I called her phone and talked to her for a few minutes, explaining about the dance and asked if her father might know someone out this way he’d recommend for costumes.

“So let me get this straight,” she said and I could hear the amusement in her voice. “You’re calling your fiance to ask her father to hook you up with costumes for you and your girlfriend to go to a costume party?”

“Well, that and to ask if you wanted to come with us. I know it’s a high-school gig and you’ve probably got a huge college thing you can get into, but I wanted to spend the night with you too.”