Chapter 13

Tina greeted Dana at their lockers with a brief, frosty smile. Before Dana could ask about Josh, Zoe bounced up to her.

“Good morning.” Bounced was the right word, too—her large breasts jiggled inside her tight, low-cut top. Even her skirt seemed to flounce.

Dana smiled. “Thanks for your help, Saturday.”

“Want to go out next Saturday?” Zoe stood pressed against Dana, and traced the tip of her finger along her forearm—not very subtle. And after Saturday night, she knew Zoe would clearly be a simple, uncomplicated roll on the sheets, no strings attached. Dana wanted uncomplicated.

“Sure.”

“Unless,” Zoe drawled the word, “you want to try for earlier.”

“I’m free Thursday. But how about someplace else, for a change?”

Zoe beamed—there was no other word for that, either. “Great! And, ah—Patrick could come along, too.”

And that was already getting too complicated. Dana pretended to consider Zoe. “You know, I think I just want to get to know you better.” As in get to know her curvy, girly body, with no interruptions.

Zoe giggled. “You got it. I’ll text ya!” And with that, she bounced off.

“You seem,” Tina said, “to be getting popular with the cheerleaders.” She didn’t seem entirely pleased by the idea.

Dana held up her hands. “I cannot explain it.”

Tina snorted and looked away.

Dana actually blushed. Which was not something she did very often. But she deserved that one. She finished packing her bag silently.

As they started walking to class, Tina asked, “So what happened Saturday?”

Dana grimaced. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Shit, girl.”

“I’m not in trouble. Not for that. Later.” They split up.

Dana was so distracted and edgy, she didn’t notice Sam walking beside her to chemistry until she said, “Hi.”

“Oh, hi, Sam.” Dana still had no idea whether Sam thought Dana had fulfilled her good times obligation. Since the best defense was a good offense, she said, “I hope you had as good a time as I did.” Which was perfectly true. An even worse time would be better still.

“Oh—yes, of course.”

Sam’s smile was unconvincing. Ha. That made Dana’s answering smile genuine. “Good.”

“I told you we would.” Sam’s smugness, however, was completely convincing. “Want to do it again?”

Dana managed not to choke, or react visibly at all. Then she realized—Sam couldn’t remember what happened. She really had been smashed. Which burned—after all that, and Sam didn’t even know what she’d done. “No offense,” she said, “but don’t I have to go out with the rest of the squad?” And judging by Nikki, second dates didn’t go well.

Sam blinked. It wasn’t like she could object to an excuse she’d given Dana. “Oh, well, true.”

Dana smiled brightly as she could, and twiddled her fingers as they parted. Though she wanted to make another gesture instead. Given all the cheerleaders, she could probably avoid Sam till the end of the school year—and Sam was graduating. And surely the other cheerleaders would work out better than either Sam or Nikki.

Dana arrived at lunch before Mike. One empty seat was next to Josh; she walked around the table to the other one. With a glance askance at Tina at the other end of the table, she gave him a brief nod, which he returned. Beside her, Sandy also nodded to Dana. Dana nodded back. They didn’t bring up her visit.

As Dana unwrapped her sandwiches, she caught herself looking around the cafeteria for Nikki. Stop that, she told herself—if Nikki was sorry, she knew where to find her. The others talked about the in crowd, and being “in,” and trendiness. After Sam’s one-time accusation of social climbing, Dana wasn’t particularly interested in the subject and ate her sandwiches silently until she heard Mike say, “I have to admit, I don’t think the scratched up look will catch on.”

Dana was looking for Nikki again, and brought her attention back. Mike was giving her face a skeptical look. “No?” she said airily. “Find it repulsive, do you?”

“Well, some guys might,” with an air of Not Him.

“Well, Josh wouldn’t,” Lillian said with barely repressed reasonableness, “and that’s the important thing.”

“What,” Tina asked with a touch of knife in her voice, “does Josh have to do with it?”

“I thought... , “ Lillian said, looking confused.

“You two are seeing each other, aren’t you?” Sandy said, looking from Josh to Dana.

Josh quickly said, “Going out to dinner does not ‘seeing each other’ make.”

“But you did go out,” Lillian said.

This was getting dangerous. Dana nodded. “Thursday, but—”

Before she could mention it wasn’t happening again, Sandy said, “And it’s not like you two,” she nodded at Josh and Tina, “are together. So he’s free.”

It wasn’t just her, Dana realized. It would have felt a lot better, learning that she’d been right and Tina wrong, if Tina didn’t look ready to explode.

“And it’s not like Dana is steady with anyone,” Mike said.

Well, no. But—what? “Excuse me?” Dana asked him.

“You’re a jock.” He shrugged, as if that explained everything. “Jocks always date around.”

Oh, so he was going by the stereotype she was playing. It still annoyed her. What was he again? “Well, at least I get to go out, gamer boy.”

He pished that off. “It’s not like all gamers are stuck in their parent’s basement.”

“Uh huh.”

Sandy smirked a little. “Sometimes he makes it upstairs.”

“Hey!”

The rest of lunch was spent in fruitless argument over stereotypes and sex—never returning to the subject of Josh, to Dana’s relief. Tina still looked torqued when the bell rang, though. Dana slipped out as she talked urgently with Josh.