CHAPTER TWO
It was early afternoon when Maria fetched Sydney from the library.
Sydney pushed a lock of her long, curly hair from her face and examined her friend.
Maria looked sunny as always, wearing shades and dressed in khaki shorts and a pink tank top with a large straw hat on her head, her thick, wavy dark hair cascading from under it and onto her backpack. She was wearing her camera around her neck as usual, making her look even more like a tourist visiting a Caribbean island, especially with her tan complexion.
Sydney couldn’t resist smiling when her friend’s easy, dimpled grin greeted her.
As they headed toward the cafeteria for lunch, Maria chatted about her latest adventure in one of her art classes, but once they neared the opening to the cafeteria, she started fiddling with her shades, hooking them on to her tank.
She lifted her camera to her face, its huge eye staring at Sydney, unnerving her.
“No, not again.” Sydney put her hand up to try to block the intrusive eye.
“Say cheese!” Maria said with glee, aiming and shooting at Sydney.
Sydney looked at her in reproach.
Maria snapped a few more shots then put her camera away.
Sydney just shook her head. She was used to Maria’s antics, but that didn’t make them any less annoying.
“So, we’re still on for tonight right?” Maria asked, her large, brown Bambi eyes expectant as she looked at Sydney.
Sydney could see Maria trying to mask a calculating look by making her face as open and innocent as possible.
“Oh Maria, I don’t know about that. I have to study—big test on Monday. We might have to skip it this week.”
Maria’s shoulders drooped.
“But we
always
have a girls’ night together, every week so far! And the semester just started what, like, four or five weeks ago? And it’s
Friday
for god’s sake—you’ll have enough time to study over the weekend.”
“Yeah, but I have to get an ‘A’ on this test.”
“And when have you ever gotten anything else?” Maria replied, rolling her eyes.
Sydney silently conceded.
“Well yeah, but I have to make sure,” she said, smiling.
Maria shook her head.
“Tonight was gonna be truth or dare night,” she said, not masking her disappointment.
Then her face changed and Sydney could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she switched gears. “Well you know it’s useless to study for like eight hundred hours straight right? We don’t have to make it a whole night this time—we’ll skip the pedicure, manicure, beauty stuff. We’ll skip everything—except the truth or dare portion.”
They had reached inside the cafeteria and joined the line.
“I knew it. Why are you so bent on this truth or dare thing?” Sydney asked although she knew the answer already. She grabbed two trays and handed one to Maria.
“Because I need to know!” Maria said, accepting the tray. A few people looked at them.
“Maria!” Sydney whispered sharply.
“I need to know,” Maria repeated, lowering her voice.
“Know what?” Sydney asked, exasperated.
“Sydney, I know something happened to you a few years ago. I’m your best friend and you still haven’t told me what it is. How can you expect me to just drop it?”
Sydney mulled over Maria’s words. She knew she would have to tell her sometime, but not anytime soon.
“Maria.” Sydney looked around, then directly into Maria’s eyes. “Let’s just wait until later okay?” she said, hoping to make Maria think she would give in in the near future so she would quit badgering her.
Sydney turned to their culinary choices, marking the end of the conversation and Maria followed suit.
Once they had filled their trays, they found a place to sit. Maria stared downward, picking at her macaroni and cheese, looking dejected.
As much as Sydney knew her friend’s ploys, she still found herself feeling guilty.
She sighed.
“All right Maria, I can spare a few hours. We’ll still do it tonight but just for a few hours okay? Five to seven or something. But no truth or dare stuff. Just the girly stuff.”
Maria’s dimples reappeared.
***
Not long before five o’ clock, Maria popped into their dorm room with a bag full of supplies, grinning wide as she struck a pose, the bag handles hanging from her fingers.
“Ta-da! Okay, I’ve got the goods. Tonight is—drum roll please—hair straightening night!”
Maria made her way toward her bed where she dumped the contents of the bag, while Sydney got up to a sitting position on her own bed, putting down her book.
“You think I’ve got a date tonight or what?”
“Not a chance. But I do remember you saying all that hair of yours is easier to deal with this way. And since you’ve got lots of studying to do, who wants to worry about hair?”
Sydney smiled.
“I didn’t...”
“Besides,” Maria added casually, not making eye contact, “you’re probably gonna run into that cute guy you mentioned in the library again.”
Maria tried to hide a smile as she continued avoiding looking at Sydney.
Sydney felt her cheeks warming.
“Maria...”
“What?
You
said he was cute.”
Maria’s smile widened.
Sydney knew she was enjoying her discomfort.
“His brother isn’t half bad either,” she added but Sydney was barely listening. Instead, she was grappling with the implication that after all this time, thinking she had successfully hidden the identity of her crush from Maria, she seemed to know who it was after all.
Maria flipped her hair over her shoulder and started going through her shopping bags.
Sydney knew she was making sure she had everything she needed for tonight’s purpose, but also looking through whatever extras she had bought, never able to buy only what she had gone shopping for.
“So I’ve got this party tonight. Wanna come?” Maria asked suddenly, still not looking at her.
“No surprise there, and no thanks.” Sydney paused. “Maria, you’re one heck of a pest, you know that? You’ve been bugging me to go to a party with you for I don’t know how long. Are you ever going to give up?”
“On you? Never. One day you’ll see the light.”
“What light? A cigarette light? A dim light in a room of drunk, out-of-control people? A Bud Light? I’ll pass, thanks.”
In the silence, Sydney found the courage to voice a thought that kept teasing her mind but had never made its way to her mouth. She also wanted to break the silence and soften the atmosphere in case she had offended Maria.
She let out a breath.
“Okay. So we’re both juniors. We’re both twenty—although you’ll be twenty-one in a few months—and neither of us has have had a boyfriend. Is something wrong with this picture? Are we freaks?”
Maria rolled her eyes.
“Like we’re the first non-lesbian pretty young things who’ve never had boyfriends. And speak for yourself—I’ve had boyfriends. Kind of.”
She pulled a pair of earrings out of the bag and put them against her ears, grinning at Sydney as she showed them off.
“Maria, your crushes don’t count. You never even approached those guys. Your dates don’t count either. I’m talking about real boyfriends. Like going out with them for more than a week, forming a real relationship.”
Maria had started making faces as she repeated after Sydney in silent mockery while still going through a bag, but at Sydney’s last phrase, she looked sharply at her.
“Wait, do you think you’re finally ready?” she asked.
Sydney was startled.
“No! I just...well you brought it up.”
“Yeah I know, you’re thinking about that cute guy.” Maria smiled, then squinted at Sydney. “You really like him don’t you?”
“I never said that!”
Sydney didn’t know if she was ready to admit her attraction to Nicholas Dhalton, especially since she hadn’t made sense of it yet.
“You just did!”
Maria laughed, then got up to get a comb from Sydney’s desk, dimples still visible.
“Sydney come on,” Maria continued. “I know you used to scorn him when we were younger but clearly you love him now.”
“I do not! I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Maria giggled, clearly enjoying seeing her so flustered.
Sydney sighed and gave in.
“Fine. I do feel kind of drawn to him. I don’t know why.”
“Sydney.”
Maria came to her and put her hands on her shoulders, bending until her face was level with hers. With a look of absolute seriousness, she said: “That’s because you like him.”
Then she sat down behind Sydney and started loosing the big French braid Sydney had made with her hair.
“Maria, I don’t really know anything about him.”
“But you want to.”
“I didn’t say that!”
“You didn’t have to.”
Maria started making smooching noises.
Sydney exhaled a frustrated sigh and grabbed the comb from Maria, heading to the bathroom.
When she emerged, Maria whistled, studying her towel-dried hair.
“It’s amazing how tame it looks when it’s wet!” she said.
Sydney laughed, remembering Maria’s first two attempts at straightening her hair. Still, Maria had mastered quickly, impressing Sydney since she knew Maria had no family members on her Mexican nor Italian side with hair as curly as hers.
Maria held the blow-dryer and paddle brush like weapons.
“Bring it on!” she said dramatically.
An hour later, Maria was flat-ironing Sydney’s blow-dried hair. Sydney thought she had given up the subject of Nicholas Dhalton, but soon realized she had been lulled into a false sense of security.
“So,” Maria began, “are you going to approach him or are you going to wait until he comes to you?”
“What makes you think he’d come to me?” Sydney asked, then cursed herself for finally admitting her interest.
“I’ve seen him looking at you. It’s the weirdest expression though, I can’t quite read it. But I’m sure he digs you.”
“Maria, he can have any girl he wants—why would he want me? You know, he’s probably just some airhead rich kid any way. If he wants me, it’s because he feels entitled to every girl on campus. On earth, probably.”
Maria was silent for a few moments.
“I think you should approach him,” she said at last. “No need for both of you to be lusting after each other from a distance.”
“Are you nuts?” Sydney looked at Maria in outrage. Then she looked down, her eyes on her own fingers. “And say what? And none of us are lusting thank you very much.”
“Again, speak for yourself. Anyway, I don’t know—comment on a class or the school. Something small so he can read into it if he digs you or dismiss it if I’m wrong and he doesn’t. Just make sure you tell me all about it when you do because I’m never wrong.”
“You’re so presumptuous. I bet you even think his brother likes you.”
“Oh, he does,” Maria said with confidence.
Sydney laughed. Then she started singing Carly Simon’s “You’re so vain” and Maria joined in.
Thirty minutes later, Maria was admiring her work as she stared at Sydney’s hair.
“There,” she said. “You look fantabulous. Pity it’s going to waste.”
Maria put the hair tools away then pulled out her camera.
“No it’s not.” Sydney flipped her hair over her shoulder just as Maria snapped a few pictures. “I’m going to keep it for a while.”
“You know what I mean. Hey, truth or dare.”
“Maria I told you, no truth or dare.”
“Just this one!”
Maria pushed her bottom lip out in a pout.
Sydney sighed, considering the ramifications. She knew exactly what Maria would ask if she picked truth and she didn’t feel like doing two dares to get out of it this time. On the other hand, she had a pretty good idea what Maria’s dare would be and she preferred that over being bothered about her past again.
“Dare,” she said.
Maria smiled slow and wide.
“I dare you to say something to him the next time you see him—and don’t be slick, you know just who I mean. And no, not ‘excuse me’ while you’re passing him or something. Actually address him—ask a question. Make a comment.”
“I knew it,” Sydney said, trying to suppress the fear and excitement rising in her at the thought.
“So why didn’t you pick truth?”
Maria had a challenging look in her eyes.
“I feel safer right now about the dare.”
Maria smiled an understanding smile. Then she looked at her watch.
“Well, it’s a little after seven. Better hit those books again. Maybe we’ll hang out tomorrow when you realize you’ve got this in the bag. And don’t forget to tell me how it goes with the Dhal!” she said, pronouncing it
doll.
Sydney thanked her for doing her hair, then headed for the library.
The time alone as she walked toward it gave her more time to think about her attraction to Nicholas Dhalton, and her conversation with Maria.
Sydney couldn’t quite put her finger on why her heart seemed to choose him. It couldn’t be for the same reasons every other female was attracted to him: because he was handsome, and rich. She felt that there was more, after all, why was she attracted to him instead of say, his brother Edward? Edward was also rich and attractive. Why not any other rich, handsome guy at their school for that matter?
In high school, she knew it was definitely a silly crush on an idea, but now she figured she was attracted to him for the simple reason that he seemed to be attracted to her.
She thought she had imagined it at first, but even Maria said she had seen him watching her. Sydney had been aware of it here and there, and tried not to smile or give herself away in some other fashion.
When he watched her, it seemed he didn’t just see her—he
saw
her. And that thrilled her.
***
She spotted him as soon as she hit the second floor in his usual spot not far from hers. She tried not to care he was there but couldn’t help herself. Butterflies came alive in her stomach whenever she became aware of his presence, and even though she knew he was watching her, she had to keep her mask of indifference from slipping as she pretended not to notice him. She imagined herself quite the actress, for it seemed he never picked up that she knew. And tonight was no different.