Cameo (21 page)

“Goodbye,” I said.

“Bye,” he said.

Whenever I saw Jason, it felt like time stopped. My smile, my laugh, they were all different around him. Even the way I ran my fingers through my hair was different because I knew he was watching. There was a side of my life that was a private show that only he had a ticket to. He had touched my heart in a way it had never been touched before. It wasn't any one thing in particular—it was everything he had never said that I knew he meant because of the look in his eyes, the way he always opened the door for me, and the way he wanted to protect me.

The sun was illuminating right onto his gorgeous face. He was sporting a slight outline of a beard extending from his sideburns, dark rinse jeans, and a fresh white tee that hugged his muscles. I felt different about him.

“Hi there,” he said.

“Hey, babe.” I kissed him.

We sat at the front fountain in front of the school.

“For summer, where are you going?” I asked.

“Where you go, I will follow. That, and I got a job at my dad's firm as an intern,” he said. He held me in his arms.

Carolina came walking out of the school doors. She came up to us. “What up, Jason?” she said. I guess she considered herself Jason's friend.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi Carolina,” I said.

“Hi?” Carolina said.

“Where are you off to?” I asked.

“To meet Derek,” she said.

“Word?” Jason said.

“Why?” she asked.

“Doesn't he have a girlfriend?” I asked.

“No,” she said.

“Are you excited about graduation?” I asked her.

“No. I'm excited about prom,” she said.

“Good. Well, I'll see you around.” I walked over to her and gave her a hug. She was stunned.

“Okay,” she said.

“Bye,” I said.

“Bye,” Jason said. She walked away slowly.

“What was that?” Jason asked.

“What?” I said.

“I thought you guys were arch enemies,” he said.

“I know, but it turns out she wasn't my real enemy at all,” I said. If I could forgive Craig, anything was possible. Though I must admit, I even surprised myself with this one.

We walked around the front lawn. It would be the last time we would.

“Are you going to remember me?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Ten years from now, when you think back about high school, will you think of me?”

“You? You're, like, from another planet. I'll definitely remember you.”

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” I said.

His hands came at me with his fingers moving rapidly like the winds of a twister.

I screamed out. “Ah! No, no. Do not tickle me,” I said.

His fingers tickled my body like a pianist tickles ivory keys. I burst out into laughter. My body convulsed defensively. He laughed, taking pleasure in torturing me with his touch. There was a permanent grin on my face from ear to ear. He picked me up in his arms and swung me around.

“Put me down, silly.”

“You're crazy.”

“No, you're crazy.”

“Only since I met you.”

I was close enough to him for our noses to touch. I tilted my head like I was going to kiss him, and then I whispered in his ear, “Check.”

I started tickling him.

“Stop. Stop, Nia!”

“Beg for mercy.”

“Nah.” He laughed.

“Too bad.” I continued to tickle him. He grabbed my hands. Suddenly I realized the tables had turned. He was going in for the kill.

“You better be ready for a rematch,” Jason said.

I wiggled my arms every which way and struggled to get my hands free. Once I got them free, I ran across the street to the park. He chased me around the park for the rest of the afternoon. It was just me and my boyfriend.

If there wasn't such a thing as fool's gold, I guess one would never know the real thing. How could one tell what was fake? It felt like I had found something very close to the real thing. Every time
he looked at me, I knew he felt the same way about me that he did the night he dropped me at my grandmother's house. And somehow his opinion was the only opinion that counted in the entire world. I never imagined it would be like this. And, yeah, I think he knew the look I had in my eyes. It was a look that said I could definitely have him for breakfast and maybe seconds for lunch. Good thing prom was in two days. Phew!

First things first: At prom, Jane had a secret she was itching to tell me. Dressed in a pink, backless metallic dress that came to just above her knees and with a fantastic high ponytail filled with soft curls she looked like she had just stepped off the red carpet. But Jane was operating more like a publicist than a star. She was furiously tapping away at her Sidekick. She was definitely taking notes for the post-prom report.

“Hey, Nia! I love your black strapless with soft violet chiffon. I would've never thought of that,” Jane said.

“It is fabulous, isn't it?” I said.

“So, I have a secret,” Jane began.

It wasn't until that instant that I realized Jane was the type of girl who was going to keep tabs on everyone from high school for the next ten years, and come up with the reunion report.

She looked both ways in the hotel lobby. Then she inconspicuously pulled me behind a tall plant near the reception desk.

“I was going to take this to my grave.” She paused.

Yeah, right. Not unless she was going to die in the next five minutes was this going to go to the grave with her. Jane could hold a secret about as well as a shopaholic could hold fifty bucks! I really hoped this had nothing to do with Jason because if she was going to take it to her grave I would've appreciated that more than knowing.

“I know you've been wondering,” she whispered.

“Wondering what?”

“Who gave Roger the sexy biker boy makeover?”

“Yeah, kind of.”

“Okay, he let me cheat off him on a bio quiz. Those damn quizzes count for like 40 percent of your grade and, well, I was tied up with Derek the night before,” she said.

“Jason's friend, Derek? Doesn't he date Carolina?”

“No. He's with me now,” Jane said sternly.

“I see,” I said. Who was I to question her?

“Back to Roger. He told me he really, really liked Cindy, and he wanted me to help him get her. And she told me her ideal guy was a hot, clean-cut-by-day, bad-boy-by-night-looking guy with a motorcycle. I didn't study for the last three quizzes, if you know what I mean.”

I arched my eyebrows so high they practically reached my hairline.

“Phat, right?” she asked.

“Hmmm,” I said. What they say is true … nothing is ever as it seems.

As for Michelle, she wasn't voted prom queen—something about a write-in vote who won by a landslide. Craig went with her to prom, though they didn't leave together. She left with Lucy. And Gary, I overheard him telling Roger how he met his prom date, Vala. How crazy is that?

I was never blacklisted from the yearbook. It's a funny thing, yearbook. Roger decided it was time MIA stood its ground and put up a fight. As co-president, he put to rest the urban myth that if one crossed the popular secret society they would be ousted from the yearbook and would probably not get a job in this town after college graduation. I found out about the last part a couple of days after we had given Michelle her makeover.

Someone had sent Gary a text about it, and he had forwarded to me. We just laughed about it. Seriously, there was life outside of this town. The smart, the un-inducted, and the inappropriately labeled “nerds” were no longer at the mercy of the popular secret society because a new story had
been written at this school. This urban legend starred a girl who was neither popular nor a nerd but a superbly dressed, non-narcissist hybrid who ended up with the guy, the popular best friend, and a full page as the prom queen in the yearbook! If ever there was a moment for a high five, now would be it!

Forever, Nia