Crushing (10 page)

After we got home I decided I needed to talk to Gage about Sunday’s BBQ. I was worried that he was going to be uncomfortable or that there might be an “incident” with Holden and Dom. Texting seemed like the best way to handle this kind of conversation.

Hey are you awake?

Yeah. What’s up?

Are you sure you want to come on Sunday to the BBQ?

Would you rather I didn’t?

No. I just know what happens when the three of you are together.

I’m a big boy, Rory. I can handle myself.

I ‘m very aware of that. I would like my dad to think you are a nice guy not a brawler so . . .

But I am a nice guy. . . =)

A nice guy who hates my friends.

Well I think the feeling is mutual and I don’t know about hate. Maybe loathe is a better word.

Can you get through an evening with them without throwing punches?

I’m reasonably certain I can control myself as long as they keep their hands to themselves…

Meaning?

Well I’m not fond of how Holden treats you, and the love of your life seems to be unable to keep his hands off you.

He is not the love of my life. I told you we are just friends.

Right.

You are being difficult tonight.

Not unusual for me.

True.

I’m glad I got to talk to your dad though.

Yes he definitely got to see the real you.

Well I don’t know about that. Maybe the polite, talking to adults, me.

I guess that’s true but you seemed very comfortable.

Being around old people for most of your life makes it easy to impress adults.

Hahaha I can’t believe you had to spend so much time with old people.

Yeah haha really funny. Sometimes they are cool tho. They have great stories.

I bet. Well if you think you won’t be uncomfortable here then I guess I won’t worry about it.

Well I told you the conditions so we’ll see.

Sigh.

=)

Good night Gage.

Good night Aurora.

The whole conversation didn’t make me any more confident about the BBQ, but then again, I’m not sure what I was expecting. I was just as worried and confused as I had been before I texted him.

#

Being in Student Leadership meant I had lists of stuff that needed to be done before the dance. I also had hair and nail appointments. Finally when I arrived at school way before the dance was to start but hours after I had headed out, I was the first one. My mom dropped me off on her way to meet Laken’s mom to grab coffee. She waved as she drove away when she saw that the janitor was letting me in. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to drive myself. Someone might run me off the road and kidnap me in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon. Seriously, everyone in my family was paranoid.

The janitor let me into the gym and helped me carry all my stuff, but then promptly disappeared. It was kind of creepy in there by myself. The creep factor was elevated by the fact that a storm was rolling in. It wasn’t here yet, but the clouds were, which made everything darker and drearier than it normally was. And it was an old, creepy school anyway, so that was saying something. It was still and quiet except for the echo of my footsteps.

I got busy setting up. I needed the janitor to open the Student Leadership room, where I had left a couple of boxes of decorations. I was regretting not telling him when I saw him that I needed it open. Now I would have to hunt him down wherever it was that janitors hung out.

I started out walking up and down the hallways. There were a few janitorial closets in different spots on campus, and I would try looking in those first.

I was in one of the hallways, when I started to feel more than a little freaked-out. It felt different from the other hallways. Like it wasn’t really empty.

“Hello? Mr. Kasten? Are you here?” The janitor was a really old man. He had been at the school for a million years, and he was deaf. “It’s Rory. I really need to get into the Student Leadership room.” I was standing in front of the janitorial room at the end of the hall. The door was cracked, so I figured he had to be in there.

I pushed open the door and called out again.

“Mr. Kasten, are you in here?” Silence. The room was really dark, but there was a light toward the back of the room. The smell of cleanser was really strong. As I went around the shelving to get to the back of the closet, the hair on my arms started to stand up. I was really starting to freak myself out. I had this weird feeling. Something about the smell was giving me the heebie-jeebies. I knew that cleanser smell from school, but it was something else. Under the cleanser I smelled cologne that was familiar. Not my dad’s or brothers’. It was hard to define, but for whatever reason it wasn’t a good kind of familiar. I thought I heard movement in the back of the closet, so I kept moving slowly.

This felt like one of those moments in a horror movie when the whole theater is yelling “Get out of there!” I was coming to the last of the shelving, when the door hit the wall behind me.

“Rory, is that you?”

I must have jumped backward and screeched. I hit my head on one of the shelves, and a bunch of stuff came down behind me. I managed to dodge most of it. I realized it was Mr. Kasten at the door. I was such an idiot. I really needed to start sleeping more. I must have been tired to be this scared over nothing. Stupid nightmares.

“Sorry, Mr. Kasten. I was just looking for you.” I bent down and started picking everything up. “I need to get into the Student Leadership room. I left some stuff for the dance in there.”

“No problem, no problem,” he said. “Let’s go do that. Just leave that stuff. I’ll get the rest later.” He seemed to be moving quicker than he normally did. He reached up and put his arm behind me to usher me out the door.

“Come on, Rory.” He shot a look to the back of the room and then started moving us out into the hallway. I wasn’t sure, but he seemed a little nervous.

I was being ridiculous. The Lindsay thing must be making me paranoid. As soon as we got to the hallway where the SL room was, I saw Veronica coming from the other direction.

“Where have you been, Ror? There’s so much to do!”

Of course she scolded me when I had been here first and ready to work. Really?

#

We managed to get everything done in time for the dance. Thankfully the seniors didn’t have to sell tickets at the door. That was a job for the freshmen. I thought I might be able to relax and have fun now that we had pulled it off. The theme was Casablanca. It came out surprisingly well, and everybody had really bought into it.

The guys were all dressed in forties attire. Zoot suits with suspenders and fedoras and their hair slicked back, and there were some guys in military attire. The girls had gone for the classic forties’ slinky dresses and beautiful hats. Some girls even told me that their hats had been in the family for many years, and they had always wanted to wear them. It was nice to do a theme that required you to dress up in costumes. For the boys it was more work than they were used to, but I could tell they liked the excuse to dress up.

As the first people were being let in, I saw Dom coming through the doors. He headed straight for me.

“You look really pretty, Ror. I like the dress.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“Thank you.” I smiled.

He looked really handsome dressed as a fighter pilot. I totally understood at this moment why women went crazy for men in uniform. I really needed to stop complaining about my situation in life. I was surrounded by adorable guys. I needed to stop worrying and have fun.

“Here’s your corsage.” Dom held out a clear plastic box with one perfect purple rose. It was gorgeous. He gently took it out of the box and proceeded to try to figure out where to pin it on my dress. I finally decided to take pity on him and do it myself.

“Dom, it’s beautiful.” I threw myself into his arms to hug him. He really was the sweetest of guys.

“Wow. I should buy you flowers every day.” He hugged me back hard.

“I better go check on things and make sure the freshmen are doing their jobs.”

He nodded. “Promise me a dance later? I hear we are going to learn how to swing. I bet I could throw you higher than the other guys.”

I rolled my eyes. “That sounds like something I really want to be a guinea pig for.”

“I will always catch you.” He looked serious.

Okay, I wasn’t sure if we were still talking about swing, but I definitely wasn’t ready for a complicated discussion right now.

“All right, but I am going to hold you to that. If you drop me, I will never forgive you.” I gave him a death glare.

“No worries. Have you seen the guns?” He flexed his biceps at me.

I had to blink and breathe. He was a fine hunk of a man. Maybe not a man in the true sense of the word, but I definitely felt the need to go fan myself. When did Dominic get this hot? I shook my head at him, hoping he wouldn’t notice that I was blushing.

“I’ll find you when the swing lessons start, Muscle Man. Thanks for the rose. It’s gorgeous.” I walked away to make sure everything was flowing well and to catch my breath.

I took a couple of turns around the room, and it all seemed fine so far. A bunch of the parents had agreed to chaperone, which made all the kids uncomfortable, but it was school policy. As I made my way around the room I saw Mr. and Mrs. Cosgrove and Mr. Rossi hanging out by the drink table. Mrs. Cosgrove waved me over.

“Rory, you look beautiful. Where’d you get the dress?”

I could tell she’d been drinking. Her face was flushed, and she swayed a little while we spoke.

“Thank you, Mrs. Cosgrove. That costume place on King Street? They had some really gorgeous vintage dresses.”

“Oh, I love that place. The country club should have more theme events like this, don’t you think?” She leaned into me and put her hand on my arm. “Oh, what a lovely rose.”

I had always liked her. She had always been so nice to me. I felt sorry for her being married to Holden’s dad. Everyone knew he married her for her money. He wouldn’t have a cent to his name if it wasn’t for her “old money.”

“Thanks, Dominic picked it.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mr. Rossi standing with Mr. Cosgrove. When I glanced over, Dom’s dad was gesturing wildly while he told some story to an annoyed-looking Mr. Cosgrove.

“He’s such a lovely boy. So polite,” she said, looking out onto the dance floor. She seemed miles away all of a sudden.

“Yes he is. I’ll see you later, Mrs. Cosgrove. I have to go check on things.”

“All right, dear. Have a nice evening.” She smiled and sipped from a plastic cup.

I continued around the room making sure everything was in place. Everyone was munching on the appetizers and just hanging out before the swing band started up. The band was local. They came with swing dancers, and the band leader also taught swing steps so everyone could learn together. Most of us knew nothing about swing dancing, so hopefully we would all be equally dorky.

I saw Gage come through the doors looking amazing in a white jacketed tux. He was just so gorgeous. He was with the little blonde cheerleader. What was her name? Sophie Langdon. Crap. She was nice. I couldn’t even in good conscience dislike her. She was friendly and sweet. Nice to everyone. I hated it when that happened. Well, it was my own fault. You can’t have it both ways.

The band started up, and the two sets of swing dancers came whizzing out to the dance floor twirling. We all pretty much made a circle around them for the first song just to watch them go. They were really good. The guys tossed the girls around like they weighed nothing. They slid them over their shoulders and around their waists with such ease. It really made me want to learn swing. Normally dancing wasn’t my thing, but they looked like they were having so much fun.

Dominic slid in behind me to watch.

“We could do that, no problem,” he said.

“Well, we’ll see.” I was watching, and I wasn’t so sure I was going to be able to catch on so fast. At the end of the song we all went crazy with applause.

The band leader got us all organized in front of the stage with the dancers right up there with him so we could see. He taught us a few simple steps, and we started the first dance. It was so much fun and definitely not as hard as I thought. With each song the steps got a little more complex, but Dom and I seemed to be keeping up. When we didn’t, we just laughed and kept going.

I noticed Gage and Sophie looked like they were having fun, and neither of them looked like they were having any trouble keeping up. They both had this natural athletic grace that made me feel awkward watching them. I should have been happy for them, but that was harder than it sounded.

After a few songs we seemed to get the hang of it pretty well, but it was hard work. Good thing I had been keeping up with my asthma meds. Having an attack now would be embarrassing. Still, by the time they slowed it down, we needed a break.

“I’ll go get us some waters.” Dom headed off to the big cooler at the other end of the gym. I stood there just taking it all in for a minute. I was glad it was going well. Everyone looked like they were having a good time. They were all red-faced and smiling.

“Having fun?”

I turned. Gage was right behind me.

“Yeah, definitely. You?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“Don’t like swing? You were doing really well.”

“I think who you’re with makes all the difference.”

“Sophie’s really nice. Cute too. Everyone loves her.” I was trying to look like I didn’t care that he was here with another girl, but I wasn’t sure if I was accomplishing it.

“Yeah, she’s nice.”

“I’m glad you are getting to know people. Especially nicer ones.”

“I think she felt sorry for me.”

“That is so not why she asked you.” I laughed.

“She actually has a boyfriend that doesn’t live here. She said she just wanted someone to dance with. That’s why I agreed to go with her. I don’t think it’s right to lead people on.” He gave me a pointed look.