In the Spotlight (23 page)

“Your uncle is far too generous. “My mom will love that.”

I could tell she was touched, and Josh’s standing went up several points in her book. She was right, of course, Grandma would be beyond thrilled with her gift.

When we finally settled down, Hayley went to call Mike, and Josh and I went back downstairs to talk about the details of our trip. I was beginning to look forward to Grandma'ʹs wedding.

"ʺNow, this is only going to work if we can all take Monday off from school,"ʺ Josh pointed out.

I nodded, and reminded him, "ʺWe were already taking next Monday off for the wedding, so it'ʹs not like having a little vacation will hurt us any."ʺ

"ʺToo true,"ʺ Josh replied.

Mom told Dad about Josh'ʹs gift at dinner, and Dad seemed pretty excited about staying at the Venetian too. I realized that no one in my family had ever been to Las Vegas, minus Grandma, who went every month for a week. I had a feeling that I knew what she liked about Vegas, but I really didn'ʹt want to go there. It scared me too much.

After dinner Josh and I snuck up to my room to eat our cheesecake and enjoy some stolen kisses on the side. He left before it got too late.

****

The next day at school, I was relieved to have him by my side because my stomach was a wreck. Every other second it flipped or turned, sort of like a hurricane was waging a war with a tornado. The aftermath of the cast party hadn'ʹt happened yet, and it would. That much I knew was inevitable. I would have to deal with Claudia. And I would have to deal with Kyle. And everyone else. I would have to deal with the feelings that had been dredged up about what Kyle had done. I would have to deal with the fact that I had felt violated and stupid. And I was discovering that I didn'ʹt like dealing with things that made me uncomfortable. Hadn'ʹt it taken me months to get together with Josh? Or even just to admit that I liked him and that I was okay with him liking me?

I saw Claudia first. She ran up and hugged me. When she pulled back, I saw tears shining in her eyes.

"ʺI'ʹm so sorry I didn'ʹt believe you,"ʺ she whispered.

I hugged her back. Over her shoulder, Josh mouthed that he would see me in class. I wanted to call him a coward, but I knew Claudia and I needed our moment together without him there. I was a big girl, and I needed to act like it.

"ʺIt'ʹs okay,"ʺ I told her. "ʺHe'ʹs your boyfriend."ʺ

"ʺWas,"ʺ Claudia corrected. "ʺHe was my boyfriend."ʺ

Surprised, I asked, "ʺWhat happened?"ʺ

Claudia gave a frustrated sigh, and said, "ʺAfter you and Josh left the party, Kyle and I got in a huge fight. He basically admitted everything. He said that he thought the two of us were just bed buddies, and you would make the perfect girlfriend material. Like he could take you places and stuff because you were sweet and chaste and all that crap."ʺ

Tears welled in her eyes again, and I felt so bad for her. I gave her another hug that was so awkward it hurt. Still, it was nice to hear that Kyle had ‘fessed up’ and admitted what he’d done. I didn'ʹt think she’d want to go into all of that again, so I let her cry a few tears.

Suddenly it seemed to occur to her that we were standing in the middle of our high school lobby and that a full on cry fest was not really feasible at the moment. She took a deep breath.

“Anyway,"ʺ she said, "ʺI just want to say that I'ʹm sorry for not believing you, and that I don'ʹt blame you for breaking me and Kyle up."ʺ I wanted to contradict her and point out that I hadn'ʹt done anything to break her and Kyle up, but I thought better of it. She pulled a Kleenex out of her purse and dabbed her eyes.

"ʺYou'ʹll always be my best friend,"ʺ she added.

"ʺThanks,"ʺ I said, smiling awkwardly. I still didn'ʹt know how to deal with the best friend thing.

After Claudia promised to see me in homeroom, she disappeared around a corner. I hurried to my locker, grabbed my books, and scuttled to class. Josh was waiting for me. I briefed him on what had happened with Claudia. He seemed to think that she’d finally come to her senses. I shrugged and pointed out that any breakup would be hard to deal with. Josh nodded.

"ʺI hadn'ʹt thought about that,"ʺ he admitted. "ʺThey did have a relationship, no matter what other people think of it."ʺ

"ʺI'ʹm still worried about seeing Kyle,"ʺ I told him.

"ʺDon'ʹt be,"ʺ Josh said. "ʺI'ʹll be with you in drama class. He’s got nothing on you. Don’t let him intimidate you.”

“I’m stronger than him,” I said.

“Exactly.” Josh grinned, leaning over to kiss me quickly before our homeroom teacher came in. There were a few catcalls and wolf whistles from some of the guys, but the bell rang and the day started. I had to admit that it wasn’t as bad as I’d envisioned.

****

Drama class started just like it always did, but everyone seemed subdued. I could feel eyes on me. Josh squeezed my hand but didn’t say anything to draw attention to us or my nervousness.

Ms. Bard came in late. I snuck a glance around to the back of the room to see if Kyle was looking at me. That'ʹs when I realized that Kyle wasn'ʹt in class. I poked Josh, who did a quick sweep of the room to see what had gotten him poked. His eyebrows went up when he noticed that Kyle was missing.

"ʺOh, class,"ʺ Ms. Bard sighed theatrically, "ʺI have some exciting news. One of our very own has been invited to attend the national theater gathering in Houston, Texas."ʺ

Kaylee raised her hand, "ʺWhat exactly is the National Theater Gathering?"ʺ

Ms. Bard faltered. "ʺWell, from my understanding, the National Theater Gathering is a meeting of young people to discuss new developments in the world of theater."ʺ She paused, presumably waiting for someone else to ask a question. When no one did, she continued, "ʺAs you may have ascertained, Kyle is the person chosen to attend this fine gathering. I was thrilled when he called me yesterday to tell me he’d be gone for the remainder of the week. I'ʹm sure he'ʹll have many wonderful things to share when he returns."ʺ

I relaxed. Now I didn'ʹt have to worry about Kyle. After class, Kaylee caught up with me and Josh. Looping her arm through mine, she said conspiratorially, "ʺI heard Kyle convinced his mom to let him skip the rest of the week because the show was so draining on him. But really it'ʹs because Claudia broke up with him."ʺ

I glanced up at Josh. It didn'ʹt seem like Kaylee knew about my melt down at the party or what had transpired between me and Kyle. "ʺWhat about the National Theater Gathering?"ʺ

"ʺSeriously?"ʺ Kaylee said rolling her eyes. "ʺThat'ʹs so made up.

Why would you have some big national theater gathering in Houston, Texas? Wouldn'ʹt you have it somewhere like New York or Chicago? And why would Kyle have just found out about it yesterday?"ʺ

I shrugged, "ʺWell, anyway, I can'ʹt say anything about it, because I just don'ʹt know or care what happens with him."ʺ

And so the day turned out to be horribly anticlimactic. I felt sick by the time I got home. After a quick text to Josh, who had an away game for baseball that afternoon, I took a shower, and curled up in bed. I fell asleep and probably would have slept the rest of the night, but Mom came and got me at dinnertime.

"ʺSweetie, are you okay?"ʺ She asked, real concern filling her voice.

"ʺI'ʹm fine, Mom,"ʺ I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"ʺThe play just ended. I'ʹm still tired, that'ʹs all."ʺ

Mom paused. "ʺDo you think that maybe you are spending too much time with Josh?"ʺ

"ʺMom, no,"ʺ I said, quickly sitting up. "ʺAre you kidding? We just started dating. We'ʹre supposed to want to be together all the time right now."ʺ

"ʺI know."ʺ Mom sighed. "ʺI was young once too. It'ʹs just...it'ʹs just the two of you seem so intense, and I know what happens when teenagers feel intensely about one another. I just want you to be careful. Remember you can always talk to me about anything that you might be feeling or have questions about—”

"ʺMom, Mom, Mom,"ʺ I hurried to stop her. "ʺLook, you really don'ʹt need to worry about me and Josh, okay? We aren'ʹt doing any of that stuff."ʺ

“Okay, sweetie,” Mom said, hugging me before she left the room. As I thought about the future of my relationship with Josh, okay the future of my physical relationship with Josh, my mind wandered to my sisters and their relationships. I knew that Harlow hadn’t been pure and chaste since sometime during her sophomore year in high school. She’d told me all about it. I’d been thirteen years old and in eighth grade. The conversation with her had pretty much turned me off to the idea of having a boyfriend for years.

Hayley had never said anything, so I had no idea of her status with Mike. But they’d been together for a while and seemed pretty serious about each other, so…you never knew. But I really hoped not. Why did we need to rush in to any of that grown up stuff?

“Girls! Dinner!” Dad yelled from downstairs. I blushed, being shaken from my train of thought rather abruptly. I wondered when I should bring all of this up to Josh, even though I sort of already had. We’d never really been able to finish the conversation or talk about any of it in depth.

Chapter Twenty-‐-two

For the pre wedding luncheon, Mom had reserved a room in a local Mexican restaurant that Grandma loved for their strange-‐-

flavored margaritas.

Grandma insisted on ordering me and Hayley our own virgin cotton candy margaritas. They tasted awful. It was literally like pouring flavored high fructose corn syrup into my mouth. Still, Grandma looked so pleased with herself that Hayley and I struggled through the drinks, taking a tiny sip here and there, followed by a long swig of water. The waitress got so sick of us asking for water refills that she eventually brought each of us a pitcher of our own.

By the time the other guests arrived, I was pretty sure my teeth were beyond rotted. Somehow, everyone had gotten off work or school for this auspicious occasion. While Grandma ordered the appetizers—Nachos Ole, also known as chips with cheese, although Grandma insisted on replacing the tortilla chips with Cheetos and some meat dish that sounded like we would be breathing fire after eating it—I got a text from Josh asking how things were going. I texted back about the drinks and the appetizers. When he replied with a howling, laughing emoticon, I knew I’d have to keep a running commentary going for the rest of the luncheon.

I settled back to wait for the games and the speeches. Hayley didn’t look much inclined to join in the boisterous conversation going around the table either. I worried briefly that we were experiencing some negative side effects from the cotton candy virgin margaritas. Then I wondered if Grandma had really ordered them without alcohol after all, which definitely seemed like a possibility knowing Grandma.

The restaurant began to fill up with lunch patrons, and the noise of the main dining area began to spill into our cozy private room, creating a real party atmosphere. Someone turned on some rollicking fiesta music, and soon Grandma and Duke were up dancing a polka, wildly out of time with the music. I captured a twenty second video and sent it to Josh.

While I waited for his reply, I snuck a glance at Mom and Aunt Mel, both were smiling a little wistfully at Grandma. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe they were beginning to see what I was seeing in Duke. He made our normally vivacious Grandma completely effervescent in her abandon for living. She really did love him, and as weird as it was, he totally loved her.

Maybe it was just because I was in love now, but I had no idea why it hadn’t been so readily apparent to me before.

I leaned over to Hayley and whispered my thoughts to her, and she nodded in reply, tears shimmering in her pretty hazel eyes.

That’s when I became sure that Grandma had essentially spiked our virgin margaritas. I texted my thoughts to Josh, careful to be somewhat selective in my word choice given the fact that he was at school and you never could tell who might be reading over his shoulder.

Just as my phone vibrated with his reply, the door to our private room flew open, and Harlow waltzed in. Talk about trying to arrive fashionably late. She made sure that everyone noticed her before she actually entered the room. There was an empty seat by me and one by Duke, and as jerky as it sounds, I sent a thousand small prayers out into the universe that she’d choose the seat next to Duke. Miracle of all miracles, she did. Duke gave her a polite smile and turned back to his conversation with Grandma about dryer sheet brands because, apparently, there was no better time to discuss the various changes that would occur after they started living together full time. Grandma sounded so domestic. I thought it was cute.

Harlow seemed to realize that no one was paying her the least bit of attention, and I could tell that was bothering her. Maybe it was my slightly woozy, tipsy state, or maybe it was my newfound bravery, but it bugged me enough to mention it to Hayley. We both watched as Harlow glanced around the table with her fierce determination trying to figure out who to target with either her faux adoration or her very real wrath. I averted my gaze and assumed Hayley was doing the same, before her eyes swept over us.

She barely missed a beat before she settled on poor Duke.

“Can you pass the menu?” She asked sweetly, tapping him on the shoulder.

He handed her the menu without so much as a second look, despite Harlow’s best efforts of batting her eyes, showing her cleavage, and pouting her lips. Silently I cheered for him. Not many guys could resist Harlow’s attention because, quite frankly, it was just so blatant. But when they did, man did it piss her off. And the fact that he was turning his attention back to Grandma, whoa boy, did I expect to see the fireworks fly.

Harlow held the menu and looked genuinely confused. She opened it and pretended to peruse the food selections, but I knew that she was formulating her evil plot to get Duke’s attention. Now it was a game for her. And if there was one thing I knew about Harlow, it was that she loved games, and more than that, she loved to win at games. Losing was not an option for her.

I texted Josh with an update of the situation. His immediate reaction was one of concern. He didn’t seem to know what Harlow was capable of, but he did realize that this could ruin Grandma’s luncheon. He asked me what I was going to do to stop her, and the question stopped me in my tracks and sobered me up pretty quickly. He was right, of course, I couldn’t very well let Harlow ruin Grandma’s wedding rehearsal luncheon. This was special for her.