Life in the No-Dating Zone (6 page)

Claire: No.

Gray: Amy Acton said you did.

Claire: What? Wait. Ooooohhhh.

Gray: What?

Claire: I’m calling you.

I pressed his number on my phone and he picked up immediately. “What happened?” he asked, sounding panicked.

“Nothing major. Nyssa asked for help at Lainey’s pool party. I gave her my standard ‘talk to him’ advice. She never told me who it was.”

“Well, it’s me.” He sounded frustrated.

“Did something happen?”

“She and Amy were at a movie tonight. They stopped to talk right before Berger and I had to clean a theater. Berger said she was flirting with me, but I don’t know.”

I bent my knees, tenting my covers. “Oh, come on. You can tell when a girl is flirting, can’t you?”

“Maybe not. She just seemed overly friendly.”

“Which would be … flirting.”

“Great.”

I could picture the rueful turn to his lips and I chuckled, trying to keep the noise down so my parents wouldn’t come tell me to go to sleep. “This presents an interesting problem.”

“I hope not. I wasn’t very encouraging.”

“What if she keeps trying? We may have ourselves a ready-made stalker.”

“Oh, thanks. Just what I always wanted.”

I yawned. Loudly. If I had to label it, I’d say I sounded like a high-pitched puppy.

“Am I boring you?” he asked, laughter in his voice.

“Only sometimes.”

He made a huffing sound. “Way to be blunt.”

“Kidding, kidding. So you thought I was trying to sic some girl on you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“You don’t know me very well if you think I’d do that.”

“I didn’t think you would, but I figured I should
talk to you
about it.”

“Ha. See, now you’re catching on.”

“If you’d sit down and make a Lindsey plan with me, I’d catch on a lot quicker.”

“Maaaybe,” I said, another yawn stretching out the word.

This time he laughed. “Go to sleep, Claire. Talk to you tomorrow.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Night.”

I rolled over, being careful not to squash my stuffed pink pig, Henrietta, and plugged my phone back into the charger. Nyssa Staphos. Who knew? I couldn’t quite picture her with Gray, but stranger things had happened.

With the sound of Gray’s warm laugh still in my head, I snuggled into my pillow. I think I fell asleep smiling.

***

I jolted from sleep when something heavy bounced my bed. Okay, two somethings heavy.

“Wake up, woman!” Lindsey said. “We’re seizing the day.”

I cracked one eye open. Rose and Lindsey knelt on my bed with obnoxious smiles on their faces. I pulled the covers over my face. “Go away.”

“Come on,” Rose said. “It’s getting late and we’ve got plans.”

One of them tugged my covers. “What time is it?” I mumbled.

“After ten,” Lindsey said. “So get moving. Your mom says you’ve got the Peterson kids at three, so we have a narrow window here.”

I came up on my elbows. “Narrow? Five hours is narrow?”

Rose laughed. “It is when you’re bowling.”

I bolted upright. “Really?” Yeah, I actually squeaked that word out. I love bowling. When I was in fifth grade, I bowled in a league and got pretty good. But of course, most of the people I knew thought bowling was lame. Especially Rose and Lindsey. They only agreed to it occasionally. After tons of begging on my part. So naturally I became suspicious. “Why?”

“Why what?” Rose asked.

“Why do you want to go bowling?”

“Because we’re sorry we changed the movie plans on you the other day,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey apologizing? That was rare. “Oh. Thanks.”

“And,” Rose said, “both of us have plans that are going to keep us busy for the next couple of days and we wanted to do something with you first.”

Huh. That was nice. Maybe I should keep these friends after all. “Hang on. I need to pee.”

When I got back from the bathroom, Lindsey was stretched out on my bed, making Henrietta pig dance on her stomach. I plopped down beside her. “Okay, what are these so-called plans y’all have?”

“Adam has to go to a funeral in some piddly town in south Texas,” Lindsey said. “He leaves early tomorrow, so I’m going out with him tonight.”

“How long will he be gone?” I said, hoping for forever.

“He’ll be back late Sunday night, so … five full days.” She frowned. “And I’ve got Dramadary at school tomorrow. I get to help all the little kiddies do skits. Henrietta feels sorry for me. Don’t you, Henrietta?”

Rose laughed. “And Sam’s cousins are coming in town tonight for a couple of days. I can’t wait to see them.”

“The ones you met on the cruise?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m still mad at Sam for not having boy cousins,” Lindsey said.

Rose looked at the ceiling and then at me. I smiled.

“You have plenty of boys to keep you occupied,” Rose said.

Lindsey sighed. Dramatically, of course. “I guess.”

Rose stood. “Let’s go downstairs,” she said to Lindsey. “Claire needs to get dressed. And I want to play with Baby Jack.”

“Oh, all right,” Lindsey said, rolling off my bed. “Hurry up, Claire. I don’t want baby drool all over me.”

I placed Henrietta pig carefully against my pillow, then ran to my top dresser drawer. “Get ready, y’all. I’m gonna wear my bowling glasses!”

They left my room with Lindsey mumbling about glasses all the way down the stairs. I normally wore my basic black rectangular frames. They were sturdy and darkened when I went outside, which was totally convenient. But I also had three other pairs of glasses I saved for special occasions.

A delicate rimless pair I used when I had to dress up.

A dark purple pair with a lavender inner rim I wore when I was angry. Although I didn’t often have them with me when I got angry, which kind of defeated the purpose. It was a rare day when I put them on in the morning.

And for bowling, because it was nerdy and I wanted to look the part—a pair of yellow with white polka dots in a retro style. For some reason, they always made me smile. It had been a long time since I’d worn them.

I popped open the case, slid the glasses on, and went to the mirror. Oh yeah. Super nerd. Perfect. I sensed a great day ahead.

Boy, was I wrong.

Ten

Claire

Lindsey wiggled her hips in time to the background music as she sashayed down the approach. Rose laughed. “Work it, sister!”

When she reached the foul line, Lindsey swung her arm back, then forward and released the bowling ball. Which promptly rolled into the gutter. She turned and curtseyed to us.

Rose clapped.

“I don’t know why you don’t want me to teach you,” I said. “Because, you know, I
have
bowled a perfect game so far.”

“Oh, brother,” Rose said.

“Because then I’d be taking it seriously,” Lindsey said. “And there’s no way I’m ever taking this game seriously.”

“Your loss,” I said, but it didn’t really bother me. I knew neither of them liked to bowl. It took forever for us to get through even one game, what with Lindsey goofing around and Rose running off to get drinks and snacks. But what great friends I had.

Rose nudged Lindsey. “Your turn’s not over.”

“Oh, right.” She hoisted a red ball from the return.

“That’s not your ball,” I said.

She cradled the ball against her stomach. “Claire. Really. You think it matters?”

I laughed. “I think that one’s a sixteen-pounder.”

“So? I’m buff.”

Hooboy. This ought to be interesting
. Lindsey strode up to the line with an air of purpose and drew her arm back. The ball slipped from her fingers, banging against the approach like she’d dropped an anvil. “Oops,” she said and smiled prettily.

Two middle-aged guys from the next lane over grinned at her. If I’d done that, they probably would have shaken their heads or maybe even scolded me.

“Hey, babe!” Adam’s voice came from behind us. “You trying to destroy the place?”

I twisted around and my happiness drained out through the toes of my green and red bowling shoes. Adam strolled over, followed by Sam. Boys. Again.

“Adam!” Lindsey said. She rushed up, wrapped her arms around him, and planted a big one on him.

Sam greeted Rose with a brief kiss, then looked at me. “Nice glasses. How’s bowling?”

“Interesting,” I said.

“Eventful,” Rose said with a laugh.

Sam slid onto the bench beside Rose and draped his arm over her shoulders.

“What’re you doing here?” she asked.

“Adam was on his lunch break and saw me filling up my car with gas, so he stopped. Said he was gonna come over here for about twenty minutes. So I decided to come, too. I mean, I know it’s girl time and everything—”

“And you’re definitely not a girl,” I said, but sweetly because he’s nice.

His mouth curved up on one side. “Yeah, last time I checked.”

Rose elbowed him, but they both laughed.

I turned away to give them a little private time. Who knew what was going to happen now? Twenty minutes I could handle, but what if the guys stayed longer? My hand had flown to the green gem of my necklace, but I made myself let go. Instead, I seized a piece of lint from my shorts and flicked it away. I hated this whiny sensation I had going on inside. It made me want to get up and walk out, or better yet, demand the guys leave.
That
would go over well.

I pressed the reset button, picked up the red bowling ball, and placed it back on the rack. Resetting the whole day might be the best plan. Lindsey and Adam waddled over, their arms wrapped around each other. How could people walk and hug at the same time?

Adam detached himself from Lindsey and went down on his hands and knees on the approach. “What’re you doing?” she asked.

“Looking for the dent you made.”

She bonked him on the head and laughed. “I didn’t make a dent.”

I walked away from the laugh fest and sat across from Sam and Rose. “So, Sam,” I said, “I haven’t really asked you before. How are you liking Eastridge?”

“I love it. A lot smaller than Houston, but I love it.”

“Are you sure it’s not just the girl you love?” I asked.

Rose blushed her famous bright red. “Way to embarrass me, Claire.”

Sam grinned at her. “No. Now that you mention it, I’m not sure at all.”

If it was possible, Rose turned even brighter red. The two of them sitting there looking a little awkward, but happy, made me smile. They really were cute together. But my smile faded when I heard Adam’s voice.

“Let me show you how it’s done, babe.” He snatched up the red bowling ball from the rack, and before I could register what was happening, he’d stumbled—no bowling shoes—down the approach and sent the ball into the lane.

My game! Heat burst in my chest and raced up my face. I jumped to my feet. “What are you doing?”

The ball struck the pins like an exclamation mark to my yell.

All four of them looked at me as if someone had replaced sweet, easy-going Claire with a screeching snake-headed gorgon. Because I
had
screeched. Or maybe it was a shriek. I’d never made that noise in public before. I might not ever have made it at home either, unless it happened when I was a baby.

Rose touched my arm. “What’s wrong?”

“My game,” I whispered. It was my turn. The arrival of the guys had distracted me from taking my turn. We were in the sixth frame. My perfect game had been murdered. Now I was staring at a seven-ten split. In other words, the farthest apart two pins could get. And I sucked at picking up splits.

“What?” Adam asked, sounding defensive.

“It was Claire’s turn,” Rose said.

“Oh,” he said. “Sorry. I thought I was finishing off Lindsey’s turn.” He didn’t look sorry at all. In fact, he folded his arms across his chest and grinned at Lindsey.

I twisted the hem of my T-shirt. “I’d pressed the reset button.”

“Oh, wow,” Sam said, “look at the score. You had a perfect game going.”

“Oops,” Adam said.

Lindsey giggled.

Killing both of them seemed too nice. I hadn’t bowled a perfect game ever. I’d come close, and there was no way of knowing if I would have made it this time, but it would’ve been nice to try. Sure Adam said it was a mistake, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have done it deliberately. We were
not
each other’s favorite person.

“Here,” Adam said, sweeping his arm out in an expansive gesture, “I guess you’ll want to finish up.”

I slumped into a seat. “No, I don’t think I do.”

“Oh, c’mon, Claire,” Lindsey said, “it’s just a stupid game.”

Adam shrugged, then sent the ball straight down the center of the lane again.

Lindsey scowled at me like all of this tension in the air was my fault. I don’t know, maybe it was. But if the guys hadn’t shown up, there would be no tension. That, I knew. I had to get away, at least for a few minutes. I stood and faced Sam and Rose. “Bathroom. Back in a minute.”

I walked off but could still hear Adam. “What’s her problem anyway?”

Lindsey said something back, but I was too far away by then. In the bathroom, I slammed into a stall and sat. I didn’t have to pee. I just needed to think. Why did I have such a hard time getting along with Adam? Other than the fact that he was an ass. I’d never had much trouble with any of Lindsey’s previous boyfriends. Of course, most of them hadn’t lasted more than a month or so. Adam and Lindsey had been together almost four months now. Four lovely, glorious months. I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

But maybe I didn’t have to wait.

My so-called plan to shake things up had kind of fizzled just as it had started. Time to rev it back up and kick it into high gear. Adam was leaving tomorrow for five days. Not much time to do everything I could to shove Lindsey and Gray together. I’d have to work fast.

Eleven

Gray