Our Song (4 page)

I'm supposed to be packing my bags for move-in day at UW. But instead, I'm flipping through my journal, trying to find the lists of things I wrote down earlier this summer that I thought might remind Becca why she belongs to me.

She was almost perfect in April. If she just would have talked to Mr. West, like she said she would, I would have been able to show her how good listening to me can be. But instead, she lied to me, and I had to show her what happens when she violates my trust.

If I can just find something in those lists, a way to prove to her that I know what's best for her, then when she graduates next year, she'll be moving in with me at UW.

Chapter Four

Becca

When we get back to the cabin, I can see Livvie is still out on the dock, getting her tan on, but I don’t see anyone else outside. I walk up the stairs to go in on the second floor. “Mom, Dad?”

“We’re here,” I hear my mom say, who is just walking up from downstairs. It kind of surprises me that they’re inside. My parents are usually the first ones out in the morning, and the last ones to come back in at night. But maybe Asher’s parents don’t want to spend as much time outdoors as mine do. “Where did you go?”

“Sorry I didn’t let you know before we left. I took Asher—“

“Becca was just showing me around downtown. I asked her what there was to do around here, besides the obvious things on the lake.”

I wonder why he’s kind of lying to my mom. Not that it’s a huge lie, but Asher isn’t normally one to omit the truth.

“Yeah, I took him to Rush. And don’t worry, I brought back your
allotment
of chocolate covered pretzels, so you don’t have to go into town for them, if you don’t want to.” Mom only allows herself two chocolate covered pretzels each time we come up here. She’s so worried about her figure, which is ridiculous, because she’s skinnier than I am, but whatever.

“Thanks, Becca. I might just take you up on that, in case we don’t make it into town. Laura and Robert, and your father and I, were thinking about taking the houseboat out Monday afternoon, and sleeping out on the water that evening and the next, so we might not make it to Rush this week. Your sister was invited by that family down the road—the Davidsons, who have those two twin girls she used to play with?—to spend the night those two nights as well. Do you think the two of you can handle taking care of yourselves for 48 hours or so?”

What?
Both of our parents, who are normally extremely overprotective when it comes to this sort of thing, are going to just let Asher and I stay at the cabin while they’re out on the water? Just the two of us? Apparently I am more worried about this situation than our parents are. And just thinking about it makes me nervous…what are we going to do for that long without the distraction of our families being around?

“I don’t think that will be a problem, Mrs. Amy. As we all know, Becca here is a formidable cook. And we promise not even to light the campfire while everyone is gone, so no worries about burning down the cabin. Scout's honor.”

"Someone's been studying their SAT vocabulary," I say.

I can’t believe Asher so readily answered
my mother
about us staying out of trouble while they’re gone. Does that mean he doesn’t have any feelings toward me other than friendship? Or is it that he
wants
to stay here alone with me? Maybe I don’t want to stay here alone with him…it could be dangerous toward my heart health.

“First of all, Asher, I’m glad you’re so polite, calling me Mrs. Amy all the time, but you’re an adult now, and it makes me feel old. Please just call me Amy. Second, we trust you guys, and I’m sure you’ll be fine. But thank you in advance for not burning anything while we’re gone. Better to be safe than sorry. We’ll have a campfire tonight, and maybe tomorrow night too, so you won’t have to miss out on it completely.”

Campfires with our two families are one of my favorite things. There’s lots of singing, and laughter; this may be just what I need to help pull me out of this funk I keep falling into. Just then, Asher’s mom reaches the top of the stairs. “That sounds awesome, Mom. Do you need my help with anything for supper?” I’m starting to feel like maybe I need to create a little space between Asher and me after our trip to the candy store, and the car ride home.

“Thanks for offering.” She pauses, looking over at Asher’s mom then back at me. “But I think Laura and I already have everything well in hand. So you guys just run along and do whatever you want the rest of the evening, and we’ll let you know when supper’s ready.”

“Sounds good, Mrs.—I mean Amy. Becca and I will be down in the game room. We have a little unfinished game-playing to take care of.” He smiles, winking at me, and turns to start walking toward the stairs.

“Asher, would you mind sending Rich and your dad back up here, then? I need them to run down the road to the bait shop and get a tank of propane for the grill.”

“Will do.”

As Asher heads down the stairs, I turn back to my mom. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can help you with?”

She shakes her head, smiling. “Nope. In fact, I don’t want your help. I want you to get your be-hind down those stairs and play whatever game you and Asher are supposed to be playing. It’ll be good for you. I promise.”

I sigh, knowing there is no getting out of this now.

I wonder what game Asher has in mind…and what he’s going to ask for if he wins.

***

After kicking our dads out of the game room, Asher grabs a deck of cards off the shelf. “You know how to play golf?”

“I do…”

“Alright, then that’s what I want to play. What do you want if you win?”

That’s a great question. What
do
I want? “Umm…if I win this time, I want…I want you to play and sing ‘Silhouettes on the Shade’ with me when we have the campfire tonight.” I figure this is a pretty safe thing to ask for, and I love singing harmony on that song, even if it is ancient.

Asher’s smile makes me melt a little inside. “Becca, I’ll do that anyway. You don’t have to win a game to get that from me. Pick something else.”

Now what am I going to ask for?
“Ooookay. If I win, you have to…watch three episodes of
Doctor Who
with me tonight after we come in from the campfire.” He is constantly giving me crap for watching that show…but maybe I can make him a Whovian convert.

Asher wrinkles up his nose a little, but doesn’t comment on my choice. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to stay awake for all that?”

I laugh. “Don’t you worry about me. What are you playing for this time around?”

“If I win, you have to cook whatever I want for supper on Monday while everyone else is gone.”

“That seems fair to me.” I had already been thinking about doing that anyway. “Since it’s your game choice, you can deal.”

“Rules. Four cards, face down, in a square in front of you, only look at the two cards closest to you. When it’s your turn, you can either draw a card from the draw pile, or take the top card on the discard pile to exchange with one of your own cards. If you take the top card from the discard pile, you must use it. Once you think you have a good set of four cards, you knock on the table. The other person takes one more turn. Ace through 10 is worth its face value, jacks and queens are worth 10 points, and kings are worth 0. Person with the lowest score wins. How many hands are we playing? Nine or eighteen?”

“It’s your game. How many hands do you want to play?”

“Let’s just play nine. Otherwise we might be in the middle of a hand when supper’s ready.”

“Sounds good. Shuffle ‘em up and deal, my friend.”

Asher shuffles the deck three times, then deals out four cards to each of us. I look at my bottom two cards: an 8 and a queen. Now to decide on my strategy…

-----

Asher

I watch Becca as she looks at her bottom two cards, but her face gives nothing away about whether they’re good or bad. I take a deep breath, then look at my own bottom two cards: a 6 and a 7. Not too bad, but I can’t help but wonder what my top two cards are. It’s so hard to know whether or not to change them out. I guess we’ll see what I draw for cards. I flip the top card from the draw pile over to start the discard pile. It’s the 2 of hearts. I wonder if Becca will take that, or draw a new one? “Ladies first.”

Becca shakes her head, as if to clear it. She must have been strategizing over there. When she’s thinking really hard, she sticks her tongue out, just a little, in between her lips, and she just slid it back into her mouth. I wonder what it would feel like to have those lips on mine…

Where on earth did THAT thought come from?!
I mean, I guess I’ve thought about what kissing Becca might be like before, but she was in a relationship with that douche bag, Trip, for what seemed like forever. And although she finally broke up with him three or four months ago, she still doesn’t quite seem like she’s back to being the girl she was before she dated him. He was kind of controlling, and treated her like crap, as far as I’m concerned. I should know, because I was one of the first people he said he didn’t like her hanging out with. And although I saw her practically every day (that’s what happens when you have four classes together, and go to the same church) I didn’t actually get to spend any real time with her anymore. She even left our study group for humanities to study with a group of all girls. And she eventually stopped coming to Pizza Study with our youth group while she was dating him.

“Umm, Asher? It’s your turn.”

Oh great. See what happens when I let my mind wander into Becca territory?

“Sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment.”

“Thinking about what?”

Oh, hell no. Not going there.
Oh yeah, Becca, I was just thinking about you, and your d-bag ex-boyfriend.
“Nothing important.” I look down at the discard pile. Becca must have taken the 2 that was laying there before, because there is only one card there now, a queen. I’m definitely not taking that. Before Becca could argue that it was definitely something important, I change the subject. “I forgot to ask before. How was All-State? I still wish I would’ve made it in with you.” I draw a card from the pile. I really do wish I had made it into the All-State Choir with her. Not only would camp have been a lot of fun, but it would have been an extra week straight to spend with Becca this summer.

“Camp was alright. It probably would have been more fun if you had made it in too. It was kind of weird, not knowing anyone. But I loved getting to sing for seven or eight hours a day. And my roommate was really nice, and kind of shy too. So we mostly just hung out with each other in our dorm room when we weren’t in choir rehearsals.”

I do a little mental
one potato, two potato
, and decide to trade my new card out with my top right card. “I’m glad you had someone else to do things with while you were at camp. It’s too bad we actually have to take our core subject classes. I’d be okay with a full day of band and choir.” After deciding which card to trade, I slowly flip it over before putting it in the discard pile—
crap!
—it’s a king! Well, there’s no way on earth Becca is going to miss that opportunity!

I look up at Becca’s face, which has a happily surprised expression on it. “Wow! I can’t believe my luck so early in the game!” She grabs the king, and switches it with her bottom right card, which happens to be a queen.

“Well it ain’t over yet.” I grab the next card from the draw pile. It’s a jack, and I decide to just dump it straight onto the discard pile. Becca draws one more card, and switches it with her top left. When she flips it over, it’s a 9. I’m about to reach for the draw pile when Becca knocks on the table. “Already? You can’t be serious, Becca.”

“I am. Now, draw your last card.”

Oh, this had better be a good one. I grab the card from the deck, and turn it over.
A three!
I quickly switch it out with my 7. “Alrighty. Shall you flip your cards first, or shall I, m’lady?”

Without saying a word, Becca flips over all four of her cards, revealing a 2, a king, a 5, and a 3. Well, there’s no way I’m going to beat that hand! I carefully turn mine over: an ace, a 3, a 6 and a 10. Score: twenty to ten.
Man, she just kicked my butt!
It’s a good thing we’re playing nine hands, and not just one, because ten points can be a lot to come back from.

-----

Becca

Asher is shuffling the deck for our last “hole” of golf. I can’t believe it is all coming down to this last hand. Our third game, we went through all but the last six cards on the draw pile before Asher finally knocked signaling that he was ready to show his cards…which he was smart to do, since he won. I think we both tried out the “know what all four of your cards are, and make sure they’re all low” strategy that round. Then during round 6, Asher knocked before I even drew my first card…and he kicked my tush because he had TWO kings as his bottom two cards. And now, Asher is only beating me by ONE point. The score is 90 to 89.

Just as Asher is dealing the first card to me, my mom hollers down the stairs, “Supper will be ready in five!”

“We’ll be up shortly!” I call back.

“I guess we’d better make this last hole a quick one.”

“Oh, no. We will take as long as necessary to play this round out,” I say, raising my eyebrows at him.

“Alright, alright. Don’t get your undies in a bunch.” Asher finishes dealing out our cards, flipping the first card to the discard pile, revealing a 5. After I carefully arrange mine, I look at my bottom two cards. A jack and a 2. Not too shabby. I’ll never trade my 2 away, and the jack will be the first thing to go. I look over to see if Asher is ready for me to draw, and he has this great big smile on his face, and I can’t tell if he’s trying to throw me, or if he really has something to be happy about. I pick that 5 right up off the discard pile, and trade my jack for it. Asher draws but immediately discards a 10. Well, I definitely don’t want that card.