Текст книги "Better Off Friends"

Автор книги: Elizabeth Eulberg

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 13 страниц)

“Oh, wow!” Stacey exclaimed with a full mouth. “This is SO good.”

All right, maybe I’d wanted to impress her just a little.

“So,” Danielle said to me as she rubbed her tummy, “I think I have to end our friendship if I want to fit into my dress for the winter dance.”

“It’s six weeks away,” I reminded her.

“Oh, I’m only taking a break.” She eyed the remaining piece of baked Alaska in the center of the table. “I plan on stuffing my face more. I can start worrying about the dance next year.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ve got less than four hours.”

“Do you know who you’re going with?” Stacey asked Danielle.

Danielle raised her eyebrows. “There’s a certain drummer that I have my eye on.”

“Uh-oh,” I teased. “You know what they say about drummers?”

“That they have excellent rhythm,” Danielle deadpanned.

“No.” Levi looked at me. “That’s not it. Could you remind me, Macallan?”

“Oi, they’re so chuffed because they can bang a drum …” I started.

Levi graciously continued. “I been bangin’ on me table since I was a wee one. Where’s me groupies?”

“Dodgy, drummers are.”

Levi then delivered the punch line. “Blimey if I haven’t been bangin’ me head listenin’ to you lot.”

Danielle looked at the two of us. “Does anybody ever have any clue what you two go on and on about?”

“I do,” Levi and I said in unison.

Danielle looked at Stacey. “We should get out of here before I start banging my head.”

Not surprisingly, Danielle and Stacey left for their respective parties instead of hanging out with me and Levi. Adam stayed a while to help me with the dishes since Levi needed to rest his leg. Adam also helped me get Levi down to the basement so he could lie on the sectional’s chaise lounge.

“You need anything else?” Adam asked.

“I think we’re good.” I gave him a big hug. He high-fived Levi and then left us alone.

“Now, is there anything else I could get you?” I bowed down as if he was my master.

“It’s about time I get some respect from you.” He then gestured for me to twirl around.

“In your dreams.”

“Hey, it couldn’t hurt to ask.”

“I wouldn’t press your luck on that.” I lifted up a pillow and pretended to hit him.

“You wouldn’t hurt a man who’s in such a delicate condition, would you?” He stuck out his lip in a pout.

“You don’t know me very well.”

His eyes lit up. “Actually, I do. Could you hand me my bag?”

I obliged.

Levi dug around the duffel. “I have a surprise for you.” He then presented a DVD of the Buggy and Floyd Christmas Special.

“Where did you get this?” I knew it had aired in the UK a couple weeks ago, but I had no idea when it was coming stateside.

“I have connections.”

I tore open the case and put the disc in. “Did you watch it?”

“No way. Not without you.”

I didn’t know if I would’ve had the same willpower.

I curled up on the couch next to Levi. We both began singing the Buggy and Floyd theme song at the top of our lungs.

“Gah! I’m so excited!” I reached out to playfully punch Levi but stopped myself, not wanting to actually hit a man while he was down.

The special was an hour long, so we got double the Buggy. It was a surprisingly poignant episode. Generally, Floyd was getting Buggy out of whatever wild fiasco he’d gotten himself into. But within the first five minutes, Floyd left Buggy. “I can’t take your tomfoolery!” he exclaimed.

“Who’s Tom and who’s he foolin’?” Buggy replied, to the laughter of the studio audience.

“You’re a grown man, Theodore.” Floyd used Buggy’s proper name for the first time I could remember. “It’s time you act like it.” And he walked out.

“Wow,” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe Floyd did that.” I knew they were fictional characters, but this was so unlike them. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep watching. I liked my memories of them as the funny, quarreling duo.

“I know,” Levi said in a quiet voice. “I mean, it’s a miracle Floyd didn’t do it sooner. He can be so crotchety.”

I paused the DVD. “Did you just use the word crotchety?”

“Ah, yeah.” He looked at me incredulously. “All Floyd does is complain about Buggy and pretty much all of society. He’s always making little comments about how he doesn’t understand the way certain things are. Sure, it’s funny, but the fact he’s had enough of it isn’t that surprising.”

“You have to admit that Floyd has a point most of the time.”

Levi started laughing. “Oh my God. Yes! How am I only seeing this now?”

“Seeing what?”

He pointed at me. “You’re Floyd!”

“I’m what?” My mouth was open. I couldn’t believe Levi was comparing me to some crotchety old British man.

“You’re always making these observations like ‘Why does Keith think he’s superior just because he can tackle a guy?’ ”

“That’s a valid observation,” I defended.

“And ‘Why do people say L-O-L – aren’t they supposed to be laughing? Have we become that lazy of a society?’ ”

“Like that doesn’t drive you crazy.”

Levi was really laughing now. “It all makes sense why you like this show so much.”

“So does this make you Buggy?” I shot back.

“Well, he is hilarious.”

“He’s also a complete bumbling fool, so I guess …” I sank back in the seat.

“Okay, okay.” Levi grabbed the remote from me. “We’ll put the show back on. Don’t want to get your old-man undies in a bunch.”

This time I did hit him.

“Ouch.” He rubbed his shoulder.

“Blimey if I could help it.” I gave him a goofy grin before turning back to the TV.

We watched as Buggy and Floyd struggled without each other. It hit close to home in a way. Buggy was caught in the rain while a depressing song played as he roamed around aimlessly. I started to feel tears sting the back of my eyes. I couldn’t believe an episode of Buggy and Floyd was going to make me cry.

Floyd rounded the corner with a large gold umbrella. He paused as he saw his former best friend. He walked slowly toward him.

Levi grabbed my hand.

Floyd covered Buggy with his umbrella.

“It’s London,” Floyd said. “You know you need a brolly year-round.”

Buggy smiled shyly at him. “You’re right. Blimey if —” He stopped himself.

Was this the end of Buggy’s punch line? Levi and I exchanged a look.

Buggy continued. “No, what I want right now is a brolly to shield me from the rain. But what I need is me best friend.”

Floyd put his arm around Buggy. “Blimey if I could’ve said it better me self.”

They headed back to their flat to open Christmas presents. There were a few more comical moments, but the entire episode left me reflective, pondering the difference between what you want and what you need.

Levi and I sat in silence for a few minutes while the credits played.

“Well.” Levi finally spoke. “That was unexpected. It was sort of deep.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was good, though.”

“It was …” Levi stared off into the distance.

I turned on the TV to watch the countdown to the New Year. We made small talk about the various singers and actors on TV.

Then it came to the countdown. Levi and I held out glasses of sparkling cider and clinked as confetti rained down in New York City.

“Happy New Year!” I leaned over and gave him a hug.

“Happy New Year!” His smile quickly vanished. “Hey, Macallan?”

Something about the tone of his voice set me on edge. “Yeah?”

“Do you want – I mean, do you need me to take you to the winter dance?”

That wasn’t what I was expecting. Although I really didn’t know what I should’ve expected.

“You know how I feel about high school dances.”

He smiled. “I certainly do, Floyd.”

I glared at him. “I don’t need to go.”

“Okay, but do you want to go?”

I nodded. “Sure, but I’m not going to go for the sake of going. If I find someone I want to go with, I’ll go. If I don’t, the sun will still rise the next day.”

“But I made you that promise,” he reminded me.

The promise. The one we made before high school about not letting one of us attend a function alone. That lasted for the first half of the year, then I started seeing Ian, and Levi started seeing Carrie. Then we weren’t really speaking. And now he was with Stacey.

“It’s okay,” I said. Because it was. Would I have fun with Levi at the dance? Of course. But that wouldn’t be fair to Stacey.

“Macallan?” Levi leaned toward me. “What do you want?”

It seemed like a simple question, but it wasn’t. With our history, it was as charged as a stick of dynamite. One wrong move and boom – our friendship would be in pieces.

Was this really a conversation we should be having when he was so vulnerable and I was so … ? I didn’t know what I was, besides confused.

“I know what I want.” I stood up. Levi looked expectantly. “Pie, I want some pie.”

I went upstairs. I studied my face in the kitchen window. I knew better. We both did.

We had both been burned before. There was no way I was going to play with that fire.

Do you know why I didn’t kiss you at midnight?

Because you valued your life?

That. And I didn’t know what you’d do. Probably run away to the Arctic.

You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?

Let me think…. Nope.

Figures.

Yeah, well, at least I have this one thing over you.

True.

And you have so much over me.

That’s because of your actions, not mine.

Whatever, Floyd.

Oh, you’re going to pay for that.

I have no doubt.

Oddly enough, starting off a new year with knee surgery wasn’t as bad an omen as I’d originally thought. I did get to miss the first week back at school, so no complaints from me on that one.

Sure, I was a huge pain after my injury because I was in so much pain. I went through my five stages of grief: I was mad, then upset, followed by angry, which blossomed into frustration, which eventually turned into depression.

But then Macallan came along, as she so often had, and wouldn’t put up with any of it. If I complained, she wouldn’t let up until I either got over myself or laughed. She carted me back and forth to school. Helped me with my books, cooked for me, did everything I needed, and she didn’t complain once. Unless, of course, I complained. Which was often.

There was something about her help that calmed me. I didn’t like having my mom fret over me. I didn’t want Dad to think I was soft, even though he understood the severity of my injury more than anybody. And I hated thinking that the guys felt they had to take care of me.

Oh, yeah, and Stacey. I liked having her around, but things with Macallan were different.

For a second, on New Year’s Eve, I thought she was going to tell me that what she wanted was me. That she wanted to kiss me. She only paused for a couple seconds, but in that short amount of time, I managed to get my hopes up to a ridiculous height.

She was one of the last people I saw before I was put under for my surgery, and one of the first people I saw when I woke up. She took the day off school to be with my parents and me. She brought me my homework all week and did these hilarious reenactments of stories involving my friends.

She even took me to physical therapy. Which I was grateful for, because physical therapy sucked. It hurt. It was the most frustrating thing ever. I had to relearn how to use my knee. Something as simple as bending was painful and difficult. If Mom had been there, she would’ve been worried by the pain I was going through.

But Macallan stood there and helped me when I needed her. She did her homework while my therapist was working on me. And she gave me the strength to not give up, throw a fit, or cry. Which I wanted to do on a daily basis.

After a particularly painful session, Macallan sat next to me during my ice and stim.

“How you feeling?” she asked.

“Better,” I lied.

Kim, my therapist, set up my stim machine. “He had a good day today. I have total faith that he’ll only be in his brace at the dance in a couple weeks.”

“That’s great!” Macallan gave me a big smile.

Kim patted her on the shoulder. “You may need him to lean on you more when you dance, but you know how boyfriends can be.”

Macallan gave Kim a puzzled look. “Um, yeah, but Levi and I aren’t …”

“Oh!” Kim looked at both of us. “I thought, um, I didn’t mean …”

How often had this happened to us? Too often to count. It made sense that Kim would think Macallan was my girlfriend. I’d told her that I had a girlfriend, I’d talked about Macallan a lot, Macallan was always here with me. But I racked my brain trying to think if I had brought up Stacey by name. Surely, I couldn’t have neglected to mention her name.

“Sorry,” I apologized to Macallan. Like it was my fault that people always assumed we were together. But maybe it was.

She shrugged it off. “It’s okay. Maybe if you’d let Stacey come with you …”

I knew I was an awful boyfriend to not let Stacey help me. But I liked having this time with Macallan.

“Anyway” – she sat upright – “today was pretty epic at lunch. Keith was all ‘me want food, me hate food in cafeteria, me deserve better.’ ” Whenever Macallan imitated Keith, she pretended he was a Neanderthal, which maybe wasn’t far from the truth. She hunched over and stuck out her jaw. “Then Emily was like ‘Oh. My. Gawd. You’re, like, a picky eater for someone who thinks pizza is a vegetable.’ ” And whenever she pretended to be Emily – or any girl, really – she put on a Valley Girl accent, twirled her hair, and made her eyes really wide.

It was incredibly entertaining and made the silliest high school encounter hilarious. It was better than actually being there.

“You’re such a Mean Girl,” I teased.

“Hey, I’m telling it like it is.”

“So what else happened today?” I asked. I was heading back to school on Monday and wasn’t really looking forward to it, even though I knew it would be good for me to have some normalcy again. I couldn’t continue to live in my Macallan bubble, no matter how much I wished I could.

She hesitated. “Well, actually …” She bit her lip; it seemed like she was a little nervous. “You know Alex Curtis?”

Alex Curtis? He’d graduated the year before. He’d been on the basketball team, and was really good. We’d hung out a few times this summer before he’d headed off to Marquette.

“Yeah,” I said, harsher than I meant to sound. Alex was a good guy, but I didn’t want Macallan to think so.

“Well, I ran into him a couple days ago and we were talking, and, um, our moms were good friends.” I could tell Macallan was stalling. “Yeah, so he’s going to be around for the dance and offered to take me.”

Macallan was going to the winter dance with a college guy? A college guy she apparently had a history with? A college guy she’d talked to a couple days ago without mentioning it to me?

“Cool” was the only lame response I could come up with.

Relief flashed across her face. “Yeah, he’s really nice. And I didn’t even think about the dance when we were talking, but he brought it up. He asked who I was going with and when I said nobody, he …” Her cheeks flushed. “He said it was an egregious crime, which he felt it necessary to correct.”

She giggled.

I wanted to barf.

“You like him, right?” she asked.

Did I think Alex Curtis was a good guy? Sure.

Did I want to punch Alex Curtis in the face at that exact moment in time? You betcha.

Why couldn’t I tell her that? Why couldn’t I just tell her how I felt? Why did I fight something I wanted – no, something I needed so badly?

But then I flashed to Macallan leaving after I’d confessed my feelings for her. How awkward she’d been when she first came back from Ireland. How I hadn’t wanted to drive her away.

But maybe things were different now?

I opened my mouth, daring myself to finally man up. “Macallan.”

“Yeah?”

The buzzer on my stim machine went off. Kim came over to remove the ice and pads.

“Levi?” Macallan looked at me with concern. “Was there something you wanted?”

“Never mind.”

Time was up.

I began to focus on what I did have: A wonderful family. An awesome best friend. A group of guy friends. And a girlfriend.

That was what I needed to concentrate on.

Stacey insisted on having some people over the Saturday night before my, as Keith had put it, “legendary return to South Lake High School.”

“There’s my bro,” Keith greeted me now, gently putting me into a headlock. “Dude, we missed you at school. Who else am I going to cheat off during trig?”

I smiled and played the part of the happy guest of honor. When I maneuvered my crutches and leg brace to the closest couch, Stacey sat down next to me.

“What can I get you?” she asked. “Do you want something to drink or eat?”

“Just some water, thanks.” I knew I was being grumpy, but I was on some serious painkillers, and even soda made my stomach woozy.

Stacey got up to get me some water. I watched her move across the room, greeting everybody, being the perfect hostess.

I realized there was a line of people there to talk to me. I felt like it was a funeral for my football career, with people offering their condolences. Even though the guys kept telling me I’d be fine, I was the one who was speaking to the doctors. They’d confirmed it was going to take several months to get back to somewhat normal, and even then it would be hard for me to pivot and switch directions easily. The best hope I had for senior year was track. Running straight should be fine. At least I hoped it would be.

I was itching to run so I could clear my mind. And if there was a time in my life when I needed to get focused, work out issues, it was now.

I smiled politely and thanked everybody who came up to me and told me they hoped I felt better and that I’d be back to running in no time.

All I could do was sit there. Stacey had disappeared, probably talking to someone else in the kitchen.

I really needed that glass of water.

“Hey there,” Macallan said, setting a glass of water and a plate of brownies on the end table. She sat down next to me. “Enjoying your audience?”

“Oh, I am so happy to see you.”

“You’re happy to see my brownies.”

I’d been hesitant when Stacey brought up the idea for the party. In the middle of me giving her reasons for why it wasn’t a good idea (I wouldn’t be up to it, I didn’t want people feeling sorry for me, they’d see me in a few days, I didn’t want a big deal made out of it), she cut me off with “Macallan will be there. She thinks it’s a great idea.” She didn’t say it in a way that led me believe she resented Macallan. She had always understood about my relationship. She knew how things were with us.

Well, she didn’t know everything about us.

But Macallan knew Stacey loved her double-fudge brownies.

“This is fun.” Macallan tried to cheer me up.

“I guess.”

“Oh, pardon me.” She sighed exaggeratedly. “Everybody wanted to get together to celebrate that your surgery went well, and they’re happy to see you. It must be so hard to get up in the morning.”

“Actually, it is hard to get up in the morning.” I gestured at my leg brace.

She stood up. “I think I’m going to talk to anybody or anything that isn’t so negative. That wall looks tempting.”

I reached out my hand. “Please don’t go.”

Stacey came bounding for the couch. “You made it!” she said to Macallan.

“Yeah, I brought you these.” Macallan gestured to the brownies. I grabbed two more before Stacey took the plate.

“Yu-um!” Stacey exclaimed. “Thanks so much!”

“You’re welcome.”

They looked at each other, neither sure what to say next.

“Um …” I stammered.

“Hey!” Stacey said brightly to Macallan. “I hear you’re going to the dance with Alex. That’s so cool!”

“Yeah, it should be fun,” Macallan offered.

“Awesome!” Stacey looked like she was going to explode from either happiness or nerves. I could never read her right.

“Is that food?” Keith came over, then stopped in his tracks when he noticed Macallan next to me.

“Macallan made brownies!” Stacey exclaimed. She held them out to Keith, who clearly had no clue what to do next.

“Relax,” Macallan said. “I didn’t poison them.”

He took a bite.

Macallan continued. “However, I knew you’d be eating them, so I put in a secret ingredient….”

Keith stopped chewing.

Macallan stood up and faced Keith. Every nerve in my body was on edge.

She shook her head. “Keith, I work too hard on my food to waste it on you. Plus” – she leaned in so she was only inches from his face – “you and I both know I don’t need to bake to do damage.”

She turned on her foot and went to the kitchen.

Keith was flustered. “Man, that girl. She just … I think I’d be madly in love with her if she didn’t scare me so much. But maybe that’s why I like her. Not like I like like her.” Keith gave up trying to make sense of what happened and walked away, first toward the kitchen, then thinking better of it and heading in the opposite direction.

Stacey laughed. “Wouldn’t they make a fun couple?”

I came so close to blurting out, Wouldn’t they WHAT? but stopped myself.

Apparently my disgust was evident without words. “Calm down!” Stacey’s eyes were wide. “I was just joking.”

The doorbell rang and Stacey excused herself, leaving me alone at a party that was in my honor.

I thought about what Keith had said. About how Macallan scared him.

I knew exactly what he meant. Because she also scared me.

She scared me because I loved her.