Mary Lou Cheevey. Mrs. Alex Cheevey. Mary Lou and Alex. Mary Lou Finney and Alex Cheevey.
I can hardly breathe.
I didn’t even go out of the house today in case Alex called—which he didn’t and I think I will probably die if he doesn’t.
Oh, God! What am I saying? I hate it when girls moon over boys. I refuse to moon over Alex Cheevey.
But Lord! All day long I kept coming up to my room and lying on my bed so I could remember exactly what happened yesterday and exactly what it felt like holding his hand, and really, if someone else said this to me I would throw up.
I can’t write any more. I just want to think about it. I’ll write about Carl Ray and stuff tomorrow.
I still can’t write. I am hopeless. Alex called today and he came over. I am on Mount Olympus. I’ll write about everything tomorrow. I promise.
Alex had to work all day and couldn’t come over, but he did call and I still am worthless and so I’ll write tomorrow but I am soooooo happeeeeee I can hardly stand it. I just want to think about it.
Well, I still am worthless, but I feel terrible for not keeping track of everything and I will catch up right now.
I think all of a sudden I realize why Beth Ann wouldn’t tell me about Derek and why she’s soooo strange these days. Because I’m acting just as weird as she is, I swear. I’m turning into a real lunatic. All over a boy. I cannot believe it. I am going to try not to act like this. But I see why Beth Ann didn’t want to talk about Derek. You want to keep it floating around in your mind and keep it secret, because there is no way you can explain it to anyone without sounding like a complete idiot.
But I am really going to try. I am going to be reasonable about this. And so first I will talk about everything else. (But God! I LOVE ALEX CHEEVEY!!!!!!)
It’s funny, but when you don’t write things down every day, you forget when things happened.
First, Carl Ray. He bought a car! I didn’t even know he knew how to drive. He doesn’t have it yet (the car)—it’s supposed to be ready tomorrow. He won’t even tell us what kind it is or anything. Maybe he wants it to be a big surprise. Or maybe he forgot what kind of car he bought.
Just about everybody is still hinting like mad for Carl Ray to buy them things, only they don’t hint when Mom is around because she gets so mad. I even heard Dad hinting. He was saying how the lawn mower is a piece of junk and he wishes he had a new one and he even looked through the Sears catalogue (coincidentally when Carl Ray was sitting there watching TV) and kept saying things like, “Oh, here’s a nice one. Too much money, though. Oh well.”
Mom keeps asking Carl Ray if he has written to his parents yet, to tell them about the money, and Carl Ray keeps saying, “Nope.” That does seem a little strange—that he hasn’t told his own parents—don’t you think? Tonight, Mom said, “Carl Ray, if you don’t write them pretty soon, I will,” and Carl Ray looked so mournful and sad that she turned to my dad, and he said, “Don’t look at me.”
One other thing about Carl Ray, while I am on the subject. He’s been watering the Furtzes’ lawn without anybody asking him to or without getting any “gold” for it. What do you think of that?
Now I will talk about the truly wonderful and di-viiiiine Alex Cheevey.
He came over TO MY HOUSE on Tuesday. I was upstairs when I heard Dennis shouting, “MARY LOUUU, MARY LOUUU, THERE’S A BOY AT THE DOOR. MARY LOUUU, MARY LOUUU, THERE’S A BOY HERE FOR YOUUU.” Honestly. It was embarrassing. He made it sound like it was the strangest thing in the world for a boy to be here for me.
And when I came downstairs, there was Dougie standing with his nose pressed against the screen staring at Alex and there was Tommy right next to him, without any pants on at all.
Alex waited on the porch while I begged and pleaded with Maggie to watch Tommy and the others while Alex and I went out for a few hours. She asked me about a thousand questions (“Well, who IS this boy?”—“Oh, is this the Alex I met?”—“Don’t you want me to say hello?”—“Where are you going?”—and on and on in this singsong voice) but finally she agreed, if I would give her this red scarf I have. I gave it to her.
When I escaped from the madhouse, Alex and I walked to the end of our street and then I decided to show him the big tree over in the field, the one where Dennis, Dougie, and I used to go all the time, the one that looks like a fort underneath. So we walked over there and went in under the branches and sat down and talked.
I can’t even remember half of what we talked about. Part of the problem is I’m not sure I was always paying attention, because when I am with Alex my brain is like mush and mostly I am just looking at him and feeling as if my muscles are melting and my blood is filled with millions of little bubbles all fizzing around.
So we held hands right there under the tree. It was very romantic. And in the middle of that, do you know what he told me?
He said that he made up the Murphys—they don’t exist! All those times he was over on our street and up at the pool, it was just because of ME!!!!! He was coming over to see me, but he didn’t have the nerve to say so because he thought I would tell him to jump in the lake or something.
Can you imagine that?
Well, I love Alex Cheevey. I really do.
Good night.
Egad, Friday the thirteenth. Well, it wasn’t unlucky for me, at least. In fact, it was a pretty lucky day for everybody I know except Beth Ann. But I’ll explain that in a minute.
Carl Ray came home in his car today. I have to admit, it’s a pretty cute thing. A little black Ford with red (red!!! Carl Ray???) seats. He’s so proud of it, he almost died from grinning so much. He made us all come outside and look at it and sit in it, and after dinner he actually took me, Dennis, and Dougie for a ride in it to the Tast-ee Freeze (and he even bought us ice cream), and then when we got home, he spent about two hours polishing it, even though it was as clean as can be. Boy, is he happy.
Except for the ice cream, he still hasn’t bought anyone anything, but the Sears catalogue is about to fall apart from so many people looking through it.
Now, Alex. He didn’t have to be at work until four o’clock today, so we went to the pool early and then, on the way home, just as we were turning the corner of my street, who should we bump into but Beth Ann. Boy, was she surprised to see Alex Cheevey, the Truly Wonderful and Divine, holding my hand!
She stood there with her mouth gaping open. You could see all her fillings. Boy, did she look terrible. Her eyes were all puffy and red and she looked like a complete wreck. She said, “I need to talk to you, Mary Lou,” and she kept looking at me and then Alex and then me and then Alex, as if her head was on a bouncy spring and she couldn’t control it. You know those dogs people put on the back ledges of their cars? Like that.
Alex said he had to go, so off he went. (Sigh.)
I was pretty surprised that Beth Ann wanted to talk to me. I seemed to recall that the last time I saw her, she told me that I made her sick and we weren’t best friends anymore. But she seems to have forgotten that.
Well! To make a very, very, very, very long story short, she and Derek broke up. Apparently, Derek has been messing around with someone else, and the way Beth Ann found out about it was that she went to the store with her sister Judy, and when they came out to the parking lot they saw Derek-the-Di-viiiiine walking with some girl and he had his arm around her!