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Did I just say that? I held my breath as I waited to hear her response. “You mean, with other people?” she asked as she smiled at me.

Did she not want to go with me? Not wanting anyone to overhear, I leaned forward and whispered in her ear.

“No, it’ll be just the two of us on a date.”

My hot breath on her neck caused her to shiver. Her eyelashes did this cute little flutter thing as she stammered.

“I, I, I would love to.”

She obviously hadn’t expected me to ask her out. Her eyes darted around to look for her friends. I let out more of my hot breath on her neck. Her head went back just a little, and she closed her eyes for a moment. I glanced down and noticed her nipples were erect. Heck yes! It felt good to be in control. I stepped out of her personal space.

“I’ll meet you out front after school on Friday and we can walk over.”

The bell rang and I went to class. I noticed she and her friends were all huddled together sharing all the details. I was about to find out girls were bigger gossips than guys were.

Tami corralled me and pointed me in the direction of my next class.

“What was that about?”

It felt nice that for once she didn’t know everything that went on with me. She obviously noticed the new look and my confidence. I know this was just the opening question in my interrogation. I had three choices: clam up and let her puzzle it out herself; let the interrogation continue; or just tell her. I decided on the latter.

“I got myself a date for Friday night.”

She actually stopped in her tracks and snagged my arm to spin me around to face her. Okay, I didn’t actually choose to tell her everything. She did rather scare the crap out of me.

“I asked Greg to help me, ummm, socially. He enlisted the help of Cindy to do me over.”

She just nodded.

“They’ve been coaching me, and my first assignment was to get a date for Friday night. So when I saw Tina checking me out, I decided to give it a try. Normally I get all tongue-tied with a pretty girl, but with Greg and Cindy’s coaching, I had a plan. Greg helped by telling me the girl I asked out would probably be more nervous than I was. So when I saw she was nervous, I felt at ease.”

I tilted my head to indicate we needed to head to class, and I started to walk. She fell in beside me, but remained silent.

“I asked her out for a date to Jerry’s for ice cream, and then a walk in the park. It’s low-pressure and gives us a chance to get to know each other.”

We reached her class and I was happy to see she just shrugged and went in. It was her subtle way to let me know she approved. She could tell I wasn’t being a horndog. I was elated the rest of the day.

AFTER SCHOOL, I TRIED to call Tami again, but got no answer. She was avoiding me. I started to get pissed. It wasn’t as if she was mad at me, but something had changed. The only thing I could think of was it must be her dating Bert. I debated if I should send her a text, but decided to take my dad’s advice and wait it out before I let my emotions get ahead of themselves.

After I hung up on Tami’s voice mail, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Cindy.

“Hey, Boy Toy, how did it go today? Did the new look have the girls drooling?”

“Yep, I had to beat them off with a stick. Actually, it went pretty well.”

“Spill it.”

“Well, to start with, I got a kiss on the cheek from Peggy. That made it worthwhile. At lunch I asked a girl out and she said ‘yes.’”

I had to pull the phone away from my ear as I heard her squeals of joy. Girls cracked me up when they got that excited. I could imagine her doing a little Snoopy Dance of Joy. I interrupted her little celebration.

“Is Greg there? I want to share this with him.”

She calmed down.

“No, I haven’t seen him since lunch today.”

“Oh, he’s not home, I just assumed he was with you.”

“Nope, I’m flying solo tonight.”

She then spent the next ten minutes telling me what to wear tomorrow. Today went so well I wasn’t going to argue with her.

GREG DIDN’T GET HOME until about six, and I was dying to tell him.

“I have a date for Friday night!”

“Great job man, I knew you could do it. I guess I’m going to have to jam about twelve lessons into one tonight.”

We went up to his room. He smelled of sex, and went to take a shower before Mom found out. While he took his shower, I tried to put two and two together to figure out where he’d been. I sure hoped he hadn’t cheated on Cindy, but it just didn’t make sense. Greg had a strict code of conduct that I had never seen him violate. Part of his code was not to cheat when he dated someone. Either he’d hooked up with Cindy in the last hour, or he wasn’t dating Cindy. The last one was impossible, so he must have shown up right after she and I got off the phone.

Before I could get too far into trying to solve the mystery, Tami called.

“Hey, David, I see you called.”

“Hey, long time no talk. What have you been up to?”

I tried to sound upbeat, even though I was worried inside. I needed my best friend back. I heard her take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind. I need to work through some things.”

I grimaced. I knew how much we each cared about the other, and yet I was uncertain what to say that wouldn’t risk our friendship. In these kinds of situation, I would normally ask Tami, but I couldn’t when she was involved. I felt my soul was bared and very helpless.

“Anything you’d like to share?”

I think I let some of my concern bleed through, but I had to know.

“Yeah, I would like to share. You’re my best friend, after all. But I can’t do it over the phone.”

Thank You! She was still my best friend. I had held my breath. I let it out in a whoosh.

“I have an idea. Beth Anderson invited us over to her place on Sunday to go swimming. I haven’t had a chance to ask, but would you be willing to go?”

“Perfect. I’ll meet you there. I’ll get the details from Beth.”

She actually sounded like her old self. I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. I hadn’t appreciated how much this had affected me. I suddenly needed to say something.

“Tami, you do know that I love you?”

“Yes, David, I know. You’ve never told me before, and it’s sweet, but I’ve always known you love me. And best friend of mine, I love you too.”

I heard the phone disconnect and I knew all was right with the world. Tami Glade loved me. We never looked at each other in a sexual manner. We never played doctor, or you-show-me-yours-and-I’ll-show-you-mine. Tami was my twin sister. Maybe not biologically, but we’re as close as twins. We just made each other better people. I think the most confusing thing was when I saw her with Bert and I thought it could be me. I knew our friendship meant more to me than to risk it. I knew I would just be happy for her. She would feel the same way about anyone I dated.

I was pleased when Greg was done with his shower and he came to my room. I hadn’t forgotten he came in and reeked of sex. For some reason I suspected it wasn’t with Cindy, but was it really my business? I loved my brother and I really liked Cindy. They made a great couple.

Greg jumped back into the conversation.

“Okay, who are you going out with?”

“Tina... I just realized I don’t know her last name.”

“It’s probably best you don’t know a lot about her. It’ll give you something to talk about.”

He thought for a moment.

“On your walk to Jerry’s, I want you to do a couple of things. The first is to tell her she looks nice. When you tell her that, look at her mouth. If you’re looking at her tits, she’ll think you’re a horndog and just want in her pants. If you stare her in the eye, she’ll get nervous. Just glance at her mouth and say it. Then glance away, reach down, and take her hand. Once you have her hand, start walking.”