“Lorylyn! Hey, it’s Brady, please don’t hang up!”
She had already started to, but she put the phone back to her ear and waited, glaring at the wall. She heard Ethan hang up downstairs.
“Lorylyn, please let me come over so we can talk about this. Please.” He sounded anxious and upset.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Lorylyn said listlessly.
“Yes there is. Won’t you even let me explain? Please? Lorylyn, you have to give me another chance. You can’t just break up with me without even hearing my side of it.”
“It doesn’t even matter what your side of it is!” Lorylyn exploded, feeling the tears building up again. “Don’t you get it, Brady? It’s just the fact that you did that at all and didn’t even tell me about it! It changes everything!”
“How? How does it change everything? Things can still be the exact same as they were.”
“No! They can’t! I thought you...I thought we...it’s just different now!” She didn’t know how to explain to him how much it mattered to her that he was a virgin too. How it had ruined all the romance and her idea of the perfect relationship.
“Lorylyn, I swear, I don’t even care that much about sex. I’m not gonna pressure you, if that’s what you’re thinking. I said I won’t, and I won’t.”
“No, it’s not that.” Lorylyn was sobbing now. “It’s just...it was important to me that we were both...” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word “virgins” to him. “But this just makes everything different now. You’re not the same person to me. I thought I knew you, but I didn’t.”
“Lorylyn, I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do. I wish I could go back and change it, and never have sex with her. I would do it if I could. So can’t we just pretend it never happened?”
Lorylyn cringed at the mention of Brooke. “No! I’d still know it did! I just can’t do this! I was so happy with you and you were, like...I don’t know, I liked you a lot!” She’d been about to say “perfect.” He’d been perfect. “But it’s just not the same anymore. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Okay, I admit I should’ve told you when we first started dating. I made a mistake. But you’re not gonna let that break us up, are you? Come on, you know what we have is so good.”
Lorylyn was sobbing. “What we had. We don’t have it anymore. I can’t be with you now, Brady.”
“So we’re breaking up?”
Lorylyn stared at the wall, sobbing silently.
“Come on, Lorylyn, please don’t do this!” He almost sounded like he might cry too, and Lorylyn’s heart twisted.
“No, Brady! Don’t do this! I can’t be with you right now! I just can’t!” She slammed down the receiver and buried her face in her pillow.
***
Later that night, Jill was sitting at home reading a book when the phone rang around 10:30.
“Jill!” her mom yelled up the stairs. “It’s Hilton!”
Jill felt a rush of excitement. Maybe there was going to be a party tonight! What else would Hilton be calling for so late?
“Hey, Hilton!” she said into her blue portable phone.
“Hey, Jill! So I ran into Todd at the school earlier when we were getting on the buses to leave for the game, and he said you wanted to do something tomorrow night? I’m in, whatever it is.”
Jill inhaled sharply. Of course! The game! There had been an away basketball game, and Todd would’ve had to go with the rest of the freshman team to watch. She was such an idiot for asking him to do something tonight! She felt relieved he hadn’t been out with Blake or something, a thought that had been nagging at the back of her mind all day, but at the same time she felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. He had totally misunderstood; he’d thought she wanted to do a group thing! Like what they usually did. Ugh, this sucked! But she knew she couldn’t tell Hilton the truth; it was too embarrassing. Something like this would never happen to Hilton!
But Hilton rushed on without giving Jill a chance to respond. “But anyways, I wanted to call and tell you about my date with Reed last night! I was gonna call you earlier today, but he came over to my house this afternoon and we went for a walk and stuff. And he wore this stocking cap, and he looked so hot! But anyways, last night was soooo fun!” Her voice had an air of breathless excitement. “We went to Logan and he was so funny on the car ride, and then we had dinner at Don Pablo’s, which is like, my favorite restaurant ever, and then we went ice skating at the Winter Wonderland rink! It was so romantic!”
“Oh my gosh!” Jill cried. “That’s so cool!” She was completely jealous. Why, why, why couldn’t something like this happen to her? “So did you guys kiss or anything?”
“Oh yeah, we totally made out.” Jill could practically see the satisfied grin through Hilton’s voice.
“Woohoo! That’s awesome, Hilton! So are you guys together? He came over again today?”
“Yeah, and then I saw him at the game tonight too! He wanted to come over after, but my parents said it was too late ‘cause we just got home. So whatever. But we’re definitely going out again next weekend...and, yeah, he’s my boyfriend!” She burst into giddy laughter.
“Yay!” Jill squealed, feeling happy for Hilton but miserable for herself.
“Yeah, he said he would do something tomorrow night with me, but they have a team dinner for basketball, then the whole varsity team’s like hanging out at Trent Liechty’s. But I said that was okay ‘cause I already had plans with you and Todd. So who all’s going? What are we doing?”
“Um...I don’t really know,” Jill stammered. “I just thought it’d be fun to do something. So I guess I’ll call Hillary and stuff.”
“Yeah, and Lorylyn; I’m sure she would wanna go out and have some fun. She could probably use a pick-up! I called her after Reed left this afternoon and she said Brady called and they broke up for good.”
“I know. I talked to her tonight. But yeah! That’s a good idea! We should do something for her!” Jill’s spirits brightened a little. “I’ll say something to her at practice tomorrow.”
“Okay, awesome. Oh my gosh, Jill, Reed is so hot! And he’s such a good kisser too...”
***
Hilton smiled to herself as she snuggled under her covers half an hour later. She was so glad she’d finally decided to quit obsessing over Landon and go for someone else. Reed was the first guy all year she’d liked almost as much as Landon. And obviously nothing was going to happen with Landon anytime soon. Every girl had her idea of a perfect guy, and Landon was hers. Her dream guy. But she really liked Reed too, especially after the last couple of days. And, she thought to herself now, where would I have left to go if I got my dream guy now? There’d be nothing left after that, no challenge, nothing to look forward to.
She was excited to see where things would go with Reed, and she decided to just go with the flow and take each day as it came.
***
The cheer-up-Lorylyn outing actually turned out to be okay, even though it wasn’t what Jill had been wanting when she’d first called Todd. Lorylyn had grudgingly agreed to come after much persuading and pleading from Jill that morning at practice, and Hillary and Dirk came too, as did Bennett.
They ended up going to Bennett’s house. Jill thought that might be awkward, but it really wasn’t; the two of them basically just ignored each other, which wasn’t that far off from how things had been before they dated. They made a campfire and s’mores, but it quickly got too cold, so they moved into Bennett’s basement to watch movies and play euchre. Lorylyn didn’t know how to play, so she sat behind Jill for a while to watch, then played a game against Jill and Todd with Bennett as her partner. She messed up several times and could never remember what the right and left bowers were, but she was at least having fun.
“Wait, so hearts is trump, right?” she asked at the beginning of one hand.
Jill, Todd, and Bennett all nodded.
“So what’s the left bower, then?”
r /> “Jack of diamonds,” Todd answered.
“Oh, I have that!” Lorylyn cried excitedly. “So that’s good, right?” She looked around the table as Jill and Todd cracked up laughing. “What?”
“You can’t tell!” Jill gasped between breaths of laughter. “You dork! You’ve done that like three times now!”
“Oh!” Lorylyn giggled. “Damn it!” She pounded the table, which made both her and Jill laugh even harder.
“These girls!” Todd said teasingly, shaking his head at Bennett. “Can I switch partners?”
“Shut up!” Jill giggled, pointing at Todd. “You shouldn’t wanna switch partners! You just got us set last hand! I was making a freaking spade on the table! How could you think that was a heart?!”
“Ah! I knew it!” Lorylyn cried, gasping for breath from laughing so hard. “I knew you were cheating!”
“You did not! You probably don’t even know which one is a spade!” Jill cried, and both girls dissolved into hysterics again.
“Jill! What the fuck?!” Todd pretended to be indignant. “Thanks for telling them we cheated!” He reached across the table and roughly mussed up her hair.
“Whatever! We didn’t cheat! ‘Cause you’re too stupid!”
Jill and Lorylyn both had tears streaming down their faces now. Bennett and Todd exchanged amused looks.
“You guys are crazy! What are you even laughing about?!” Todd ruffled Jill’s hair again, more gently this time. The girls were laughing too hard to even respond. “All right, dude, I think that’s our cue to get the hell out of here!” Todd laughed, and he and Bennett pushed back their chairs and walked into the other room, where Hillary, Dirk, and Hilton were watching Billy Madison.
“That was so much fun,” Lorylyn said, wiping tears from her face. “Thanks for making me come. I had such a good time.”
“You’re welcome.” Jill reached over and hugged her. “See, it’ll all be okay.”
chapter 10) playing his game
Luckily, Lorylyn and Brady’s breakup and the complete fallout with Brooke coincided with the start of second semester and, therefore, the opportunity to switch lunch tables. Even though most classes weren’t changing and almost everyone still had the same lunch periods, all the tables were up for grabs again on the first day back to school after break, and everyone was allowed to change seats. The first day back was a green day, and Jill and Lorylyn raced to the cafeteria from geometry to try to get a good table. Hillary was already there, standing in the middle of the room.
“There’s no place!” she wailed. “Like no one changed tables!”
“Well, what are we gonna do?” Jill asked, glancing at their old table. Lindy and Andy were the only ones there so far.
“I don’t know, but there is no way I’m sitting with Brady,” Lorylyn declared. “I’ll just sit with people I don’t know.”
After looking around for a couple minutes, the three girls found a vacant end of a long table. At the other end was Kara Darson, from Jill’s biology class, along with two other girls they had gone to junior high with but never talked to much.
“Hey, do you guys mind if we sit here?” Hillary asked.
Kara and her friends gave them a dubious look. “Sure, I guess so,” one of them finally said, not sounding overly thrilled.
“Thanks,” Hillary said.
Jill’s heart sank as they settled down at the table. Of course she wanted to be supportive of Lorylyn, and she couldn’t really imagine sitting with Brady now either, but their old table had been so fun, and now she wouldn’t be able to sit with Hilton anymore! This situation just sucked. And their new table was way at one end of the cafeteria, which sucked too. She tried to see their old table, but there were too many people moving around, and she couldn’t tell who all was sitting there.
“Hey, guys!” Hilton said suddenly, tossing her blue backpack on the table and sitting down. “It took me forever to find you!”
“Hey!” Jill said, surprised and happy. “I didn’t know you were gonna sit with us; we would’ve waited for you!”
“Of course I’m sitting with you! You think I wanna sit with Brady? Fuckin’ asshole.” She smiled at Lorylyn, and Lorylyn gave her a small smile back. Jill saw Kara and her friends looking at them in a sort of annoyed fashion, but she didn’t care. She was so glad Hilton was sitting here now; lunch would still be fun with all four of them at this table, and she wouldn’t feel like she was missing out on anything.
***
The next day, gold day, Hilton was waiting for Jill outside the cafeteria before lunch. “Hey, I was waiting for you so we can sit with Reed! He said their table’s up by the pizza line.”
“Oh, okay! I didn’t know what we were gonna do, if we were still gonna sit with Brooke or whatever. I didn’t know Reed was in this lunch. Are you sure it’s okay if I sit there? Who does he sit with?”
“Hell no, I’m not sitting with Brooke! What a bitch.” Hilton’s voice was loud, and Jill looked around for Brooke or any of her friends, surprised at Hilton’s carelessness. “But yeah, of course it’s okay if you sit there! He sits with some of the other guys from the varsity team.”
“Like juniors and seniors?” Jill asked, intimidated. She would have no idea what to say to people like that!
“Yeah, but don’t worry, it’ll be cool,” Hilton said with an air of confidence Jill desperately wished she herself possessed. “Come on.”
Jill followed Hilton into the cafeteria and up toward the front where the various food lines were.
“There he is!” Hilton pointed. Reed was standing by a table that had about six other guys already sitting at it. Hilton skipped up to them. “Hey, baby!” she said flirtatiously, sliding under Reed’s arm.
Jill stood back hesitantly. There were already eight people at this table...there wasn’t going to be room for her.
“Hey, do you like, need a chair? Just pull one up,” Trent Liechty, a senior starter on the basketball team whom Jill knew only by name, said in a tone that implied she was stupid for not having figured that out herself.
Jill looked around helplessly, not wanting to go ask people she didn’t know for a chair.
“Hey, there’s one!” Hilton pointed to a table a few feet away. Before Jill had the chance to go over and ask for the chair, Hilton had whisked over and grabbed it without asking. “They were freshmen,” she said to Jill in explanation, presenting her with the chair.
“We’re freshmen,” Jill replied.
Hilton gave her a shameless smile. “Not when we’re sitting with the varsity basketball team.” She winked and took her seat next to Reed.
Jill stared at her with an open-mouthed smile, wishing once more she had Hilton’s aura of self-assurance and outgoingness.
***
Over at Hilton and Jill’s old table, Brooke, Cassidy, and Ashley sat by themselves. Brooke laid her chin on her arms in front of her.
“Guys, what should I do?” she moaned. “Brady is so pissed at me! That’s so not how I wanted that to turn out! Do you think it was really bitchy that I told Lorylyn?”
“No,” Ashley said with a shrug. “I mean, that probably wasn’t the best way to tell her...” She grinned and got a small smile out of Brooke as well. “But,” Ashley continued, “she deserves to know her boyfriend’s past! I mean I’m sure she had all these ideas of him being some virginal little goody-goody mama’s boy or something. She’s so naive. I mean, please! She had to get a wake-up call! So really, you were just helping her out. Like a little ‘Welcome to the real world, little girl’ type of thing.”
“Yeah!” Brooke said, pounding the table emphatically with her palm. “Exactly! But now Brady totally hates me! And I’ve gotta get him back, you guys! I mean, you know how cute we were together, right?” Her dark brown eyes exuded a look of despair.
“Yeah, you guys were so, just, right together,” Cassidy agreed. “They just never had what you guys had. I mean, she’s like, too innocent for any guy at this school!”
&
nbsp; The three of them laughed.
“Well,” Brooke said, a new gleam in her eye, “that settles it! I’m gonna get him back! I just may have to play his game for a while to get what I want in the end.” She smiled mysteriously at Cassidy’s and Ashley’s confused looks and didn’t offer any further explanation.
***
That afternoon Lorylyn hurried out of SRT, relieved the day was finally over. The last two days had been long and lonely. She couldn’t concentrate in class; her thoughts were filled with Brady. How stupid he’d made her feel, how humiliated she’d been at the party, and, as much as she tried to suppress them, images of him and Brooke. But even worse were the memories of all the dates Lorylyn had had with him, all the sweet things he’d said or done, that cute curl falling in front of his eyes as he flashed her his charming smile, the way he kissed her, and how much she missed all that. She had come to like him so much, and high school felt empty without him now. Most of the time she sat in class trying not to cry. She’d thought he was perfect; why did everything they’d had together have to end now? It was so unfair!
She pushed blindly through the throng of people in the hallway, just wanting to get to her locker and then to gymnastics practice, where she could talk to Jill.
“Lorylyn!”
Everything inside her jumbled spastically as she came to a complete stop and then turned. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been dying to hear his voice.
“Hey!” Brady said, jogging across the hall to join her. “You ran out of there so fast I almost missed you!”
Lorylyn was silent, praying for her insides to calm down and let her think straight. She knew she should still be pissed, and she was; just looking at him made all the hurt come back. But it also brought another feeling...the possibility of everything being right again.
“Hey, so I know you’re on your way to practice, and I know you don’t wanna talk to me, but I’m not gonna give up on us just like that, Lorylyn. I’m gonna keep trying, ‘cause I really like you, and I wanna get back together. Do you think there’s any way you’d have time to talk later tonight? Or just anytime this week?” His hopeful eyes made him look like a little puppy. Lorylyn felt herself melting.