“No, I don’t care.” This is so fun! Jill thought. She loved the feeling in her stomach she got from sneaking around with Todd. Something about the situation made her think of Brooke and Brady and the way she’d seen them look at each other last fall. She’d always envied those looks because it seemed like they had some exciting secret. Now I kind of have one with Todd! she thought.
All of a sudden, someone turned the doorknob from outside. Jill’s panicked eyes flew to the door, then to Todd. Todd’s eyes were wide too, but there was a mischievous gleam in them. With his finger over his lips to tell her to keep silent, he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the chair toward a tall, thin cupboard next to the fridge.
“The pantry,” he mouthed, grinning. His lips were practically on her ear, and she felt a thrill pass through her body. As she heard keys jingle outside the door the thrill multiplied, and she was surprised to discover it wasn’t in a bad way. She didn’t feel panic so much as...exhilaration. The combination of Todd standing so close to her and the risk of getting caught was...awesome! She realized if they were caught in here with the door locked, the excuse of Stetson sending them here for a tape would no longer be plausible...it would look like they’d come here to fool around!
Todd pulled the door of the pantry open, and they were faced with a shelf that was only about five feet high. Under the shelf were several rolled posters that stood almost as tall as the shelf. Jill figured they were the basketball team posters that were plastered all around school and in the windows of local businesses. She widened her eyes at Todd. How were they ever going to fit?! She heard the keys jingle again and grabbed onto Todd without thinking.
He shoved her into the pantry and she ducked to avoid hitting her head, scrunching as far against one side as she could. Todd piled in after her, smacking his head against the shelf.
“Fuck!” he cursed as he pulled the door shut.
Jill covered her mouth to suppress a wild giggle threatening to escape. Then she grabbed Todd’s arm in an attempt to pull him farther inside the pantry so the door would close.
Finally he managed to get it almost all the way shut, but he had to keep holding onto the handle so it wouldn’t fly back open. He and Jill were facing each other, and their bodies were pressed tightly together. Her head was scrunched under the shelf over his right shoulder and her arms were squished between their stomachs. Todd was still holding the door handle with his left hand, but he freed his right arm from between his leg and the wall and put it around Jill’s waist to maneuver himself into a more steady position. In the process he banged his head on the underside of the shelf again and swore silently.
Jill tried as hard as she could to keep from bursting into hysterics, and when Todd looked at her, he was grinning too. Jill yanked her hand from between their bodies to cover her mouth before a laugh escaped. Moving her hand threw her off balance, and her shoulder lurched toward the door.
Todd, without removing his hand from the door handle, used his upper arm to push her shoulder back. “Put your arms around me,” he mouthed.
Jill slowly moved her hands around his stomach and braced them on his sides, careful not to lose her balance again. In doing so, her body automatically pressed even tighter against his, and she couldn’t look at him because she was afraid he’d be able to tell how attracted she was to him. There. It was easier to stand now. Her head was still tilted to the side though, and she was scrunched over. When she finally looked at Todd, he was still grinning, and she grinned back.
“Can you hear anything?” he mouthed.
Jill shook her head and tried to listen hard. Nothing. She’d been so worried about getting into the pantry she hadn’t even heard anyone come into the lounge. All she could think about was Todd’s body against hers. She wondered if he was thinking about the same thing.
All of a sudden he brought his face down to hers and looked her right in the eyes.
Her eyes widened, and she was sure he was going to kiss her. Her heart thumped rapidly. But he just stayed there, staring at her, and now she could’ve sworn he was teasing her. She felt extremely uncomfortable and wanted to look away, but his eyes were like magnets. She stared into them, a look of uncertainty in her own brown eyes.
Then, if it was possible, he moved his face even closer to hers, so that their noses almost brushed, then suddenly he bent down and bit her neck.
She gasped and stopped herself from crying out just in time. She glared at him, her eyes wide. What the hell was he thinking?! He had almost made her yell, and then they would’ve been caught! His eyes laughed at her gleefully.
All of a sudden she heard the door to the lounge close, and it sounded like a key turned in the lock. She looked at Todd questioningly.
He waited a few seconds. Silence. He pushed the door open a crack and tried to peer out, but he lost his balance and tumbled all the way out, tripping across the room and running into the couch.
His fall had thrown Jill off balance too, and she stumbled out after him. They both glanced at the empty room, then looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Oh my gosh, Todd!” Jill lunged at him, slapping his upper arm. “What the hell were you doing?! You almost made me scream in there!”
Todd doubled over in laughter. “Oh, holy shit, that was freaking hilarious. You were so freaked out ‘cause you thought I was gonna kiss you! You should’ve seen your face! You would’ve thought I was some hideous freakin’ monster or something!”
“Shut up!” Jill cried, practically sighing with relief that he hadn’t been able to tell how much she’d wanted him to kiss her. “I didn’t know what you were doing! But I was SO close to screaming when you bit me! You’re so freaking lucky!” Todd just kept laughing, and Jill hit him playfully on the top of the head. “Shut up, that so wouldn’t have been funny!”
“Shit. That was awesome. You can’t tell me that wasn’t awesome.”
Jill giggled. “Yeah, it was.”
“See, it’s fun to break the rules,” Todd said, putting his arm around her and rubbing his knuckles over the top of her head.
“Stop it!” Jill squealed, ducking out from under his arm. “I hate that!”
Todd plopped back down on the couch. “We’ve gotta do this more often. We should start skipping SRT.”
Jill returned to her recliner, feeling like she was floating on air. This was by far the best day of high school yet.
chapter 13) reasonable explanations
“So what happened with Brady?” Jill asked Lorylyn eagerly as they stretched on the floor ex mat before practice. She was still on cloud nine from SRT.
“I called him after the meet last night and I was like, ‘Are you still friends with Brooke?’ And he was like, ‘No, I told you I never talk to her anymore.’ And I was like, ‘Well I saw you walking with her in the hall today,’ and he goes, ‘Oh my gosh, yeah, she like followed me after class and tried talking to me. I didn’t wanna be mean and blow her off, you know, but don’t worry, it was nothing. I barely said two words to her.’ ” Lorylyn looked at Jill and shrugged. “And that could be true, right? I mean you said he stopped at his locker and she just kept walking?”
“Yeah,” Jill said happily. That seemed like a reasonable explanation. She was in such a good mood she couldn’t even dredge up any suspicion toward Brady. “I’m sure that’s probably all it was, then. So are you guys back together?”
“No. We just talked for a little while. But I don’t know, I guess now I kinda wanna wait like a week or something and see if anything else with him and Brooke comes up. ‘Cause if she’s gonna try to talk to him and stuff now, what if he starts liking her again?”
“I’m sure he won’t. She’s a bitch; who could like her?” Jill said cheerfully.
“What’s up with you?!” Lorylyn asked with a grin. “You’re in a good mood!”
“Yeah...” Jill said, returning Lorylyn’s grin. Then she launched into a description of her afternoon with Todd, leaving out nothing but the part about
his parents.
“That’s awesome!” Lorylyn exclaimed. “He so likes you!”
“Do you think so?” Jill asked, surprised.
“Um, YEAH! He called you out of SRT, out of allll his friends, ‘cause he wanted to hang out with you, and he bit your neck! Does it GET any more obvious?!”
Jill giggled. “I don’t know though. I mean, he’s always flirty like that. I don’t think he likes me.”
“Whatever! He so does!”
Both girls giggled, but Jill wasn’t convinced. But it didn’t matter. This day rocked.
***
“Landon’s having a party this weekend for Valentine’s Day!” Hilton announced before school a couple weeks later as she materialized out of nowhere beside Jill’s locker.
“Are you serious?!”
“Yeah! This weekend’s gonna rock! I’m so pumped! Landon’s party on Friday, then my date with Reed on Saturday!” Hilton beamed as she hugged her geometry book to her chest.
“Yay! Now I won’t be a complete loser with nothing to do on Valentine’s Day weekend!” Jill joked.
“Oh, whatever, you should so ask Todd out. You know, you guys really wouldn’t even have to go out. Just find a pantry somewhere and I’m sure you guys would figure out something to do in there.” Hilton grinned.
Jill giggled and swatted at her. “Shut up!” she hissed, looking around. “You know nothing happened!” But she was thrilled Hilton had said that.
“Hey, you know what I just realized? Valentine’s Day is Saturday, so that means Landon’s party is on Friday the thirteenth!” Hilton’s eyes widened in anticipation.
“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” Jill felt a little shiver. She scrunched up her shoulders and made a face at Hilton. “Weird!”
***
That afternoon at gymnastics, Coach Tanner sat the girls down before practice to talk about the upcoming meets that week.
“Now I know Saturday is Valentine’s Day,” she said, “and some of you probably have plans for that night, but just don’t forget that we have our invitational at Pike that day. It starts at ten and there’s eight teams coming, so it could go until three or four depending on how they do the rotations; I haven’t gotten a schedule yet. And it’s a little over two hours away, so we may not be back until six or after. So make your plans accordingly.”
Jill shot a panicked look in Lorylyn’s direction. She wasn’t worried about when they got back; the thought that had just occurred to her was when would they have to leave in the morning? She might not be able to go to Landon’s! This was a disaster! She hadn’t even thought about the meet being so far away!
As if Coach Tanner had read Jill’s thoughts, she continued, “And warm-ups will probably start around eight; hopefully I’ll have the schedule by tomorrow and know for sure, but plan on leaving here around 5:15. We wanna have plenty of time to stretch and wake up once we get there. So I know I haven’t done this before, but I’m going to give you guys a curfew for Friday night. I want you in bed by ten. That’ll still only give you less than seven hours of sleep, and these are some good teams. We have a chance to do well, but we need to be at our best. And that means everybody, even if you’re only competing in one event.”
Jill’s heart sank. She’d been doing varsity beam most of the season and everything else JV, and beam was the only event she was doing at Pike, since it was a varsity-only invitational. She and Lorylyn exchanged a glum look, and Jill looked over at Lindy. But Lindy’s face didn’t register any reaction at all. Jill wondered if she was just planning on skipping Landon’s.
Jill frowned. There was no way she was missing this party. She’d just have to figure out a way to go for at least a little while, because she knew Todd was going to be there.
***
“What am I gonna do?” Jill wailed at lunch the next day to Hilton, Lorylyn, and Hillary. “I have to go!”
“I’m not going,” Lorylyn said. She had already told Jill as much in geometry. “I thought about it, but I can’t, ‘cause I don’t want my parents dropping me off and picking me up and possibly seeing the drinking or anything, and you know Cassidy won’t be leaving at 9:30! So there’s no way I’d have a ride.”
“Who cares about your damn curfew?” Hilton said, waving her hand to shrug it off. “Just blow it off. I guarantee Lindy will.”
Lorylyn looked doubtful. “I don’t know. My parents might not let me anyway.”
“Come on, Lorylyn!” Jill begged. “Let’s just blow if off. I mean, I’m only competing one event! And you’re only doing vault, right? We’ll be fine! We can sleep on the bus, and Tanner will never know!”
Lorylyn hesitated. “Yeah, but I don’t think my parents will let me stay at Landon’s as late as we normally do, knowing I have a meet the next day! So how will we get rides?”
“I know!” Hilton exclaimed. “You guys can both just bring all your stuff for the meet and stay at my house! Tell your parents I’m just having a sleepover. Don’t even tell them about Landon’s.”
“That’s a good idea,” Hillary said.
Lorylyn still hesitated. “Well...I think my parents still won’t want me spending the night somewhere before the meet.”
“Oooh, tell them you’re staying at Lindy’s! Say she’s having a team sleepover!”
“Oooh, good idea!” Jill exclaimed. “Awesome, Hilton! So then we would actually stay at your house?”
“Yeah, and we can just ride with Cassidy like normal.”
Jill clapped her hands. “Yay! I’m so excited!”
“Lorylyn?” Hilton asked.
Lorylyn moved her fork around in her mashed potatoes, then finally looked up with a grin. “All right. I’m in.”
***
“Guess what?” Jill said brightly at dinner that night. “Lindy’s having a team sleepover on Friday before the Pike Invite.”
“Oh, that sounds fun,” her mom said. “I haven’t heard you talk about Lindy much lately.”
Jill dropped her eyes shamefully to her plate. She hated to lie to her parents; she felt incredibly guilty, but she’d do whatever it took to go to this party. “Yeah, well, we didn’t really talk to her as much after Brooke broke up Brady and Lorylyn ‘cause she’s Brooke’s best friend, you know, and it was just weird....But Brooke’s been a lot nicer lately, and Lindy was never mean to us at all or anything, so I think it’ll be fun.”
“That’s a good idea for you guys to all stay together before the meet anyway,” her dad said. “Especially since you have to get up and leave so early. That way nobody will oversleep or anything.”
“Yeah,” Jill said, praying she and Lorylyn didn’t oversleep and show up late, or even worse, so late that Coach Tanner called their houses to find them. That would be a disaster.
chapter 14) landon’s... friday the 13th/valentine’s day
As Jill and Lorylyn crawled into the tiny backseat of Reed’s Mustang after practice Friday, Jill felt even guiltier than she had Tuesday night at dinner. She’d told her parents they were going straight to Lindy’s after practice. Actually, Hilton had arranged for Reed to drive everyone to her house since basketball, cheerleading, and gymnastics practice all ended at five that day.
Hilton pushed the passenger seat back into place and climbed into the car. “I’m so pumped!” she giggled, turning around to grin at Jill and Lorylyn. “I’m so glad you guys are blowing off your curfew!”
Jill and Lorylyn returned Hilton’s smile, then looked at each other nervously. They’d both be in huge trouble if there was any kind of slipup in the plan tonight.
***
Landon’s party wasn’t near as crowded as his New Year’s one, but there were still quite a few people. Jill groaned inwardly when one of the first people she saw upon entering the house was Brooke. “Is Brady coming?” she asked Lorylyn.
“Yeah. That’s what he said at school today anyway.”
After Lorylyn had decided to wait a little longer before making a decision about Brady, a week and a half had gon
e by with no Brooke and Brady sightings, and Lorylyn had called him last Saturday night to ask him to come over. She had intended on getting back together with him that night.
But he wasn’t home when she called, so she’d left a message on his machine. He hadn’t called her back until Sunday afternoon, and he’d apologized, saying he’d been out with the guys and had stayed at Landon’s. Lorylyn accepted his apology, but for her the moment had been ruined.
So she’d put off the reunion again, and all this week she and Brady had been walking in the halls together at school and talking on the phone, but she was discouraged and confused because he hadn’t asked to hang out with her outside of school, and she couldn’t tell if he was still interested. Jill and Hillary and Hilton assured her he must be if he was still calling her and meeting her between classes, but Lorylyn said something just felt off and she still wasn’t sure.
Jill hoped tonight would go well. She had a sort of eerie feeling this party would make or break Brady and Lorylyn’s relationship. Stop it, she told herself. You’re just getting carried away with this Friday the thirteenth thing.
***
Sure enough, Lindy was at Landon’s, and at 9:30 she didn’t look like she had any intention of leaving soon. She’d even been drinking! Jill and Lorylyn were both surprised; Lindy was competing in three events tomorrow. But it made them both feel a lot better. And Amy was here too, although she wasn’t drinking. At one point Lindy and Brooke walked by Jill and Lorylyn, and Lindy grinned and said, “Nice, I’m glad to see you girls have your priorities straight.” She winked at them as she walked away, and Jill and Lorylyn laughed.
Brooke looked back with a sassy grin and gave Jill and Hilton the nose signal.
“Why does she do that to you guys?” Lorylyn asked once Brooke was gone. She sounded irritated.
Jill had offered Brooke a small smile and repeated the signal, torn between not wanting to blow Brooke off and not wanting to hurt Lorylyn by sharing an inside joke with Brooke. She hesitated now, unsure of how to explain.
“It’s just ‘cause we drank beer through our noses at one of Landon’s parties a long time ago,” Hilton said easily. “And then Landon caught us and we told him we were snorting crack.” She grinned.