“Oh.” I had really hoped we had won that battle.
“You can cheer up. I’m letting your brother take the pictures.”
I cringed. “Brother? Which brother?”
“It’s under control.”
“Mom!”
“You heard me. It’s under control.”
“Where are you and Dad going?”
“We haven’t decided for sure. I have a few reservations though.”
She started naming off every fancy restaurant in Atlanta, and I reclined my seat and relaxed for the rest of the ride.
“Don’t crush your hair!” she snapped.
With a jerk, I lifted my head from the seat. “I got it,” I said. “Not crushing.”
***
Alone in my room, I started to freak out about the dance. I had nothing to do except put on my dress and shoes and wait for the doorbell to ring. As I struggled to breathe more slowly, I thought about the bad things that could happen if I flat out panicked. I could lose control.
Calm down. I am going to a dance in a high school gym that is covered with hearts cut out of construction paper. A stinky, smelly gym. A place where people dripped sweat all over the floor. My heart rate slowed. I could almost breathe.
As for Matt, he was not my dream date. He wasn’t even my Valentine. He was just a guy who felt like he had to take care of me. At best, he was a friend. My friend. Not a boyfriend. Not a date.
Guy who had to bring me food. Dance in smelly gym sock central.
No big deal. I could handle this non-event. No biggie. I knew better than to expect a decent Valentine’s.
I showered as quickly as I could to wash away the cooties from a day at school. I had to get in and out fast enough to avoid too much humidity near my hair. Then I put on deodorant and slipped on underclothes and my new dress. I slid my feet into my fab shoes and spent a good ten minutes admiring myself in the mirror.
I practiced posing and blowing kisses. What? I hardly ever wore a dress.
I was holding my hand out for an imaginary suitor to kiss when a knock at the window scared me into falling off my shoes. I grabbed the bed to pull myself up from the floor. I smoothed my dress, put my right shoe back on, and went to the window.
Matt, of course.
“What are you doing up here?”
He climbed in, careful to keep his suit intact. “You look gorgeous.”
“I do?” Geez. I was such a dork.
“Yes.”
He had the most beautiful red tie and the jacket emphasized his shoulders. “You don’t look so bad yourself,” I said. “I think you were supposed to come in through the front door.”
His lopsided grin made my heart thump. “I thought you might need a snack.”
I glanced around. “Where? Yes. I do.”
He leaned out the window and pulled in his backpack. “I thought it would be a good idea for both of us before heading to the dance.”
“Nothing like hearts beating to music in a room drenched in red.”
“Speaking of red,” he took a moment to let his eyes roam over me. “You are stunning.”
In this dress, I had the confidence to enjoy his perusal. “You just like the dress.”
He actually chuckled. “I like a lot more than just the dress.”
Heat rose in my cheeks, and I had to look down at the floor.
I could sense him smiling at me again. He opened his backpack and handed me my snack.
He held out his bottle. I risked looking into his eyes.
“To Valentine’s Day,” he said.
I smiled, and then I tapped my bottle against his. We drained our respective snacks in silence.
Matt screwed the cap back on his bottle. Then he reached for my empty bottle. He stowed them in his backpack. “It’s time for me to go down and ring the doorbell.”
“Right. I can’t wait for you to see my dress.”
He actually leered at me before hopping back through the window.
Chapter Five
We did fine with the doorbell, greeting, photo-taking, and saying bye to the parents. Matt helped me into my coat.
In just moments, we were out the door. Matt offered me his arm. I rested my hand on his arm, and we walked down the sidewalk.
My heart soared with excitement. I had lost my grip on the cold reality of this dance. I had let myself pretend we were on a real date. I wanted more than friendship, and I’d actually begun to believe in the possibility. My crush on Matt was evolving into love, and I wasn’t going to escape with my heart intact.
On the drive to school, I caught Matt checking out my legs. The coat and dress had crept up some when I’d climbed in the car. I hadn’t meant to show so much thigh, but I wasn’t exactly upset about it. All the practice with the heels had been totally worth it. Climbing Mt. Everest might have been easier, but still worth it.
I pictured Matt helping me out of the car when we got to the school. He’d sneak another glance at my legs. I grinned. Then I stopped.
How was I going to get out of the car without flashing him my underwear? I had to swivel to the side, step out with one leg, then the other. My dress and coat would ride up even further. I’d shaved my legs, plucked my brows, and gone with full makeup for tonight. All that work, and I was going to flash my undies at him. Being a girl was impossibly hard!
“You okay?” Matt asked and interrupted my thoughts. “You look kind of stressed.”
I hadn’t realized I was grimacing. I willed my features back into a serene façade. “I’m fine.” I could hear the strain in my voice.
“You sound fine,” he said with obvious sarcasm.
Great. Now he thought I was being grumpy. “I’m sorry. I was stressing about something silly. It’s nothing.”
He didn’t answer, and I was afraid he didn’t understand.
“It’s a fashion thing.”
Still nothing.
“I’m not used to wearing a dress.”
“You didn’t have to if it was such a problem.”
“Don’t get insulted. I don’t mean it like that.” Relationships were such a pain.
“I’m not insulted. I know you didn’t want to go to the dance with me.”
“Matt! That’s not true.” I threw my hands up in the air. “Fine. I was stressing because I don’t think I can get back out of the car politely. And by politely I mean that I can’t do it without flashing my panties.” Horror crawled from my stomach up to my throat. Did I really just say that? To Matt?!
Matt’s silence filled the car louder than any noise. Then he started shaking.
I stared at him afraid of what was happening.
His first bellowing laugh made me jump. He laughed harder and harder. He guided the car into an empty parking lot and put it in park. Then he really let loose with the laughing.
Anger and humiliation replaced the horror. “Are you making fun of me?” I demanded.
He held up his hand as he shook with laughter. Finally he started to regain control. “I’m sorry,” he said, gasping for breath. “I didn’t mean to laugh. I’m not making fun of you.” He reached over and took my hand in his. “You surprised me. You always do. I never know what you will say or do.”
“I guess I’m weird, but I don’t ever know how to act around you.”
“Not true.” He shook his hand. “You know exactly how to act around me.”
“I do?”
With a small nod, he lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it. “I always have fun with you.”
I grinned at him like a fool.
He set my hand down on my leg and said, “We need to get to the dance.”
“You just want to watch me get out of the car.”
He smiled. “Maybe.”
***
Once we parked, Matt opened the door, offered his hand, and turned his head away so that I could extract myself from the vehicle without him seeing anything.
“Who knew you could be such a gentleman,” I said.
“I?
??m an idiot,” he said. “Next time, I’m looking.”
“In your dreams,” I teased.
“Yeah,” he said. He slammed the door. Then he took my hand in his and squeezed it as we walked into the school.
“Slow down a little, Matt,” I said. “Heels.”
“Oh, right.” He slowed his pace as he stared down at my shoes. “You have great legs.”
The gym had been transformed by millions of yards of white and red paper. I didn’t mind the occasional whiff of rubber ball and old socks. Matt hung up my coat.
“I promised my mother we’d get a picture,” Matt said. Eyeing the line for the photographer, he said, “I shouldn’t have.”
“A promise is a promise,” I said, counting the couples in line. We would be there forever. “We could just eat them all.”
He nodded solemnly. “It’s an idea. We probably would only have to eat a couple of them. The rest would run in terror.”
“Would we have time to dance before the police got here?”
“Maybe a little while. Of course, we’d also lose the photographer.”
I sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to wait our turn.”
He put his arm around my waist to guide me to the line, and I hoped he would keep it there. He did.
We stood in the line between two couples I had never laid eyes on. I took advantage of the chance to lean into him. He didn’t move away, and his arm tightened around me.
When our turn finally came, I wasn’t ready to lose the contact of his touch.
Luckily, the photographer had us pose with his arms around me. I looked into his eyes as the photographer snapped the picture. I got kind of lost in their blue depths.
“Next,” the photographer called. I snapped back to reality.
“I guess we’re done,” Matt said. “Do you want some punch before we dance?”
“No.”
“We are dancing, aren’t we?”
“Of course. I think.” I’d never danced before. “Do you know how?”
He nodded as we walked to the edge of the dancers. Then he stopped and turned toward me. “I put my hands here.” He set them on my hips. “You put yours around my neck.”
I did.
“Then you move closer to me.”
I nudged closer.
“And we just move together.”
I gave him a doubtful look.
“Which will be easier if you lean into me.”
“Lean?”
He nodded.
I pressed up against him.
“Better?”
“Mmmmm,” I said.
He moved, and we were dancing.
The world melted away. Instead of the foul odors, I only inhaled Matt. He smelled delicious.
“Natalie,” he said. “Are you glad you came with me?”
Nodding against his shoulder, I said, “I am. Thank you for bringing me.”
“I wanted to.”
I lifted my head in surprise. “You did?”
“Yes. I wanted to ask you long before your mother mentioned it.”
“Seriously?”
“I didn’t because I didn’t want you to feel like you had to say you’d come. I didn’t want you to think you owed me anything for… I didn’t want you to think you had to agree or I’d stop bringing you food.”
“I would never think that. I know you wouldn’t let me starve.”
“You didn’t act like you wanted to come with me.”
“I did.”
“You keep calling me your friend.”
“You are my friend.”
“Can I audition for any other role in your life? Like boyfriend?”
Could this be real or…”Is this just because you feel bad about what your sister did to me?”
“No. It’s because I like you. Do you feel the same way, or not? This would have been so much easier by text.”
Joy swept through me. “Will you be my boyfriend?”
He stopped swaying. “I would love to.”
“Are you going to kiss me now?”
He lowered his lips to mine, and finally, finally, kissed me.
I was just starting to get the hang of kissing him back when I heard a throat clearing beside me.
The principal scowled at us. “Romantic holiday or not, we don’t allow public displays of affection on school grounds.”
I wanted to bite him.
“Yes, sir.” Matt had the presence of mind to be polite.
The man nodded and walked away.
“Let’s ask him to babysit Ashley,” I said.
“Then we’d be stuck with him forever.”
“Not if we didn’t save him.”
Matt touched his forehead to mine. “You know you would save him. You can pretend you’re heartless, but I know the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That you are a beautiful, smart, sexy woman who loves her family and cares about people.”
“You haven’t known me long enough to be sure.”
“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have made it this long without hurting somebody.”
“And the other stuff?”
“Other stuff?”
“The beautiful, sexy part?”
“Don’t you have mirrors in your house?” He kissed my neck. “You’re beautiful.” He kissed my ear. “You’re sexy.” Then my lips. “You’re hot.”
We danced for song after song.
A vibrating sensation pulsed through my hip. My head was fuzzy with happiness, but the sensation was out of place.
“My phone,” he said. “I set the alarm so we’d be in time to babysit.”
“We have to leave already?”
“Yeah.” He winked at me. “We’ll be alone at my house for hours.”
“Alone with your sister.”
“No parents. Much kissing. You and me together.”
“Let’s go.”
***
“She’s in bed,” his mother said.
“Pretending to be asleep,” his father added.
“As soon as we leave, she’ll be down here bothering you,” Mrs. Johnson said.
Mr. Johnson helped her into her coat. Then he waited patiently as she put on her gloves. She picked up her purse.
“Got your phone?” she asked.
Mr. Johnson patted his leather jacket. “Got it.”
“We have late dinner reservations,” Mrs. Johnson said. “I know you want to do this with Matt, but if you need to leave for any reason, I left cab money on the desk in the library.”
“I won’t need to leave,” I said.
“Surely not,” Mr. Johnson agreed.
“We left some A-positive cocktails in the kitchen for you.”
My stomach rumbled.
“Ashley already had her blood for the day. Don’t let her sweet talk you. She can have synthetic if she’s hungry,” Mrs. Johnson said. “And your father downloaded some romantic music in case you didn’t get enough dancing at the school.”
“Go, already,” Matt said. “We’ve got this.”
“Don’t beat your sister,” his dad said, one last instruction as they went out the door.
“He meant me, I think. You still can,” Matt said.
“Maybe she won’t come down.”
“Ha!” Matt said.
“Ha!” Ashley repeated as she reached the bottom step.
Yay, I thought to myself.
“What are we going to do, guys?” she asked. “Want to watch cartoons?”
“Not a good idea, Ash. They have adult content this time of night.”
“We could play Monopoly.”
I hadn’t played in a while, but I remembered how long a game could take. “Let’s watch one of your movies,” I suggested.
Matt groaned.
“Trust me,” I whispered.
Ashley was already rushing over to her gigantic collection of movies. “Which one do you want, Natalie?”
“Well,” I said slowly. “We are supposed to be
on the girls’ team, right? So pick something girly.”
“Hey!” Matt said.
“I’ve got it!” Ashley jumped up, clutching a DVD, and grinning at us. “You’re going to love this, Matt.”
“How bad is it?” Matt asked. “What did you pick?”
“You’ll see,” she taunted. “First, you have to sit down on the couch.”
Matt and I walked around to the front of the couch and sat down. He squeezed my hand.
Ashley loaded the disk into the tray. Then she ran over to stand in front of us.
“What?” Matt asked when she just stared at us.
“Move,” she said, motioning with her arms to part us. “I sit in the middle.”
Before we could protest, she wedged herself in. We moved apart, and she slid off our legs and onto the sofa.
Then she hit the remote, and the movie of the night was unveiled.
iCarly: iSaved Your Life.
“Oh, man,” Matt said.
“Nice choice,” I said, and I gave her a fist bump.
“Girl’s rule,” Ashley said.
“Hey, Ash,” Matt said. “If you guys are going to do the girl thing, can I at least sit next to Natalie?”
“No way,” she said.
Darn.
“Five bucks?” Matt asked, holding the bill out in front of her.
“Done,” she said, grabbing it and stuffing it in her pocket. Then she hopped up and plopped back down on the other side of me.
After squashing me in middle, both of them demanded my attention. Ashley chattered and told me to “watch” any time I turned toward her brother. Matt held my hand and traced little circles with his finger until I thought I would die if I couldn’t kiss him.
After about twenty minutes, Ashley scooted toward the end of the sofa and curled up with her head on the pillow. Matt took advantage of the extra space. He put his arm around me, and I leaned into him.
“Now, this is cozy,” he whispered.
I turned to answer, but, instead, I found my lips almost touching his.
Then they were touching, and we were kissing. Yeah, this was cozy.
Ashley cleared her throat.
We ignored her.
“I can hear your gross kissing noises!” she said.
Matt stopped long enough to growl, “Then go upstairs!”
“No!” she squealed.
He kissed me again.
“Gross!” she said. Then she hit the volume on the remote.
The movie blared at a ridiculous level. I didn’t care, and neither did Matt.
For the first time in a long time, I was thinking about something other than blood. I was thinking about Matt, and his lips on mine, and his warm hand on my back.
My temperature had risen about ten degrees and my pulse was beating fast when the movie noise stopped suddenly.