Stay With Them Tonight

The five-minute ride with Kelly was pretty silent, both of us munching on our halves of the bagel.

We pulled up, and she checked in with the manager. He had gotten there shortly before us and we helped open up the theater, which included starting the popcorn and opening the front doors.

I used to wonder who would possibly wake up this early to go see a movie, but found from hanging out with Kelly that old ladies with grandchildren and people who had been up all night came in all the time, and usually bought enough popcorn for three people, even if it was only one old lady and a kid.

Kelly went behind the far left register, and I stalked her to it. I sat at one of the tables near the counter, and we discussed school for about three seconds, and the pop quiz Mr. Schmitz (who everybody called Mr. Shitz) was likely to give us, and then I told her about the dinner.

“Hah! I told you it wouldn’t be that bad!” She gloated after I told her everything that I thought was remotely embarrassing about the dinner, such as when Ryan spilt salt on Cass, who knocked over a water glass into my lap. Of course, I was used to this by now; Kelly always managed to spill something in my lap. I was starting to think she did it on purpose, although she swore she didn’t.

I thought again about how Mrs. Luce had asked me to babysit, and decided to tell Kelly without making it seem odd.

“Meh, I tend to exaggerate. Anyway, I’m babysitting again the second weekend of September.” I shrugged to show it was no big deal.

“WHAT!?” She yelled, and the manager glanced over. “I thought that was a one-time thing!”

“Nope; their parents are going on an anniversary thing. No kids, and they need a babysitter.” I rolled my eyes.

“Wow. I kinda thought it was just some weird joke on the new kid. Mrs. Luce is like that sometimes- really weird sense of humor. But they seriously want you as a babysitter.”

I rolled my eyes and nodded. It was time to move on. “I guess. Oh, in a couple of weeks we’re having a neighborhood barbeque.”

“Ooh, like your dad does all the time? In the front yard like, all day?” My dad always did these types of things, and that was one thing our old neighbors said they would miss when we were moving. It was the only time I ever saw Kelly eat so much, instead of it always being me who eats like a horse.

“Exactly. Dad said we’re having it the week before the Luces leave.”

Tyler walked in, taking the seat next to me at the four-person table.

“Hey,” he said. We greeted him and continued to talk about my dad’s barbeques. He hadn’t been to the last few, having been away in Chicago.

Kelly’s manager joined our little group too, grabbing a small cup from the drink machine.

“Dr. Pepper?” he asked, looking at me.

“Yep!” I eagerly grabbed for the drink when he was done, grinning and taking a huge drink from the straw.

He manned the register next to Kelly, and we all talked randomly. Kelly talked about the barbeque.

We talked whenever there weren’t customers, Kelly and her manager adopting happy business faces for those times, and I had my drink refilled twice.

What was his name, anyway? I had been avoiding saying his name, not wanting to ask, and so far nobody else had said it either. I squinted slightly at his nametag, trying to see the letters from this far away, and Tyler burst out laughing. I glanced at him, saw he was staring at me. I glared at him, daring him to say something.

“What?” Kelly asked, glancing between us like we had suddenly switched heads right in front of her.

I glared some more at Tyler, a corner of my mouth wanting to lift up.

“Nothing.” He coughed, trying to hold back another laugh. “Nothing,” he assured her, hiding his grin and getting up to “go get something from his car.”

I rolled my eyes and noticed it was half past eleven. I had been here three hours, hardly realizing it.

lunch? I texted Cass.

yea, u ready? she replied quickly, like she always did. She was a quick texter.

of course. chinese?

of course, she texted back, mimicking me, the unsaid Chinese is our favorite, duh coming through.

be there in 10, she told me. I stuffed my phone in my pocket and wondered if we should invite Tyler. But this was supposed to be catch-up time with my sister, and I intended to pry some answers out of her. I decided we could all grab lunch some other time.

When I was walking out the door, I changed my mind and invited him and Kelly to dinner, remembering our parents weren’t going to be there. They both agreed, and I went outside as Cass pulled up. I climbed into her Focus and we drove to Lung Fung’s.

“Cass,” I said as soon as we got our appetizers, each of us choosing something from the long lunch special menu. This place served everything quickly, and it was all good, so we had only been here a minute and Cass had her egg roll, while I had my crab ragoons.

“Hm?” she asked, not looking at me.

“Who’s this guy?”

“What guy?” she asked innocently. I glared at her, sitting back and crossing my arms.

“Fine, fine. Ask away, I may or may not answer.”

I hid a grin to myself, happy that I had accomplished something. “Where’d you meet?” I asked quickly, wondering if he was some fast-food worker. Not that I had anything against those people, but Cass has dated her fair share of going-nowhere guys.

“Uh, I met him on the first day of class.”

“Oooh, a college guy. What class?”

She looked down, blushing. “History.” She smiled.

I gaped at her. “You hate history.”

“It’s not as bad anymore. It’s a small class, for being college. The teacher made it seem better, and I get it now.” Did she just blush harder?

I studied her, wondering why she had jumped from some guy to the teacher. A teacher?

She couldn’t- no, not Cass. She doesn’t even really like school. She wouldn’t date a teacher. Would she?

“What?” she looked at me questioningly; I had been running my eyes over her, hoping she might give the answer away through body language. Or something. She didn’t.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “How old is this guy?”

She jerked back slightly. “Twenty-five,” she said defensively.

I leaned back, relieved. A teacher couldn’t be that young. At least the youngest I had seen was my twenty-eight year old gym teacher. Of course, all the girls had giggled over him the whole year. I rolled my eyes thinking about it. Yeah, a twenty-eight year old man would totally go for seventh graders, who barely had boobs. They liked to think so.

I was still taken aback by the age of the guy Cass was not-so-secretly dating. The age difference between our parents was only a year, because they met in high school.

“So why is he still in school? Shouldn’t he have some degree by now?”

“He’s furthering his education!”

“Still, Cass, don’t you think that’s a little old? That’s a six-year difference! That’s the difference between us, doubled! When you were a preteen, he was eighteen! He could drink before you could drive!” I gestured wildly with my hands, exploding.

“I know! I know, Allie!” she dropped her head on her arms, staring towards the kitchen. A depressed look came over her face, and I felt bad. Our food came, but I didn’t know what to say. I started a conversation about something random. She gave short replies, too deep in thought to really answer.

I finally gave up, and we ate in silence.

*****

When we got home, bellies half-full because neither of us was really in the mood to eat, we went our separate ways.

Ryan called to apologize, and I accepted. I mean, the guy was one of my closest friends, a few weeks after I met him.

I heard Cass talking on the phone in the other room, raising her voice sometimes, but I just turned my radio up to cover it, working on homework.

I gave up on chemistry and just stared at the ceiling. Eventually I fell asleep, not knowing how I could possibly do so when I had slept twelve hours earlier, and woke up to someone bouncing on my bed.

“I’m.” Bounce. “Here.” Bounce. “So.” Bounce. “Get.” Bounce. “Up!”

I groaned, looking up to see that Kelly was grinning down at me. Kelly, Cass, Tyler and I ordered pizzas and settled in with Yahtzee showdown. It was just like the original, but you have to go around getting full houses, or straights, or three-of-a-kinds and stealing them from other people.

For some reason, we were all competing to get the full house, so it changed hands every few turns.

“YES!” Kelly jumped up and down, throwing Tyler’s chips back at him. “You’ll need those,” she gloated. He stuck his tongue out at her while I stared at the board, willing the red die to land us on the “wild” spaces. I had gotten it three times already, but each time it got stolen. Cass was arguing with Kelly about the large straight she had won last turn, Kelly telling her that she would for sure get it back.

I went and got everyone drinks after I took my turn, and I didn’t notice Tyler following me in until he grabbed another two cups from the cupboard for us. I smiled at him, until he started talking.

“So. You were upset yesterday because of him, huh?” I opened the fridge, not paying attention to him. Or seeming not to.

“Yeah. Something happened, and, uh.” I looked at him. “Just, don’t tell Kelly about that yet, okay?” He looked confused.

“How many people does it take to change a lightbulb?” Cass called.

“Too many,” I called back.

“Kelly? What does it have to do with Kelly? If this guy did something to hurt you or her-” Tyler started going into big-brother mode, and I hit him lightly on his shoulder to snap him out of it.

“Not like that, exactly.” He stared at me. I closed my eyes, taking a breath. “He, uh, we were in his house an-”

“Guys? Need some help?” Kelly walked in, and I mentally slapped myself. Was I really just about to tell Tyler something I hadn’t even told Kelly yet? I decided on actually slapping myself as soon as I was alone again. Tyler glanced back at me, then to Kelly.

“Nah, we’re almost done here.” Kelly lingered, putting popcorn in the microwave. Like I needed anything else to remind me? Why did we even need popcorn to play a board game!?

I poured the last cup, and we carried them into the living room. Kelly kept looking at me, and I tried to look back at her without looking guilty.

Lying to your best friend, even temporarily, sucks.