Stay With Them Tonight

I put on a green dress, having already slipped on my bathing suit and shorts under it. Today we were having the barbeque, and uncovering the swimming pool from the back yard. The one-month anniversary of moving to the new house was tonight, so everybody thought it was a good day for a pool party.

Everybody from the whole block was invited, and my parents had been cooking all morning. A few of the neighbors had come early, helping out, but the Luces hadn’t come yet, because they were visiting family on the other side of town. Apparently, it was their great-grandmother’s billionth birthday, and it had been scheduled a while ago. They were coming soon, though.

Everything smelled good, and I was just sad that Cass wasn’t here anymore. There had been much hugging when she left, a few tears, and a few disappointed feelings that I had never found anything more out about the guy- I still didn’t know his name.

As for Ryan and Kelly, NO progress had been made. None. Zilch. Nada. I mean, really, after two weeks? And Ryan hadn’t even spent time alone with Kelly. I had originally just hinted to Ryan, and then called him every day telling him to ask her out, and eventually stopped talking to him.

All of this non-action made me want to just tell Kelly. I promised myself I would, before tonight. I was nervous of course, but honestly I had been waiting for her to find out for two weeks, and my nerves were shot enough that I just wanted to get it out there.

“Allen, people are arriving,” my dad called up to me. I slipped on some shoes, grateful the rain had recently been going away- although one time we visited my aunt’s house with less drainage in the streets, and the water had come up to my knees in the middle of the street- and ran down the stairs.

The sky was nice and blue, with pretty clouds protecting us from some of the sun, and in the beginning of September it was getting colder already, with a very noticeable drop in temperature- this pool party hadn’t come a day too soon, because within a few weeks it would be too cold to swim. I wished we were back in June, so we could start all over with the sun, rain, and getting colder again.

I looked around for the people who hadn’t been here before I changed, and noticed one person in particular: the redhead girl who was talking to Jason, weeks ago.

She looked at me, and our gazes locked. But she had never seen me, had she? She looked at me like she knew who I was, which was funny, seeing as I didn’t know who she was. So who was she? From this far away, I couldn’t tell what look she was giving me, aside from curious.

Since I was supposed to be greeting the new arrivals anyway, I walked over to her and the people she was standing with. It looked to be her parents, a thin man with graying hair and a redheaded woman with laugh lines. Huh. So her hair was natural.

“Hi, I’m Allie Anderson, we moved in a little while ago.” I smiled widely, beaming in particular at the girl. I wondered where they lived. The girl, up close, was about my age, probably slightly older, with minimal, but striking, makeup.

She barely smiled back, and I got a bad feeling from her, and my stomach tightened in apprehension.

“Hi, Allie, you seem to be around Tracey’s age.” The woman with laugh lines smiled at me, laughing even as she talked, and introduced them all, talking about them. I only paid attention to when she was talking about the girl- Tracey.

Hey, I had heard that name before . . .

“Trace, why don’t you talk to Allie while we go greet her parents?” the man said as my eyes widened slightly at the name “Trace.”

“Dude, something happen? Trace?” Ryan asked as Jason completely ignored him and climbed the stairs.

Ryan shrugged, his former jovial mood returned, and sat back down next to me.

Ryan had talked about her that first night I was over babysitting, when Jason flew off the handle. At least, he had said her name. And Jason had been arguing with her in his driveway . . . I think I was staring at her, because she looked at me like I might be a disease. Her parents, of course, noticed none of this, going through the side gate to get to the back yard, where my dad had started the burgers and hot dogs.

“What are you looking at?” Tracey sneered. She paused when I didn’t answer, still looking at her. “Oh, you’ve heard of me, huh?” she smirked, and I had the thought that she and Jason were made for each other.

“They must have talked about me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “So I guess you know, but I’ll warn you anyway.” She stepped closer to me, looking me in the eye. We were about the same height, her being just slightly taller than me.

“Stay. Away. From Jason.” She enunciated each syllable threateningly, but I just rolled my eyes. What was it with girls these days emulating people from Mean Girls and TV?

“Like I would want him- I don’t even like him that much. Either way, I suppose you’re his keeper? I think Jason is big enough to fight his own battles.” I resisted the urge to pat her head like a child.

Honestly? I hate confrontation. Something about this girl “Trace” just inherently pissed me off. I don’t know if it was her automatically assuming I wanted Jason (why would I want a guy who was probably sleeping with fifty girls at a time?), or her wearing next to nothing (a barely-there denim skirt and a tube-top with flip-flops over a tiny string bikini), or the fact that she was one of those girls perfect for man-whores (seeming to be always, erm, ready), but she almost made me turn into a different person- one who was angry and confrontational.

Also, she was a ginger, one of those with creamy white skin and only a few “cute” freckles. The only ginger I had seen and liked was Annie the Orphan. No offense to gingers, but really, they don’t have many good representatives.

The whole time I was going on in my mind about this irritating ginger, she was talking. I tuned in to find her telling me that Jason was hers, and would always come back to her, and tuned back out.

“I get it, Ginger, he’s yours. You can have him; you can feed him to sharks for all I care.” She was about to chew my head off or something, but another voice cut in.

“I’m touched, Allie. I didn’t know you cared so much for me.” Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Man, I am a nerd. I almost laughed at myself, until I looked at Tra- Ginger and all thought of laughter died. Jason came from behind me to stand next to Ginger and I, observing us.

“This girl is a bitch,” Ginger said bluntly, shifting closer to Jason and looking at me like I was cutting up a precious Gucci bag. Jason raised his eyebrow, and Ginger instantly back-tracked.

“I mean, Jasey, I just don’t like her because she’s so mean. You don’t like her either, right?” She asked, putting an arm around his waist. I felt like gagging dramatically and imagined us all as African zoo animals.

“She’s my neighbor, Trace. I’m basically required to like her.” She pouted, something that would be childish on a five year old. I rolled my eyes again.

“Don’t forget, Jasey, I’m your babysitter too.” He narrowed his eyes at that stupid nickname and I smirked, turning smartly on my heel. I practically skipped away as I heard Ginger angrily screech “What the hell was she talking about, Jason!?”

The next time I glanced back, Jason was jogging towards me, leaving a stunned Ginger in his wake. I dashed inside and into the bathroom, trying to avoid him, but he slid in just before I slammed the door closed. I glared at him, and he raised an eyebrow.

“That wasn’t very nice, you know.” He smirked, leaning in close. I narrowed my eyes further, taking a step back and crossing my arms self-consciously.

“I don’t care,” I stated childishly. He took a half-step closer to me.

“You’re not very nice, Allie.” He put his hands on the counter behind me, trying to intimidate me. I hit his chest, which was frighteningly close.

Did my breathing just get faster? I asked myself.

“Shut up Jason, can’t you see I just walked into the bathroom?”

“I don’t mind.” I hit him on the chest again, harder.

“I only did it so I could be free from you!” He smirked, but it was slightly distracted and less Jason-like than usual. I studied him, wondering what was up. He took another step closer, and our chests were touching. I leaned back, putting my palms on the counter behind me.

“Jasey,” I angrily shoved Ginger’s earlier nickname at him, hoping to anger him. “Back up. Now.” All mocking tones had left from my voice.

“Allie,” he repeated in the same tone I had used, but didn’t say anything else.

Is he staring at my lips? I heard my panicked voice ask in my head. I felt my face burn as I stared at him. His eyes darted up to mine before looking back at my mouth, and I could practically feel them already, he was so close.

Before my heart could decide I was too stressful and leave my chest, the door opened.

“Busy!” Jason said quickly. The door shut immediately, but the interruption gave me back my senses, and I knew he had probably said the same thing many times before, to many other people interrupting many different events.

He looked back at me, his face showing only irritation, not even surprise or embarrassment, and I shoved him away. I was disgusted that I hadn’t even tried to kick him or anything, just stood there while he had gotten closer.

And closer.

I turned to look at him and started at my face in the mirror. My eyes were wide, my face was burning red, and I felt my heart pounding. My anger intensified, multiplied, and I stormed out of the bathroom without a word.