Stay With Them Tonight

I walked up Kelly’s lawn, planning to walk right in. Her mom was probably at the barbeque, along with her dad who had come from across town. I was staring down as I walked up the driveway, but a sound caught my attention. I looked up to see Tyler sitting on the edge of the porch stairs. I didn’t know if he was there to keep me out of let me in. Maybe he didn’t know either, because he just stood up and faced me.

“Allie, why didn’t you tell her?” he asked quietly, without showing that he was taking a side. I stopped in front of him.

“She’s my best friend, Tyler. It’s not like I want to intentionally hurt her; do you seriously believe I would?” I said back. He didn’t think so too, right? Did he believe in me at all? Did Kelly?

Finally, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and I hugged his chest. He wasn’t as big as I remembered him. Before, I hadn’t quite grown all the way, and was a few inches shorter than now. He still towered over me, and I still felt tiny next to him.

“How bad is it?” I asked softly.

“Bad.” I cringed.

“I’m so tired of this, Tyler! Can’t she just trust me? Doesn’t she want to know what really happened? Just let me go in and talk to her.” I pulled away from him, but he kept his arm firmly around my shoulders to keep me from going inside.

He sighed again. “I don’t know whether to be a brother or a friend, Allie. If I wanted to be a brother, I would keep you out. If I wanted to be a friend, I would let you go in and patch things up. She’s really upset.”

It made me nervous to think of Kelly being upset, so I focused instead on what he had first said.

“Be both,” I told him. “By letting me go in, you’ll help a sister and a friend.” I pleaded with him. He took his arm off reluctantly and I went straight up the stairs.

“Thanks,” I said, turning back to him.

“Don’t make me regret it, Al.” I turned back in time to see the blinds move in the living room. I opened the door quickly.

“Come back, Kelly!” I yelled, rushing through the entryway. I heard her go upstairs and ran after her.

“Kelly, let me talk to you!” I said. I saw the bathroom door slam as I reached the top.

“Go away, Allie! What were you thinking, keeping that from me!?” she yelled through the door. I came closer, leaned against the door as she spoke.

“You and he were just in the pool, like nothing happened! I saw you! If you were really so torn up about kissing him behind my back, you weren’t showing it!” I tried opening the door. Locked.

“That’s because he’s still my friend, Kelly. He didn’t mean it. Was I supposed to hate him forever?” I shouted back through the door, trying not to pound on it like I was five. The door opened, and I almost fell forward.

“No!” she said, one hand ready to slam the door closed again. “You were supposed to tell me, like any other friend would!” I put my hand on the door to keep it from slamming shut.

“I was going to tell you today! Jeez, Kell! It’s not like I wanted to keep it from you!” Some of the tension went out of her shoulders and she looked unsure. One thing about Kelly, she couldn’t stay mad at me for long. We fed off of each other in a co-dependent relationship, and that was just the way I liked it. It was what best friends were for. Sure, we could stand separately, but we always got each other through things.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I was really going to tell you today. And the issue’s been resolved; Ryan and I won’t do anything like that ever again.” I pulled her into a hug.

“I think you should still give him a try. He’s a great guy,” I told her. She hugged me back, her arms squeezing the life out of me, and it became a war of who could hug the hardest.

“I guess things are back to normal?” Tyler asked from behind us.

“Group hug!” Kelly yelled, and we each threw an arm around Tyler’s waist. He just laughed, messing up our hair as we kept him attached to us.

*****

We had all decided to go back to the party together, and were out back when my dad came over and threw his arm around my shoulders. I was beginning to feel as if guys just did that to feel taller around me. Then and when Tyler had done it, and again when my dad did it, I felt much less than my perfectly ordinary 5’5”.

“Something happen, sweetheart?” I saw that Tyler and Kelly turned away and began talking to give us some privacy. The people here must have mentioned something, because let me say this is not the way my dad normally starts a conversation.

“Nothing much, it’s better now.” I grinned up at him as he shrugged. “Where’s mom?” I asked.

“Baking pies.” He said. Kelly’s head whipped towards us and my dad laughed.

“They’ll be done in a half hour,” he told her. She did a happy dance, laughing and jumping. I hadn’t seen Jason, but Ryan was in the pool playing with some neighborhood kids, all of them attacking him and Danny directing it all. He faked defeat, going under and kicking off the wall.

Kelly kept glancing at him, and I noticed that earlier he had talked to her. Hmmm. I wouldn’t ask so soon after all of our drama, but I hoped she would tell me later. Things seemed back to how they should be; Kelly liking Ryan, Ryan and I being friends, and me hating Jason. Yay, normality.

*****

Katie stopped by later with Greg (just in time for pie), and we all ignored the fact that Rachel should have been there, too.

Rachel was still with her old friends, but I could see her cracking. In class, I could feel her sometimes staring at me or Greg, from the other side of the classroom- where the blond girl from her “friends” sat and chatted with her all period. I would pass her in the halls and she would seem to want to speak to me, but never quite got it out.

Greg and I felt the worst about the whole situation; everyone else in our mish-mash group never really believed she could change from the popular girl, but had accepted her. We were the only ones surprised when she ditched us. Kelly always scoffed when she was mentioned, the most offended about Rachel. Kelly had begun to trust her, and hated that she was wrong. I guessed that if Rachel did come back, Kelly would have the hardest time accepting it.

When all of the neighbors started to leave, I convinced my parents to allow everyone to stay for a while, and Katie and Kelly would sleep over (no matter how cool my parents were, they weren’t about to allow any guys to spend the night). Ryan eventually convinced me to let Jason come over, and went to get him while everyone else changed. What could I say to him?

“Yeah, so earlier before everything started Jason cornered me in the bathroom and almost kissed me, like he must do with every girl he sees.” Ryan would probably do one of two things; beat Jason’s face in- as pleasing as the thought was, I still didn’t hate him that much- or just think I was overreacting, which might be true. I mean it’s not like he had kissed me, just was about to. And it was normal for him, the player of the century.

So I did as I always would- avoided the issue all together and covered up the weirdness I felt about it with the suggestion of a game.

“Let’s play Marco-Polo!” I yelled out after we helped clean up the backyard (it’s a good thing the neighbors were courteous and didn’t leave a bunch of junk around).

“Yeah!” Kelly yelled, jumping into the pool with me. The pool light was off so we couldn’t cheat, but above-water there was some light from the porch. You could just barely see people if you went underwater.

After Kelly joined in, it took very little convincing to get everyone else to. Even Jason agreed to play (I have to admit I was surprised- he doesn’t seem like the type of guy to enjoy Marco-Polo).

I have to admit, I was drooling in my mind while staring at all of the athletic male torsos running around. Greg was the most prominently-muscular of the four, Ryan being next and closely followed by Jason (who I avoided looking at) and Tyler.

I was in guy-heaven. The seven of us- me, Kelly, Katie, Tyler, Greg, Ryan and Jason- constantly bumped into each other in the pool.

“Who’s it!?” I asked, looking around. Tyler and Greg were both swimming underwater, and I couldn’t remember who Polo was. Or is it Marco? The main person yelled “Marco,” like they were looking for them, so it made sense that the “it” person was “Polo.” Or at least that’s what I’d always thought.

I screamed a little in surprise when I felt someone grab my leg, and Greg came up next to me, opening his eyes.

“You’re it,” he grinned. I scrunched my nose up at him, splashing him before I went under to count. I felt him swim away quickly, and the water became still around me.

“Marco!” I yelled when I came back up.

“Polo!” a whole bunch of voices called back. Some of them had ridiculously pitched voices, sounding like Mickey Mouse, and others said it quietly so that their “Polo” was lost among the others. I couldn’t tell who was underwater, but somebody obviously was- there were only about four voices.

“Fish out of water!” I figured it was worth checking.

“Nope,” people called out, still in their weird voices. I lunged at the closest voice, which I could only tell was female, but whoever it was dived quickly and swam away. Whenever I’m “it,” I have this tendency to full-on reach for a person, both arms thrust out and ready to attack. People (Kelly) said it was weird, but I thought it was perfectly logical.

“Marco!”

“Polo!” voices said back. I held still for a second before lunging straight across the pool, thinking someone would probably hide there.

I reached out with both hands-

-and crashed into the wall. Luckily, I just ran into it with my hands, instead of, say, my face. Somebody accidentally chuckled, just a foot or two away, and I tackled them. Turns out, it was Jason.

“You’re it!” I yelled quickly, taking my hands quickly from his shoulders, where they had landed and sank under, swimming away to the darker part of the pool before anyone could see my blush. It had to be him, of course. I mumbled angrily to myself underwater, completely incoherent, even to myself.

It didn’t mean anything, just another stupid boy trying to get in your pants, I said to myself. Stupid Jason.