Something Good Can Work

“Guess what!” I shout to Cassie. It’s been a week since the awkward bedroom scene and such. We’re sitting in a Starbucks drinking our Passion Tea Lemonades and gossiping.

“What?” She asks, ready for Gossip-At-Starbucks-Round-2. We had just covered how Maria Hanson was pregnant so Cassie was excited to hear whatever story topped that.

“Dylan texted me and asked me to hang out! I’m meeting him at the library in ten minutes!” I gush, smiling despite myself. Finally Dylan took initiative!

“Like, wow, oh, my god!” Cassie deadpanned, the sarcasm dripping off her words. “Maybe, after the library, he’ll take you a museum so you can talk about art and other boring stuff!”

I roll my eyes, “Why are you classifying art as nerdy? It’s a popular art form as well as – “

“Stop right there,” she interjects. “I don’t want to hear it. You two can do your thing. If anything juicy happens then tell me!”

I take a last sip of my drink, “You are such a brat, you know that right? Before you were lamenting that he should want to hang out with me always – now he finally does and you don’t care?”

“I do care… but I thought that he would ask you out… like, on a real date. Dinner, flowers, kissing you on your porch as he says goodbye. Something classy, but Dylan is too nerdy to get the hint, obviously. He should watch that one Will Smith movie…”

“Hitch!” I amend, laughing at the thought. It was a romantic comedy in which Will Smith teaches men to get women. Despite Cassie’s jab at Dylan, maybe seeing just a scene or two would do him good… “Anyway. I will leave you by your lonesome and enjoy my nerdy date. At least I appreciate his efforts.”

“Oh,” Cass starts, “I won’t be alone. If you stay five more minutes, you can meet Mike! We’re meeting briefly before he is busy with, you know… his band.”

I chuckle, “You know, Cass… if you’re not careful, I’d think you were dating him simply because he’s in a band.”

Cassie’s eyes widen, “No! It’s just a perk! I’m happy for him, it’s not like that at all –“

“Okay, okay!” I interrupt her defensive response. “I get it… it was just a joke.”

“Oh, yeah. I totally knew that,” She waves it off with a toss of her hand.

I wink at her, toss my cup into the garbage and head off into the San Diego air.

- - -

Fifteen minutes later and I arrive at the library. Dylan is waiting on the front steps for me, and grins so large I’m afraid his cheeks will burst.

“Hey Dylan,” I greet and give him an awkward one-armed hug. He squeezes my waist to his awkwardly as I lead him into the library.

We find our seats when I realize that I had a hankering for Catcher in the Rye. “I’ll be right back,” I say and walk into the fiction section.

There are gaps in the bookshelf so I can see the other side. As I’m looking for my desired book, two big brown eyes catch mine. The man has nice eyes and a straight nose. I couldn’t see his mouth but metal did catch the light from below his nose – a piercing. I walk to my left, dropping my eyes awkwardly.

“Where are you going?” Surprisingly, the voice was speaking to me. The voice was pretty husky and kind of monotone. There wasn’t much expression. “I want to look at your pretty green eyes.”

I stop and put my hands on my hip. “Wow, creep much?”

The eyes turned up at the sides, allowing me to believe that the man was smiling. “Not even a ‘thank you’ for the compliment?”

I roll my eyes, and try not to smile. What a sleaze. But I guess I admired him for his boldness, “Well thank you, Mr. Stranger for creepily complimenting my eyes. Is there anything else you need?”

He laughed, and it was the cutest chuckle ever. It was a low, drawn out ‘ha…ha…ha.’ Suddenly, his brown eyes were gone. I began to browse the shelves again when I saw the shadow loom from behind me. I turn partially and saw the same man. He had full lips, with a lip piercing below his nose and a ring on his lower lip. He had scruff, a five o’clock shadow outlining his mouth.

“Well, maybe a name?” He asks and I shrug. I barely remember Dylan sitting a few feet away, waiting for me to return.

“Iris,” I tell him and see his mouth twist into a smile.

“What a lovely name for a lovely lady,” the man extends his hand. I smile despite myself and meet his handshake halfway there.

“So what’s yours?” I demand. He shrugs and looks away.

“Iris?” His nerdy voice penetrates the moment. It’s Dylan and he’s holding Catcher in the Rye in his one hand. “I’ve got the book right here, what are you doing?”

I blush crimson despite myself. “Oh, this is um…”

“Craig, hi I’m Craig,” The man, now known as Craig states and extends his hand to Dylan as well. Dylan hesitantly shakes Craig’s hand before turning to me.

“Ready to go? I thought we could get some ice cream or something.”

“Yeah, right… sorry. We were just catching up. We went to high-school together,” I lie easily and I see Craig nodding next to me.

“Oh,” Dylan nods, understanding. Taking it all in, “Right. Okay. Well, it was nice meeting you Craig.”

“Bye,” I whisper as I start to walk away.

Suddenly, I feel like a hand on my bottom, squeeze, and Craig whisper-yell, “Nice butt!”

I whirl around to give him a piece of my mind, but he’s laughing and skipping away before any words can get out.

- - -

“And then he totally squeezed my... bottom! That gross, nasty, pervert! I didn’t even get to say anything! Oh, I would slapped him if Dylan wasn’t there!” I’m shouting to Cassie after Dylan drops me off at her place for the night. We were having another girl’s night.

The rest of the date I was simply fuming over that jerk from the library! Cassie had been hearing the whole story from how angry I was. She was looking bored but I kept going. “And then he had the gall to not tell me his name! Ew! I feel dirty just thinking about him. And his weird little chuckle!”

Cassie sighs audibly so I look incredulously at her. “Calm down Iris, so he squeezed your butt? What butt, anyway?” She jokes but I stare at her. She laughs. “Seriously though. This boy talks to you for five minutes. Weren’t you at a date with Dylan? But all I’m hearing is Craig, Craig, Craig.”

“What are you saying?” I ask, suddenly afraid of her point.

“So,” She starts, “Maybe you’re attracted to this guy. You’ve been talking non-stop about him. A complete stranger interests you more than Dylan.”

I stare at her. “Didn’t you hear anything that he did to me?”

“Yes, I did! He obviously was attracted to you. Maybe you should go to library more…”

I give a huff, frustrated. “You are no help, Cassandra Marie.”

She shrugs and smiles. “Anyway, enough of this Craig character. I want you to meet my boyfriend tomorrow night at this party he’s having! I’ve been telling him all about you and he wants to meet you so bad!”

I blink; one of Cassie’s men wants to meet me? Usually they think I’m weird and try to stay away from me as much as possible. So this was definitely new.

I smile at her and say, “Okay. I cannot wait to meet this boy! He sounds perfect for you.”

Cassie smiles knowingly and nods. “He’s going to get along with you so well, I know it!”

Neither of us knew just how well we’d get along, in all honesty…