Absorbed

Chapter Ten

Y ou never miss the Juvenile Delinquents,” Gabe scolded Stacey through the phone. “The Valley College Ska Fest is their biggest show yet. We’ve looked forward to this for over a month.”

“I haven’t had a day out of the sun all week,” Stacey whined. “It’s going to be like a million degrees in that quad.”

“Seriously? You sound like an old lady. Who cares if it’s hot? SkipTooth is headlining. It’s gonna be awesome.”

Stacey didn’t want Gabe to know the real reason she was bailing: Jessie. Chad and Desiree were going to the beach, and Chad invited Jessie to surf with him. Desiree asked if Stacey wanted to go to keep her company. It was basically a double date, one that could lead to something major with Jessie!

“It starts at two?” Stacey asked reluctantly. Desiree said they were leaving for the beach at eleven, and she’d already picked out her bikini.

“Yeah. I’ll even drive. Come on. We haven’t hung out all summer.”

“Who else is going? Jenny? Kyle? Dan?”

“Not with me. I haven’t talked to Jenny since school got out. I don’t know if those guys will be there or not. I was looking forward to hanging out with you.”

Stacey’s chest swelled. Gabe really wanted to be alone with her! Maybe this meant he wouldn’t treat her like a kid-sister-best-friend like at the No Doubt show in May. Was Gabe finally realizing they should be more than friends? If there was even the slightest chance this could spark a real relationship, she couldn’t resist.

In his best sing-song voice, Gabe said, “We can get Slurpees on the way…”

“Okaaayyy…” Stacey said, grinning. “If there’ll be Slurpees, I guess I’ll go…”

Stacey hung up and called Desiree to cancel, then put on her Juvenile Delinquents tape and picked out her outfit—a short, red plaid skirt, a white baby-Tee and white knee socks with black, steel-toe Doc Martins. Maybe if she dressed sexy for her date with Gabe, she could finally win him over.

Standing at the full-length mirror on the back of her door, she put on heavy eyeliner, thick mascara, and red lipstick. She swooped her bangs and hair into a perfect pompadour ponytail, and tied a red bandana as a headband. At the No Doubt show in May, she wore jeans, Chucks, and a T-shirt. Boring! She envied the strutting Rude Girls with their short skirts, fishnet stockings, and pin-up-style make-up and hair. Today, she wanted Gabe to think she was sexy, like those girls. She looked nothing like herself, not her usual self, anyway. But looking like Stacey Chapman hadn’t worked with Gabe so far. Go big or go home. This time Gabe would see her as Gwen Stefani skipping toward him, and if that didn’t get his attention, she didn’t know what would.

Gabe watched her catwalk-stroll out to his car. He affected his voice. “Do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do.”

“Shut up! Stop trying to be Rod Serling! This is not The Twilight Zone and you will never be Rod Serling!” Stacey laughed.

“Says you, Gwen Stefani!” he said as Stacey opened his passenger car door. “Seriously, what’s up? You went all out.”

“It’s a ska show, right? So, I’m dressed for success.” She pulled the short skirt under her bare thighs, hopeful the dark vinyl wouldn’t burn her when she sat. It was still pretty hot, so she slid down to avoid the skin on vinyl contact, then curled her exposed lower back away from the seat.

“You are a total dork. You know that, right?” Gabe asked.

“Um, hmmm…” Despite her awkward position, Stacey batted her eyelashes up at him as she buckled the seatbelt. “Now, I’m ready for that Slurpee whenever you are.”

Gabe laughed and shook his head. “You never cease to amaze me, Chapman.”

They walked into the Valley College quad right before the Juvenile Delinquents took the stage. Close to two hundred people were standing around waiting for the show to start. Stacey’s makeup was melting. It was over a hundred degrees in the sun and there was no shade anywhere near the stage. Sweat pooled under her arms and between her toes in the hot leather boots. She was afraid the hairspray wouldn’t hold against the sweat collecting on top of her head. Attempting to preserve the pin-up girl look she’d worked so hard to create, she wandered over to a low wall in the shade, away from the crowd, and sat down. She was not about to let her effort to look cute go to waste in the middle of the mosh pit.

Gabe hesitated ten feet from her, furrowing his eyebrows. “What are you doing?”

“Let’s watch from here,” she said, grinning at him.

“But we always go up by the stage.” He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb.

“I know, but we don’t have to, do we? See how nice the shade is?” Imitating Vana White, Stacey splayed her fingers and motioned for him to sit beside her.

“But…Stace…” Gabe looked behind him toward the stage a football field’s distance away, then back, torn.

Stacey patted the wall, a sly smile across her bright red lips.

Gabe shook his head. “I’m not sure what’s up with you, but I’m here to have fun.” He turned and walked toward the stage.

He didn’t look back and she didn’t follow him.

He slid quickly into the crowd. The music started. By the second song, a circle pit formed, and Stacey scrambled to stand on the wall and search for Gabe. He had joined a bunch of guys skanking. Guys were pulling off their shirts and swinging them around. Gabe was a head taller than the other dancers and his shoulders were heaving as he elbowed, bounced, and shoved his way around the pit as trumpets blared.

He’d done the same thing in May, heading to the front to dance. Although, between every song, he’d made his way back to her side. They’d sing along together to the first few bars of the next song, then he’d run into the pit again. Now she felt miserably alone and wondered where she’d gone wrong.

Several songs in, the lead singer, Martin, announced over the loudspeakers, “We want to thank our Mesa Valley friends who are here today!” The crowd cheered and Gabe pumped his fist in the air. “You guys have supported us since the beginning, coming to our shows and buying our tapes. It’s all happening now because of you.” A bunch of other hands flew in the air, clapping and making devil horns. Stacey moved toward the edge of the crowd, wanting to find a way to get by Gabe’s side.

The audience was jam-packed. No one would let her in. Martin shouted “Skank till you stank, Delinquents!” into the microphone and the crowd went wild. The band launched into their Mesa Valley tribute song and the whole crowd danced along, kicking and swinging their arms.

When the Juvenile Delinquents set ended, Stacey stood back beside the wall, hoping Gabe would at least make eye contact before the next band began. The crowd broke apart. She spotted Gabe, bare chested and red-faced, carrying his T-shirt. She waved at him.

He trotted over, wiping his face with the T-shirt. “Did you hear that tribute? Awesome, right?”

Stacey nodded, afraid to reveal her disappointment about being too far from the stage to really enjoy it.

“You having fun?” he panted.

“Yeah,” she lied. “But you must be dying out there.” Maybe if he was too hot he would stay with her in the shade?

“It’s not so bad,” Gabe grinned and shrugged. “It’s worth it!” He looked over her shoulder, smiling. Stacey followed his attention to a group of girls behind her, watching Gabe. One girl waved and Gabe quickly nodded hello. His chest expanded as he caught his breath, muscles flexed and skin splotchy from colliding with other bodies.

“Do you know those girls?” Stacey asked, wishing he was paying more attention to her.

“Not really. They said they’re friends with Martin, Josh, and the other guys from the Delinquents, too. I’ll be right back.”

He tucked his shirt into his back pocket and ran over to talk to them. Stacey slumped back down onto the wall, her elbows on her knees and her chin propped on her right hand. Is he getting their numbers?

A few minutes later, Gabe walked toward a concession stand, then returned to Stacey with two waters. He handed her one.

“Thanks,” she said.

Gabe nodded and gulped down his entire bottle. “Next band’s about to start.”

Stacey bit her lip. She was afraid he was about to ditch her again. “Looked like you were having fun out there.”

“Yeah…I was,” he said, tilting his head down to look in her eyes. “But it’d be way more fun if you were out there, too.”

Her heart skipped. “It’s pretty lonely over here.”

He stuck his bottom lip out. “Oh, poor baby. You’re lonely…pouting that it’s hot…in summer!” Gabe put his arm around her neck and pulled her against his torso. Her stomach fluttered.

“Ew! You’re so sweaty!” Stacey squealed, but didn’t pull away.

Gabe laughed as he stepped back and put his shirt back on. “If you’re done acting insane,” he said, “maybe you could suck it up for the next set? We could go over by those speakers.” He pointed to the right of the stage. “It’ll be loud, but at least they make it kind of shady.”

She licked her bottom lip. “Okay. Yeah. That’d be good.”

He still wants me with him!

She took a few sips of water and offered the rest to Gabe. He downed the water in one gulp, then took her by the hand and led her to the front of the crowd.

The second band started and Stacey could feel the brass blast and beat of the drums in every bone of her body. She was sure her ears would be ringing for a week, but didn’t care. Gabe’s smile was infectious. They sang along and bounced to the rhythm, steam rising from the mass of bodies crowded in the cement quad. Her clothes were drenched with sweat, but Gabe was right: it was worth it.

Gabe was drawn back to the pit time and again, and he’d look over, waving for Stacey to join him. She’d shake her head, laughing, then Gabe would rejoin her to sing along and dance for a minute before he’d run off. It felt to Stacey like a game of hide and seek that neither of them was winning, yet they both were still coming out ahead. Every time he ran back to the mosh pit, she tried to make eye contact with anyone in her vicinity, hoping to catch an admiring glance from someone who assumed they were a couple. But the crowd was too caught up in the music to pay her any notice.

When the show ended at five, Stacey’s cheeks hurt from smiling, and there was a constant buzzing in her ears. She was exhausted, but happy.

Gabe wiped the sweat from his head with his shirt, then pulled it back on as they headed toward the parking lot. “Glad you came?”

Stacey nodded, her hot feet heavy with every step across the asphalt. “Did you have fun?” She did her best to ignore the blisters on her toes rubbing against the sweaty socks inside her boots.

“Sure,” he said. Then he turned toward her, and reached his thumb toward her left eye. “You’ve…got something…”

Stacey rubbed the area beneath her eyes with the backs of her pointer fingers. Both came away smudged with black.

Gabe cringed. “I think that made it worse.”

Stacey wiped in the opposite direction with the backs of both thumbs, and again both hands were smeared with makeup. “Better?”

Gabe curled his lips inside his mouth, stifling his laughter, and shook his head.

She leaned down and looked into a parked car’s side mirror. Both eyes had dark stains of black makeup beneath, and swiped toward her temples. The red on her lips was faded, smeared onto her chin and nose, and with dried red flakes poking up from the cracks in her chapped lips. “Geez! I look awful!” Stacey pulled the bandana from her head, and wiped as much of the makeup away as she could. “How long have I looked this bad?”

“Awhile,” Gabe laughed.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Stacey elbowed him in the ribs and they continued toward his car. “I can’t believe you’d even be seen with me like this!” As they walked she’d catch her reflection in the windows of cars, and pause, trying to fix what she could before hustling to catch up with him again.

“I still don’t get why you wore all that makeup and got so dressed up. You knew it was going to be crazy hot.”

“I wanted to look cute.” Stacey loosened the ponytail and ran the tips of her fingers over her hair to smooth it down, creating sweaty bumps and creases.

“Why?” There was an irritated tone to Gabe’s one word question that immediately humiliated her. She’d misread everything.

She stopped walking and looked down at her boots, embarrassed. Her feet were steaming, and her white knee socks, grimy from the dust and sweat, had slid down. She felt as disgusting as they looked.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean…,” Gabe said, arriving at his car, looking back at her. “It just… surprised me.” He unlocked the passenger door and opened it. When she didn’t walk over, he went around to the driver’s side and climbed in, turning on the AC.

Stacey dragged herself to the car and slumped into the seat. The vinyl burned her legs, but she kept quiet about it. She closed the door and pulled down the passenger mirror. She looked like a clown. She scrubbed vigorously with the bandana. After air blowing from the vents turned from hot to cool, she adjusted them toward her face and took deep breaths. Lifting her arms to fix her hair, she smelled a sour, musky stink, then saw damp, yellow pit stains on her tee and dropped her arms to her sides, horrified. She glanced at Gabe. A smirk crossed his face. This couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Gabe put on his 1995 Warped Tour cd and pulled his car into the line of cars filing out of the lot.

After a few minutes, she asked, “So, when’s the Warped Tour starting?” She knew the answer but hoped a shift in their conversation might turn the evening around.

“In about a week. I may try to go to Carson. It isn’t too far.”

“It’d be fun to take a road trip. See it someplace cool, like San Diego or San Francisco. Sleep in the car or something.”

“Yeah.” Gabe rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

“Why not?”

“You can’t be serious. Driving hundreds of miles and staying overnight? Just the two of us?” He pulled his chin and head back, while staying focused on driving. “You really think our parents would be cool with that?"

“In a year we'll be away at college,” she reminded him. “At some point they can't control us or who we choose to spend the night with.”

Gabe wrinkled his forehead. He squinted at the road, exhaled loudly, but didn’t say anything.

“Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to go with me in particular?” she whispered.

“Why would you ask me that? You’re my best friend. I usually love going to shows with you.”

“Usually?”

“Well…today…you were…everything was…different.”

She crossed her arms, turned to look out the window, and chewed the inside of her lip. With Jessie, I might have had a chance.

The car was quiet until Gabe pulled up in front of her house.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door without making eye contact. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Are you okay?”

Stacey shrugged, looking at the asphalt outside the open door.

“Are you mad at me?”

“What reason would I have to be mad at you? You didn’t ruin today,” she mumbled. “I did.”

“Stace, I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. I'm going now.”

Gabe let out an audible breath.

Stacey closed the door behind her without looking back. She heard his car drive away as she crossed the lawn to the front door.

“Stacey? Is that you?” her mom called after the screen door slammed. She came out from her bedroom with Murphy on her heels and met Stacey in the hallway.

“Why is the air conditioning off?” Stacey whined. “It’s so hot!”

Her mom looked at her watch. “I thought you and Gabe would be out later.”

“Guess not,” Stacey said, twisting her mouth to the side and throwing her palms up. “What’s for dinner?”

“I’m going out with Aunt Susie. I didn’t think you’d be home.”

“Great.” Stacey blinked slowly then opened her bedroom door. “Have fun,” she said, closing it behind her once Murphy was inside. She sat on the side of the bed and kicked off her boots. They thumped against the back of her closet. Then she pulled off her socks, threw them across the room, and grabbed a pillow, curling into the fetal position on her bed.

There was a gentle knock. Her mom opened the door slowly, then walked to the bed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Stacey said. “It’s hot. I’m tired.”

Her mom touched Stacey’s forehead. “You don’t feel hot.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“I’ll close up the house and turn on the air. Maybe rest will help.”

“Thanks.” Stacey rolled toward the wall, muttering, “Say hi to Aunt Susie for me.”

When Stacey woke up, her stomach was grumbling. Her head felt heavy as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The light outside her window was bright, but the clock read 7:30. She was still in her clothes from the concert. She pulled herself out of bed, went to the window, and parted the blinds. The brightness overwhelmed her and she squinted against it. Then it hit: it was Sunday—she was expected to open the pool at eight!

She grabbed her swimsuit, then ran to the bathroom to shower.

Stacey rushed into the guard shack right on time and flopped onto the couch, relieved. She opened the NutriGrain bar she’d grabbed at home and ate half in one bite.

“Are you guys as done with the sun as I am?” Desiree asked no one in particular.

Stacey looked up. Desiree was horribly sunburnt. “Ouch!” Stacey jumped up to grab the big bottle of aloe gel they kept in the corner and handed it to Desiree. “Is that from the beach?”

“Yes. But the worst part is I was actually freezing all day. It was kind of overcast, so I didn’t even think about sunscreen.”

“That really sucks,” Stacey said. “I’m sorry. Did you have fun at least?”

Desiree shrugged, squeezing the green goop onto her fiery pink shoulder.

“It was so hot at the concert,” Stacey said. “Like 110 or something. When I got home, I slept thirteen hours.”

“Lucky!” Desiree retorted. “I couldn’t get comfortable all night.”

“I never thought I’d say this,” Chad chimed in. “But I’d be cool with getting the flu or something if it meant I could stay in bed all day.”

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a monsoon?” Stacey said, animated. “Or a power outage or something, that shut us down for a few days? Then we could all sleep in.”

“Too bad,” Bob replied, hunched over the paper, his back to them. “Looks like clear skies and sunshine in the ten-day forecast. Suck it up. Get out there.”

They groaned in chorus and grabbed wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses. After they’d finished cleaning the facility, Bob unlocked the door to a waiting crowd of swimmers.

“Here we go,” Stacey said, carrying a squirt bottle. She’d gotten in the habit of misting herself in the tower on hot days.

Desiree slathered on sunscreen until her skin looked chalky pink.

“Hey Stacey,” Desiree asked over the megaphone, across the pool. “You busy Wednesday night?”

The day was hot and the pool was packed. Patrons lounging in the water looked up toward Stacey awaiting her answer, entertained by the broadcasted discussion.

“What’s Wednesday?” Stacey asked. Desiree couldn’t be asking her to cover night swim. That was Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The swimmers’ heads swiveled back toward Desiree.

“The third of July.”

“The Fourth is already this week?”

“Yeah. The pool will be closed,” Desiree said.

The group of swimmers collectively moaned.

“We should put up a sign or something.”

“We talked about going to the movies. Independence Day comes out Wednesday. You wanna go?”

Had Desiree and Chad talked about this? Or maybe they decided at the beach with Jessie? Did he tell them he wants me to go, too? Is this actually a double date?

“Sure,” Stacey said cooly over the megaphone, shrugging to hide the jolt of excitement running through her.

Her knee bounced and heel tapped on the white sandpaper-like platform of the deep-end tower as she anticipated how their movie date might go. She considered what to wear, and what not to wear, deciding against anything crazy like her concert outfit. Chad and Desiree will probably make out the entire night . She’d have plenty of time to talk to Jessie. Maybe we’ll share popcorn.

At 9:30, the door to the guard shack flung open. Chad walked out to the pool deck for their rotation.

“Mark says he’s in,” he yelled to Desiree across the pool on his way to the far tower. “Let’s watch some aliens get blown up!”

Mark? Stacey wondered.

“Stacey’s in, too. I’ll call Tiffany and Melissa,” Desiree told him over the megaphone. She collected her sunscreen and towel, and climbed down from the shallow-end tower. She waited at the base, eager for Stacey to shift into her chair so she could get inside and into the shade.

Stacey’s heart sank. This would not be a double date. Everyone was invited. She had no idea where Melissa and Jessie’s relationship stood, but if it was another night of him tickling her, everyone paired up, and Stacey feeling like the odd man out, she’d prefer to stay home.

“Hey, Chad,” Stacey asked, as she got to the bottom of the deep-end tower ladder. Chad was about to climb up. “Are Jessie and Melissa…together?”

“No way! She’s so pissed at him.”

Stacey grinned. Game on . She dove across the deep end.