Notting Hill
FRANKIE
EMERALD BAY HIGH
Frankie, you can’t put your whole life on hold for me.
She’s actually the subject of my admission essay. It was the only thing I could get down on the page.
I rub my eyes and check my watch. Jesus, almost 6:00 already. Mom’s supposed to take her meds at 7:00, which means I have to hit the pharmacy and get home quick.
I shut down the computer, tucking my little USB stick into my backpack.
“Bye, Mrs. Perrault! Don’t work too late!”
“Have a good weekend, Frankie, and tell your mother I said hello!”
I give her a quick wave, adjusting my backpack on my shoulders and heading for the back exit. The library is in the basement of our high school, right near the drama and music rooms. Basically, anyone who’s a specific brand of dork hangs out down here.
It feels like a little sanctuary.
I’m halfway down the hall when the back door slams open and two boys tumble inside. They’re both covered in sweat, undoubtedly from football practice as they carry their enormous bags of gear along with them. Cole and Mason are Emerald Bay High’s golden boys, and two of my biggest problems.
“Frankeinsteeeeiiiiiin,” Mason taunts, sticking his arms out straight and lumbering toward me.
He’s such a dipshit, always too busy digging for gold in his nose to pay attention during English class. He even wipes his boogers on the underside of the desk. That should be a criminal offense.
“That’s all you got?” I ask. “You must be tuckered from all your enrichment time outside.”
I know Cole wants to laugh, because he laughs at fucking everything, but he knows better. Mason though? He just stares me down.
I ready my body for the traditional Mason Fielder jab to the gut, but he switches it up, lunging straight at me with a bellow that makes me jump sky-fucking-high, but quickly pulling back and bursting into a fit of laughter.
“Fuckin’ pussy.”
Humiliated, I grab hold of the straps on my backpack and high-tail it toward the door as both boys continue losing their minds over what must have been the funniest thing they’ve ever seen.
I half expect them to be hot on my heels by the time I make it outside, but it seems like at least today they’ve got better things to do.
My mom always said people like Mason and Cole thrive off of reaction. They want you to retaliate, because it means they found a weakness, but isn’t doing nothing basically admitting you’ve lost?
My heart rate slowly starts to dip back down to normal, and I let out a long, shaky breath as I break into a gentle jog.
There’s a path at the top of this little hill that’ll take me straight to the pharmacy, as long as I’m willing to jump a couple fences at least, but before I’m even half way up I start to hear a very distinct sound.
As I make it the last couple feet up the hill I spot her, curled up against a tree, her whole body shaking. I recognize the long red hair instantly, but it’s the obnoxiously bright pink velour track pants that really give her away.
“Daph?”
“Go away!”
I take a couple steps toward her, not completely sure what to do.
“It’s only me.”
She lifts her head, scowling at me.
“Are your ears broken or something? Go away, Frankie.”
Well that’s not happening. I make my way over and sit down across from her.
“What happened?”
She stares at me like I have two heads, her eyes welling up with tears and her chin trembling, until it all finally comes bubbling to the surface on a soft sob.
“Cole dumped me. Today. A week before fucking prom.”
They’ve been on and off since last summer, so this is par for the course for the couple. I’ve comforted her through two other breakups, both of which lasted less than a week before he came crawling back.
Probably because the new girls he was chasing rejected him.
“I’m a fucking loser.”
She wraps her arms around her legs, her shoulders starting to shake all over again.
“What are you talking about, you’re not a loser. He’s the loser here.”
“I am, and everyone is going to know! They’re all gonna to make a huge fucking deal about it because prom is next fucking week and now I don’t have a date!”
Daphne could get another date in two seconds if she wanted. She’s not just pretty, she’s nice to everyone— and I mean everyone.
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I don’t have a date either.”
She sniffles, wiping her nose on her sleeve.
“I thought you were asking Callie.”
Callie’s my bio partner. She’s a sweet girl, with short brown hair and big blue eyes, and she always has a bag of Sour Patch Kids in her backpack to share. Daphne was bugging me to ask her out for months.
“Boyfriend.”
“Really?” Daphne asks, looking completely shocked. “She always eats lunch by herself in the computer lab, I had no idea…”
“Actually, that’s where she met him,” I chuckle. “On a Star Trek Livejournal community. He’s flying in from Michigan for prom.”
“Damn,” Daphne mutters, shaking her head. “Sounds like I picked the wrong place to meet boys.”
“I don’t know about that. The internet’s a scary spot sometimes.”
She lets out a sigh, plucking a fuzzy dandelion from the grass and gently twirling it between her fingers. Some of the fuzz floats through the gentle breeze, landing on my jeans.
“You know what the saddest part is?” She asks, her voice a mix of anger and wistfulness. “I got so into it. Picked out a new dress and everything.”
I snort.
“Well, my mom said I’m going even if I have to go alone. She said it’s like a rite of passage or something like that. Even rented me a tux.”
Daphne’s eyes go wide.
“Why don’t we go together?”
“To prom?”
“No, to Disneyland. Of course to prom! We’re already friends, and we know each other super well so there's no pressure. Plus, it’ll make Cole totally jealous. He thinks you have a thing for me.”
“Oh, great,” I scoff. “If it’s just to make Cole jealous, you can forget about it. I’d rather deal with the humiliation alone.”
“Frankie, the Cole thing was a joke.” Her tone is suddenly dead serious. “God, I hope you don’t think of me as someone who would actually do something like that.”
I pick at the grass, my face growing hot.
“No. No, I just… I’m sorry, Mason took a run at me back there in the hall—”
Her eyes narrow, suddenly looking extremely serious as she puts her hand on my knee. I try to ignore the way it makes my heart flutter.
“He’s messing with you again? I told him to stop doing that if he valued his fucking balls.”
“Well, I dunno, maybe he doesn’t,” I chuckle. “Anyway, I didn’t mean it, Firecracker— I’d… I’d love to go to prom with you.”
She blinks, clearly a little taken aback by yet another sudden change of pace.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously.” There’s a small part of me that can’t wait to see Cole’s stupid fucking face when he finds out, but that’s not what this is about.
“Hey, you wanna come over for dinner by the way? I was gonna order sushi, but maybe we could finally finish Notting Hill? It’s been like 3 months and I really wanna know how Hugh Grant digs his way outta that hole he put himself in. ”
I stand up, offering her my hand.
She smiles.
And I try to ignore the way it makes my heart flutter.