Chapter 18 #2
Cooper casually stacked some tape onto the shelf. “I told the guys I was helping you practice for a drama part. You needed work on a kissing scene and asked me to coach you because I’ve had more experience than you.”
“Did they believe that?”
He hesitated and scratched at a spot behind his ear. “Judging from the amount of grief they gave me, probably not.”
What kind of grief? Grief for cheating on Dahlia or grief for kissing me—someone who wasn’t in the same popularity echelon as him? I wasn’t about to ask that question. He wouldn’t have admitted it if the second reason was the truth.
“Well,” I said, “they’ll have questions about that story when they see the play and realize Dolly doesn’t kiss anyone in it.”
He turned to a box of antibacterial cream and started shelving those. “You’re allowed to improvise, aren’t you? Just give your own interpretation of Dolly. She’s lonely and drunk.”
“That would be one way to ensure I never got another lead in a school play.”
He had the nerve to smile. “Everything has a silver lining. I’m still hoping Claire will get a good part one day.”
I put my hand to my temple, trying to process it all. “So the situation is your friends won’t believe you, and I’ve become your guilty little secret, your side chick. Have you talked to Dahlia yet? You might want to check if you still have a homecoming date.”
I expected to see some emotion on his face, some shadow of anger or unhappiness. Instead, only a flicker of annoyance crossed his expression. “Yeah. She knows we’re fake dating. She isn’t happy about it, but we’re still going to the dance.”
I couldn’t blame him for telling her the truth and was only surprised that she believed it. “Glad that worked out for you. But since everyone else thinks I’m your side chick, I’ll have trouble finding a date now.”
He shrugged, a little too pleased with my predicament. “You don’t have to go. There are worse things in the world.”
“You want to drive to my house, take pictures with me for our parents, then drop me off someplace, alone in my heels, formal dress, and corsage, while you go off dancing with Dahlia?”
“I hear some good movies are playing.”
No, that wasn’t how I would spend the evening—hidden away somewhere, feeling left out and sorry for myself. I was going to go to homecoming, have fun, and dance better than Dahlia. I folded my arms. “If you’re going, so am I.”
“Remember, you can’t sit with another guy at the game.”
“I won’t. I’ll go with a football player.”
Cooper raised an eyebrow, and his words took on a bit of a challenging tone. “Do you have your eye on someone specific on the team? Who? I’ll see if I can put in a good word for you.”
“I’m not sure you know him.”
“I’m pretty sure I know all the guys on the team.”
“You’re forgetting that two teams play the homecoming game.”
He turned toward me, the things on the shelf momentarily forgotten. “You want to take someone from the opposing team to our homecoming dance?”
Yep. The more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it—perhaps because Cooper so obviously disliked the idea.
His eyes narrowed. “Do you even know anyone from Riggs High?”
“I do have a life outside school, you know.”
He folded his arms. “Who do you want to go with?”
“You probably don’t know him.”
Cooper dipped his chin in aggravation. “I went to school with most of those guys through junior high. Try me.”
Did he think I was lying about it? I nearly gave him TC’s name but figured I shouldn’t count my homecoming dates until my plans hatched. “If I decide to go with him, I’ll let you know.”
Cooper was about to give his opinion when a middle-aged man turned the corner and saw us talking. He wore the same employee-blue polo shirt that Cooper wore, and his expression pegged him as a manager. Cooper hurriedly went back to stocking the shelves.
The manager’s eyes zeroed in on us. He frowned and strode up to me. “Can I help you, Miss?”
I attempted to redeem the situation. “I’m good, thanks. This nice young man was just helping me get something off the top shelf.” I said the words without even glancing at the top shelf to see what it held.
Then I looked.
Right above me, on the top shelf, sat rows of jockstraps with cup protectors.
The manager’s eyebrows lifted in question.
I felt my cheeks reddening, but once you’ve committed to a lie, you have to go all in.
“My brother needs one, and I obviously don’t know anything about them, so your salesclerk was helping me pick out the right kind.
Because he’s clearly athletic. And so he would know. ”
Was I really pretending I’d gone up to a random guy and discussed cup protector sizes? Yes. Yes, I was. Mark this moment as a new low in my life.
Cooper grabbed a box and shoved it into my hand. “This one should work for you. I mean, for your brother.”
“Thanks.” I knew I was still blushing. The Black Widow wouldn’t blush. I tried to channel her again, held my chin high, and headed toward the checkout.
The manager followed after me at a distance.
Clearly, he thought I was a suspicious character and might do something like shoplift the package.
If he hadn’t been watching me, I would have tossed it onto another shelf.
Now I couldn’t get rid of it after I’d made such a big deal of needing Cooper’s help.
There was nothing else to do but buy the box and bury it in the trash.
I hadn’t realized anyone else from my school worked at the store, but Julian, a guy from my trig class, waited behind the register. I felt a spike of unfounded irritation that Cooper hadn’t warned me that one of our classmates worked with him.
I had no other choice, though. I marched up to the register, still channeling Black Widow’s confidence, and put the bag of donut holes and the boy-thing box in front of him.
Julian glanced at the items. “Big night planned?”
“It’s for my brother.”
He rang up the donuts. “Since when do you have a brother?”
The guy knew too much about me. “We don’t talk about him. He’s one of those relatives you keep tucked in the basement. And that’s why I have to buy his personal items.”
Julian snorted. “What’s he doing down in the basement that he needs this stuff?”
“Shut up.” When you came down to it, the Black Widow could be rude at times.
Julian just laughed at me. “Whatever, Madeline. If you decide to pull a prank using these, keep in mind there were witnesses to your purchase.”
A prank. Of course those were the assumptions he’d made. Sometimes having a reputation that preceded you was not such a bad thing.
c c c
On the drive home, I decided to call TC and ask him to the dance.
It was normally a guy-ask-girl thing, and people didn’t generally bring members of the opposing football team to the dance, but I had no hope that someone from my school would ask me.
It was going to take me a while to live down being the girl who’d made out with Cooper.
Since he’d told Dahlia about our fake-dating arrangement, it was only fair that I could tell TC about it. I kind of had to. His mom was a legal clerk at my dad’s law firm. TC needed to know the truth, so he wouldn’t tell his mother he was going to the dance with me.
When I explained the fake-dating situation to TC, he laughed. “So Nash isn’t your type, but I am? I always knew you had good taste.”
My taste was questionable right now. I was secretly harboring feelings for a guy who was seeing someone else. “I’ll pay for everything,” I added hurriedly, just in case that was a concern for him. “Since I’m asking, it’s only fair that I pay for the tickets and dinner.”
TC chuckled. “I’d be happy to go, but I’ve got to warn you that I might inadvertently end up ruining the night for you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I plan on tackling Nash every chance possible. The guy deserves it for deserting our team. We could have gone to state if he’d stuck with us, but no, he wanted to play for the rival school.”
“Don’t hurt him.” The protest came out faster than I wanted. The thought of Cooper getting knocked around made my stomach twist. “If Cooper is injured and can’t go to the dance, I won’t be able to either.”
TC made a tsking sound. “Now you’re giving me eternal conflict.”
“I think you mean internal conflict. Eternal conflict means it goes on forever.”
“My conflict might be eternal. That all depends on how long the football game lasts.”
I was pretty sure it wouldn’t last for eternity, although every time Cooper wasn’t playing, the games did seem to slow to a snail’s pace.
At any rate, I had a date. I was going to buy a stunning dress, pay too much to have my hair and makeup done, and look so good that Cooper regretted he hadn’t gone with me.