Spencer's Face (Buckeye Hawks) (5 page)

Taylor was busy driving. I
flicked the tiny screen to the right folder then pressed play. Cheryl
immediately started singing with the songs. They were Disney songs. Cute songs.
She had a cute little voice, and she sang right on key.

“Sing with me, Taylor.” She
called out a few seconds later.

“I’m sorry. This is
embarrassing.” She said to me.

“Why? Don’t you sing well?” I
asked her, teasing her. I liked teasing her for some reason. She was really
cute when I teased her.

“No. I sing okay. It’s
embarrassing that I know every word to a three year old’s favorite songs.” She
laughed.

She started singing. She did
sing well, very well, in fact. She even did the head bopping that went with a
few of the songs. She sang all the way to the babysitter’s house. She stepped
out and pulled her little sister out of the car seat. I opened the door to help
her out, even though I didn’t know what I was doing.

“Tell Spencer bye.” Taylor
said to her.

“Bye, Spencer.” Cheryl said
sweetly, then hugged my legs.

That was unexpected. Taylor
took her and her car seat to the door. I listened as she talked to the sitter
for a few seconds, then left her sister and the car seat.

“I’m sorry about that. It
happens every so often. Mom doesn’t work all the time, but when she does, I
have to take care of Cheryl. She’s the only one that isn’t old enough to go to
school yet.”

“That’s so cool. I’ve never
had siblings.”

“Count yourself lucky.” She joked
with me.  “Are you ready for the game tonight?”

“I think so. A little
nervous. I’m hoping I don’t fall flat on my face or something like that.”

She laughed again. I loved
her laugh. She was so cute. Hell she was adorable. “I was nervous when I
started cheering this year. And, that’s exactly what I was afraid of.”

I laughed. “You do really
well out there. I think you’re the best gymnast on the team. Your flips are
perfect.”

“Thanks.” she said, suddenly
embarrassed.

Did I say something wrong? I
knew I wasn’t exactly the smoothest guy in the world sometimes. I wasn’t used
to talking to girls very often.  I tried to change the subject. I was out of
conversation already. Damn it. “Hey, this is a nice car.”

“Thanks. You can drive it
sometime if you want.” She offered as if we were old friends.

“Sure. You don’t know what
size engine I guess.” I ventured.

“Why? Because I’m a
girl
?”
she drug out the word girl, pretending that she was offended by the question,
but teasing with me. She was a jokester.

“I didn’t mean that exactly.”
I said quickly.

“It’s a V8, the five point o
liter engine. Double overhead racing cam. Electronic fuel injection. And a posi-traction
rear-end.”

“Okay. Now I’m impressed.” I
said. I was impressed. Did she know about cars?

“I read the sales brochure. I
wanted a pretty car that went fast.”  She laughed at me. “I am a girl after
all.”

I laughed at her. She had a
great sense of humor. “So why the Mustang?”

“My dad said this was the
best sports car for the money. He didn’t want me spending too much money. It goes
pretty fast. You can drive if you want. I’ll pull over.” She offered.

“No, maybe next time.” I told
her. I didn’t want to look too eager, for her or her car.

When we arrived at school, I
felt a little uneasy. I felt like everyone was looking our way because we rode
together and walked to Senior Pole together. I usually hated it when people
looked my way, but today they were looking my way because I had Taylor by my
side. It was a totally different feeling. Zane smiled at me as we walked up. I
think I caught him winking at Taylor. What was that about? She slugged him in
the stomach. She was really playful with him. They were good friends. I’d have
to get used to that.

The guys were playing Frisbee
in the grass next to Senior Pole. The kids here had names for every place on
campus and off campus. It was a little odd. Everyone always knew exactly where
everything was because of the names. I stood with Ronnie, Grace, Sally, and
Taylor talking about our History test we had coming up. Taylor was funny. I
liked hanging out with her.

Just then Zane yelled over to
us. “Taylor, come over here. We need our Frisbee. Jose threw it on the roof
again.” Zane pulled her over to the edge of the building.

“What? You’re not tossing me
up there again. I’m not risking this uniform for a two dollar Frisbee.” She
griped at him.

“We’ll be careful this time.”
he said, then continued pulling her. He cupped his two hands for her to step
in.

She gave him an annoyed look,
then stepped into his hand, then up on his shoulders, then onto the roof. She
looked around for the Frisbee then went to get it. She tossed it down, then
came to the edge.

“See ya.” Zane called to her,
teasing her as he waved. He ducked back under the roof, pretending to leave.
All the guys started laughing and teasing with Taylor about how she’d have to
stay up there all day long. They said they’d send food up at lunch.

“You’re such a brat, Zane!”
she called to him and stamped her foot.

All the guys were looking up
at her. I looked up too. “Can I help you get down?” I called to her.

“I’m jumping, Zane!” she
threatened.

I watched her. Was she
serious? Dwayne grabbed both of my wrists. “We’ll catch you, Taylor. Jump.”

What the hell was he doing?
This looked dangerous. “I don’t know how to do this.” I told Dwayne quickly.

“We just catch her butt
between our arms. It’s easy. Go Taylor.” Dwayne called to her.

Taylor jumped out and came
down perfectly in our arms. It was just like one of her cheerleading moves I’d
seen her do several times over the last few months. “Thanks, guys.” She said as
she stepped out of our arms onto the grass.

Damn that was smooth.

She punched Zane in the
stomach when she walked under the roof again. I thought about how close she was
with all of her ex-boyfriends. Dwayne was catching her, and she was punching Zane.
She talked to Jose sometimes. Honestly I wasn’t sure I could handle how
friendly she was with all of her exes, if we were to ever get together.

We won our game against
Glendale. I watched as Spencer played football. He was pretty good. Zane did
really well too. As always Jose did too. He was one of the best on the team.
After the game, all the cheerleaders made their way to the field to hug the
players. Everyone formed a line and just hugged everyone in the line. It was a
ritual after every game. Funny that I hadn’t bumped into Spencer before doing
this, but this was only our third game, and maybe the second string players didn’t
do this.

Since it was a home game,
everyone made their way to the parking lot to talk about where tonight’s party
would be. Every Friday night after a home game, all the kids would go somewhere
to drink and talk and make out. I usually went, but I didn’t drink.  I’d made
my parents a promise last year when I bought my car, that I’d never drink a
single drop of alcohol. I’d kept that promise. And, lately I hadn’t been making
out with anyone. My last boyfriend was a few months ago. I didn’t go for the
random hookup thing. Every Friday, girls would pretend that they were too drunk
to know what they were doing, then go off with some guy, any guy who asked
them, and make out.

Mary, Spencer, Zane, Dwayne,
Shelly, and Jose were all waiting in a group in the parking lot. Sandy and I
walked up to them. “Where’s the party at tonight?” Sandy asked.

She was always game for
drinking. I was her designated driver. She could drink all she wanted. Her
parents didn’t seem to mind that she showed up drunk as long as she didn’t wake
them up. Her parents were way different than my parents.

“It’s at the Hole.” Jose answered
her in a yell over the multitude of conversations that were going on.

We had nicknames for all of
the party spots. “Are we ready to go?” I asked. I wanted to ask Spencer to ride
with me, but it looked like he already had plans to ride with Zane.

We drove down the windy roads
to the Hole. The guys already had the campfire going. We all loved a fire. It
was great for marshmallows and hotdogs, which were also brought by someone.
About two hundred high school kids attended these parties every Friday night. I
only attended the ones after a home game though. Sandy and I walked up to Zane
and Spencer.

“Hey guys.” Sandy said to
them, then made her rounds. She talked to every one of the unattached guys at
the party. She was funny. She also made her way to the keg and pulled herself a
plastic cup full of beer. She downed it immediately, then pulled herself
another one. I never knew who supplied the kegs at these parties, or the food.

Mary arrived and stood by Zane.
She wasn’t clingy at all. “So we did pretty good tonight. Didn’t we?” she asked
the group.

“We did. Spencer is better
than Brian.” I said. I was so proud of him.

Zane and Spencer laughed. Zane
had a beer and was downing it in no time flat. Spencer wasn’t drinking beer. He
was drinking a Coke. I was drinking a Pepsi. Zane and Mary walked off together
hand in hand. They were going to make out. That left Spencer and me alone.

“You don’t drink?” I asked Spencer.

“I drive.” He stated flatly.

“So you don’t drink when you
drive?” I asked. I wanted him to clarify it for me.

“I always drive. Zane always
drinks. He needs a ride home. He usually stays the night at my house after
these.”

“How have I not seen you
before? You hang out with Zane, my best friend, and you play football, and
you’re his designated driver apparently.”

“I usually duck out when you
come around.” He confessed.

“Why?” I asked.

“Shy I guess.” He answered
with a smile.

I looked at him puzzled. “I
don’t buy that.  You don’t seem that shy any more to me.”

“Now that I’ve been around
you I’m not so shy any more.” He smiled at me when he’d finished his self
analysis.

I smiled at him. Gosh I
really liked him. If he asked me out right now, I’d go.

About that time, Dale walked
up. He was a friend that I’d dated last year for two weeks. He found out that I
didn’t put out and he dumped me. It was the story of my life. “Hey, Taylor.” He
said to me as he stopped next to the two of us. “Hey, dude. What’s up with your
face?” he cocked his head to look at Spencer’s face.

What a jackass. I wanted to
slap the crap out of him. I restrained myself.

“Birthmark.” Spencer said easily,
as if he’d answered the question a thousand times already. It didn’t seem to
bother him as much as it did with Terri the other day. He was really nice about
Cheryl’s comments this morning though. I was so embarrassed about that, but
what could I do?

Dale nodded but kept looking
at his face as if studying it. “Taylor. Do you want to go check out the dunes
with me?” he asked.

That was code for “Do you
want to go make out?”

Not only no, but hell no. I
wouldn’t think twice about it. “No thanks. I’m happy here talking to Spencer.”
I let him down easily, even though I still wanted to slap him.

“You don’t know what you’re
missing.” He said. He was slurring a bit. I knew he’d been drinking for a
little while.