Casey Barnes Eponymous (4 page)

All she wanted to do was think and talk about Alex Deal.
 
And since she couldn’t talk about him
with Leigh, she could at least think about him.
 
But Leigh was going on and on about
Arthur something.
 
She told her she
had to go, and got herself out of the house and onto her bike as fast as she
could.
 
Then and only then did she
allow herself to relive in detail what had gone down with Alex Deal.

5

It happened the last week of summer.
 
Until then Casey was away at a performing
arts camp in Michigan.
 
The day
after she got back she went to the guitar store in downtown Bethesda.
 
She played a Martin they were displaying
in the window.
 
She could not afford
it and, given the sorry state of her grades freshman year, she wasn’t expecting
a big gift from Tricia anytime soon.
 
But a girl could dream.

When she was done playing she gave the guitar back to the guy
behind the counter.
 
That was when
Alex Deal walked into the store.
 
She recognized him from Walton because his band had played in talent
show the year before.
 

Being in talent show was a big deal.
 
It fell two days before the first
football game.
 
Unlike school plays,
which were okay to take part in if you were a girl but borderline dorky if you
were a guy, (except of course if you were Yull), it was considered cool to be
in talent show.
 
And, as the show
only had ten acts, it was hard to get in.
 
Kids joked that auditions for it were as much about talent as they were
about popularity.

He checked out a Strat.
 
She walked to the counter, picked out a few picks, and paid.
 
He asked how much the Strat was.
 
She watched him.
 
He was tall with longish dark hair, a
strong jaw, and big green eyes.
 
He
was wearing a Kurt Cobain T-shirt.
 

She placed a hand on the counter.
 
The guy told him how much the Strat
cost.
 
Alex Deal gave Casey a once-over,
plugged the Strat in, and played one half of “Heart-Shaped Box.”
 
He placed the guitar back down, put a
credit card on the counter, and looked at her.
 
“You go to Walton?”

She nodded.
 
“Freshman?”
he asked.
 

“Was.
 
Sophomore
this year.”
 

Recognition flashed in his eyes.
 
“You’re Yull’s little sister?”
 

“I like to think of it the other way around.”

“What do you mean?”
 

“Yull Barnes is my elder sibling.”
 

He smiled.
 
“But
isn’t that the same thing?”
 

“Don’t be a smart aleck.”

The guy behind the counter handed Alex a receipt.
 
He looked back to her as soon as he
signed it.
 
“You play guitar?”

She froze.
 
If she
said yes he would ask her to play him something.
 
That was generally how these things
worked.
 
And if she played him
something and he didn’t like it her purpose for existence in humanity would be
put into question.
 
She shook her
head.
 
“Nah.
 
I was just looking around for a friend
who plays guitar.”

He held his new Strat up.
 
The guy behind the counter gave her a confused look.
 
Alex Deal did not notice.
 
He placed the Strat in its case.
 
She did not want him to leave.
 
“Bet I can tune a guitar faster than
you,” she said.

“I thought you said you can’t play guitar.”

She paused.
 
“I
can’t.
 
But I can tune them like
seriously, seriously fast.
 
We could
place a bet on who can tune that Strat faster--you or me.
 
You win, I buy you an ice cream cone.”

“I don’t like ice cream.”

“A slice of pizza?”

“And how about if you win?” he asked, “Do I have to buy you the
Martin?”

“Nope.
 
You can save
that for Valentine’s Day.”
 
He
laughed.
 
“If I win,” she continued,
“you can buy me a chocolate bar.
 
Deal?”

“Deal.”

They drove to his house.
 
It was on a fancy, tree-lined street where by day gardeners’ trucks were
parked along the side.
 
Inside, he
led her past an elegant dining and living room to a large family room with a
set of burnished wooden doors.
 
He
took her through the doors and down to the basement, where another guitar was set
up.

“Right,” she said, “Should I tune first?”

But they never got around to the guitar-tuning contest because
as soon as she sat they kissed for a full two minutes.
 
They spent the rest of the afternoon
making out, getting to second base, and going to an action flick she already
saw.
 
When he dropped her off he asked
if she wanted to go to the beach the next day.

That night it was only her and step dad Jim.
 
Tricia and Yull were away looking at colleges.
 
She called Leigh in LA and told her
everything.
 
Leigh responded with many
Oh My God’s.
 
Casey got off the
phone and thought it was all about to change.
 
Come the new school year, she would no
longer be Yull Barnes’ under-achieving kid sister, but Casey Barnes, Alex
Deal’s girlfriend.
 
Casey Barnes who
did well in…well anyway Casey Barnes, Alex Deal’s girlfriend.
 
Yull who?

The next day she and Alex drove to Rehoboth Beach.
 
They swam in the ocean, passed the iPod
back and forth, went on boardwalk rides, and split funnel cake.
 
She called Jim and said she was staying
over at Leigh’s.
 
They then went to Alex’s
cousin’s beach house and slept in the basement, where they got to third base
and sat up half the night talking about bands and movies.
 
After he fell asleep, she stared at the
ceiling and thought about how the day had, hands down, been the best of her
life.
 
From then on her life would
be a collection of those kinds of days.

Or so she thought.
 

When morning came he drove her home fast so they would beat
Yull and Tricia.
 
It was Saturday of
Labor Day weekend.
 
He told her he
had family in from out of town and would call her Monday.
 
She spent the next two days planning her
first week of school outfits and imagining every word of her next phone
conversation with Alex.

Yull went to a seniors only party Saturday night.
 
Sunday morning she overheard him on the
phone talking about who had been at the party.
 
She thought she heard him say Alex
Deal.
 

Monday came around.
 
Leigh called at noon and asked if he had called yet.
 
No, Casey said, it was only twelve, he
was probably still busy with his family.
 
She debated whether or not to tell Leigh about what she heard Yull
say.
 
She thought better of it.

At dinnertime Leigh texted and asked if he had called yet.
 
Casey did not respond.
 
As they ate Yull went on and on about
colleges.
 
Casey excused herself
early, went upstairs, and sat in bed with her guitar on her lap.
 
But instead of playing she stared at the
phone sitting on the other side of the bed.
 
At nine thirty, she called Alex Deal.
 

He answered on the fourth ring.
 
“Hey.”
 

“Hey.”

“Sorry I didn’t call today,” he said.
 

“That’s okay.”
 

He paused.
 
“First
day of school’s tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“Workload this fall’s going to be intense, and I have to apply
to college.”

“Oh.”

Then he said it.
 
“I’m
not really sure I have time for a girlfriend right now.”

“You…?”
 
She tried
to process.
 
Did that mean she had
become his girlfriend in those two days?
 
If so why was he ending it now?
 
And since when did college applications keep people from having
girlfriends?
 
“Oh.”

A moment passed.
 
“I
gotta go,” he said.
 

When she got off the phone with him she cried quick and hard like
she was five years old.
 
Then she
called Leigh and told her what happened.
 

“But,” Leigh said, “you guys had a
sleepover.”
 

Another tear ran down Casey’s face.
 

“I bet he’s just stressed because he’s a senior,” Leigh
continued, “They all get stressed in the fall.
 
Maybe when school starts and he sees you
around every day he’ll remember how much he likes you and then you guys’ll
start going out again.”

“Really?”

“Why not?”

Casey wore her shortest skirt on the first day of school.
 
It was so short Tricia would not let her
wear it to school.
 
She placed it
under a baggier one for the purpose of escaping the homestead.

All day long she walked through the halls with an anxious look
on her face.
 
He had to be
there.
 
No one ever skipped the
first day of school.
 
Just before
the last period of the day, she thought she saw him, down at the other end of
the hall.
 
He was walking away
quickly and seemed to have just turned.

She did not see him at all on the second day of school.
 
But on the third, she did.
 
It was after last class of the day ended.
 
She took an alternate hallway.
 
He was leaning against a wall of lockers
talking to a guy.
 
She slowed as she
passed.
 
But he did not pause his
conversation.
 
His eyes caught hers
and he gave her a half-nod.
 
She
quickened her pace and walked away.

On the fifth day of school, the same day she and Mr. Cole had
their discourse about N.W.A, Leigh dropped the bomb.
 
She told Casey she overheard that Alex
Deal was going out with Melanie Corcoran.
 
Apparently they hooked up Labor Day weekend, on Saturday, at a seniors
only party.
 
Everyone knew who
Melanie Corcoran was.
 
With shiny
black hair, gem-like blue eyes, and designer clothes passed down by her older
sister, she was one of the most noticeable girls at Walton.

Casey went to the bathroom and puked, and Leigh declared they
would never mention Alex Deal’s name again.
 

And they had not.
 
Up until that day, anyway.

6

The following day Casey came to the conclusion that Ben’s elbow
needed to be surgically removed.

It was the only solution she could fathom.
 
For the past two days he had angled it
in a way that made it impossible for her to copy his Spanish homework.
 
That, in turn, translated to three missed
homework points.
 
For the first few
weeks of the school year his elbow had been perfectly lined up against his rib
cage.
 
But that week it began
jutting out at an annoying angle.
 
She had a feeling it had something to do with him seeing her eyeball his
notebook.