Emerge (20 page)

             
“Yes
!
”
S
he jumped up
and hugged the life out of me.

             
I was squealing with her until over her shoulder Medusa came out in full swing.
She straightened her posture and plastered that horrible fake smile to her mouth and waved at us.

             
“Rebecca, so nice to see you!
  What’s all the excitement about, hmmm?”

             
Rebecca turned around and gave my Mom not so enthusiastic response. 

             
“Well, Jenna here was telling me that prom is coming up and I told her that I didn’t have anything going right now. I leave for Japan in a month, but until then I am free.  So I offered to make Jenna’s prom dress.”

             
At this moment I wished Carlos or a friend were with me so I could poke them in the ribs with my elbow and say
,
“
Ooooohhhh
, w
atch this, watch what she’s gonna do!”

             
My Mom was in a conundrum.  She probably wanted to knock me into next week for even thinking about prom, but she was in front of the neighbor and she didn’t want to give anyone a bad impression.

             
I snorted at the comedy of it all and my Mom’s eyes darted directly to mine.

             
“Well
,
Jenna, we hadn’t spoken about prom. 
Thank you Rebecca
;
that would be so kind of you to make her dress.
  When are you two going to get the fabric?”

             
Oh, here we go. Rebecca doesn’t even see it coming.

             
“Next Saturday, right Jenna?” I smiled and nodded.

             
My Mom was seething;
her jaws were clenching and unclenching.

             
I wanted to scream ‘Na
na
na
boo
boo
, you can’t say anything mean.’ Probably not the most mature thing, but I get my kicks where I can.

             
“Well” She batted her eyes and a chill ran down my spine. “I would love to go too and see what Jenna has in mind.”

             
Rebecca was clapping again.  She was apparently oblivious to what my Mom was doing.

             
“Oh
,
yay
!
We’ll have a girl’s day and pick fabric and have lunch and…”

             
She continued clapping and planning while Medusa and I had a stare off. She smirked at me and I
knew that she had won this round.
  She’d probably convince Rebecca to make me a
Moomoo
out of the same Hawaiian fabric as these hideous chairs on her porch just to spite me.

             
I cleared my throat to end the conversation so I could go inside.  I hugged Rebecca and thanked her again. She beamed and I pitied her because she didn’t know what she was doing by letting Mom come with us.

             
When I got inside I looked in on May who was reading some kind of book about a spider family.

             
It was almost
eight o'clock
and I decided to go ahead and go to sleep and hope
d
that tomorrow would be better.

Chapter 16

             
Monday was Monday but at least I got out of the house.  Instead of my regular route to my locker, I took the long way around.  I had a plan. I walked slowly towards my
locker and Carlos was there,
he was so predictable.
And I loved him for it.
He was leaning his right shoulder against my locker and was looking in the direction that I usually walked in from. 
His backpack was on the floor by his feet.

             
I snuck up behind him and snaked my arms around his middle and said, “
Waitin
for somebody?”

             
He hugged my arms tighter around his waist and then turned around to face me. 

             
He reached down and put his arms around my waist and picked me up the small distance where we were the same height. My arms made their way around his neck and he held on to me like he never had before.

             
I pulled back and said, “What’s wrong? Did you miss me that much?”

             
I giggled, but he didn’t.

             
He pulled me back to him again and whispered desperately in my ear, “Yes Jenna, I missed you so much I didn’t know if I could stand one
more minute without you. Three days is too much.
”

             
I felt awful for picking on him about it.

             
I returned his whisper
,
“I’m sorry. I missed you
,
too, so much.”

             
I kissed him below his earlobe like he had done in the parking lot last week
and I could hear his swift intake of breath
and feel him shuddering next to me.

             
He put me down gently and still whispering said, “You can’t do that to me
here
,
J
. Wait until next weekend.  Save them up for then.”

             
“Why
?” I felt like I was such a dork for always asking this.

             
“Because when you kiss me, I want to kiss you back and not in front of strangers.”

             
I giggled, “Oh, in front of your friends?”

             
He chuckled and the bell started to ring. He picked up his bag and walked past me and just when I thought he was going to leave me like that he came up behind me. His hands started at the top of my ribs and worked their way down as he spoke. And his mouth…his lips were barely grazing the outside of my ear as he said “I want you alone
,
J
,
with your mouth on mine
and trust me, the last thing you will be doing is giggling.”

             
Now it was my turn to gasp and he gave me a peck on the side of my face and walked off, free as a bird, like he hadn’t just stoked a small fire inside me right there in the middle of the hallway.

             
I had to shake my head to clear it before I could even walk to class.  School was not going to be fun today with all of the thoughts he had just put in my head. That was a fact.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             

             
Wai
ting to see him in between classes was getting harder and harder since that was the only time I got to see him. 
It was ridiculous and I couldn’t wait for my ‘grounding’ to be over with.  I wondered if he had to work next Sunday since I was free after Saturday again. 

             
I got to sixth period and went to my usual seat.  Mr. Escobar had a new bulletin board up and it had pictures of all of us in the play.  I tried not to look at it.  I just wanted to forget being in front of all of those people and here he was parading it around.

             
Carlos came in just as the bell was ringing and did some kind of slap, clap, hand shake thing with his friends and then came to sit by me.

             
Without my permission at the very sight of him, my blush made
herself
known and it wasn’t just in my cheeks. Everything was engulfed in the blush from my temples to my chest. 

             
He tried to hide the fact that he noticed immediately and sat down while clearing his throat and smiled at me. 

             
“Why so red
,
Jenna?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
Like he didn’
t know why.

             
“Wouldn’
t you like to know?” I raised my eyebrow and smiled at him.

             
He shifted in his seat and I wondered if I made him uncomfortable or nervous or something altogether different.

             
He shook his head as if reading my thoughts, “So, what are you up to on Sunday?”

             
I inhaled through my nose and shrugged, trying to act so nonchalant about the whole thing.  He wasn’t the only one who could play this game.

             
“
I don’t know. 
Depends.”

             
“Depends on what?” He was playing along too now.

             
“Depends on what you’re doing on Sunday.”

             
“How early can I pick you up?” I smiled wide. They were words from heaven.

             
“Do you have to work on Saturday night?”

             
“Yeah, but it’s o
k. I can sleep in the afternoon or something.
”

             
“Oh no you don’t.
  Get some s
leep and then pick me up about
two
. Is that ok?”

             
He let out this sound that was a mix of a groan and a growl.

             
“Noon”

             
“One, you need to sleep.”

             
“Are you sure she won’t let us go out on Saturday?”

             
I sighed, “No, she won’t, plus now I have plans
…
”

             
He stuck his bo
ttom lip out again and it was all I could look at.  I couldn’t wait until I
could
feel them on mine again.

             
“I’m going to pick out the fabric and the dress design for my prom dress.”

             
That took him out of his funk and quick.

             
“You’re having it made? I thought I was gonna get to buy it for you.”

             
“
Awww
, thank you.
  I never expected you to pay for it. I’ve got it. Anyway, you don’t get to see it beforehand. The lady that lives next door is going to make it for me. She’s a costume designer for movies.”

             
“Really?
That’s lucky for you. Any hints?”

             
“Actually I don’t even know what I want yet.  She’s going to let me look at some pictures of dresses and she said if she has a picture of it she can sew it.  She must be really good.”

             
He looked surprised and happy at the same time. “Wow, she must be.”

             
“So what are we doing on Sunday?” I was eager for something to look forward to.

             
He shook his head. “Oh
,
no, you keep secrets, so I’m keeping this secret.”

             
He thought he had me, that I was going to confess what color and dress I had in mind. But, he was wrong.

             
“Ok, that’s fine.” Class was about to end and I picked up my bag to get ready to go.

             
He
smiled and picked up my hand that was ly
ing on my desk and played with my fingers.
  I
had worn a long sleeved shirt on purpose to hide the bruises on my wrists.  They were turning yellowish but he still would notice and I didn’t want to add any worry to his plate.
He looked like he had never seen fingers before. 

             
“So, I’m off today.  Can I take you home?”

             
“You can take me almost home.”

             
He laughed at the same time the bell rang.

             
“I’ll take what I can get, J.”

             
He drove me home
the long way around
and about two
blocks from my house he pulled onto the side of the road to let me out. 

             
“Jenna, I…”  He let out an awful sounding sigh “I just miss spending time with you. I see you in school but it’s like it’s not enough anymore. You’ll never be late again, trust me
,
because
I can’
t take this.”