Eternal Spring A Young Adult Short Story Collection (23 page)

"Stick your finger down your throat," I shouted.

"It isn't working. I'm trying."

"Try harder."

"Tossing my brownies wouldn't be necessary if you
hadn't poisoned me."

The freshman flinched then swayed, close to fainting.
Trembling, he made for the door without drying his hands. When he passed by me,
the kid leaned away as if he was playing limbo and I was the pole.

"What are you looking at?" I demanded.

At that his eyes widened further, and after clearing the
door, he began to run down the hall.

Gracella, who'd gone to get her cell phone from her locker,
rounded the corner and came in to view. She almost collided with the freshman
going the opposite way.

When she reached me, she shook her head. "It's no use.
I can't reach Aunt Vandi. I left a message but that's the best I can do right
now."

"Great."

"How's it going here?" she asked. "Is
Nathan—"

The flush of a toilet interrupted her question. Nathan
staggered out of the stall and lurched to the sinks. Turning on the water, he
first washed his hands and then cupped some water into his mouth. After
sloshing it around and spitting it out, he splashed some water on his face.

I backed out of the door with a grimace and a shrug.
"It might be okay. He didn't seem any different. In fact, the way he's
been yelling at me, I'd say he's not in love."

"Good. Maybe we won't need my aunt."

Nathan came out of the boys' room.

"How do you feel?" Gracella asked.

He nodded. "Fine. Great, in fact."

"I'm so sorry, Nathan." Shaking my head, I grasped
his arm. "I don't know how to make it up to you."

"I do," he replied, grabbing and then pulling me
toward him.

Gracella gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

Before I could react, Nathan planted a kiss on my lips. But
what began as a quick peck soon turned into a long smooch. The worst
part—or the best part—was that Nathan used his lips like a kissing
god. Who would have thought he had it in him? I tried not to be affected, but I
couldn't help moving my lips beneath his. Almost as if I had no control over
them, my arms wound around his neck and I clung to him as sparklers ignited in
my brain. I could have lost half the gray cells controlling math prowess, and I
wouldn't have cared.

Me. Clinging. Incredible.

I
wanted
my best friend's kisses.

Surreal.

Reality intruded.
Nathan doesn't care about you. He's not attracted
to you. It's that darn brown sprinkle that caused this.
How could I take
advantage of him like this? I didn't want him to kiss me just because he was
under the influence of a love potion.

I pulled away from him.

"Oh no," I murmured.

"Oh yes." He grinned. "You're my girl now and
you're going to the dance with me, not that jerky jock."

Standing in front of the school that night waiting for Ronny
to show, I resisted the urge to put my head in my hands and tear my hair out.
First, it would do no good to break down and go crazy. Second, if I was going
to go crazy, I might as well do it with hair and make-up intact.

After the kissing debacle, we'd bundled Nathan into
Gracella's car with the idea she would drive him out to her aunt's house in
search of a cure. He'd protested.

"Cure?" he'd said. "I don't need a cure. I
feel free. I'm free to finally show what I've felt since freshman year."

"It's worse than I thought," Gracella had
responded.

"Please do it for me," I pleaded with Nathan.
"Go to see Aunt Vandi."

Giving a reluctant nod, he'd stopped struggling and subsided
into the passenger seat.

When I suggested going with them, Gracella shook her head.
"No. You'll only make things worse. We should minimize the effects of this
potion thing."

"What does that have to do with it?" I demanded.

"Having you around only accentuates its effects."

"I guess you're right," I said.

"Besides," Gracella leaned in to whisper as Nathan
strained to listen from the car. "You can't stand Ronny up."

"I suppose." Suddenly, going to the dance with
Ronny was the last thing I wanted to do.

Five hours had passed since Nathan and Gracella left, and I
hadn't heard a thing from either of them. Neither of them answered their phones
or responded to my texts. Was no news good news or just no news?

Fear clenched at my stomach. I should go after them, but
how? With no car and parents who weren't going to loan me one, I had no
options. Ride around on the bus? Hardly an effective vehicle for a widespread
search.

After taking my cell phone from my purse, I examined the
face. Still nothing.

"Ring you stupid thing," I shouted at it.

A footstep sounded behind me, and I heard Ronny laugh.
"Is that the factory installed voice activation command or did you
specialize it?"

"Ha. No," I tried to joke. "I'm just
expecting a call."

As if on command, the face lighted and my ring tone played.
A name displayed on the screen: Gracella.

"This is it!" Turning my back to Ronny, my fingers
shook as I punched at the accept call button. "What's happening?"

"I lost him."

"What! When?"

"Two hours ago."

Issuing a noise I classified between a groan and a whine, I
pounded the cell phone against my forehead. Nathan was out there wandering
around in a drugged state. Anything could happen to him. Fear made me
lightheaded...or maybe it was the blows from the cell phone.

Gracella was still talking, and I put the phone back to my
ear. "I thought I'd find him again."

"Come get me and we'll look for him together," I
said.

"No. Stay put. Before he jumped out of the car, Nathan
said he had to get ready to take you to the Science Fair Fiesta. More than
likely he'll come to you at the dance."

"If something hasn't happened to him," I choked,
blinking back tears.

"Nothing's happened to him," Gracella replied.

"Have you at least located your aunt?"

"Not yet."

"Fantastic."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Gracella said.
"But I don't know if Aunt Vandi can do anything."

"We have to try. I don't want Nathan to love me because
he's drugged."

"But you want him to love you."

"No. Yes. I don't know." Holding my head, I
groaned. "What a mess. Just hurry."

I punched the end call button and turned back to Ronny.

"Is something wrong?" Ronny asked, concern
shadowing his eyes. "Do you want me to take you home?"

"No." Gracella had been right. Nathan would come
here. "No. It's no big thing. Let's go in."

"You look really great by the way," Ronny said.
"Is that an Angelo Arguella dress?"

Blinking, I glanced down at the purple silk mid-thigh length
dress I'd thrown on. "Is it? I'm not sure. I don't really know
designers."

"I don't either. But my sister has one of his and makes
a big deal of it."

His hand went to my waist, and he led me into the school and
to the gym where the dance was already well under way. The place was packed.
Who would have thought there'd be such a turnout for a science related event?
Any excuse for a
party, I guess
.

Bruno Mars'
It Will Rain
played over the speakers as couples hung on each other
on the dance floor.

We stood in awkward silence at the entrance until a couple
of kids came up behind us. The guy stepped on my foot and hit my shoulder as he
pushed past.

"Excuse you," the boy said in a nasty tone. He
glared at us, before he walked away pulling his laughing girlfriend behind him.

"We should get out of the way," I murmured.

Ronny nodded, staring off across the room. "You
wanna..." He cleared his throat before finishing. "Dance?"

"Sure. I guess."

He didn't even wait for my reply and was already heading in
the direction of the swaying couples. I trudged after him.

Worry about Nathan ruined any enjoyment I might have had in
the moment. And Ronny wasn't nearly as fun to be with as I thought he'd be. He
didn't have that acerbic sense of humor I loved. By this time, Nathan would
have made insightfully amusing comments about half the people in the room.

When we reached the edge of the dance floor area, Ronny took
hold and pulled me to him. His hands rested at my waist, and mine lay on his
shoulders as we moved with a six-inch gap between us. Our dance steps consisted
of shifting the weight from one foot to the other.

The brownie sure didn't seem to be working. Not that I wanted
it to anymore. I was so over this whole thing and now bitterly regretted I'd
ever started it. However, if the love potion had worn off Ronny, could it have
worn off Nathan too?

I couldn't think of anything to say, and the silence
stretched. Finally, I recalled something Ronny had said earlier.

"So ummm. What did you want to talk to me about?"
I asked.

"Oh yeah," Ronny said with a smile. "You're
really great at math."

"Thank you." He'd asked me on a date to say that?

"And I'm really trying to keep my athletic team
eligibility," he continued.

"Okay? But what—"

"I'm really bad at math. So I thought you might agree
to help me."

"You want a math tutor?" If he hadn't eaten the
brownie, I would have thought he'd only asked me to the dance to get my help to
pass math.

"I'd pay you," he offered.

"Yeah. I'll tutor you. I already have a lot of other
kids I tutor. What's one more?"

"Really? Great," he said, a relieved
sigh
escaping him.

Another slow song started, and we danced with neither of us
seeming to make the conscious decision to continue. As we moved, the tutoring
thing bugged me more and more.

"Is that why you asked me to the dance?" I asked.
"So I'd be your math tutor?"

"Well..." Ronny stared at his shoes, his head
hanging. "Yeah."

When I didn't respond he hurried to add, "Don't get me
wrong, you're kinda cute. And you're very sweet agreeing to be my math tutor
but I..." His eyes strayed to a guy standing at the edge of the dance
floor. I knew him as one of Ronny's teammates, but I couldn't remember his
name. I didn't know much about the guy except that I'd seen him with Ronny. A
lot. Then, I remembered I'd never seen Ronny with the same girl more than
twice. Like tumblers of a lock falling into place, the truth occurred to me.

"You're gay," I said. Obviously, the love potion
couldn't trump sexual preference. No wonder it hadn't really worked on him.
"I should have seen it before when you mentioned the dress."

"What? No," he protested, fear filling his eyes.
"I'm so not gay. You can't believe I..."

"It's okay," I reassured him. "I won't say
anything. I'm totally not into outing anyone."

"No one would believe you anyway," he said almost
to himself.

"You're right. But, you know, there's nothing wrong
with being gay."

"Don't say that." He pushed me away. "I'm
not...what you said. Just because I'm not attracted to you, you get all
insulting."

"Okay, okay. You're not...what I said. Just don't get
so upset."

"I'm not upset!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a movement as someone approached
us.

Nathan.

"Hey." Nathan grabbed Ronny's shoulder and whirled
him around. "You better not be yelling at my girl."

"Your girl?" Ronny shook his head as if to clear
it.

"Yeah, she's mine, and you better keep your jock hands
off her," Nathan shouted.

"Whatever, man." Ronny held his hands up in
surrender and stepped back. "You can have her."

"Just what do you mean by that?" Nathan demanded,
taking two steps forward, his fists clenching. "Are you insulting her
now?"

"No, dude. Chill."

"Let it go, Nathan," I pleaded, putting my hands
on his shoulders and holding him back.

My best friend twisted around and smiled down at me.
"For you, I will."

Taking me by the waist, he swung me further onto the dance floor.
I fell against Nathan's chest, and my arms went around his neck, clinging. As
we moved, I couldn't help noticing how different dancing with Nathan was. No
awkward distance spanned between us. We were plastered together as we moved in
rhythm with my head on his chest. And I wasn't bored. Even though the dance was
slow, my heart pounded and my breath chugged in and out as if I was doing a tap
routine.

Suddenly, I lifted my head so I could examine Nathan.
Something I'd vaguely noticed during the altercation now became more important.
"Hey," I said. "You look different."

Nathan was dressed in a blue sport coat over dress shirt
paired with khaki pants. His famous mop of hair had been dyed back to its
normal color and styled into a tamer version of itself. Instead of a nest of
tight curls, his inch-long hair was a shiny mahogany wave decorating his head.

"You cut your hair," I observed. "And you
aren't wearing glasses. Can you see without those things?"

His lips quirked into a wry smile. "Contacts. I had 'em
at home but never bothered with them. But I wanted to look good tonight. For
you."

He did look good. He looked great. This hottie version of
Nathan overwhelmed me.

Oh Lord
. Why couldn't he want to impress me because he wanted to
and not because of some root doctor spell?

Flinching, I jerked out of his hold, pivoted and marched
toward the exit.

"What's the matter?" he asked as he followed
behind.

"What do you think? You ate the brownie. This isn't
you."

Just outside the gym, I almost collided with Gracella and
her Aunt Vandi.

"Thank heavens, you're here." I said to the older
woman. "You have to do something about Nathan."