Authors: Anonymous
Lucy in the Sky (11 page)
Astrid and Lauren had to rescue me from Cam a second ago. JEEEZ. I'm so glad I have a free period now so I can write about it. I was just at lunch in the cafeteria with Astrid and Lauren and Ross when Cam came marching over and said that he'd been in the locker room for PE and heard Ryan and
Andrew talking about this hot junior chick they were taking to homecoming with the new girl, and about how they were going to get me drunk and see how far they could go with me.
Ross started laughing and Cam slammed his hand down on the table and was like IT'S NOT FUNNY.
Lauren told him that he needed to take a big deep breath. Cam told her that she needed to back off, that I was his little sister and he was taking care of me. I stood up and told him to shut up, that he was embarrassing me and I could take care of myself.
He looked around and saw that everybody was staring at us. Astrid grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to her. He got quiet, but his eyes were still bright and angry.
Lauren told him that we were all just going as friends. She said, Besides, your sis has a hot date with Mark Wilson this weekend. You certainly can't object to that, can you?
Cam asked me if that was true. I nodded, and he smiled really big and said, That's awesome sis!
I swear, Cam can go from hot to cold and back in 12 seconds flat.
All I can think about is that two senior guys called me THIS HOT JUNIOR CHICK.
OMG! SENIORS THINK I'M HOT!
I know. I know. I'm supposed to not be excited about that.
Sue me. I don't see my brains when I look in the mirror. It wasn't the A on my GRAPES OF WRATH report that made Mark Wilson want to ask me to homecoming.
Mark Wilson is following me and Lauren and Astrid around like a puppy dog. Who knew telling a boy to cool his jets could be so effective? Today Lauren invited Ryan and Andrew to come to lunch with us, only I didn't know it. So, when I walked out front, there they were with her and Astrid. Of course, Mark had followed me outside and had just started to ask me to lunch when Lauren saw me and waved me over.
I smiled at Mark and asked him what time he was picking me up tomorrow night for the movie. He stared at Ryan (who was smirking at me) and Andrew (who was trying to pinch Lauren's butt until she smacked him) and looked like he'd just swallowed a golf ball.
He said 7. I said, make it 6:45 so you have time to meet my parents.
Then I turned around and walked to lunch with Lauren and the boys without looking back.
But my heart was totally racing! I could feel Mark staring after me. I felt so powerful!
I think Lauren is right: This is making Mark crazy hot for me.
Mark will be here any minute. I borrowed this little black skirt from Lauren that makes my legs look 27 miles long. He's not going to know what hit him.
OMG! I've NEVER felt like this before a date. Last year when Sean took me to homecoming, I was so nervous I threw up while I was doing my makeup.
I'm not even worried about this now. I mean, I know I don't look as good as Lauren or anything, but this boy is whipped for me. I wonder if I'll kiss him tonight?
Hmmmmmm. Maybe I'll make him suffer. HA HA HA HA HA. I'm so bad.
Oooh! That's him. Here goes nothing!
(I'll report back as soon as I'm home.)
Okay, the movie was SO LAAAAAAAAAAME. Superheroes who just magically win everything in the end are SO BORING.
And that was the BEST part of the evening. I mean, Mark is so sweet, but he's so ⦠SERIOUS. After the movie, we went to get ice cream on the Promenade, and while we were eating, he told me all about how worried he was about me going out with Ryan for homecoming. He said that Ryan only had one thing on the brain, and it wasn't honorable.
Honorable.
Who uses that word?
I totally played stupid, and was like, What does Ryan have on his brain that isn't honorable, Mark? (Wide eyes, blinking, blank look, the whole nine.) Then I crossed my incredibly bare legs and tugged at Lauren's little black skirt. (Also, I cannot BELIEVE my mother let me out of the house in it. I saw the look on her face when I walked down the stairs, but then she met Mark and probably knew she had nothing to worry about.)
ANYWAY, Mark then spent like 20 MINUTES showing me this necklace he wears with a little key on it, and how it's part of this pledge he made at his church. Apparently, the key is the key to his “heart” and he's not supposed to unlock it until his wedding night with the woman who is going to be his wife.
I mean, WHAT? I get it that I am young and shouldn't just throw myself at the first guy I see. I'm a virgin, and I do want my first time to be special with someone who I really care about. But I have this idea that I'm going to probably have a boyfriend at some point before I get married who I'll want to sleep with. I'll use condoms and all of that; I'm not stupid.
But Mark was SERIOUS. I was like, Hold up. A big handsome guy like you is a VIRGIN? And then I sort of smiled, and he saw it and said, Are you making fun of me? And I giggled, and said, No. No, I'm not. But I couldn't stop smiling.
And then he started smiling because I was smiling and then we were both laughing, and he said, What?
I didn't say anything, I just got up and grabbed his hand and led him out toward the parking deck and his car. I held his hand while he opened the car door for me, and when we got in, I leaned over to kiss him. He actually put his hand on my shoulder and held me back.
Then he asked me what I was doing!
I said, What does it look like I'm doing? Is this a trick question?
He told me that he didn't want us to go too fast on our first date.
I almost busted out laughing right in front of him, but I just smiled really big and nearly chewed a hole on the inside of my cheek to keep from giggling. When he saw my smile, he sat back in the driver's seat and let out a big, relieved sigh, then took my hand and told me that he was so happy that I was smiling because he could tell I understood and felt the same way.
I was almost crying from holding back the laughter. All I could think about was winding up practically naked in Blake's bathroom that first night I met him, and how poor Mark would have a meltdown if he knew about that. I'm afraid all the circuits in his brain might melt and then he'd never be able to unlock his heart with that little key around his neck.
The minute he dropped me off I called Lauren and was like, OMG! Come. Over. NOW.
Mom was very pleased that I was a.) home early from my date, b.) that Lauren came over and wanted to hang out at our place. (She worries that Lauren spends so much time alone because her mom is in New York.) Mom made us popcorn and then went to bed. Lauren and I went up to my room to watch movies and Lauren had a surprise. She'd brought a pill for us to split. She said it was a muscle relaxer and gave me half. I asked her what it did, and she said, Just mellows you out.
That little pill was AWESOME. In my body, it was like I'd smoked pot, only my head wasn't cloudy at ALL. It wasn't like being drunk. I just wanted to lie really still, and it felt like I was melting into the bed, but I wasn't tired.
When I told Lauren all about Mark, she laughed her ass offâespecially the part about his necklace and saving it to open up his heart for his wife on his wedding night.
I feel sort of bad writing that. I mean, Mark is very sweet. I don't want to make fun of him, but it's just FUNNY.
Anyway, I slipped off to sleep at some point and slept like a rock. Usually it's hard to sleep in my bed if somebody spends the night, but not with that little yellow pill we took. It was like I was sleeping on a cloud in a deep dark cave.
This morning Lauren went home to write a paper she has due for her British literature class.
It's a good thing we're both very together. See, All Adults Everywhere? Not all teenagers who swallow pills and smoke pot die in car accidents. Some of us are very responsible!
Nothing much.
Ross was going to come over today and have dinner with us, but his grandma is in town from Boca Raton, so he's eating at the hotel with his mom.
I'm all done with my homework.
I was bored and messing around on my phone, and I read a bunch of the texts that Blake had sent me. I haven't heard from him much since he left on tour. I felt sort of nervous when I thought about texting him. He's probably got girls in every town swarming all over him. But I texted him anyway, just to say hi. He texted me back like IMMEDIATELY. And it wasn't a sex text either. He just said: HOW ARE YOU BEAUTIFUL?
OH! THE BIG NEWS: Cam asked Astrid to homecoming. It's so weird that my friend thinks my brother is cute. EW. I mean, he's a nice guy, and I guess Cam is cute and everything, but I just keep thinking about what a pain in
the neck he is sometimes and how he picks his nose in the car when he thinks no one is looking.
EW.
Ross told us today that Ian invited us all up to his parents' house in the Hollywood Hills after homecoming to hang and use the hot tub and stuff. Ian's dad is some big movie producer and he's scouting locations in Italy until Christmas. Anyway, Ian's got their big place to himself, and we're all invited. Astrid and Lauren and I are going shopping for outfits tonight. Homecoming is a pretty casual thing, so Mom put me on a strict budget: $50 toward an outfit. I told her that $50 MIGHT buy me one sleeve of a top. She said that maybe I'd remember this when I got Christmas money from Gramps this year. I told her maybe I'd just have to go topless.
She said that she'd be happy to give me just $25 if that would make me stop whining.
GOD!
I guess I should be glad that I'm getting anything at all. Dad just looked at me and said that I should be grateful. It's not that I'm not grateful; I just know that Lauren and Astrid will have all-new outfits that will make them look like a kabillion dollars.
Anyway, Astrid said she'd help me pick out stuff that would work, and Lauren said I could raid her closet for stuff. That'll be good because she has SO. MANY. SHOES!
Tomorrow is homecoming. It's going to be so much fun!
Ryan and Andrew actually took Lauren and me to lunch today. It was sorta sweet. Although, Ryan talks about himself a LOT. It's not so bad, but it just gets kind of boring. I saw Mark watching me as I walked down the hall with Ryan and Andrew. I smiled and raised my hand in a little wave, and he just shook his head and turned around. I wonder who he's going to go to homecoming with? He hadn't asked anybody last week when we went on our date.
Anyway, at lunch Ryan would NOT shut up about this point he scored in their beach volleyball game last week and how TOTALLY RADICAL the spike had been, and how Andrew had given him the assist. Apparently, they play every weekend down at the beach and won a 2-on-2 tournament.
Lauren rolled her eyes and interrupted him at one point and said, So, Andy, do you often assist Ryan with his balls?
They both acted all hurt and were like NO WAY, that's cold. Lauren said that it wasn't as cold as she would be if she had to fight to get a word in edgewise all night tomorrow night.
I just started laughing and told Ryan that I live right up the street from the beach. He smiled at me all bashful, like he was secretly pleased, and said that I should come check out a match sometime. I said that maybe I'd bring Cam down with me next weekend if things went well at homecoming. It effectively reminded them that Cam is indeed my brother, and that sort of shut both of them up for a second. Cam is probably a head taller than both of them and has bigger muscles, too.
While we were shopping on Wednesday night, Astrid told me and Lauren that Cam and Jason had tossed both of them up against the lockers and threatened to brain them if either one of them caused us any trouble at lunch or at homecoming. I actually don't mind that Cam is being so protective. Ryan seems nice enough. He actually held the door for me today, but I don't really know him.
Mom says that's what a date is all about: getting to know someone. Of course, she wants to get to know them first, so she made me introduce them to her last weekend after Cam's game.
I dunno. Maybe I'm just a dumb girl, but there is something about boys after a soccer game when they're all sweaty and gross that makes me think they're really hot. Mark walked up to say hi to my parents while we were all talking to Ryan and Andrew, and he looked really good, even though he smelled pretty bad. Of course, Mom and Dad were all smiley and like HI MARK!
as if he was their long-lost son or something. Ryan just looked at me like What. Is. Up?
AWK-WARD.
Anyway, Elizabeth Archer is our junior class princess on the homecoming court, naturally, although Ross said it shoulda been this kid in our chemistry class named Raymond. Raymond is SO QUEENY. All the girls think it's kinda funny in a cute way, but the older guys pick on him a lot, Andrew especially. Cam has told him to lay off several times, but when you come to school wearing eyeliner, there's only so much Cam can do for you.
Ross is out, at school, but he doesn't act any differently than Cam or Mark, or any of the straight guys. He just looks like a cute surfer. Guys like Raymond have it worse, 'cause they just come across as really different from everyone else. Ross will tell you he's gay if you ask, but he just kind of blends in. Raymond really stands out.
The worst part is that Raymond has this CRAZY CRUSH on Ross. He asked Ross if he wanted to go the homecoming dance, and Ross was kind, but firm. I can tell it bothers Ross that the guys will start picking on him the way they pick on Raymond. Every time Andrew is picking on Raymond, Ross clears out of there as fast as he can.
Anyway, Ian is actually going to come to the homecoming game with Ross, and then we're all going to go to the dance
together. I already told Ross that I want to sneak back to the car with him before we go into the dance and smoke a bowl.
