Mallorie finally turned fifteen and we celebrated her birthday at a house party in the “rich neighborhood”.Amy knows the kid who lives here but I had never met him before.A bunch of our friends showed up and there were a lot of people from school there too.It was dark and everyone stood around the trampoline in the backyard.We were playing a game calledDraw the Straw.In separate groups of guys and girls, we drew from a cup of straws and whoever drew the short one from each group was paired up to go on the trampoline to kiss.I got paired with Patrick, a freshman from Amy’s German class.I gave him a quick peck on the lips, but he grabbed me and stuck his tongue in my mouth.I turned around and jumped off the trampoline, wiping my mouth in disgust and pulled my pager from my pocket to see why it was beeping.
“1439914399” showed up on my screen.It was Lee’s code.I looked up and smiled just as Patrick stopped in front of me.
“If you liked that, there’s more where that came from.”He said, trying to pull me in for another kiss.I pushed my hand against his chest, “No, thanks.”I said and walked over to Amy and Mallorie.
“Damn, that was cold.”A voice from behind me said.It was Tate, he was in my biology class.
“What was?”I asked, turning to him.
He laughed, “You just dissed that little guy.”
“Yeah,” I wiped my mouth again, trying to rid myself of that nasty memory from seconds before.“Let’s just say, he wouldn’t have been my pick.”I put my pager back in my pocket and walked closer to Tate.He’d been flirting with me in class this week, but I think he’s just an all-around flirt so I played and flirted back.
“Who would you have picked?”
“I wouldn’t have objected if I was stuck with you.”My head tilted to the side in a cautious nod.
“Well, we could try it out, I guess.”He took a step closer to me.
“We could, I guess.”I closed the gap.
He kissed me softly and released my lips but kept his face inches from mine.
“How did that compare?”he asked.
“Not bad.”I said.He smiled and kissed me again.“But that was better.”
We hung out the rest of the party and he called me the next day, but this little fling quickly fizzled out and we mutually called it quits.
* * *
The next weekend, the girls and I went to the mall for some fun guy-watching.It’s what we do when none of us are dating anyone and we just walk around checking out all the cute guys, seeing who we can get to talk to us.
We walked into PacSun and saw two guys looking through the shirt racks.Amy dared me to go say hi and I was feeling up for anything.
“Hi!”I went right up to them, thinking Amy was next to me, but I looked over my shoulder and realized she was still standing on the far side of the store with Mallorie.I rolled my eyes at her.
“Hey, what’s up?”one of the guys said and I turned back around to face them.
“My friend over there wanted me to see if I could get your number for her.”I pointed over my shoulder at Amy.Their eyes followed my finger and they glanced at each other.
“I don’t think so.”Guy number two said.“But I’ll give it to you, and you can just tell her it was for her if you call me later.”
“Deal.”I said and I walked over to the counter to ask the cashier for a pen and handed it to guy number two.He wrote his name and number on the back of a receipt from the bag he was holding and handed it to me.Before he let go of the paper, he said “Remember, this is only if you call me later.”I nodded and walked back over to Amy and Malorie.
We walked out of the store, waving coolly at the guys and then ran to the escalator laughing.I unfolded the receipt and looked at his name: Michael with a smiley face.We’ll definitely be calling you later, Michael.
About ten minutes after we dropped the girls off, I got home and called Michael.I asked him if I could dial Amy in on three-way and he said, “I mean, I guess, but I’d rather just talk to you.”
“I kind of told her I’d be dialing her in so she’s expecting it.”
“Okay.”He sighed.
Amy picked up right away, “Hey sexy!”she laughed into the phone.
Michael laughed, “Hey!”
I sat the phone down because really, Amy just wanted to talk to him, and I didn’t really care.I painted my nails while they talked and remembered that this was the same polish I wore when Lee and I went to the mall and walked around the lake –that was a pretty random memory,I was thinking to myself until I heard Amy say “Okay, you can hang up now.”
