Chapter 25
"Iggy!" Nudge said happily, leaping into my arms as I walked down the school hallway.
"Hey," I said. "What's up?"
"Where should we go for our date?" she asked.
She hadn't stopped bugging me about that. "I don't know," I said. "Can't we just make out on the roof again and call that a date?"
"Iggy," she scolded. "Come on, I want a real date. What's something you've always wanted to do?"
"Paintball," I said instantly.
"Paintball?" she demanded.
"Yeah. I've never done that."
"You're blind, Iggy."
"You don't think I can shoot a paintball gun? I have bitchin' aim, Nudge. Remember the time I shot Fang clear out of the sky? That was awesome."
"Fine, fine. But I don't think we should go to paintball for our first date, Iggy."
"Well, then how about the restaurant downtown?" I suggested. "It's got a very chic, sort of '60s style."
"Ooh, I like that."
"And if you finish their Mega-Burger in less than an hour, you don't have to pay for it."
"That's romantic," she said sarcastically. "You don't even like burgers."
"Well, it's the prestige more than anything," I said earnestly. "You get your photo on the wall. I like to think of myself as something of a low-level performance artist."
"Iggy, this is special," Nudge whined. "Our first date should be… you know, extravagant."
"I… I don't know if that's really true," I admitted. "I mean, I love to kiss you and hold you, and I've known you for as long as I can remember, and of course I love you, but… I don't know. You kissed me up on the roof, and that was great, but then we're suddenly together? I don't know, Nudge. I'd have to think about it."
She was silent for a moment. "You couldn't have brought this up two weeks ago when this whole thing started?"
"I was enjoying it too much."
"Aaron wrote me a letter," Nudge said.
"Um… really?"
"Yeah. He wrote a very heartfelt, touching letter, begging me to take him back. I was gonna turn him down, but if you and I aren't really dating, then I might just take him up on it."
She slipped out of my grasp and ducked into the cafeteria. "Nudge!" I called. But it was too late. In the cafeteria, with all the voices and footsteps, and the echoes of the voices and footsteps, I'd never find her. And she knew it.
Well, now I had an agenda. Break it down into manageable pieces. First piece: acknowledge that it was my fault. Okay. Check. I can do that.
Step two… well, step two was to fix my relationship. Not many ways to break that down. I suppose I'll just do it, then.