I had only been sitting in Mr. Gradstein's classroom for 5 minutes before an impatient redhead came whirling through the door. I had planned to sit here in peace, by myself, with my coffee before class would start, but Cat had other plans. She ran right up to her seat next to mine, and gripped onto the back of it, unable to contain herself. She is never here this early so she must have been truly anxious.
"Jade! Will you tell me already? You're killing me!" she exasperated.
It humored me that it was causing her so much distress from not knowing what my "news" from yesterday was. I wanted to see her wait a little longer, so I only smiled at her and took another sip of my coffee.
Still gripping her seat, she stomped in place a little and begged, "Pleeease. I am going to explode!"
"I would love to see that," I said seriously.
"Tell me!"
To toy with her a little more, I chose that I wouldn't tell her anything after all. Instead, I would have her-
"Guess."
"Jaaade, I don't want to guess. Just tell me!"
"It's a game. Ask me 'yes or no' questions."
"Ooh! I love games – okay!"
I rolled my eyes, out of her field of view, at how wishy washy she can be.
"Did you get a phone call from the president?"
"What? No Cat, guess something that could actually happen."
"It could happen!" she said defensively. "Umm, did you find a puppy in the middle of the street, take him home, and name him Franklin?"
Oh my God.
"Cat. That is a horrible guess. Ask more broad questions."
"Kay, umm… was it something that happened at school?"
"Yes, good!"
"Oh yay, I got it!"
She sat, happy with herself, and looking away absentmindedly.
"... That's not all, Cat. Keep going – something happened at school."
"Oh. Was there an animal involved?"
"No."
"Dang it. Was it after rehearsal?"
"Yup. Keep going."
"Okay, did something happen at your house?"
"No, you already asked that – we were still at school."
"We?"
Darn, I thought to myself, that's a nice little hint for her.
"Were you with the cast?"
"Part of the cast," I admitted.
"Was Robbie there?"
"Ew, no."
"Don't say ew, I like Robbie. Umm, was Beck there?"
"Maybe."
"Was anyone else there?"
"... No."
Cat's face started to light up with excitement – surely she would guess it right any second now. I did worry a little that she wouldn't get there fast enough though. By now, I could expect to see some other students slowly making their way to class and I wouldn't want them to overhear what happened. The last I needed was more unprompted and undesired attention.
"Did you guys learn how to do the tango?"
"Wh-"
"Because I've always wanted to learn how to tango."
"No, Cat," I exhaled with exasperation.
"Did you figure out how to lick your elbows? I've been practicing for a couple days, but I can't –"
She tried to demonstrate for me by sticking her tongue out as far as possible and pulling an elbow toward her face… with no luck. Before someone could enter the room and judge her more harshly than they probably already do, I tried to get her to behave like someone with the social intelligence of an actual teenager instead of a child.
"No. And stop doing that," I instructed.
"I'm out of guesses. Will you just tell meee?"
She was getting restless again and I was quite over the guessing game, too.
"Fine. So… after rehearsal. I was in the janitor's closet-" I figured it would be best if I kept the reason why I was there to myself "- and Beck came in and… we kissed."
As quickly as they tend to do, Cat's emotions changed from one extreme to another. Her eyeballs looked as if they could pop out of her skull. I tried to suppress the smile that fought to show on my face.
"Kissed?! Like a real kiss, not acting?"
"Yes," I wanted to laugh. I was full of pride to have finally kissed somebody and to be able to share the knowledge with a friend (who also loves the gossip). "But don't tell anyone else, okay?"
"Why not?! If someone like Beck was my boyfriend, I wouldn't want to keep it a secret."
Woah. As much as I like the idea of being his girlfriend, I didn't know if that was the right word yet. If he thinks I'm telling people that we're dating, he might think I'm rushing into things that neither of us are ready for. He might think I'm as psychotic as some of the other girls who are unreasonably attracted to him.
"No," I warned. "Cat, don't say a word. We just kissed. Once – well, twice – and that's all."
"But–"
"Nope. Promise me that you won't speak a word of it to anyone."
In defeat, she huffed out a breath and looked sadly to the ground. "Kay kay."
Students had begun to find their first period classes now, and I was thankful that Cat and I were able to establish our little non-disclosure agreement before anyone was within earshot. I could have sworn, though, that she was biting down on her tongue to keep from blurting the new gossip to our classmates.
Throughout the next few hours, I had the strangest feeling that people had their eyes on me… again. It's possible that paranoia was making me read into things that weren't truly there. Like Fran or Lyndsey looking at me in the halls between bells. Nowadays, people stare at me out of fear or morbid intrigue, but for a reason I couldn't pinpoint, it looked like they were staring with loathing… No. That wasn't quite it. Jealousy.
I believed with a fair amount of certainty that Cat wouldn't have said a word of gossip to anyone, so I tried to find another reason for the judgemental looks. Nothing came to mind.
Nothing, that is, until the tone-deaf seagull came up to me on my way to the Grub Truck with way too much confidence – Trina was her name, wasn't it?
"What do you have that I don't have?" she asked – well, demanded. "I'm older, prettier, and more talented than you. Why would he choose you over me?"
"What?" I was so caught off guard by her confrontation, her meaning didn't fully register with me.
"Beck, duh! Why would he want to date you of all people?"
"Date?" My eyes abandoned Trina and immediately began looking for Cat instead. She was the only explanation for this. When I caught a glimpse of her firetruck hair floating towards our usual table, I marched straight in her direction. Trina wasn't happy being left unanswered, but I couldn't care.
"Cat!" I called out. She turned around just as she was about to sit down at our usual spot. Robbie, Andre, and Beck weren't quite here yet.
"Oh hey, Ja-"
"Who did you tell?" I cut her off sternly.
She felt like she was being chastised by a parental figure so she whined, "Nobodyyy. I promised I wouldn't say anything."
"Then why does Trina what's-her-face think Beck and I are dating?" I said that last word in a hushed voice in case anyone could hear.
"Oh. Umm…"
The wheels were turning in her head, and a moment of realization started to show on her face.
"Cat. What did you-"
This time, I was the one getting cut off. The familiar voice behind Moritz Stiefel walked beside me and sat at our lunch table.
"You and Beck dating?! When did that start?"
"Not so loud, Robbie! And, no – that's not wha–"
"Man, it's about time!" Andre interjected now, coming to sit from another direction. "I thought you two would never get together."
I pivoted back to Cat with a glare on my face that would've made Robbie pee his pants. From the look of distress on hers, I knew that she was hiding something now.
"I'm going to count to three–"
"No!"
"– and you're going to tell me who you told… One… Two… Thr–"
"Okay, okay! I didn't say a word – I promise. But I couldn't help myself, I had to get it out somewhere, so… I might've typed it."
I turned almost too scarily tense, "Where did you type it?"
"Umm… a a social network service based in Los Angeles, California sanctioned by Hollywood Arts?"
"You posted it on The Slap?!"
"Yeah, that might be the easier way to put it."
Unbelievable. I had to hand it to the little loop-hole-finding weasel; she really didn't break her promise. Next time, I'll have to be more intentional with my choice of words. But now I have a problem on my hands. Anyone who saw Cat's tweet would think Beck and I are dating, but we haven't discussed this. Has Beck seen the tweet? Surely someone has mentioned something to him by now.
I had to find him and clear the whole thing up so he doesn't think I'm telling tall tales. I didn't want to ruin what we have before we even have it.
I scanned the Asphalt Cafe to find him before he could come sit with us – if he even wanted to, that is. He could very well want to avoid me now if he thought I was getting overly attached. It didn't take long for me to catch him buying food from Festus.
Robbie and Andre might have been trying to pry some more information out of me, but I had tunnel-vision, so I couldn't tell. I ignored everything and walked straight over to Beck to clear the air. My face turned warm out of embarrassment as I drew closer. I always hated confrontation, but this time it felt necessary.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?"
He didn't seem particularly creeped out to see me, which put my mind slightly at ease. If anything, I would even guess he was happy to see me. In contrast, I could feel the resentful stares of our feminine peers; Beck didn't seem to notice.
"Yeah, sure! What's up?"
I led him to the side of the Grub Truck so that we weren't in the middle of the most crowded area and began to explain, "I don't know what you've heard or what you've seen on The Slap, but–"
"Ah. I thought this must be about what Cat said."
My face fell, "So you did hear?"
"I think just about everyone has gotten the news by now," he laughed.
"Oh my God. I-I'm sorry. I just told her that we kissed – and I told her not to tell anybody. But of course, she couldn't resist telling literally everybody and now everyone thinks we're… boyfriend and girlfriend-" the words felt odd in my mouth "- but I know that we're not. And…"
I didn't quite know what to say to fix the mess.
"Wait. Are you saying you don't want me to be your boyfriend?"
"No, that's not what I meant, I just…" oh God. Embarrassing. Embarrassing. "I just didn't want you to think that I'm going around telling everyone we're dating when we aren't – not really."
He… smiled? "Were you worried that I was going to be scared off by that tweet?"
"Well… yeah."
"How many times do I have to tell you?"
I wasn't sure what he was getting at so I looked quizzically at him until he answered.
"I'm unscareable."
"They say third time's the charm," I say with much more relief now than I had moments ago. "So… what now then?"
"Well-" he put is arm over my shoulders and guided us in the direction of our table, without care of anyone looking at us "- I don't know about you but I'd like to eat my lunch before we have to get back to class. And what would you say if I asked you out on, you know, a real date?"
I looked up at him from under his bicep with wide eyes. "I– what?"
"I think you heard me right. Would you like to go out on a real date with me?"
Any second now I would wake up; there's just no way this is reality anymore. Did Beck Oliver, the most desired boy of Hollywood Arts, really just ask if he could openly, publicly date me of all people? Of course, my answer was-
"Yes."
Another smile stretched on his face. "Okay, then just give me a little time to figure out where I'm taking you. In the meantime, are you still coming over after school today to run our lines?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. Yeah that still works," I answered as we found our seats next to Cat, Robbie, Andre and Cat. They were all staring at us eager to know more gossip, but I shot a deathly glare to make them all turn back to their food.
Cat wouldn't have seen it, but I did give her a discrete, thankful smile.
Thanks again to all of you who take the time to read this story! Special thanks to Fayella, Zeroastai, and quepongoaqui for leaving feedback on my previous update.
I hope you enjoyed this latest update and are having a great weekend!
