Chapter 8: Agreements
Back to first person again! Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing. I
really appreciate it a lot! Keep on!
I focused on the seven letter blocks before me. Let's see. If I put
them here I could spell "hysteria". I picked up the letters and placed them
on the scrabble board. I was quite proud of the word I had formed. I rubbed
my hand across my nose for the millionth time and slightly smiled up at
Marco."Great. Thanks for, once again, taking the spot I was going to use." Marco droned. He knew I was a master at Scrabble and had yet to beat me.
It was about 3 in the morning and we were still wide awake. My mom
had long ago put herself to bed- complaining of a terrible headache- and we
had been playing Scrabble for the past hour. The board was almost
completely covered, mostly with long and complicated words I had formed.
"I forfeit. Let's go watch some mindless TV or something," Marco
crumpled up the score sheet and slid all the letters in the box.
"Hey! I didn't even see my final score!"
Marco rolled his eyes and helped me up, "You don't have to. It was
basically in the thousands. Come on."
We walked down my staircase into the den and stretched out on the
sofas with a few drinks and snacks. This was good. Marco and I hadn't spent
this much quality time together in like forever. Or since he started dating
Dylan. Same thing. I was surprised Dylan hadn't tried calling Marco's cell
phone about a million times that night. I guessed Marco had turned it off
so we weren't interrupted. What a sweetie.
I flipped through the stations until I landed on a rerun of Murder,
She Wrote. It's one of my many guilty pleasures. Marco sighed impatiently.
He does this all the time. I pretended not to hear him or any of his smart-
aleck comments. Jessica's my pal. She never disappoints me. She
always catches the crook.
"So, are you still reeling from the superlatives?"
Why did Marco have to bring that up? Yes, in the back of my mind I
kept seeing the two dreaded titles I had so luckily earned. Since when did
my appearance scream slut? Sure, I like wearing short skirts as much as
anyone else, but my ass isn't hanging out. I wear so many freaking layers
that I barely show any skin.
"Yeah, I'm a bit surprised that I'm the biggest hooch in the class. I
guess I didn't get that memo."
"Well, you leave a lot to the imagination. And boys' imaginations are
pretty dangerous. You have this subtle sexiness about you. Like you're
teasing everyone."
Was Marco actually saying this? This was coming from a gay boy. Well,
I guess he could explain it the best since he had no romantic interest in
any girl. "That's such bullshit. I'm not out there baring my stomach to
everyone like Paige or sticking my chest out like Hazel."
Marco fell off the couch laughing. "You don't have a chest to stick
out!"
I threw a pillow at him and crossed my arms over my barely there
chest. "Shut up..." I have to admit, I am a bit self-conscious about certain assets I am not blessed with.
"Oh, whatever. Boys are always trying to look up your skirt when
you're bending down or checking out your stomach when you reach up for
something in your locker. It's so disgusting."
"What do they say? Like... you know..." I never even knew people noticed me. This was new. And obviously Marco had all the dirt. I had to get it out of him.
"Do they like what they see? Sure!"
"Gross." Okay, actually, inside I was like yeeeah.... but I can't let Marco know that. He would just laugh at me.
"Oh please, you're the one who wears a see through skirt... Like you
don't want everyone looking..."
I narrowed my eyes, "Excuse me, but that skirt is adorable. And it's
not like you can really see anything. It's black."
"It's all about silhouettes, Ellie. And what a nice one you have," Marco wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I let out a small giggle. He is so gay. Literally.
"I don't even want to talk about this anymore. Remind me to wear some
really low jeans and a nice thong pulled up my ass on Wednesday, though. I
might want to start living up to my reputation." With that I turned the TV
off. Wasn't like we were watching it anyway.
Marco stared up at me from his spot on the floor. I raised an eyebrow
and he smiled. "Biggest bitch... yeah, I can see it."
I groaned. "Everyone acts like I'm some psycho-witch. I'm a perfectly
nice girl."
"I think people mistake honest and brutal for bitchy. Don't worry, I
know you're nice."
"Thanks Marco. That means a lot coming from my best friend." I was
being totally sarcastic. I would have hoped that Marco would think I was
nice. We were friends.
"I take that back. Sometimes, you can be way to sarcastic or know-it-
all."
"Because I do know it all."
"Yeah, sure."
I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. So was I supposed to change
who I was just to make everyone else happy? All I've ever done in my life
was worry about everyone else- if everyone else was happy. I've never done
anything selfish and, sometimes, it really just hurts me in the end. I
always feel unfinished. Marco could sense something was wrong. He shuffled
over to the couch and just squeezed my hand.
"How about we get you to bed? You're looking a little tired."
I lifted the corner of my mouth slightly. "We have tomorrow off and
the night's still young. Let's just get out of here."
"Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. Let's not plan anything. Let's just go."
So we did. We didn't really do anything spectacular. He got a chai
tea and I got a caramel cappuccino from this all-night café, we walked
through the park near the lake, and swung all night on the swing set. With
Marco pushing me on the swing and seeing all the stars, everything just
felt much simpler. I forgot about my dad being at war, I forgot about my
mom in bed and how she was going to have a huge hangover when she woke up,and I didn't care anymore what everyone labeled me as. For once, I felt
like I didn't have anything to worry about. I like it that way.
was choosing to spend it at my co-op. If anyone saw me, they would just
laugh. Seriously, how nerdy can you get? Oh well, I enjoy it. Plus, I had a
crap load to do.
"Shit!" I put my head in my hands as, once again, the computer
crashed. It had been doing this to me all morning. What really sucked was I
had just written a killer intro to my piece and had forgotten to save it.
Usually I'm pretty computer literate, but, today, I was completely
helpless. I was starting to wish I had chosen to go uptown to this cute
little vintage store that was just screaming my name at the moment. I had
my eye on this little plaid skirt from London. Total 80's era. Could it be
more perfect? So my thoughts are a bit random. I like it that way.
"Need help?"
I swiveled around in my chair and nodded silently at Craig. I must
have looked totally disheveled and I couldn't wipe the little pout off of
my face. Before I could do anything, Craig whipped his camera up and shot a
picture of me. "Hey!" I covered my face with my hands, but too late.
Craig took his camera off from around his neck and set it on a table,"Sorry. The artist in me saw something just now."
"What? Me looking totally clueless?"
"Well, it doesn't happen very often. I had to capture it."
"Yeah, well make sure it's a Kodak moment."
Craig leaned over my shoulder and clicked a few things on the
computer screen. "You need to clear the hard drive. Here, all you have to
do is go to control panel, click this icon, and it'll do it automatically.
Then just hit okay. Got it?"
"Yep. Thanks."
"No problem, Eleanor."
"You've got to be kidding me..." Now Craig was calling me Eleanor. I hate it. I sound so... old!
Craig grinned and then pulled up a seat next to me. What was he
doing? I can't concentrate, let alone work, when there is someone looking
over my shoulder. Seriously, even I need my space sometimes. But Craig was
not getting the looks I was giving him. He just continued to wait for me to
begin working. Well, if I couldn't write in front of him, I could research.
That was easy enough.
"So, I have this huge project coming up at my co-op..."
I sighed and leaned back in my chair before looking over at Craig.
Where was this going? "And...?"
"I get to actually take pictures for this clothing company's promo
magazine. It's not as big as a normal magazine, but this is pretty huge
stuff. If they like my stuff, they'll use it and I'll get credit."
I raised my eyebrows, "That rocks. What do you have to do exactly?"
"Well, I'm supposed to find a model who has a different look. I have
to bring him or her into the studio and take pictures. I mean, the team
will be there to help me. You know, there are people there who are interns
for like makeup artistry and hairstyling... stuff like that... But, I don't
know who to ask, you know? I really want someone who is going to make them
say wow."
I looked back at my computer out of the corner of my eye. Why
couldn't the page load faster so I could get back to work?! I didn't even
realize Craig was still rambling on about God knows what...
"So will you?"
"What?"
"Help me out." Craig looked so earnest, almost pathetic. Help him out
with what exactly? Maybe he just wanted my opinion. I mean, I'm pretty good
with a camera myself. He probably just needed my creative opinion on a few
things. What harm could it do? Not like I had much of a life anyway... "Sure.
I'll do it."
"Great! Thanks Ellie. I mean, you're going to look amazing. I swear,
so don't' worry about that. And listen, I know Ashley will probably be a
little upset that I didn't choose her as my model, but she'll understand
once she sees the pictures. You have a more unique look, you know? She's
too... out there... what you see is what you get. You're more mysterious..."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Modeling? ME? Did I actually
agree to do this? I watched as Craig just kept on talking and talking about
the project and how excited he looked. I couldn't just flat out say no,
right? That'd be way bitchy. What harm could it do? A few pictures,
probably like five, bam, I'm done, his pictures don't get picked, and we go
on living our normal lives.
"Ellie? Are you okay?"
I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at Craig. Oh God, he looked
way too desperate. He probably realized that I had realized that I had just
made a mistake. He thought I was going to back out. Hell, why not surprise
someone for once?
I smiled up at Craig and nodded, "Yeah. Totally fine. Cant' wait."
Craig stood up amazed. "You're exactly what I need. You're smile.
It's great! We're going to blow them away."
I swallowed hard and widened my smile. I probably looked like a
schizophrenic wacko to anybody walking past. After Craig closed the door to
my office, my head fell onto the keyboard and I groaned. What the hell had
I just gotten myself into?