Ding dong!
Cady still jumped at the sound of the doorbell—another adjustment she still hadn't made form her canvas-tented years in Kenya.
She stopped in front of the big mirror on the way to the door, checking herself in the mirror. She was wearing leggings—these black stretchy pants that were skin-tight. They didn't leave much to the imagination—Janis had helped her buy underwear that would fit under them, these tiny flossy things called thongs that looked miserable but were actually strangely comfortable. Janis had explained to her that whenever you wore tight pants, you needed to wear one, because the outline of your underwear was supposedly embarrassing. Cady had been grateful for that—Regina had taken her out to buy the leggings, but had forgotten to mention the underwear thing, so Janis had saved her from totally embarrassing herself.
She was wearing a tank top and a new bra as well—Karen had walked her through Victoria's Secret and had the patience to explain the difference between a demi and a push-up and t-shirt bra and everything in between. For somebody who couldn't do basic algebra, Karen was surprisingly knowledgeable about bras, and she had helped Cady out. The result was a pleasing heft to her chest that wasn't usually there in her worn out sports bras. Aaron would like it. A spritz of body spray—also from Victoria's Secret—and her hair in a 'messy-but-sophisticated' bun—Gretchen's idea—had her totally ready for a hot study session with Aaron.
She opened the door and tried to put on her most winning smile as the sight of Aaron greeted her.
"Hey," he smiled and gave a little half-wave, giving Cady ample time to take in his biceps and well-fitted t-shirt. Unf.
"Hi!" Cady said. "Come on in!" she beckoned him through the door and he stepped through hesitantly, taking in the space around them.
"Shoes off?" he asked.
"What? Oh, yeah! Sorry. Still not used to this whole 'no-shoes' thing."
"You always kept your shoes on in Africa?"
"Totally. In case of beetles or spiders or, ya know, whatever."
"Beetles?" Aaron asked with interest.
"Yeah, there are tons of them, and they can kill you, or just give you a nasty rash, so you keep your boots on at all times, and during their mating season you duct tape around your pant legs just to be cautious," Cady explained. The Peace Corps volunteers used to be able to listen to her rant about this stuff for hours, always so impressed with her knowledge of the native flora and fauna. Regina grew bored with it quickly, however, and Cady watched as Aaron's eyes grew wide with disgust at her story, clearly following in Regina's footsteps. Right, so no talking about Africa.
"What's this?" Aaron asked, gently brushing his hands over the intricate beadwork of one of her mom's artifacts.
"That's uh, a Masaai doll. Beadwork is really important to them there, but it's like, totally boring."
"Oh," Aaron said, still running his fingers over the ivory beads around the dolls neck, transfixed.
"Wanna get to studying?" Cady asked, pointing at the kitchen.
"Sure," Aaron murmured, leaving the doll behind reluctantly. He followed Cady into the kitchen, which was filled with other items her parents had picked up in their travels. Aaron made a slow loop around the room, looking at all the stuff—why was he so obsessed with it, if he didn't want to know about it? Cady didn't understand, but she sat at the kitchen table and watched him pace the room like he was in a museum.
"Do you want some water or something?" she asked, trying to hide the impatience in her voice.
"No, I'm good. You guys have a lot of stuff. From Africa."
"I spent my whole life there," Cady replied. Watching him take it in, she had a momentary pang in her stomach. It was hard to explain, leaving all of it behind, but this was clearly better, right? A cute boy looking at the jumble of relics was much better than the artifacts themselves. Or at least, that's what Cady's raging hormones were telling her.
"This must be a hard adjustment," Aaron finally turned and looked at her. "North Shore, I mean. It must be hard to do high school after all. . . this." He gestured around, taking it all in.
"Yeah. It's definitely different," Cady said uncomfortably. He wouldn't get it if she tried to explain. Thankfully, he picked up on her discomfort.
"Sorry, you probably want to do math," Aaron finally crossed to the table, sitting down next to her. "Have you started in on this homework yet? There were some tough ones in there when I glanced it over."
They spent the next thirty minutes going over the assignment and divvying up the problems and then setting in on them. Cady couldn't help but crane her neck every few minutes, taking stock of Aaron out of the corner of her eye. He had this little hair-flip he'd do whenever his bangs flopped in his eyes, and it made the veins on his neck stand out just a little bit, perfectly kissable up against his jaw. Cady had to stop herself before she drooled.
"So, you dated Regina?" Cady bit her eraser nervously after asking the question, peeking at Aaron. Why had she asked that? So out of the blue like that, and so invasive? What was her problem?
"Yeah," he sighed. He leaned back in his chair, putting his arms behind his head to stretch. Cady forced her eyes to not linger on the inch of exposed skin between the bottom of his t-shirt and the top of his boxers. The smell of Axe body spray drifted to her nostrils and enticed her even further—this boy was dangerously intoxicating.
"I heard that it didn't end too well?" Cady asked hesitantly. She wanted to hear his side of the story.
"You did?" Aaron was confused. Oh shit—what if he thought Regina was talking about him, or wanted to get back together or something?
"I mean, I heard it ended."
"Oh. Well, yeah. It's all on me. I kept trying to be 'cool' to fit in with her because—well, I mean, it's Regina." Even the way he said her name sounded tired.
"I get that," Cady nodded, shaking the thought, just remembering the time she'd spent with Regina so far. It felt fantastic to have the people at school always watching her and wanting to be her, but actually spending time with the plastics was tiring. She always had to have her best face on. Already she was spending three times as much time every morning getting ready for school, putting on make-up and straightening her hair and consulting with the plastics on what outfits were and weren't okay.
"I found it so frustrating!" Aaron recalled. "I kept losing sight of myself in order to be more of what she wanted me to be."
"That sounds frustrating," Cady batted her lashes at him, but he wasn't looking at her.
"By the end of it, I had no idea who I was. It was awful—I don't ever want to do that again. That's why I'm swearing off of dating," Aaron declared, finally relaxing forward from his stretch. "I just get stupid with love."
"shit," Cady whispered under her breath. Aaron didn't want to date.
She hadn't really thought she had a chance before, since she had promised Janis to stay in Regina's good graces for spying and stuff. She had been ready to let that idea kind of slip though, to plant the idea in Gretchen's mind and see if a rumor about her and Aaron getting together made Regina angry or not. Then she could gauge the reaction and maybe have the best of both worlds, dating Aaron and still being friends with—or, err, spying on—the plastics while keeping Janis and Damian satisfied.
"I'll just never get it, ya know?" Aaron finally looked at Cady and she looked away quickly, afraid to meet his eyes. He didn't want to date. That was that, end of story. There went her grandiose plan.
"I'll never get it," she mumbled to herself, beginning to wallow in self-pity.
"Never get what?" Aaron asked, finally tuned back in to the homework assignment spread out in front of them.
"What? Oh, uhh, I'll never get this problem!" Cady laughed, eagerly covering up her slip.
"That? That's a factorial. You multiply it," Aaron pointed at the numbers.
"Thanks!" Cady gushed. Shit. Damian would be upset with her. But he didn't really get it—if Aaron didn't want to date, Cady was going to have to step up her game to convince him otherwise. And so far, acting stupid was what got Aaron to notice her, and pay attention, and it had gotten him to her house, one-on-one, right? Right now, all she had going for her were these tutoring sessions. Unless. . .
"Hey, are you going to Karen's kickback?" she asked.
"What?" Aaron startled. He had been deep in thought over a problem—a basic derivation, Cady could see as she peeked—and his head flew up when she spoke, his bangs flopping over his eyes in that adorable way that made her insides melt.
"Karen's kickback. Tonight. It's small, but I figured you'd be invited. . ." Cady trailed off, looking through her lashes at Aaron.
"Oh. That. One of the guys on the team mentioned it, but I didn't think I'd go. I figured it would just be Regina and her posse and all that—no offense," he smiled at Cady and she thought she could literally see his tooth sparkle in the light.
"None taken," Cady smiled. Her cheeks were starting to hurt from all this smiling. Why did people smile so much when they weren't happy? "I get it. I'll be there though! So it can't be all bad, right? You should come!" she pled.
"I'll consider," Aaron smiled again, and this time it looked a little more genuine. "There's still a lot of homework to get through first though, right? What do you make of number fourteen? I don't get it at all," he turned to his book and Cady eyed his profile for a moment, taking in his chiseled jaw and beautiful straight nose and defined brow ridge—how could any boy look so perfect? She drifted off into her imagination, calculus forgotten as she imagined walking down the hallway on his arm, people stopping and staring at them two perfect people making one perfect couple. . .
"Cady?"
"What? Oh, yeah, fourteen. That one was hard!" Cady smiled blandly—she hadn't even looked at the question yet.
"Oh. Well, what do you think of it, looking now?"
Cady shook her head and actually looked at the question in front of her—needing help was great for starting a conversation, but she couldn't act like a complete idiot, or Aaron would think she was just a dumb person. But hey—if acting stupid got him to hang out with her, and go to the kickback, then it was working, right? She could have Aaron and Regina, and Janis—she'd just have to figure something out. If she could learn math, she could learn love. How hard could it be?