“No, you’re not.”
“Which means you are sleeping with Dani.”
I just stare at her, not sure what she expects me to say.
“What am I supposed to do about Homecoming, Chase? Are you going to ask me?”
“I was planning to, yes.”
“God,” she says. “I remember that day so clearly. How it was so cool when Hunter Lansford asked Dani to Homecoming. And so early. Like, no one asks that early. I knew he must have really liked her. But then you got in a fight with him. I thought it was because you were standing up for your friend, but you were jealous, weren’t you?” I don’t get a chance to reply because she keeps going. “No, that wouldn’t be right. You were hooking up with that senior. Dance team captain. What was her name?” She snaps her fingers and points at me. “I know—Kelsey Jennings.”
“Does it matter? That was, like, two years ago. And Homecoming isn’t until mid-October this year. That’s, like, five or six weeks away. No one will start asking until a few weeks before.”
“That’s because boys don’t have to buy dresses.” She pouts. “God, Chase. We’re supposed to go together. Quarterback, cheer captain. I’ll be up for queen.”
“Somehow, I don’t think you’ll have trouble finding a date, if that’s what you want.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Are you or are you not planning on asking me to Homecoming?”
“I was planning to,” I say again.
“And now, you’re not?” she smarts back.
I bury my face in my hands and rub my fingers up and down my forehead. “I need to go home, Lacey.”
“Fine,” she says. “We’re through, okay?”
“Okay,” I say and then get in my car.
I stay up late, waiting for Dani to call me but she doesn’t. Just like she didn’t last night. I want to call her. Or text her. Check on her and tell her what happened, but we agreed she would call me.
So, I wait.
Thursday, September 12th
Relationships are volatile.
Chase
Lacey’s been flitting around school all day today with Pace, flirting with him.
Pace looks a little uncomfortable when they almost run into me in the hall between classes, but Lacey just giggles and wraps her hand around his bicep. A possessive move of hers I know all too well.
I’m sure I’ll hear about it in the locker room. Damon, Pace, and I became fast friends on and off the field when he moved here last year.
He and Damon are both funny and good at playing off each other when they’re joking around. They always make me laugh.
Right now though, I’m not laughing. And it has nothing to do with him.
I haven’t heard from Dani since she left on Sunday. And it’s starting to piss me off.
Especially when the girls in my physics class are going on about how cute it would be if Lacey and Pace dated since their names sort of rhyme and all that.
We get done with class early and are just sitting here, doing nothing. I ask the teacher, who happens to be our offensive line coach, if I can head to practice early. He agrees, so I grab my books, go to the locker room, and am the first one on the field.
I’m warming up when Pace joins me and is like, “Dude, what’s up with you and Lacey?”
“Nothing.”
“So, you broke up?”
“We were never in a relationship. We were just—dating.”
“And are you still just dating?” he asks, starting to look frustrated with me.
“No, we aren’t.”
“Why is she hitting on me? To make you jealous?”
“I don’t think so. She is the one who ended things. What, you don’t like her?”
“I mean, Lacey’s pretty and all, but she’s not really my type. I kind of have my eye on someone here, and I’ve sort of been talking to a girl from South.”
The town we live in is a suburb of Kansas City. It has an old historic downtown, but it’s grown over the years, and it now has three high schools. The original school is called South, the second high school is North, and we go to the newest one, West.
“She’s mad at me,” I tell him. “Partially because I haven’t asked her to Homecoming yet.”
He sits on the grass and does a hurdler’s stretch. “Dude, that’s, like, two months away.”
“Five weeks actually, but yeah. No one is asking anyone yet.”
“That’s because high school relationships are volatile, man. Can’t ask too soon and be stuck with someone you don’t like anymore.” He switches legs and stretches out the other side. “The crazy thing is, I have also heard that Lacey has been inquiring, not so discreetly, about my size.”
“Six foot, one eighty-five. All she has to do is read a game program. Although I think we all know you’re really only five-eleven,” I say with a laugh.
“Yeah, she wasn’t talking about that size.”
I start laughing. “Seriously?”
“Girls, right?” he says, standing up. “I swear, unless you’re in love, the sex almost isn’t worth the hassle sometimes.”
What he says causes me to stop laughing. “Um, Lacey told me she loved me. Before our home opener. But then, on Monday, she saw a photo of me kissing Dani Diamond on my birthday.”
“Ooh-wee,” he says, slapping me on the back. “Damon’s sister is, like, the ultimate hottie. She come back from college or something?”
“Yeah. She’s been my best friend my whole life.”
“Oh, so Lacey didn’t understand that it was just a friendly birthday kiss?” he asks, picking up a football and tossing it to me.
“The kind with tongue,” I say, and then I find myself spilling out details I’ve never really told any of my friends. I mean, Damon and Haley know, but that’s about it. “Before you moved here, our families went on a summer vacation together. We hooked up. Actually, that makes it sound like just a hook-up. It was anything but that.”
He squints his eyes at me. “You love her, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but we’re not together. We were supposed to be.” I tell him about how we were going to start dating, how Lansford asked her to Homecoming early, our subsequent fight, and how we haven’t been best friends since. “The day she left for college, we hugged. We talked on the phone some after that and expressed that we missed each other. Especially the best-friends part.”
“Where does the tongue fit into those parts?” he asks with a smirk.
“You can’t tell anyone this. If Damon hears—”
“I won’t. Trust me. But I bet I can guess. She came back home for your birthday, and you slept with her?”
“Yeah.”
“And now, it’s all up in the air again?”
“Yep.”
“And Lacey saw the photo of you kissing Dani and is trying to make you jealous with me. One of your best friends.”
“That about sums it up,” I say sadly.
“She’s desperate, bro.”