Forever for a Year(72)

57

Carolina gets a New Year’s text

For New Year’s Eve, Trevor and I went to a party at his sophomore friend Aaron’s house. His family was rich. Richer than Trevor’s. How do people get so much money? I don’t understand. Anyway. They had a big indoor pool so we all brought our swimsuits even though it was cold outside. There was lots of good food and loud music but his parents were there so there was no alcohol. I didn’t drink, and didn’t want to drink, but parties seemed more fun when other people were drinking. Does that make me sound dumb? Maybe. I don’t know. It was a great party, but it felt like a junior high party not a high school one, even though almost everyone there was older than me.

We all swam together at first. I wore a bikini and everyone said it looked nice but some of the older girls had much more developed boobs so I didn’t feel that sexy. After twenty minutes where the couples sort of made out and flirted in the pool, which was cute, all the boys started showing off and doing flips and playing rough so it got boring and I got out and watched. That’s when I got a text from a number I didn’t recognize:





UNKNOWN


happy new year’s, freshman I almost for sure knew who it was, but I still texted back:





ME


Who IS this?

Then he texted back:





UNKNOWN


you know

Annoying! Gosh! Yes, I knew it was Alexander Taylor. The weirdo junior who wore ties and thought dirty thoughts in his eyes.





ME


Maybe I do

Then:





ALEXANDER TAYLOR


where are you? i’ll come pick you up WAIT A MINUTE! He thought I would just let him come get me? Was he crazy? Was he insane? I was with Trevor! I would never leave Trevor to go with him! I didn’t know him at all! THEN WHY WAS I WISHING I COULD SAY YES? Because I’m not a good person. I’m not. I pretend I am. But I’m not. I’m such a jerk. I had the greatest boyfriend ever and I was texting some psycho junior who would probably murder me. But probably not. We probably would just drive around and talk and he would have interesting things to say and it would be weird but it would be so different. And he would try to kiss me and I wouldn’t let him because I’m in love with Trevor, but I would like that he tried.

Another text:





ALEXANDER TAYLOR


i need an address, freshman My heart was racing so fast I thought it would burst out of my chest and leap into the pool and Trevor would scream and I would die and he would look at my phone and see that I was text cheating on him.

“Who are you texting, babe?” Trevor said, and I quickly erased the conversation and looked up and saw that Trevor was out of the pool—I hadn’t even noticed!—and drying off.

“Kendra,” I said. I lied. Gosh, I should be punished for being such a liar.

“Why don’t you invite her?” Trevor said.

“She never wants to come to parties, but okay,” I said, and texted her just because it made it look like I’d already been texting her. Kendra asked if there was drinking and I said no and so she said she would come. My phone kept buzzing with texts as I waited for Kendra to arrive, but I knew it was Alexander Taylor not Kendra, so I pretended I wasn’t dying to know what he was texting and just left it in my purse.

After Kendra arrived, I forgot about Alexander Taylor’s texts, which was a relief, and remembered how nice it was to talk to real girlfriends outside school since I hadn’t in so long. But then these two sophomore boys started flirting with Kendra, and Trevor was back in the pool being silly. So I was alone. No one flirted with me because Trevor and I were going to spend forever together and no boy flirts with a girl who’s already promised to spend forever with another boy.

I went to the bathroom so I could look at the texts from Alexander without anyone noticing. I should be arrested. I know. But it also made me really excited, so I did it anyway. There were like a hundred texts, including:





ALEXANDER TAYLOR


answer me, freshman

don’t be a tease, freshman send me a picture

send me a sexy picture

don’t be a freshman, freshman i know you’re thinking about me That was the worst. Because it was true. Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? It was so dumb and so wrong and I wished I could think about anything besides Alexander Taylor and what it would be like to be with him somewhere, anywhere, instead of here with Trevor.

I didn’t text Alexander back anything. I erased what he sent and hoped he didn’t send me any more, but then I hoped he’d send me another text that very second. I’m a crazy person, aren’t I? I went back out to the pool and found all the girls were back in the water, even Kendra, and Trevor was picking up and throwing this sophomore girl named Jamie, who was super short and heavy but had a pretty face and super, super, super-big boobs and I could see Trevor’s eyes watch her boobs every time she jumped up after the splash. HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO ME? But then I remembered my texts with Alexander and stopped being mad, sort of, and then I jumped into the water and made sure I was the only girl Trevor picked up the rest of the party.





58

Trevor doesn’t answer a call