Every Other Weekend(26)

“You guys all know Adam, right?” Erica looked around the long rectangular table as heads nodded. I did know most everyone. A few other cheerleaders; their boyfriends; Erica’s younger brother, Peter; and her two best friends.

“Hey,” I said.

“So,” Erica said the second I slid onto the bench seat next to her, “you probably know why I called you over.”

I had a split-second thought that she found my uncontrollable blushing as “adorable” as Jolene did, because I could feel myself turning red as a tomato. “You’re after my pudding cup?”

Erica laughed and the sound, so close to my ear, sent tingling goose bumps all over my skin. “I was thinking more of a preemptive partnering up for the Beowulf project in British literature.”

I thought I could maybe die happy, knowing she had looked at me like that once in my life, as if I, and I alone, had the power to do something for her. “Oh yeah, sure.”

And then she hugged me. “Adam, you’re the best.” She released me before I worried she’d feel the copious amount of sweat my body decided to start producing. “I hate these group projects. I always end up doing all the work, and people who do nothing get the same grade.” She stabbed a strawberry with her fork. “I refuse to do it again, you know?”

While I hated that, too, my mouth was going to agree with anything she said. “Yeah.”

“Anyway, we have the two highest grades in the class, so I figured if we partner up, I won’t end up doing the report and the presentation by myself again. Oh, and I promise I’ll pull my weight.”

I’d gone to school with Erica since the fifth grade, and she’d always been one of the smartest people in the class. I wasn’t worried about her being a slacker, I was worried my brain would cease functioning if I sat close to her for too long. “I’d love to work with you, but Mr. Conyer always assigns partners. I don’t think we’ll get to pick.”

Erica chewed on her strawberry and held up a finger. “I’ve got that covered. He always pairs us based on who’s sharing a desk, so as long as you don’t mind sitting next to me...” She smiled, because even she knew that wasn’t a possibility.

“For a good grade, I think I can suffer through it.”

Erica grinned at me. “Great.”



* * *



I had to wait for Jeremy in the parking lot after school. I didn’t have a key to unlock the car, so I stood shivering outside for a good ten minutes before he strolled up. As soon as he started the car, I turned the heater on high.

“You get cold like a little girl,” Jeremy said. “It’s ’cause you’re so skinny.”

“Not everyone comes equipped with the natural insulation that you have.”

“Someone’s feeling cocky.” Jeremy’s smile was tight, but I’d been expecting a quick slam of the brakes or a sharp turn as he backed out of the parking lot. Something to bang me around or smack my head against the window in response to my insult. A smile of any kind was unnerving. “That have anything to do with your lunch date?”

Of course Jeremy would have heard about that. Even the seniors paid attention to Erica Porter.

Every guy I knew was half in love with her, and in my case, I’d been full gone on her ever since she’d beaten me in our fifth-grade spelling bee. Not that Jeremy was ribbing me because she was smart—I was betting it had more to do with how she looked in her cheerleader uniform, a sight that had rendered me speechless on more than one occasion.

I tried to shut any conversation down as quickly as possible. “I ate with her because we’re working on an assignment together.” I left out the part where she’d called me to her table in front of the entire cafeteria and then launched herself into my arms when I agreed to be her partner.

“Not what I heard.”

I knew better than to ask, but I couldn’t help myself. “What did you hear?”

Jeremy played coy for exactly one mile. “You know she’s single now.”

I’d heard that enticing rumor only that morning.

“And she apparently broke up with her boyfriend because she’s interested in someone else.” Jeremy shook his head. “My baby brother and Erica Porter. And I thought she had taste.”

I didn’t respond. Talking with Jeremy was challenging under any circumstances. Talking with him about girls was not a thrilling prospect. My relationship with Erica was purely academic at the moment, but as strongly as I tried to point out that fact to my burning-hot face, it kept flushing as red as ever.

Was it possible that she was into me? We’d always been friendly, but today was the first time she’d hugged me, and the hug had been long enough for word to spread back to Jeremy.

“So what does Erica think about your weekend girlfriend?”

That snapped me out of my reverie real quick. Mom had been asking me about Jolene more and more lately, and since I’d made sure that I looked like myself in the subsequent photos Jolene and I had taken, she’d warmed up to seeing them and commenting on every detail quite freely, even when Jeremy was around.

“Erica doesn’t know about Jolene, who is just a friend. Both of them are friends.”

“Oh yeah? So you wouldn’t mind if I showed Erica that last picture of you with your ‘friend’?”