Liars and Losers Like Us(26)

“I don’t think he has a date but that doesn’t mean he’s going to ask me, and if he doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Okay, maybe it would suck a little. A lot. But if I don’t have a date, I’ll just go with Sam, Kendall, and some other kids as a group. It’ll be fun.

“That sounds fun, but if he doesn’t ask you,” she smiles, “you should ask him.”

“Just thinking about asking him gives me hives. I don’t want to put myself out there like that, plus it’s Prom. I want to be asked.”

“Yeah, you’re right hon, you deserve it. There’s still time, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

We thumb through a few racks of dresses at Macy’s but I don’t try any on. Instead, Mom buys me a new pair of purple Converse and says it’s my “Good Choice” award. I give a short acceptance speech at the counter. The cashier looks confused when I thank the alcohol industry and Molly for eating something green for dinner.

It’s really, really nice to see my mom laugh.

As we drive the forty-minute ride home from the mall, I practice a hundred different ways to tell my estranged best friend that her hot and amazing boyfriend is a dog-pig. Unfortunately no matter how I recite it, it all sounds the same.

The second I get home, I run upstairs to my room to check my phone. I’d purposely left it on my nightstand to charge. It seemed like a strategic plan that wouldn’t have me checking it every two minutes at the mall. Six missed calls, one voicemail, and two texts. One missed call is from my dad, and the other five are from an unknown number. I click the voicemail button.

“Hey Bree, it’s Todd. Can you please call me back. I think there was some sort of misunderstanding about last night. I’m not sure, but give me a call. Okay, well, just call me. Thanks.” Even though my messages are over, I wait to see if there’s an extra one that didn’t get listed. One from Dad. My stomach pangs with missing him.

Both texts are from Todd.

Bree its Todd. CALL ME ASAP

The other one:

BREE CALL ME WHEN U GET THIS THX

Call when I get this? Pffft. Don’t mind if I don’t.

I scroll through my recent calls and look at Dad’s number instead, but my phone vibrates, playing the song I programmed last night for Sean.

“Hello?” Please ask me to do something please, please, please, ask me out tonight.

“Bree. Hey, is it too late to see if you wanna do something tonight? Or do you have plans already?”

“Nope, I don’t. I mean, well I don’t have plans. I can. Yes. I can do something.”

“Are you suuuuuure?” he asks. “I think it’s against the rules to accept a date on the same night a guy asks.”

“I’m sure,” I say. “That’s so nineteen hundreds anyway. Plus, I was hoping we could get drunk and puke all over each other in your car tonight.”

“That sounds really hot. I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing. Cool. But can you drive? My car’s all puked out.” His laugh is so charmingly sexy.

“No problem,” I say into my phone as I tell the fluttering in my stomach to calm the hell down.

“Hey,” Sean says. “Have you talked to Todd?”

“Todd? No, why?”

“He called me to ask if the number he had for you was the same one I had. I guess Kallie gave him your number but he said you weren’t answering.”

“Yeah, I saw that he called but didn’t call him back and probably won’t. For reasons.”

“Sounds mysterious. Tell me about it tonight. What do you want to do?”

We do the whole “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” bit and in the end decide that I’ll just pick him up around seven and we’ll see what happens. After he hangs up, I hold the phone with a big nerdy smile on my face. My head falls onto my pillow and I yawn. “Sean Mills asking me out for two nights in a row … mmmmhmmmmmm,” I murmur.





ELEVEN


Breeeeeeeeeeeeee!” My mom’s yell echoes from downstairs.

My eyes dart to the clock on my wall. 6:44 p.m. Shit. Shit! I gotta go. I’m supposed to pick Sean up in fifteen minutes. I should’ve made some phone calls by now, too. I slide and hop off my bed, and am maybe a little relieved there’s no time for confrontational phone calls. I’ll call Kallie later and Dad too.

Mom yells again. “You want me to order pizza?” Her footsteps pound up the stairs.

“Sorry Mom!” I peek my head out the door. “Sean called. I’m picking him up in like five minutes.”

“Back-to-back Sean dates? Good for you. Sounds better than pizza. Have fun. Maybe I’ll call one of my girlfriends and get out too.”

“Just make sure you act like you don’t know me if we end up at the same bar,” I say.

I manage to put my hair back, brush my teeth, wash my face, and throw on some mascara in ten point five minutes. Good thing Sean lives so close. As I pull into his driveway, I slather on lip gloss, wondering if I should wait or knock on his door. Even though my heart rate most definitely picks up with each step, I decide to go to the door. I’m not trying to look like some creep sitting in the driveway in case his mom’s home. A petite woman, maybe in her late forties, with big brown hair and Sean’s blue eyes greets me.