Not If I See You First(70)
“Enough already! God, what’s happened to you? I figured you didn’t want to play cards with Petey all afternoon so I drove you up here but not to throw you a pity party! After a nice long summer of… of thorns, now it’s all this mopey I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Is this because of Scott Kilpatrick?”
“Uh…”
“Faith told me. She said it wasn’t a secret. Is it?”
“No.”
“She thinks you’ve turned into this pile of mush because of your dad and that makes sense but I don’t think that’s all of it. She doesn’t know what breakups are really like.”
She pauses a moment and then switches from her lecturing voice to one that’s conspiratorial. “Don’t you think it’s weird, how she’s so popular but doesn’t have a boyfriend? Usually being popular has as much to do with who you’re with but she’s not with anybody.”
“That’s just how amazing Faith is; she’s popular all on her own, not because she’s dating the head of the football team.”
“The quarterback?”
“Whatever. And she dates, just no one more than a few times. She has impossibly high standards.”
“So do you.”
“Yeah, well, not impossibly high. Someone did come along who meets them.”
“Your problem is thinking no one else ever will.”
I can’t think of anything to say to this that doesn’t qualify as woe-is-me.
She says, “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“I haven’t figured it all out yet. Maybe I never will.”
TWENTY-NINE
“I’m impressed you came for Office Hours,” Sarah says. “Seeing how it’s gone recently.”
“I can’t let ’em win. I have a reputation to maintain.”
“You’re going to get another chance in a minute. I just thought I’d give you a little boost of self-esteem first.”
“What—”
“Parker.” It’s Trish. “Scotty wants me to say I’m sorry so I’m saying I’m sorry.”
Wow, she is definitely not sorry. I open my bag and dig around. “Okay, hang on a sec…”
“What for?”
“I have a notebook… with a list of check boxes… Now I can check off the one that says ‘Trish said the words I’m sorry to me, presumably for threatening me with a beer bottle.’”
“God, I did not.”
“Actually, you did, but I’ve heard worse.” I close my bag. “Never mind, I’ll remember. I accept your apology. I’m guessing Frank is going to ask me about this later? If he does, rest assured, I’ll tell him you said you were sorry.”
“I guess you’re not a complete idiot.”
“The day may come.”
“I’ll run with you if you want to join the team.”
I laugh. “Why the hell would I want to run with you?”
“I’m the fastest sprinter we have,” she says, clearly not offended. “Including the guys. And no one else wants to. When you didn’t show up yesterday Coach called us all together to talk about it.”
“Wow,” I say with my skeptical voice. “You were the only one willing to run with me?”
“Okay, a couple others raised their hands but they’re slow as molasses. And I’m also closest to your height so we’ll have the same stride length—those others would trip you up not even meaning to. No one else even likes sprinting. They’re all on the team for longer distances but Coach makes some of them do it anyway to fill out the roster.”
“At least I wouldn’t have to worry about them steering me into a pole on purpose.”
“Ha, you don’t need my help for that. I saw you run for Coach and trip over your own feet. Not very impressive. I could run that fast if I didn’t worry about keeping my face off the ground. I figured you’d say no but thought I’d offer anyway. See you around—”
“Hang on, I didn’t say no.”
“But you’re going to,” Sarah says.
“Why? She’s the fastest next to me, she’s willing, and I bet she’d be very glad to say in her college applications that she helped a blind girl achieve her dreams.”
“Definitely not a complete idiot,” Trish says in a smiling voice. It even sounds like it might be a real smile, not the shark kind, but I won’t be dropping my guard anytime soon.
“You can’t trust her.”
“She wouldn’t let me run into anything, especially with loads of people around watching all the time, right, Trish?”
“You’re three for three. What do you say?”
It makes sense. A guide is just to stop me from running into things and that kind of getting hurt doesn’t frighten me. I don’t need a saint to run with, just someone willing and able and most of all, fast.
“Parker?” Trish says.
“You can call me B.B.” I extend my hand. “What it means can be our little secret.”
She laughs and shakes my hand. “See you after school.”
After she leaves, I say to Sarah, “Was that a laugh of grudging newfound respect or was she rolling her eyes because she really does think I’m an idiot?”