Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys)(35)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE



The Madison Thing, by Reid


Madison Price was one of the first people to say something nice to me after the fall formal. So it seemed like I had an in with her, and then she asked me if I was going to the Andrew Mothereffing Jackson show. She just asked me like it was a normal thing we talk about, and not like up until then we never spoke at all. (Well, a couple times in geometry last year she had to borrow paper from me, but it didn’t ever seem like it could progress past that.) So I waited for a good moment (she walked up to me in the hallway and said hi and actually stopped, didn’t just keep walking like someone who’s not interested would probably do) and straight-out asked her if she wanted to go with me. After everything that happened with Jane I’m not going to get all mixed up in something weird and hopeless again.

Luckily and amazingly, Madison said yes! She gave me her phone number and email address and said we should hang out first. I didn’t want to seem desperate or weirdly eager so I waited a day to call her, and when she answered she said, “Reid, FI-nally.”

We didn’t actually talk for very long but she said she’d see me tomorrow, like it’s a special thing instead of us just seeing each other at school like we always do, and for a minute--well, more than a minute--I worried it might be some weird prank, but the next morning she was hanging near my locker and then talked to me until we had to get to class.

I kinda figured when I had my pick of girls after the dance I would ask out Erika or Jennie, but Madison just made it really easy, and I never really thought I could get anyone as popular as she is, so if I’d known, maybe I would have put her in my top three anyway. And now I’m not going to fall in love with a girl only to have my heart pulverized, so this is a great solution.





CHAPTER FORTY-TWO


Since Milo can’t set aside his tuba, and since I’m not sure if Ted and I are at Seeing Each Other Multiple Times on the Same Day level yet, I have no guy to accompany me to the Andrew Mothereffing Jackson show. I used to go to shows all the time without guys—Reid doesn’t count—but tonight is another story. Because I’m now at the Satellite with LucyAndNathan and ReidAndMadison.

I am the Fifth Wheel Legend, always in the way.

Lesser people would have canceled. But I do not miss shows. For reasons other than being stuck in Colonial Williamsburg, at least.

“This is nice, right?” Reid asks me while we’re checking out the merch table. Lucy and Nathan are securing our spot, and Madison’s in the bathroom probably putting on lip gloss or eyeliner or whatever—her makeup always looks perfect. I guess having a date means Reid’s over having his feelings hurt. That’s maybe the one positive outcome from this Madison development.

“The Satellite? Sure, we haven’t been here in a while,” I say, even though I know that’s not what he means.

“Madison’s cool,” he says as if that will convince me. “And it’s cool being out with Lucy and Nathan, doing couple stuff.”

“That’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard you say, which is saying something.” I know I’m being a jerk, but I don’t care. I know if he was the only one without a date we’d all have to comfort him. “Why can’t you go out with someone nice you actually like?”

“I like her.” Reid examines a T-shirt. “What do you think?”

“It’s definitely the coolest one.” I’m glad Lucy and I have maintained control of Reid’s wardrobe, and it hasn’t gone back to his mom.

Reid gets cash out of his pocket to buy the shirt. “Do you really not like her?”

This much concertgoing should have already taught Reid that the smartest time to buy any merch is on your way out so you don’t have to clutch some obnoxious thing all night long while you’re trying to just listen and have a great time. But I let him buy it, and he doesn’t seem to notice I never answer his question.

He heads back over to Madison and therefore Lucy and Nathan, but I hang back. After only a moment of deliberation I get my—or I should say Jennifer Anne Matthews’s—ID out of my purse and buy a beer. The beer-buying versus beer-receiving part of my life is new, so I just pick the first kind—Stella—on the list. Good news! It tastes like a beer.

The opener, Remington Steele, comes out, and I shove my way to the front so I’m near our group plus Madison. Lucy looks to my beer and raises an eyebrow, but it’s too loud to explain and even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t. Remington Steele’s set is loud and fun and fast and I’m not sure I could ever be in a bad mood at a show once it’s actually happening so I just grin at her.

Once the set is over I dash off to the bathroom. One beer apparently does the work of many sodas on my bladder. On my way back out, I think about getting a soda because while beer is the coolest of concert beverages, I actually like root beer better.

And then I’m sure I start hallucinating because this thing I see cannot be a thing that’s happening right now. Does one lousy beer make you hallucinate?

“Hi, Riley.” Ted waves from a distance, and then suddenly he’s close. Oh, wait, he just walked over quickly. That part isn’t weird. “I was wondering if you’d be here.”

“Of course I’m here,” I say, and grin at him. Because I wish one of us would have just asked the other one. But you wondered, Ted, you wondered!