Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys)(44)

I feel like I’m cheating on Ted, but, after all, Ted is not my boyfriend. Ugh, Ted! He’s working hard at deep-frying corn dogs and sticks of cheese while I’m out with this other guy. I feel like I’m maybe a jerk, so I get out my phone to text him.

i wish u could come to p&b show w/ me!!

Ted texts back a few minutes later. Milo and I aren’t talking much because we’re blasting the Feelies and singing along. Me too! Have fun. Don’t get anything weird signed. I grin to myself and text back. like what? a puppy? He takes a bit to respond and I remind myself he’s making lemonades and fried foods. I meant like a body part. But not a puppy either. Marker ink’s probably bad for puppies.

“Everything cool?” Milo asks me. “Your parents aren’t onto you, are they?”

“No, free and clear,” I say. “It’s just my friend Reid.”

Why am I lying?

My phone buzzes again, and this time it is Reid.

Madison says I’m acting weird and things are cool. I know she’s lying!

“Do you have friends you wish you could punch?” I ask Milo.

“Definitely,” he says. “Some people need it.”

“I can’t even text him back over this,” I say. “Oh, wait, no, I can, I have an icon of a fist I can send. Do you think that’s clear?”

Milo laughs. “It’s pretty clear.”

So I text back the fist, and Reid responds in a flash. He is not Ted with his endless other responsibilities. Is that a fist bump or a fist punch?

“I guess it wasn’t clear enough,” I say aloud, which makes Milo laugh again.

Once we get to Amoeba, there’s a crowd already inside crowding the stage that’s been set up for the night. But Milo and I are experts at this. We slide through the empty spaces and get right up front for Purple & Black’s set.

“Do you want to get something signed?” Milo asks me after the set. “Or should we take off?”

“No, I do,” I say, dashing over to get in line.

“I’m, um, I’m going to get something for this friend of mine who couldn’t come tonight.” I lean against a CD bin to appear casual.

Milo raises an eyebrow. Do I not seem casual enough? I lean harder.

“Okay,” he says.

So I ask Macy (vocals and guitar) and Lyndel (vocals and piano) to sign their newest CD for Ted, who is stuck at Hot Dog on a Stick, and they do, and I grin down at this perfect present for the guy who gives me candy and mix CDs. If he hasn’t heard of Purple & Black, I hope he’ll like them anyway.

“Who’s Ted?” Milo asks me. “Is he the other guy in your band?”

“No, that’s Nathan. Ted’s just this guy, um, in Yearbook with me. He’s always stuck at his job.”

When Milo parks a block from my house, I’m so nervous about making it back in unseen that I just thank him and wave and jump out really fast like I’m rolling to safety from a moving vehicle. I should have changed clothes earlier so I’d be wearing all black like a ninja or cat burglar or heist type, but I’m in red Chucks and jeans and a yellow Ted Leo and the Pharmacists hoodie. It’s a stupid sneaky outfit, but I walk right into the guesthouse and my music is still playing and it’s like I never left. Holy crap. I just got away with something.

I spend a few minutes in here before heading inside, where Mom and Dad are watching some TV procedural about solving murders. They barely glance up at me, and I say good night and walk upstairs like a champion liar. Wait, no, that’s horrible. I don’t want to be a champion liar.

I text Milo to let him know the sneaking out was a success, and he seems happy about this (Nice work! c u soon), so I guess we’re okay even after the weird moment when I got the CD signed for Ted. Anyway, that moment would only prove Reid semi-right, so I don’t mention it at all when I log my badass night in the Passenger Manifest, even though I’m still thinking about it. I wonder how I’d feel if Milo had gotten a CD signed for a girl who isn’t me. Still, for the Passenger Manifest, I leave things 100 percent badass.

*

I make my way to Ted’s locker the next morning and try to figure out whatever magical method he used to maneuver a CD into my locker. The Purple & Black CD is even in one of those slim cardboard jackets, but I can’t figure out how he did it. I’m probably pointlessly cycling through all my previous fruitless methods when I feel a hand on my shoulder.

I spin around with a smile because it’ll seem adorable to Ted that he caught me red-handed. But it is definitely NOT Ted; it’s Mrs. Bullard, whose classroom is right by Ted’s locker, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t think I’m adorable.

“Miss Crowe-Ellerman,” she says, “I know that this is not your locker.”

“Oh, I know, too, I was just trying to…” I hold up the CD like it will speak all necessary words of explanation for me. CD, do my bidding! “It’s a gift!”

“You know the student handbook policy on tampering with other students’ lockers,” she says, which is not true. I am not at all aware of pretty much anything in the student handbook.

“I’m not tampering,” I say, even though I was trying to bend the metal air vents with the superhero force of my powerful biceps. “Okay, it’s tampering, but I was tampering out of—”