Missy squealed with excitement once they did, and declared from the other side of the wall that she’d want candlelight bubble baths forever and ever. I had bigger thoughts on my brain. Specifically the stuff Grandma and Grandpa had told me. Were boys really that clueless? Tell him what I needed. What I needed was an answer and that should most definitely go without saying. For crying out loud, I wasn’t exactly asking him to be a mind reader. I wasn’t the guess-what’s-on-my-mind type of girl, was I?
TJ’s ex-girlfriend, Tiffany, used to really mess with his head.“Why didn’t you do this for me?”Or“How come you didn’t do that?”She expected him to walk around with a crystal ball and predict her every possible need. According to him, anyway. But let’s get real. This was a no brainer. You get asked to a dance, you answer someone. It’s that simple. Anyone on the planet knows it.
So there. I’d rejected the idea that I was meant to heed to their well-intended, elderly advice in this regard. Jett was the one who was in the wrong here, and I didn’t want to act like it was all right by replying to his text and inviting him to come over like he’d suggested. Especially if it meant he was just going to officially break things off.
Although, a very big part of me didn’t believe that he would. Call it denial all you want, but I still kind of believed—somewhere deep in my heart—that Jett really had fallen for me. That he liked me even still.
Perhaps he’d just gotten distracted by Tasha at their assembly practice.
Maybe he just needed to realize that he could lose me too.
“Okay,” I hollered. “You can switch the breaker back on.”
“Switching …” my mom announced.
I heard splashing from the kid’s bathroom. “I don’t want them back on.” The pitter patter that followed said she’d already figured out how to solve the problem herself by flipping down the switch. At once the lights in Mom’s bathroom flashed back on, causing me to squint against the brightness.
I tugged open the oversized drawer in Mom’s vanity, pulled out her hair dryer, and plugged it in. Mom walked in just as I flipped the switch. The small thing blasted into life with a hot hum.
“Thanks, hon,” she said. “I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
I grinned, appreciating the kind words more than usual. I was needy tonight. “Night, Mom,” I said after putting the hairdryer back in place. “Love you.”
“Love you too, Harper boo.”
I shuffled back into my room, my mind trying to work my way out of the mess I was in. I was so distracted by the thoughts in my brain that I almost missed the sight of the boy standing there. Blond scraggly hair, ripped jeans, and a leather jacket that smelled like smoke.
“TJ?” It came out in a squeak.
He hitched a thumb over his shoulder to point to my balcony door. “Sorry, thought this would be easier than trying to get past your mom.”
I nodded for him to continue.
“I heard about Jett and Tasha, and I think I’ve got a plan.”
I furrowed my brow as I scrutinized him. “A plan?” TJ wouldn’t be caught dead at a school dance, so I couldn’t imagine what kind of plan he might devise.
He tucked a thumb casually into his front pocket and tipped his head to one side. His eyes lit up with a new spark of mischief that said he’d probably earned more of that bad boy status than I’d given him credit for. “Let’s go to the dance together.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ishrugged into my flannel shirt without an ounce of enthusiasm.
I’d counted at least half a dozen things I’d rather do than go to the dance with TJ tonight, one of which entailed scrubbing vomit from the dining room rug—a chore I’d acquired when Missy and Mom had the flu.
What had I been thinking when I agreed to this? Tonight I’d be stuck watching Tasha, my Mean Girl nemesis, petting the guy I’d been in love with my entire life. Just the idea triggered enough of my own flu-like symptoms to put me down for a week.
I fastened each small button with slow fingers, wondering if Jett would be wearing a flannel shirt too. Ofcoursehe would; it was 90’s grunge, what else was there? TJ was stoked when he heard about the theme. He even called up Mrs. Parks, the school principal, to see if he and Grunge Town could play a live song or two during the dance. While Mrs. Parks declined his offer, insisting it was too late to make necessary arrangements, she told him shewouldmake an exception to the rule about school dropouts coming to the dance, so long as he agreed to look into a course that would help him attain his GED.
That had to count for something, didn’t it? Perhaps I’d play a role in TJ getting his life together after all. I let out a humorless laugh at the thought. Hadn’t I given up on that idea yet?
The truth is, I was pretty sure I’d taken a bad situation and made it worse. The day after TJ asked me to go to the dance with him, I walked right up to Jett in the east hall and told him about it. I had spent the entire night rehearsing for it. I’d hopped out of bed extra early, spent extra time so I’d look as smoking hot as I could (for me, anyway) and fully expected to gain some sort of satisfaction from the act.
What I didn’t expect was the expression that came over his face. It might have been the same look he’d give me if I reached out and slapped him. Or stabbed some massive hot poker through his chest.
To top it off, he didn’t show up to first period.Fine,I’d told myself.Let him have a turn being too distraught to sit through class.It seemed terribly off balance though. Why have such a big reaction to something he’d caused in the first place? I was the one who should be angry.
I kept hearing Grams’ and Gramps’ advice in the back of my mind, practically begging me to speak up and communicate with the guy, but the woman scorned in me wouldn’t allow it. Besides, Jett was the reason we were in this mess. Not only hadn’t he replied tomyinvitation to the dance, he’d basically spit on it by telling Tasha yes when she’d asked in front of the entire school.
