Yep. The more I thought about the idea, the more I liked it—perhaps because Cooper so obviously disliked the idea.
His eyes narrowed. “Do you even know anyone from Riggs High?”
“I do have a life outside school, you know.”
He folded his arms. “Who do you want to go with?”
“You probably don’t know him.”
Cooper dipped his chin in aggravation. “I went to school with most of those guys through junior high. Try me.”
Did he think I was lying about it? I nearly gave him TC’s name but figured I shouldn’t count my homecoming dates until my plans hatched. “If I decide to go with him, I’ll let you know.”
Cooper was about to give his opinion when a middle-aged man turned the corner and saw us talking. He wore the same employee-blue polo shirt that Cooper wore, and his expression pegged him as a manager. Cooper hurriedly went back to stocking the shelves.
The manager’s eyes zeroed in on us. He frowned and strode up to me. “Can I help you, Miss?”
I attempted to redeem the situation. “I’m good, thanks. This nice young man was just helping me get something off the top shelf.” I said the words without even glancing at the top shelf to see what it held.
Then I looked.
Right above me, on the top shelf, sat rows of jockstraps with cup protectors.
The manager’s eyebrows lifted in question. I felt my cheeks reddening, but once you’ve committed to a lie, you have to go all in. “My brother needs one, and I obviously don’t know anythingabout them, so your salesclerk was helping me pick out the right kind. Because he’s clearly athletic. And so he would know.”
Was I really pretending I’d gone up to a random guy and discussed cup protector sizes? Yes. Yes, I was. Mark this moment as a new low in my life.
Cooper grabbed a box and shoved it into my hand. “This one should work for you. I mean, for your brother.”
“Thanks.” I knew I was still blushing. The Black Widow wouldn’t blush. I tried to channel her again, held my chin high, and headed toward the checkout.
The manager followed after me at a distance. Clearly, he thought I was a suspicious character and might do something like shoplift the package. If he hadn’t been watching me, I would have tossed it onto another shelf. Now I couldn’t get rid of it after I’d made such a big deal of needing Cooper’s help.
There was nothing else to do but buy the box and bury it in the trash.
I hadn’t realized anyone else from my school worked at the store, but Julian, a guy from my trig class, waited behind the register. I felt a spike of unfounded irritation that Cooper hadn’t warned me that one of our classmates worked with him.
I had no other choice, though. I marched up to the register, still channeling Black Widow’s confidence, and put the bag of donut holes and the boy-thing box in front of him.
Julian glanced at the items. “Big night planned?”
“It’s for my brother.”
He rang up the donuts. “Since when do you have a brother?”
The guy knew too much about me. “We don’t talk about him. He’s one of those relatives you keep tucked in the basement. And that’s why I have to buy his personal items.”
Julian snorted. “What’s he doing down in the basement that he needs this stuff?”
“Shut up.” When you came down to it, the Black Widow could be rude at times.
Julian just laughed at me. “Whatever, Madeline. If you decide to pull a prank using these, keep in mind there were witnesses to your purchase.”
A prank. Of course those were the assumptions he’d made. Sometimes having a reputation that preceded you was not such a bad thing.
c c c
On the drive home, I decided to call TC and ask him to the dance. It was normally a guy-ask-girl thing, and people didn’t generally bring members of the opposing football team to the dance, but I had no hope that someone from my school would ask me. It was going to take me a while to live down being the girl who’d made out with Cooper.
