“Nope, gotta go, Mom. By the way, Gavin is the one who fixed my car. You can use that money for Kiki’s professional airbrushed makeup this weekend and all the extra glitter.” She tugged at my arm again. “Let’s go!”
Anne shook her head. “Well, bye then. Be safe...”
Penny practically dragged me out of the house as Anne and Kiki gave us identical little waves from the doorstep like two beauty queens on a float in a goddamn parade.
I followed Penny to my own car and felt frozen for a moment.
“Something wrong?” she said as she stood near the passenger door.
Walking around to unlock her door, I said, “I got a weird vibe back there. Did you?”
“Well, theyareweird. What can I say?”
“They seem really nice, though. Why didn’t you want to stay and chat a bit?”
“Gavin, just get in the car. I’ll tell you anything you want to know about them on the way to Ling’s.”
“What’s the deal with you and your mom?”
She sighed. “It’s complicated. Let’s just say I’m closer to my dad.”
“I actually get along better with my dad, too, though I’d never tell my mom that.”
There was a beat of silence as Penny and I sat in my car. It was getting dark and I felt a burning need to get back to that moment we’d had in her bedroom. “So, when we did that Blind Kiss thing?”
“Yeah?” she said hesitantly.
“Well, didn’t you feel it? You said you liked me, I think.”
“Did I feel what?”
“Like, stars exploding? That kind of thing?”
“That’s an interesting way of putting it, although a tad dramatic.”
“Well?”
She sighed. “Yes, Gavin. It was a great kiss.”
“So why are you so determined to keep things platonic between us?”
She turned her whole body toward me. “It was really one of the best kisses I’ve ever had. I told you that. But I want to get toknowyou, Gavin. You’re like the first friend I’ve had where it doesn’t feel like I’m in some kind of competition. And I’m afraid—”
“You’re afraid if something happens, we won’t be friends?”
“Yes. And I need to concentrate on school. I have to get a job out of all this hard work I’m putting into dance. At least as a choreographer or instructor. I feel like if we date, we’ll end up wasting our last semester drinking flights of beer.”
“First of all, that’s not how it would go—we would also have sexy times.” I winked and smiled. It didn’t work.
She sighed again. “Can you understand what I’m saying? What if I promise to be open, to go with the flow, and to work really hard at getting to know you? We don’t have to decide anything right now.” She looked at her watch. “We should get to Ling’s.”
“Okay, I guess,” I said. I turned up The Cure’s “Plainsong” and drove. Penny stared out the window. I forgot how emotional that song was until I thought about how she and I were trying to figure out how to be in each other’s lives. What would we be to each other, and for how long? Would it be for a month? For a year? Would I ruin it by pushing her? I just wanted to be around her, but the girl had boundaries. Big ones.
When we got to Ling’s, I walked Penny to the door.
Ling swung the door open and said, “Hi, HKM.”
I looked around.
