Sitting in his jeep, my arms crossed stubbornly over my chest, I wondered what he had to talk to me about. Josh hadn’t spoken one word, and if he wasn’t going to he could take me home or back to Wal-Mart. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten in the car with him to begin with. Ha. Stupid me. Stupid, stupid, stupid me. But I wasn’t going to be the one to talk first, I would never give him the pleasure.
We had gone half way down the highway toward my house before he cleared his throat. “Listen, Issy, I don’t want you mad at me okay? I mean, I’ve tried to come and see you and you weren’t around, and I know that I really hurt you and stuff… But I mean, you were just a kid, you know?”
Wow, wasn’t he so freaking eloquent?
“Point is,” he continued. “I still want us to be friends. Jake won’t help me with it, he says I gotta do it all on my own. So I’m going to try, but I can’t try if you take off running when I’m in town. I mean, c’mon Issy, we used to be pals.”
“No,” I said flatly, “you and Jake were pals. I was the annoying little sister with the mondo crush on you.” Pushed a hand through my hair and adjusting my glasses, I shrugged again. “But friends, sure, yeah, whatever, I can handle it. But nothing else. Or my boyfriend will kick your ass.” Boyfriend? Pfft. I didn’t have a boyfriend, but it sounded good, didn’t it? I mean, there was this guy I kind of liked, who liked me, who was cute and played bass in this band, but he wasn’t my boyfriend. Still, got the reaction I wanted.
“Boyfriend?”
I nodded. “He plays bass in a local band.”
“Jake said that you didn’t have a bo-“
“Jake doesn’t know. Nor do my parents. And you breathe a word, I’ll vehemently deny it. Got it?”
He nodded. I grinned to myself and looked out the window. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like for you to take me home. My boyfriend wouldn’t like it if he knew I was out riding through town in the jeep of a guy I used to be head over heels for.”
“He knows about me?”
“Wants to shoot you in the face with rubber bullets. He says they hurt more.” I heard him gulp, and I wanted to shout in joy. I had ammunition against Josh, and it felt good. I couldn’t remember ever having that before. This was going to be great. I hoped he would stick around. Now all I had to do was get Drew to be my boyfriend for real, and I could really use it against him. This didn’t seem like it would be much of a challenge anyway.
He coughed loudly and rubbed the back of his neck. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he took me home. “So,” he said, pulling into the driveway, “do I get to meet him?”
“I’ll call him and ask him if he wants to. I’ll tell Jake to let you know something for sure. By Josh. Have fun.”
Getting out of his jeep and going into my house I felt so victorious. Too bad it wouldn’t last.
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