Double Threat My Bleep (17 page)

Keesh catches on to this too. She stops and yanks on Jon’s arm. “What’s wrong Jon? Spill it.” He looks at her like he’s going to cry any minute. With worry in her eyes, she mutters, “Tell me.”

“I’m leaving,” he says, looking away from her.

“Where you goin’?” Travis asks, but Keesh and Jon shoot him an evil glare that says stay out of this.

“What do you mean you’re leaving?” Keesh asks him.

“I’m moving.” He pauses. “Away.”

“Away? Away where?” she questions.

“Texas,” he mumbles. Although barely audible, she understands him too.

“Texas,” she yelps. “Why are you moving to Texas? When?”

At this point Travis and I are standing to the side. We’re out ditching school in broad daylight, without any cover from trees or bushes, and we’re not moving from this spot. We’re just asking for anyone in these houses or driving by to call the cops on us, yet we’re not moving and we’re not saying anything. This is not good.

“At the end of the month,” Jon continues to mumble.

“How long have you known?” Keesh asks.

“Two days. I thought I’d have longer, but my parents found a place to live and they said they couldn’t afford to wait any longer.”

“Why? Why do they want to move?”

“Something about the economy and my dad’s job. They’ve known for months and they were trying to figure out a way to stay, but they said they can’t.”

“You’re gonna just leave school in the middle of the year?”

“Who cares about school? I don’t wanna leave you.” Keesh falls into his chest and bursts into tears. He holds her in his arms, but I doubt that does anything to ease the pain she’s feeling right now. Alex is gone, but at least I know he’s coming back. Jon is going to be gone for good.

Not even a Slurpee can fix this one.

Chapter Twenty Two

I’ve
discovered there is no possible way to comfort your friend when the love of her life is moving thousands of miles away and not coming back.

A text from Alex takes me away from my thoughts.

hows Keesh doing

not good

she stop crying yet

no

anything I can do

dont think so

r u ok

I miss u

I miss u 2

wish u could b here

me 2

call me 2nite

sure thing

luv u

luv u 2

Alex has been texting daily to check on Keesh. It’s nice to know he cares about my friends. I know he’s talked to Jon too, who is dealing with the move just as poorly as his girlfriend. Actually, we’re all pretty torn about it. We’ve become really good friends, and it’s going to be freakin’ boring without all his jokes. Omigod. Who’s going to keep us so entertained? I miss him already.

The last two weeks have flown by. When Jon said he’d be leaving at the end of the month, it didn’t sound so immediate. But we’re already more than half way through the dang month, and the days seemed to pass without any hesitation.

Tonight’s our last night out with Jon, and we’re all depressed. It’s like dead man walking or something. Like a funeral. We’re together, but silent. In mourning. Okay, so no one is dying but it feels like it. I’ve never had a friend move so far that I couldn’t see them. I’ve lost friends. We all know that, but that’s nothing to cry over. This. This sucks. I feel so bad for Keesh.

Jon’s idea of a farewell party is to go out after our soccer games. Keesh and I want to miss our own games to see him play his last at C-High. But Keesh’s coach would kill her. They can’t win without her. My team would do just fine, but I decide to be a good sport and go anyway. The rest of the gang is going to see Jon and show him some love. Only a few more games to play and we’re finally done with soccer anyway. Yeah. I can finally get my afternoons back, and maybe I will be able to walk without feeling sore too.

“So did you guys win?” Jon asks, as we get off the bus.

“Of course we did,” Keesh answers. “Well, Varsity won, but Meggie lost.” They all give me a sympathetic look but they know better. I’m used to it, I don’t need any sympathy.

“How about you, Jon?” I ask. “Did you score?”

“I scored, but we lost. No big thing.”

“So where we going?” Keesh drops her bag and puts her arm around Jon’s waist and rests her sweaty head on his shoulder. Only these two could cuddle after running non-stop for ninety minutes.

“Denny’s,” Jon shouts.

“Denny’s?” Josh questions. “That’s what you want for your last Cali meal?”

“Yup,” he answers.

Dominic takes the keys from his pocket. “Well Denny’s it is.”

This isn’t exactly what I had in mind. I’d like to take a shower. Sure, we didn’t win but I still stink like hot dirty sun.

Our chauffeur drives to the place of fine dining and we make our way to the back. The servers know us so they don’t even think twice about throwing us in the back. They know they’re in for a loud night.

Much to my surprise, Ben and Vanessa show up to bid farewell to Jon. And so does Erica. Poor Josh. His eyes light up when he sees her, but she doesn’t even pay attention to him. She only stays a few minutes. Just long enough to piss off Keesh when she kisses Jon on the cheek. I doubt even Steph would mind if Keesh decks her after the way she just totally blew off Josh. Skank.

Yay. She’s gone.

We eat. We talk. We reminisce about the goofy things Jon has done. Tripped and knocked over a display of chips at the grocery store, blew chunks after chugging one too many beers at a party, talking crap without even realizing it, and my favorite—slide tackling Eric this year. Payback’s a bitch. I knew he’d eventually get him.

When it’s time to go, Jon lets us know that he and Keesh are going to stay behind. His mom is going to pick them up later. So it’s our turn to say goodbye.

Ben and Vanessa go first. He hugs them both, and Ben says, “Good luck, kid.”

Travis and Jon do the manly handshake that only guys can figure out because it seems to be different each time, but somehow they know what to do. “See ya on MySpace, or Facebook, or Twitter. Hey, you’re gonna be the next Ashton,” he tells him. Jon chuckles.

Dom gives Jon a big bear hug, lifting him off the ground and shaking him. Jon doesn’t know whether to cry or be scared. “We’re gonna miss you,” he says, with a frog in his throat.

Steph is full on crying. Now I am too. And Keesh is standing there with tears streaming down her beautiful face.

“We sure are,” Steph screeches, throwing her arms around Jon and squeezing him so hard he looks like he can’t breathe.

“I’m gonna miss you guys too,” Jon squeaks out.

My turn. I don’t say anything. I just go over to him and put my arms out for a hug. “Take care of my girl for me,” he whispers in my ear. A tear drops on my face, and it’s then that I realize he’s crying too.

“I will,” I assure him.

I turn around and Travis puts his arm around me. I don’t push him away, I let him comfort me. But I wish Alex was here.

This one’s going to be tough. Josh and Jon have been inseparable since the day I met them. They’re like me and the girls. They’re like brothers.

Josh pulls his hat down to cover his eyes. But I know he’s sobbing. His ears are red, and his hands are shaking. This sucks so bad. He swipes his hand across his face to wipe the tears.

The boys don’t say anything at first. They give each other one of those chest bumping hugs. They mumble something but I can’t understand what they’re saying. When they let go, Josh mutters, “Let’s go,” as he walks away.

“Okay, let’s get outta here,” Ben says, breaking the ice. “See ya around.”

We all murmur a final goodbye, and I jog ahead to catch up with Josh.

“You need anything?” What could I possibly do to help though?

“Nah,” he says. “I’ll be alright.” I don’t know what I’d do if Keesh or Steph moved away. But Josh’ll be alright. He will be. Not today. Not tomorrow. But eventually. Someday.

Chapter Twenty Three

Without
soccer to keep Keesh busy, this last week has been unbearable. All she does is mope around. She’s wearing soccer shorts, sports bras, and t-shirts to school. My friend, Keesha who normally looks incredibly cute every day since the day we met, came to school in Crocs today. Crocs. Do you know what those shoes look like? Seriously, are they even really shoes? Okay, I’m not a slave to fashion or anything, but even I wouldn’t wear those plastic funky squeegee looking things.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Mom,” I call out into my cell. “I need your help. Can Keesh and Steph stay tonight for a sleepover?”

“Well that sounds nice, honey,” she says.

“I want it to be totally foo foo, like tons of chocolate and ice cream, and popcorn, and whatever else you can think of.”

“Okay, I guess I can go to the store and pick up some snacks. So what’s going on?”

Do I tell her? Why not. “Keesh is still wigging out without Jon. Today she wore Crocs to school.”

My mom gasps. “This is serious. I’ll pick up some new nail polish, and maybe some face mask stuff. You can do some makeovers too.”

“Thanks Mom, I knew you’d understand.”

Getting Keesh to leave the house is proving to be impossible. I have to ask my mom for help again. She calls Keesh’s mom and tells her what I have planned. So her mom probably forces her to come. Who care’s how she gets here? She’s here and that’s all the matters.

“The pizza’s here,” I tell the girls. “Let’s eat.”

“Good, I’m starved. The line was way too long at lunch again. They need to do something to get them moving faster. I’m sick of eating a bag of chips for lunch,” Steph complains.

Keesh rests her chin in her hand, but doesn’t make a peep.

“Tell me about it. Well, we have enough food here to last a week. I think my mom went a little overboard.” I glance at the kitchen counter covered in cookies, chips, candy, popcorn, soda. She’s so extreme. Last year, I couldn’t get her to buy baked chips and now here she is, stocking our shelves with junk. I’m not complaining though. “You gonna eat something, Keesh?”

“Uh…no, I’m not hungry,” she tells us.

“You need to eat. You’ve lost a lot of weight already since…” Steph begins, but she cuts her off.

“Don’t say it. Since…”

“She’s right, Keesh. You have to eat eventually. Do you want to get sick?” I plead.

“But I’m not hungry and I don’t feel like eating.”

Steph slams her hand down on the counter. “Dammit, Keesha. You’re gonna eat a piece of pizza and you’re gonna like it. Stop acting stupid. I love Jon and I miss him too. But you can’t make yourself sick over this. Snap out of it before I kick your ass.”

Whoa. Keesh looks at her wide-eyed and stunned. I look back and forth between them, not sure if I should say something to break the silence. This isn’t like Steph and I have no idea how Keesh is going to react. She takes a deep breath, gets out of her seat, picks up a piece of pizza, and takes a bite. Whew.

“Thank you,” Steph says. Keesh nods.

Well that was a close one.

“Thanks for getting us together,” Steph says. “We haven’t done this in a long time.”

“I know. It’s cool, huh.” We’re sitting on the floor in my room, polishing our toes. Steph has mastered the art of flower painting, so she’s working on Keesh right now. I think I’m going to do polka dots. I don’t feel very flowery today.

Since Steph put her foot down, Keesh is letting herself enjoy the sleepover.

“How long are we supposed to leave this stuff on our face?” Keesh asks. “My face feels tighter than my skinny jeans right now.”

“I dunno. Let me check,” I tell her. I flip over the bottle of the moisturizing exfoliating masque to read the directions. “Uh…five minutes ago.” We break out into a giggle.

Toes are done. Face is rinsed. Time to snack again. We each grab a bag from the kitchen and bring it into my room to listen to JoJo on the radio. Maybe he can cheer up my friend.

“So what happened with you and Dom at New Year’s?” Keesh asks through the crunching of her Hot Cheetohs.

I drop my box of licorice. So we’re gonna go there. Steph digs her hand into a bowl of kettle corn. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought you wanted to listen to JoJo,” she says, continuing to stuff her face.

“I’m listening to him. Don’t worry. So let me remind you. We were in the spa and something floated to the surface and it wasn’t a lifesaver,” Keesh tells her with a chuckle. A goofy grin spreads over my face at this exchange.

Steph is blushing. Omigod. They did it in my spa. That’s what the blush means, right?

“Well, it’s not what you think,” Steph begins. “We aren’t having sex. You know I want to wait till I get married. And even if I thought Dominic is the one I’m going to marry, I still wouldn’t do it. He can wait till we say I do.”

“So his shorts were off why then?” I find myself asking.

“Well I didn’t say we weren’t doing anything. I just said it’s not what you think?”

Keesh grabs a handful of Cheetohs, sits up straight and says, “So tell us. Spill baby. Give us the details.”

“No way. How would you like it if the guys spilled their guts about us?” Steph questions us, piling more kettle corn in her mouth.

I turn up the volume on the radio just in case my parents pass by, I wouldn’t want them to hear this conversation. Holding out my box of licorice to both of them, I offer them one but they wave it off. I lean forward over my pillow and tell Steph, “I don’t think it matters. I’m sure the guys talk. So tell us. You’re obviously more experienced then I am and I’m the one with the older boyfriend so I need to learn a few things. We haven’t done anything…well anything that would require us to take off our clothes.”

Steph looks a little embarrassed but she decides to talk anyway. “Well, we kind of fooled around that night. But that was the first time. We’ve been together for almost a year and all we ever did was kiss. But lately, we’ve been making out a little more and touching each other.” She pauses, slowing down with that last detail.