How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend (24 page)

I folded my arms, some of my good humor toward him evaporating. “I never said you liked her. You'll notice I also never said she liked you. But she did work on your campaign.”

“She's going to be busy that night. Stephen asked her to prom today.”

This was news. “Stephen asked her? He told you that?”

“Told me, nothing. I paid him to do it.”

“You paid him to . . .” I put my hand over my eyes and shook my head. “Oh, Dante.”

He glanced up at me from behind the seat of his motorcycle. “Hey, it's worth the money to set her up with someone just so I don't have to dive around corners every time I see her. And who knows? Maybe they'll hit it off.”

Well, at least if he ever found out Charity liked him and he didn't like her back, she could rest assured that when she could date, he would pay one of his friends to take her out. See, there really always is a silver lining.

“Did you ask Charity to your party?”

“Sure, she worked on my campaign.” He seemed far too unconcerned about this, and I couldn't tell if he really cared about the whole thing. Had he set up a get-together so he could spend time with Charity, or would it be some guy thing, and she'd end up the only one not talking about motorcycle parts?

The twin bond had failed me. I couldn't tell if he was thinking about her or not.

Dante took a step away from his bike, put his hands on his hips, and surveyed his work. “The Demonmobile is clean.”

Oh yeah. He was thinking of Charity. It was bound to be a very small gathering.

My cell phone finally rang, and the next moment Jesse's voice came through the phone, warm and familiar. “Hey, can you come out front of your house for a minute?”

“Out front?” I nearly opened the garage door, but then decided if I was meeting Jesse in my front yard, I didn't want to do it with Dante watching me. There might, after all, be kissing involved. I went out the front door instead.

Out on my driveway, Jesse sat on his bike. He carried a white bakery box, and as I walked over to him, he held it out to me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Open it and see.”

I took the box from his hand and lifted the lid. Inside was a cake shaped like a pair of tennis shoes. It even had frosting shoelaces. I stared down at them. “Oh, Jesse, that is the sweetest thing . . .”

“Well, hopefully it will be. I figured it was better than making you eat your Reeboks.”

I held the box close. “I get to eat my cake and have my shoes too.”

He laughed, then reached over and kissed me. That's when Gabby pulled into the driveway.

She parked her car, flung open her door, and climbed out. She shook her head as she walked toward me, her expression cold. “I suppose you'll try and tell me that Jesse is here visiting Dante again.”

I opened my mouth to explain, but she held up one hand to stop me. “You're not officially ungrounded until tomorrow. Although now I wonder if that date is premature.”

Then she stormed past me, slamming the door as she went inside.

Which, I suppose, meant Dante was halfway to getting his Corvette.

Jesse let out a ragged sigh. “Sorry to get you in trouble. I guess I'd better go.”

“I'll call you later,” I said, then watched him drive off.

It was just my luck to get grounded again right when Jesse and I got back together.

I went inside, walking toward the kitchen to put away the cake, but stopped when I heard Dante and Gabby's voices coming from there.

“Yeah, I came in third place,” Dante said dejectedly.

“Third?” Gabby asked. “But I thought there were only two candidates.”

Dante let out a sigh. “It started out that way, but at the last minute a lot of people decided to vote for a write-in.”

Gabby gasped. “That doesn't sound fair.”

Another sigh from Dante. “I guess the kids at school just don't think I'm cool enough. Maybe if I had my own car . . .”

I turned and walked to my room instead. He was so shameless.

 

When my dad came home, they sat me down in the living room for the big lecture. Gabby said that she wanted to trust me, but no, I just kept breaking the rules, and what sort of future was I going to have with that attitude?

I heard it unemotionally, almost like she spoke to someone else. I'm not sure why. Maybe because Jesse and I were back together again. Maybe because I was still so amazed at what Dante and Jesse and even Wilson had done for me. Gabby simply couldn't chip away any of my goodwill.

I looked at her and said, “It's a funny thing about my future. You'll never guess what happened.” But I couldn't start right there. I had to start at the beginning. So I told them how Jesse had been Wilson's campaign manager and I'd fought with him and yelled, “We're over!” in front of everybody, and then I'd regretted it, but it was too late. I told them everything. This big torrential downpour of words just came out of my mouth.

I told them that Jesse had been trying to help me all along and Dante had quit the election for me, and at this moment my future looked pretty good because I had been cleared of everything.

And the strangest thing happened. Gabby had sat perfectly still all through my story, but when I told her the part about what Jesse and Dante had done, she teared up, put her fingers to her lips, and said, “That's so wonderful. Now you won't have to worry about college or job applications.”

She said more, mostly about Dante, but the words she'd said to me turned around and around in my mind until I was very sure she'd actually said them.

Something good had happened to me, and it made her happy. I know that shouldn't seem strange, but I'd almost expected her to be disappointed. Like, she wanted to rub in all of my mistakes, and if there was one less that she could pick out of her You're-a-lousy-kid bag, she'd be upset. But she was glad for me.

Dad called Dante into the living room, and then the whole thing turned into this huge praise-fest for Dante.

He just smiled and said, “It wasn't really a big deal,” which of course made my parents praise him all the more.

He was so getting a car soon, and I just hoped he let me drive it once in a while.

My parents also decided not to be angry that Jesse had come over to bring me a cake. Gabby even said, “We should invite him over for dinner soon. How about Sunday evening?”

So that was basically it. I had stumbled upon something here, though I wasn't exactly sure what. All I had done was tell them what was going on in my life. Was it really as simple as that? Was that all I needed to do to put Gabby on my side?

It was definitely worth considering.

 

On Sunday I helped Gabby make chicken scarpariello for dinner, which felt weirdly like mother-daughter bonding time. When Dante wandered into the kitchen, Gabby made him set the table. “Use the good dishes,” she told him.

Dante lugged them out of the china hutch, grumbling. “So Jesse's coming over. I'm the one who conceded the election. You guys never get the good dishes out for me.”

Poor him.

Gabby ignored Dante and put the chicken into the oven. “I just wish there was some way we could thank Wilson. Do you think we should send him a card—or maybe bake him something?”

Dante went to the silverware drawer and grabbed a handful of forks. “I didn't set his palm trees on fire. I think that's thanks enough.”

Later on, Jesse came over, and we all had a nice meal together, despite the fact that Skipper kept interrupting the conversation to tell us new words she'd learned—which probably meant at some point Dante had been dangerously close to swearing.

After dinner I walked Jesse outside to his bike, and we stood talking.

“So you're not grounded anymore?”

“Apparently not.” I took his hand in mine, gently swinging it. “Because I've learned my lesson.”

“What was the lesson?”

“If I'm nice to Gabby, she's way more lenient with her punishments.”

Jesse laughed. His eyes twinkled. I could just stare at him and never get tired of it. “So I can ask you to prom now?”

“Yes,” I said. “And yes, I'll go with you.”

“Good.” He bent down and gave me a kiss, which not only stopped time but momentarily changed the course of the sun until it revolved around us. When he finally let me go and said good-bye, I could still feel its warmth all around me.

I watched him get on his bike and drive away, then I turned around to go inside.

I was going to prom. And more importantly, I was going to prom with Jesse. A voice in my mind that sounded remarkably like Dante's said, “If you ask Gabby to go gown shopping with you, she'll pay for the dress.” Which went to show you that our twin bond was working—well, either that or I was starting to think like Dante.

I laughed and went inside.

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I
would have expected to see this sort of line if, say, Elvis had returned from the dead to give a concert. Or if some eccentric yet ultra-cool billionaire was blessing the lives of deserving teens by handing out free sports cars. But I hadn't expected to see this many people lined up in the dark waiting for the Day-After-Thanksgiving sale at Toys “R” Us. Really, whatever happened to good old-fashioned procrastination? Apparently every resident of Henderson, Nevada, had come out, and it was still only 4:50 A.M. The store didn't even open for another ten minutes.

Madison zipped her jacket up higher as we climbed out of my minivan. “This is a prime example of commercialism run amok.”

I didn't answer, because I was too busy rushing across the parking lot to the end of the line. Besides, Madison really shouldn't talk—every year she gets so many gifts you have to listen to her complain until New Year's about how she has to reorganize her room to fit them all in.

Madison is not only my best friend, but probably the only friend I could convince to get up this early to track down a Talking Teen Robin Hood action figure for my six-year-old brother. I myself wouldn't have woken up at four-thirty if it weren't so important.

Madison folded her arms around herself for warmth. We'd only worn light jackets because we hadn't expected to wait outside very long, but even the Nevada desert is cold at ten to five in the morning. Madison's usually tidy shoulder-length hair—she calls it strawberry blond, but it is way more strawberry than blond—looked as though she hadn't even combed it. I'd thrown on sweats and shoved my hair into a ponytail. Now I wished I'd thought to bring a hat.

Madison peered at the line in front of us. “You know, Annika, if you can't find a Teen Robin Hood, I'm sure Jeremy would be fine with a different gift. Maybe you could get him a real bow and arrow set like yours.”

I thought about my compound bow, but I couldn't imagine Jeremy with something like that. It was nearly as big as he was, and he might not have the strength to pull it back all the way. The thought made my throat feel tight.

I shook my head. “It has to be Teen Robin Hood.”

Jeremy had said he wanted the Teen Robin Hood action figure, and kept saying it every time he watched the TV show, so that was the toy I had to get him.

The husband and wife in front of us were busy planning their buying strategy. “I'll call you as soon as I have the PlayStation in my hands. You grab one of those bikes that's on sale. Throw yourself over it if you have to.”

I pulled my sleeves over my hands to keep out the chill. Why did Jeremy have to love Robin Hood? Why couldn't he still want to be Hercules? I bet you no one was throwing themselves over the Hercules toys.

At five o'clock the doors opened, but it took us another twenty minutes to get in. By that time the aisles buzzed with people grabbing toys from shelves, and lines had already formed at the registers.

I told Madison, “Why don't you go stand in line while I look for action figures. It will take less time that way.”

I didn't wait for her answer, just weaved my way down an aisle. I wanted to hurry past people but continually found myself trapped behind carts with mammoth toys that blocked the way.

I cut across the Barbie doll aisle and momentarily considered picking up a girlfriend for Teen Robin Hood, one who was a little more suitable for him than Maid Marion. I'm sorry, but the actress who plays her is a total flake. All she does is flutter, cry, and wait for rescue. She never would have made it two days in the real Middle Ages, which is why I started rooting for Robin Hood to dump her after the third episode. I bet even Barbie could have taken her on in a serious smack down.