Love Off-Limits (11 page)

She headed back upstairs, hoping some of her night owl friends would've responded by now. Disappointment hit heavily when her post showed no replies. Usually she had
one or two by this time. Was everyone mad at her? Did they think she was a total nut for liking her boyfriend's best friend? Her situation couldn't get much worse. Not only had she driven Matt away, but now people she didn't even know thought she was crazy too. She hit refresh and the screen took her to a whole new page with some technical message. Great, now her computer wasn't working. She'd have her brother look at it tomorrow. She flopped onto her bed, buried her face in her pillow, and realized that she'd gone too far.

The wind woke Natalie. It blew so hard that something in the front yard slammed angrily against the garage door. The first thing she thought of was Romeohelpme and the fact that she was officially a cyber outcast. Then she realized that it was light outside. She glanced at her alarm clock. The numbers on the front flashed two a.m. The clock was out of commission. She grabbed her cell phone.
Six forty-five!
Panic washed her senses as she realized that she was late. Her alarm clock had never gone off. She was usually en route to school by this time. She wasn't even dressed. Worst of all, she wouldn't have time to peek to see if she had any replies. She'd have to wait until
after school, which really meant dinnertime because she was supposed to study with Jo in the library today.

Typical that her alarm would fail the same day that she was horribly behind on laundry. She raced to the dryer for clean clothes. But when she opened the dryer door, all her clothes were heaped in a damp pile in the bottom.

Her mother peeked into the laundry room. “Oh good, you're up,” she said. Natalie noticed that her hair was still wet. Usually her mother was blow-dried and ready to start the day by this point. “I was just about to go wake you. The power went out last night. The Santa Ana winds blew out the electricity.”

“Does this mean the school's power is out too?”

Her mother shook her head. “I don't think so. Everything seems to be working now. I guess it blew out the whole south part of town earlier in the evening and eventually it got our power lines too. Listen, I have to run.” She glanced at her watch and said good-bye.

Natalie mumbled something about being late before she rushed back upstairs.
In spite of her haste, she felt a huge sense of relief. The blackout explained the lack of replies. Her cable must've been screwed up before the electricity went out, thus messing up the Internet and not giving her updated posts.

She had no clean socks or jeans. She tore through her dresser looking for her khakis, but the only available pants were her sweatpants. Worse, she'd have to wear flip-flops. She couldn't find a T-shirt to match her loungewear so she dug frantically through her laundry basket sniffing things that looked clean. Everything was wrinkled and smelled like dirty clothes. She ended up in a hideous sweatshirt Grandma Jones had given to her for her birthday that read
I LOVE DACHSHUNDS
and had a picture of the breed on the front. She'd vowed she would never leave the house in the sweatshirt, but she was desperate. It was a terrible look. She'd only encountered bad laundry days a couple of other times in her life, and they always made for the most awkward of days. She'd feel weird and self-conscious all day, and she'd constantly want to explain her ugly ensemble to every person she encountered.
Sorry for my appearance. My alarm failed and
I was too lazy to do laundry until I was out of clean underwear and socks.

To add to her bad start, her mother was long gone, so now she didn't have a note to excuse her from detention.

Spaces were limited in the Outer Space parking lot. She screeched into one in the farthest corner of the lot. The bell rang before she was even close to class. Several other students darted through the halls—some with wet hair and wrinkled clothes. At least she wasn't totally alone. The worst was walking into class in the middle of roll call in her terrible outfit. She felt every set of eyes focus on her. She'd never felt happier to duck into her assigned seat. After roll was finished, a detention slip followed. She hated the thought of detention and thought that a county-wide blackout was a perfectly good reason to get out of it. Wasn't the entire town of Oak Canyon affected?

“Everyone else managed to make it on time,” her lame-o teacher pointed out. She couldn't stand Ms. Lizt. Natalie just knew the woman made a conscious effort to make her lectures as boring as possible and found joy in assigning homework.

Natalie ducked in and out of her classes
all day, finding the most comfort tucked behind her desk where she could hide better. At lunch she found Jo wearing a black dress she'd worn to her sister's graduation the year before and a hooded sweatshirt. She glanced at Natalie. “Looks like you had a bad laundry day too.”

“You too?”

“I tried to do laundry last night but the freaking power went out.”

“Same with me!” They compared bad outfits.

“I think your outfit is fine,” Jeremy said. “What's wrong with it? I didn't even notice anything until you said something.” He shrugged. She appreciated his words, but this was coming from someone who wore board shorts to school in December. Guys could get away with those sorts of things.

The afternoon moved slowly and Natalie couldn't wait to go home and finish up her laundry and check replies. However, she still had plans to meet with Jo in the library.

The girls met at their lockers after school and headed to the library together.

The library always smelled a little dusty—like old books. At least being here
would force her to study and not procrastinate. They had both agreed that studying at Jo's house was a bad idea and had come to the library instead. At Jo's house they would've watched MTV and browsed the
Us Weekly
magazine subscription that Jo's mother had graciously agreed to.

The library was a little crowded but with school a month and a half in, everyone was starting to face their first big tests of the year. Jo and Natalie weren't in any of the same classes but they both had tests in biology and history. They found a table in the corner and began to unload books from their backpacks.

Jo made a small stack in front of her. “So I talked Brianna out of asking Matt to the dance,” she whispered.

Natalie's head spun toward her friend. “How'd you know she was going to ask Matt?” Natalie hadn't mentioned this to Jo, and she tried to keep her reaction to this news cool.

“She told me today at lunch. She was going to ask him, but he wasn't around.”

“Why'd you talk her out of it?”

Jo gave Natalie the same look her mother would give her when Natalie was trying to weasel her way out of something. “C'mon,
Nat. It's beyond obvious that there is something between you and Matt. And I only want what is best for my friend.”

“What?” Natalie was shell-shocked. How did she know? Furthermore, it had always seemed like Jo had thought that Jeremy was perfect for her. “That's so not…I don't even know…” For a moment she thought of words that might allow her to talk her way out of this. But it was Jo. They'd known each other since elementary school. She was the closest thing Natalie had ever had to a sister, and she knew there was no use in trying to lie. Natalie scrunched up her forehead. “You think it's beyond obvious?”

“Well, only because I know you. I've suspected something between the two of you ever since you took on that newspaper job—which, by the way, I know you're writing the column too. You don't have to admit that now. But whenever you're ready you can tell me. And in the meantime, I swear I won't tell anyone.” She pulled a strand of hair behind her ear.

Natalie was speechless. She'd always sensed that Jo knew her well, but now she was starting to wonder if her best friend shared the same gift as Seto. Or maybe
she was Nancy Drew? “What are you? Jo Drew?”

Jo smiled. “I guess you could just call it intuition. And the fact that you're my oldest friend in the world and I can read you like a book, Natalie.”

A million thoughts raced through her head. It was great and everything that Jo knew her so well, but Natalie didn't feel comfortable with the notion that she could be read like a book—by anyone. She liked to think she was pretty poker-faced most of the time. “Do you think Jeremy has sensed this too?”

“No. Not at all. He's totally oblivious.”

“What about Vincent? Does he notice this too? Does everyone know?”

“I think Vincent might know.”

“What do you mean ‘might'?”

“Well, he did sorta say something that day we tried on costumes.”

Natalie buried her face in her hands for a moment, then looked at her friend. “What did he say?”

“He just thought he sensed something too.”

Her voice was barely a whisper. “All right, tell me what you said to Brianna.”

“I just told her that Travis would be a better bet for the dance. He'd make a fun date.”

“That was it?”

“I might've told her that Matt had a crush on someone else.”

“Jo!” A guy at the adjacent table turned his head, and Natalie returned to whispering. “You can't do that. She was okay with that? Is she asking Travis?”

“I don't know. But I swear, truthfully, she really didn't seem all that bummed out.”

“Really?”

“No. She said she kind of liked someone else anyway and she just thought Matt was cool.”

“Really? She doesn't like Matt that much?”

“It didn't seem like it.”

“Listen, even if Matt did have a crush on me, I would never hurt Jeremy. Ever. There is no hope for Matt and me. He is totally free and Brianna is completely free to pursue him. Matt even encouraged me to stay with Jeremy.”

Jo blew it off. “He's only doing that to protect himself. Natalie, haven't you noticed the way he looks at you?”

Natalie shook her head. “I can't even believe I'm having this conversation. It's like talking about running for president of the United States. The whole thing is so far out of the question. And he looks at everyone that way.”

Jo eyed her skeptically. “I don't think I totally agree with you.”

“Why the sudden change of heart? I thought you loved Jeremy?”

“I think that you and Jeremy were great together at one point, but I realize now what you're saying. You guys have grown apart. You're different. So why can't you have a shot with Matt?”

“Why? Because what if Jeremy doesn't feel like we've grown apart? He would be devastated. I mean, hello? It's only his best friend in the world. What would you think if I swooped in and went for Brian?”

Jo sighed. “There is no generic black-and-white answer for everything. Geez, for someone in charge of an advice column about love, you sure could use some advice yourself. Everyone's situation is different. There are different circumstances for each unique situation. Yes, right now, today, if you went for Brian I would be mad. But
maybe I won't even like him next month, and then he's all yours. And besides, we're in high school. What? Just because someone likes someone else means they forever have a claim on that person?” Jo shook her head. “No, I don't think so. This is the time in our lives when we're supposed to be dating—not marking our territory for life.”

Natalie thought for a moment. “Hmmm. I never thought of it that way. But do you really think things are that simple?”

Jo nodded. “Yes.”

 

After she returned from the library, Natalie holed up in her room with a bag of chips and finally had a chance to check her message board responses.

Natalie chuckled. She would've never pegged Dragon Guy as a
Hills
fan. But that
was the beauty of the site. Everyone could be themselves. She didn't feel so funny about revealing her deepest secret now.

Natalie's eyes grew wide. She never meant to start an outrage on Romeohelpme. That wasn't the end of it. At least two dozen other people threw in their two cents as well. Her love life was like an election. People were completely divided. Some stood strongly with Girl Gone Green, and others were totally committed to Skater Chick's beliefs. They were all eager to share their opinions.

You would have to be heartless to ever go for your boyfriend's best friend.

I think all is fair in love and war. Follow your heart.

Overnight, her cry for advice had become a battleground. One minute Natalie found herself agreeing with the Skater camp, and
the next she completely understood the Girl Gone Green philosophy.

However, there was one response that she found particularly interesting.