One and Done (Two Outta Three #2) (4 page)

Why?

Why could a douche like Dwight expect that he’d get somebody as perfect as Rocky?

Why?

Why couldn’t I allow myself one moment of selfishness?

Before I could figure out the secret to life, the door to my bedroom burst open and a red-eyed, almost unrecognizable woman stumbled in. “Where’s your cash?”

Rocky stiffened at the sight of my mom and lifted her drawing board higher, as if trying to shield herself. I rolled my chair in front of her protectively despite knowing my mom would never lay a hand on her. I would never let her get that far.

“I don’t have any cash, Mom. Now please leave my room,” I said in a calm voice.

“Bullshit. I saw some cash lying inside your underwear drawer the other day!”

The fact that she was nosing around in my boxer drawer overshadowed the embarrassment I felt with Rocky watching this whole exchange. I lifted my chin and tried to keep a stone cold face. “Then you’d know that it was only three bucks and I spent that on lunch at school.”

“Bullshit,” she repeated, glaring at me.

I expected her to leave, but when she didn’t, I knew I had no choice. I fished inside my pocket looking for my last five dollar bill.

Rocky gasped. “No, don’t.”

Now that got my mother’s attention. “Who do you think you are, hussy? Do you really think you have a right to tell my son what to do? I am his muth-dddeerrrr.”

I felt as if smoke was about to escape my ears. I jumped to my feet and stomped my way over to the door. “She has more right than you do. Here.” I shoved the bill into Mom’s hands. “Now go.”

As if a light switch was flipped off, Mom’s face went from murderous to ecstatic. She quickly exited the room, but even her absence didn’t alleviate my mood. I slammed the door loudly and threw myself back onto my chair in time to spot Rocky discreetly shoving her stuff back into her bag.

“Where are you going?” I demanded.

She smiled sheepishly. “Um, I think I should go. Let’s finish this up another time.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have to tell you why.”

My jaw clenched as I worked my teeth around inside my mouth. Everything in my life was so fucked up. Just when I thought I had a moment of pure normalcy, my mother had to ruin things again. Without thinking, I reached over to grab a half-empty bottle of whiskey from my desk.

Rocky stopped what she was doing and threw me a disappointed look.

“What?” I muttered, unscrewing the black cap. The familiar scent both calmed me and made me want to hurl.

“I think you need to take care of yourself for once…none of this reckless stuff anymore.” She pointed to an empty beer can in my waste basket and sighed. “Don’t turn into her.”

Of course I’d never turn into her. The thought was not only ridiculous, but damn near impossible! Regardless, I found myself screwing the lid back on to appease my best friend. “For the record, I do take care of myself. I eat. I brush my teeth.”

She bowed her head and sighed. “We both know that’s not what I mean. Be happy, Jesse. I know you’re not. That’s why you’re always running around getting into trouble all the time.”

“Happy? How do you expect me to do that? Have you seen my life?” I gestured around and smirked. “Not that easy, Rocky.”

She took a deep breath. “You can at least try to act normal. I mean, what do kids our age usually do?”

“I don’t know…get all hyped up about homecoming, I guess.” I glanced up and noticed a hopeful look in Rocky’s eyes. I frowned. “But we’re not like everybody else. We don’t do stuff like that.”

“And why not?”

“Because…”

“That’s not an answer. We’re seniors, Jesse. Now’s the time to take part in all that dumb high school stuff and stop trying so hard to be different.” Her shoulders bounced. “Besides, what girl wouldn’t want to go to a dance?”

Dumbfounded, I stared at Rocky curiously. “You don’t really want to go to homecoming, do you?”

Her eyes widened. “Yes! I’d love to go!”

My mouth dropped open. “Wait, what?”

“I totally wanted to ask you, but I thought you’d think it was stupid.” She paused and cleared her throat. “I mean, to go as friends of course.”

“Friends,” I repeated.

“Yeah…” Rocky’s face fell for a moment before brightening. “We’ll have a lot of fun. We’ll be normal kids.”

I let a puff of air out of my nostrils. “How would I know what normal is?”

Chapter 4

“So you want to go to the dance?” Mr. Elliott folded his hands together, creating a steeple with his index fingers. Resting his nose on the makeshift tower, he exhaled lengthily. “I thought Jesse Tyler didn’t do dances.”

Crap. He really was going to drag this out.

“He doesn’t, but his best friend does.”

“Raquel Rossi?” The vice principal’s eyebrows rose in surprise. His interest seemingly piqued, he leaned over like a star-crazed paparazzi photographer. I wondered if my affection for her was more obvious than I assumed.

I nodded. “Yes, Rocky.”

He pursed his lips. “I spoke to Miss McMillan today. She speaks quite highly of you.”

“As she should,” I replied smugly.

Mr. Elliott pursed his lips. “I’m glad to see you’re listening to my advice.”

“It wasn’t advice, it was a punishment, right?” I crossed my arms over my chest, then, thinking better of it, relaxed them to my sides. I was asking a favor—something I hated to do—and I needed to play nice.

“Nevertheless…she seems quite smitten by you…I mean smitten in the most respectable term, of course.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Just what BFHS needed—a sex scandal. I smirked. “Yeah, the class is definitely fun.”

Let’s throw an innuendo there to make him squirm.

He nodded his head slowly. “Seeing as you are taking your punishment seriously, I’ll lift my ban on the dance if you promise to stick to the club for at least a semester.”

My heart jumped in jubilation. “Thank you.”

“Suffice it to say, you don’t get into any more trouble before then, hmm?”

I nodded, though deep inside I knew it was a promise I couldn’t—wouldn’t—be able to keep.

***

“We’re going to homecoming!” Rocky practically shrieked at Stephanie, who stared at us in bewilderment.

“What? Since when?” She eyed us suspiciously. “This has got to be a joke, right?”

Rocky bounced from one foot to the other, a ball of nervous and excited energy ready to burst. “No, not a joke. We decided just last night. Isn’t this exciting? I get to buy a dress and get my hair done.”

As Rocky continued to ramble on, Stephanie lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “Wait, last night? What were you two doing last night?”

“We—”

“Ran off to the courthouse and eloped,” I interjected with a wink.

Stephanie was not amused. “So you guys ditched me. Again.”

“We didn’t get married, Steph,” Rocky said quietly.

“Duh, I’m not an idiot,” she replied with a laugh. “Anyway, what am I going to do now?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, leaning into my locker. I purposely allowed my shoulder to rub against Rocky’s and reveled in the way the contact made her quiver.

Stephanie groaned in exasperation. “We never go to dances. I was kinda looking forward to stuffing my face with pizza and watching
Weekend at Bernie’s
like we always do! You know, so we don’t have to worry about stupid high school dances?”

Crap. In all the excitement, I had forgotten about our stupid tradition of pizza and a bad eighties flick on dance night. It was an unspoken pact between the three of us to spend time away from the student body we all hated so much. Then again, it was mostly an excuse for three outcasts—the quiet bad boy, geeky art student, and unpopular brainiac—to avoid the unwanted pressure of attending. Well, every tradition had to be broken sooner or later, right?

“Why don’t you just ask somebody? That way you can go with us,” I suggested.

Stephanie’s big eyes widened further. “Are you serious? Why would I do that?”

Rocky tilted her head thoughtfully. “You do like that Daniel guy from our trig class, right?”

“Rocky!” Stephanie’s eyes darted around the hallway. “You weren’t supposed to say anything about that. You promised!”

I laughed. “Come on, I don’t think we’re important enough for anybody to be eavesdropping on.”

“Speak for yourself.” Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed. “Why would I ask him? Shouldn’t he ask me?”

“He’s had that option for a while now,” I replied bluntly. “Maybe it’s time you take matters into your own hands.”

“Easy for you to say.” She snorted. “You knew Rocky would go with you—”

“Ahem!” Rocky coughed, shooting Stephanie a look of warning.

Stephanie shrugged. “Just saying.”

Rocky rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Steph, you have over a month until the dance…who knows? Maybe this will turn into something more than just a stupid high school dance.”

I had to hand it to Rocky. She had a way of manipulating us without making us feel manipulated. My mom could take a few lessons from her.

“You really think so? Do you think he’ll really go out with me?” Stephanie yanked at her long strands and shut her eyes. For a moment I felt a bit guilty. I always forgot that my ‘irritating’ friend had a soft spot—an insecurity.

Before Rocky could respond, I reached out and patted Stephanie’s shoulder. “Of course. Just as long as you have a vagina, a teenage boy will always jump at the chance.”

The look of doubt left Steph’s face and was replaced with annoyance. “Okay, but if this ends badly I’ll find you and murder you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Written elf porn. I got it.” I shrugged my shoulders but couldn’t help wondering if she really did have a boiling pot of water waiting for me.

Chapter 5

Rocky was right. Everything did work out. In the month that led up to homecoming, Stephanie and Daniel started dating and Rocky and I continued our afterschool art sessions. There was nothing I looked forward to more than sitting in that beat-up desk chair and allowing Rocky’s eyes to travel over me. That one moment a day trumped every shitty thing in my life. I could look past my mother’s insults, her lack of love, and reminders that I sucked as a person. I could ignore the fact that my dad hadn’t called or checked up on me in weeks. I could also ignore the fact that my self-imposed rule to “stay away” was an outright failure because hell, I deserved some semblance of happiness too, right? The intimacy of sitting in a dim, silent room pushed any reservations I had aside. Why couldn’t Rocky and I get together? Would we really be doomed if I decided to ask her out?

“Why’d you ask me to homecoming?” Rocky didn’t look up and kept her gaze locked onto her work.

I didn’t really mean to.

I blinked in surprise as if caught with my hand down in the cookie jar. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Why’d you ask me out?” she repeated.

“Oh, that clarifies it.” I snickered.

“Jesse.”

How could I tell her that it was a misunderstanding, though one I was really thankful for?

“I…uh…”

“Jesse!” Mom screamed.

Oh thank God! For once in my life I was actually relieved to see my mother. The door burst open, revealing the fuming woman. Her chest rose and fell, and despite the anger flaring in her eyes she looked as if she were on the verge of tears. With trembling fingers, she held out the house phone toward me. “Your father wants to speak with you.”

I froze.

“Um, I think I should go.” Without waiting for a reply, Rocky practically sprinted out of my room. I couldn’t really blame her. Mom looked as if she was ready to throw objects.

Anxiety’s cold fingers wrapped themselves around my heart. A cool rush of icy fear ran up and down my veins. Mom stayed put, watching my every move, and I knew whatever Dad had to say must have been pretty important. Not to mention bad.

“Can I get some privacy?” I practically yelped out.

To my surprise—and utter relief—Mom retreated without another word, leaving me staring at the crusty old cordless phone in my hand. There were old pieces of food caked onto the receiver, and though that alone should have disgusted me, I suddenly felt numb. Hesitantly, I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Jesse.” I don’t know what I expected his voice to sound like. Maybe different? Older? The fact that it sounded exactly the same as my memories did more to jar me than anything.

“What do you want?” I asked bluntly.

“Son—”

“Please don’t call me that.”

There was a slight pause, followed by an uncomfortable cough. “Jesse, I…am getting remarried. I wanted you to hear it from me, and I also wanted to ask you to be my best man.”

I felt as if I was gutted, though I didn’t know why I reacted that way. I wasn’t stupid. I hadn’t held onto the fallacy that my parents would somehow get back together. I was all for believing the unbelievable, but that hope was just too much to even entertain. Still, hearing that your dad was starting a life away from you was nothing less than a blow to the ego and to the heart.

“Jesse?” This time his voice sounded hesitant, which definitely wasn’t a familiar sound to my ear.

“I…I have to go.”

“Jesse, please don’t be like this.”

“Like what? Someone who abandons someone else in need? Funny, I think we know somebody else like that.”

“Jesse.”

“Bye.”

My phone rang again that night. Not once, but four times. It wasn’t my father who called; it was Rocky checking up on me. Though I knew hearing from her would make me feel better, I also knew my resolve would crack and decided not to answer her calls. I wasn’t strong enough to keep fighting my feelings off, but now more than ever, I knew I had to. My father made that decision for me when he reminded me of my broken family. I’d never get Rocky into all that.