Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series) (41 page)

We filled a remotely interested Jillian in on our new theory and most of what happened, and the four of us were watching a movie—well, I was half asleep—when out of the blue, I remembered another point of contention I have.

“What about the fact that Tristan totally side-stepped, or rather completely ignored what I said about me not being able to do the casual uncommitted relationship thing? Because that’s really kind of a big deal for me. Assuming I can get around everything else, I can’t go back to the way things were…not now, not after everything that’s happened. I kinda feel like he’s expecting me to be the one who does all the compromising here and that’s just not right.”

“Mmm, I don’t really have an answer on that one. I totally get where you’re coming from though and if it was me, again, assuming I could get over everything else, I’d stick to my guns on that. But really, if what you heard when he was talking to Jeff is true, you know when Jeff told him that he’s gonna have to think of a way to prove he’s serious and if Jeff really does believe he’s that close to being in love with you…then I honestly think it’s a non-issue. If he decides to go for it, you just might have to do some interpreting of his actions like I said before for you to know what he means by whatever he comes up with doing,” Kate said with a contagious yawn.

I was almost asleep again when Jillian’s phone startled me awake. I looked over at her and saw that she was sending a text, but I didn’t question it until the reply came back seconds later. She replied with another one and then stood up to leave.

“What was that all about?” I asked out of pure curiosity.

As a rule, Jillian doesn’t text like the rest of us do. Basically because she’s just not that into it yet, but mostly because she feels like if it’s important enough to say, you should just pick up the phone and say it…unless you simply can’t like the time she chastised me at school for hiding in the library.

She shrugged. “Oh, just this stupid boy who needs help with something.”

“A boy? This sounds promising…is he cute?” I asked, teasing her a little. On second thought, I wonder if I should warn her away from all involvement with boys—cute or not. The cute ones are even more troublesome.

But then again, maybe I should be warning the boy...

Looking bored as usual, she blandly replied, “Oh, he’s totally hot but he’s head over heels for someone else. Besides, I’m not helping him because I like him in that way.”

“Oh, why are you gonna make the effort then?” I’m really curious now. Jill is usually kind of stingy with her time unless there’s something in it for her.

“Well, he’s sorta calling in a favor, but mostly I’m helping him out so I won’t have to buy him the box of Twinkies I kinda owe him. Anyway, I’m gonna ride my bike over to the park and meet him there so I’ll see you all later,” she said simply and then left. Not having to buy a box of Twinkies for someone is totally good motivation for her to do something she wouldn’t necessarily do. Jill is even stingier with her money and junk food than she is with her time.

Kate and Melissa both looked at me in question but it was Melissa, who I think is becoming dangerously fond of Jillian, who asked, “Is she telling the truth or is she up to no good? Because if she’s off to be stealthy, I wanna follow her!”

“Totally telling the truth…she loves her money and junk food more than she loves me,” I said quite honestly.

Okay, I might be stretching it a little, but I really don’t think she’d be the one to ask for a Ding Dong if you were starving or even worse, P.M.S.-ing because all you’d get is an uncompassionate look of “it’s not my problem.”

“That sucks,” Melissa said, disappointed. “I can’t believe you guys didn’t follow her last weekend…I so would’ve trailed her just to see how she does it.”

“Melissa, you would’ve never gotten past the front door…she’d smell a stalker a mile away,” I told her and laughed with Kate at the wounded look on Melissa’s face.

The three of us talked some more and at one point we all napped, but I gotta say, having friends like Kate and Melissa has been really invaluable. Not just in my dilemma, but overall. I really do feel blessed to have them in my life. You might think that your best friends would just bash the guy who did you wrong as a means of supporting you, but they really helped me to see both sides of the coin in what’s been going on with me and Tristan, which I think proves what good people they are.

I’m still not one hundred percent sure about what to do, though, because a lot of things hinge on him. I’m totally over the need to hear Tristan “say” he’s sorry, but like Jeff and Kate said, he needs to prove he’s serious and I’m not going to give him pointers on that. Also, I want a spoken—hell, I’d prefer written—commitment. I’m thinking if he can show me, then he can tell me too, and this is one thing I’m not going to budge on. And then there’s another thing I’m thinking I’m going to meet some pretty serious resistance on, but I’ll deal with that if and when I get past the other two things.

So, I guess you could say I’m in a kind of holding pattern until he decides to prove himself to me. I’m not expecting much this next week, though, because, well…we’ll be at school. And since that’s not really a venue any of us thinks he’ll choose to lay his cards on the table at, I’m guessing it won’t be until next weekend at least before he really gives me anything to go on.

I’ll admit I think it’d be nice if Tristan were a little more like Jeff so I don’t have to decipher his actions like a code. I told Kate what Jeff had said about her during my incarceration and it wasn’t news to her at all. Apparently he’s already said much the same thing to her. And repeatedly from what I gather. Kate actually agrees with him and told me that, yes she’ll most likely end up having his children and marrying him someday and that’s basically why it’s not the end of the world for either of them when they fight or break up. They both acknowledge and accept the fact that they’ll always get back together, and she also agrees with him about their relationship being more like a marriage than that of a boyfriend-girlfriend thing; even though they’re not actually married right now, they both know it’ll happen one day.

Oh and since I was dying of curiosity, I also asked her if it was true about Jeff loving her since the second grade and I gotta say, Jeff may not be a romantic per se, but you will never-ever doubt the sincerity or dedication of his intentions. Here’s the story of how they came to be a couple:

The three of them have known each other since birth, but when Kate was in first grade and the guys were in second, the extremely close-knit friendship started to change. Jeff would tease Kate relentlessly and then turn around and be colder than ice, but he also took Tristan away from her, which, from what she said, really hurt. It wasn’t until after the guys had to repeat a grade two years later and they were all in third grade together that Jeff finally worked up the nerve to walk up to her with Tristan in tow during their lunch recess and told her in no uncertain terms how he felt. Kate told me she remembers it like yesterday and she said this is what Jeff did: He confidently strode right up to her while she was sitting with a couple of girlfriends, pulled her to her feet, kissed her on the lips once and then said, “I love you, Katy, you belong to me and I’m gonna marry you someday, just so you know,” and then he turned around and walked away. Kate, even then having her super powers of being able to read people with frightful accuracy, of course had already figured out what his problem was a year or so before that, but she wanted him to be the one to admit it and so she’d patiently waited. They’ve been together ever since.

Kind of amazing, isn’t it? I mean it’s not your typical storybook romance, but I think it’s almost better. Now, it’s my turn to wait patiently—Ugh—to see if I get the happy ending I’m looking for or not…

22.

A Definite First

Mondays suck.

And you know what?
This
one can kiss my almost sixteen-year-old ass…

I’m not even going to pretend that I don’t swear anymore because that would just be a bold-faced lie and Kate warned me this would happen. I’ve been totally corrupted, thanks in large part to Tristan and his goddamned lips.

Sigh.

Have I mentioned how much I freaking hate my alarm clock? Well I do. I detest—no, I absolutely loathe it. Especially today. You’d think I would’ve slept the sleep of the dead after having been awake almost all night on Saturday, but
nooo
. I hardly slept at all. I kept turning things over in my head trying to make sure I’d come to the right decision when, or more aptly,
if
Tristan decides to prove himself and I gotta say, I think this next week is gonna be pretty freaking brutal. If it’s anything like last week, I’m gonna be in for a world of hurt because that was just miserable. Maybe because we’re not mad at each other anymore it won’t be
as
bad, but I still think things will be uncomfortable and awkward, especially considering we’re getting an award at lunch today, which I’m
so
not looking forward to.

I know I can probably speed the process up a
little bit
by telling him the ball’s in his court now, but that sort of defeats the purpose of him proving himself, which he really needs to do so that I can be sure of him. There’s no doubt in my mind that he wants to be with me in “some” way and I’m sure I want to be with him now too. The question is how much is he willing to do in order to be with me though; because there’s only one way I’ll do it. Plus, I need to see that he can be the person I need, if that makes any sense at all. I hate to put it this way, but there are some strings attached to what I’m willing to do. It all kind of comes back to what happened with him and Melissa. If he feels like I’m asking him to be someone he’s not, then it won’t work for either of us, the possibility of which scares the crap out of me.

So, here I go… I’m dragging my utterly emotionally and physically exhausted butt out of bed to embark on a new day and I’m doing it filled with firm resolve…
and
a hefty dose of nauseating fear.

I opted to skip breakfast due to the fact that my tummy is a jittery mess as I really don’t know what my day is going to be like or how the rest of the week will play out, but as I was brushing my teeth, I was given the nerve-wracking information that I’ll be finding out way earlier than I expected.

“Camie, your ride’s here,” Jillian told me as I rinsed.

I looked at the bathroom clock and began choking on the water in my mouth. “Holy crap! Kate’s
way
early! I know we’ve been trying really hard to get to school on time, but jeez… Just tell her to come in and I’ll be down in a minute…”

I dashed into my room to pull my shoes on and was shocked even further when some rather loud music floated in through my window from outside. I recognized the song almost immediately. It’s “Whatever It Takes” by Lifehouse. I walked over to my window to see what the hell was going on and what I saw instantly filled my eyes with the biggest crocodile tears
EVER
… As I stood there captivated and crying, my entire family wandered in to join in witnessing a moment that I’ll be sure to remember long after eternity is over.

“Well, it’s not Peter Gabriel, but you really do have to give him credit,” my mom said tenderly and with a little sniffle of her own.

“I’ll say this for him, the boy definitely has style…and sweetie, I don’t know what he did, but anyone willin’ to pull a
Say Anything
like this guy is doin’, certainly means business,” my dad told me, thereby confirming my thoughts exactly.

If you haven’t figured it out, Tristan, my absolute, no question about it,
soul mate and love of my life
, is quite literally standing in front of his car in our driveway wearing a tan trench coat, holding an ancient and decrepit looking boom box straight up over his head and asking me for a second chance through the use of an epically romantic ‘80s movie moment and
one heck
of a perfect song.

I turned away from the window, grabbed my purse and just as I was about to fly down the stairs still weeping for joy, I heard Jillian talking to herself as she crossed the hall to go into her bedroom.

“I’m so proud…our little boy is all growed up,” she muttered, shaking her head and closing the door behind her.

Not caring to take the time out of my perfect moment to ponder what that was about, I shook her musings off, bolted down the stairs, out the front door and flew straight into Tristan’s arms. He just barely had time to put the boom box down before he caught me with a kiss as he swung me around once.

“I know you asked for time but I just couldn’t bear the thought of another day let alo—”

“Oh my God, you just totally proved that I don’t need any more time,” I interrupted. Then as the song played out, I slowed down the ecstatic Snoopy happy dancing I’ve been doing in my head and started praying he wouldn’t balk yet. “But Tristan, I have some conditions…”

“Alright. Let’s go talk,” he replied without a moment’s hesitation.

Then he kissed me on the cheek and opened the passenger door for me, bringing the tempo of my mental dancing back up to where it’d been. Once we were on our way though, and I recognized we were heading to school, I figured I should let Kate know I wouldn’t need a ride.

When Tristan noticed I had pulled out my phone he asked, “What are you doing?”

“Letting Kate know she doesn’t need to pick me up.”

“Uh, I kinda already took care of that,” he answered, a devilish grin playing on his lips. Then he decided to explain when I just stared at him. “Well, I didn’t wanna assume my impersonation of Lloyd Dobler would allow me to drive my girlfriend to school this morning, so, I sorta hedged my bets and had Jeff prevent Kate from picking you up…”

Wait. Go back… Girlfriend? Did he call me his girlfriend?

“Wow, that’s pretty devious, Tristan. But I wanna go back to something else you said,” I told him, completely distracted from any irritation I might’ve felt at his intended form of hi-jacking me by his usage of the word girlfriend.

He pulled into the deserted back lot at school, shut the engine off and then turned to face me. “You’ve got my undivided attention, go.”