Ten (5 page)

“They’re just making out,” T.J. said. “Don’t worry.” Could he tell Meg was tweaking over it?

“Isn’t he with Jessica?”

“I think it’s pretty casual.”

“Oh.” Meg didn’t understand the concept of casual relationships. She envied girls who could date a bunch of guys and be totally unattached to any of them. They always seemed confident and blissfully happy, unlike her, pining away for a boy she couldn’t have. A boy who stood right next to her at the stove, languidly stirring a pot of jar pasta sauce. Somehow it was the sexiest thing Meg had ever seen, like she’d been transported to a chick flick where hot, brooding men just wanted to read Tennyson out loud and make epic meals in an Italian villa....

Stop it
. She needed to get a grip. Meg opened the fridge to look for salad ingredients and secretly hoped the chilled air would snap her out of her hormone-induced haze. She grabbed some tomatoes and returned to the salad.

“So did you ever decide on a school?” T.J. asked while Meg attacked a tomato with a serrated knife. “You had like three writing programs after you, right?”

Meg smiled as she reached for a cucumber. He remembered that?

“Well?” T.J. said. His dimples danced on his cheeks. “Don’t leave me hanging.”

“I’m going to UCLA.”

Vivian appeared at Meg’s shoulder as if by magic. “Hm,” she said, scrutinizing the salad assembly. “Don’t cut the cucumbers so big. Choking hazard.”

“I’ll try.” What were they, six?

“And be sure not to add the croutons until dinner’s ready because they’ll get soggy.” Then Vivian moved on to the pasta sauce. “Don’t add any salt. The sodium content in that jar is already off the charts.”

“Yes, ma’am,” T.J. said with a salute.

Vivian narrowed her eyes, then marched off to spread her control freakiness to another facet of dinner.

Meg wanted to shove a cucumber where the sun didn’t shine.

T.J. lowered the burner and put a lid on the pot. “Oh, she’s going to be fun.”

“If by ‘fun’ you mean ‘exhausting,’” Meg said without thinking.

T.J. smiled. “See, why can’t you say things like that in front of people?”

Meg felt the blush rising up almost immediately. She hated it when T.J. called her out on her inability to verbalize what was in her head. “Not everything needs to be said.” It was one of her mom’s favorite sayings.

Oh crap. She was quoting her mom.

“Some of your comebacks are gold.”

“Thanks.”

He dumped a giant box of spaghetti into Gunner’s abandoned pot of now boiling water. “And you shouldn’t be afraid to say them out loud.”

“What are you, my therapist?”

His smiled deepened. “See? Gold.”

“You’re killing me. Seriously.”

T.J. stirred the pasta sauce. “We’ll practically be neighbors, you know.”

The transition was so sudden, Meg had no idea what he was talking about. “Huh?”

“You didn’t hear?”

Obviously not. “I don’t think—”

T.J. scrunched up his brow. “I thought Mins would have told you.”

“Oh. No.”

“USC. Full scholarship. I’ll probably be red-shirted freshman year, but they’ve promised me a shot at starting.”

“I thought you were going to U-Dub?”

T.J. shrugged. “I changed my mind.”

Wow. So they were going to be neighbors. Both in Los Angeles. Meg’s stomach fluttered.

T.J. placed a hand on her shoulder. “I thought maybe, since we’ll be like a few miles from each other …”

Without meaning to, she leaned closer to him. “Yeah?”

T.J. looked her directly in the eye. “Since we’ll be near each other, I thought maybe we could—”

“If the sauce is done,” Vivian called from the dining room, “can you set the table?”

T.J. pulled his hand away from Meg’s shoulder. “I’ve been summoned. We’ll talk later.”

Meg threw her chopped vegetables into the bowl as T.J. disappeared into the dining room. That was close. Her resolve to resist T.J. had wavered at the first major challenge, which was not good. She should thank Vivian for the interruption.

On the other hand, Meg bristled at the idea that she’d just been KO’d by that bossy type A know-it-all.
Really?
Had that really just happened?

Out of spite, she put the croutons
and
the salad dressing in the bowl at the same time and secretly hoped they got completely soggy.

The first thing Meg noticed when Minnie and Ben entered the dining room was that Minnie wasn’t wearing any lip gloss. The second thing she noticed were the remnants of Minnie’s sparkly pink MAC Lipglass smeared around Ben’s mouth, cheeks, and neck.

Meg didn’t really want to know where else pink glitter had been deposited on Ben’s anatomy.

They came in separately, like that was supposed to allay suspicions that they’d been sucking face on the patio for a half hour. Minnie practically pranced through the room, past the hand-in-hand Gunner and Kumiko, and took a seat next to Meg.

Minnie didn’t look at her, just smiled to herself as she ran her fingers through her tangled blonde hair. But the second T.J. entered the room carrying the giant bowl of salad, she waved him over.

“T.J.,” she said, slightly out of breath. “Put the salad here. I’m
starving
.”

T.J. shrugged. “Okay.”

“I can’t believe what an appetite I worked up,” she continued, heaping lettuce and chopped veggies onto her plate.

T.J. shot Meg a look that said
Am I really supposed to ask?
, then turned on his heel and disappeared into the kitchen without another word.

Meg bit her lip. She’d seen Minnie play this game before, trying to make T.J. jealous by flaunting another guy in front of him. Last time, she’d dated Gunner for four whole months before she gave up and dumped the poor boy. Now it seemed Ben was a convenient target, though by the way she looked at him as Ben took the seat next to her, Meg suspected Minnie might actually kind of like him.

Which was good, except that he was dating their hostess. For the first time that day, Meg was glad Jessica had been delayed in Mukilteo.

A haze of white noise blanketed the dining room as people chattered to their neighbors. Kenny and Nathan discussing their video game, Minnie and Ben making fun of the old-fashioned wallpaper, Gunner and Kumiko whispering back and forth. For the most part, Meg just sat and watched, drifting from one conversation to the next, catching bits and pieces as they jumped out at her.

“Teej and the Gun Show?” Vivian laughed as T.J. carried an armful of beer bottles to the table. “They really call you that?”

“That’s like a reality show, dude.” Nathan laughed through a mouthful of pasta. Little specks of red sauce sputtered out of his mouth and hit the white tablecloth.

“Like a
bad
reality show,” Minnie corrected.

“Oh, like M and M is so much better?” Kumiko said.

Minnie narrowed her eyes. “It’s not like I picked it.”

“True,” T.J. said, with a glance in Meg’s direction. “But it’s still pretty adorable.”

Minnie beamed. “I know, right?”

“So you’re Tara’s cousin?” Lori asked.

Kumiko nodded.

Lori helped herself to salad. “She’s friends with Jessica, right?”

“Best friends,” T.J. said. “You know her?”

Lori passed the salad to Kenny. “We sang in All-County Choir together last year.”

“Awesome,” Nathan said. “Tara’s fine.”

Kumiko paused midbite. “Gross.”

“What?” Nathan laughed nervously, looking from guy to guy for approbation. “She is.”

Kumiko nodded at T.J. “Teej dated her last year.”

Nathan’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “For reals?”

“For reals,” T.J. said coolly. “But not for very long.”

“Dude.” Nathan leaned forward. “Do you mind if I … you know. Try and hit that?”

Kumiko dropped her spaghetti-laden fork to her plate. “Really?”

T.J. laughed. “Yeah, dude. Knock yourself out.”

At the other end of the table, Ben pointed at Kenny. “Oh my God, I’m failing too. You have Mr. de Gama, right?”

“Fourth period,” Kenny said.

Ben reached his arm across the table for a fist bump. “I’m in his fifth period. Totally with you.”

“I
hate
that dude,” Nathan chimed in. “He totally tried to fail me last year.”

Ben cocked his head. “Tried to?”

“Yeah, dude, check this out.” Nathan scooted his chair closer to the table. “Douche-Gama told me I had to ace the midterm or he was going to flunk me cuz I’d be so far behind I wouldn’t be able to pull my grade up by the end of the semester. I was like, ‘Dude, come on.’ But the a-hole had no mercy. So my man Kenny and I, we got me a little help.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ben said.

“Oh, yeah. You know that weird chick that used to go to Mariner? Long dark hair, bug eyes, kinda quiet.”

Ben wrinkled his nose. “I think so. She was kind of a loner, right? Always sat by herself in the corner of the cafeteria?”

Lori and Vivian exchanged a glance.

Nathan slapped the table. “That’s her! Right, so, weird chick had this thing for me. Used to follow me around, wait by my car and shit. Kenny pointed out that she was totally acing his class.”

“And she tutored you?” Ben asked.

“Better.” Nathan smiled. “I got her to give me all the answers for the midterm. She had it before lunch and I had it after lunch so …”

Vivian’s eyes practically popped out of her head. “You cheated?”

Nathan shrugged. “Creative test taking.”

“Nice scam,” Ben said shaking his head. “But how did you convince her to help you?”

“That’s the best part!” Nathan helped himself to seconds. “All I had to do was pretend I was dating her for a couple of weeks. It was so easy.”

“Dude,” T.J. said. “That’s fucked up.”

Nathan shrugged. “Whatever. I’m sure she got over it.”

Meg couldn’t help but project herself into that poor girl’s place—a popular guy like Nathan with whom she was totally in love suddenly started paying attention to her. She must have been so happy, so excited, only to realize he was just using her.

Meg’s eyes involuntarily flew to T.J. Popular guys like that didn’t exactly fall in love with shy nobodies like herself. Yet another reason she needed to get over him.

“I think that’s awful,” Vivian said.

Lori nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that girl had enough problems.”

“Oh, come on!” Nathan said. “She got a little something-something out of it. Right, Kenny?”

Kenny’s face flushed scarlet and he looked sheepishly at Lori. “Uh, I guess,” he muttered.

Nathan laughed, then launched a piece of garlic bread across the table at his friend. “Whatever, dude.”

Kenny snatched it off the table and pitched it back to Nathan, who followed with some of his salad. Before Meg knew it, the two guys were lobbing handfuls of lettuce across the table.

Kumiko and Gunner joined in, and Minnie and Ben were laughing uncontrollably while Lori tried to shield herself from the onslaught behind Kenny’s bulk.

“Stop it!” Vivian shrieked, jumping to her feet. “You’re making a mess. What if Jessica comes and sees—”

Vivian paused. She was staring at something across the table. Meg followed her gaze. She was staring at Ben.

It took a moment before Meg realized what was happening. He sat frozen with his fork halfway between his plate and his mouth. It looked like he was thinking intently about something, then immediately his face deepened to dark red and his lips began to swell.

“Oh my God,” Minnie said. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you choking?” T.J. asked.

Ben shook his head, shoved his chair back violently from the table and began to fumble for something in his pocket. His face was purple, and in a matter of seconds it had swollen so tight his eyes were barely more than slits. He made a strangled gasping sound, then flopped face-first onto the table.

“Holy shit!” Gunner said under his breath.

Minnie backed away from Ben. “Somebody help him!”

Vivian dashed around the table. “We should get him on the ground so I can administer CPR.”

Meg shook her head. “Nope.” She took Minnie’s chair and pulled Ben’s swollen hand away from his jeans. There was something in his pocket he’d been trying to reach.

“What do you mean?” Vivian’s voice practically squeaked. “I’m CPR
and
AED certified. And I’m a candy striper on the weekends.”

Did she never stop? Without a second thought, Meg shoved her hand into Ben’s pocket. Her fingers felt a thin, penlike object. Thank God.

“What’s that?” Vivian demanded. “What are you doing?”

“EpiPen.” Meg whipped off the cap and with as much force as she could muster, jabbed the needle end of the pen through Ben’s jeans into the fleshy part of his thigh and held it there. No one spoke, and Meg hardly dared breathe. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then Ben opened his mouth and took a huge gasp of air. The swelling in his face and limbs began to recede.

“Thank you,” he gasped, slumping back into his chair.

“How did you know?” T.J. said. “How did you know what to do?”

Meg slowly released her grip on the used EpiPen and let it fall from her fingers, then shoved her hands into her pockets. They were shaking uncontrollably. Everyone was looking at her, expecting some sort of answer. She tried to steady her voice, but the words got tangled up. “I, um … my mom …”

“Her mom’s allergic to bee stings,” Minnie said. “She always carries one of those things with her.”

Meg smiled at her. She was surprised Minnie remembered that.

“He got stung by a bee?” Gunner asked. “Inside the house?”

Ben sat up and shook his head. Except for a slight flush and puffy eyes, he looked practically normal again. “Nuts. I’m allergic to tree nuts. There must be some in the salad.”

Vivian wheeled on Meg. “I told you to only put tomatoes and cucumbers in the salad.”

Really, Iron Chef? Meg’s heart was still racing and she needed several deep breaths before she could respond to Vivian with something other than a scream. “That’s all I put in,” Meg said slowly. “Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, croutons, and those feta cheese crumbles.”

“And almonds,” Lori said simply as she peered into the salad bowl.