The Gossip Web (9 page)

             
“Yes. It really bites!” She groaned.

             
“Go by yourself then, Heidi,” I told her.

             
She looked at me as if I were crazy. “You’ve got to be kidding, Jade. I cannot show up to a dance by myself! How embarrassing! Besides, Jason would be so pissed at me if I did/”

             
I shrugged and rolled my eyes. “Sorry. Don’t come then.”

             
“This blows. I really wanted to go too. But, I have to stand by the club’s decisions.” Heidi shut the locker door before turning to face me. I almost laughed at her remark. The fact that she was so loyal to her drama club was amusing. It was just a club for heaven’s sake.

             
“I don’t see why you can’t go, Heidi,” I said.

             
She sighed and shook her head. “Just forget about it, Jade. Anyways, I want to talk some more about you and Trace!”

             
“Are you sure? I‘m not boring you?” I asked curiously.

             
Heidi shook her head and laughed. “Of course not! I love seeing you so happy, Jade. You deserve this, you know?”

             
“Thanks.” I smiled at her. “Okay, what do you want to know?”

             
“The details, girl! What else did Mr. Handsome say?” She asked eagerly.

             
“Well…” I tried to recall what happened yesterday, and just the thought of Trace brought a rush of butterflies to my stomach. It wasn’t uncommon for me to get goose bumps from merely thinking about him though, and I should’ve been used to them by now. I do think about him night and day. Refocusing my thoughts when I noticed Heidi was beginning to lose interest, I replied, “He told me he was going to call me later.”

             
Heidi grinned slyly at me. “Did he? What’d you two talk about?”

             
As I was about to answer her, I remembered that he hadn’t call me. I had been so overjoyed with him asking me to the dance that I completely forgot that he had said he was going to call me, so I wasn’t upset when he didn’t. But I sort of was now. Why would he say he was going to call if he wasn’t? Oh no. Maybe he thought the whole thing over and didn’t want to go with me to the winter formal anymore. I felt lightheaded as a dozen conclusions raced through my mind, each one escalating extremely and ending with me in tears. I really had an overactive imagination.

             
“Jade? Are you okay?” Heidi asked me, but I barely heard her question as I saw Trace walking towards us. He had a grim expression on his face and he looked upset. Oh my god. It was true. He was coming over here to tell me that he’d been drunk the other day when asking me to the dance, and he had no idea why he did it because he was actually in love with someone else and wanted to ask them instead. I knew it was too good to be true! As he drew closer, I couldn’t breath; I thought I was going to faint right on the spot.

             
“How are you two doing today?” Trace asked us, flashing a short grin. He still looked upset, which was freaking my nerves out.

             
Heidi shrugged and I managed to mumble, “Fine.”

             
We all stood there quietly, just looking around at each other and not saying a word. I didn’t know what to say to him; all I could concentrate on was my pounding heart. I couldn’t bear it if he backed out on the dance. Thankfully, Heidi spoke up first. She also noticed Trace’s tense face.

             
“Is something wrong, Trace?” Heidi asked him curiously. “You seem kinda pissed.”

             
He grumbled and nodded. “Yeah. I just got a D on a report I turned in for Mrs. Eckeridge. She thinks my summary on the vast technology of Japan wasn’t strong enough. I swear that woman will give any excuse so long as she can hand out D’s. Everyone in that class got terrible marks on their papers.”

             
“Ouch. That bites,” Heidi replied and glanced over at me knowingly. “Well, I guess I’m going to go head over to gym now. I’ll see you there, Jade.” She winked, blowing kisses at me when out of Trace’s view. I just rolled my eyes at her.

             
“So, Jade…” Trace began, taking a step closer towards me. This was it. He was going to say that he made a mistake and he didn’t want to go with me. But I wouldn’t let him. I couldn’t just let him dump me like that.

             
“Trace, I know what you’re going to say,” I interrupted him quickly.

             
His blue eyes widened at my remark, and he asked, “You do?”

             
“Yes,” I said weakly.

             
“Okay?” He seemed confused. “You know why I didn’t call you last night?”

             
I tried not to sound too gloomy as I mumbled, “Uh-huh.”

             
“What? How do you know that my mom’s car broke down?”

             
“Huh?” I was sure I had heard him wrong. That’s the reason why he didn’t call me? It wasn’t because he didn’t want to take me to the dance?

             
“Yeah, it broke down and I had to go pick her up when it got towed. It was a huge disaster.” Trace paused, watching me carefully. “What did you think happened?”

             
“I don’t know,” I lied casually. “Homework or something…” I couldn’t let him know that I had doubted him. “So, is your mom okay?”

             
“Yeah, she’s fine. The car isn’t, and I guess she‘s going to have to use mine for a while until she can afford to pay for a new engine. That means I‘ll have to either take the bus or catch a ride with Freddie every day.”

             
“Oh, wow…that sucks.”

             
Trace nodded. “It does.”

             
His blue eyes studied me closely and I blushed. I evaded his stare by glancing down at a loose string I had started to unravel from the hem of my shirt. Shoot. This was one of my favorite shirts too. The string was now a good four inches long, and if I kept tugging at it, I’d be walking topless around campus. I had to calm down. He wasn’t going to just dump me out of the blue. Trace wouldn’t do that to me…would he?

             
“Well, that’s good---that‘s she‘s okay, I mean. Not about the car. That isn’t good, ” I babbled, feeling my face burn. What the hell was my problem?

             
“Is there something you want to tell me, Jade?” Trace asked me suddenly, taking another step in my direction. He was so close to me that I could smell his delicious cologne. I ignored the sinful fantasies that passed through my head and quickly met his gaze.

             
“What do you mean?” I asked him nervously.

             
He gave me a once over and frowned. “I don’t know…you just seem kind of on-edge.”

             
I sighed, unsure of how to say what I was feeling. There was no way I was just going to blurt out my insecurities. What a turn off that would be. “I…well…it’s just---” Oh, how eloquent I sounded.
             
Trace held up his right hand and wouldn’t let me continue. “Don’t tell me you’re rethinking going to the dance with me, Jade,” he told me softly. “Because I won’t let you change your mind.”

             
“Huh?”

             
This whole thing was so confusing. First, I think he doesn’t want to go with me, and then he believes that I don’t want to go with him either? Could it be that he likes me just as much as I like him? And all this time I thought I was the paranoid one. Trace seemed paler than he did yesterday as I searched his face. He was so cute standing there looking completely vulnerable, and the way he was acting…it was like I was his kryptonite or something.

             
“If you don’t want to go with me…I guess I can’t make you,” Trace said faintly, his voice a bit shaky. “But I wish you would, Jade.”

             
I didn’t respond, only gazed blankly at him as I secretly glowed on the inside. Was it wrong of me to be delighted at the sight of him in complete disarray? Maybe that was a little strange. While he fumbled with his words, his white face quickly turning red, I tried to come up with something clever to say. However, this was Trace Gibson, and I always acted like a freak around him.

             
“We would have a fun time, Jade. At least, I think so…” He shuffled a hand through his hair, and I realized that my silence was actually making him nervous. After another uncomfortable pause, Trace asked me breathlessly, “Don’t you?”

             
I grinned at him. “Trace, if you would just shut up for five seconds, you would know that I still want to go with you.”

             
“You do?” Trace bit his lip and shuffled a hand through his dark hair again, trying to hide the smile that I saw was beginning to form. “Jeeze! Well, why didn’t you say so before?”

             
I rolled my eyes at him and replied, “I was going to, but you never let me get a word in otherwise.”

             
“That’s not true,” he laughed.

             
I giggled back and smiled. “Yes it is.”

             
Then the bell rang, breaking up our sweet, adorable moment. We both sort of stood there awkwardly, neither one of us moving, as if we didn’t want to leave each other. I know that I didn’t. I could care less about gym class. All I wanted to do was stare into Trace’s eyes all day. It might sound a little creepy, but those blue eyes of his were just so hypnotizing.

             
“I guess we should get to class?” Trace asked me as if it were a choice---but we both knew it wasn’t.

             
“Yeah,” I replied sadly, moving in the gym’s direction. Wicked school! Had to go and spoil something so perfect.

             
Then he grinned at me, and my heart melted as I heard him say, “I’m going to call you tonight, Jade. I promise.” He promised.