Okay, so maybe my plan to get Ryan back wasn’t foolproof.
I really, honestly thought that the whole idea behind the whole scheme was for Taylor to prove to me that the bet was over. With blowing his friends cover, it would be like him saying “screw you Ryan, I like Alex, so this has to stop.” You know? It made perfect sense in my head.
But not anymore.
You see, I don’t think it was ever about making Taylor prove something to me. I just wanted Ryan to pay for what he tried to do. I didn’t even think about the plan well enough. So what if I made the janitor find a spray paint can in Ryan’s locker? No one is stupid enough to actually leave evidence at the scene of the crime, in their locker. Not to mention, that Rudy could have mentioned that I told him about the supposed bug in the lockers. My dad would immediately feel suspicious about my involvement.
What was I thinking? Revenge isn’t as easy as it looks.
And while I was realizing this, my sister, who was home from college yet again, was looking at me rather weirdly.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“You know, Al, you’ve always been kinda boring…” Tiffany stated, her chin placed directly in her palm and her elbows placed strategically on the kitchen counter where I was dishing out Chinese food.
“How dare you. I’m not boring, I’m just…well, you know, ‘exciting challenged’…” I retorted, quite gracefully of course.
“Anything you say Alex.”
“So what’s with the name calling? I fill you in on my insane story, after you nearly break my arm off, and you call me boring…” I muttered, placing myself on a stool and stirring my fried rice.
“Well, I’m no psychiatrist or anything, but the fact that an “exciting challenged” individual such as yourself would willingly put herself in this kind of episode, with a guy no less…well, it tells me something,” she responded, sitting next to me.
“Oh, do tell,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Why does my sister always seem to think she knows all? She’s only a few years older than me…she goes to frat parties for heaven’s sake.
“I think this whole thing with Taylor is giving you an excuse to make up some drama for yourself,” she said, smiling brightly. I smacked her hand as she made a move to snatch some of my food.
“What? You’re insane…I hate drama. Drama belongs in soap operas, along with the pretty people…” I said, nodding to back myself up.
“Is Taylor a pretty people?”
“Taylor’s definitely a pretty people.”
“So we’re almost there, huh? A soap opera I mean…think about it. Taylor’s pretty, you’re gorgeous, though you don’t think so, you go frolicking in the beach, have various screaming fights at each other, and finally, you break the law. I’m thinking if this Taylor has a brother…you’ll be pregnant soon.”
“Haha. You are so wrong.”
“So you’re not enjoying yourself?”
I pondered over that for a minute. True, my life has been kind of crazy lately. But a girl needs to have excitement sometimes in her life…especially if it’s never been exciting before.
Sleeping bets and lies are fun? Go figure.
I groaned loudly and pushed my food away. I could hear the plate being pulled away even more as Tiffany glided it towards herself and picked up my fork.
“It’s not like I’m giddy over this, you know…” I explained to mostly myself, “I mean, I would have seriously loved it if Taylor just asked me out. You know, did the whole ‘date’ thing, whatever that may be for him…oh no…”
“What?”
“What if this is dating for him…what if scandal and lies are what he’s all about? What if this is how he gets his thrills? What if—“
“What if you enjoyed that prospective even more than you actually do? I say that would be impossible…you’re already there,” Tiffany said, her mouth full of rice.
I was defeated. You know, a week ago, I actually felt violated. Today, I just feel…refreshed. Heck, maybe Taylor was actually good for me.
“So are we on the same track here? You’re enjoying yourself?” she asked me bluntly.
“Um…maybe.”
“See, I knew we were actually sisters. So anyways…now I can actually help you,” Tiffany stated, patting me on the back.
“Help me? What can you possibly help me with? I need to end this.”
“End it with Taylor?”
I gulped. “Well…maybe that can be up to him. All I’m saying is that I’m telling dad everything. I mean, the guilt in my stomach is immense.”
“You’re going to tell him that a guy in his school who is actually dating his daughter had a sex bet going…that included you?”
“Okay, maybe not that part.”
“So what else is there to tell him?”
“The spray paint thing…I mean, he probably figured it out that it was me already. Telling him as soon as he walks in the door would definitely get me brownie points, you think?”
Tiffany laughed. “Hmm…let’s see…daddy finding out that his precious, perfect daughter has been lying to him and framing people. To me, and I’m just guessing here…you’ll be in deep doo doo.”
“Well, that’s what lying does to people.”
We both glanced up sharply as the humming of the garage door caught our attention. I grimaced slightly, knowing that there was no way I was just going to spill it in about two seconds when my dad came walking through the door.
“Your call Cinderella,” Tiffany said, walking around to the sink to wash off her dish, “and do you mind me watching?”
I glared at her, quite miffed. She was having fun at my expense. Like I’ve ever done that to her…pfffsttt.
And there came my dad…just walking through the door like normal, shuffling through the mail like credit cards statements were actually interesting. What was his problem? Stop reading, and yell at me already.
“Hey girls.”
“Hey dad,” Tiffany and me said in unison. And then Tiffany started in on the nicey nicey stuff.
“How was work?” she asked innocently, picking up my brother’s plates and washing them too.
“Oh, the same. Hey, did you feed the boy’s already?” he asked me, coming around to check out the food.
“I didn’t have to, they devoured it from the driveway when I pulled up.”
“Great, so how much do I owe you?” he asked, picking up the white receipt attached to one of the plastic bags. Darn it, why didn’t I throw that away?
“You paid with credit?”
“Not me exactly…”
“That boy paid for this?”
I bit my lip when I heard ‘that boy.’ It didn’t really sound good…and if Tiffany’s lovely look said anything, she didn’t think it did either.
“Well, he didn’t let me pay. I mean, I had money, but I guess his testosterone kicked in and he whipped out the credit card. And let me say, it was impressive…all that plastic flashing in front of my eyes, it all happened so fast—ow!
I whipped my head around when a sharp paid entered into my shin. Okay, so now was the time to stop blabbing. Testosterone?
“Hmmm…” my dad said, looking at me strangely, “well, at least he’s earning brownie points.”
Hey, I was supposed to get those.
I watched in guilty silence as he grabbed his Chinese food and headed up the stairway to the upstairs den where I supposed he was going to say hi to my brothers. He looked kind of tired, like something was definitely bothering him. But if it had anything to do with me, I would have known…because number one, he would have given me the evil eye and I didn’t even see a glare. And number two…I was alive.
“Did he look kind of tired to you?” Tiffany asked me, her brow furrowed.
“Well, thanks for rubbing it in, and oh! Thanks for the kick in my leg, I appreciate the bruise…”
“You were going off the deep end, sue me. But really, I don’t think the tired thing was about you…” she said, going back to her dishes.
Again, I didn’t think so either. And if he was tired because of work, well I could find out why…very easily. I left Tiffany in the kitchen and retreated upstairs to my room to speak on the phone in private. As I passed the den, I saw my dad alone, sitting in his favorite chair, watching a rerun of Frasier. He hated Frasier. Something was definitely up.
I sneaked past him and closed my door softly. I dialed Shannon’s number as fast as I could, and sat on my bed to wait. My heart was beating fast and I didn’t even know why. I mean, I know she would know what was up…you know, if it was something to do with the students. She always has the latest ‘gossip’ and I have to say that this is the first time I’ve ever asked her for it. But hey, there’s a first time for everything.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Shan, it’s me.”
“Hey, guess what?” she asked me excitedly.
I blew out the breath I was holding. If she was excited, then it must not be bad, right?
“What?”
“My mom just bought us U2 tickets…for like 11th row, I couldn’t believe it, she was at Dillard’s today, near ticket master and—“
I groaned inwardly. “Hey, Shannon, that’s really great, but can we talk about that in a minute? I have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
I gritted my teeth. Asking people for gossip sucked…it gave me creepy crawlies because I felt like some teenybopper or something. Which I wasn’t, I mean hey, I had U2 tickets. See…I was cool.
“I need gossip…what have you heard in the last two days?” I finally asked her.
“Are you high?”
“No, seriously, I’ll inform you later, it has to do with my whole Taylor thing,” I said quickly.
“Well…hmm, let me think…”
“Could you hurry on that please?”
“Dude, I have a lot…I have to filter out the important stuff from the not. In your case, you want anything to do with ‘cute butt,’ the cheerleaders you said he loves, and Ryan Park, right?”
“Gosh, you’re pathetic. Filter fast, huh?”
“Do you want this or not?”
“Okay, sorry, yes.”
“I have nothing.”
I heaved a huge sigh. I was sure she would know. How come she didn’t know?
“Can we talk about the tickets now? You’re kind of bumming me out here, Alex, I thought this would be major news to you,” Shannon told me.
“It is, Shan, but I’ll have to call you back, okay?” I asked innocently. I really didn’t want my best friend mad at me right now.
I could hear her sigh. “Okay. Call me back, and tonight, k?”
“Okay, I will, bye.”
I hung up my phone, and stared gloomily at my closed bedroom door. I had to ask my father. If I was going to get any sleep tonight, I had to ask him. It was the only way.
But I wasn’t looking forward to it.
****************************************************
“So…you didn’t call me back last night.”
I was walking down the hallway towards my locker, and I didn’t even notice Shannon falling into step beside me. That was how out of it I was. No, I didn’t sleep last night.
“Sorry Shannon. I had a thing with my dad…it’s a long story,” I told her, reaching my locker and fiddling with the lock.
“A thing? Well, hey, I like long stories,” she responded, leaning her shoulder against the cool metal.
When I finally opened the combination and flipped open the door, I slammed it back shut again.
“My dad asked me if I was on drugs.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. Drugs. Me.”
“Midlife crisis…definite midlife crisis.”
“You think?”
“Oh yeah…isn’t he like 50?”
“40.”
“Interesting…but it blows my theory out of the water.”
I leaned back against the lockers myself and closed my eyes. It was a nightmare. I had the drug talk. The actual drug talk, like he really suspected I carried a lighter in my purse just in case I wanted to get high after school. And then he brought up Taylor, like he’s some dealer, and he’s giving me a discount for going out with him.
Right, you know me dad…
“Why would he ask you something like that?” Shannon asked me, after seeing my little relapse.
“I have no idea. You know, he came in all tired last night, and all I did was ask him what was wrong. Then he started talking about drugs…then he asked me about them…I said, heck no, are you nuts, and then he went to bed like a huge burden was lifted off of him. It was strange, I still feel like I’m in the twilight zone...”
I opened my eyes and glanced over at my friend, but I knew her focus wasn’t on me. As I looked towards the front entrance, I caught sight of a policeman…in full uniform. With a gun. And a cute dog, which probably wasn’t so cute once you got close to it.
“You know…” Shannon started, tapping her chin, “if you were taking drugs...well, then this is where you would be in deep trouble.”
“You’re telling me,” I whispered.
