I COULD HARDLY SLEEP THAT NIGHT—I WAS BUSY HAVING arguments with myself in my head. The sensible part of myself told me I had no right to be upset by the fact Lenny was dating another girl. Even though he was the one who had actually done the official breaking up, he had only done so because I had found Dave and no longer was willing to go steady. And it was right for me to go out with other boys—I needed the experience. I was too young to commit myself, especially to someone as unsettled as Lenny.
Despite all this fine logic, the ache in my stomach at the thought of Lenny and Lauren wouldn’t go away. I longed to see him, to kiss him, to hear him say that Lauren didn’t matter and that he still loved me and would take me back the moment I told him I was ready. When I finally did fall asleep, it was to the memory of what it had felt like to kiss him that day in the park.
I awakened the next morning to the sound of the telephone ringing. “Linda, it’s for you!” my mother’s voice called out.
Maybe it’s Lenny, I couldn’t help thinking as I ran to the phone. But the voice on the line belonged to Jessie Scaley.
“Hi, Jessie. What’s up?” I asked.
“What’s up is a broken window in my room. Would you believe someone threw a rock through the glass last night? Shattered it to pieces and nearly scared me to death in the process, too!”
“Oh, how awful! Were you hurt?”
“No, but I could have been. Some of the glass landed only a foot from my bed.”
“Did you see who did it?”
“No, but I have a pretty good idea. I ran to my window in time to see the back of a car turning around the corner. I couldn’t read the license plate, but I could see the color. The car was bright red, Linda. Now who do we know who’d be out driving around the neighborhood at one in the morning in a red car?”
“The boys!” I gasped. “They were riding around in Billy’s car when I came home about twelve last night—Billy, Lenny, Joel, and Sheldon. But why would they do a terrible thing like throw a rock through your window?”
“Just to be mean and rotten. You know Sheldon’s been really miserable to me since we broke up. Well, last night I had a date with this guy Troy from school. Sheldon knew about it, and I bet the boys were driving by to see if they could catch him taking me home. When they saw my light was on in my room, they knew they had missed me, got angry, and threw the rock to scare me.”
“So you think Sheldon’s the one who did it?”
“Absolutely not. He’d be too chicken his parents might find out, since they live in my building. It was one of the other three—Billy, Joel, or Lenny. But I’m not going to waste my energy trying to find out which one. I’ll let the police do that.”
“The police! Don’t tell me you’re involving the police in this!”
“My mother called them right away. This is serious, Linda. Do you realize that if that rock had hit me in the head, I could have been killed? My mother wants the boy who threw the rock found and punished, and so do I. I called you because I thought you might know who was in that car last night with Billy, and you told me exactly what I needed to know. Thanks, Linda. Now the police will know exactly whom to question. I’m going to tell them to start with Lenny. It’s my opinion he’s the one!”
She hung up the phone, and I was left all upset by what she had said. Was Lenny capable of doing something as awful as throwing a rock through Jessie’s window? If he had and was caught, it could blow everything for him, including his new job. I had to speak to him before the police did!
Quickly I dialed Lenny’s number. His mother answered the phone. She had never liked me, and I hated having to speak to her, but I had to warn Lenny. I apologized for having disturbed her and asked if I could please speak to Lenny.
“He’s still sleeping. He had a date last night with this darling little girl,” she made sure to inform me.
“I know. Could you please wake him up anyway? I wouldn’t bother him, but this is extremely important.”
“Well, if you insist,” she said with annoyance. “But make sure you tell him this is your idea, not mine.”
“I will.” I waited impatiently till Lenny came to the phone.
“Linda? What is it?” He sounded groggy and grouchy.
“I can’t tell you on the phone, Lenny, but it’s important that you leave your house immediately. Come meet me somewhere. I’ve got to talk to you now.”
“What’s so important that you can’t tell me on the phone?”
“It has to do with the police, Lenny. Now will you come and meet me?”
I guess the word “police” did it, because Lenny agreed to meet me at Bigfoot’s, the diner he and the boys often went to late at night because it was always open. “Just give me some time to wash up and get dressed,” he said.
“No problem. I’ve still got to get dressed myself. See you there.”
I raced to get ready, and after explaining to my mother, who had a hard time dealing with the fact that I was leaving the house without “nourishment,” that I was having breakfast out, I ran the five blocks to Bigfoot’s. It was located right between Lenny’s house and mine.
Lenny used to live closer to me, but while he was in the navy his mother moved to a larger, nicer apartment in a better area located about ten blocks away. He must have been really upset by what I had told him, because he was already there, sitting at a table and eating the breakfast special—eggs, bacon, and two slices of toast—when I arrived.
“Want some?” He gestured to his food.
“No, thanks. I don’t feel like anything. What I have to tell you is too important.” I launched right in to the details of Jessie’s call. “And the worst is that she’s telling the police you’re the prime suspect,” I concluded. “They’re probably trying to contact you for questioning right this minute.”
Lenny, who loved to eat, had not taken a single bite the whole time I was talking. He punched his fist down on the table. “I told him not to do it!” he said angrily.
“You told him? Then it wasn’t you who threw the rock?”
“Me? You should know me well enough to realize I’d never do a thing like that, Linda. I might fool around and play jokes on people, but I could never do anything that might injure someone.”
He looked so hurt when he said this that I couldn’t help but put my hand on his. “I didn’t really think you would, Lenny. But Jessie thinks you did, and that’s what she’s telling the police. That’s why I wanted to talk to you—to warn you so you could decide what to say when they called you for questioning.”
“I’d say the truth. That there are plenty of people in the neighborhood who dislike busybody Jessie. They can try questioning someone else.”
“But you were there, weren’t you? You know which one of the boys did it. If it wasn’t you, it must have been Billy, Sheldon, or Joel. They were the only other ones in the car.”
“They were when you saw us, but it so happens we took on some other passengers right after we left your block. One of them really had it in for Jessie. We had stopped in front of her window to talk about her, and he worked himself up into such a state that he picked up a rock from the street and threw it before anyone could stop him.”
“But why? I mean, it would have to be something pretty awful to get a person so mad.”
“It was. Jessie said some things to this guy’s girl that led to her breaking up with him. That’s all I’m going to tell you, Linda, because I don’t want you to know who it was. But a guy can get pretty crazy over losing his girl. Believe me, I know.”
“Oh.” I felt so awful when he said that to me that I kept on holding his hand. “I’m really sorry, Lenny. I never wanted to hurt you, you know. I just had to do what I thought was best.”
“I know, I know. I’ve heard all that stuff before,” he said bitterly as he pulled his hand away. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you make it up to me by coming with me to Jessie’s and backing me up while I explain to her that it wasn’t I who threw the rock.”
“It’s a deal!” I grinned. “And one more thing, Lenny. If you don’t mind, I’ll take you up on your offer of sharing your breakfast with me before we go. Suddenly, I’m starving!”
* * *
I went with Lenny to Jessie’s. Using his verbal gifts of persuasion to the fullest, he managed to convince her, her mother, and the police officer they called on the telephone that he was not the one who had thrown the rock. We left Jessie’s and stood outside her house talking for a while. Somehow, this incident made me feel closer to Lenny, and I was reluctant to leave him. But the November day was cold and windy, and a few drops of rain were already beginning to fall. We weren’t going to be able to stand outside talking much longer.
“So what are you doing for the rest of the day?” I asked, hoping he might come up with something that included me.
“Nothing much. I was just going to go home and watch the football game. My mother’s going to New Jersey to visit my aunt and uncle, so it’ll be peaceful in my house for a change. What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” I shrugged. “I thought maybe you’d come up with a good suggestion.”
“Well, you could come and watch the game with me.”
“Okay,” I agreed, knowing full well what I was setting myself up for.
It seemed perfectly natural that Lenny took my hand and held it as we walked together to his house—I had forgotten how right it felt to have him do that. It seemed perfectly natural that he put his arm around me as we sat on the sofa to watch the football game—after all, he had always done that when we watched football together in the past. And it seemed perfectly natural to kiss him during the commercials, to touch him and to have him touch me. Before I realized what was happening we were carried away on a wave of passion so intense that nothing could have stopped it. It was wonderful, the way it had always been before.
Afterward, I sat there holding him, scratching his back the way he liked me to. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I certainly had never intended the day would go that way when I woke up in the morning. But I couldn’t really say I was sorry. The contrast of how right it was to be with Lenny compared to how wrong it had seemed with other boys made me realize something. No matter how much I tried to fight it, I couldn’t seem to stop loving Lenny completely.
“I hate to tell you this, but sometimes I think I still love you after all,” I whispered.
“I always knew you did,” he said, stroking my hair. “It was only a matter of time before you got Stumpy-boy out of your system and came back to where you always belonged. You can call him and tell him the news right now from my phone. I want to be there listening when you tell him you’re through.”
This got me angry. “Wait a minute, Lenny. I didn’t say that I wouldn’t go out with Dave anymore. Whether I love you or not, I’m still not ready to cut out the other people in my life. I need more time to be sure of how I feel about everything—and to make sure you’re really headed on the right path this time. Besides, Dave has plans to come in next weekend for his birthday. I can’t tell him not to come!”
He pulled away from me angrily. “Oh, so it’s Stumpy-boy’s birthday, is it? And you can’t tell him not to come? Isn’t that too bad? I see you haven’t learned anything from all this, Linda. You still think you can have your cake and eat it, too. Well, I told you before, you can’t have it both ways. I have a date with Lauren for next weekend, which I was actually considering breaking for you. But now you can forget it! Lauren is worth two of you any day! So you might as well go home now, Linda. The football game is over!”
He got up from the bed, shut off the TV, and stood there glaring at me with a hostility that was frightening.
“Okay, Lenny, if that’s the way you want it!” I tried to look self-righteous as I prepared to leave his house. But this horrible feeling inside me told me I had just blown everything.