I didn’t understand how I could feel such elation and stress simultaneously. The way to the guidance counselor’s office was filled with seniors throwing papers from their locker and I was beyond excited to have finished my finals.
But now I had to wait for them to be graded.
Sage would yell at me for even worrying with it out of my control, but I couldn’t help that I would worry a little bit.
I pushed open the guidance counselor’s office doors and entered into a flurry of excitement and movement. I hadn’t realized the counselors would be just as active as the seniors.
Wading through the crowd until I reached the final door on the left, I found Ms. Wasko sitting at her desk.
“Hello, Ms. Wasko,” I said as I knocked.
She startled, then relaxed as she registered my voice. “Oh, Marley.” She removed her reading glasses and gazed at me. “Why aren’t you out celebrating with your class? You’re free.”
I giggled. “I will soon. I wanted to check in with you and return my key to the tutoring room. I meant to do it sooner, but I got caught up with my final tutoring student.”
She arched a brow. “Who was that? I thought Cindy was your last one?”
“Oh, I picked up Wyatt Shaw.” I shifted my bookbag to my other shoulder. “I heard about his grade situation and wanted to help him. I hope it’s enough to let him graduate.”
She tapped a finger to her chin. “Wyatt Shaw, huh? Such a shame. He had such potential until Junior year. Great grades, top classes.” She waved a hand. “Anyway, thank you for the key. We will miss you.”
Top classes? What was she talking about? He had been doing that well? What happened to get him to almost not graduate?
I passed the key over, trying to focus on the conversation in front of me. “Thank you. I’ll miss you too.”
She smiled. “Now go have fun. I’ll see you at graduation.”
I nodded and headed out of the offices and toward the front of the school. Her comment stuck with me. I needed to understand what she meant. How had he changed so much at the end of high school? And I couldn’t help feeling like it had to do with his family.
But I didn’t have time to dwell, because he was expecting to pick me up from my house for our final date.
I couldn’t even believe we had completed all the dates in the adventure book or that this time it would be a real date. I would have never expected how much could change in three and a half weeks.
The parking lot was littered with my classmates celebrating the fact that we were free until graduation practice on Friday and then graduation Saturday. The rest of the school would get out in a week and a half, but we were officially done.
My Honda was parked in my usual spot and for once I didn’t have much of an issue getting out of the parking lot and heading to my house.
Sage had lost her mind when I told her about the previous date we had, and of course I would owe her a longer explanation, but with finals, we had put it on hold until the next day when we’d meet up.
The drive home went quickly. I parked my car in the driveway and hurried down the hallway to my room to change my clothes. As usual, I didn’t know what the final date was or what I had to wear, so a mix between comfortable and cute would have to do.
I settled on dark-washed blue shorts and a thin baby pink baby-doll-styled blouse. My white Converses would have to do just in case I had to be somewhat active, although I secretly hoped those types of dates were over at this point.
Now the easy part was over, I had to tackle my hair. I had settled on a high ponytail for school since it was just for finals, but that didn’t seem like it would work for a date, especially now that we were official.
Bottles clattered to the floor as I scrounged in drawers for at least one of the containers Sage had sent me home with after the concert date. I had no hope of recreating her magic, but wetting my hair and putting curly setting gel had to help, right?
The horn honked a few times out front, thankfully right after I finished combing the gel through my hair with my fingers and then putting cold air on to somewhat dry it.
I snatched my clutch purse, keys, and phone, then locked up.
Wyatt stood leaning against his truck, watching me as I turned around. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I replied, sending swirls around my stomach. How goofy did we look? Just saying hey caused my stomach to flop and my cheeks to warm.
“Are you ready for this final adventure date?”
“Yes. I am tired of having a book determine what I do.”
He chuckled.
“And yes I know I could have said no, but I was too weak for that.”
He propped the door open, then helped me up into his truck, before walking around to the other side. “I would never call you weak.” He laced our fingers together and then used his other hand to place it on top. “But this last date involves fears, which is why I saved it.”
I groaned. “Fears? Really?”
“Yep. It is fight your fears. So, what is your biggest fear?”
“Mine? We can’t do yours?”
“Nope. This is your party.”
“Ugh. I don’t know. Spiders?”
“Think bigger.”
I sighed. What was my biggest fear? Well, I didn’t want Andrea to know I had lied. All that attention from her would have been the worst thing in the world. “I guess being the center of attention.”
He nodded and tapped a finger to his chin, then his eyes widened. “I’ve got the perfect idea.”
“That doesn’t make me feel comfortable at all.”
He gazed back at me with those perfect brown eyes, all melty and warm. “If you feel like it is too much at any point, we will leave. I’ve got you, Marley. I promise.”
If it wasn’t for his look in that moment, I would have told anyone else no, but how couldn’t I believe him? He had been so generous with his time these last few weeks, I could do this one date.
“Okay.”
He grinned, then put the truck in gear and backed out of the driveway. “How was your final today?”
“Good, easy, honestly. I am the most worried about Latin, I guess. What about you?”
“I think it was good. Mr. Andrews’s tests are always hard to gauge until after. At least it is over.”
“Yes it is. When will you hear?”
“Should be tomorrow, I think. He told me I could expect to know if I would make it before Saturday.”
“That’s good of him at least.”
He shrugged.
“What about the music demo? Is it finalized?”
“Yes. Just have to wait for them to play it Sunday.”
“They’ll love it.”
He chuckled. “You haven’t even heard it.”
“I don’t have to. I’ve heard you guys before. It will be no less than your best, and your bests are pretty great.”
He squeezed my hand before returning it to the wheel. “Thanks.”
“So where are we going?”
“Nope.”
I crossed my arms. “Nothing? Really?”
“Really.”
“It’s like two o’clock in the middle of the week. I don’t see how you have an idea with what I said when it’s such a random time.”
“Well, I happen to know lots of things that happen at random times and once we’re there, you’ll know.”
“Ugh, fine. If you won’t tell me where we’re going, will you tell me what your greatest fear is?”
He glanced at me. “Being forgotten.”
My eyes widened. “Forgotten? By everyone or specific people?”
“In general, I guess. I want to matter and I hope that I will make enough of a difference to matter enough to someone that they won’t forget me.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t even expect that as his answer. It wasn’t a typical teenager answer. It felt like he was older and saying that, realizing his life was more over than what was left. We had so long to make an impact. But then again maybe it connected to what Ms. Wasko had mentioned.
He nudged my elbow. “But we’re talking about your fear, so the perfect place is around the corner.”
I peered out the window. The surroundings were familiar enough for me to realize, but the sinking feeling in my stomach grew. How was Lucy’s going to help? But what was worse was the fear that I secretly knew somewhere what he might have planned.
I clamped my eyes shut. “What can we find at Lucy’s at this hour to do this date?”
“Well, center of attention could be tested in a few ways, but they’re doing karaoke all day.”
I groaned. “You want me to sing. In front of strangers? Are you crazy? I can’t even sing!”
“You’ll be fine. Most people can’t sing at karaoke. And I’ll do it with you.”
My stomach flipped. While it was sweet he wouldn’t let me be utterly alone, I still didn’t want to do it.
The truck stopped and I could feel my stomach drop like on a rollercoaster. As much as I didn’t want to get out of his truck, I opened the door and hopped down. My eyes closed once again, I tried to regain control of my stomach. My arms felt itchy and my cheeks felt warm. I was so anxious my body was physically reacting.
Arms circled around me and held me close. “You can absolutely do this, but if you don’t want to, we can stop.”
I peeked one eye open just enough to see Wyatt staring into my face, gentle and caring. “This is the last date. If I can’t do this, then it’s like I did none of them.”
“That’s not true.”
I sighed. “I know it isn’t technically, but I can’t quit now.”
He nodded and pulled me into his chest. After a few moments, he pulled us apart, then interlaced our fingers. His calluses, rubbing against the soft skin of my palm.
“Distract me?”
“How?”
“Tell me something that most people don’t know about you.”
He arched a brow, his expression contemplative. “I had my tonsils removed when I was eight.”
“Really? That’s all you got?”
He smiled and nodded toward Lucy’s. I knew it was his way of encouraging me to go in, but I was terrified. Ultimately, I took that first step and followed him, though.
Surprisingly, for the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday, Lucy’s was busy. The tables closest to the bar had been moved more toward the stage. The tables were packed near the stage but thinned out farther away.
Wyatt led us to a table in the back and signaled a waitress to bring us over two sodas. Before she left, he also asked for the list to sign up.
My stomach sank as he wrote our names in the fifth spot. I didn’t know if it would feel any better if I could go on the stage right at that moment or not, but four people in front of us felt like an eternity.
“Don’t stress so much. You have like a permanent crinkle by your eyes.”
I huffed. “My body is oscillating between utter panic and agitation that I can’t just get it over with.”
He chuckled. “What song do you know or want to sing? We will have to pick before we go on.”
“Ugh, I didn’t even think about that. This is so bad. I’m going to make the glasses shatter or something.”
“That’s incredibly hard to do.”
“You know what I mean.”
He leaned closer and rested his forehead on mine, staring into my eyes with those perfect soft brown ones of his. “This is about the experience. No one knows us here and you can just sing with me. Honestly, I’ve got you.” He kissed the tip of my nose, sending shivers down my arms for completely different reasons.
“Wyatt and Marley, you’re up,” the announcer said.
“We didn’t pick a song,” I said.
Wyatt stood and pulled me with him as we moved to the stage, then winked. Did that mean he had an idea? Because he may be good at following the random words to a song on a screen, but I wasn’t.
The announcer handed the microphone over to Wyatt, who placed it back on the stand. He adjusted it to fit our heights respectively, then leaned over to the announcer to tell them the song.
Their tones were too soft for me to hear, even if I could get my body to focus on them. The lights shined in our eyes, but it did nothing to lessen the number of eyes I counted that were staring at us.
Sure, he was the lead singer of a band, but I was a nerdy nobody who never sang or got in front of a crowd.
My stomach lurched. I was going to be sick.
Wyatt leaned toward my ear. “Let’s do an encore to Iris.”
My eyes widened. “You chose Iris? But you did all the work there. How do you know I know all the words?”
He winked in response, then surveyed the crowd as the music keyed up. The first few notes of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls played over the speakers and Wyatt began following the lyrics on the screen, although he barely glanced in that direction.
I gulped a few times before I even opened my mouth. My body was rigid and my palms sweaty. I snapped my eyes shut and a few words escaped my mouth.
I didn’t dare to open my eyes because I wanted to have no idea how the audience was reacting. It was bad enough that my imagination wasn’t strong enough for me to pretend I was in the shower or in my room, home alone.
Not to mention the energy wafting off Wyatt was palpable and I knew he was watching me. I could sense it all over my body.
After a few seconds, it didn’t feel as scary to sing, so I ended up a little louder, until by the end of the song I sang like I did at home.
When the last chord of the song went through the speakers, the silence was interrupted by applause.
Wyatt squeezed my hand. “Bow.”
Only then did I open my eyes and most people smiled as they clapped boisterously for us, whether it was more about him or me, or us both, I wasn’t sure, but at least I did it and it was over.
He whispered to someone sitting close to the stage and asked them to take our picture, before he moved back to stand beside me, then pulled me in close. His lip grazed my cheek as the person took the picture, then we went back to our table.
My cheeks were flushed from the adrenaline and attention Wyatt kept giving me. I wasn’t used to someone seeing me for who I was and liking that person.
After several sips of my soda, the constant staring from him had me fidgety. “What? I told you I couldn’t sing.”
“You honestly weren’t bad. The way you were selling it, I thought it would be like nails on a chalkboard, but you can hold a tune.”
“Then what’s with the look?”
“You went up there and actually sang even though you were so nervous. That took a lot.”
“Oh, well, that wraps all the dates from the book at least.”
Wyatt pulled my chair closer to him, so our arms grazed each other. “Is that the only good thing to come from the book?” He trailed his finger along the underside of my arm.
“No. I never expected to get an actual boyfriend from doing fake dates.”
“Remind me to thank your cousin when I see her Saturday.” He leaned forward and settled his lips over mine gently, before kissing my jaw line.
I giggled.
“Want to go somewhere else?”
I arched a brow. “Like where?”
“I’m not sure, but we’ve done all these dates because of that book. I’d like to see one without it.”
“Okay.” I finished my soda, then followed Wyatt back out to his truck. Today was turning out to be better than I could have expected.