That night Sixx called like I knew she would. I had finished most of my homework and had been getting ready to go to bed when the phone rang.
“Hey.”
“Don’t hey me. Get to the dirt. What did he say?”
“What did who say?” I wasn’t giving it up that easy. For all I knew getting to talk about a boy that called me may never happen again. I would savor this.
“Are you new here? Mason, for heaven’s sake! What did he say? You know you are dying to tell me, so tell me already.”
“I totally am dying to tell you!” I practically screamed into the phone. I sucked at playing it cool, obviously. “I am beyond excited a boy even called me, let alone asked me out. I was so stoked I almost blew the whole call, Sixx.”
“I totally have to teach you how to be cool.” She drawled.
“What? Am I not cool?”
“Not even a teeny bit.”
“Gee, thanks for that.”
“Just call ’em like I see ’em, toots.”
“Can’t you throw me a bone here?”
Sixx dissolved in laughter. Over the phone I could hear the static sound of her convulsing in loud guffaws.
“Do you want to hear about my conversation with Mason or not?”
Sixx choked off her laughter. “I do. I do. I swear.”
“Because I am not telling you another thing if you don’t knock it off.”
Sixx snorted and snuffled. “Okay. I’m done. I promise. Tell me.”
“Okay. He said the most amazing thing anyone has ever said to me, like, ever. He said he had a great time at the Battle of the Bands and that he can’t wait to see me next Saturday.”
“No lie? He can’t wait to see you? That’s kind of awesome.”
“I know, right? I can’t believe a real live guy likes me.”
I heard Sixx sigh on the other end of the phone. “You mean opposed to the dead one you’ve been flirting with? Juice, are you blind or something?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to have to tell you this because he is obviously never going to get the cojones to do it himself. Don’t you know Creep has been mooning around over you for the better part of the last year and a half? Are you telling me you’ve never noticed how he acts around you?”
“What? He acts different around me?” I held the phone away from my face so I could yell in it.
“Are you mental? With the exception of today, he can hardly speak a full sentence around you.”
“Yeah, let’s talk about today. What was that all about, anyway?”
“O.M.G. You are stupid as well as blind. That boy is half out of his mind in love with you, Juice. Don’t you find anything appealing about him at all?”
I thought about it. It was true that lately I had noticed Creep looking, well, more put together than usual. I wondered if it was my imagination that his shirts seemed to be fitting tighter and his hair seemed to have these great blond streaks in them that I had never seen before. And that this one piece of hair kind of cascaded over his eyes that he pushed out of his face in a cute sort of way.
“Maybe, Sixx. I just haven’t ever thought of him that way.” It wasn’t the entire truth, but if I added Creepshow into the mix, that would make it three guys I would be juggling. And that would be just too romance-novel trashy and completely unbelievable to be true. I shook my head at the ludicrousness of it all.
“Well, he’s never not thought of you that way. He’s had a crush on you since forever and he swore me to secrecy, like, a thousand years ago.”
“Are you serious? I can’t believe it.”
“You better. And now you’re making him nuts, stuffing Shane, and now Mason, in his face all the time. It wasn’t bad when it was just the four of us, you know, hanging out and goofing off. He didn’t have to compete with anyone. But now, it’s friggin’ ridiculous. Every time the poor boy turns around, another guy crawls out of the woodwork.”
“Sixx! You are so totally exaggerating! It is nothing like that!” But as I thought about it, I realized it was exactly like that. In just one week, I met Shane on Monday and the following Saturday night, while I spent the night skulking around trying to find a host body for him, thank you very much, I met Mason. And Creepshow got introduced to both of them almost immediately afterward. Sixx wasn’t wrong. I had been jamming my “boyfriends” down Creep’s throat. “Oh, shoot, Sixx, what should I do?”
“Just stop yapping about them all the time.”
“Okay, I will.” I yawned. I was getting tired now.
“And take another look at Creep, why don’t you? That boy is hot. He always has been. And he’s hot for you, sister.”
Hot for me?Okay, now I was awake again. “Whatever, Sixx.”
“I’ve been taking a long, hard look at Jett myself. I’ve always had a thing for the strong, silent type. And his whole Zen surfer thing is starting to make me sweaty.”
“You are killing me, Sixx. Would you stop already? I recently ate.” I made gagging noises in the phone until I could hear Sixx snorting she was laughing so hard.
“You’re crazy, Juice. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” Sixx hung up. I could still hear her laughing as she did.
I pushed all my homework into my backpack and crawled under my covers, suddenly super tired. Tomorrow would be a week since I’d met Shane. Funny thing was, the last person on my mind as I drifted into sleep wasn’t him and it wasn’t even Mason. As I closed my eyes for the last time that night, my last thought was of Creepshow.