On Monday I went to the bus stop, and Ericka and Tori were already there playing on their phones. I told them all about the game and my time with Vladi.
"Hmmm," Ericka said, playing with her bushy copper-colored hair. "Just make sure you don't come on too strong."
"Am I doing that with Vladi?"
"I dunno. It's just…he's in high school, so…"
So what would he want with me? Was that what she was trying to say? I wasn't sure why he seemed to be interested in me, but I must have done something right since he was still e-mailing me and had put his arm around me in front of everybody at the game.
"I'm not an expert on guys," I said, "but it seems like if he thought I was disgusting, he would ignore me and not want to drink after me."
Ericka shrugged. "Whatever. Just don't be too obvious."
Neither she nor Tori had ever had a boyfriend, but Ericka did have a high school guy like her at the beginning of the school year, so she must have known something.
"Maybe he just wants to be friends," Tori said.
"Don't be dumb. Guys never want to just be friends," Ericka said. "Remember when that cheerleader told your brother that she wanted to 'just be friends?'"
"Yeah, he was a total jerk for three days, and then he asked her best friend out to make her mad," Tori said.
"Did things work out with the other girl?" I asked.
"No, she started stalking him, and that's why we changed our phone number," Tori said.
"I wonder if Vladi flirts with other girls at school," I said. Ericka didn't say anything, and I nudged her with my toe. She shrugged.
"Um, that was your cue to say, 'No, he's totally and utterly in love with you,'" I said.
"Well, look at Kyle. He flirts with Arianna while Yasmin's in the next room."
"So you do think Vladi's flirting with other girls?" I asked, feeling sick.
She said he was "awfully friendly." I didn't like the way she had said "friendly," so I asked her what she meant. She squirmed, and my stomach dropped a few inches.
"Well, you said he hugged you," she said.
"So? That's a good thing."
"In public? How many guys our age hug in public?" she asked as the bus came around the corner.
I said maybe that was a Russian thing, but she shook her head. "I'm just saying that if he's that friendly with you, then…you know."
However, once I got on the bus and told Ashanti all about what happened, she told me not to listen to Ericka.
"She always has to bring you down. She's still not over the fact you moved on in the American Ingénue competition and not her," she said. Ashanti was convinced that Vladi liked me. I thought of her as the expert because: a) she had a boyfriend, b) she had read almost every e-mail Vladi ever sent me, and c) I also liked the fact that she thought he was interested in me. I asked her if she thought Vladi would flirt with other girls, and she paused, too.
"What?" I asked.
"I don't know him that well, but he is awfully friendly…"
"So you think he's like that with everybody, too? I'm just a dumb kid who's one of fifty other girls."
"Will you relax? Look, he's been writing you, and he spent the entire time after the varsity game with you. If he asks you to go to his next game, then you'll know for sure," she said.
I agreed, but I wondered if he would even ask me to go.