Gimme Everything You Got - Iva-Marie Palmer Page 0,50
girls already tackling his Nova. I also saw that he was with a girl, someone I hadn’t seen before. So he must have been officially over the babe from Sportmart. This one had shorter black hair, like Janet on Three’s Company. Together, she and Joe looked like a matching set: Punks Who Are Cooler Than You.
My surprise caused the smile to slip from my face, but I tossed out an upbeat “Thanks for coming!”
“A promise is a promise,” he said, even though he hadn’t promised to come. His left eyebrow and the corner of his mouth raised in equal degrees as he smirked at my outfit, like he knew how many I’d tried on to get the right look. He nodded sideways to the girl. “This is Lizzy. We’re going to go see Rock ’n’ Roll High School.”
“Yeah, even though he’s seen it about forty times. The Ramones are in it.” Lizzy raised her eyebrows at Joe as she nudged him in the ribs. He blushed. Their familiarity made me feel like I’d been caught eavesdropping.
“I’m Susan,” I said to her. “Joe’s friend.” I don’t know why I needed to clarify this, and Lizzy didn’t seem to care.
“How’s it going?” Joe asked me, as he slung his arm around Lizzy’s shoulder.
I shook my head.
“It’ll pick up,” he said, as if he could know such a thing. I was embarrassed that he had to feel sorry for us. “You’ve got more people than the Watergate Tapes gets at a lot of our gigs.”
“I should help with your car,” I said. “You got interior and exterior?”
“And the Turtle Wax. Plus, I tip.” He squeezed Lizzy’s arm as he looked at her. “We’ll still have time to get some food before the movie, right?”
“I think so,” she said. “Otherwise we can double up on popcorn.”
I wondered if I should ask how long they’d been going out, or some other question to show Lizzy I would definitely not be trying to steal her boyfriend, if that’s what Joe was. But I couldn’t think of a graceful way to do that. So instead I said to Joe, “At least someone supports us. Thanks.”
“Wisconsin’s your destiny,” Joe said. “Now get to work.”
I got into his Nova, vowing to spend extra time Turtle Waxing Joe’s now-familiar car, when I heard the rattle of Bobby’s Datsun as he pulled up.
“Finally,” Wendy said, using a clean rag on Joe’s steering wheel. “Coach is here.”
“Yeah, maybe he can help with this massive line of cars we’ve got,” Dawn commented sarcastically as she Windexed Joe’s rearview mirror.
Bobby hopped out of his car and rubbed his hands together eagerly. He was wearing a track jacket over his usual shorts and had a towel slung over his shoulder. We all stopped working on Joe’s car for a second to drink in the sight of him.
Joe stepped away from Lizzy to peek in at me in his car. “That’s your coach?”
“Yeah, that’s Bobby,” I said. A giggle slipped out of my mouth, like I was introducing Joe to my adorable new kitten. “I mean, that’s Coach McMann.”
Lizzy was making no effort to hide that she, too, was devouring Bobby with her eyes. “Shit, I hate organized anything, but he could get me to play soccer.”
Joe glanced at her. “Hmm,” he said, with a wry smile, first at Lizzy, then me. “Interesting.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, giving his dashboard a final wipe. It looked brand-new.
“Nothing,” Joe said, turning away from Bobby.
“Voilà.” I flung the rag over Joe’s shoulder into a bucket as I struggled to get out of his car in my tight shorts. I headed toward the team, who’d gathered around Bobby.
“All right, ladies, how are we doing here?” Bobby asked, taking in the pile of extra supplies that we still hadn’t touched.
“Great,” Dana lied, ever the authority-pleaser.
I shook my head, with a look at her. “We’re not on track to make what we need for Wisconsin.”
Bobby surveyed our setup and said, “Maybe one of the signs needs to be closer to the curb.” He looked up. “Sun’s coming out.” He unzipped his track jacket and tossed it on the hood of his car, then picked up the bigger sign and jogged toward the light on Ninety-Fifth. He leaned the sign against the traffic pole just as the light turned green.
A woman in a Chevelle who’d been doing her best not to look directly at us during the red light suddenly swung her wheel right and pulled in. “I was just thinking