Gimme Everything You Got - Iva-Marie Palmer Page 0,76
Just hoping that I’d like him a lot and it would mean I could break it off with Todd and date someone my parents would be thrilled with?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
We were at a light. Tina raised her eyebrows at my question. “Would you have cared?”
“Sure,” I said. Then I paused . . . “But I might have thought, ‘Tina will know what to do.’”
“Yeah, right. I felt so guilty about it that last night, when I could have been making out with him, I told Todd about the date, just to see if it would make him mad.”
“He still came to our game,” I said. “He must not have been.”
“He was glad I opened up to him,” she said. “I was disgusted with myself and he got me to forgive myself, when I would have been furious if he did the same thing.”
“I’ve never seen you furious before,” I said, thinking of Tina’s calm when handling the bitchy girls at our school. And even the way she was handling me, her shitty, shitty friend.
“Yeah, maybe I do hide that stuff a bit. But I don’t want you to take what I seem like for what I am like. And when Candace quit the team—and this is stupid and kind of bitchy, but I’ll tell you anyway—I thought, ‘Now Susan and I will have something.’ Like we’d have a thread that you and Candace didn’t.”
“We do. And you’re not second. I’ve known Candace forever, and I hate that she bailed on us for some guy, but it’s not like you’re my backup friend or something.” The words came out fast, and as I said them, I knew that I did treat Tina like my backup friend. But it was mostly because I’d had more practice with Candace. “Look, I’ve spent a lot of time hearing all of Candace’s innermost thoughts on everything,” I continued, “and maybe that’s why I’m annoyed she just took George because he was the first guy who wouldn’t ditch her immediately. But you’re totally right about you and me. The way I’ve been . . . it’s not how a friend should act, and I’m sorry. If you give me a chance, I promise to do better.”
“Some of it’s my fault, too. I don’t exactly volunteer all my information,” Tina said.
“You mean like Candace, and her tirade when the pep club put her on sign-making duty for the football B team?”
Tina laughed. “Yeah, like that,” she said. “And maybe it’s because you’ve been friends with Candace so long that I hate feeling worried I have to compete. Like I’ll bring up some issue of mine and you won’t be interested and I’ll be hurt.”
“I’ll be interested. And I’ll ask more questions,” I said. I couldn’t help it as my lips rose in a grin. “Like, after last night, are you still a virgin?”
Tina swatted me. “Yes. Technically, anyway. My damn confession took up the time Todd and I needed to get it all the way on.”
“He’s a good guy, though,” I said. “That he listens.”
“He really is. His friends are, too. But I still don’t get why you passed Jeff to Arlene. Unless . . .” She put her finger on her chin. “It’s that Joe guy, isn’t it?”
“No! But something did happen,” I said. Then I spilled out the whole story of the practice as his house and the almost kiss and his “habit” comment. “And I guess it was proof that he’s exactly like I thought. Girls and life are a game to him. I want someone more mature, or something.”
Tina gave me a knowing look. “Just admit you’re holding out for Bobby.”
I blushed, thinking of how cute he’d looked talking excitedly about the history of soccer.
“Not Bobby,” I said. “Or maybe someday Bobby. But someone like Bobby . . . who’s the whole package, inside and out.”
“And in his pants?”
“Yeah, but I’m trying to be respectful after the shitty thing we did. We blew it.”
“Maybe we’ll get another game,” Tina said. “And we can make it up to him.”
“I’m so glad no one saw us play today.”
“Todd did! But he loves me no matter what,” she said. We pulled up to my house, and she put the car in park as she leaned her head back against the seat and looked over at me. “Anyway, I’m going to let you continue to admire how much I have my shit together on the outside, and you’re going to remember that I’m a person