Secondary Characters (Novella) - By Rachel Schieffelbein Page 0,8
hand away. I kind of wish he hadn’t.
I’m still looking at him out of the corner of my eye when Amber elbows me in my side.
“Geez, what?” I turn and whisper to her.
“You two seem to be getting along well,” she says, jabbing her elbow into me a few more times.
I lean away from her as much as I can without falling out of my seat. My arm pushes up against Lance’s. He turns and looks at me for a second. My face heats up and I jump forward again, smiling apologetically at him. He smiles and turns back to the movie. I shake my head, trying to dispel my awkwardness before turning back to Amber.
“It’s … it’s fine. I guess.” I whisper, leaning closer to her.
“Uh-huh. Fine. She stretches out the word and elbows me again.
“Would you stop that?” I hiss, slapping at her arm.
She snickers, but stops abusing me. “Yeah well, at least he’s talking to you. Nick hasn’t said a word to me, although he has tried to grab my hand,” she grumbles. I feel bad for her.
The girl in the movie screams, and Amber spins back toward the screen, forgetting all about me.
When the movie ends (the star escaping just in time, by the way), we file out of the theater. Nick tries to walk with Amber, but she shifts to a power-walk and he finally drops back. Lance and I are walking together, with about a three-foot gap between us. Every few strides he turns and kind of half-smiles at me. When we reach the parking lot we stop for a minute before we have to veer off to our own cars.
“That was fun,” Lance says. His hands are in his pockets and he’s rocking back and forth on his orange and navy tennis shoes. He looks pretty darn cute.
I smile and start to open my mouth to say something, but Amber speaks up first.
“Yeah, a blast,” she says under her breath. “Look, we better get going,” she adds with a nod toward her car.
“Okay, see you on Monday …” Nick says, only it kind of comes out like a question.
“Mm-hmm,” Amber mumbles.
Lance looks like he wants to say something more, but she’s already pulling me away. I wave over my shoulder at him. He waves back and then I turn back toward Amber.
“Geez, I would like my arm to stay attached to my body, you know.” I yank my wrist back.
“I’m sorry. I had to get out of there.” We climb into her car.
She starts it and turns to look at me, disappointment in her blue eyes. “I’m sorry about that,” she says, crinkling her nose. “But the good news is, at least you don’t have to worry about me dragging you along on any more double dates.”
“Yeah,” I say, looking for Lance in the side-view mirror. “Good thing.”
Chapter Five
“What the hell was that? Who were you texting?” I yell at Nick as I slam the car door shut and jam the key into the ignition. The date couldn’t have gone worse. It’s no surprise Amber dragged them away as fast as humanly possible. Damn Nick and his damn cell phone.
“It was my mom.” He’s slumped down in the passenger seat, staring through the windshield.
“What?”
“She was checking in,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You know how she is.”
I do know how she is. Crazy overprotective. I should have known.
“Why didn’t you just say something? You looked like a complete tool!”
“I don’t know. It’s embarrassing.”
I don’t know what to say. I was all ready to chew him out, but now I feel kind of bad for him. To fill the silence I tell him about how it went with Mabel at the movie.
“Why the hell didn’t you just put your arm around her when she was freaking out?” He shakes his head like I’m a complete and utter moron.
“I don’t know. I just kept picturing her smacking me and walking out.”
“You’re an idiot, man. That was your shot.”
He would have had no problem putting his arm around her. He’s better at that sort of thing than I am. I’m good at the joking around stuff, he’s good with the smooth shit. Well, usually.
“Ya know, you weren’t exactly Casanova tonight,” I snap back at him. He doesn’t say anything and I feel like a jerk.
“I guess neither one of us were on our A game, huh?” I finally add as I pull up in front of his house.
“No shit,” Nick says softly before