Last Year's Mistake - Gina Ciocca Page 0,28
between him and me.
Even so, I’d been having daily anxiety attacks over whether or not I should do something for his birthday when it came around. Sophomore year, I’d made good on my promise and decorated his locker and made sure everyone knew what day it was.
Junior year, I hadn’t even called.
But having him there with me, I felt like ignoring it was too deliberate. I walked down the hall toward where David stood at his locker, with a small box of taffy clutched in my hands. With every step, I practiced the first half of my ingenious speech in my head: Happy birthday. This is for you. It beat the hell out of the second half, which even in my own head, sounded like, Blah blah blah, lame lame lame.
Before I could get close enough, Violet came bounding out of nowhere with a white-frosted cupcake in hand. “Happy birthday!” she squealed, throwing her free arm around his neck and smacking a kiss on his cheek.
Every time she hung on him that way, my mind went right back to the two of them in the pool; her fingers pressing into the back of his neck, his hands touching the skin left exposed by her beige bikini. It made me throw up a little in my mouth.
When David’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, I turned and hurried back to my locker. They hadn’t seen me, but I felt overwhelming embarrassment, like I’d fallen flat on my face in front of the entire school. I shoved the taffy to the back of my locker and slammed the door, wanting to breathe a sigh of relief but nearly jumping out of my skin instead when Candy suddenly stood at my side.
“Is that for David?” she asked. “It’s his birthday today, right?”
“Um, I brought him something, you know, in case. But Violet’s got it under control, so, no big deal.”
And then came the part I hated. Any time I witnessed David’s and Violet’s hands grazing, or caught them sharing a laugh, Candy would give me these awful, pitying looks, like she thought I must be dying inside. The same look she gave me then.
“I’m not jealous,” I told her for the hundredth time.
I wasn’t jealous.
Maybe “possessive” was a better word.
As much as I wanted nothing to do with David, I couldn’t ignore the fact that for a long time I’d been the most important girl in his life, and I’d liked it. I loved knowing he’d drop anything, or anyone, if I needed him. My ego inflated each time he greeted me with his biggest smile. In a way—a very comfortable, uncomplicated way—he’d always been mine. Until Isabel. But that’s a whole different story.
Now we barely looked at each other, and his biggest smiles were reserved for someone else.
I knew the avoidance dance couldn’t last forever, though. And sure enough, I came home after school one Friday to find my father and mother sitting at the kitchen table. Under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t have been anything unusual about it, but my father was supposed to be on tour for another two weekends.
“Daddy!” I cried, flinging my arms around his neck. “What are you doing home?”
“Hey, baby girl.” He squeezed me extra tight, the way he did whether it had been five days or five minutes since we’d last seen each other. “There was a fire at the store where I should have been signing this weekend, and next weekend’s canceled. Looks like I’ll be kicking around here for the next couple of weeks.”
“So guess what we’re all doing next weekend, since Daddy will be here,” my mother piped up. A sly grin twitched across her face, and she tried to hide it by taking a sip of her coffee. That right there made me nervous.
“Depending on what you’re about to say, I think I might have plans.”
My mother made a don’t-even-try-it face at me. “I already looked at your calendar, and I know you’re touring URI with Candy Saturday afternoon. Which is why our plans with the Kerrigans are for next Saturday evening.”
“Ohhh, Mom!” I fought the urge to stomp around the kitchen like a two-year-old who’d had her favorite toy taken away. “Why can’t you and Dad go? You know I haven’t talked to David in forever. It’ll be so awkward!”
My mother looked genuinely surprised. “Kelsey, you see David at school every day. You said he’s in one of your classes! The two of you still aren’t speaking?”
“We speak. But we