Page 6

“That’s not right, Felix.” What do your friends and family think of you? I ask him, and he looks me in the eyes. His dark brown eyes look almost black in the light. He blinks a few times, then looks away and says, “They would do the same.” Or worse.
He laughs and says, “Not everyone is as innocent and pure as you are.”
“I’m not innocent and pure!” I say, a little louder than I thought I would, and a few people start to look at me. I shyly duck my head, which only makes Felix laugh at me more. “Sure,” he says quietly.
We can leave after we turn in our answers. I pack my bag and walk out the door with fifty other students. I feel a little cramped in the crowd and let out a sigh of relief when I finally have my own space. A tap on my shoulder makes me jump out of my skin in surprise. I turn to see Felix with his hands up, trying to hide a smile. “Sorry, Jumpy.” Sorry if I scared you.
“Oh! I mumble, “Um, it’s fine.” “So… Did you need something?”
“That’s right! “Um, I wanted to know if you maybe wanted to—” Felix starts to say, but my phone rings. “Sorry, one second,” I say as I pull the phone out of my backpack and answer it after seeing Skyler’s name at the top.
“Hey,” I say into the phone.
“Hi, Calla! Do you want to hang out and eat with me? I was going to ask Ezra and Jaxon to come over, but only if you’re okay with it.
“YES!”” I blurt out, not realizing that I must sound like a crazy, excited person. “I mean… I would be okay… With Jaxon coming.
Skyler laughs and says, “And Ezra.”
“Yes, and Ezra.”
“Awesome! At six, I’ll come to get you at your house. Until then, Ezra and Jaxon are busy. We can meet them at the eatery?”
I smile and say, “Sounds good “I have to go, Skyler,” I say as I see Felix patiently waiting for me to finish my call. “Bye, Calla! Dress cute!” Skyler says before hanging up.
I put my phone down and look at Felix. “Sorry about that. Needy friend,” I say, hoping that clears things up. He says, “It’s fine.”
“Okay, I have to go. But I’ll see you next week in Ethics?” I ask.
He seems a little let down by what I said, but he nods his head and says goodbye quickly before going behind the building. I eat lunch quickly in one of the dining halls on campus before rushing off to Psychology. Skyler is talking about where we should eat, what I should wear, and how I should do my hair the whole time I’m trying to pay attention to the lecture. I wasn’t sure he was gay before, but I am now.
Skyler drives me home after class, and I open my closet to see what I want to wear. That’s when I realize that I’m not ready for this dinner at all!
*Honk honk*
“Okay! Give me a minute!” I grumble, acting like Skyler could hear me from his car even though I’m still inside. Skyler is honking his horn while I run around my room, quickly spraying myself with perfume and grabbing my things. He just got here two minutes ago, and he won’t stop honking at me.
“Sweetheart, your friend is here!” my mom yells from the kitchen as if I didn’t already know he was there. I quickly say goodbye to my mom and go down the stairs to the door.
“Wait! Calla, am I ever going to meet your friend?”
I hug my mom quickly and then sigh. “Eventually. I have to go, though. He’s ten minutes late to pick me up,” I say as I yell “Love you” to my mom and Maisie and leave through the front door. I run out to Skyler’s car and try to open the passenger door, but it stays locked. I pull again, but Skyler still doesn’t open the door. I knock on the window to get his attention and say, “Skyler.” He rolls down the window and looks me up and down.
Skyler opens the door on the driver’s side and walks around the car while mumbling. What the hell is he doing? We’re running late!
“Skyler, we have to go! I don’t want to keep them waiting!” I say, and when Skyler finally gets close enough for me to hear him, he keeps saying, “No.” I scrunch up my eyebrows and throw my hands up. “No, what?”
He turns to look at me and throws his hands up, pointing to my clothes. “Not this outfit! Are you kidding me? Jeans and a T-shirt? No way are you going to dinner in that. Change.”
I look down at what I’m wearing and feel a little hurt that Skyler doesn’t like it. I know it’s not a big deal, but I thought we were just going out to eat. Skyler could see that I was sad, and right away his eyes softened. “Calla, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It’s just that you really want to wear that on a double date?”
When he says that, I pull my head back and my heart starts to race. There’s no way… This wasn’t a date… I bite my lip hard as my mind races with all the things that could happen that night. All of them are about me making a fool of myself.
“Calla, calm down! You don’t have to worry. It’s a double date, so you won’t be so nervous. I’ll be there the whole time. If you feel uncomfortable or want to leave at any time, we’ll make up an excuse and leave… okay?”
His words help me relax a little. I know that Skyler really does care, even though my heart is still beating all over the place.
“Now, let’s go inside and pick out a sexy outfit that will make Jaxon want to have s*x with you right away.”
“SKYLER!” I yell, my face turning red as I hit him in the shoulder with my purse. “OW! You still haven’t gotten over your anger issues, have you?” he says with a smirk, holding his shoulder as if he is hurt. I roll my eyes and go through the front door that my mom hasn’t locked yet.
My mom asks, “Honey, is everything okay?” and then stops in her tracks when she sees Skyler next to me. She didn’t think I would be friends with one hot guy, but two? She must be really confused about where I’m getting my guy friends. “Oh, is this Skyler?” my mom smiles at me, then looks at him. Skyler agrees.
“Hey, Ms. Dalton! I’d love to stay and talk, but we need to fix this outfit right now, and we’re already late. I have to go!” he says as he walks up the stairs. I follow Skyler so he can’t be in my room without me. It’s hard to say what kind of trouble he can get into. My mom yells, “No boys behind closed doors!”
Skyler yells back, “I’m gay, Ms. Dalton!” I put my hands over my face. I can’t believe he said that to my mom! I can hear my mom laughing from the bottom of the stairs, so I know she thought Skyler was funny. Thank God.
When we get to the top of the stairs, I tell Skyler to go down the hall and into my room. He opens my closet door right away and starts looking through my clothes in a hurry. “No, no, maybe,” he says, more to himself than to me. Finally, he finds a chestnut brown lace dress that has been in my closet for years. I really had forgotten about it until he took it out. He threw the dress at me and said, “Here, wear this.” I barely caught it before it hit the ground.
“Skyler, I can’t wear this! The last time I wore this was in tenth grade before I hit puberty. I can’t—”
Skyler kept saying, “Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.” This made me so stressed that I had to go to the bathroom and change quickly. I smiled at myself in the mirror. I looked good, but I wouldn’t normally wear that. Maybe I should just put my jeans back on and tell Skyler I won’t.