Eric looked around, too, with this wistful look in his eyes before taking a deep
breath. I could tell he was faking it. “Boy, it really is nice out there.” He sighed and
glanced toward us as he shrugged. “I’d offer you a ride, but it wouldn’t be half as nice as
actually walking under the stars, and I wouldn’t want you two to miss it.” He said this like
he was doing us both a favor.
“Oh, we’re almost to my house anyway,” Jamie said. “I was going to offer Landon a
cup of cider. Would you like to meet us there? We have plenty.”
A cup of cider? At her house? She hadn’t mentioned that… .
I put my hands in my pocket, wondering if this could get any worse.
“Oh, no … that’s all right. We were just heading off to Cecil’s Diner.”
“On a school night?” she asked innocently.
“Oh, we won’t be out too late,” he promised, “but we should probably be going.
Enjoy your cider, you two.”
“Thanks for stopping to say hello,” Jamie said, waving.
Eric got the car rolling again, but slowly. Jamie probably thought he was a safe
driver. He really wasn’t, though he was good at getting out of trouble when he’d crashed
into something. I remember one time when he’d told his mother that a cow had jumped
out in front of the car and that’s why the grille and fender were damaged. “It happened so
fast, Mom, the cow came out of nowhere. It just darted out in front of me, and I couldn’t
stop in time.” Now, everyone knows cows don’t exactly dart anywhere, but his mother
believed him. She used to be a head cheerleader, too, by the way.
Once they’d pulled out of sight, Jamie turned to me and smiled.
“You have nice friends, Landon.”
“Sure I do.” Notice the careful way I phrased my answer.
After dropping Jamie off—no, I didn’t stay for any cider—I started back to my
house, grumbling the whole time. By then Jamie’s story had left me completely, and I
could practically hear my friends laughing about me, all the way from Cecil’s Diner.
See what happens when you’re a nice guy?
By the next morning everyone at school knew I was walking Jamie home, and this
started up a new round of speculation about the two of us. This time it was even worse
than before. It was so bad that I had to spend my lunch break in the library just to get away
from it all.
That night, the rehearsal was at the Playhouse. It was the last one before the show
opened, and we had a lot to do. Right after school, the boys in drama class had to load all
the props in the classroom into the rented truck to take them to the Playhouse. The only
problem was that Eddie and I were the only two boys, and he’s not exactly the most
coordinated individual in history. We’d be walking through a doorway, carrying one of the
heavier items, and his Hooville body would work against him. At every critical moment