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Reluctantly, I take it and ask, “Should I go to Adam’s wedding?” I turn the ball over and the words ‘Concentrate and Ask Again’ float to the top. “Well, I guess that’s a no,” I say, relieved.
“Technically that’s not a no,” Piper says. “It simply means you have to repeat it.”
I glare at Piper, annoyed with her rigid attention to detail. I think again about setting her and Derek up, especially if she did break up with Ian. They’d probably get along great. Then, I realize that I can’t set them up because I don’t want him to date her. I want him to date me. Okay, shoving that thought away to dissect later.
“Fine.” I close my eyes and ask the question again. This time, ‘My answer is No’ floats to the top. “Hah. See? The eight ball has spoken. I’m not going.” So, why do I feel a little disappointed at that fact?
CHAPTER12
Derek
I could have gone home,but I find myself needing to talk to someone about the conflicting feelings waging a war in my chest, and so I point my car toward my best friend’s house. Hopefully Tommy won’t mind seeing me two days in a week.
“Derek, what a nice surprise,” Tommy says as he opens the front door for me. It’s nearly dinner time, and I feel a little bad that I’m probably ruining their plans, but Tommy wears his normal smile behind his thick glasses.
“Thanks for letting me drop in.”
“You’re always welcome. You know that.” He ushers me inside and toward the kitchen where Edith is putting some finishing touches on dinner. Edith could never be one of those women who stayed home and cooked all day, but she loves to dress like it’s still the fifties. Her hair is rolled into the popular style and though she isn’t wearing shoes currently, the rest of her outfit could have come right off an old movie. I asked her once why she dressed the way she did and she told me that not only was it comfortable but that it was ‘her’, and she didn’t see the need to dress differently for other people. I wish I had her courage.
Edith smiles and I tell myself it’s genuine. “Derek, it’s so good to see you. I hope you’re hungry.”
My stomach rumbles as the aroma of her dish reaches my nose, and I realize I haven’t had much to eat except ice cream and a bag of chips from the vending machine as I waited for Katie. Neither of which were on my eating plan a week ago, but then Katie has managed to throw a lot of things in my life upside down. “Thank you. I am.”
We all take a seat around the table, and after dishing up the food, Tommy turns his focus on me. “So, I’m assuming your visit tonight has something to do with the promotion and the girl, am I right?”
“There’s a girl?” Edith asks. Her face has taken on a strange glow, and she exchanges a sly smile with Tommy.
“Yes, there’s a girl and she is the reason I’m here. She’s…” I pause as I fumble for the right word. Last week, I would have said crazy, but after spending the last few days with Katie, I’m no longer sure that’s the right word. “Unpredictable.”
“And that bothers you?” Edith sets her fork down and folds her hands under her chin, focusing on me as if I am a patient rather than a friend.
“Of course it bothers me. It’s not rational. It’s disorganized. It’s…” But I trail off because the word I had been about to say was…
“Fun?” she asks as if she’s reading my mind.
“That’s what I said,” Tommy chimes in, pointing his fork at me.
I glare at them both. “Chaos,” I say instead though fun was exactly what I’d been thinking.
“Uh huh. You know it’s okay to have fun, Derek.” Edith forks a tiny tomato and pops it in her mouth.
“I know that, but her idea of fun and mine are two very different things.” But are they, really? I would never have imagined falling in the ocean to be fun, yet I rather enjoyed it. And painting? That was a joy I might never have tried on my own. Even the photo and the dancing lessons have been enlightening experiences.
“Are you sure about that?” Edith asks.
“What is that supposed to mean? Of course I know my idea of fun.”
Edith looks to Tommy who clears his throat and glances down at his plate as if gathering his courage. “It’s just that you were different from the rest of us in high school.”
“What are you talking about? No, I wasn’t. I dressed the same, I joined the same clubs, I had the same interests.”
Tommy takes a bite of his food. I know he’s done it to buy himself some thinking time, but I want to smack the food out of his mouth and make him speak. Finally, he swallows. “You wore the same type of clothing, and you played a mean game of chess, but your interests weren’t really on chess or AV or any of the things the rest of us really enjoyed.”
I blink at him as if I’m shocked, but deep down, I know he’s right. “I don’t follow. What do you think my interests were then?”
He lifts an eyebrow at me and sighs. “Come on, Derek, I watched you that year we ran lights for the play. You never looked that way when you played chess and when you finally got a part-”
I shake my head, cutting him off. “That was a mistake and exactly why things have to be planned, routine.” This was a subject I didn’t want to discuss, but I couldn’t just get up and leave. That would be rude.
