Stole My Heart

14. I'll Do You One Better

"Pretty good," I reply.

"How do your grades look?"

"All As except English."

"What is English now?"

The last time we talked about my grade in English was the day after my parents came. They threatened to ground me if I didn't get it up. At that point, it was seventy-three. Now it is fifty-seven. My parents aren't too uptight about grades as long as I try my best, but I haven't tried at all. I'm dead.

"It's better," I lie.

"How's your girl?"

"Still not my girl, momma."

"Why not? She obviously likes you."

"'Cause Mom, what if she doesn't?"

"She does."

I help her out in the garden. She fixes us chicken strips for lunch. After lunch, I go to my room and get my bag. I kiss her cheek and head out. I drive to Seth's in twenty minutes. He doesn't live very far from the school. When I get there, his younger sister, Sienna, is sitting on the porch talking on the phone to a friend.

She whispers that Seth is in his room. I go in the door and straight to his room. Seth and Jake are playing Fortnite. I sit on his bed and watch. After a couple hours of that, his mom calls us to dinner. She made lasagna. We sit down and dig in.

"Mrs. Greggory, this is delicious," I say enthusiastically.

I love tomatoes, but they're not a big hit at my house. We hardly ever have spaghetti, lasagna, goulash, or anything else that has tomatoes.

"Thank you but call me Angela," she replies.

I finish my supper and put my plate in the sink. I start to rinse it off before Angela says, "Honey, I can get that. Thank you, though."

I reply with a 'yes ma'am' and go back to Seth's room. We play video games for a lot more hours. Angela comes in around eleven and tells us that we can stay up but no more video games for the night.

We talk and play board games for a while until we get bored of it.

"Want to play truth or dare?" Seth asks everyone.

"Isn't that a kids' game?" Gavin asks.

"Not the way we play," Seth replies.

"Ok, so what should the ultimate dare be?" he asks us.

"Call up an ex and ask her to have a threesome with you and your crush?" Zack asks.

"Yes, oh my goodness! That would be hilarious, yes!" Seth says.

"Ok. I'll start. Zack, truth or dare?" Gavin asks.

"Truth."

"Ok, uh, the last girl you made out with?"

"Macie Jones," he says, embarrassed.

"Really?!?"

Zack just nods.

"Ok, Seth, truth or dare?"

This goes a few rounds before I'm asked.

"Peanut, truth or dare?" Seth asks me.

"Dare," I say.

"Hmm, ask Taylen out and take her out."

"No way."

"I knew you'd say that. Where's your phone?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, getting slightly defensive.

"I'm just saying. You have had a crush on this girl for a while, and you haven't done anything about it," he shrugs.

"You know what, I will. I'll do you one better. I'll take Taylen out and get her to be my girlfriend."

"You know what would be even better?"

"What?"

"Never mind," he says.

Our conversation drifts to how and when I'm going to do everything. We decided that I will ask Tay on Monday if she wants to go on a date on Friday.

We end up falling asleep around two. I set my alarm to go off at eight. I wake the others too. I go to the bathroom and get dressed. I picked dark jeans and a maroon sweater. I brush my teeth and comb my hair. I go to the kitchen where everyone else is. I say a quick bye to everyone and leave.