Less Than Three

Chapter 10: A First Rate Explosion

"It's tempting," she said, "But I can't. Jacob and Brady, they might --"

"They might come back soon," I said. "They might."

It was all I could do to keep from screaming out what the rest of us already knew about Jacob and what he was really doing at the races. Instead, I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood and said, "But you know how boys are."

I need to keep Craig around 24/7. He always knows just when to step in and save me from myself. "They could call us when they get back," he said, and held up his phone. "Then it could really be like old times, the whole gang again, just having fun. What do you say, Madison, how long has it been since you saw a first rate explosion?"

When she shook her head 'no' I thought I might have to show her a first rate explosion right then and there.

"It's not just that," she said. "It's, you know."

No. Frankly. I did not know. "What?"

"Yeah, okay," Craig said as a look passed between my best girl friend and my best guy friend.

"What's okay?" I asked.

"She's worried that someone might --" Craig screwed up his face like whatever he had to say tasted pretty sour.

"Might what?"

"Jeeze, Summer, you know."

I looked back and forth between the two of them. If you judged new trends by my friends, you'd have to suppose that eyebrow raising was the next new thing.

"Maybe if you talked slower," I told them. "Or at least in complete sentences."

Dave cleared his throat. "What they're saying is, they think someone might suspect something was up if the four of us, if we were together and – " He looked around like the rest of his words might appear in the air. When they didn't, he continued. "Well, someone might see us and get jealous."

"Jealous? Jealous?" I planted my hands on my hips. "Jacob is the last person who has a right to be jealous."

"Hey, Summer, back off," Craig said.

"But."

He turned me around to face him. "It's not just Jacob we're talking about. Brady --"

Oh. Right.

***

In the end, I stayed with Madison. It seemed like the thing to do.

But, thirty-two minutes later, after I'd tried to use my phone to update my blog, and we were back to lying on her bed, staring at PaperKut posters and listening to really cheesy old music, I wasn't so sure.

"So, you talked to Brady today?" I asked.

She flipped over on her stomach. "Yeah."

"It's kind of odd that you'd call him, isn't it?"

"Actually," she said, "he called me."

He did?

"He just wanted to know what was up."

"I've been wondering the same thing," I said.

"Huh?"

"What is up?" I asked her. "Everything's so weird between everybody all of a sudden."

She laid her head on her arms and sighed.

"I mean, there's you and Jacob and --"

"Everything is fine between Jacob and me," she said.

Let it drop, let it drop, let it drop, I told myself. But I couldn't. "No, Madison. When are you going to realize? Things are not fine."

I thought she would have at least looked at me. If someone told me, directly, that something was seriously screwed up with my boyfriend relationship, I'd at least be curious. Instead, she stretched an arm over the edge of her bed and started sifting through a pile of DVDs.

"Last night," I started, "Jacob, he --"

"Maybe you should worry about your own boyfriend for a change," Madison said. She selected a DVD from the pile and sailed the disc across the room, hard enough that I don't think the bonus track will ever play again.

So that was how it was going to be?

"Look who's talking," I said. "I'm not the one having long conversations with her best friend's boyfriend."

"No," she spat back. "You're the one having long conversations with ... oh jeeze, Summer. Never mind."

"Look, I don't know what Brady told you, but the only one who has any reason to be jealous is you. I can't even believe how stupid you are sometimes."

She rolled away from me and curled into a ball.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," I said.

"Just go," she said.

And I knew that whatever I said next would not be the right thing. So I smoothed back her hair and chose a slightly less sad song to play. Then I promised to keep my phone on, so that when, not if, Jacob and Brady got back from the racetrack, she could call me. And then things really would be like old times again. They would. I owed it to my friend to make it that way.

That's what I did on the outside. But on the inside I was thinking: What Would A Good GirlFriend Do? I wasn't sure, but if I didn't come up with something soon, Madison might wake up when school starts with nothing to show for her summer than a thorough knowledge of bad song lyrics.

<3