I'd checked my nose for blackheads and my hair for split ends. I'd read the entire Health Inspector's Notice on the Importance of Employee Hand Washing. I'd rummaged under the sink for a fresh roll of toilet paper to replace the nearly empty one on the spindle. I was considering giving the stool a good scrub when I heard a knock.
I held my breath. When I heard Brady's voice on the other side of the door, saying, "Summer, are you in there?" I squished myself against the wall and tried to make myself as small as possible. I bargained with God. If only He'd let me out of this one, I would:
1. Run every day for my coach.
2. Stop borrowing stealing my brother's t-shirts.
3. Not roll my eyes when Dad shot off another cliché.
4. Start working on an actual website for my mom.
5. Be nicer to Jacob (for Madison's sake).
6. Help Craig find a girl who wouldn't be too much work. and...
7. Try (really, really hard) to be the kind of girl who didn't deserve to be trapped in a bathroom with her boyfriend knocking outside.
Another long stretch of forever went by, then the door creaked open. This was it. So long perfect boyfriend. So long perfect life.
But it wasn't Brady who slipped into the room. It was Dave. I was so relieved that I threw my arms around him and pulled him close to me before I realized what was happening. Eep!
Even worse, he nuzzled my cheek and whispered, "I always suspected you had a crush on me."
I mouthed 'I DO NOT'.
To which he answered, "Your lips say no, no, but your arms says yes, yes."
I opened my mouth to yell but he covered it with his hand, then pointed at the door. "Why are you hiding?" he asked, quietly.
"I am not hiding," I whispered, then I tried to gain as much distance from him as possible in the tiny room. Dave followed until my butt was smooshed up against the sink.
"So, you just have an odd fascination with public restrooms?"
"Precisely."
"Funny," he said a little louder, "I do too." He reached around my waist. "I have a particular interest in faucets. I am intrigued by the way they run both hot and cold."
I'd used this restroom about a billion times. I knew the hot water faucet had a strange way of clunking, moaning and screeching before any water came out. If he turned it on now, we'd be discovered.
I clenched my teeth. "Okay," I said. "I'm hiding."
"Ha!" he shouted. "I knew it!" He waited just long enough for me to freak out before he added, "Don't worry, the coast is clear."
I put every muscle I had to work, and shoved him against the wall. I pushed open the door, then slammed it in his face.
"Ow! I think you broke my nose."
I hadn't meant to hurt him, not too bad anyway, so I opened the door -- and found him grinning at me. "Nice to know you care," he said.
I ran through the store. I'd just reached the door when Kiersten shouted, "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"My skateboard." Had Brady seen it?
Dave caught up with me and touched my shoulder. "It's okay."
"It is?"
"Yeah, Brady got upset when he saw it but Craig told him you'd left it here earlier."
"Where is Craig, anyway?" I asked.
"On his way to your house," Kiersten said. "With your skateboard. And Brady."
I collapsed onto a stool and laid my head on the counter. What was it my dad always said? "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first --"
"We practice to deceive." That was Dave. "Come on. I know a shortcut."
***
We ran through yards and alleys. I slowed when we spotted Craig and Brady a block ahead of us but Dave ran back and pulled my hand. "I do NOT give up," he said.
Dave's knowledge of the Methodist church's basement hallways and hidden doors saved us. We slipped out the other side of the building, only three houses down from mine. From there we went into spy mode, sneaking from tree to tree until, finally, we were in my backyard. We climbed through my bedroom window and landed on my bed.
I started to laugh but Dave put a finger to his lips in a warning. He winked at me and slipped under my bed.
I heard my dad's voice boom, "Summer? I haven't seen her. I suppose you could go back and check though."
Great. Even after his earlier help, I wasn't sure I could trust Dave Brown. With my luck, this was just another part of his elaborate scheme to ruin my life. But what choice did I have?
I heard a knock and opened the door to find Brady's shocked face. It was obvious he didn't think I'd be home, even though I'd told him that's where I was going. I started to feel resentment rise up inside of me but two things happened to squelch it. First, I saw Craig. His relieved expression reminded me that Brady had some pretty good reasons to think I might not be there.
And then there was Brady. "Aw, look at her," he said to Craig. "Her face is all red and ..." He touched the back of his hand to my forehead. "She's so hot."
"Yeah," Craig agreed. "She looks like she just ran a mile or something."
"Or something," Brady echoed sweetly while Craig smirked behind him. "You really ought to get back to bed, beautiful," he said before pushing Craig back down the hallway. "Call me later, okay?"
How is it that someone being nice to you can make you feel worse than anything?
"Hey, beautiful." I turned to see Dave Brown patting the mattress beside him. "You really ought to get back to bed."
I grabbed a pillow and swung at his head - a direct hit. He grabbed a pillow of his own and retaliated. We sparred until his weapon ripped and the downy stuffing snowed all over my room. He grabbed me then and pinned my arms to my side. "Truce?"
"Out," I said. Sheesh.
Dave stepped up on the bed and parted the curtain. He closed it just as quick. "Houston, we have a problem."
I peeked out. There was my mom ... and the entire membership of the New Concord Garden Gals (Plus One Guy). Dave bounced down on my bed and fluffed up a pillow. "Looks like we could be here a while."
I pulled a deck of cards from my nightstand and started playing solitaire. Dave, of course, had opinions on how I should lay the cards. I smacked his hand away then fished out another deck. What started as two individual games of Solitaire somehow turned into one crazy, no rules game of War. Which I won.
I puffed my chest out in pride. Dave showered me with cards. "I let you win," he said.
"Oh yeah? What ever happened to I do NOT give up?"
"Giving up is different from giving in. One is defeat. The other is just another form of victory."
I was about to respond when I heard my mom in the hall, "Summer? I've got hummus and carrots for the garden club. Do you want any?" The door handle turned and, for the second time that afternoon, Dave dove under my bed.
Mom peeked her head in, then opened the door completely. "What the heck?"
I followed her eyes around my room. Noting, as she did, the pillow stuffing, the cards ...
"Have you lost your mind, child?"
There was nothing I could say in my defense so I just shrugged. Dave was right. Sometimes giving in is the only way to go.
"Maybe you're spending too much time on that website," Mom said. "You need to get out, live a little. But first, clean up this mess."
Dave tickled the foot I'd left dangling off my bed. I tried to kick him, stealthily, as I promised my mom I would clean my room and get a life.
"Try answering your phone too," she said. "Your dad says it's been beeping at him all afternoon."
She left and I breathed a sigh of relief. Dave crawled out from beneath my bed. He started to speak.
I put a hand on his chest. "You've got to go."
"I could help you clean," he offered.
"No really," I said. "It's time."
He sighed and pointed to the window. I nodded. There was some awkward shuffling, like a dance, as I made room for him on the bed. He climbed up and opened the curtain.
"I've been wondering," he said.
"Yeah?"
"Why were you hiding?"
Did I really have to explain? I held up my hand and counted off the fingers, "My dad, my mom, the garden club ..."
"No. I mean earlier. At the coffee shop. Why was it so important that Brady not know you were there?"
I didn't know what to say.
"If I had a girlfriend like you, I hope I'd never do anything to make her think she couldn't be wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, with whoever she wanted."
I wanted to remind him of what he'd said before - that sometimes giving in is just easier but, by the time I hushed my heartbeat enough to speak, he was gone.
<3