Page 35 of Behind the Bars

He laughed. “Trust me. It’s not a pitydate.”

“I’ve never been on a datebefore.”

“It’s okay.” He shrugged his left shoulder. “Neither have I. So,Saturday?”

“What about yourshow?”

“I’ll skip it foryou.”

My heart stopped beating and beat faster all at once. “Okay.”

He smiled so wide and anxiously raced his hand over his head. “Okay. Good. Um, I’ll see you t-t-tomorrow atschool.”

“Bye.” As he walked away, I turned back to my locker and opened it. I started collecting the books from the shelves, and I jumped a little when I heard myname.

“Sorry, it’s just me again,” Elliott said. “I just forgot to saysomething.”

“Oh,what?”

“First, can I…” He stepped toward me, but then stepped back again. “Can I hugyou?”

I laughed, always so amused by everything about his movements. “Please.”

He wrapped me in a hug, and I breathed himin.

I relaxed a bit as he heldme.

“I forgot to tell you that none of it is true. The words they put on your locker—none of it’s true. I’m going to hug you right now until you believe me, and don’t say you believe me, because I know youdon’t.”

“It may take a while.” I shut my eyes as he held me closer. “You’re going to miss yourbus.”

“It’s okay,” he replied, so matter-of-fact. “I’ll walkhome.”

* * *

“Areyou seriously asking me to do this, Snow?” Ray wondered, standing in the doorway of my bedroom that afternoon. He had a look of disbelief in his stare as he crossed his arms. “The answer is obviouslyno.”

I groaned. “But it’s just a small lie,” Ipromised.

“Just to be clear”—he narrowed his eyes—“you’re asking me to set up a fake meeting between a music producer and your mother this Saturday so you can go out on a date with a boy who was randomly in my house this past weekend wearing myclothes?”

“Yes.”

“Jasmine.” He sighed heavily. Whenever he used my real name, I knew he was annoyed. “Normally I’d agree that your mom is over-the-top and out of line, but this time she was right. You lied to her and you snuckaround.”

“It’s the only way I can have a life!” Iargued.

“That still doesn’t make it right,” he replied. “Listen, Snow, I’ll go to bat for you with your mother, okay? I’ll stand up for you and fight for you to have some freedom as a kid, but we can’t win the war if you go into battleslying.”

“I’m sorry I lied, okay? I knew she wouldn’t have let me go, but this Saturday…this is important. I promise I’ll never ask you for anything ever again if you help me out with this. Plus, if you actually set up a meeting with someone, it’s not a lie atall.”

“No, the lie is me telling her I’m taking you to the studio towork.”

“You can take me to the studio afterward—then it’s not a lie. Pleeease?” I begged like a five-year-old. I gave Ray my best ever puppy-dog eyes, and hecringed.

“Don’t dothat.”

“Do what?” I askedinnocently.

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