Page 106 of Going the Distance
And he sounded so genuinely interested—so genuinely happy for me—I relaxed. I’d been worried about seeing him again, even if things were normal between us over text, but everything really was exactly like it had been before. (Only now I wasn’t wondering about kissing him, or wondering if we had any chemistry, or if I wanted to date him. I knew for sure where my heart lay now.)
So I told him all about how Noah had come by in the middle of the night, how cut up he was about the breakup, how we’d cleared the air.
“I’m really happy for you,” Levi said, and he genuinely was; I could tell by his smile. “But don’t look now—I think there are a couple of girls heading our way who want you to spill the beans, too.”
I looked around to see the girls who were walking toward me. Levi had ducked away from my side by the time the girls reached me. Lisa was grinning almost manically, and Rachel grabbed my hand.
“We want to heareverything!”
I was going to be in for a very long morning.
But I wasn’t the only one with good news: Dixon couldn’t stop smiling. He’d had this stupid grin on his face all day long, but I didn’t get the chance to ask him about it until we all sat down for lunch.
“Oh, come on,” I said, throwing a fry at him. “You can’t bethathappy for me that things worked out with Noah. Spill.”
Dixon blushed. Bright pink. And then he bit his lip. “Um, well…it’s, I mean, it’s no big deal, but…it kind of is, though, like…”
“Jesus Christ. At this rate, we still won’t know by Christmas. Come on, man, spit it out.” Warren laughed, and Dixon seemed to be steeling himself for something. He looked all serious for a second, before his face split into another huge smile.
“Danny asked me to be his boyfriend. You know, officially. So…yeah.”
“Ohmigod,” I said.
“No way,” said Rachel.
“I didn’t realize you two were so much of a thing,” said Warren, while Olly started belting out “Love Is in the Air,” and Lee and Lisa pitched in with“doo-doo-doo.”
Dixon shrugged, looking down, still with that big, goofy smile on his face. I shared a look with Rachel, and we both had to bite back giggles. I didn’t think any of us had ever seen Dixon looking sogiddy.
“Well, yeah, I mean, I didn’t want to make a big thing of it, but we’ve been on a few dates, and…I really like him.”
“That’s so great, man,” Lee chimed in, their singsong done now.
“Yeah, we’re really happy for you,” said Levi.
“As long as we’re sharing good news,” said Cam, “I finally sent off my college applications. I know it’s not exactly on the same scale, but I finally hauled ass and did it.”
“Jeez, what’s with all the good karma everywhere?” Warren laughed. “And when is it coming my way?”
• • •
A week before school let out for Christmas vacation, I was hanging out with Levi. We were baking cookies with Becca. They were supposed to be for the bake sale at her school tomorrow, but she kept sneaking them almost as fast as we could make them. Then his mom had called to ask if we could bake extra so she could take them into work.
As I helped Becca press the gingerbread-man cookie cutter into the mixture, and Levi whipped up another batch, the front door opened and closed.
“Hey, kids,” Levi’s dad called.
Levi’s dad had been in and out of hospital appointments for the last month. But he was getting better, Levi kept telling me—some days were good, some days not so good. He was going to be fine. And that was the important thing.
“Something smells good,” his voice boomed again, and Becca jumped down from her seat to go and hug her dad.
Mr.Monroe was tall, and he had the look of someone who used to be pretty well-built but had lost a lot of weight and muscle in a short span of time. His face was thin, and so was his hair. He was just wearing jeans and a plain blue T-shirt, and when he smiled he looked like Levi.
“Hey, sweetie pie,” he said, hugging Becca back. He stood up, smiling at us. “All right, Levi? Elle? How was school?”
“Oh, sure,” Levi deadpanned. “Best days of our lives, you know?”
Becca came back over to sit next to me, taking the cookie cutter back out of my hands. “Elle’s helping us bake.”
