Page 28 of My Rock Star Neighbor
She revises the clause:
—that person may say “Thanks much,” and if the other person agrees, he or she will also say “thanks much,” and then the parties may kiss.
“Do we need to put our code word in this contract?”I ask.“Let’s write ‘on terms discussed.’”
Maddie nods and types the change:
Clause 11.There will be absolutely no kissing or physical contact other than for hand-holding, except on terms discussed and agreed to.
If Maddie and I do ever kiss, the code words I want her to say are:Please don’t stop.
“But that’s not all of it.I have two more conditions.”
If “no kisses” was the first condition, I dread hearing the next.
“You have to help me with my investigation.”She explains what she learned through Iris.
“Happy to,” I say.
“Also, you have to be my date to this press career panel I’m doing at my middle school,” she says.
“You need a date for that?”I ask.
“Yes.Some of the girls I went to school with bullied me—they’d make fun of anyone who sat with me for lunch.They were very creative.Every day it was some fresh hassle.One time, one of them sat behind me and unzipped my schoolbag, so my belongings fell out when I picked it up to pack up after class.You know, things like that.But this panel is a good career opportunity for me.And they might not even be there, even though alumni are invited.”
I hope they show up so I can show that Maddie is worth a million of them.
“If they are there, it’d be nice to show up with you as my boyfriend,” Maddie says.
“Are you complimenting me, Maddie?”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” she says.“In fact, when we break up, I should be the one to break up with you.”
“That’s harsh,” I say.“How can you already be thinking about ending our relationship?”
“I already overheard Nemesis saying there’s no way you’d date me, so I don’t want her to be proved right when you dump me.”
“Nemesis—the one who stole your story after you twisted your ankle?”Poor Maddie.She was grumbling about this woman, Sarah or her “Nemesis,” when she was laid up last year with a sprained ankle and I brought her food.Who are all these people attacking her?I thought I had it rough.But now I’d like to give Nemesis a piece of my mind.
“Yeah.”
“Of course you can be the one to break up.Why would anyone really want to date a musician?We travel all the time, and we work nights.Strangers pretend to be our girlfriends.You’d have to be really sure of your relationship.Iris can give you a million reasons why you’d break up with me.”
She winces.I’m sure Iris is dead set against this fake-dating plan.That was a nasty break-up last year.I know her ex-boyfriend and his band from playing the same clubs.I know Iris, though not well, from playing at Craic and Laughs, her dad’s bar.Her ex is now banned from performing at Craic and Laughs, and I don’t blame Iris’s dad.
Not that I’m anything like Iris’s ex.I would never cheat on someone.Not when that’s one of the reasons my mom left my dad.That, and the fact that he wasn’t interested in being part of a family.My mom pretended she no longer cared about my dad, but I saw the way she’d sometimes check out who he was dating online.
“Is that why you haven’t been dating for the past two years?”Maddie asks.
“That’s the main reason.I can’t promise any stability.Why would I do that to someone I cared about?”
“Mom, why isn’t my dad here?”
“Because he’s a musician, Nick.He has to travel to play gigs to make money.We have our own apartment, I have my job, and you have friends at school.Living in hotels or on a tour bus is not a life for you and me.”
I’d definitely learned that lesson at a young age.Suddenly the dumpling I’m chewing doesn’t have any taste.
She didn’t say—and he doesn’t want us.I learned that lesson later.
