Page 35 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
Livvie seemed to consider that for a moment. “How is she going to keep you there? What happens if you walk out?”
I didn’t know. That was the problem. I’d never pushed her that far. She flew into rages over little things. They were miserable marathons of verbal abuse. I’d never wanted to find out what happened when it was something big.
“I can’t,” I said. “I barely get to hang out with y’all. A date? Are you freaking kidding me? No.”
“Be sure that’s what you want,” she said. “Rhett comes off as pretty confident, but he’s still a guy. All boys have fragile egos. If you want him to quit paying attention to you, turning him down flat is the way to go.”
I picked at my fries. The orange juice. Oh man, the orange juice. Why would he do that? “Do you think he’s into me because I’m a challenge?”
Bran shook his head. “No. Dude is smart. He knows a good thing when he sees it.”
“You know that’s right,” Livvie said, extending her fingers to Bran for the wiggle, and then she slid out of the booth. “Ladies’ room. I drank too much Coke.”
Bran stared after her. “I got the secret shake. Y’all never do that with me. Give me a minute to soak it in.”
I gave him more than that while I stared at the menu board, debating milkshake flavors. My wallet decided on “none,” and with a sigh, I turned to Bran. “I hope you learned a lesson here. If you really want the finger wiggle, you have to be insanely nice to me.”
“All right, in the name of niceness, I’m going to give you some advice of my own. If Rhett asks you out, say yes. Or you’re dumb.”
“No, dating him would be dumb. Angelique would make my life hell. And he’s going to want to hang out at my house. And then I’ll have to tell him no. And then he’ll be offended and dump me. It’ll send me into a major depression. You know, minor screw-my-life-up stuff.”
Livvie slid back in the booth. “You are so dramatic lately,” she said. “Forget Angelique. I’ll kick her trash if she bothers you. And if Rhett wants to come over you say, ‘My aunt is crazy, so no.’”
“You can’t beat up everyone who bothers me.”
Bran laughed. “As long as they think she will, that’s all that matters.”
I stood. “Let’s go. And no beating people up.”
Bran scooped up all our trash and dropped it in the garbage on the way out. “I can’t wait for the ride home after school,” he said as he held the door open for us. “I think theater arts is fixing to get extra interesting for you today.”
Chapter 14
Rhett hadn’t shown up yet when I entered the auditorium. I dropped into an aisle seat next to Chloe to make sure he couldn’t sit next to me. I couldn’t stand the stress. I’d spent fifth period wondering what it meant that he brought me OJ, wondering if Bran was right, and Rhett was going to ask me out. I knew I had to say no, and my nerves twisted like an overworked rubber band.
So stupid. Rhett would probably walk in and nod at me before ignoring me again. I distracted myself by asking Chloe about her capstone project. She sighed and I laughed. “It’s going that good, huh?”
She shook her head. “It’s not like I haven’t known this was coming for the last ten years. And yet somehow, everything I was thinking of designing suddenly seems lame when I think about capstone, and extra lame when I think about Smoki Branson.”
“What’s your concept?” I asked and listened as she described a sportswear line for kids. I was so into her idea that I didn’t realize Rhett had taken the seat behind me until he tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped and turned to find him looking disconcerted.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know I was in stealth mode.”
“It’s okay.” I tried to think of something nonchalant to add, like...hmmm. I blanked, but the bell rang, and Mr. Gervis rose to take attendance.
“We’re going right into partner scenes today, so I need the actors in the first two rows. The rest of you can work on your projects.”
Everyone stood and shuffled to their spots. Chloe and I headed for the design room.
“Catch you later,” Rhett called.
“Sounds good,” I said. But it didn’t. It sounded crazy-making.
Once in the workroom, I pulled out Livvie’s skirt and tackled the zipper. Halfway through class, the stage door opened, and Rhett’s face appeared. He smiled at me and crooked his head in a “come here” gesture. I’d seen Livvie blister a guy once for doing the same thing; she said it was disrespectful.
I was getting tired of head nods. I set the skirt aside and walked over.
“What’s up?” I asked in a whisper.
