Page 228 of We Shouldn't Be Together
“So, you want me to come down to the bowling alley?”
I relax my shoulders, smiling at the thought. “No, we’re all good here. I think we’re heading home soon. I just missed you.”
“I miss you too. Text me when you get home?”
“Yeah, so long as I don’t run into my dad again.”
“What’s going on with your dad?”
I sigh with queasiness. “He’s forbidding me from seeing you outside of school.”
“What?” he yells into the phone.
“He saw my hands before we left for the bowling alley. I knew he wasn’t your biggest fan, but…”
“We’re not over, are we?”
“No!” I blurt. “No way. I’m too into you to give you up.”
“Then I’ll prove to him I’m good enough.”
My heart pounds. “You will?”
“I was already planning on going to the football game, just to stick it to him. But now, I’ll have a new tactic.”
“Still sounds like sticking it to him. He doesn’t want to see us together.”
“It’s a free country, Tabby. I can go to the game.”
“He’ll go ballistic. Game days are sacred.”
“So he says,” Kai teases. “Okay, I won’t go if you don’t want me there.”
“Well, of course I want you there.”
“Then it’s settled. I’m going to the game.”
I laugh with a mixture of nervousness and giddiness. “Okay.”
This has disaster written all over it.
39
It’sFridayandI’mpsyching myself up to go to the football game tonight. Obviously, I want to stick it to Dr. Jones. Who does he think he is, demanding Tabby and I don’t see each other anymore? Okay, yeah, her father. The dude who can ground her and make up a zillion arbitrary rules. But he only sees one side of me. “The menace,” as he likes to put it. Hasn’t he questioned why Tabby likes me? Doesn’t his scientific brain prompt him to take a deeper look? That there might be more to me?
This afternoon, I try chilling out with the guys at the skatepark, but it doesn’t work. The prospect of proving myself to Dr. Jones is wigging me out. With every rail I ride, or flip of my board, I get angry. How am I supposed to appear as some goody-goody in front of Tabby’s dad? The guy despises me, and I’m supposed to be going into tonight with a game plan. Would Dr. Jones prefer it if I acted more like Milo?
Ugh. Jamie bailed on usagainto hang out with Milo. Plus, they have an extra-credit assignment to work on together over the weekend. What the actual hell? First, Jamie says she’s catching up on schoolwork. Now, she’s actively getting more. What has happened to my friend? And why is she voluntarily spending more time with my brother?
I call it quits at the skatepark and drive home. After spending some time with my grandparents, who ask a buttload of questions about my girlfriend, Igo upstairs to change. It’s nice thinking only about Tabitha for a few minutes, and not the fact that her dad thinks I’m a stain on society.
“You!” I yell, standing in the doorway of my bedroom.
Alfred the cat, with his long ginger fur, is curled up on my bed.
“What the hell, cat?” I stomp toward my bed. “What makes you think you can come in here?”
I stomp extra hard, making Alfred recoil, meow, and bolt out of the bedroom.
