The pizza shop was busy, really busy that night. That was odd for a plain old Thursday night. By the time we were closing up at ten, I had run ragged, pulling tubs of toppings out of the cooler, chopping vegetables and mushrooms, opening cans of sauce, and lugging trays loaded with dough balls. I was dead tired and couldn't wait to get home and get my homework done so I could go to bed.
Ted was with us the whole night. I was working with Tina and Marie and a new guy who kept putting too much cheese on the pizzas. I was sweeping up a bunch of the shredded mozzarella that he spilled on the floor hen Ted came over, looking at his watch.
"Listen, Jamie. Tina's gonna give you a ride home tonight. You can leave that. I'm gonna stay late ad clean up," he said, then turned away and walked to his office at the back of the shop.
I leaned the broom against the counter. That was fine with me. I looked around for Tina. She was at the front counter, taking off her apron. She looked exhausted, too. I had hardly spoken to her all night, or rather, she barely said a word to me. Was she upset at me, too?
In the back of my mind, I was anxious about what I had done with Mrs. Flock. If she told Mom, I could be in a lot of trouble. I was also bothered by Hannah's reaction when I told her that Kristin had invited me to a party with her friends. How did I keep getting in trouble with all these girls?
"Jamie? You ready?" Tina said, and tossed her apron on the stool by the telephones.
"Yeah. I'm ready."
I tossed my own apron on the counter and followed her out the front door. I noticed that Marie was staying late. That was odd, but what the hell. Better her than me.
I got in on the passenger side of Tina's old, rusty Toyota. I was thrilled just to be sitting next to her in her car, even if she did not look happy to have to taxi me around. She started the car, then looked at me. Her eyes looked weary.
"What time do you gotta be home?" she said.
"Uh ... Midnight."
"You got a couple of hours. Wanna hang out?"
"Uh ... Sure," I said.
That was what I said, but what I really wanted to do was shout at the top of my lungs something like "Are you fucking nuts? Of course I do."
"Cool. You wanna get some coffee?" she said.
"Yeah, but ..."
"But what?"
"I should probably tell my Mom I'm gonna be home late," I said.
Tina handed me her cell phone.
"That's smart. Don't make your Mom mad," she said.
She started driving while I dialed. Mom wasn't home, so I left a message on the voicemail, then handed the phone back to Tina. I hoped that was enough. I would call again later to make sure she got the message.
We stopped at the Jasmine House Coffee Shop, not far from the pizza shop. I'd been there a couple of times with Mark. Jasmine was the old Chinese woman who owned the place. She was behind the counter with two of her three daughters, who were stunning to look at.
I orders a caramel machiatto and watched the youngest daughter make it. She was so beautiful it was hard to take my eyes off of her. I looked at her mother, who was telling them things in Chinese. Could she have been that good looking, too, when she was their age?
It was cool to be there with Tina, except that she didn't hang out with me. She met a couple of her friends and spent the whole time hanging out with them. They were twins and had dark hair and dark makeup around their eyes. I was hoping Tina would bring them over and introduce me, but that never happened.
So I enjoyed the coffee and the big, soft, comfortable chair. I closed my eyes. It would have been easy to fall asleep right there, and I could dream about those twin girls with the dark hair and dark eyes climbing naked into bed with me ...
Someone shook my shoulder and I opened my eyes. It was Tina, with an unhappy frown on her face.
"Try to stay awake, will ya? Come on. We're leaving," she said and started toward the door.
I sat up. The twins were gone. I still had about half of my coffee left. I took one big swig, burned my tongue, and left the rest of it on the table by the big, comfortable chair.
I had to run to catch up to her at her car. I didn't know why she was in a hurry, but she looked like she was in a bad mood, so I didn't want to bother her about it.
We drove for a little while before she turned to me and said something.
"Can you believe that bitch?" she said.
"Who?"
"She's sleeping with my ex-boyfriend. I can't believe her. She's got a hell of a lot of nerve," Tina said, and steered the car like she was angry at everyone on the road.
I held onto the door handle and tried not to let myself get too terrified. That was difficult, though, with the way she was cutting in and out of traffic.
"I could kill her. How could she do that to me? He is such an asshole," she said.
I just nodded. I had no idea who she was talking about. I just hoped that if she was going to kill anyone, it would be this mysterious other girl and not me.
She turned the steering wheel abruptly to the right and the car whipped into the parking lot of a party store, with the tires squealing. She parked next to a pickup truck, shut off the engine, and grabbed her purse.
"I got the munchies. I'm gonna get some Doritos. You want anything?" she said.
"Uh ... Yeah. Sure," I said, and jumped out of the car.
We went into the party store together, like we were boyfriend and girlfriend. That would have been cool, if anyone had been there to see us, but except for the woman behind the counter, who was reading a magazine, the store was empty. It was just as well. No one would believe that a hot girl like Tina would go out with a guy like me.
The Doritos sounded good, but what I really wanted was some Cheetos. I grabbed a bag and was standing in front of the cooler, trying to decide between a root beer and a Mountain Dew.
"Hey Jamie. Come over here," Tina said.
She was on the other side of the store, all the way down the last aisle. I grabbed and A&W root beer and walked over to find her.
She was standing in front of the racks of condoms and held up a black box, like the one Mom gave me.
"Are these the right size?" she said.
"For what?"
She laughed. "For you, dummy."
She shoved the box into my hands.
"Uh ... I guess so," I said.
"Good. Buy them," she said and put some money in my hand.
I looked at the condoms in my hand, then at her. She had an annoyed expression.
"Go ahead. I wanna get a couple of other things," she said.
I walked up to the register, where the woman was still reading the magazine. My hands were shaking. How could she expect me to buy condoms? I was going to die of embarrassment.
I put the Cheetos and root beer and condoms on the counter. The woman put her magazine down, smiled at me briefly, and started to ring up each thing. When she got to the box of condoms, she stopped and looked at me funny. Her eyes narrowed.
"Aren't you a bit young to buy condoms?" she said.
"I'm ... old enough," I said, and hoped she didn't catch my lie.
But she laughed and handed the box of condoms back to me.