The sound of his voice caught her off guard, and goose flesh sprung up all over her arms. If it wasn’t for the sound of her friends “oh, my God-ing” to her left, Beth would’ve thought she was asleep, that the question had only taken place in a dream.
She turned her head to see Sammy standing in the dimly lit parking spot, the moon illuminating his perfect face as he waited for a response. Behind him, Robby and Michael lingered, their arms crossed as they watched, a goofy grin on Robby’s face while Michael looked much more serious.
“What was that?” Beth asked, still unable to process what was happening. How in the world was it possible that Sammy was actually asking her out? If this was true, it was a miracle form heaven….
“I said, would you go out with me? I mean… I want to go ask Carly out, but these two assholes keep telling me there’s not a girl in the whole damn town who would go out with me, and I told them I bet someone as sweet as Beth Monroe wouldn’t say no. Not to that anyway.” He sort of rolled his eyes, letting Beth know exactly what he was implying he thought she might decline. Sammy continued, “She’s not stuck up like Amber James.” He said the last part with a bitterness Beth assumed was built on having asked the same girl out to no avail dozens of times. “Would you, Beth? If I asked you out, you’d say yes, wouldn’t you?”
Beth’s stomach had been residing somewhere near her esophagus until he finished his explanation. Then it fell like a boulder, hitting the pit of her stomach and continuing to careen down, dragging the rest of her with it until she was certain she would be somewhere in the middle of the earth before she formulated a response.
“Oh. Right.” He hadn’t been asking her out. He was the one making fun of her, not the popular girls who probably wouldn’t even bother to give her a hard time anymore, she was such old news. Now, Sammy thought it would be fun to toy with her, to see if he could get a rise out of her, in front of his friends, one of which, Robby, was beginning to chuckle, his teeth glinting in the thin light from an overhead light flickering out nearer the field.
“You see,” Robby spoke up as Beth contemplated how to respond to the query without sounding like a total bitch or a five-year-old drama queen. “Even Beth won’t give you the time of day.” He laughed a little bit like a hyena, and Beth thought maybe he should ask Mindy out, not that she’d say yes.
A sarcastic comment sprung to mind, and just when Beth was about to unleash it, a new voice came from behind her. It cut through her friends whose proclamations and giggles had stopped with Sammy’s explanation, and filled her ears with its melodic sound, almost like it was the voice of solace when one was lost at sea. “You know what your problem is?”
Sammy’s eyes left Beth’s face and focused behind her, but Beth didn’t have to turn around to know who she’d see. It was their specter, stepping out of the shadows. Perfect timing….
“What’s that?” He couldn’t hide the way his eyes dropped to the ground and slowly climbed up her, causing Beth to turn at last to assess the girl for herself.
She was short, maybe two inches shorter than Beth. Her dark hair was wavy and fell around her shoulders, cascading down her back. Her friends were right; her eyes were a golden color, possibly hazel flecked with lighter shades of brown and yellow, though it was difficult to tell in the dark. Her lips truly were colored a bright red, but whether it was gloss or her natural state, they looked almost wet, and her bottom lip protruded from her beautiful, perfectly symmetrical face, with dark long lashes and sculpted brows, in such a way Beth imagined Sammy wanted to latch onto that lip and suck it into his mouth.
Bile rose in the back of Beth’s throat as she took a step back, out of Sammy’s world, toward her parents’ minivan
“I said, do you want to know what the problem is, or not? Do you want to keep being the butt of all of the jokes, or do you want me to give it to you straight? You are straight, right?” She giggled after the question, her arms folded below her perky breasts, and Sammy took two steps closer to her, his friends following. It was only a matter of time until the Coast Guard found his splintered remains floating in the surf.
“You know what my problem is?” He ran a hand through his sweaty blond hair before shoving his ball cap down on top of it. “Who are you?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she shrugged. “Your problem is your posture.”
“My posture?” His eyes caved in as his head jerked up. A quick turn to check with his friends assured him they were just as dumbfounded.
“Uhm hm. Look, over there.” She pointed in the direction where Shane and his friends were still talking to the girls on the bleachers. “See how he carries himself? Like he doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything? Like, if one of those girls got up right now and told him he was the world’s biggest asshole, he’d laugh, not go crying to his mama, right?” Beth had made that exact statement enough times—that he was the world’s biggest asshole--to that exact baseball player, she could confirm ghost girl was right. “You look like you couldn’t handle it, like you’d pass out or something. They know that. They can smell it on you as you approach. If you want any of those girls to go out with you, you need to look at them like they already are.”
Sammy seemed to ponder the advice for a long time before he said, “So… how do I do that?”
“Hell if I know,” she said with another giggle. “Watch him. Do what he does. Or… don’t go out with those girls.” She turned back and looked at Beth, then at her friends, and then flipped her hair over her shoulder, like she’d already determined who the second pickings were. A fire burned low in Beth’s gut near where the rock had landed a few minutes ago. Who the hell was this girl?
“Who are you?” Robby asked for all of them, stepping forward. “I’ve never seen you before.” Robby was a mid-lister himself, cute enough to go out with some of the less popular popular girls but mostly capable of getting the somewhat popular unpopular girls. It was all very clicky and cliché, and the thought of it made Beth want to melt into the van.
“I’m Halley.” The sound of her name rolled off her tongue in the same sort of way Beth imagined MaDonna would announce herself, like everyone should already know her name.
“I’m Robby Pierson. It’s nice to meet you.” He grinned, sticking his hand out for her to shake it. She looked at it for a second before taking it in her lithe palm. Beth saw her wipe her hand off once it was settled around her narrow ribs. She was wearing a white T-shirt with her cut-off shorts, so it didn’t seem like it was dirt she was worried about. Maybe she was a germaphobe.
“What are you doing Saturday night?” Sammy asked, reclaiming the conversation. “Will you go out with me?”
“Me?” Halley’s giggle tinkled through the air again. “Oh, no. I’m busy Saturday night. But if you want to ask one of them, let’s go do it.”
“What?” Sammy spat out the word at the same time that Beth bit it back. The reflex to cover her mouth with her palm was also fought off as the heat rising inside of her began to lick the base of her throat.
“Sure. You introduce me, and I’ll put in a good word for you. Which one is she?”
“Oh, the shorter one, with the brownish-blonde hair,” he explained, describing Carly in a way where she’d stick out only amongst the other five girls situated on the bleachers.
“Really?” Halley asked, falling into step beside them as they headed off, leaving Beth and her friends in the shadows. “Not the brunette?” She meant Mindy, who was the prettiest girl of the group not draped on Beth’s brother.
Whatever Sammy said in response, Beth couldn’t hear him. She slammed herself back into the van, watching Robby trail them and wondering if he realized he hadn’t been invited.
“I’m really sorry about that.”
Beth’s head turned of its own volition, and she realized that Michael hadn’t left. He was still standing there, his hands on his hips, watching the little group approach the sharks, likely wondering whether or not they’d be fodder or begin a symbiotic relationship with the other group, the same way Beth was wondering.
“It’s okay,” she shrugged, taking a deep breath. “I would’ve said no anyway.” She rolled her eyes and chuckled, hoping Michael believed her lies.
“Good. Because you deserve to go out with a nice guy, and Sammy’s not one.” Michael’s statement was meant as a compliment, Beth knew that rationally, but here was another person telling her that Sammy wasn’t the one for her, and she had no idea what to say.
“Thank you, Michael,” Lexy said, stepping out of the shadows. “You played a great game tonight.” Lexy smiled up at the guy she’d had a crush on for as long as Beth could remember, and Beth silently wished he’d say something to her friend, something promising. As far as she knew, the two had hardly even spoken to each other before.
“Thanks,” Michael said, but his eyes only flipped to Lexy for a second, and Beth realized he wasn’t interested in her any more than Sammy was actually contemplating a date with her. “See you at practice Sunday afternoon?” Michael asked her, and Beth nodded, remembering they were having batting practice that day. She’d have to face Sammy then, too, and maybe Carly would be on his arm…. “Cool.” Michael disappeared, and Beth thought about the fact that he had his driver’s license. Maybe he could take her friends around the square so they wouldn’t have to ride in Brittany’s clunker….
“Oh, my God, he totally likes you,” Andi whispered, a foot from her, before her eyes shifted back to Lexy who looked like she was about to cry.
It took Beth a second to realize they didn’t mean Sammy—that they hadn’t somehow missed the majority of the conversation. “Michael?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “Michael Splinter? No, he doesn’t. He’s Lexy’s crush.”
“I guess he didn’t get the memo,” Lexy replied, sarcastically. “I saw how he was looking at you, Beth.”
“Whatever,” Beth said, dismissively, waving a hand at both of her friends. She turned to pull the van door open and saw her dad approaching. Relief that this was almost over blew the flames inside of her down to a small flicker. “I’m not interested in Michael anyway.” She meant it. He was nice, but definitely too skinny—and weird—for her. A memory of the words Ryan had said to her the week before, about how there were plenty of guys who would go out with her if she’d just open her eyes, came to mind, but she pushed that aside, too. He hadn’t meant Michael. He’d just been saying what he thought she should hear, as a good friend.
“All aboard the Caravan!” Richard Monroe said with a chuckle once the last bag of gear was tossed in the back, and Beth was happy to oblige, climbing into the front and leaving some space between herself and her friends. Her dad began to prattle on about the game, but Beth’s eyes were locked on Sammy, who had one arm around Halley, like they were old friends, and the flames inside began to grow.