Lauren's Beach Crush (10 page)

“And that's what makes them fun!” Frank said in a teasing voice.

Lauren couldn't help but smile.

“Well, are you going to go try to talk to her?” asked Frank, motioning toward Chrissy.

“Why don't
you
go talk to her?” suggested Lauren. “I bet you can convince her to come back and maybe play another game or something? That was fun, playing volleyball. I had a good time.”

“Me too,” said Frank, smiling. “But when I walk away like that, I usually want to be left alone. She probably just needs a cool off. I'm sure you guys will work things out.”

Lauren sighed. “I'm not sure what to do. I mean, should I go talk to her?”

Frank debated and then shook his head. “Nah. Maybe just wait, and I'm sure she will let you know when she's ready to talk about what happened.”

Lauren nodded. That definitely made sense. Frank was pretty smart. “Okay. Maybe I'll read or something
and wait for her to come back. Thanks,” she added.

“You're welcome,” he replied, and headed back over to his friends. “I'll see you later!”

Lauren reached into her bag to grab
Moby-Dick
, and then decided against it. She picked up Chrissy's book, a thriller geared toward kids her age. It looked awesome.

She was immersed in the story when Chrissy returned.

“Hey,” said Chrissy, plunking down next to her.

“Hey,” Lauren replied, setting the book down. “Hope you don't mind. I started reading your book. It's good.”

Chrissy smiled. “I don't mind. Listen, I'm really sorry I said what I said about Charlie. I think I'm just upset about Justin. He hasn't been texting as much lately and well . . . it's just been on my mind.”

“It's okay,” said Lauren. “I understand. I'm sorry I keep forcing you to hang out with the other guys. You're allowed to make your own choices. I just thought it would be so much fun for the four of us to hang out together. I hope everything is okay with Justin.” As she said it, Lauren realized she meant it. She just thought her friend deserved to be with a great guy, like Frank. But maybe Justin was great too . . . even if he was on the other side of the country, and not very good about texting.

“Thanks,” said Chrissy, looking relieved. She lowered her head, gesturing with her chin. “The boys have finally settled down. They're lounging. I think that's the first time we've seen them do that since we've been on vacation. Do you want to try Operation Cell Phone? Now might be our one chance!”

Lauren darted a glance at the boys. It was true. It was the perfect opportunity! The awkwardness she had felt with Chrissy was completely gone now, and Lauren felt hopeful, once again, that they could become real BFFs.

“You think we should?” she asked.

“Definitely,” said Chrissy. “It's what you've planned for all year. Now or never!”

“Let's do it!” Lauren said excitedly. Maybe, after all these false starts, this would really, truly work.

“Okay. Shall we review the steps?” asked Chrissy, a mischievous look on her face.

Lauren had a sneaking suspicion that Chrissy knew exactly what the steps were, and that she was just teasing her. But Lauren didn't mind. Friends teased each other, after all. She pulled out her index card. The two girls shimmied down onto their stomachs and lay side-by-side, the card between them.

“So, okay,” said Lauren. “We start with me pretending to start searching through all our stuff.”

“And should I help you look?”

“Definitely. Then I walk over to the boys. I tell Charlie that I've lost my cell phone and that I'm expecting an important call. I'll ask him if I can borrow his phone to call mine.”

“But wait, why wouldn't you just use my cell phone?” asked Chrissy. “Why would you bother to ask him for his?”

“Good point,” said Lauren, tapping her lower lip thoughtfully. “I made up this plan before I knew you'd be coming with us to the beach house. But that's an easy one. I'll just say that you left yours back at the house, or that you forgot to charge yours.”

“Good idea,” said Chrissy, nudging Lauren with her shoulder. “But maybe instead of you asking to borrow his phone to call yours, you just ask him to call it? You know, to like get him used to the action of calling you?”

Lauren frowned, her brow furrowed, thinking about that. “Is that a social anthropology tip?” she asked. Chrissy confirmed it was probably something Liz would recommend. “Okay,” Lauren said, nodding happily. “That just might work. Good thinking.”

“Thanks.”

“So I give him my number, he calls my phone, it rings, I pretend to find it, and then I say thanks. Then I chitchat with him about sports or literature.”

“Or sportsmanship,” Chrissy added with a wink.

Lauren pretended to glare at her and continued. “And then after we've had a real, actual conversation, I'll flirt with him. I'll flirtatiously remind him that he has my cell number now, and then I'll flirtatiously suggest that he text me sometime.” She waited for Chrissy to say something.

Chrissy blinked at her. “Oh! Sorry. That's it? That's the whole plan?”

“You don't think it will work?”

“No! I mean, yes! I totally think it will work. Let's roll!”

“Okay. First thing to do is bury the cell phone. I brought a plastic baggie to put it in so it doesn't get ruined under the sand. My parents would totally kill me if I ruined my phone!” Lauren glanced over to be sure the boys weren't watching. Then she pulled the baggie containing her phone from her tote bag and dug a shallow hole in the sand next to her side of the blanket. She placed the phone in the hole, and swept sand back over the top. “Phase one is complete.”

“Wait! Question!” said Chrissy.

“What?”

“Why is the phone in the bag? Won't it look like you knew you were going to lose it?”

Lauren thought about that, but then shook her head. “No, I can say I keep it in the plastic baggie to keep it from getting wet!”

“Genius,” said Chrissy. “One more question. What should I do while you are having the flirtatious conversation with Charlie? Maybe I should bust out my phone and pretend to be talking to someone?”

Lauren started to nod, and then violently shook her head. “No, you can't do that. Because I'll have just told him that you left your phone back at the house. No, no, that would be disastrous.”

“Yeah, true. So maybe I'll just go for a walk or something.”

“Sure, sounds good. So . . . phase two is ready to commence. Time for me to start searching for my missing phone,” she said.

Chrissy nodded and gave her a subtle thumbs-up.

Lauren sat up and casually reached into her bag. Were the boys looking over this way? She didn't dare look up to
find out. She rummaged casually, then grew increasingly concerned. She began taking stuff out of the bag. Chrissy joined in to help. Soon they were both on hands and knees, crawling around on the blanket, shaking out their T-shirts and looking inside all the pouches of their tote bags. A few more minutes of this and then . . .

“Looking for something?”

Lauren jumped. It was Charlie! And Frank. The boys were standing right next to their blanket!

This was not going according to the Plan. She was supposed to approach them! She was so flustered, she forgot if she had even come up with a contingency plan on her flowchart allowing for the possibility of Charlie just showing up like this. She started to panic.

She felt Chrissy nudge her in the ribs. She recovered. “Oh! Hi, you guys. Um, yeah. I seem to have misplaced my cell phone. I can't find it anywhere.”

“Wow. That stinks,” said Frank. “You want me to call it and see if we can hear it ring?”

“Um, no! I mean, yes . . . but . . . ” Lauren stammered. Now she was completely flustered. It was supposed to be Charlie, not Frank, who called her phone! Oh, why was the Plan so hard! Why was Frank always showing up at
the wrong time, butting in when his help was not wanted? She gathered herself, made herself think clearly. “I, uh, hate to make you go to the trouble. Maybe you have your phone on you?” she asked Charlie in the most casual voice she could muster.

But Charlie didn't seem to be paying much attention to the drama unfolding before him. He was staring out at the water. “The waves are picking up, dude,” he said. “We should go back to bodysurfing.”

“He doesn't even have a phone because he keeps breaking them,” said Frank with a good-natured roll of his eyes. “But I have mine right here. What's your number?”

Miserably, Lauren recited her phone number for Frank. Loudly enough for Charlie to hear it, just in case he was secretly paying attention . . . and got a new phone, and had it long enough to call her before breaking it.

Frank punched in her number. The four of them stopped to listen for a ring. Then Lauren remembered. She'd forgotten to turn on the ringer. The phone was set to vibrate. There was no way they'd hear it.

“Uh, Laur?” asked Chrissy. “Do you have it set on silent, by chance?

Lauren nodded slowly. “Yes. I guess I do.”

“Maybe it got buried in the sand,” said Frank. “Charlie, come help us look.”

The four of them got down on hands and knees and began feeling around in the sand. Of course, Lauren knew where she'd buried it. But she made sure to kneel down next to Charlie, at the other side of the blanket from where she knew her phone was buried. At one point, their hands touched underneath the sand. A thrill zipped through her. They'd touched! They'd practically held hands!

“Got it!” yelled Frank, triumphantly holding up the plastic bag containing Lauren's phone. “Boy, it was really buried,” he said. “Good thing you had it in this bag or it could be totally trashed.”

“Thanks,” said Lauren numbly, taking the phone from him.

“Let's go, dude!” said Charlie. “The waves are awesome right now!”

“Be right there,” said Frank. “I need to put my cell phone back with my stuff.”

After the boys had left, Charlie toward the water where their other friends were already surfing, and Frank toward the boys' stuff, Lauren groaned and turned to Chrissy. “That was an epic fail,” she said.

“Yeah, it kind of was,” agreed Chrissy. “Too bad. I guess neither of us thought to make sure the ringer was activated. Still, it was kind of sweet the way Frank was so willing to help out, don't you think?”

Lauren just nodded, but she wondered if there was more to Chrissy's comment. Did it mean that Chrissy had finally seen the light? Was she thinking about switching her crush? Lauren knew she couldn't ask Chrissy right then and there—given the fact that they had just made up and all that—but she promised herself she'd try and find out more later.

Just then, the phone in Lauren's hand vibrated. Who could that be? She stared down at the caller's number. It was unfamiliar.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hey, Lauren. It's Frank.”

She whirled around to look. Sure enough, he was standing near the boys' blankets, on his phone. He looked at her, grinned sheepishly, and waggled his fingers in a small wave.

“Um, hi.” She waggled her fingers back at him.

“I was wondering if you want to go have ice cream later,” he said.

Lauren tried not to groan into the phone. Was he asking her out? That couldn't be. He must mean with the group. With Chrissy. And Charlie. “Well, um, maybe,” she faltered. “Can Chrissy come too?”

“Er, yeah, sure,” said Frank.

“So, like, everyone will be there?”

“Yeah, sure,” he said again. “Meet at Rudy's? Maybe like at seven?”

“Okay.”

“Well, bye.”

“Bye.”

She hung up. She watched him jog down to the water to join his friends in the waves.

Operation Cell Phone: fail. The Love Plan was doomed.

“DOES THIS MAKE ME LOOK STUPID?” ASKED LAUREN.
She stood before the full-length mirror in front of her closet door, her back to Chrissy, one hand on her hip, the other flicking at the skirt she had on.

In the mirror, Lauren watched Chrissy put down her book, roll over from her back to her stomach, and lie diagonally across the bed. She put her chin in her hands and regarded Lauren, one eyebrow raised.

“No. It does not make you look stupid. You look cute. You looked cute in the last four outfits you tried on too.”

Lauren rolled her eyes and turned back to look at herself in the mirror. “I've decided my new personal style philosophy is girly-casual,” she said. “Which means I can go supercasual sometimes, but I can also dress things up and be really girly when the situation calls for it. A lot of guys really like girly girls. I think this
outfit strikes the right balance, don't you?”

“Lauren, you should wear whatever you feel good in,” Chrissy replied.

“So what are you going to wear?” asked Lauren.

Chrissy sat up and stared down at her T-shirt and shorts. “Uh, I thought I'd wear this?” she said.

“But we're going out to Rudy's for ice cream. Frank is going to be there. I think he's a pretty nice dresser, from what I've seen, except for that dorky bathing suit of his.”

“I don't care if he's a nice dresser. Because I don't like Frank. I thought I made it clear, I like Justin.”

Lauren shrugged, and uncapped her lip gloss. “I get it. I just think it's always smart to keep an open mind.” she said, smiling at Chrissy. Chrissy's eyes flashed. “Would you please stop lecturing me on guys?” she replied, struggling to keep her voice even. “I like Justin. Not Frank. If you think Frank is so great, why don't you start liking him?”

Lauren stopped slathering lip gloss and turned around to face Chrissy. “Ew. As if. I like Charlie, in case you forgot.”