The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition (21 page)

              She tallied up the rumors she had heard throughout the morning.  It seemed as if it was a fifty-fifty split between her and Hannah.  It was difficult to tell who was giving away blow jobs and who was pregnant, who was stuffing her bra and who had slept with a teacher for better grades, and it was really difficult to determine who had angered Aimee more. 

              The unsuspecting freshmen girls would look at Delilah and Hannah with looks mixed with awe and concern.  They would soon learn that Aimee’s rumors were simply designed to decimate whoever was on her bad side that day, week, or month. 

              The sophomores spread the lies because they had heard horror stories from their siblings.  They knew that they just needed to go with the flow and get out of Aimee’s way.  Unless she needed them for something and even then they needed to be careful about getting in her line of vision. 

              “Hannah, I know you are in here,” Delilah whispered softly, listening to the sniffing coming from a stall. 

              “How did she know?”

              Confused, Delilah asked, “Know what?”

              “Brady and I haven’t told anybody yet.  He assured me that as soon as I turn eighteen things will be better. Kelly won’t want to be on her sister-in-law’s bad side because that means she’d be on Brady’s bad side.” 

              “Ummm…”

              “Aimee threw something at me yesterday because she didn’t like something I said.  It was a pillow and it hit the wall right above my head, but I couldn’t help but wonder what she was going to throw next.  That room is filled with unicorn miniatures given to her by people who have spoiled her and aren’t aware of how evil she can be to others.  I just imagined one airborne and hitting me just right.”  This set off a new fit of crying.

              “How far along are you?” Delilah carefully asked, putting the pieces together. 

              “A few weeks.  We just found out last week and I haven’t been to the doctor yet.  Brady is going to look at apartments that we can afford and I’ve been trying my hardest to get a scholarship since last year when I met him.  He only took Savannah to prom because he had already asked her months before we had met.  Savannah had introduced us, actually.  It wouldn’t have been fair to her for him to cancel two weeks before prom.” 

              Delilah tilted her head, trying to follow Hannah’s train of thought. 

              “We didn’t intend for it to happen, but condoms break, you know, and Mom refused to go take me to get the pill.  She said that Dad would flip out if he knew.  He’ll flip out when he finds this out.  That’s why Brady’s apartment hunting before we tell them, just in case they kick me out.”

              Delilah still had nothing to say.

              “We thought if we did that keep your enemies closer thing then we could avoid Aimee’s plotting when Kelly decided that I was taking up too much of her precious brother’s time.  I don’t know what to do now.”

              Tilting her head to the side, Delilah thought about the situation.  “I’m afraid that you can’t sit with us at lunch.  Aimee’s already mad enough about David and Kyle.  It’s worse on the days that Wesley decides to join us and that’s happening more and more often.” 

              The door opened as one of the drama students slipped in the room, “Hey, Delilah, Hannah.”  Once she reached the sink she did a double-take.  It was almost the last thing anybody expected to see. 

              “Heather…” Delilah drawled out as an idea started to form.  “Do you have room at your table for one more person?”

              “What?”

              “What do you mean?”

              Grinning at the girls, Delilah started to explain, “Smart girls intimidate Aimee.”  Looking at Hannah, “That’s why you downplayed your intelligence.”  Nodding her head, “The last group she’ll mess with is the group of people who can confuse her with musical theatre.” 

              Heather grinned, imagining bursting out into song if Aimee tried to start something.  “I’m in.” 

              Hannah knew that the temporary fix that Delilah Davis had given her wouldn’t be able to last forever.  Eventually her mother would hear about the rumor and quiz her to the point of drilling her for information.  She would have to come clean.  There was no other option. 

              “Brady,” she sighed into the phone.  “How did the apartment search go?” 

              “I think I found something that might work.”

"Jenny," Kyle's voice had whispered in her ear as he draped an arm around her shoulders. Delilah had smiled at her friend's 'stalker' even as she predicted the explosion that would soon follow.

"For the millionth time, it's Jennifer," she barely responded, grabbing his arm and removing it from her frame. "And don't touch me."

"Saucy. Good thing I don't like my girls that way."

"What? You like them on their knees?" Delilah's eyes had bulged out at her friend's comment. As much as she wanted to walk away, she remained silent, slightly fearful of Kyle's response.

David had paused in the middle of the hallway, overhearing more than he expected to, and waited for Kyle's reaction, irritating a junior that had been following just a little too close.

"Actually, no," Kyle paused before he answered. "I just don't like them to have a mouth like yours." He turned around in the hallway and went in the opposite direction, upsetting a freshmen and another junior in the process.

Jennifer sighed, closing her eyes and hitting her head against the nearest locker.  It startled Delilah and the sophomore collecting books from the open locker next to the one Jennifer was currently banging her head against.  "Why can't I be nice to him?"

"Because he doesn't like you the way that you want him to," Delilah answered softly, careful so that nobody overheard her answer.  “He doesn’t like you for you.”

"Oh.  Yeah.  That."

“It was hilarious how every time the theatre kids started singing whenever Aimee went near any of them.  She couldn’t get away from them fast enough in her heels,” Jennifer cackled, starting a new round of laughter.

"Do you know what would be awesome," Delilah changing the subject suddenly, a glint in her eyes that majority of the group recognized.

"What?" David asked, looking puzzled as the group groaned at once.

"It wasn't that!" Delilah spat out. "Although, David, don't you have a big screen TV? Never mind, of course you do. I was just thinking that it would be great if somebody started a book club at school. It doesn't have to meet at school, but…" she trailed off at the silent expressions of her friends. "What?"

"Are you actually suggesting that there is other reading material outside of Jane Austen?" Jennifer tactfully tried to ask.

Delilah paused in thought before answering, “I don’t only read Austen.”

Certainly her secret admirer had gotten her to see that there was a benefit to reading more of the classics than just Austen, but for her friends to be surprised that she would suggest reading something other than
Pride and Prejudice
was absurd.

“Are you actually suggesting that other people might want to read as much as you do?” Jennifer continued.

“Just because they don’t carry their books around doesn’t mean that other people don’t read,” Delilah sniffed, actually feeling hurt by Jennifer’s tone. 

"There is plenty of stuff to read," David tried to redirect. "The bookstore and library are stocked with a lot of stuff from classics to plays to contemporary.

Kyle, who wasn’t overly fond of reading and preferred to write instead, had a strong suspicion that if Delilah's idea went forward that David would be forcing his admission into the group just to assure that he wouldn’t be the only male present.  "I wouldn’t mind reading
Twelfth Night
," he added uncertain why everybody, including David, groaned. "What?"

"It's a good idea but…" Wesley started to say.

"I don't have the time," Penny hedged, "with the newspaper and everything."

Jennifer added, “And you have the newspaper and football.”

Grace wisely said nothing, which was her norm around big groups of people, even with her friends. She liked the idea but knew the others didn’t like to read as much as Delilah and David seemed to like to read; she had caught him reading in the school parking lot one morning.  Regardless, nobody liked to read as much as Delilah.

Wesley and Jennifer looked at each other, both only reading when it was necessary. "I have English this semester and don't have the time," Wesley said.

"You know we all have that research paper to do," the other concluded.

“I think it’s a good suggestion,” David grinned, looking directly at Delilah. 

              “You’re falling for him!” Grace accused Delilah before leaving.  “He comes pleading for forgiveness and you cave without him even having to prove himself.”

              “He’s given up his old friends,” Delilah reasoned, looking at her book.  “What more proof can anybody ask for without letting time take its course?”

              Grace, worried, had decided to try to address her concerns.  Instead she watched Delilah staring out of the window into David’s backyard with the opened book in her hands. 

              “I don’t want to see you get hurt again,” Grace whispered.

              Turning to face her best friend, Delilah tried to reassure her.  “I won’t be hurt.  David has no hold on my emotions.”

              “Ha!” Grace barked a short laugh.

              “Why don’t you believe me?” Delilah cried, looking at her friend sadly. 

              Moving to wrap her friend up in a hug, she whispered, “Because I know you.” 

              The apartment was tiny.  Two bedrooms that felt like closets.  A shared “open-concept” living room, dining room, and kitchen area.  Even with nothing in the rooms the walls still felt as if they were pressing down on her. 

              “We can get a bigger apartment after you graduate,” Brady assured her.  “The neighbors assured me that utilities rarely exceed a hundred dollars a month, combined.  We don’t need cable, but I can manage paying for an internet hookup.”

              “It’s tiny.”

              “There’s one downstairs that is one bedroom.  The general layout is the same, but the bedroom is bigger.”  The landlord looked at the young couple and wondered if they could manage things.  They couldn’t be twenty years old.

              “Downstairs might be nice,” Hannah whispered, thinking about when she would be eight months pregnant and unable to see her feet. 

              They followed the landlord down the stairs.  Brady gave the railing a small shake and decided he didn’t want to chance the railing breaking and Hannah falling with it. 

              “This apartment is fifty dollars cheaper,” he introduced the apartment while unlocking the door.  “The on-site laundry is also just around the corner.”

              Hannah added laundry hampers and laundry detergent to her growing mental list of things that they would need.

              “We can only have a living room or a dining room table,” Hannah pointed out. 

              Brady pointed out, “Only until July; then we are going to…”

              “That’s assuming I even get the scholarship,” Hannah reminded him.  It was something she was seriously concerned about.

              Pulling his fiancée into a hug, he did his best to reassure her, “You will.  I did and you are smarter than I am.”

              “Not smart enough, apparently,” she groaned, touching a hand to her still flat stomach.

              Shaking his head, Brady continued with the topic of the apartment.  “If we decide to do a living room we can have a coffee table in front of the couch and a desk in that corner.  With my computer set up and your big T.V. we will be comfortable.”

              “Assuming Dad lets me take it,” she reminded him. 

              Without having to think about it, Brady pointed out, “Your mother will.”

              The landlord observed their exchange.  It wasn’t the worst conversation that he had ever heard and he was starting to like the young couple.  “I’ll let you paint as long as you paint it back before you leave.”

              Hannah looked at Brady.  “That would make a lovely blue accent wall.  It doesn’t have to be the whole room.”

              Leading them on further into the apartment, “This is the bathroom.”

              Hannah noticed the size.  “It seems bigger than the one upstairs.”

              “It is,” the landlord smiled.  “There is also a medicine cabinet behind the mirror.  A former tenant broke the one upstairs.”

              Brady grinned at the landlord’s honesty. 

              The landlord pointed out another feature.  “You also have a small linen closet.  Some tenants use it as a pantry.”

              Moving to the next room, the landlord continued with the tour, “And this is the bedroom.”

              Hannah gasped.  It was twice the size of the one upstairs.  The only downfall was the tiny closet. 

              “We have room for one of those wardrobe racks.  It can even provide some privacy,” Brady pointed out. 

              The landlord watched as they silently communicated.  Finally, Hannah nodded her head and Brady said, “We’ll take it.”

              “Great.  Let’s go back to the office and sign the necessary paperwork.  I’ll also need one of your parents to come in to co-sign; it’s standard for young adults with no credit history.”

              “That’ll be my parents,” Brady responded.  “They’ll be by to sign tomorrow.” 

              Hannah paused and looked at Brady.  “Can I sign in a few weeks?”

              Stopping in his tracks, he turned to look at the young couple.  He’d already guessed that they weren’t married and that she was pregnant. 

              “Why?”

              “I turn eighteen in three weeks,” Hannah whispered for the first time since they had started exploring the apartments. 

              “And you?”

              Brady answered with, “I recently turned nineteen.”

              The couple turned to look at each other before realizing something else, something important. 

              Hannah wasn’t eighteen yet.  Her father was going to kill him.