Top 8 (19 page)

“So what did you do?”

“Well, what anyone in that situation would do. I crawled over to the refrigerator, took out the jar of prop raspberry jelly, and started throwing handfuls of it at Mark, while I yelled, ‘Poison jelly! Poison jelly!'”

Nate stared at me. “Then what?”

“Well, it took a minute, I guess because Mark didn't know the symptoms of jelly poisoning, but then he started flopping around, and then they brought down the lights and that was the end of the play.”

Nate laughed, and then he just looked at me. “You know,” he said, after a moment, “the first time I saw you on the boat, I knew you were going to be interesting. But you keep surprising me.”

My heart started pounding again. “I do?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from squeaking.

“Yeah,” he said. He looked at me intently and for a moment I was
sure
he was going to kiss me, but instead, he just tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear, letting his hand rest on the bottom of the strand for just a second. “Coffee?” he asked, breaking away.

“Coffee,” I agreed, trying not to be too disappointed.

We entered the coffee shop, and I couldn't help noticing our reflection in the glass window, and how good we looked together, how…well matched, in a weird sort of
way. After I'd checked out the menu and decided on my latte flavor, my eyes wandered over the rest of the coffee-house. It was funkier and hipper than Stubbs, with a whole section of booths in the back. They were pretty filled up with couples and groups of kids and —

I looked closer. Sitting in a booth in the corner was Ruth.

I was shocked, and barely stammered out my order to the bored-looking barista. Had Ruth finished babysitting early? And what was she doing in Stanwich?

I looked over at her booth again, and saw that there was a messenger bag and a black hoodie on the seat across from her. So clearly, she was here with someone. But who was it?

And when had we started keeping secrets from one another?

I pulled my phone out of my purse and pressed speed dial #2 — #1 was voice mail — for Ruth. I was partially hidden behind a flyer-covered pillar, but when she answered, I planned on stepping out and surprising her. And while I was at it, maybe getting some answers.

I watched as Ruth heard her phone, pulled it out of her bag, and looked at the display.

Then she pressed a button to ignore the call and placed the phone back in her bag.

 

“Is everything okay?” Nate asked me for the third time.

“Fine,” I said, trying to focus on what he was saying. “Fine. What — I mean, could you repeat that?”

Nate sighed, and I saw a flash of impatience cross his face. It was totally justified. After I'd suggested we get our coffee to go, he'd taken me to his favorite spot in Stanwich, a stone wall that overlooked the beach and water of Long Island Sound. Since it had gotten a little cold, I'd pulled on my sweater.

For the first time, I understood the appeal of the stone wall. We were sitting on it, kind of close to each other, holding our coffees and looking out over the water, which was gently lapping against the sand.

It was completely and utterly romantic. And yet, all I could think about was my best friend and whatever was going on with her.

“It's all right,” he said, looking down at his cup and shaking it a little. “Maybe I should just take you home.”

“Okay,” I murmured, furious with myself.
Romantic setting! Cute guy!
But I just couldn't shake the image of Ruth looking at her phone, seeing my name, and choosing not to answer my call.

Nate drove me home in silence, and the harder I worked to think of something to say, the more impossible conversation seemed.

He pulled into my driveway, but didn't put the car in park, and didn't kill the engine. Clearly, there would be no making out tonight.

Darn
it.

“Well, um, thanks,” I said after a few moments of the two of us staring straight ahead at my house, sitting in silence except for the truck's rumbling.

“Sure,” he said. “It was fun.” The unspoken
until you just got weird and distant
hung palpably in the air between us.

“We'll talk soon?” I said hopefully.

“Absolutely,” he said. He looked like he meant it, but he also looked confused and disappointed. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something else, but then he shook his head and closed it.

I felt the same way. “Night,” I said finally. I smiled at him quickly, then got out of the truck.

Nate put the truck in reverse and backed down the driveway. Then he gave a quick, quiet honk and pulled away, down the street and out of sight.

I slammed the door and trudged inside. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table, eating York minis and talking about their triple-word score. I grabbed a couple minis out of the bag and a CFDC (Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, a necessity if I was going to be drinking DC after midnight) from the fridge and told them good night.

I headed upstairs before they could ask me about my night, or tell me again about that time that my father got a 374 point word score on “whizbang.”

The night, particularly the last half hour or so, kept replaying itself in my head. All the things I should have done — like not letting the Ruth sighting ruin my time with Nate — were suddenly becoming incredibly clear to me.

I got changed for bed, too tired to even text Lisa and give her a post mortem. And how would I deal with Ruth? Would I tell her that I'd seen her?

I was about to go to bed when I realized that my profile was still blank. Just as I would never go to bed without washing my face, I could
not
go to bed with an incomplete profile.

I gently grabbed my laptop, and logged on to Friendverse. The first thing I noticed, when I checked my friends' statuses, was that Nate had changed his screen name. He was now, simply,
Nate.
And he was currently online.

I saw that he'd also just updated his status.

Friendverse

Status Updates         See all

 

Nate
is bewitched, bothered and bewildered Updated 12:03
A.M.

 

Did that have something to do with me? It had to, right? I mean, it wasn't like he would have had time to be bewitched, bothered and/or bewildered by anyone else. He'd just dropped me off, after all.

I stared at his update, thinking. Then, realizing that he could now see that I was online, too, I updated my status as well. I took a cue from him and quoted the first line of the song's chorus.

 

Madison
is wild again, beguiled again, a simpering, whimpering child again

Updated 12:04
A.M.

 

My eyes were glued to the status update page, waiting for something to happen. I knew that everyone else would be able to see my now slightly odd status, but I really didn't care. If Nate was trying to say something to me, I wanted him to know I was listening.

The update
ping!
ed.

 

Nate
is a little bit skeptical.

Updated 12:08
A.M.

 

Okay, that definitely was a response to me. And not really a good one.

Heart pounding, I updated my status again.

 

Madison
wishes he wouldn't be.

Updated 12:09
A.M.

 

His response was almost instantaneous.

 

Nate
is just confused, then.

Updated 12:10
A.M.

 

Madison
wishes she could have a do-over of the last half hour.

Updated 12:12
A.M.

 

Was that too forward? I barely had time to analyze, when his status changed again.

 

Nate
is a big fan of the do-over.

Updated 12:13
A.M.

 

Was that a second-date invite? I couldn't really tell. I mean, we hadn't even been (technically) on a first date. According to the horrible book Lisa read last year,
The Rulez — For Teenz!
, a date had to be made at least three days in advance for it to be considered official. And while I didn't buy into that stuff, I appreciated the definitions.

Had
it been a date? Was he asking me for a second one?

I decided to go noncommittal.

 

Madison
is smiling.

Updated 12:15
A.M.

 

Nate
is no longer bewildered or bothered.

Updated 12:16
A.M.

 

I stared at that last sentence again, realizing that he hadn't taken the “bewitched” part out of it. Which was him saying that he was “bewitched” by me. Bewitched! It was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to me.

Unless I was just reading too much into his status updates, which was entirely possible.

But I couldn't
quite
believe that.

I thought about just sending him the next song lyrics and really testing his musical theater knowledge, until I realized that the next lyrics talk about “worshipping the trousers that cling to him.”

Somehow, I didn't think that would send the right message.

But I wanted him to know that I'd gotten what (I thought) he was trying to say.

 

Madison
is twitching her nose.

Updated 12:18
A.M.

 

Nate
is rolling his eyes.

Updated 12:19
A.M.

 

My update
ding!
ed again, and I saw that Lisa had changed her name and come online. Since all the updates were stored on the home page, she would only see my half. I could only imagine what she would think of them.

But at the moment, I really didn't care.

 

Lisse
wishes that her boyfriend would air the pizza smell out of his car occasionally.

Updated 12:20
A.M.

 

Madison
is doubting that Nate can twitch his nose.

Updated 12:21
A.M.

 

Lisse
is wondering what Madison's been smoking.

Updated 12:22
A.M.

 

Lisse
is also wondering why she didn't share.

Updated 12:22
A.M.

 

Nate
is doubting there is such a thing as “poison jelly.”

Updated 12:23
A.M.

 

Madison
is thinking, “touché!”

Updated 12:24
A.M.

 

Lisse
is very, very confused.

Updated 12:25
A.M.

 

Nate
is going to bed.

Updated 12:26
A.M.

 

My heart sank a little when I saw that. While this wasn't the best way to flirt — after all, one of my best friends could see half of what was going on, even if she couldn't understand it — I didn't want this to end. And while I was glad we seemed to have erased some of the weirdness of the night, I wasn't sure that everything was okay.

 

Madison
says “goodnight.”

Updated 12:27
A.M.

 

Madison
also says, “sleep tight.”

Updated 12:27
A.M.

 

Nate
is smiling now.

Updated 12:28
A.M.

 

Nate
has logged off.

 

I let out a breath as I watched Nate's online light fade to gray. I didn't know what things were, but they seemed better now.

I looked at my blank profile and thought that it actually wasn't so bad that way. It was a lot less cluttered, after all. I could just tell Schuyler and Lisa that I'd done some Friendverse feng shui. I smiled as I read through the chain of our updates. I really, really liked that it wouldn't make sense to anyone but Nate and I.

The update
ping
!ed.

 

Lisse
is feeling tres out of the loop.

Updated 12:29
A.M.

 

Madison
promises to tell her everything at breakfast tomorrow.

Updated 12:30
A.M.

 

Lisse
likes that idea.

Updated 12:30
A.M.

 

Madison
is thinking Stubbs at 11?

Updated 12:31
A.M.

 

Lisse
thinks that sounds fantastique.

Updated 12:32
A.M.

 

Lisse
est tres fatiguee — bonne nuit!

Updated 12:32
A.M.

 

Lisse
has logged off.

 

I was glad that our breakfast had come about in this way; if Schuyler saw our updates, she would know what we were doing, and that she was welcome to come if she wanted to. But I had a feeling it was just going to be me and Lisa. And that sounded okay, surprisingly. I needed someone to talk to about the Ruth situation, and the person I would normally have talked to — Ruth — was not an option, for obvious reasons.

I updated my status one last time.

 

Madison
is a SK.

 

Then, I examined my Top 8. After I'd been hacked, and as people had refriended me, I'd returned it to what it had been before. But it no longer seemed quite right.

I reorganized. Somehow, it felt really weird to still have Justin in my number one spot. And before I could lose my nerve, I pulled Connor and Sarah out and moved Nate up into the Top 8.

Then, smiling, I turned off my computer and went to bed.