Lurker

10

Tuesday afternoon in the cafeteria, while Kyle was somewhere in California adding another city to the long list of those he’d visited, Mandy listened while Drew raved about her new boyfriend. Everything was “Jacob said,” and “Jacob did,” and “Jacob thinks.” Laurel was there too, occasionally making faces at Mandy, often shaking her head in wonder. But, for Drew’s benefit, both kept their smiles stretched wide. Neither of them had seen their friend this happy, ever.

“He’s already talking about the prom,” Drew said, her cheeks blossoming with blush for the twentieth time since lunch period started. “The prom! God, do you know what that means?”

“I think it’s a big dance at the end of the school year,” Laurel said.

“Ha, ha,” said Drew, shaking her head in annoyance.

Mandy was suddenly struck with a very odd and kind of funny image. She pictured herself at the prom, amid glittering decorations and flashing lights, dancing with her computer screen. Lines of text rolled over it while a slow number gave a rhythm for her feet. She paused and introduced the computer to her friends. This is my date, Kyle. Kyle this is…

“Dale,” Laurel whispered.

“What?” Mandy asked, already scoping the cafeteria for him. “Where?”

“At the cola vend.”

Mandy looked across the room over the heads of dozens of kids eating their lunches and found the row of vending machines and Dale sliding a dollar into the one on the far left. Seeing him, even so far away, sent tingles through her body.

“Has he called?” Drew asked.

“No,” Mandy said. “Why would he call?”

“I don’t know. You said he apologized and stuff. I thought he might’ve called.”

Drew was a terrible liar. Fear of getting caught always covered her face like a stain when she tried. She was lying now.

“Drew,” Mandy said, her voice low with warning. “What do you know?”

“I don’t know anything,” Drew replied, looking down at her lunch. She made to grab for a carrot stick, then tried for a cube of white cheese. Finally, she grabbed her diet soda and shrugged. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Did you talk to Dale?” Mandy asked, a tremor of excitement running through her.

“I promised not to say anything,” Drew said into the mouth of her soda.

“Promises to the opposite sex don’t count,” Laurel said. “It’s like making a promise to your dog. Really. That’s the first rule of dating. Now, spill.”

“He called last night,” Drew said, looking sheepishly at Mandy. “He wanted to know if you said anything about Saturday.”

Mandy was suddenly filled with dread, remembering how she’d downloaded everything she felt to Drew that night on the phone. “What did you say?” Mandy asked, now furious with her friend.

“Nothing,” Drew said, cowering behind her soda can.

“Oh? Let’s move on to the torture phase,” Laurel said. In a flash she yanked her cell phone from the pocket of her slacks. “I have a certain Jacob Lurie’s digits. What do you imagine Mandy and I could tell him?”

Wide-eyed, Drew gasped. “You can’t.”

“I see no fundamental difference in each situation,” Laurel replied, rocking the cell phone in her hand casually. “Now, let’s start at the beginning. We’ll decide your punishment later.”

Drew spilled. Her voice trembled and cracked as she told them Dale asked if Mandy said anything about getting back together, and “I totally told him you didn’t.” He’d asked if Mandy still thought he was a jerk, and “I said, you really appreciated his apology and thought it was a cool thing for him to do.” And he asked if Drew thought he should try calling or if that would just piss Mandy off, and “I told him he should call.”

“And?” Mandy asked.

“That’s it,” Drew said. “I swear. He just told me how bad he’s felt since that night and what a screw-up he is and that he didn’t deserve you and stuff.”

“He said that?”

“God, yes. Like fifty billion times.”

“What else?” Laurel asked, jabbing the cell phone at Drew, displaying it like a hand grenade. “Did you mention a certain boy on the Internet?”

“No! God, I’m not stupid.”

“Debatable,” Laurel said.

“Are you sure you didn’t say anything about Kyle?” Mandy needed to know.

“Yes. I swear.”

She was telling the truth. A wave of relief washed over Mandy as she slumped back in her chair. It wasn’t so bad, not nearly as bad as it could have been.

“I’m sorry,” Drew said. “I really am. I just thought you guys made such a great couple and everything, and Jacob and I are so happy, I want you to be happy too.”

“I can be happy without a boyfriend,” Mandy told her.

“Amen,” Laurel said.

“How?” Drew asked.

After school, Mandy waited out front for Laurel. She stood by the school sign, leaning against the concrete post it hung on, wondering what was taking her friend so long. She decided to call and pulled her cell phone from her jacket. She looked at the device with a bit of fear. What if she tried to call Laurel and got a wrong number again? The same wrong number? The memory of crumpling paper static and that rasping voice unnerved her, and she thought about putting the phone away. But she couldn’t let one bizarre accident, probably a crossed signal, rule her life. It was just a coincidence she happened to be in front of the library, alone and in the dark, when the call went through.

CUL8R

She hit Laurel’s number on the speed dial and waited, heart pounding.

“I know,” Laurel said instead of hello. “Still waiting for Mrs. Jacob Lurie to get out of the bathroom. She’s probably slappin’ on a new pad or something.”

“Leave her,” Mandy suggested.

“Would if I could. She’s got my bio book. Don’t ask. Long story. I’ll be right out.”

“Okay.”

A horn beeped behind her, and Mandy turned to see Dale sitting in his Audi. He lifted a hand in a half wave.

“Need a ride?”

Mandy smiled and shook her head. “I’m waiting for Laurel.”

“Cool,” he said. Then he looked into the rearview mirror, checked the road over his shoulder, and unbuckled his seat belt. A minute later, he was jogging over the grass toward her.

“What are you doing?” Mandy asked through a smile of confusion.

“I was gonna call,” he said. “I mean, I want to call. Is it okay if I call you? Like around seven or something?”

He looked so nervous, so cute. Mandy had to laugh. “Yeah. That’d be nice.”

“Cool,” Dale said. Then he repeated, “Cool,” before turning and jogging back to his car.

“What did I just see?” Laurel asked a moment later, walking up to her at the sign.

“Nothing,” Mandy said.

“Didn’t look like nothing to me.”

As seven o’clock approached, Mandy sat in her room. To her surprise, Kyle’s name appeared on her buddy list. You’re supposed to be in California, she thought before realizing he probably was.

Everybody had laptops these days, and he said he was always online. She couldn’t imagine going to someplace new like that and sitting in front of the computer. It was probably warm there. She’d want to walk around and see things. See everything. What a total waste to travel halfway across the country just to sit in a room and look at the same screen you could see at home.

Whatever, she thought.

She turned on her away message and leaned back in the chair, looking at the cell phone sitting on her desk. It was nearly seven, and she needed to be ready for Dale’s call. Things like this demanded preparation.

She decided not to pick up on the first ring. That would be lame. She probably wouldn’t pick up on the second ring either. In fact, she might let it go to voice mail and then call him back. But that was lame, too.

When the phone trilled, she decided to wait for the third ring.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“Good. Just doing some homework.”

“Tell me about it,” Dale said. “I’ve got a bunch of pages to read for Stahlman tomorrow.”

Then, there was a long silence. Mandy’s nerves jangled, and she just couldn’t sit there any longer. So she stood up and started pacing, trying to figure out something to say.

“Laurel still there?” Dale asked.

“No, we just walked home together. She didn’t come over.”

“Oh,” he said. “You’re kind of quiet.”

“Don’t really know what to say.”

“Me either,” Dale admitted. “It’s weird, right?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Mandy said, completing a lap. She noticed someone had instant messaged her, even though her away message was on.

Kyle, she thought. It had to be him.

She stared at the screen, wondering if she should kill the away message. With the awkward silences between her and Dale, she almost wanted to. Maybe Kyle had news about college, or wanted to talk about their date Saturday night. Of course, it might not be him at all. Drew and Laurel IMed all the time. Mandy returned to the chair and reached for the mouse, pausing when Dale finally spoke.

“It’s like all of this stuff is running through my head, but I don’t know what to say first. We always used to have such great conversations, and now, I can’t even get a sentence out, and it’s just too weird. You know what I mean? I’ve got a bunch of stuff in my head, but it’s all stupid, and all I want is for things to be the way they were.”

Mandy bit down on her lower lip. She pulled her hand away from the mouse.

“So do I,” she said.