Almost Perfect (3 page)

Jack threatened me with his fork again. “Snap out of it, Logan. Did you ask Tanya out yet?”

Tim shook his head at Jack with a look of fatherly disappointment. Tim, so far as I knew, had never had a date. Jack would occasionally land a girl with his Adam Sandler
I’m so crazy I’m cute
routine, but it never lasted. Since Brenda and I had started dating, the boys kind of looked up to me. And if they both assumed that Brenda and I had gone a lot further than we had, I wasn’t about to correct them.

“C’mon, man,” Jack began again. “Show the girls around here what runners are made of.” With his spoon and two fingers, Jack graphically demonstrated just how I should show them.

Tim sighed, belched, and sighed again. “I think what Jack is trying to say is that you’re a really nice guy, and if Brenda couldn’t see that, then to hell with her. But you do need to get on with your life.”

Jack crinkled his brow. “That’s not what I was trying to say.”

I gathered my trash. “Thank you both. And screw you both. I’m fine.”

I dropped off my tray just as the bell rang. Across the cafeteria, Brenda was carefully gathering her things. My idiot friends thought I was still hung up on her, only they weren’t idiots because they were right.

Maybe I should just ask someone out. Find a girl, and if things didn’t work out, at least I’d tried. What was the worst that could happen?

I would find that out very shortly.

W
HEN I GOT UP
for school the next day, I found my mother in our tiny closet of a kitchen cooking bacon and eggs. Though she probably hadn’t gotten off work until one the night before, she was up before seven fixing breakfast.

“Mom, you don’t have to do this every morning. I can eat at school.” I knew I qualified for the free meals program.

Mom slid two fried eggs onto my plate. She looked tired. Lately, I’d noticed the wrinkles around her eyes and the gray starting to streak her hair. Fourteen years of being a single parent were taking their toll. She got too little sleep. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone out with her friends.

“Sit down with me and eat,” she said, patting the cheap table my grandfather had given us. “I don’t get to see you that often anymore.”

Obediently, I joined her. It was always kind of awkward, these meals alone with my mother. More and more I felt like we didn’t have anything to talk about. Things had been easier when Laura was around. She had enough personality for all three of us.

“So you haven’t filled out your application for college yet,” she said, pointing to the form still magneted to the fridge. “It’s due by January.”

I didn’t meet her eyes. “I have plenty of time.”

“I don’t see why you’re putting it off; it’ll only take half an hour. I could help you, or you could ask your counselor.”

“I’ll get to it,” I snapped. I was sick of talking about this. For years, college and Brenda had gone together. Now that she was gone, I wasn’t sure that was the route I wanted to take. What would I do there? Get drunk and party? I could do that in Boyer. And what would I study? I could get a business degree and end up managing a tire place or a motel somewhere. Or get my teaching certificate and wind up coaching and teaching social studies. Neither prospect thrilled me.

“I stopped by the library and picked up some information about student loans,” continued Mom. “I have Wednesday off. Maybe we could sit down and …”

I threw down my fork. “Mom! Drop it, okay? What’s the big deal if I don’t go to college? I mean, maybe I could just work for a year, save up some money, and then go.”

For a second, I thought Mom was going to cry. The apologies clogged my throat in an effort to get out.

“Aw, Mom, I didn’t mean that. It’s just …”

Mom quickly regained her composure. “Logan, listen to me. I can’t afford to send you to school. There’s been a lot I haven’t been able to give you and Laura …”

“Mom!” She’d worked her whole life just to support us. The last thing I wanted was to make her feel like that wasn’t enough.

“Let me finish. Logan, it’d be so easy for you just to stay here. You could keep mowing grass. You could probably have your own landscaping business in ten years. And I wouldn’t have to miss you like I do Laura. But, honey, that’s the same thing I thought twenty years ago. I figured it was okay just to get married right out of high school. I thought I’d still be able to do all those things I wanted to. And now … my kids are leaving home, and I realize I’m exactly where I was at eighteen. And I don’t want that to happen to you. I don’t want you to look back and see a lot of missed opportunities.”

I touched Mom’s hand. “I know you’re right. I promise I’ll fill out those forms this week.”

She smiled at me. “Thanks, Logan.”

I grabbed my bag and stood to leave. There was something else I had to say.

“And Mom? I, um … I …”

“I love you too, honey.”

That morning, I didn’t sit around waiting for Brenda. Maybe I was trying to get over her, or maybe I just didn’t want Tim to catch me stalking again. As I walked toward bio, I found myself thinking about Sage.

I couldn’t remember ever meeting a chick that strange.
Even after an hour of class, I knew that weird girl wasn’t like anyone in Boyer. Too colorful, too outspoken, too wild.

Brenda never would have dressed in crazy clothes like that. She always dressed in long skirts and plain sweaters. And she wouldn’t have joked around with people she’d just met, either. Brenda was so reserved that she still had a hard time talking to my friends.

Sage, on the other hand, seemed to warm up to anyone nearby. By the time I got to class, she was already sitting at the lab table laughing with Tim. Annoyed, I plopped down next to her.

“And that’s when they told Jack he was no longer welcome at Chuck E. Cheese’s,” finished Tim.

Sage’s laughter boomed across the lab. Then she turned to me.

“You’ve got something on your shirt, Logan.”

I looked down and she bopped me on the nose. Kind of hard.

As I pretended to blow my nose to make sure it wasn’t bleeding, I looked at Sage. She had forced her spirals of hair into two pigtails. She wore ragged jeans and a short-sleeved sweater. Her arms were almost solidly freckled.

Brenda wouldn’t be caught dead in an outfit like that. And she wouldn’t have bopped a strange guy in the nose. And she always seemed annoyed around Tim and Jack. I used to think her stuffiness was kind of sweet. Now it just seemed irritating.

The bell rang before I could be charming. Luckily, Tim volunteered to go get the frog, so I had a couple of seconds.

“So, Sage, where are you from?” I asked. It totally
sounded like a pickup line. I might as well have been wearing an open-collared disco shirt.

“Near Joplin. Hey, I forgot my pencil. Give me yours.”

I handed her my only pencil. “Joplin’s, like, three hours away. Why did you move here?”

Sage ignored the question. “Tim was telling me about you.”

I smiled as my brain went into full panic. Tim had known me long enough that he had some real dirt on me.

“What did he say?” I asked with the nonchalance of an FBI interrogator.

Sage was picking through the various plastic bags of candy on Tim’s side of the table. “He said you run track. I believe it; you’re in great shape.”

Sage turned back to me and unashamedly scoped me from top to bottom. I felt like I should be hanging in a butcher’s window, the way she was checking me out. It was a great feeling. I tried to flex without making it too obvious.

Apparently, she wasn’t content with just looking. “Here, make a muscle.”

I obediently showed her my bicep, the result of years of shoving around a lawn mower. Sage clutched my forearm, squeezing me with her painted nails. Her hands were soft.

“Wow!” she said, not letting go. “I’m surprised you don’t play football.”

When a girl you hardly know starts touching you, it’s hard to think about anything else. It didn’t seem to be the right moment to explain that I’d tried out for the team but never made it. I didn’t have the bulk or the coordination.

Luckily, Tim showed up at that moment with the dead
frog, causing Sage to release me. As Tim feng shuied the frog, the dissection tools, and his food, I tried to get my brain back on track. Brenda was the last girl who had ever touched me for that long (except my sister, but she had had me in a headlock). I’d forgotten how nice it could feel.

“So, do you play any sports?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Nope,” she said with a shrug.

I tried to be complimentary. “Maybe you should. I think you’d be good at bas …”

Sage’s smile collapsed into a scowl. Tim, who’d been flipping frog organs around like a master Japanese chef, grimaced.

Nice, Logan. Tell the really tall girl she should play basketball
.

I tried to recover. “… baaass fishing?”

Sage frowned, then suddenly burst out laughing. She shoved me in the chest with her open palm but didn’t remove her hand from my chest.

“Sage, Logan, get to work, please,” came the warning voice of Mr. Elmer.

Sage sat up in her chair and began pointedly reading the lab instructions. After a few seconds, her eyes crept over the top of the paper. I’d never had anyone smile at me like that before. And I couldn’t even see her mouth.

Five minutes before the bell, I stowed the frog in the lab fridge. Tim was packing up his hourly buffet when I returned to the table. Sage was at the front of the room. Despite never touching the frog, she was intently scrubbing her hands.

Tim looked at me, then subtly gestured at Sage like she
was an unruly dog I should be controlling. I allowed myself a grin.

“I thought she was obvious enough that even you might notice,” said Tim, placing a licorice stick in his shirt pocket like a pen.

I looked at our lab partner, who caught my gaze and winked at me. That new tall, crazy, and, yes,
cute
girl had been flirting with me.

“You going to ask her out?” prodded Tim.

“I dunno.”

The bell rang. Tim leaned over to me. “I didn’t say go buy a house with her. Take her to the movies or for pizza or something.” He was gone, leaving a trail of Fritos in his wake.

As usual, he was right. I was out of excuses. One date. It would be fun. I looked around for Sage, but she’d already left. I’d have to catch her after school.

Since his first day as a freshman, Jack had been trying to get a free soda from the lobby Coke machine. Three years, five detentions, and a broken finger later, he still hadn’t managed to get a free can.

“C’mon, you son of a bitch,” said Jack, rattling the machine. “Give it up. You know you want to.”

I sat lacing my running shoes for my solitary training. Most Boyer students were gone for the day, but I hoped Sage would pass by. I didn’t think she rode the bus.

“Hey, Jack, tomorrow Tim’s gonna drive us out to Columbia to see a movie. You coming?”

Jack smashed his fist into the machine’s solar plexus. “What’s playing?”

“Dunno.”

“Sure. I’ll see if my brother wants to come.”

“Uh, hold off on that.” Tim’s car would only seat four (actually, we had proven it could hold twelve, but that was another story), and I had just spotted our fourth passenger.

She was standing in front of the girls’ restroom. I guessed she was waiting for someone, because she made no move to go in.

“Hey, Sage!”

She turned and smiled. Her braces winked at me as she crossed the room.

“Hi, Logan.” She hadn’t stopped smiling. Apparently, Sage had psychic brain-draining powers, because all I could see was her mouth. I had forgotten what I was going to say.

Jack had temporarily stopped abusing the vending machine. I suddenly came back to reality and introduced him.

“This is Jack.”

He stared at Sage like she was a captive yeti.

“Christ, you’re tall. Can I borrow a buck?”

Sage laughed nervously and handed him a dollar. My only consolation was that I’d look better by comparison.

“So, Sage.” I gathered up my courage. For the first time since Brenda, I was going to ask someone out. I almost stopped myself. It was only the memory of Sage’s hand on my arm that made me rush into no-man’s-land.

I took the plunge. “Tim and Jack and I are going out to
the movies in Columbia tomorrow. You want to come with?”

Sage’s eyes widened. So did her smile. Her mouth expanded and the lines around her eyes deepened. She had a look of bliss on her face, like I was on one knee, holding a diamond ring.

“Sorry, Logan, I can’t.” The grin didn’t leave her face. I waited for her to follow up with
I’m busy tomorrow
, but she didn’t.

Jack, who liked to slow down and watch the aftermath of highway accidents, returned to his vandalism. This was too gory even for him.

I tried to blow off the rejection. “It’s cool. I just thought since you’re new in town …”

Sage shook her head, then hitched up her purse. “Let me walk you to the track.”

She trotted to the exit, not looking back to see if I was coming. I considered ignoring her. Why hadn’t I asked out Tanya? This strange new girl probably just liked teasing guys, then turning them down. But I followed her anyway.

Sage didn’t say anything until we were well out of the building, almost to the football field. Then she stopped, took my arm, and didn’t let go.

“Logan, I really would like to go to the movies with you,” she said sincerely.

“It’s okay,” I replied, enjoying the feel of her hand on my arm. At least I apparently wasn’t going to get the
I like you as a friend
speech. I was prepared to let things drop, but Sage must have thought she owed me an explanation.

“It’s my parents, Logan. They won’t let me date.”

I tried to look her in the eyes, but she released my arm and looked at the ground.

“Won’t let you date? But aren’t you, like, seventeen?”

“Eighteen. House rules. I don’t date until I’m out of school.”

I tried to grapple with the idea. I knew girls who weren’t allowed to be alone with boys, kids who couldn’t date anyone exclusively, even classmates who had to have a chaperone when they went out. But to tell a high school senior that she couldn’t go to the movies with some friends?