Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge (16 page)

Nugget of Truth: Proverbs 4:25-26 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to
the paths for your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

My tennis shoes plopped onto the cement as I jogged down Sunflower Lane.

The sky looked dark and hazy as sunrise wouldn't happen for another half an hour.

The words from my morning Bible reading echoed in my head, but still I felt uneasy. Not even listening to my favorite music through headphones brought me any kind of relief. I just kept thinking: “Give careful thought to the paths for your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” I really hoped so.

I ambled around the neighborhood not even paying attention to where I was going until I realized I was almost to Amy's. My subconscious must have known that I needed to talk to her and not over text. This had to be face-to-face—heart-to-heart time.

Amy's room was at the back of the house on the first floor. I couldn't count the number of times I'd crawled in through her window for a midnight pow-wow. It wasn't the middle of the night right now; although Amy might not quite agree with that.

While tapping at the window, I sucked in a breath. Now that I'd arrived, I had to come up with some rational thought about what to tell her. The curtains pulled back and there was Amy in a pair of green and white plaid PJs with her chin-length hair pointing every which direction. She hoisted the window up and stuck her head out. “Andi? What time is it?” She rubbed a hand through her sandy-colored hair and motioned for me to come in.

“It's about 5:30.”

“In the morning?”

“Yes, of course, in the morning.”

She crawled back into her bed. “Don't yell at me. I'm still asleep.”

“I'm not yelling.” I sat on the edge of her bed. “You have to be up in thirty more minutes, anyway.”

“Yeah, but I would have enjoyed those uninterrupted thirty minutes.” She covered her head with her powder blue comforter.

“I know, but I had to talk to you.” I pulled the blankets back. “It's important.”

Amy sat up and wiped her eyes before putting on her glasses. “OK, I'm conscious now. What's the problem? I thought we had the Luke situation settled.”

I rose from the bed and started pacing the length of her room. “Amy, Luke isn't a situation. He's…he's….” I stopped at the foot of her bed and stared right into her dark eyes. “I made a mistake.”

She massaged her forehead, forcing up her bangs. “Are you serious? This is the reason I'm going to be groggy in Trig this morning? I don't get how you are this insecure, Andrea. You don't even come from a divorced home.”

“Don't start psychoanalyzing me. I just can't go through with it.”

“You're just whacked, ya know. A real head case. What am I going to do with you? Medication—it's the only way.”

“Amy, please, what am I going to do?”

She got out of bed and came up next to me. “One of the best looking guys in school is totally into you.
This is a good thing!”
She grabbed onto my upper arms and shook me.

Yeah, she was right, wasn't she? This was a good thing, I think. And Luke was so much more than good-looking. Why was I resisting this so much, then?

I dropped down onto the end of her bed. “You remember when you said I'm afraid for anything good to happen to me?”

“Yes.” She sat next to me and crossed her arms.

“Well, do you really think that's true?”

Her eyes opened wider with a “duh” expression. “Absolutely.”

“I am a basket case.”

“Yep, that's why we love you.” She slung her arm around my shoulders and made a more sympathetic face as she smiled. “Why don't you just try it today and test out how everything goes. See how Luke acts around you at school. It's not like you're going out or anything. You guys just went for coffee.”

She just didn't get it.

“Amy,” I angled my body towards her on the bed. “More happened last night than an innocent cup of coffee.”

Her mouth dropped open and her eyes pulled wider as they swirled with surprise.

“AMY!”
As if!

“So, what happened?”

“I agreed to go to homecoming with him…”

“Finally. That's awesome!” Evidently, she'd forgotten it was not even six AM and her mother slept nearby. She took both my hands and started shaking them up and down excitedly. “Oh, my gosh, that's off-the-hook exciting.”

“Amy…”

“I mean it, from the first time I saw you two talking together in the caf back in September.”

“Amy,” I said a little louder. She'd obviously taken off into her own little world.

“Yes?” She looked at me this time.

“This is what brings me to my little dilemma.”

“That's the difference between you and me, Andrea. I don't see this as a dilemma, but an opportunity. I know you're worried about what will happen. You are so not a ‘live in the moment' kind of person like me.”

She was right there. For being so smart and well-read, Amy never gave much thought to consequences. When an idea struck her, she'd just go for it.

“Just take a deep breath, Andi. Baby steps.”

“Baby steps?”

“Yeah, I know this is hard for you, especially with your past history and your parents.”

“No kidding.”

“But you can convince them when the time is right. Until then, just take it one step at a time. See how Luke behaves today and take it slow. Just be cool.”

Easy for her to say. She didn't have to face a towering, gorgeous guy at school with the whole student body looking on, or my parents, both of whom would, in no uncertain terms, veto the entire idea.

Luke is great and everything—decent grades, polite, sports star. He'd probably pass inspection, but the timing just blew.

“Don't worry, Am, I'm cool. I'm a darn popsicle.”

“So, tell me about coffee last night.”

“Amy…”

“And what about after coffee? He drove you home, right? Did he walk you to the door? Did he try to kiss you?”

“Amy!”

Face it, my friend was completely incorrigible. There was no stopping her, but I so wasn't about to tell her anything at this point. Those moments last night were still mine to ponder and relish. Then I would decide the best course of action.

 

~*~

 

I took determined strides while walking to the bus stop and repeating over and over:
Baby steps, baby steps
...it was like my new chant. Of course, I'd never really had a chant before so I guess that made it my first chant. Just then, my phone began to buzz. With each vibration coming from the device, my heart beat that much harder. It was probably just Amy. The bus pulled up to the corner, and I didn't have time to look at who had actually sent the message.

Once in my seat, I pulled out my phone and took a peek at the read-out, but in my heart of hearts, I hoped it would be Luke. My heart did a double beat when I realized who had texted.

Good morning

I swallowed hard as I thought of a reply to Luke's text. Then I started typing a reply.
Morning 2 U.

How's it going?

Fine, considering I'm on the bus.

Bummer.

Where R U?

Disneyland ;p

Ha!

At home about to leave. Guess I'll c u in school.

Yeah, C ya

Bye, Andrea

Did he enjoy saying (or typing for that matter) my name as much I enjoyed seeing and hearing it? Well, when it came from him.

Baby steps
. Every time I started to panic, I had to remind myself,
baby steps.
Of course, I wasn't sure how much good
baby steps
would do me when I asked my parents about homecoming. They would so tread all over that dream. Shoot, how would my new philosophy make seeing Luke face to face any easier? I mean, would it make me more articulate than—
Hhhiii?

I seriously needed my head examined. This was so stupid. I liked Luke. He liked me.
I guess
. He sure seemed that way last night.
Uhh!
Why was I being so insecure about this? If a guy had given as much attention to Angie or Amy, I would tell them they were being stupid if they didn't realize he was interested. Why can't I take my own advice? I guess because this is the first time this has really happened to me. I'm not used to guys noticing me. I'm definitely not used to a guy like Luke asking me out as many times as he had. My brain just couldn't compute it.

Yes, this was a good thing.

I sucked in a deep breath and released it as the bus stopped on the corner from school. Somehow that didn't help as prickles shot down my back and my heart beat so fast I thought I was finally going into cardiac arrest.

As if by some miracle, I made it to my locker without disaster striking even once. I glanced down the hallway toward Luke's locker. Empty. I was almost glad.
Almost
. A larger part of me, though, felt disappointed not to see him before homeroom.
Whatever
. It was probably for the best.

After shutting my locker, I swiveled and there, aiming right for me, was Luke. My knobby knees started shaking, and I almost dropped the items in my hands. I folded my fingers tightly around my books to avoid another embarrassing situation and tried to smile. I mean, I was happy to see him.

“Hi.” He smiled when he stopped in front of me with his hands stuck into the pockets of his black jeans.

“Hey, how are you?”

“Great.”

Great was an understatement. He had that early just-out-of-the-shower look with his hair just slightly damp and slicked back in place. And yeah he smelled terrific—distractingly so. I didn't know what it was exactly—some kind of combination of soap and Luke's individual scent. Who knows, but it sure smelled good.

He reached in towards me, took my books from my arms, and then pulled out a single daisy from somewhere on his person and handed it to me.
Right in front of everyone.
He smiled and said, “Straight from my mother's garden.”

I hardly heard what he said. Between the experience of this encounter combined with last night and with the knowledge that anyone walking down the north hallway of Aubrey Academy at 7:39 in the AM could see us together, I was a wreck with burning hot cheeks. I'd just started getting used to the idea or the possible idea of “us” and now he had to share the news with the entire school. What was he thinking?

I knew I should just relax, repeat my chant (
baby steps
) and let him walk me to class. But how was this a baby step? I mean, really, how?

I noticed Julie Chung, Stephanie's cohort, stopped a couple feet from us. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes shone as though she had a juicy bit of gossip. Obviously, she'd seen everything and would no doubt be passing that information all over school before the first bell. She dashed off as soon as she noticed me eying her.

That left me standing in front of Luke, the guy who, unbeknownst to him, had just brought me to the attention of…everyone. Man, I missed my anonymity. I needed to say something to him. He was looking at me and waiting. Yeah, he could see the panic in my eyes.

“I'll see you later.” I snatched my books back from him. “I've got to catch Angie before school starts. Bye.”

“Bye.” I could tell my reaction to his morning greeting confused him. Before I could take off, he touched my shoulder. “Hey, everything's OK, right?”

“Of course.” I shifted my right shoulder up and smiled. “It's just this project Angie and I are working on in Physics.”

He nodded and seemed to look more at ease. “Sure. OK, see you in history class.”

“That you will.”

With that, I took off and accosted Angie at her locker a few feet away. “Come on, we have a Physics project to talk about.”

“Wwh…” was the sound she made as I slammed her locker door for her. I took her arm, and we navigated through the throng of our fellow students.

“All right, Andi. Our project isn't due for two more weeks. What are you doing? I mean, I saw you two together, if you're wondering. So, you and Luke are a couple now, or something, huh? Have you maybe neglected to tell me something?”

“Don't start.”

“Hey, I'm not the one who initiated this, Miss Rosy Cheeks.”

“What are you talking about now?”

She pointed at my cheek. “Really bright.” She grinned. “I applaud Luke for being a guy not afraid to show a little PDA, that is ‘public display of affection' in a tasteful manner.”

I covered my right cheek. “I know what PDA means. And, well, I just wish he'd act a little more inhibited. I may have to shrink to the size of an atom and disappear.”

“Just don't split because that could be catastrophic.”

I glared at her attempted humor. “Very funny. Are we so desperate that we have to fall back on physics humor now?”

“OK, fine, but even if you become the tiniest woman in the world, you'd still actually be here and have to face the music. So spill. You and Luke, what gives?”

“Not now.”

“Hey, you're the one who pulled me into this conversation.”

“Not a conversation. An escape.”

“Oh, gee, thanks. I'm so excited to be your means of avoiding the cute, popular guy.”

“It's not like that. I just didn't know what to say and…uuh! I don't even know anymore. This is all happening so fast, and Amy told me to just take baby steps and I think I'm ready for the funny farm.”

“Yep, welcome. It's great here.”

She so wasn't helping this situation.

 

 

 

 

14

 

Even though it had happened hours ago, I continued taking quick, shallow breaths in the hopes of avoiding hyperventilation due to my interaction with Luke in the middle of the hallway.