She had completely lost me. “You want to go out with Keith?”
“No! This isn’t about Keith.” She looked down at the table. “Well, at least someone in your group wants to spend time with me.”
This wasn’t like Macallan. She wasn’t the kind of person who felt sorry for herself.
“Do you want me to go over there” — I pointed to my table — “and tell them I won’t hang out with them anymore. Is that what you want?”
That familiar cold look started to creep over her face. “You know I don’t want that. And I’m sorry I want to spend some time with you.”
“Well, we’ve got the summer.”
“That feels like it’s ages from now.”
I saw Danielle approaching and got up. “But seriously, if you want to go out with Keith …”
She grimaced.
“Oi!” I called out, knowing how to temper this situation. “Blimey if he don’t fancy him a sweetheart. Before ya know it, he’ll be bringing ’round roses and Bob’s your uncle.”
I waited for her to reply. She sat there stubbornly for a few moments before she responded in a monotone, “But, Buggy, you’re uncle’s name is Sam.”
I quickly turned on my heel. I figured it was best for me to leave her quoting Buggy and Floyd than to get in a fight.
Macallan and I didn’t really fight. It wasn’t our thing.
But this felt like a fight.
I was so busy with track, practicing ball, and studying for finals as our sophomore year came to an end. But I made a note to spend at least an entire day with Macallan as soon as school was over.
Now we had only one more day to go and then we’d be free.
As much as I loved my guys, I had started to miss Macallan. When I was with her, I didn’t have to always be on. Sure, she and I would trade barbs, but she was also the only person I could have a real conversation with. I thought if I got too deep with the guys, they’d think I was turning into a girl.
“Hey, you.” Macallan came up to me after school with Danielle not far behind. “I’ve been texting you all week.”
“Hey!” I started shoving books in my backpack.
“Are you —”
“Rodgers!” Tim boomed. “You’re so going to pay for that stunt in gym.”
“Good luck with that!” I shouted back. I turned back to Macallan. “Sorry. What were you saying?”
She looked flustered. “I was wondering —”
“CATCH!” I heard Keith call out. I turned around and perfectly caught the football he’d thrown.
“Mr. Simon, no throwing in the halls,” a teacher reprimanded him.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Keith played bashful, until the teacher turned her back. “Nice work, California! We’ve got all summer to throw the pigskin around.”
“I hear that.” We high-fived.
I finally realized Macallan was trying to tell me something. I looked around and couldn’t find her. I saw Danielle up the hallway and went after her.
“Yo!” I called out.
She turned around and gave me a death stare.
“Yo? You’ve got to be kidding me.” She kept walking.
“Where’s Macallan?”
“Oh, so you noticed her existence?” she said dryly.
“Come on, I —”
She interrupted me. “No, totally, dude. I get it. You had your bros around. Chillax, yo.”
Wow. A girl was overreacting. Paging Captain Cliché.
“Try her locker,” she said over her shoulder.
I raced to Macallan’s locker. And was relieved to see her, until she turned around and looked like she was about to cry.
I’d only seen Macallan cry about her mom. She handled everything else — the dissolving of her friendship with Emily, her breakup with Ian, academic stress — with this quiet strength.
“Hey, hey!” I ran up to her, but she began walking in the opposite direction. “You’re mad at me?”
She didn’t need to answer when she turned around. The look on her face said enough. But unfortunately, she answered, “What do you think?”
“I’m sorry.” Even though I had no idea what had gotten her so mad. I’d only been fooling around with my friends at my locker. She couldn’t have waited a minute or two before she would have had my undivided attention? Of course she couldn’t. She was used to having me all to herself.
But now I had other friends, other commitments.
It wasn’t my problem if she couldn’t handle that.
She laughed. “You know, I usually believe you when you apologize, but I have a feeling you have no idea what this is about.”
“Actually I do.”
“Oh, really? Would you care to enlighten me?” She was being so smug, it made me even angrier.
“You don’t like that your little errand and whipping boy isn’t at your beck and call.”
She stared blankly at me. I’d got her so good.
“No.” Her voice was so quiet. “It’s that I think I’m losing my best friend. Wait, no, not just a best friend but part of my family. You know more than anybody how much my family means to me, and I let you be part of it. You promised me, Levi — you promised my mom — that you’d always be there for me. Some promise.”
I felt sick to my stomach.
She wiped away a tear and continued. “I understand how important it is for you to have your guy friends, I do. But I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve seen you in the past month. The past month, Levi. And don’t forget, one of those times was so we could go shopping to get a suit for you to take that junior girl to her prom.”