I perked up. Which got me the ‘death stare.’
“Think again. You’re
“Hotness, give Big Daddy a kiss,” I leered.
“We’re here,” Paul announced.
He was a little too chipper for my taste. He needed to be shipped off to the ‘land of make-believe.’
“I’m about to get busy here. Drive around the block or something,” I ordered.
“That’s about all the time it would take,” my soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend chirped, and then jumped out of the car.
It was lucky for her that I was injured, or I would have caught her and turned her over my knee. It was also good that I loved her. She was right, I had it backward. She was the catch in this relationship. To Paul’s credit, he didn’t laugh out loud. I had a bad feeling that he planned to share her comment with everyone.
Paul came around to help me out of the car. I twisted wrong and about blacked out from the pain.
“Frick,” I hissed.
“You sure you don’t want your wheelchair?” Paul asked.
“No. I can do this,” I said, more for my benefit than his.
Dare darted over and seemed disappointed when he saw the crutches. Paul showed him how to steady me if it looked like I might fall by grasping my belt. If I were to really go down, Dare would never be able to stop me. I probably outweighed him by a hundred pounds.
When Paul was sure I wasn’t about to collapse, he left us at the curb.
“What are your plans for your date tonight?” I asked.
God love him. The little knucklehead had only gotten as far as asking Brook out. She would roast his nuts if she had a bad time. I decided to help him out as we made our way to the school.
“This date is important because all the girls at Lincoln will be watching,” I told him, sharing the wisdom my older brother had given me.
Not that I thought Dare would ever get up the guts to ask someone else, but I wanted to make sure he didn’t get ridiculed for a lousy date.
“Dawson’s laying down dating advice,” Yuri announced.
I hadn’t realized he was behind us. I turned and glared at Yuri, but he just ignored it as several guys suddenly gathered around, mainly younger boys. Instead of telling Yuri what I really thought about his pronouncement, I sucked it up and decided to be helpful to the male population of Lincoln High.
“Dare has his first date tonight,” I said, and then turned to Dare. “It is your first date, right?”
He nodded, ‘yes.’
“With
That got some chuckles.
“You want to hear this or not?” I threatened.
“I just wanted everyone on the same page. You’re giving dating advice to the guy that stole your girlfriend,” Yuri said to be helpful.
I got out my cell phone and called Jan. She was standing about ten feet away.
“Either come get your boyfriend before I have Cassidy kick his butt, or break up with him and start dating me,” I announced.
Yuri wasn’t impressed when she had to think about it.
“Dick.”
“Whipped,” I shot back as she dragged him away.
Dare tugged at my arm and showed me his phone. He wanted to remind me that the bell would ring soon.
“Anyway, you need to have a plan for your date,” I began.
I then explained how girls talked and how you had to make sure the girl had a good time even if you didn’t. Otherwise, you would never get another date. There were several questions. I made it a point to explain that there would be no grabbing of body parts or forcing your tongue into anyone’s mouth. Kids these days!
◊◊◊
I blocked Dare from texting me. If I hadn’t, we would get in trouble for using our phones in class. The plan was to get him to use his voice. Instead, he would type what he wanted to say and show me his phone. That was almost worse because teachers enjoyed grabbing people’s phones and reading aloud to the class what they had typed.
Ms. Lowden, our precalculus teacher and cheerleading coach, caught Dare in the act. I saw her coming and immediately got my phone out and typed a quick note. She grabbed mine first.
“Ms. Lowden is looking fine today,” she read and then looked at me. “Why, thank you, David. Now you two stop passing notes.”
“Brownnose,” someone whispered.
I flipped the class off when Ms. Lowden had her back turned to us. Dare realized I’d saved his butt and was mortified to think that Ms. Lowden would read his note to the class. I doubt he’d ever gotten in trouble before. The episode traumatized Dare enough that he wouldn’t even glance my way. Right before lunch, I dragged him into an empty classroom so we could talk.
“I take it you need some help?” I asked.
He just nodded.
“Do you have money to take her to dinner?” I asked.
Dare started to get his phone out, but I stopped him.
“Dude. I know this is hard for you, but you need to talk to me.”
“My mom is giving me money. She’s a little overexcited that I have a date.”
“Does she plan to drive you?” I asked.
He glanced up at me, and I could see that she did. I knew that Brook wouldn’t like that. An overexcited mom who had a son like Dare could be embarrassing. I could see her walking them into the dance. Nope. Brook would bail on Dare in a heartbeat if that happened.
