Boys and Girls, Part I

“Half Hawaiian, half Welsh?” Ryan asked, standing in Jason’s bedroom doorway.

“Yep,” Jason answered, throwing a football in the air and catching it.

“That’s fucking hot.”

Jason smiled. Lani had been very “hot,” but for some reason, he couldn’t get Delaney Cameron out of his mind. She was by no means even close to Lani in the looks department, but she was definitely attractive in her own right. Those blue eyes of hers were one in a million, and that red hair…

“Her friends are pretty cute too,” Jason added.

“Yeah, even the one that said poo-poo.”

Jason shook his head. He was ready to let that one go, but Ryan was still recovering from it.

“So, what’d the redhead give you as a reward?” Ryan asked, arching his eyebrow.

Jason threw the ball up again, but was so taken aback by Ryan’s question that he didn’t bother catching it and just let it plop back down onto his bed. “Now what’s that supposed to mean?”

Ryan shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know man. You did something nice for this chick, and she invites you in…that sounds like a green light to me.”

“Everything’s a green light to you, Ry. You thought the coffee girl at Beakman’s was giving you the green light.”

“She was looking at me for a really long time.”

“Believe it or not, Valentino, but I think it was her subtle way of asking you to move out of her way so she could help the next person in line.”

“Says the guy who got the smaller dollop of whip cream on his latte.”

“Asshole,” Jason grunted, throwing a pillow at Ryan. Ryan caught it, of course, being one of the best college receivers in the nation.

“So did she…

“No!” Jason answered, exasperated with his roommate/best friend of the past three years. “She invited me in and offered me a drink like a proper young lady. I said no thanks and left like a proper gentleman.”

“After you checked out her best friend in the pictures and started asking a bunch of questions about said best friend?”

Jason didn’t have an answer to that. The truth was, he had been a bit ashamed of his extremely obvious inquiries regarding Lani. It was rude, first of all, and secondly, it had probably hurt Delaney’s feelings. That simply was not Jason’s M.O. at all.

“Look,” Jason began, “it doesn’t matter how I feel about this girl because I just don’t have the time to think about it even. I’m going to pitch my plans to Coach on Monday after classes.”

“Jason,” Ryan began, sounding more serious than usual, “I want to win next year just as much as you do, but that’s just it. We’re a year away from that. If you tax yourself out over it right now, you’re going to burn out, man.”

“What doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger, Mackey.” As soon as Jason and Ryan began using the last names, it meant that a topic was no longer open for discussion.

“Suit yourself, Kent,” Ryan answered as he turned around and closed Jason’s door behind him.

****

“Are you serious?” Stephanie asked. “He came here?”

Delaney nodded as Stephanie took a seat on her bed. Jacy was clicking away on the Internet, while Lani was getting ready to sleep. Delaney was already regretting the fact that she had invited the two hellions for a sleepover.

Stephanie bit her lower lip nervously. “He didn’t mention the…the…

“Poo?” Jacy added nonchalantly without averting her eyes from the computer screen.

Stephanie scowled at her. “You’re a weenie.”

Jacy just chuckled at that, irritating Stephanie even more.

“No, he didn’t mention the…poo,” Delaney added.

“So,” Jacy began, as she swiveled around the chair and made a tent out of her fingers, just like a Bond villain, “when did you decide to plant the wallet on the bus so that he could see it?”

“I didn’t plant it!” Delaney protested. “I honestly forgot it. You guys know how scatterbrained I can be!” Delaney regarded Stephanie with a bit of desperation. “Steph, help me out.”

Instead, the traitor Stephanie regarded Delaney with an ounce of comical suspicion. “I’d like to, Delaney, but it seems oh so very convenient.”

“What’s convenient?” Lani asked, walking into Delaney’s room clad in her lemon yellow pajamas.

“The fact that Delaney left her wallet on the bus in Jason Kent’s line of vision so that he was forced to find her and return it to her,” Stephanie explained all innocence.

“That’s not a fact!”

“Ah, so you don’t deny it,” Jacy stated, rather than asked.

“Wait, you were playing the field?” Lani asked Delaney skeptically.

“No,” Delaney answered. “I honestly left my wallet on the bus. I had no idea that he would come to my place to return it. At most, I thought he would turn it in to Student Services lost and found.”

“What a prince,” Stephanie chanted, almost dreamily.

Jacy snorted. “Or a creeper. I would have preferred having him deliver it to Student Services. So, you’re telling me you willingly allowed a complete stranger up into your apartment while you were home alone?”

“He sounded nice over the intercom,” Delaney added pathetically.

“Hey, you know who else sounds nice over intercoms?” Jacy asked. “Serial killers.”

“Jason Kent is not a serial killer,” Delaney responded. “He’s…kinda nice.”

Lani and Jacy exchanged glances while Stephanie was off in another world, still probably picturing Jason Kent on a white stallion.

“What do you mean he’s ‘kinda nice’?” Jacy asked suspiciously.

“He was a perfect gentleman,” Delaney responded.

“As opposed to what?” Lani questioned.

“As to, oh…I don’t know, an obnoxious jock/frat boy,” Delaney answered, annoyed by her friends’ sudden scrutiny. “Why are you guys asking me all these questions?”

“Cause you keep giving us all these intriguing answers,” Jacy responded.

“Well, don’t,” Delaney warned. “It’s nothing. There’s nothing between us. He spent the entire time asking questions about Lani anyway.”

The room grew silent. Even Stephanie snapped out of her reverie. Lani was aware that boys tended to notice her first out of the group, and it always made her feel rotten, even though it wasn’t her fault.

“Sorry,” Delaney apologized. “That was out of line.”

“No problem, “ Lani answered, but the tension still lingered.

“I’m going to go brush my teeth,” Stephanie chimed in, springing up from Delaney’s bed. She promptly left Delaney’s room to escape the awkwardness.

Jacy cleared her throat before getting up from Delaney’s swivel chair. “I…just don’t like awkward moments.” Jacy followed Stephanie out of Delaney’s room and promptly closed the door behind her.

Lani looked sympathetically over at her friend. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Delaney shook her head in an automatic response, but in truth, she wanted to spill her guts. It had happened during Delaney and Lani’s freshman year, but the very thought of it still tugged at Delaney’s heartstrings.

“You know how sorry I still am about that,” Lani spoke. “I’ll never forgive that son-of-a-bitch for what he put you through.”

Delaney remained silent and stared at the ground.

Rick Welling had been in the same creative arts classes as Delaney at the time. She fell in love with his artistry, creativity, and ability to pick out what was truly beautiful, be it in art, writing, or humanity. He had dropped subtle hints about how he wanted Delaney to be his steady, and like a fool, Delaney had fallen for it.

But then, Rick had seen a photograph of Lani and all bets were off. He pretended to be loyal to Delaney while he secretly devised a way to win Lani. Lani had sniffed the rat before Delaney, and when Lani tried to confront her about it, Delaney steadfastly remained true to her man.

Until she had caught Rick trying to get fresh with Lani at a party. Lani, God bless her, had delivered a punch to the face, and Rick was history, thereafter. Unfortunately, the memory of it all still stayed with Delaney, along with the grim truth that she’d always be second best to everything about Lani – looks, intelligence, and natural allure.

“It’s not your fault, Lani. You did everything you could. It was my fault for not having believed you in the first place.”

“Sometimes, Delaney…even if something’s not my fault, it still feels like it’s my fault.”

And with those words, Delaney understood why someone who seemingly had everything going for her could still manage to feel heartache and disappointment. Lani’s best qualities had most likely been her lifelong curses, as well. Lani hadn’t chosen to be beautiful or intelligent or athletically gifted. People just had a tendency to blame others, like Lani, for the things those other people didn’t have any human control over. People like Delaney.

“Lani…it’s okay. It hurts – I won’t lie about that. But I know it still hurts you too. So…let’s just call a truce? We shake on it right now and just let the ugliness die a natural death, okay?”

Lani studied Delaney closely before agreeing to the ultimatum. She grabbed Delaney’s small fingers in a very diplomatic handshake before leaning over to hug her.

“You’re my very best, Delaney,” Lani spoke, on the verge of tears.

“Ditto, friend.”

“Where’s the butter for the popcorn?” Jacy asked as she barged into the room. She noticed both Lani and Delaney dabbing at their eyes. “Bad timing?”

Delaney shook her head, then gave Jacy a questioning look. “Are you actually eating again?”

“I think the portions at the Palace are gradually decreasing.”

“What’d I miss?” Stephanie mumbled, foaming toothpaste from the mouth as she approached Delaney’s open doorway.

“These two babies were bawling their eyes out for some reason,” Jacy answered.

“Awww, you guys are so cute!”

Delaney and Lani rolled their eyes but couldn’t help laughing at the antics of their other two best friends.