Glimpse - A Novel Part 3

"I can't wait!" Claire said, "I'll see you at ten."

Claire climbed into the back of our decrepit blue minivan in as ladylike a manner as she could while wearing a denim miniskirt. I could hardly keep a straight face watching her. Grace was her middle name as well. Okay, Graciella, but still. "I think it might be time to invest in some skorts my friend."

She snorted. "Oh, I think you've got that market covered Corduroy. Hey, Pastor Paul."

"Good morning. I trust your parents know that we're going to Bend today?" he said into the rearview mirror.

Claire slammed the van door shut. "Yup. I left them a note."

Dad popped a Rolling Stones ca.s.sette into the ancient tape player as we made our way out of town. It was either that or Gospel Elvis and the drive to Bend was desolate and ranch laden. Some tunage was a must.

The minivan creaked and moaned as we drove into the parking lot of Party Depot, and then shuddered when Dad turned off the ignition.

"Are you sure this thing is still going to be drivable by the time I get my license?" I asked. We all got out.

Dad shut his door, not even bothering to lock it. "I'm just hoping it lasts you through Driver's Ed this summer. I don't think it'll be making too many more out of town trips." He kicked the front tire. "So, I thought we'd get the decorations here and then head over to the mall and look at some dresses. Sound good?"

I gave him a knowing smile, thankful he hadn't forgotten about a new dress. "Sounds good."

After we left the Party Depot with two big bags crammed full of decorations in my fave colors, pink and green, we stopped at the food court in the mall for pizza. When we were finished consuming eleventy billion calories, Dad handed me three twenties.

"Sorry it can't be more, honey."

I gave him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. "It's plenty. Thank you." It totally was. I figured he'd been putting stuff on the emergency credit card to even be able to give me sixty bucks. Sale dresses here I come!

"You girl's have fun dress shopping. I'll be in Kitchen Kaboodle perusing the latest Barefoot Contessa."

"Thanks again, Dad."

He gave me a wink and went on his way.

"Alone at long last!" Claire said, linking her arm with mine and dragging me into Macy's. "I want to know every second of everything that happened with Avery."

I blushed spastically and made a beeline for the sales rack in the Juniors Department. "He...I can't believe he actually did this, but like I was saying yesterday, my hair was blowing all around and he reached up and tucked it behind my ear and then I had no idea what to do next, but he just stayed put." I pulled a lavender shift from the rack, holding it up for Claire's opinion. She crinkled her nose. I threw the dress over my arm anyway and flipped through the rack some more. "I think we talked about the English practice test...I vaguely remember saying how much it sucked like eighty-two times. What about this green one?" Claire nodded her head yes. I eyed the rack. A lot of the dresses were too fancy; probably for prom. "I think these two are good, come with me while I try them on."

We walked into the dressing room. Claire sat on a chair in the corner and held the dresses. "So..."

I yanked my shirt off over my head. "Then, I have no idea why I did this, I sort of turned toward him like this," I turned, "and my hair was blowing right in his face, practically up his nose! It was totally embarra.s.sing. But then I tried to pull my hair back again and he grabbed my wrist and told me not to!"

"What? Why?" Claire took the lavender dress off the hanger and handed it to me.

"This is my favorite part!" I stepped into the dress and turned so Claire could zip it up. "He said that it wasn't bothering him and that he thought my hair was nice!"

Claire zipped the dress up. "Oh, my G.o.d!"

"I know, right? What do you think it means?" I looked at myself in the mirror, also crinkling my nose at this dress. Yuck-o-rama, I looked deadish. I turned back around and Claire unzipped it.

A quiet chuckle escaped from the next dressing room.

My eyes met with Claire's and we burst out in laughter. Sometimes we got way out of hand with our "oh my G.o.d's" and "totally's". We did actually have brains in our heads.

The door to the other dressing room opened. We stuck our heads out of the room and saw a well dressed older lady with grey streaked auburn hair and an enormous brown leather pocketbook.

"Sorry we were being so obnoxious!" Claire called, "I guess you couldn't help but hear us."

The lady looked back. "You two remind me of my daughter and her best friend when they were teenagers." She smiled at us and then walked out into the store.

We ducked back into the dressing room. I held the lavender dress out to Claire and took the green one from the hanger, sliding it on. It flowed over my body, grazing all the right areas, brightening up the color of my eyes.

Claire grinned. "That's the one Zel. How much is it?"

I pulled the tag out from under my armpit. I hadn't even bothered to look earlier. "$59.99, it was meant to be."

Chapter Four.

In youth group on Sunday, I hoped that Avery would talk to me again, but all he offered up was a kind "h.e.l.lo." Had I been reading too much into our conversation on Friday? Claire, too? As we had proven at the mall, we were p.r.o.ne to being spazmatic and teenagery when it came to him. Maybe Avery was just being nice. That was probably it. I was such a dork, standing there letting my generic shampoo smelling hair blow up his nose. What's that smell? Oh, eau de pathetic Jesus home-school girl? Check ya later. Ugh.

The school week dragged on, more of the same, practice tests and peanut b.u.t.ter sandwiches. By Sat.u.r.day, my birthday, I was ready to bust out of my skin. Avery or no Avery, I was finally sixteen. Thank freakin' G.o.d.

"I'm not really sure if I want to put the streamers up, Dad. What do you think? Does it seem too, uh, juvenile?" I stood in the middle of the church bas.e.m.e.nt, surveying the pink and green streamers that Dad had spent the better part of an hour twisting and affixing around the room, dragging his ladder from corner to corner.

"Honey, streamers are not juvenile. I had them at my fortieth birthday party in this very room, don't you remember?" Dad ripped a strip of tape from the dispenser he had tucked under his arm and secured the last length of streamer above the door to his office.

"The ones you had at your birthday were black, Dad. It was a joke. Don't you you remember remember old old man?" I smiled and ran to him, hugging his legs. The streamers looked beautiful, whether they were juvenile or not. man?" I smiled and ran to him, hugging his legs. The streamers looked beautiful, whether they were juvenile or not.

Dad put his hand on my head and ruffled up my hair.

"Hey!" I pulled away from him, smoothing my hair back down. I had already washed it for the day and wasn't going to have an hour to wash and blow-dry it again.

"Just wait 'til your mom and I are outta here before you and your friends decide to rip them down, okay?" He climbed from the ladder, folded it up and stowed it in his office. He stooped under the doorway. "All right kiddo," he said, ducking back out of his office. "Let's get you home so you can get gussied up."

Claire and Melody were already dressed for the party and waiting for me in the family room.

I came rushing through the front door and went directly into Claire's open arms.

"Oh, my G.o.d!!!" We screamed, as if we had not seen each other twenty-four hours before or hadn't talked on the phone six times already that day.

Dad walked through the front door carrying an armload of extra party decorations. "Girls, taking the Lord's name in vain...do I need to remind you?"

"Sorry, Dad."

"Sorry, Pastor Paul." We both lowered our eyes, becoming very interested in our feet. OMG was a hard habit to break, I was usually better at switching my real vernacular and my parental vernacular on or off depending on who I was with.

Dad smiled, dumping the bags on the faded green couch next to Melody, who was sitting perfectly still as to not wrinkle her dress. "I know you're excited, let's just keep the commandment breaking to a minimum this evening."

"Okay, Dad. C'mon!" I grabbed Claire by the hand and dragged her down the hall to my room.

She pushed a pile of stuffed animals from Melody's bed and plopped on it. Her red mini skirt rode up, only just covering her thighs. "So, what did you decide to do with your hair?"

"I'm going to put it up," I said, while simultaneously pulling my t-shirt off with one hand, unb.u.t.toning my shorts with the other and kicking my flip flops into the closet. I had to be quick with the undress. It was gonna take some time to get me to the hotness level I desired.

"Cool. You are going to look so cool." Claire rolled to her side and propped her head up with her hand. "I brought a bunch of hair products and eye shadow and stuff. Avery isn't going to know what hit him."

"Let's hope not." I shimmied the pale green slip dress over my head.

After arriving at the church with my family and Claire, I started getting a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was about to have the lamest sixteen-year-old birthday party ever. Once inside, as all of the guests and their parents began to arrive, my feelings were confirmed.

A few girls from youth group, along with Claire and Melody, huddled around me in one corner of the church bas.e.m.e.nt. Everyone else stood next to their parents, who were all busy kissing up to my dad. One of the five people I'd invited that didn't go to church with me showed up. I was not feeling the love.

Avery hovered behind his dad, his hands shoved into the pockets of his gray slacks, twisting his neck from side to side trying to loosen his tie. Mr. Adams was wearing his Sunday suit and whispering something into my mom's ear. She laughed loud enough for the whole room to hear and put her hand on his shoulder.

Mortified was the exact word that I would use to describe my exact feeling at that exact moment. "I am seriously going to die. What is this, a pancake breakfast or a birthday party? Everyone's parents made them wear church clothes!" I looked at Claire, hoping that perhaps I was overreacting.

She winced. "Okay, girl, we've just got to get through the cake and then all the parental units will leave and the real party can begin. We've got a stereo, I made you an awesome compilation...and you look hot. Avery will be slow dancing with his hands on your b.u.t.t in no time. Trust me."

I grinned. Claire must know something she wasn't telling me. I could feel my self confidence returning. Looking past her, I peeked at Avery, who happened to be staring right at me and grinning too. "Melody, tell Mom to bring the cake out now."

"Happy Birthday, honey! We'll be back around eleven to pick you girls up. Have fun and behave." Mom leaned down and gave both me and Mel a kiss on the cheek. "Call us on the phone in your dad's office if anything happens and you need us, okay?"

"Everything will be fine Mom, get out of here!" I waved goodbye to my well-intentioned parents from my seat at a long wooden table.

With that, all of the adult energy was sucked out of the room. Cell phones were flipped open, ties hung on the backs of folding chairs, and twin sets lost their cardigan components. The room full of teenagers relaxed and gave a concerted sigh of relief.

Claire went to the stereo and put on the compilation, a fast song began playing. "The fun portion of the party will begin now," she announced. Walking over to Jason, she took his cell phone from his hands, flipped it shut and slipped it deep into his pants pockets. "Care for a dance, sailor?"

I laughed, but remained glued to my metal folding chair. Claire's capacity for saving me through her own personal embarra.s.sment was limitless, thank G.o.d.

People began pairing off to dance in the middle of the concrete bas.e.m.e.nt floor. That left me and Melody sitting at one end of the table and Avery and Ricky Sykes at the other. The dancing couples were oblivious to us four awkward people inspecting our cuticles at the table.

I poked Melody in the arm. She totally owed me for being allowed at my party. I could have banned her with enough whining to Dad. "Mel, go ask Ricky to dance."

Melody continued picking the nail polish from her fingers. She gave a sideways glance at the short and zitty Ricky Sykes. "Ick. He's like three years older than me and four inches shorter. Why would I want to dance with him?"

I got to my feet. She was never going to change, what did I expect? "Fine, be that way. I'm going to dance." Out of the corner of my eye I could see that when I stood up, Avery had too. c.r.a.p! I needed to ask him to dance before he could flee, which is what I was now sure he wanted to do. Instead, he walked over to me.

I turned toward him, trying not to pa.s.s out or throw up.

"Hey, Zellie, uh, happy birthday." He ran his fingers through his hair. I could never get tired of watching him do that.

His deep brown eyes looked into mine. Pa.s.sing out was becoming more and more of a realistic possibility by the minute.

"Thanks, Avery," I managed to say, balancing myself with one hand on the edge of the table.

He mimed his hands on a steering wheel, motioning like he was driving a car. "Sixteen. Cool." His face went red and he stuck his hands into his pockets.

I put my hands on the invisible steering wheel too. "Yeah! Driving. I'm taking Driver's Ed this summer. Should be pretty awesome." Oh, my G.o.d. Because waking up at six in the morning and sweating in a car full of other nervous kids is pretty awesome? I grabbed onto the table again. I didn't have pockets. "Your birthday's in July if I remember, right?" His birthday was July third. I'd practically been born knowing that, but I didn't want to seem like a stalker.

"Yeah, July third, it's pretty cool...y'know with the 4th and all. There's usually a rodeo."

"That's a great birthday! Fun. I like the rodeo. Horses...in the corral? The clowns? Funny." I had not been to the rodeo since I was like eight. What the h.e.l.l was I talking about?

"So, um, cool party, Miss Zellie...who is sixteen." He reached out and gave me a playful punch on the arm.

"Oh, no, it's not, but thanks for saying so." I shrugged my shoulders, relaxing my death grip on the edge of the table and attempting to slyly graze my hand up my arm to the spot where he had touched me.

"My dad made me wear a suit." He jammed his hands back into his pockets.

He seemed a little nervous too. That made me feel better. Avery Adams gets nervous talking to me. "Yeah, I see that. You look really hot though. Like good, nice, not...the opposite of cold." I felt a sudden tingle of warmth throughout my body. I crossed my arms across my b.r.e.a.s.t.s as the tingle obviously pa.s.sed through them. Yikes, for once I'd rather blush.

Avery glanced down at my chest, breaking eye contact for the first time since we started talking. He was totally looking at my nipples! "You look really pretty." Avery's eyes locked back on mine.

Aw, screw it. I lowered my arms back down to my sides, speechless. I kinda didn't care if the whole room was scoping my nips at this point; I was filled with reckless sixteen-year-old abandon.