The Summer List, page 5
I lie and tell him I don't have her number, but I will ask my sister to text it to me. I don't think I've seen him smile this much since he caught the game-winning touchdown against our rival bulldogs.
Walking out of my room to grab dinner, I notice him looking through the cracked door of my sister's room. He was trying to get one last peek of Mackenzie. I was too.
Birdie's has the best burgers in town. My mouth has been watering since I ordered my double-patty cheeseburger with extra bacon and fries. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I walked in the door and smelled the grease.
The four of us sat in our usual corner booth. It was the largest in the diner and gave us plenty of elbow room. Connor and Troy both have average builds. Sam, on the other hand, he's a big teddy bear who likes to eat. Most importantly, our table had the best view of the door. We could see when someone came into Birdie's and when they left.
I haven't said much since we got here. I came here to get my mind off of Mackenzie, but she is all I can think about. That and my double cheeseburger. And now all I can think about is her with Troy. I finally relented and gave him her number. He wouldn't stop asking me about her. The whole table erupted in laughter. I join them, not knowing what the joke is.
"Door check," Connor says, signaling all of us to check the door to see who just entered. One by one, we take our turn to see who it was. I tilted my head behind my shoulder just enough to see Lily and Olivia. They took their seats at the milkshake bar in the middle of the diner. Which just so happens to also have the perfect view of our table.
"Are you going to go talk to her?" Troy asks me, referring to Olivia.
"I am not moving from this table until I eat. Olivia can wait." I don't know what Olivia and I are. We aren't dating. I'm not her boyfriend. People put us together as a couple because that is what she wants people to think we are.
"Alright, boys," the waitress says, bringing over a large tray of food. "Who's hungry?" All our hands shoot up in the air.
I don't think anyone said a word the ten minutes it took us to devour every crumb of food we ordered.
"Incoming," Troy says as I inhale my last french fry.
"Hey, boys." Olivia scans around the booth. "Nate." She says with a lingering stare that made me uncomfortable in front of so many people. I just nod at her. I know that will make her mad, but I don't care.
"So, what are y'all doing tonight?" Lily asks, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Uh, nothing really," Connor says.
"And you Sam, what are you doing later?" Sam is still busy eating and doesn't even notice Lily. I can tell his lack of interest hurts her feelings. I kick him under the table and nod towards her.
"Hi," Sam says before going back to his extra side of fries.
"Well, we are going to the bluffs with a bunch of the seniors," Olivia says, gauging my reaction. She wants me to be jealous. I’m not. "You can come if you want." She adds.
The four of us, actually the three of us, Sam is still eating, had a private conversation with our eyes. This is something we do in a huddle on the football field. I can look at Connor, tilt my head left, and he knows exactly what I want to do with the football. It took us a while, but we perfected the same form of communication off the field.
"We'll consider it," I say.
"Great." Olivia lashes back with gritted teeth. "Come on, Lily, let's go. We don't want to be late."
Poor Lily. She stood there looking at Sam, waiting for him to say goodbye. I kick him again under the table.
"Dang it, Nate." He said, fuming. I nod towards Lily again. "Oh, uh, bye, Lily."
"By Sam," Lily says as Olivia pulls her out of Birdie's.
"Sam! Bro!" Troy says, hitting him on the back of his head.
"What the hell? If you guys don't stop hitting me, I swear."
"We will stop hitting you when you finally wake up and ask Lily out. She is hardcore into you." Troy says, confirming what I saw too.
We all agreed to skip the bluffs tonight. The girls just want us to go to make us jealous. At least, that is Olivia's motive. She will find some random senior to flirt with while I sit by myself all night. Then tomorrow, she will text me and ask if I had a good time. It's just a game with her.
The house is quiet when I get home. All the lights are off in the living room except the lamp by my dad's chair. His book is moving up and down on his chest while he sleeps. I move the book to the table and go to my room.
Faint whispers are coming from Natalie's room. I ignore the urge to knock this time. Instead, I went into my room and started planning my timeline for fixing up the truck. I want to be done as quickly as possible. The longer it takes me, the more time I have to spend with Mackenzie.
Natalie's door creaks open and then slowly creaks again as it shuts. I walk to my window. It only took a few minutes and then I saw her. Mackenzie's red hair is flowing behind her like a flame of fire in the moonlight. I watch her until she disappears into the shadows of the woods like I do every night she leaves.
6
mackenzie
I started working at the bookstore at the beginning of the school year. Natalie was busy with the marching band, and I was lonely. This was the first and only feeling I ever admitted to Ms. Crawford during one of our sessions. She suggested a job. You should have seen her face when I told her I took her advice and was the newest sales clerk at 'The Bookworm' downtown.
I spend most of the day pretending to be busy to avoid dealing with customers. I take care of shelving books, putting out new products, creating displays, that kind of thing. Sometimes I will move books from one side of the store to the other for no reason. My boss, George, doesn't seem to mind.
We are the perfect pair because George loves people. His wife died a few years ago, and I think he is lonely now. He sits on the stool behind the register most days, waiting for someone to talk to.
Today I was tasked with creating a summer book display to feature in the middle of the store. It will be the first thing you see when you walk in the door. I was a little disappointed but not surprised when he supplied the list of books he wanted to advertise.
He hadn't forgotten Valentine's Day when I decided to fill the table with murder mystery books. They killed for love. I thought it was a good idea. George didn't appreciate my humor.
I strolled the store aisle by aisle, collecting titles - The Beach House, The Perfect Summer, Sunsets on Saturday. Occasionally I flip one over and read the synopsis. They all sound the same. Boy meets girl. Girl hates boy, but something is intriguing about him. Boy and girl fall in love. Then out of love and back in love again. "So predictable," I grumble to myself.
It took me over an hour to collect all the books and bring them to the round table. I did my best to stack and organize as I went, but it was a wasted effort. The entire table was a mess of beach houses, sunsets, ocean waves, and half-dressed men and women.
I stack the books high on the outer edge of the table to give myself room to work. When I first started working at the Bookworm, Judy taught me how to stack books. She said it was like laying bricks. Also, something I don't know how to do. Judy said, "the first layer is the most important. It is the foundation on which the whole stack is built. Take your time to get it right." I don't think she was talking about the books anymore. Judy was in her late sixties. She had a short, gray bob and wore thin-framed glasses. She did not speak for the sake of talking like George. Every word had a purpose.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where to find books on German history?" A customer asks from behind the stacks of novels on the table.
I point to the general direction without losing focus on the book I'm stacking and say, "Go to the sign that says history and look for the letter G. It comes after the letter F." I was a little rude, but I can tell from the tone of his voice he wasn't much older than I am. He'll get over it.
"Uh, okay." He bent his head down until he was eye level with me and says, "Could you show me? I get lost easily."
I wish you would get lost now. "I'm kind of in the midl-" I glance up and recognize the blue eyes and dimpled cheeks. It's the bookstore babe from spring break. My face feels like I just walked ten miles in the Mojave Desert. I probably have red blotches all over my neck too. "Sure," I say, the only word I can think of while drowning in his ocean blue eyes.
"Great," he says, and we both start walking towards the history section. "It's for a school project. I go to Becker." Becker is a prestigious boarding school about two hours away. "I'm a Senior. You?" I think his eyes sparkle as he speaks.
"Willow Park. A Junior next year," I say as I look for the section on German history. "Well, here you go. Germany."
"Right after F, just like you said."
"I get paid to know these things," I say as he starts scanning the spines of the paperbacks. "I'll leave you to it." I walk away before he has a chance to say or ask me anything else.
I was hoping the display would magically be finished when I got back. Unfortunately, it still looks like the aftermath of a Black Friday sale. I work while trying to keep an eye on Bookstore Babe, but I've lost him. Did he leave while I wasn't looking? At least now I know why I never saw him again after spring break. He was away at school.
"Hey again," he says, startling me. I jump and knock over part of my book tower.
"Shit." I try to save what I can of my display. "Sorry, I shouldn't say shit in front of a customer." Shit. I say to myself this time.
"I'm the sorry one. I shouldn't have startled you like that. You were pretty deep in thought." My cheeks flush at the thought of him thinking that I was thinking of him. He doesn't believe that, right? "I'm Brandon, by the way." Brandon the Bookstore Babe who goes to Becker. I can't wait to tell Natalie I saw him again.
"Hi," I say as I take another book from him.
"And your name?"
"Mackenzie," I say, tucking my hair behind my ear.
"Nice to meet you. Officially this time." He remembers me.
"Same." We both stand across the display table in awkward silence. This is getting uncomfortable. "I should probably get back to work." I finally blurt out.
"Right. Right. I don't want to get you in trouble. Thanks for the help with the books."
"Anytime."
"I'll hold you to that. See you around, Mackenzie." Brandon takes a few steps backward then turns towards the counter. George greets him with a smile and starts telling him about the time he was in Germany. When Brandon is finished checking out, I go back to stacking books. I don't want him to catch me studying him. The bell on the front door rings, and I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
"George, I'm taking my break." I leave the disastrous display and head to the break room to text Natalie.
I have been on a high all afternoon. Natalie agrees that Bookstore Babe, aka Brandon from Becker, didn't return to the store for German history books. And the reason I didn't see him again after spring break was because he was away at school. Maybe my little white lie to Connor and Nate wasn't such a lie after all. I smile smugly to myself.
I add a bowl of sour candy to the tray of snacks I'm putting together. Nate will be here any minute. I almost canceled. Spending the afternoon with him is a buzzkill. I would rather spend my afternoon analyzing every interaction I had with Brandon. All ten minutes of it. Although, I will probably never see him again. He is the perfect guy and probably has a girlfriend—no point in getting excited about it.
There is a knock on the front door. "Come in!!" I yell from the kitchen.
"Hey," Nate says, entering the kitchen. I'm surprised he didn't come through the back door. "Need any help?" He asks as I add a few bags of skittles and m&ms to the pile.
"I'm good. You can go back to my room. I'll be there in a minute." He didn't move from the dining room. I caught him looking at the garage door before looking back at me. I know what he was thinking. "I'm going to do it tomorrow."
"Tonight. You should start tonight."
"We'll see. Now, will you go already? I'll be there in a second." I grab a few sodas and add them to my tray.
Nate is sitting in my oversized reading chair when I walk in. He looks uncomfortable. I can tell he doesn't want to be here. I don't know if he doesn’t want to be here period or if he feels weird being in my room. I hand him a soda—a small peace offering. I shouldn't feel bad. He agreed to this. He is getting what he wants too.
"Do you always eat like this?" He says as I offer him my tray of sweet and salty treats.
"Pretty much." I never learned how to cook, and with Cindy unavailable, I had to learn how to fend for myself. Snack trays were my way to make sandwiches and crackers look fancy. As I got older, I taught myself how to use a stove, and snack trays reverted to junk food. "So, should we do this?"
"Sure, but before we get started, I have to tell you something." I don't like the sound of this. I waited while he opened the bag of gummy worms and popped one into his mouth. "Don't be mad..." Never a good start, I thought. Whenever someone says this, they are probably about to make you mad. "I kind of gave Troy your number last night."
"You what?! Why? Why would you do that?" I should be angry at him, but I'm in shock. Troy Bishop has my number. Mine.
"He wouldn't stop hounding me for it." I find this hard to believe. Troy is popular. Why would he be interested in me? He is a bit of a rebel which the girls seem to love. Troy is taller than most juniors at 5' 11". Again, the girls at school love it. That and his muscular build. "You can just block his number when he texts or something. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with your boyfriend."
The way he said the word boyfriend makes my blood boil. It's like he doesn't believe I have one. Which I don't, but he acts like that would be an impossibility. Who in their right mind would fall for messed up in the head Mackenzie Turner?
"Oh, Brandon?" His look of shock is priceless. Yes, he has a name now. It's almost as if he's real. Well, he is real. Just not my boyfriend. "We kept it casual while he was away at school." It's nice having facts now. Even if it is still a lie. There are still enough facts to pass it off as the truth.
"Great." He says, forcing a smile.
I open my nightstand drawer and get my notebook. "Let's just get this over with." I get situated on the bed again. "What's the first one on your list?" I ask with my pen in one hand and a handful of chips in the other.
"I think I should see what you have on the list already. Then I can just add my few at the end." He reaches his hand out for the notebook.
"Or, you can just tell me what you have," I say, pulling the notebook closer to me and out of his reach.
"What's the big deal? I'm going to know eventually. You might as well let me see the notebook." He gets up from the chair and stands beside me by the bed. "Please?" Nate asks with puppy dog eyes and pouted lips.
"Fine," I say with a growl. I release my grip on the notebook and hand it over. "No laughing," I add as he settles back into the chair.
"I would never." Nate would, and he will.
"Okay, let's see what this list is all about. Number One: Read ten classic novels. The way you read, I could probably go ahead and check it off now."
"Reading expands your mind. You should try it sometime."
"I do read. Whatever,” he says waving me off and continues. “Number Two: Finish a jigsaw puzzle. Number Three: Make Homemade Ice Cream. Number Four: Learn a new language. Are you serious with these?"
"What? I see nothing wrong with learning new things."
"But this isn't fun. This isn't summer. I don't want to be stuck inside with you all summer reading and doing jigsaw puzzles."
"Nat and I have fun every summer doing these things." I'm still holding out hope Nat will chicken out and change her mind. She doesn't leave until Friday. I don't want to be a selfish friend, but this is torture.
