Christy Miller Collection Vol 4 Part 13

Today, of all days, Fred had taken her spot and was joined by two freshman girls, one on either side. He was wearing one of his new outfits, and as Christy approached, she overheard the girls asking how they could get their pictures in the yearbook.

"I'd say for freshmen your best bet is to do something out of the ordinary in cooking cla.s.s. If you know when you're going to be baking a cake or something, you two can add some, say...green dye, and simply let me know ahead of time. I'll come to your cla.s.s and record it on film."

He sounded so official. Christy had confused feelings. She didn't exactly want to join them, especially now that Fred had this new image that seemed to help him attract girls, even if they were freshmen. Still, the sad part was that now she had no one to eat lunch with.

At this moment, more than ever, she realized how few friends she had at school. Teri had graduated last year, and Brittany and Janelle, two girls she used to hang out with during her soph.o.m.ore year, had both moved. Katie was the only person Christy had spent lunchtime with for the last two and a half years. Except for Fred. Now even Fred had other friends.

"Miss Chris," Fred called out, spotting her as she tried to slide past him, "come here!"

Christy sighed, blinked back the renegade tears, pasted a smile on her face, and joined Fred and his fan club.

"What's wrong?" Fred immediately asked when he saw her.

I must be the worst faker in the world. I can't even hide my emotions from Fred.

"My jaw is still a little sore," Christy said. It was true. She involuntarily had been clenching her teeth while she was talking to Katie, and her jaw did hurt. "Makes it kind of hard to eat."

"Why don't you try some pudding or Jell-O from the food machines?"

Christy nodded her appreciation for the suggestion and noticed her camera sitting on the table. She thought it would be good to have it back so she could take it with her this weekend. "Are you done using my camera yet, Fred?"

"There are about four more shots on the roll."

"Mind if I take it back?" Christy picked up the camera and removed the lens cap so she could look through the viewfinder. "You didn't mess it up or anything, did you?"

"Of course not!" Fred looked shocked that Christy would ask such a question. She could see him clearly through the small box and had a sudden inspiration to snap his picture so he could see what it felt like. A sneaky idea came to her.

"Did you girls know that Fred sort of got a makeover last weekend?"

Fred looked pleased that Christy was still noticing and commenting on the vast improvements. She had him centered perfectly in the viewfinder. Now to get both the girls to move in just a little closer.

"Yeah, he got his hair cut, and he even got his ears pierced!"

Both girls cooperated beautifully by leaning in to get a closer look at the ear nearest them. They had expressions of curious amazement on their faces. Fred's mouth opened, and his eyes bulged at the exact instant that Christy snapped the photo.

"This will be perfect for the yearbook," Christy said.

The two freshmen looked at each other in delight. Their wish had been granted. Fred jumped up and tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the camera away from Christy. She held it over her head out of his reach. "Now, Fred, that's the only picture I have of you so far, and you have at least a dozen candid shots of me. Don't you think it's only fair that I get to keep this one?"

Fred plopped down hard on the bench. "Okay, okay. I get the picture, Christy. Har har. Just a little joke there. We can deal on this one. You give me that photo, and I'll give you back the ones I've taken of you."

"I don't think so, Fred. I think this picture will cancel out only the one from last year at the pizza place that Rick so easily persuaded you to take of me. That means I have about a dozen more of you to take before the year is over."

"That one last year was Rick's idea, not mine. Come on, Christy, have a heart!"

She was about to hold out to even the score when she remembered how things had turned out between Katie and Doug as the two of them had played their game of sweet revenge. As innocent as it had seemed in the beginning, someone kept getting hurt as their game progressed. Christy surrendered.

"Okay, Fred. Truce. I do need my camera back though. When we get the roll developed, you can decide what you want to do with the picture."

Fred broke into a toothy smile. "Thanks, Miss Chris. You're the best."

Christy walked away with her uneaten lunch and her camera, deciding to shoot the last few pictures of the parking lot like Katie had suggested at the beginning of school. Something inside her felt right for having made peace. Maybe it was that fragrance Todd talked about, the fragrance that comes when you nurture love instead of cut into it.

Great! Christy heard a condemning voice inside her head. I have this wonderful relations.h.i.+p I'm nurturing with Fred of all people, while nothing but anger keeps bleeding out between my best friend and me. It's time for a truce, Christy. How are you going to do it?

"Jon I'm leaving," Christy called out to her boss at one minute after nine on Friday night as he began to lock up the pet store.

"Have a great weekend." Jon called back. "Say hi to Todd for me."

"I will. Thanks! And thanks for letting me have tomorrow off." Christy closed the door behind her and hurried to her car in the dimly lit parking lot.

Todd should be waiting for her at her home. She had her bags all packed so they could leave right away for the drive to Bob and Marti's.

She was so excited about seeing Todd that the keys trembled in her hand. On her first attempt to put the key in the lock, she dropped her ring of keys and bent to pick them up. Straightening, she tried the wobbly key again.

"Need some help?" a deep voice behind her asked.

Christy spun around and practically screamed. "Todd, I didn't see you!"

He opened his arms, and she wrapped her arms around his middle and pressed her cheek against his broad chest. She could hear his heart beating. Was it racing as fast as hers, or was it her imagination?

Todd held her for several minutes, pressing his cheek against her hair. "It's so good see you, Kilikina," he whispered.

Christy felt like crying she was so happy and so excited to finally be with him, to feel his strong arms around her.

"I thought you'd be waiting at my house," Christy said as he let go and held her at arm's length, carefully examining her face. She wondered if he noticed the slight black-and-blue mark on her lower jaw, a fading souvenir of her collision with Doug's arm last week.

"I only got into town a few minutes ago. I knew you'd be getting off work, so I thought I'd come here and surprise you."

"You surprised me, all right! Where did you park Gus?"

"Over there." Todd motioned with a chin-up gesture over his shoulder. "Why don't I follow you?"

"Okay," Christy agreed, laughing at her trembling hand as she tried once more to get the key in the lock. "If I can ever get this door open."

"Allow me," Todd offered, sounding like her private knight in s.h.i.+ning armor. He placed his hand over hers. It felt warm, strong, and confident. Together they unlocked the door.

"Thanks!" Christy beamed. I'll see you at home."

Her hope had been that they could leave for Newport Beach right away. Todd seemed less eager to leave. He had brought a present for Christy's dad, which she had to admit was a very thoughtful gesture. It took a while before her dad opened it because Mom offered Todd some pumpkin bread she had just baked, and she kept asking him questions about school.

David, of course, had stayed up to see Todd and was trying to coax Todd into taking him skateboarding again.

"Okay, dude. How about if I come down next weekend on Sat.u.r.day?" Todd suggested.

"Cool," David said. "Wait till you see all the new tricks I can do."

"Oh yeah? Can you block a punch yet?" Todd playfully swung at David's right ear, and a wrestling match broke out between them on the living room floor. Mom quickly moved the coffee table out of the way and watched the two of them wrestle like brothers.

Nothing like sharing your boyfriend with the rest of your family!

It was after ten o'clock before Todd finally tossed Christy's weekend luggage into the back of Gus. Christy's mom and dad stood outside with them and gave the usual list of to-dos, ending with Mom's most important request that Christy call them as soon as she arrived at Bob and Marti's.

Christy climbed up onto the torn pa.s.senger seat of the Volkswagen bus. Todd used to have a beach towel over the seat to help keep the stuffing from coming out, but tonight it was missing. Christy had to find just the right position so she wouldn't get poked by the torn vinyl.

Soon Christy forgot about the uncomfortable seat and was busy chattering away. "I think my dad really liked the book you gave him. That was so thoughtful of you, Todd." She had to talk loudly because of the rumbling inside the van.

They talked back and forth nonstop for the first hour of the drive. Christy realized her throat hurt from talking so much and so loudly. She settled back a little and let Todd carry the conversation for a while. It felt so good just to be with him and to finally have their weekend together.

As soon as they arrived at Bob and Marti's, Todd headed for the refrigerator to pour himself a gla.s.s of orange juice. "You want some, Christy?" He obviously felt at home here since he was over all the time, even when Christy wasn't around.

"Definitely."

"Ice?"

"Yes, please. I'm going to call my mom and dad."

After letting them know that the trip was uneventful and they had arrived safely, Christy was about to hang up when her mom said. "Have fun, dear. We sure find it comforting to know that we can let our seventeen-year-old daughter take off for the weekend and know that you're making good choices."

Christy hung up and thought about how different the warnings from her parents had been several years ago. It felt good to know that, despite all the up and down times, she had managed to earn their confidence. With their confidence came fewer restrictions and greater freedoms.

"I guess I'll get going," Todd said when Christy hung up. He placed his empty gla.s.s in the sink. "What do you want to do tomorrow, Christy?"

"Let's go out to breakfast," Christy suggested.

"Good idea," Marti interjected. She had entered the room a few minutes earlier. "I know just the place for the four of us."

Christy had meant that only she and Todd would go out to breakfast. How could she uninvite her aunt? Maybe it didn't matter. What mattered was that she would be with Todd.

"Around eight?" Marti suggested.

"I'll be here at eight," Todd agreed and waved good night as he let himself out.

"He didn't kiss you good-bye." Marti said as Christy finished off her juice. "Why didn't he kiss you?"

"I don't know."

"Don't you two kiss?"

"Yes, sometimes."

"And what else?"

"Nothing else. Well, except hold hands and hug."

Marti looked to Bob and then back at Christy. "That certainly doesn't sound natural, dear. At this point I would have thought you two would be much farther along physically. I was planning to have a heart-to-heart talk about the physical dimension of your relations.h.i.+p, but you're not giving me much to discuss with you."

"I think things are right where they should be," Christy answered. "I have no regrets now, and I don't want to ever."

"Very n.o.ble," Bob said. "Your aunt and I respect and support you two for your standards, don't we, Martha?"

Christy watched her aunt's expression change from critical to compa.s.sionate. Marti had Christy's best interests at heart, Christy knew, even if her methods were a little off sometimes.

"Yes, Christina, I have to agree. Your morals are quite commendable. Not at all the norm for most teens your age, I suppose. You are both intelligent people. I guess we can be glad that your school's s.e.x education programs have been so successful."

Christy wanted to laugh. The open discussion she had experienced in her school had taught her about the complications and consequences of going too far, but she knew that it was her relations.h.i.+p with the Lord that made her want to do the right thing.

"Actually, what makes the difference for Todd and me is that we're both Christians, and we're both trying to obey G.o.d."

"Oh."

"You know," Bob said, changing the subject, "I'd kind of like to sleep in tomorrow morning. Why don't you and Todd go out for breakfast, and the four of us can eat dinner together."

"That's fine with me," Christy said. "Is that okay with you, Aunt Marti?"

"Of course, dear. You two would most likely enjoy spending the time together alone. Knowing Todd's preference, it will probably be a casual sort of breakfast anyway. We can make plans for something a little nicer for dinner."

Todd showed up a few minutes after eight the next morning. Marti was right-he had on his usual beachwear of shorts, sandals, and a hooded sweats.h.i.+rt. Mr. Casual himself.

Christy had ended up rising at six to shower, fix her hair, and dress. Even though she had on cutoff jeans and an oversized chambray work s.h.i.+rt with a white T-s.h.i.+rt underneath, she had spent as much time on her appearance as if she were going to the prom. Her makeup was light but precise. She had worked hard to get the mascara even on both eyes. Her hair, clean and combed, hung naturally without any of the clips or barrettes Marti urged her to use. Christy felt fresh and pretty, ready for whatever this day might hold.

"It's just you and me," Christy said softly when she answered the front door. "I'll explain on the way."

Todd led her out to Gus and opened the pa.s.senger door for her. Christy noticed that the beach towel was back in place, covering the seat. Something deep inside her warmed, knowing that Todd had noticed and done something to make her seat more comfortable. She got in. Todd started the engine.

"Uh, Todd," she said. "By any chance, is this towel a little wet?"

"Oh, man. Sorry, Christy! I went surfing this morning and laid my towel there to dry. Here-" he tugged it off the seat-"but the seat is still wet."

"That's okay," Christy said.

"No. it's not. Hey, I know what we can do," Todd said, slipping the van into neutral. "You drive, and I'll sit on the wet seat."

"I don't know, Todd." The only other time Christy had been in the driver's seat and Todd in the pa.s.senger's seat was in Maui when he had been stung by a bee and she had to drive a Jeep on the precarious Hana road.

"You can do it! Compared to Hana, Newport will be a breeze." Todd hopped out and jogged around to her door, urging her to trade places before she had a chance to protest.

Christy slid into the driver's seat, buckled her seat belt. and popped Gus into gear, and down the street they chugged.

"I don't know where your aunt wanted to go for breakfast. but since I'm paying now, is Carl's Jr. okay?"

"Sure. Show me where to turn."

"Take a right at our intersection."

Christy looked at him out of the corner of her eye while slowly coaxing Gus down the street. She couldn't believe he had said "our intersection." It was the intersection where he had first kissed her and where he had given her the ID bracelet. She had thought of it as "their" intersection before, but she had never heard Todd refer to it that way.

A smile tickled the corner of her lips. She and Todd were really going together. Even Todd realized that some of the things that had happened between them were sacred. Things like "their" intersection.