Senior Year Box Set

“Dear God, Brit. Don’t you have to get to school or something?” I asked.

“No, tell me. You’ve thought about this stuff, haven’t you?”

Shoot me, shoot me now! You could even do it without my gear on if it made this stop. I finally decided to give in.

“I imagine every teenager thinks about this. No one’s ready for what comes next. The good news is high school doesn’t define who we’ll be. It’s a chance to try on different roles to see what fits and what doesn’t. When you go to college, you can become a new person. None of the expectations of others will be there to shape who you are,” I rambled.

“How do you see me?”

I blinked. Somehow this felt like a trap, sort of like when a girl asks you if she looks sexy or fat. Anything you said would be disregarded. I suspected they asked us those questions just to start fights.

“You’re the girl who wanted to date Tim over me,” I said with a straight face.

“Do you blame me?” she asked and then rushed on. “I didn’t want to be just another girl you bedded. Plus, is that all guys think about? Whether a girl will sleep with them or not?”

“Pretty much,” I said with a cocky grin.

“You’re so full of it,” she huffed.

Even when you agreed with them, you were wrong.

“Please! Don’t tell me that girls don’t think about guys like that, too,” I countered.

I was pretty pleased with myself for distracting her from her trap question. She narrowed her eyes at me and smiled.

“You still want me,” Brit announced.

“Let me clue you in to something: every guy my age wants you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Well, maybe not the ones who actually know you,” I teased.

“Shut up,” she complained.

She scooped up her cat and headed for the door. When she got there, she looked back and caught me checking out her butt. That made her happy as she left.

“Duke, buddy. We need to have a talk about your guard-dogging abilities. You’re worthless.”

His tail thumped on the bed.

I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

◊◊◊

I made it to school in time for lunch.

“There he is. It’s now confirmed that David is a better kisser than Ryan Gosling,” Wolf announced.

Gina ducked and shook her head. This was her worst nightmare come true.

“We should put that to the test. I saw that you and he met last night,” Pam said.

“He just wanted my autograph,” I rejoined, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

“You’re kidding,” Dare said.

“Nope,” I said and then leaned forward to share a secret. “Honestly, it floored me, too.”

“Why? You’re supposed to be a big deal, aren’t you?” Tim asked.

“I guess. It’s hard to reconcile ‘Hollywood David’ and who I really am. Heck, if I were ‘Hollywood David,’ I wouldn’t be allowed to be seen having lunch with this group.”

“Oh, yes. We’re so lucky you grace us with your presence. It’s lucky for you we know you, or we’d think you were serious about all that,” Cassidy weighed in.

“I’m surprised Leah didn’t punch you when you announced you wouldn’t kiss her,” Gina added.

“Halle told me she’d gotten engaged. You know my rules about that.”

“I’d kiss her,” Yuri said.

“Wolf, educate the boy,” I said.

“I’m with him,” Wolf said, shrugging and nodding at Yuri.

“Maybe David is more mature than you guys,” Gina said.

“Hang on,” I said, getting my phone out. “I need to mark the date when Gina said I did something right.”

“I take it back. You’re just a ‘stupid boy.’”

“No, you said it,” Dare said and then pointed his phone at her. “Now, if you would just repeat it so we could record it for posterity.”

“He’s kidding,” Chrissy said to save her boyfriend.

We all laughed because Dare didn’t get how close he’d come to Gina ending his life.

This was what I’d wanted, to feel like I was living a normal life. Brit was right when she said people saw you in different roles. Right now, I wanted to be ‘David, the normal high school kid.’

◊◊◊

Even though I wasn’t yet up to having a Lab stand on my chest, I convinced the trainers to clear me to play ball this week. We’d gone 2 and 1 during the three games I’d missed.

When I got home after practice, my mom and dad were there waiting for me.

“Ms. Dixon called me today with an update on you adopting Little David,” Dad said.

“When did you plan to tell us you were doing that?” Mom asked.

“And how exactly do you see this working?” Dad asked.

“Would you agree that I treat Little David like he’s mine?” I asked back.

“That’s not the question,” Mom said.

“When Little David was born, Mitch didn’t want anything to do with him. He went so far as to agree to give up all his parental rights to the little guy. I told Peggy I want to make Dave my son. So, in effect, I would take Mitch’s role in his upbringing,” I explained.

“And you don’t plan to marry Peggy?” Mom prodded.

“No, I don’t plan to marry her.”