Believe

Chapter Eight of Believe

A week went past and Matt still hadn’t asked me to the dance. There were only two things that had been good about that week. Number one, Euan and I had continued to get along with no arguments. Number Two, Ryan asked Blaire to the dance instead of Melissa. While I enjoyed seeing Melissa knocked off her high horse, I didn’t enjoy waiting around to see if Matt would ask me or not. Every time I would see him my stomach would feel like a live snake was writhing around in me and every time he failed to ask me it felt like a brick smashed the snake into tiny pieces.


         I was getting tired of waiting around for him to ask me, we had been semi-dating since the beginning of the school year, it couldn’t be that hard to ask me! Maybe he thought that I already figured that we were going together, that it was a given thing. I didn’t know, the only thing I knew was that I would feel much better after he asked me.


         It was Thursday and I was trying to concentrate on the assignment that Mrs. Danarow had just given us when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I took a look at the teacher and turned to see what Matt wanted. He gave me a piece of loose-leaf notebook paper, I took it with a questioning look. He just shook his head and I turned around to see what the note had to say.


         “Gabby,” read the hurriedly scribbled note. “I just realized that I never properly asked you to the dance, so will you go with me?”


         At first I was exceedingly happy then I realized that he didn’t even really ask me in person. Asking me in a note was just as impersonal as asking someone over the internet. I frowned slightly, he hadn’t worried about asking me in person when he asked me out the first time. I decided at this point in time that I didn’t really care about the way he asked me I actually had a date to a dance! I wrote back a scribbled yes and handed it to him. He smiled and nodded his head.


         I tried to go back to working on my assignment, but I couldn’t focus. I kept thinking about the dance, how it would be and what would happen. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my mom. She would be so happy. She would probably want to go out and buy a dress right away. I was so excited I could barely keep still. Mrs. Danarow kept looking up at me because I was fidgeting with my pencil and my book bag.


         Finally the bell rang to end class and I zoomed out of the classroom, I had to tell everybody! Matt caught up to me before I reached Locker Hall and fell in step with me.


         “So, do you know what color dress you’ll be wearing? I want to make sure we look good.” He said as he opened the door to the hallway for me.


         “No, I don’t know yet. I’ll tell you when I know though.” Matt nodded at me and then left. I looked his receding back confused. He almost always walked me at least to my locker. I headed for my locker and threw all my books in it. I had to find Blaire and tell her. I spotted her a little way down the hall talking to Ryan.


         “Blaire!” I ran up next to her and smiled at her and Ryan. “I have something to tell you after your done talking.”


         Blaire and Ryan said their goodbyes and she turned to me. “Let me guess. Matt asked you to go to the dance with him.”


         “Yeah. I’m really excited!” We started walking out of the hallway doors. I was almost lying to Blaire. I was excited to be going to the dance with Matt, but nearly as excited as I thought I would be.


         “Finally! I thought he was just going to blow you off. How did he ask you?” Blaire slung her backpack higher up on her shoulder.


         “He asked me in a note.” I said a little disappointedly. I imagined getting asked to a dance to be a little more exciting.


         “That is a little, like, impersonal, don’t you think? Has he said anything to you since?” We pushed our way thought the crowd to get outside. Sometimes people leaving a school reminded me of a herd of cattle trying to go into a field.


         “Yeah, I thought it was a little weird that he asked me in a note, I mean he never seemed nervous about asking me anything in person before. All he asked me afterwards was what color dress I was wearing. He said he wanted to make sure we looked good.” We stopped at Blaire’s car and she turned to look at me.


         “He said that?” She looked disgusted momentarily, but then shrugged her shoulders. “Well I guess he is the most popular guy in school, so he probably is worrying about his image. He can’t walk into a formal without looking perfect. Don’t worry about it.”


Blaire unlocked her car and threw in her book bag. “What I would worry about is going to a dance with a Siduous. Grandma Harriet says they can’t be trusted.”


         “That seems to be the general consensus.” I muttered under my breath, thinking of the McCready’s.


         “I’m serious Gabby! I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” Blaire stamped her foot on the ground and fixed me with a glare. This was the first time I had ever seen Blaire act like this.


         “Blaire, don’t worry. What could possibly happen?” I smiled encouragingly at her.


         “I hope your right.” She got into her car. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”


         She drove off and left me standing in the parking lot. It didn’t sink in until then that I had no way to get home. I stood in Blaire’s parking spot thinking of how much of an idiot I was. Matt had a basketball game and I was sure everybody else I knew was gone. They had no reason to stick around after school. I looked out at the parking lot. There were several cars still left, but I didn’t recognize any of them and I had forgotten my cell phone at home. Of all the days to forget a cell phone! I felt like smacking myself in the head with the palm of my hand. How could I be so forgetful?


         “Need a ride home?” A voice said behind me and I nearly jumped a foot in the air. I whirled around to see who had scared me and saw Euan standing there with a brilliant smile on his face. My heart seemed to speed up and my stomach lurched a little.


         “Scared you, did I?”


         “Euan McCready!” You scared me half to death!”  I exclaimed, than looked at him curiously. “Why are you still here after school?”


         “I was talking to Mr. Nummer about a book report that is due Monday. What are you still doing here? I would have thought Matthew would have taken you home by now. He usually does.” Euan spat Matt’s name out like a curse word, I chose to ignore this. There was no since in getting in an argument about Matt. It never solved anything, and I was starting to get the feeling that Euan had been right about him. Matt had acted very cold toward me this last week.


         “Anything wrong?” Euan asked looking at me curiously.


         “No…no. I am fine.” I smiled at Euan, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes.


         I had always told myself that if my friends and family didn’t like my boyfriend that I would have to reconsider the person I was dating. Blaire had already expressed her concerns, McKenna and Jean never answered me when I asked them about what they thought of Matt. Euan and his family obviously didn’t like them; even my mom thought it was weird that she had never met Matt. I shook my head. I would go to the dance with Matt and then consider what everybody was telling me. I wasn’t going to lose my first date to a dance, I least wanted to know what it felt like to walk into a dance knowing that I had someone to dance with during the slow songs.


         “Where is Matthew?” Euan looked slowly around the parking lot through squinted eyes as if he expected Matt to jump out at any moment.


         “He had an away basketball game. I was planning on asking Jean for a ride home, but I got caught up in talking to Blaire and forgot. So I have been stuck here for about ten minutes trying to figure out what I should do.” I felt stupid. Euan probably thought I was an idiot.


         “It happens to the best of us. My freshman year I didn’t catch the bus home and I didn’t have cell phone, I wondered around the parking lot for about forty-five minutes before I realized there was a phone inside the school I could use to call my grandmother.” Euan started to walk to his car and I fell in step next to him. I was too busy feeling like I was stupid that I almost missed the next question Euan asked.


         “So…I assume Matthew and you will be going to the dance together.” Euan gave me a sideways glance. I met his gaze and he looked away hurriedly.


         “Yes, he just asked me today to go with me.” I answered cautiously. The whole week we hadn’t spoken on the subject of Matt, and Euan and I had talked a lot. I wondered why he had decided to bring him up now.


         “He waited a while to ask you.” Euan said half to himself and half to me. “Well, I know you said you don’t need a bodyguard. So all I am going to tell you is to be careful. I don’t trust him and I’m not sure what he is up to.”


         I suppressed the angry feeling that welled up when Euan said he wasn’t sure what Matt was up to. Euan believed that Matt didn’t really like me! That he was using me to do something! Was it so hard to believe that Matt liked me? Was that the reason why everyone was warning me to be cautious around him?


         What if that was the truth? He did hate the McCready’s, and I lived with them. I would be the perfect tool for him to find out what the McCready’s were up to. Hadn’t he shown me that he was interested in what the McCready’s were doing when he had shown me Euan in the forest? Maybe the reason that he had waited so long to ask me…


         I told myself to stop. If that was what he wanted, he wouldn’t get it. Eleanor and Wallace had become family to me and Euan…well, I didn’t want to think of what I thought of Euan. I couldn’t betray them anymore then I felt I already had. If he dumped me at the dance, he dumped me at the dance. There was no other way around it.


         “Gabriella? Gabriella?” Euan was standing in front of me, as I came out of my thoughts I noticed that we had reached his car. I wished I paid more attention to things when I was thinking. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to explain why had spaced out. “Just promise me that you’ll be careful, alright? I won’t talk about it again. Just promise me that.”


         “Oh,” I was a little surprised. I would have thought that he would say I couldn’t go with him. I almost wished Euan had said that. “I promise that I will be careful. I won’t let anything happen to me.”


         “Good,” Euan seemed a little embarrassed, but I didn’t understand why. “Let’s go home.”


         He opened the door for me and I slid in. It had been a while since I had rode in Euan’s car. Matt had been taking me to and from school for the past couple months so I hadn’t been in the car.


         “Euan?” I put my hand on his forearm intending to tell him thank you for taking me home. I felt the shock that I always felt when I touched him, only this time it was much stronger. I felt it all the way up my arm and into my torso. It seemed to tingle all the way down to my toes and back up again. It was hard for me to remove my hand from his arm.


         After I had managed to pull my hand away we looked at each other for a minute. I opened my mouth to ask a question, but he turned away from me and I knew that he didn’t want me to ask what just happen. I just turned to face front and Euan pulled out of his parking space. It was almost the same feeling I had gotten when I had grabbed the shield, it just didn’t burn so much. Things were so confusing nowadays.


         Neither of us talked all the way home. We were both lost in our thoughts and I didn’t want to bother him with questions I knew he wouldn’t answer. I didn’t know what I would have to do to get him to tell me, but I vowed that I would do it. It didn’t matter what it was, I would find away to get the answers from him. I told myself that it probably took time, he just needed to trust me before he told me anything. I sighed, I knew it would probably be a long time before Euan ever trusted me.


         We pulled into the driveway of our house and both got out of the car. I had a lot of homework to do since I hadn’t concentrated in Pre-Calc that day. I worried the entire what to the house, I didn’t really understand the lesson very well today and I had lost my chance to ask the teacher. It was due tomorrow at the beginning of class. Pre-Calc wasn’t until last hour, so I could probably ask during lunch time. I knew that wouldn’t be enough time to understand the lesson so I could do well on the test, what was I going to do?


         “What’s wrong?” Euan asked as we climbed the steps to the front door.


         “It’s stupid Pre-Calculus. I didn’t concentrate hard enough and I don’t really get the lesson. I am probably going to fail the homework tomorrow…and then probably the test on Monday as well.” I said glumly. I didn’t really see a way out of this.


         “I know how you feel. My book report is due soon and I still haven’t figured out a good way to start the paper.” Euan opened the door and I followed him in. I knew which book report Euan was talking about, I had the same one due on Monday, but I already had it done. Then an idea dawned on me.


         “Euan?” I asked as I followed him in the dining room. “How good are you at Pre-Calc?”


         “I have a ninety-eight in that class. Why?” He sat down and the table and I sat next to him.


         “Well, I can help you with your English paper and you can help me with math. That fixes both of our problems!” I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before.


         “Your right… Mr. Nummer is always tells our class how good all your papers are. He says he hasn’t read better in five years. It is the perfect idea.” Euan opened his bag hurriedly. “We’ll start with Pre-Calc, it shouldn’t take very long.”