Saving Everest Page 21

  “Hi,” I said, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears.

  “Hi.”

  “Hey, sorry . . . if I scared you.” He grasped the back of his neck and rubbed it a few times out of nervousness. His smile was warm, like we weren’t strangers.

  “It’s all right,” I said, looking anywhere but his face.

  “W-Would you like to catch a movie or something on Tuesday?” he blurted out suddenly.

  Instantly, he had my full attention.

  “That’s a random day,” I teased.

  “Yeah . . . I guess it is, but I’m not working that night after school.” He looked a perfect mixture of confused and amused.

  “Did Nami put you up to this?” I asked.

  His eyes shifted in confusion. “Who?”

  “The girl who was just talking to you,” I answered, wondering why Nami did this.

  “Oh, that’s her name.” He chuckled in realization. “She noticed me staring at you and told me to make a move. I totally w-wasn’t, like, staring at you in, like, a creepy-stalker-I’m-gonna-kill-you kind of way, but in, like, a you’re-the-most-beautiful-girl-I’ve-ever-seen-in-my-life kind of way. I’m not a creepy stalker killer, I promise.” His eyes clenched together for moment as if he was bracing himself to get hit in the face by a ball. “I’m sorry . . . I—made this so awkward. I’m just going to g—”

  “Yes.”

  “Y-Yes what?” His eyes widened a fraction of an inch.

  “To catching a movie or something.”

  He grinned. “Okay. Sweet cool. Here, give me your arm.”

  I stuck out my hand slowly while he dug around in his apron and pulled out a pen.

  His fingers were cold but he was making my skin hot.

  When I caught back up with Tiffany and Nami, their faces were focused on the boy I’d just walked away from. I stared at the numbers scrawled on my arm.

  “What just happened?” I thought aloud.

  “You just got asked out, Bevy-boo.” Tiffany smiled coyly. “How do you feel?”

  “I think I have gas,” I said after a moment.

  “Yikes, we need to get you a date outfit, then I’ll drop you off at Everest’s,” Nami said nonchalantly.

  My stomach gurgled.

  Nami laughed. “Is this, perhaps, a symptom of betrayal?”

  “Actually, I think it might be the food we just had. The noodles did look a little old.”

  On the way home, the date was all I could think about. It was kind of hard to forget when his number was printed on my skin and the constant ramble of my friends never ceased. The whole ordeal was giving me a case of serious gas. Holding it all in for the past ten minutes or so made me basically fly to my room.

  “Bye, Beverly!” Tiffany screamed out the window of Nami’s car.

  “See ya later, Bevy-boo,” Nami screamed after her.

  I waved while running, my bags swinging violently on my arms. Strangely enough, when I got home, I had no traces of the bubbling gas I’d had in the car. I sighed while dumping the bags on my bed and dumping myself along with it. I was only lying down for what felt like a few seconds before my phone rang.

  “How was shopping?” Through the ruckus of the background, I was able to pick out the words.

  I melted into his baritone as it gave me instant comfort. “It was nice. You know Nami and Tiff.”

  “I sure do,” he said with emphasis. “What you up to?”

  “I’m about to start wrapping.” I tore at the wrapping paper and began to cut the appropriate pieces needed to wrap.

  “I wish I could help you.”

  “I can handle it, Ev. Plus, Hadley will be home from dance soon and there’s no way she won’t want to help.” I chuckled, realizing he could hear what I was doing.

  “Everest, you’re on in a minute,” I heard someone yell.

  “Okay, all right.” His tone was annoyed.

  “Sorry, Bev, but I have to g—”

  “Are you ready for a storm?” I asked, embracing the feelings I got from the phrase.

  “. . . I stay rain ready,” I heard him say after a few seconds. His tone was softer this time.

  “Good night, Ev.”

  “Night, Bev.”

  Ending the call, I looked at the numbers on my arm, softly touching them and sighing. For a moment, I thought to wash them off without writing them down, but I realized that I had never been on a date before. I could’ve been possibly washing off an opportunity that could turn out amazing. I wrote the number down and took a shower before heading off to bed.

  It wasn’t strange for the gang to join Everest and me at lunch. Sometime after the fall festival, we began to eat together. It was never all at once. Some days it would be Nami and Tiffany. Other days, it would be Mikey and Aurora. There’d been a few occasions when it would be Tiffany and Mikey. The combination was something new every day. Of course, Lincoln and Lucky weren’t included, being that one had already graduated and the other lived on the other side of town.

  Lunch was my favorite part of school. It was the only time all of us were together. For some unspoken reason, we never spoke in school outside of those library walls. We seemed to dissolve back into the lives we had before we became friends. It seemed pretty silly to me. Today, though, was one of those rare days where we were all together.

  “Now, why would you pack a tuna sandwich?” Nami’s nose crinkled.

  Mikey smiled childishly and opened his mouth to reveal the mush on his tongue.

  “Real mature,” Tiffany said, setting down the bag of chips she had.

  “C’mon, man.” Everest shook his head.

  “People are eating here,” Nami added with a disgusted look.

  The typical scene made me smile a little to myself as I bit into my apple.

  “Don’t worry about what’s happening on my plate, focus on your own food,” he said to Nami.

  “Oh, shut up, Mikey,” Nami responded with a roll of her eyes.

  “Well, that’s rude.” He smirked.

  “Anyway, Everest, how was your set?” Nami shifted the conversation.

  “It was fine,” Everest responded, seemingly unbothered.

  “So modest,” Tiffany said with a sigh.

  “I know, right?” I agreed.

  “Everest puts on his cool act so he can lure the ladies in,” Mikey said with a snort.

  “I doubt he needs the act. Girls melt for a guy with a microphone,” Nami responded.

  “I bet girls throw themselves at him in masses. How many numbers did you collect last night?” Mikey asked.

  Everest looked interested as he shrugged.

  “Dang! That many?” Mikey snickered obnoxiously.

  “Beverly got asked out,” Nami told everyone abruptly, and I wanted to shrink into my seat. I subconsciously straightened my back.

  Everest repeated my actions. “What?”

  “Oh yeah, she got asked out on a date,” Tiffany continued nonchalantly while she ate, while Everest turned to look at me.

  Mikey turned to me. “What did you say?”

  My mouth felt like cotton. “I-I didn’t say anything.”

  “To the guy. What did you say to the guy?” Mikey asked while shaking his head.

  Their eyes pulled me like magnets. I had their full, undivided attention, and I didn’t remember asking for it.

  “. . . I said yes.”

  “Who is this guy?” Mikey questioned, like an older-brother figure in the movies.

  I didn’t know smoothie boy’s name. How could I possibly let that slip my mind? I didn’t know him from a can of paint, but I could have at least asked what his name was. I wondered if he faced this issue too—he hadn’t asked for my name either.

  “Nathan,” Nami said, saving the day. “Remember?” she urged me and I nodded nu
mbly.

  “Wow, you don’t know his name?” Mikey questioned in disbelief.

  “I barely know him.” I inwardly cringed.

  Nami’s hand clasped on my shoulder. “Yeah, but that’s what dates are for, right?”

  Shrugging her arm off me, I gathered my things, piling any trash I had and preparing to flee the scene.

  “Where are you going?” Everest finally broke his silence. He grabbed my jacket to ensure that I wasn’t going to leave without answering his question. The table focused on me once more.

  “I have to go to Ms. Gregor’s class early.”

  “Why?”

  “I promised I’d help hang up art.”

  “Oh . . . yeah.” He let go of my jacket.

  “I’ll walk you there,” he said shortly.

  “No, it’s all right. Finish your food. I’ll see you guys later.”

  After the awkward attention I’d got, I was in need of a breather. I left the library in a rush. Somehow, I felt like I’d done something wrong. I wasn’t quite sure what that was, but I felt riddled with guilt. I was turning around to see if anyone had followed me when I suddenly bumped into a mass.

  “Ahg.”

  It was Nash. His eyes were puffy and red; he looked as if he’d been crying. Crimson cheeks and a sense of defeat was a look that was a foreign one on him. Sure, everybody cried—it was just too strange to see him like that.

  “I’m so s—”

  “Watch where you’re going.” He roughly pushed past me, cutting off my apology.

  I watched as he walked in the opposite direction, not saying anything more or anything less.

  “Hey, Betty,” Lily greeted me. “Hello, Everest.”

  “Hey, Lil.” Everest spoke for what seemed the first time in forever. After lunch, he’d barely spoken—not when he dropped me off at home after school or twenty minutes prior when he’d picked me up again. Something must have been weighing on his mind.

  Everest had a shift that night, so I’d asked if he could drop me off at 21 Daisies. He’d agreed, but something was up with him.

  “Hi,” I greeted her. Lily had been glowing like a firefly in July these past few days. Her wedding was approaching quickly, and you could see the happiness that floated around her before her big day.

  “I hear there’s a special occasion,” Lucky said from a foot away.

  “Beverly is going on a date,” Everest responded, walking ahead of me.

  “With who?” Lincoln asked next.

  “Wait, who told you there’s a ‘special occasion’?” I asked.

  “Tiffany. Now, who is this guy?”

  “Some guy named Nathan.” Everest was talking more about me than directly to me at this point.

  “When is he coming?” Lincoln looked at me with curiosity.

  “Any minute.”

  “Wait, what’s happening?” Lucky joined the conversation after coming out of the break room.

  “Beverly is going on a date,” Lincoln and Everest said at the same time.

  I groaned. “Guys, please don’t make this a big deal.”

  “Big deal? I’m calm, cool, and collected,” Everest rambled distractedly.

  “Beverly.” I heard a voice come from behind me.

  When I turned, Nathan was there.

  “Hi, you look pretty,” he said, and heat instantly rushed to my ears.

  “What’s your name, man?” Lincoln had an expression on his face that I’d never seen before. It was serious. Not only that, but also slightly intimidating.

  “Nathan . . .” he answered, looking at me, slightly confused.

  “C’mon, Nathan, let’s go.” I grabbed his arm in an attempt to flee the tense awkwardness of the room.

  “Wait, not so fast,” Lucky called out.

  “Let them go. We have a set to play,” I heard Everest say in a bored tone as he headed to the stage.

  “Bye, Beverly,” Tiffany said with a smile.

  Nami chuckled. “Have fun.”

  When I climbed into the passenger seat of Nathan’s silver Impala, it smelled of strong cologne with a slight funky undertone.

  He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Those were your friends?”

  My eyes darted to him and then toward the road. “Yeah.”

  He didn’t say anything after that, and for a few awkward minutes, we sat through the silence. That was until Nathan flicked on the radio and piercing screams came through the speaker.

  “Ah!” I screamed before quickly switching the radio off.

  Nathan looked at me with an alarmed expression. “What was that for?”

  My heart pumped through my ears. “There were screams.”

  His eyes were focused on the road, but I could see the confusion written all over his face. “Of course there were. It’s music.”

  What.

  “That was not music.” I shook my head.

  He glanced at me quickly before chuckling. “Sure, it was. It’s screamo.

  “Listen.” He turned the screaming voices and harsh instrument sounds back on and thrashed his head backward then forward, and that was how my ride was all the way to the mall.

  When we went into the movie theater, the overwhelming smell of popcorn engulfed me whole. The neon colors of various signs and arcade games caught my eye while Nathan bought the movie tickets. We didn’t get any popcorn or snacks because Nathan figured we didn’t want them, even though I did sort of crave the buttery kernels.

  “What movie did you chose?” I asked as we walked toward the second ticket booth.

  “It’s a surprise. Don’t worry, though, you’re gonna love it.”

  I didn’t love it.

  Nathan picked the most gory, bloody, violent movie he could think of. Zombies were being slaughtered in gross detail scene by scene. But that was when I was able to watch the movie, which was kind of hard to do when he talked throughout the flick, about himself mostly.

  “I always wanted to dye my hair. What color do you think?” he whispered in my ear. It was a good thing the theater was dark or else his feelings would have been hurt by my annoyed facial expression. I didn’t answer his question in hopes he would give up and watch the movie that he paid for. But that only made matters worse.

  “Beverly.

  “Psst.”

  He sat back and I thought he got over his prodding, but I was wrong. He reached into his pocket to pull out a balled-up gum wrapper to throw at me.

  “What?” I turned to him with uncontrollable irritation but immediately felt bad and tried to not sound annoyed again.

  “What colo—”

  I forced a smile. “Blond.”

  “No, that’s not going to work.” He snorted and the person behind us gave him a shush.

  Poke.

  Poke.

  My eyes fluttered opened and I remembered where I was.

  “You’re missing the climax.”

  Nathan’s eyes were glued to the image projected on the huge screen and I immediately felt bad for falling asleep during a movie that he paid for me to watch. Soon after, the credits rolled and I felt relieved that I was going home soon. It was horrible for me to feel such a way while on a date with a nice person, but I did. I yawned into my hand when I stood from up out of my chair.

  “Aw, you’re a cutie,” Nathan commented after he watched me finish my yawn. “You ready to head to the food court?”

  I inwardly sighed when I realized that the date wasn’t finished just yet. He looked so excited, and I felt compelled to nod my head to leave for the food court.

  “This way, black beauty.” A string of cringes swam down my spine.

  When we got to the food court, Nathan bought himself a lemonade and some kind of panini. I ordered myself a banana smoothie as usual, but didn’t have much of an appetite.
He didn’t pay for me, but he did give me a discount on the smoothie since he worked there, which was nice.

  “My ex-girlfriend hated bananas. She always got the berry-blue smoothies,” he said as we took a seat at a nearby table.

  “Yeah?” I didn’t really know how to respond.

  “Yup . . . so, yeah, I think it’s cool that you like bananas and stuff.” He awkwardly took a bite of his panini, and the overwhelming smell of garlic hit my senses.

  I nodded and wondered if something was wrong with me. Dates were supposed to be enjoyable, and all I wanted to do was go home. He was nice and cute, but none of this felt right. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it didn’t.

  “Did you like the movie?” he asked after a moment.

  “It was great. How did you like it?” I asked politely. Zombie movies had never really been my thing, and I fell asleep a few times, but from what I had seen, it was all right—a tad too violent for me, but overall, an average film.

  “Trash!” he exclaimed, and I got a huge whiff of the garlic onion panini scent on his breath. “There was no development. No growth. Quite frankly, their use of graphics was insulting—”

  I felt like I was being tortured. The smell was so bad but there was nothing that I could do about it. I just sat there, taking hit after hit of his foul-smelling breath. Eventually, I tuned out of his review of the movie before realizing that the corner store in the mall sold mints.

  “Beverly?” Nathan waved a hand in my face, pulling me from my thoughts.

  I blinked a few times. “Sorry, I’m listening—it’s just that my breath smells not that great. Do you mind if I go and get some mints?” I covered my hand with my mouth and began to stand up from my chair.

  “Oh no, I need you to have fresh breath. Go get those mints, girl.” He winked before folding his arms behind his head.

  His response threw me off. It was as if he knew something I didn’t. I forced a smile and went to the corner store. I purchased the mints swiftly, not wanting to waste any time. When I arrived at the table, I purposely opened the package in front of him. I tossed a mint in my mouth first before offering him one.

  “No, thanks.” He grinned and my soul sighed. How long do dates usually last? I asked myself in that moment.