Crushes Over Papercuts- A Mid 90s Tale

Chapter 12

"No cops, no neighbors." Cody erased the solution from his paper. "No one will break up the party and we can be as loud and stay as late as we want."

It was the third time Cody calculated the wrong answer for question eight in his textbook. The Pit was making it hard for him to focus.

"And you can't leave early tonight," he teased.

I smiled. "My mom's traveling this weekend so we don't have to worry about curfew." I underlined the parenthesis on his paper. Lily had been talking non-stop about the pit party since Marcus confirmed it was happening after the football game but hearing Cody hype it up made me want to rush time so it could finally start.

I flipped through the pages in my notebook while I waited for Cody's next solution and found my old nervous doodles from our first tutor session. My finger ran across a smudged flower- proof of my formerly sweaty hands. I gazed at my dry palms. The same girl sat across from Cody but everything had changed. I could now call Cody a friend, I had my first date, and later that night I would be spending time with people I used to watch from afar.

Cody spun his paper around. "Check this one."

I nodded my head. "It's correct."

"Finally," he said.

#

"Marcus is so sweet and I like him so much," Lily gushed.

Her first date with Marcus was a far different experience than the one I had with Mark. Marcus took her to a little cafe downtown where they later walked the cobbled streets and let the street performers and nightlife entertain them.

She applied a second coat of her new red lipstick to her reflection in my vanity. "I don't care what Courtney told you about him. She's probably jealous that her boyfriend doesn't treat her like Marcus treats me."

Lauren sat on the edge of the vanity stool with Lily. "And he showed up alone to Dylan's house when he had no reason to believe Jenny would be there."

"So true," Lily agreed. "Jenny, tonight you should ask Mark if he wants to double date with me and Marcus. It would be so fun."

"Yeah...maybe," I mumbled.

I hadn't told the girls what I witnessed, or thought I witnessed, between Cody, Marcus and Mark at Dylan's house last weekend. It could have been my imagination but it seemed like they were separating me from Mark.

I did tell them about Courtney's strange attention on me though. Nicole assumed Courtney was probably drunk but I didn't see any alcohol at Dylan's house and something just seemed off about the whole thing...like there was something I was missing and I couldn't piece it all together.

I saw Mark twice at school this week. He waved at me on Monday from across the open corridor and another time he was walking with Courtney and they both said "hi" to me as they passed. It was the first time Courtney had acknowledged my presence at school in front of another person.

Nicole leaned out from the bathroom door with the curling iron rolled around a lock of her hair. "It's still strange what happened with Courtney at Dylan's."

I zipped up my jeans. "I know. I can't explain that."

#

Mark found me waiting at Lily's car after the game.

"You want to catch a lift with us?" He nodded towards the brown sedan parked a few rows down. "A few of us are riding in Courtney's car but there's room for one more."

Courtney untied her hair from her ponytail and smiled when she caught me watching her.

"She told me to personally invite you," Mark said.