Dibs! (Lesbian, GxG)

Chapter 6

"Callie!" May calls out to me. "Get over here! I want you to meet someone!" She waves a hand over. I grudgingly abandon my things and come to her. It's not until I'm too close do I notice a guy. 

     Correction: two guys. 

     One of them is holding May by the waist, even though he's tall and lanky. He's smirking as if he's in on a joke, and his brown hair is shaggy to the point I can barely see his eyes. The other guy is looking at the ground, scraping at a piece of chewed gum with his shoe. Unlike his partner-in-crime, he has cropped green-dyed hair. He's kind of chubby, which makes him cute. You know, in a non-crush way.

     "Remember when I was talking about meeting this guy before our meet at the cafe a couple days ago?" May asks, jerking me from eyeing the apparent third wheel. The lanky guy smiles at me while my friend goes on to say, "This is Logan. The other guy I told you about is Dominic." Dominic, who hasn't seen me eyeing him, looks up long enough to give me a shy smile.

     I smile at May. "Can we talk for a minute?" I ask. 

     She glances at Logan. "I'll be right back," she assures him. "Just in time for our date."

     As soon as we find a more private place, I start asking her in a loud whisper, "Are you insane? I thought I told you I wasn't interested in going out with anybody! And what's this I hear about you and one of those guys having a date?"

     May puts her hands up. "I heard you loud and clear about the not being on the market," she says. "And the date is just with me and Logan. Dominic heard your opinion, but still wanted to meet you." When I give her the evil eye, she adds quickly, "He thought you were an interesting person!"

     "What exactly did you tell him about me?" I question. 

     She makes a gesture, forcing me to turn around. Facing Dominic, I jump back in surprise. "Uh, h-hi," I say. "You kind of s-scared me there."

     Dominic smiles again, this time out of nervousness. "I tend to have that effect on people when I meet them for the first time." For someone only an inch shorter than me, his voice is deep. If May was in my head, she'd probably describe it as a 'bedroom voice'. As ridiculous as that sounds, that's most likely a legitimate word in Mayism. 

     He holds out a hand. "You're Callie, right?" he asks. 

     Tentatively, I shake it. "Um, yeah. May told me about you a-a few days ago." Out of the corner of my eye, I see May talking to Logan again. Logan made a joke, causing her to laugh a little. I focus my attention back to Dominic. "I don't think I've seen you at school. Where do you go to?"

     "Edgewood High. It's kind of a big school, but I manage to not get lost in between classes." 

     "Must be hell for the new kids," I comment.

     Dominic laughs. "I guess." After this, awkward silence fills up the gap of the conversation. From the background, May's pulled out a phone and is showing Logan something on it. 

     "What did May tell you about me?" I ask from earlier. "She only told me that you still wanted to meet me."

     This time, he puts on a nervous. "When you say it like that, I sound a little creepy," he admits. "It's that I don't get to meet a lot of people that I find interesting. I only talk to idiots or potheads."

     "Aren't they the same thing?" Someone behind me bumps into me, causing me to jump away. He doesn't bother to apologize; he just glares at me before going on his way. If I didn't know better, I would have smacked him around.

     Dominic notes, based on the scene, "We can talk somewhere else with less people."

     I take the opportunity a little too quickly. "That'd be cool," I say. "Know a good place like that?" 

     As soon as I ask, my best friend turns around a gives me a big smile. Apparently, she has super hearing when she wants something to happen. Logan, however, is paying attention to his phone. Call me paranoid, but I have a feeling something isn't right with Logan. 

____________

Ever played a game called, "Never Have I Ever"? Before I was diagnosed with anxiety and before I was even anxious about a lot of stuff, I used to play that game with other little girls. We'd think up of statements that we've never done, like Shelly's example was, "Never have I ever ridden a horse." We'd have a cup of juice each, and every time someone says something they've never done but some of us have, we'd take a sip, and the next person takes a turn. 

     I remember that one of my statements was, "Never have I ever been alone with a boy." I was proud for not having that ever happen to me, but I'm pretty sure my pride ends right about now. Dominic had us walk down a few blocks to a field, where the only living thing besides grass was a tree.

     He walks around the tree, and I follow. I can see the steps molded on the side of the tree, as if it was meant to be a tree for kids to climb on since it was planted. Dominic puts his foot on the first foothold, a hand on the last step, and lifts himself up. In less than three seconds, he's up in the caved-in top of the tree. 

     "Wanna climb up here?" he asks me.

     I take a moment to look at the steps before I nod. I reach for the holds, and I semi-succeed in getting myself up towards the top. I slip once, but it's enough for Dominic to hold out a hand, which I take for granted. He pulls me up, and before I know we're in the same crowded space. 

     "So," Dominic starts. "What's your life story?" I must have given him a look, because he adds, "Anything interesting going on at your school?"

     If you were there in the past couple of weeks, you would know, I say in my head. "Not really," I lie. "There are the usual sports events, but that's about it."

     Dominic's started to climb up even higher. If I watch, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get sick. "Yeah, same here," he says. He gets to a couple of branches higher, and he stays there. (Thank God.)

     "What's up with you and Logan?" I ask suddenly. "I mean, are you guys friends, or . . . "

     "We're kind of friends," he answers. "We're in that complicated friendship that the only reason we talk to each other is if one of us needs the other to do something for him."

     "And in this case, you're the one who needs something?" I assume.

     He gives me a 'what can I do?' shrug. "What about you and May? How long have you two been friends?"

     "Too long," I answer automatically, causing him to laugh. Without meaning to, I smile a little as well. "May thought of me as someone she can hang out with outside of her world, I guess. She's become more popular with most of the people our grade, eleventh grade, and ninth grade, which might explain how she's hitting it off with Logan well."

     Dominic doesn't say anything, and I look up to see why. He's reaching out for a lone leaf hanging from a twig above him. After ripping it out, he starts tearing it into strips. As he does it, he says, "I wouldn't mind being able to get along with the people I want to hang out with."

     "You and me both," I respond.

     "Why? What's your excuse?"

     I sit down on the "ground". "I get kind of anxious," I say. Not to mention having Jules tracking me down, I add in my head.

     Sensing that I wasn't going to come up, Dominic slides down and sits next to me. For a while we stay that way, which I'm completely okay with. I feel like I've given too much away about myself, so the silence forces me to think instead of just talk. 

     My train of thought vanishes when I see Jules from afar, walking on the sidewalk. She trips on a raised cement, and catches herself in time. I'm about to think that's all I'm witnessing, but now's when Jules decides to lift her head up and see me.

     In a tree.

     Sitting next to a boy.

     Crap.