Making Out Read online

  “What can I get you?” She made it sound like it meant more than it did.

  A smile flickered on Li’l D’s luscious mouth. “How about a skim milk cappuccino with a double shot of espresso?” he said. He glanced up at the menu, then met her eyes again. “What size should I get?”

  “You obviously need a big one,” Lisa Marie answered quickly.

  What did that even mean? She couldn’t believe she was being so bold and out there. It was almost embarrassing.

  But it seemed to be working. Li’l D grinned at her, and his buddies were smirking.

  She held his gaze, not wanting the moment to end.

  “Okay. Give me a big one, then,” he said.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone approach the counter and pick up the coffee she’d set there.

  “Is this for me?” Heather called.

  Lisa Marie half nodded without looking over.

  “Well, okay, then,” Heather said, clearing her throat. She motioned to Marianna, pointing toward the door. “I guess we’ll see you later.”

  “Bye,” Lisa Marie called, barely nodding as they left.

  To be honest, she was glad to see them go.

  The thing about girlfriends, Lisa Marie thought, was that they were always there for you—even when you didn’t want them to be.

  Chapter 5

  “I’m eighteen, Dad,” Marianna pleaded, hating the sound of her own whiny voice. “I’m going away to college in six months! It’s insane not to let me go out to a movie with a boy. You can’t keep me locked up here forever!”

  “You may or may not be going away to college.” Her father raised a threatening eyebrow.

  Oh, wow. Was he stooping to that threat already?

  “You’re saying I can’t go to Wash U?” Marianna’s mouth dropped open.

  “We still haven’t settled that, you know,” her father said.

  It was a low blow, and everyone in the living room felt it. Marianna’s mother, who always sat silently through these arguments and couldn’t be counted on to swat down a fly let alone argue with her husband, stiffened visibly. Even her thirteen-year-old brother Max was quieter than usual.

  Everyone knew she’d already been accepted at Washington University in Saint Louis, her first-choice school. This was just a tactic—one of her father’s favorites. He was determined to keep her obedient and under his thumb as long as possible, so whenever she acted the least bit independent, he floated the idea that maybe she should go to Georgetown instead, and live at home.

  It was horrible and mean-spirited, and she didn’t really think he’d go through with it. But how could she know for sure?

  Why am I taking the bait? she thought. She was letting him get her off topic. She didn’t have time to be distracted. Her date with Luke was tomorrow night—she’d already waited too long to face her father and get his permission. She needed to stay focused on the subject at hand.

  “It’s just a movie,” Marianna repeated. She was trying to stay calm—she really was—but she could feel the panic rising in her throat. It was already 8:30 on Thursday night. How was she going to tell Luke that the date was off, the night before they were supposed to go out? “I’m graduating in two months! Come on, Dad.”

  “I don’t see any reason to bend the rules now,” her father said, swirling his glass of leftover Merlot.

  “Er . . .” Marianna’s mother cleared her throat softly, trying to speak up. All heads turned. She had never contradicted her husband before.

  “Yes?” Her father’s eyes dared her mother to keep speaking.

  “Um, it probably wouldn’t hurt to let her go out to one movie, Harold,” she said meekly. “You want her to get some experience with boys while you’re still here to guide her, don’t you?”

  Wow. Marianna couldn’t remember her mother ever standing up for her before.

  Harold shot his wife a fleeting look that was hard to read. Marianna wondered if they’d have a fight later. Her dad could get really furious sometimes. He’d never admit it, but he needed anger management lessons. He was a first-class bully.

  “All right. If that’s what you think, Adrianna. I’ll take your advice. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out to be an enormous mistake.”

  You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

  “Thanks, Daddy!” Marianna leapt up to give him a hug. She hadn’t called him Daddy in more than three years. She turned to run upstairs, to call her friends and tell them the amazing news. She was going on a date with Luke. A real date!

  “But you’ll have to be home by 9:30,” he said sternly, stopping her in her tracks.

  Was he kidding? Was he completely insane?

  “No way.” She whirled around angrily, her voice thin and high. “That’s ridiculous, and you know it. How can you treat me like a total child?”

  Uh-oh. Her father’s scowl was enough to make her sorry she’d said a word.

  “If you can’t control your temper, Marianna, maybe you’re not old enough to have dating privileges at all,” he warned.

  “It’s not even a date if I have to be home that early!” Marianna complained. “It’s more like he’s babysitting me!”

  “Who is this boy, anyway?” Her father raised his voice, and raised the stakes at the same time. The message was clear: He could change his mind at any minute if he didn’t like the sound of this guy.

  “He’s on the cross-country team.” She knew the minute she said it that she was in dangerous territory.

  “That’s what I thought.” Her father looked smug. “I’ve always said that boys who play sports with girls are only after one thing.”

  Here we go. Marianna wanted to die. She couldn’t bear another one of his lectures about guys—not now. Not with her little brother smirking from his perch on a chair arm. What was he doing hanging around for this conversation anyway? It was none of his business.

  “Don’t you have something better to do?” she snapped at Max.

  “Yeah. Can I go over to Neil’s house to watch The Matrix ?” he asked his dad.

  “Yes.” Her father nodded without an instant’s debate.

  “I don’t believe this!” Marianna screeched, pointing at the antique clock on the mantel. “It’s almost nine o’clock—on a school night! How come he’s allowed to stay out later than me?”

  Her father glared, angry that she was even demanding an explanation from him. “Max is not going to be assaulted walking three blocks to a friend’s house,” he said in a cold, patronizing tone. “I’m sorry, Marianna, but I didn’t set up the way the world works. Girls are more vulnerable; that’s a simple fact. Now do you want to go on this date tomorrow night, or do you want to argue with me? It’s a choice. One or the other.”

  A choice? That was a laugh. What choice did she ever have?

  She stormed out of the living room, stomped up the steps to her room, and slammed the door. Big protest. Even she was embarrassed by how lame it was.

  But at least she was going to be allowed to go out with Luke. She just hoped he would understand about the curfew.

  She opened her e-mail and found a note from him in her in-box.

  Hi—How about I pick you up at 7:30 tomorrow night? The film starts at 8:10. Maybe we can get a pizza after, unless you’re one of those girls who doesn’t eat. (In which case, I’m going to totally whip your ass at the cross-country trials next week, you’ll be so weak from hunger.) ☻—Luke

  Marianna’s head throbbed. The film starts at 8:10. How was she supposed to be home by 9:30? There was no possible way.

  Trembling, she hit the Reply button and started to answer Luke’s e-mail, but a moment later he showed up on her Buddy List. Maybe IM-ing him was easier.

  MKazanjian: Hey Luke

  LPerchik: hi, you. r u running tomorrow a.m.?

  MKazanjian: yeah.

  LPerchik: better watch out. I’ll be flying. Is 7:30 okay to pick you up tomorrow nite?

  MKazanjian: sure, but there’s a problem. I hav
e to be home by 9:30. Can you believe that?

  MKazanjian: Luke? You still there?

  MKazanjian: hello?

  LPerchik: sorry . . . gotta take a call from my dad. back in a sec . . .

  Marianna waited more like a thousand seconds, but he didn’t come back to the chat. Obviously, he had dumped her. She couldn’t honestly blame him. What guy wanted to go out with a girl who had a bedtime?

  Then an e-mail from Luke popped up in her in-box.

  Hi—Sorry, the movie doesn’t get out till 9:45. Maybe you’d be better off with a matinee instead—Luke

  A matinee? A movie in the afternoon, when only little kids were there? How completely and utterly humiliating. He was mocking her, of course, probably to make himself feel better about canceling their date. No doubt he’d spread the news all over school first thing the next morning. Tell everyone that she wasn’t allowed to stay out past frigging 9:30 on a Friday night. She might as well crawl into a hole and die.

  Her cell phone rang in her purse, and she dove for it. Maybe he was calling to apologize?

  Nope. It was only Heather.

  “Hi,” Marianna said, too embarrassed to tell her what had happened with Luke. “What’s up?”

  “I’m at Lisa Marie’s, and we’re studying for the American lit midterm. Can we borrow your notes on Moby-Dick?”

  “Sure,” Marianna said, agreeing to e-mail the notes. She changed the subject. “But you’ve got to promise me something. Promise me we’ll all go to the prom as a group, like we planned.”

  “Definitely,” Heather said. “I’m pumped for that.”

  Not that Marianna’s dad was going to let her stay out late on prom night. She’d have to really work on him to even let her go with a group of girls at all. But at least she’d be there, and she’d have on a killer dress, and she’d make Luke sorry he’d treated her like a kid.

  In the background, Marianna heard Heather repeating the message to Lisa Marie, who agreed weakly.

  “Thank you,” Marianna said. “You two are the best. You always say the right things.”

  But just in case they didn’t, she would wait until tomorrow to tell them how Luke had dumped her.

  Chapter 6

  “Squeeze in, everyone,” Mr. Rayburn told the third period civics class the next morning as he wrote a list of terms on the chalkboard and waved people into the room. “Mr. Young was called away for an emergency, so we’re combining both groups today.”

  Chairs squeaked and tables groaned across the linoleum floor.

  “Mr. Young’s people, just push those tables against the wall—you can sit on them,” Mr. Rayburn said.

  Marianna glanced up from the civics chapter she had been skimming, trying to cram during the five minutes before class started—which was what happened when she was so pissed at someone, she blew off the reading the night before. She spotted Luke, the very someone she was pissed at, standing in the doorway to the classroom.

  He met her eyes with a question, but she looked away quickly. Was he wondering why she had skipped tempo training that morning? Easy one. Tempo training was optional on Fridays. Why show up and give him another chance to humiliate her?

  The room echoed with desks and tables being pushed back and scooted around. When the crowd settled, Luke was sitting knees up, back against the wall, on the floor, directly in her line of sight.

  She kept her head bent, skimming the chapter over and over but not taking in a word of it.

  “So who can tell me what the Supreme Court’s role was in deciding the 2000 election?” Mr. Rayburn asked. “And how does it demonstrate our system of checks and balances?”

  Marianna’s hand went up. “It doesn’t. The Supreme Court took control of the voting process and determined the outcome of the election,” she said. “If it hadn’t been for—”

  “No, I’m not asking a political question,” Mr. Rayburn interrupted her. “I’m talking about how each branch of the government has separate powers and responsibilities.”

  Great. Now Rayburn was dismissing her like a child, in front of Luke.

  Luke’s hand shot up while Mr. Rayburn was still talking.

  “Yes?” Rayburn called on him.

  “Marianna’s right,” Luke said. “The system is supposed to have checks and balances, but they didn’t work in the 2000 election because the court decided the whole thing. The court shouldn’t be deciding our elections . . .”

  His voice trailed off, and someone else chimed in on the debate, but Marianna wasn’t really listening. Her heart was pumping a little irregular rhythm, and she was holding her own internal debate on a much more important issue: Should she look over at Luke right now and smile?

  He had defended her! That had to mean something good, didn’t it?

  Maybe he hadn’t been mocking her last night with that matinee comment after all. Maybe he really meant it. Could he possibly want to go to an afternoon movie?

  She doodled pictures of King Kong, the movie they were supposed to go see, through the rest of the class. Finally the bell rang.

  Luke was first out the door, but he was waiting for her in the hallway.

  “Hi,” he said. “I missed you this morning.”

  “Yeah, well, I thought I’d take a break,” she said cautiously. She wanted to say, I missed you, too, but she wasn’t in the mood to go out on any limbs. “That was nice in class—you backing me up.”

  “You were right,” Luke said. “These teachers who don’t want to get into political discussions drive me crazy. What’s the point of learning civics?”

  He jerked his head toward the main hallway. “I have Spanish. You going that way?”

  Marianna shook her head. Her next class was in the opposite direction.

  Luke shrugged. “Okay, well . . .”

  Was he just going to walk off without saying a thing about their date? Was it on or off?

  “So do you want to maybe study for the civics exam after school today?” he said. “We could do it before nine thirty p.m. Daylight saving time doesn’t even start until next weekend.”

  Unbelievable. He was mocking her again!

  Marianna spun around and started to stomp away, but Luke grabbed her arm.

  “Hey, wait, wait. I was just kidding. What’s wrong?”

  “You’re trying to make me feel like a jerk about my curfew,” Marianna snapped. “That crack about going to a matinee? If you want to get out of our date, just say so.”

  His blue eyes opened wide. “No. No, I don’t want to get out of our date,” he said quickly. “I was serious about the matinee. If that works better for you, then let’s just go tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Seriously?”

  He nodded, and since he was still holding on to the arm of her sweater, he gave it a little tug. “Meet me after school by the statue, and we’ll figure it out.”

  Then he flashed his irresistible smile at her one more time and hurried down the hall.

  Marianna felt happier inside than she could remember feeling in a long time. Suddenly, everything about St. Claire’s Academy seemed . . . what was the word? Nice. The hallways, with their wooden wainscot paneling and old stone floors were nice. The heavy doorways leading from the west corridor and down a flight of steps were nice. Having a calculus quiz right before lunch was nice because . . . she had to think hard to come up with a reason . . . because it meant she didn’t have to worry about taking it in the afternoon. The smell of macaroni and cheese bubbling in the cafeteria kitchen? Nice. It reminded her of grade school.

  Floating, she found her way to her next class without even thinking about how she got there. All she could think about was Luke. His cute smile; his hard, muscular chest; the way he bent his head slightly when he was talking to her. What a relief to finally talk up to a guy.

  The only problem was her dad, but she had decided there was no way she’d let that be an issue. She simply wouldn’t tell him about her dates. Nope. She was going to see Luke on the sly, and let her father think she was
just spending lots of time with Lisa Marie and Heather.

  She had it all figured out—except for one thing.

  What if Luke asked her to the prom? She’d already made Heather and Lisa Marie swear they’d go as a group.

  No, if things worked out with Luke, she was going to have to come up with a new plan. Maybe she, Lisa Marie, and Heather could go to prom as a group . . . but then meet up with various guys when they got there. That could work. From the looks of things at Starbucks, Lisa Marie was going to have to fight guys off with a stick.

  Heather was another story, though. She didn’t really seem to be trying.

  Marianna and Lisa Marie would have to put their heads together and come up with someone for Heather; that’s all there was to it.

  Instant message:

  MKazanjian: hey, Heather girl. guess who gave me a back rub while we were studying after school today?

  HProule: Who?!!!

  MKazanjian: Luke. He is so amazing.

  HProule: Unbelievable! Where were you?????

  MKazanjian: On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Luke said it would inspire us to ace our civics test.

  HProule: Did it?

  MKazanjian: no, we didn’t even study. but it inspired me to lie to my dad three times in one phone conversation.

  HProule: LOL

  LMSantos: hey, Marianna.

  MKazanjian: hey, coffee queen! Why r’nt you at Starbucks? LMSantos: Graham took me off the schedule this weekend.

  He’s punishing me.

  HProule: what for?

  LMSantos: forgetting to call somebody’s drink.

  MKazanjian: bad girl.

  LMSantos: right. phone the coffee police. anyway, why aren’t you on your date with Luke?

  MKazanjian: we’re going out tomorrow, so my dad won’t have a cow about it. BTW, if he calls, I’m studying with both of you tomorrow.

  LMSantos: that’s cool

  MKazanjian: Listen, I was thinking about the prom. When we get there, I might want to hang with Luke part of the time, you know?