3. three

Chapter three

“(What A) Wonderful World” - Sam Cooke

I considered asking Xander and Abigail not to watch me interact with the blonde girl, but they wouldn’t have listened, anyway. As I pulled open the screen door at the side of the building, I glanced in their direction. Abigail, leaning against the truck, gave me a thumbs up. Xander just stared.

The girl behind the counter smiled when I came in. Abigail was right–she was even cuter up close. She had a round face, striking green eyes, and full lips. “Hi,” she said.

“Hey.” It was too soon to have a conversation, though–I hadn’t hyped myself up enough yet. So, I made my way down the candy aisle with my hands in my pockets, eyeing the men sitting at the little round tables near the back. One of them was talking about prepping for his colonoscopy.

It wasn’t exactly setting the mood.

I pretended to look at the selection of generic fruity candies while keeping a close eye on the girl behind the counter. She was softly singing along to the Sam Cooke song playing on the radio as she replaced the paper roll in the receipt printer.

God, was she trying to get me to fall in love with her, or what?

The screen door swung open and a middle-aged man came in to pay for his gas. I half-listened to them have a conversation about gas prices while absentmindedly scanning the candy.

When the man left, I knew I could no longer pace the aisles pretending to be looking for something, so I walked to the coolers in the back and grabbed a Dr. Pepper. Here goes nothing , I thought to myself as I made my way up to the register. She already had her eyes on me–was I walking funny? I suddenly became painfully aware of every step I took and the awkward way I carried the bottle in front of my chest. With each step, the counter seemed farther and farther away.

Shit, am I too high for this?

She smiled at me when I reached the counter, so that was a good sign. “You spent all that time eyeing the candy and you’re not getting any?”

Good, she was initiating the conversation. That alleviated some of my nervousness. I sat the pop bottle on the counter and slid it toward her. “I just couldn’t make up my mind, I guess.”

“You want to know my favorite?” she asked, scanning my Dr. Pepper. I just nodded. “The sour gummy frogs. I don’t know what it is about them, but they’re so much better than gummy bears or worms.”

After giving it just a second of thought, I did something impulsive and very un-Owen-like. I held up my pointer finger for her to wait and made my way back over to the candy, locating the gummy frogs, and brought them up to the counter.

“Aha,” the cashier said as she scanned the package. “I’m glad you’re taking my recommendation, but just a warning: you’re going to be addicted. I don’t know what they put in them. Crack or something.”

I let out a little laugh and looked into her eyes for the first time in our conversation. It was then that I realized I’d seen her around school before–last year. And the longer I stared at her face, the more I realized we may have even had a class together at some point. “You graduated last year, right?”

“Right,” she said, running her fingers through her hair. “You were in my 2D Art class, weren’t you?”

Indeed, I was. Finally, I could place her. We never interacted in the class, but I had some vague memories of seeing her in front of the backdrop of Mrs. Peters’ chaotic art room. With the quickest downward glance at her tight t-shirt, I said, “I hope you don’t remember any of my terrible drawings from that class. Art is not my strong suit.”

“Oh yeah? What is your strong suit?”

Was she flirting with me? Say something cool. Say something cool. “Science.” Fuck. I can fix this. “I mean, anatomy. More specifically… female anatomy.”

Her eyes widened slightly, and she stared at me for a few seconds in stunned silence. The heat rushed to my face as I stammered out the next few words in an attempt to backpedal.

“I don’t–I didn’t mean–I was just-”

But she burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. “You did not just say that.”

“Unfortunately, I did,” I said, stealing a quick glance toward Xander’s truck. Xander and Abigail were both staring back at me. From their vantage point, it probably looked like I was killing it in here–like she was laughing with me, not at me.

“You haven’t even seen a vagina before, have you?”

Was it that obvious? Praying the men at the back of the store weren’t eavesdropping, I shook my head and said. “Seen one? No. Touched one? That’s a different story…”

“Oh wow,” she said, closing the drawer of the cash register. I wasn’t even aware she’d finished ringing up my items, but she was already handing me my change. As she dropped the pennies into my hand, she looked me in the eyes and said, “I’d love to hear that story.”

Still unaware of whether she was making fun of me or flirting with me, I decided to just throw all caution to the wind and pretend for just a second that I wasn’t shy, inexperienced Owen Gardner. What would Xander say? “I could tell you, but it’s a long one.” Holding her gaze, I lowered my voice to add, “It would take all night.”

To my dismay, she threw her head back and laughed harder than ever. “I swear, every word that comes out of your mouth is worse than the last one!” Her shrieking laughter had caught the attention of the men in the back, whose conversation quieted down. We had an audience.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked down at my feet. “I’m sorry–my friend–he made me come in here and talk to you, or else he won’t take me back to school. I had to at least try.” When I looked back up at her face, she was still smiling at me, her slightly crooked teeth peeking out from behind her pink-stained lips. God, she was so pretty. I couldn’t give up–not yet. Eyeing the Middle Earth tattoo on her arm, I said, “I should’ve gone with a Lord of the Rings pick-up line.”

“Why don’t you try one out on me and see where it goes?” she suggested with a grin.

I licked my lips, pulling one hand from my pocket to rub my sweaty palm on my jeans. “Okay. Uh… what do you say you and I have second breakfast in bed in the morning?”

Her smile grew. “Not bad. Not bad at all. Do better.”

I bit my bottom lip, surprised this might actually be working. With a sigh, I absentmindedly stared at the display of lottery tickets to my right before another line popped into my head. “How about–even the fires of Mount Doom don’t burn hotter than you?”

That one made her laugh. “That’s better, but are you asking me or telling me? Your delivery is all wrong. You’ve gotta say it with confidence.”

Luckily for both of us, I was feeling more confident by the second, and another LOTR pick-up line popped into my mind. “Well, you must be the one ring to rule them all,” I said, leaning onto my elbows on the counter to get a little closer to her. I took a moment to pause, letting the first half of this line sink in before I finished it. “Because I’m about to call you my precious.”

And that was it–that was all it took to win her over completely. Instead of laughing at my expense, she was now giggling and twirling her hair around her finger. It actually worked. “Tell me your name, Frodo.”

“Owen,” I answered, eyeing the set of keys next to the register. One of the keychains resembled a beachy license plate, with a girl’s name embossed on it in skinny, black letters. “Elizabeth?”

“Owen Elizabeth? That’s cute,” she teased.

“No–I mean–your keychain…”

“I’m just fucking with you. And I go by Beth.”

“Beth,” I repeated, my nerves relaxing again. I glanced at the clock on the wall, realizing I needed to wrap this up if I was going to make it back for my chemistry test in time. “Would you maybe want to come to a little get-together my friend is having tonight?”

She crossed her arms. “Depends. Will there be any alcohol there?”

“Ummm.” Xander had connections with some college-aged folks, so I knew he’d probably be able to score us some. But I didn’t want to give Beth false hope. “I think so.”

With a playful roll of her eyes, Beth yanked my receipt from the printer and flipped it over, reaching for a Sharpie nearby. When I realized she was writing down a phone number, I tugged on the bottom of my shirt, desperately trying not to look too excited. “Here,” she said, writing her name beneath the number. “Why don’t you text me in a little bit with the details about this party? And in the meantime, I might be able to score some Smirnoff from my brother. He’s twenty-one.”

She slid the receipt across the counter toward me. “Alright, cool,” I said, sticking it in my back pocket with the most casual shrug I could muster. “How old are you, by the way?”

Beth gave me a tight-lipped smile before answering. “Nineteen. How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“When do you turn eighteen?”

“Soon,” I lied, and she must have been able to tell, because she shook her head at me. “I’m mature for my age.”

“I can tell, Owen Elizabeth.”

“I think I might prefer Frodo to that.”

Beth scrunched her nose, and it was adorable. “Okay then, Frodo,” she said. “You’d better show me a good time tonight.”

“I will.” I started to back away from the counter. “I definitely will.”

She nodded at the pop and candy on the counter. “Your stuff?”

“Oh, right,” I said, taking a step forward to grab the Dr. Pepper. But I pushed the gummy frogs toward her. “Those are for you. See you tonight.”

I lingered by the screen door just long enough to see her face light up with a smile. When I stepped outside, I could hardly believe my luck. Suddenly, I didn’t even care about my chemistry test at all. There was no way I’d be able to think about that now. Not when the image of Beth’s sweet smile and tight shirt filled my mind.

I wanted to play it cool when I got to the truck, but I was bubbling over with happiness as I opened the door. “So?” Abigail asked, sliding closer to Xander to make room for me. “How’d it go?”

Instead of answering with words, I reached into my pocket for the receipt. I unfolded the crinkly paper, holding it up so Xander and Abigail could see what was written on it. They both gasped. “Holy shit,” Xander exclaimed.

“You actually did it?” Abigail let out a puzzled laugh, turning to Xander. “He actually did it.”

“Course he did.” Xander gently pushed on her shoulder so he could peer around her at me. “Did you ask her about tonight?”

I nodded. “She’s bringing Smirnoff.”

“Damn, Gardner,” Xander said, his eyebrows springing upward. He turned his keys in the ignition, and the truck started with a loud rumble. “I’m impressed. You might actually score tonight.”

“I have no idea what I’m doing,” I confessed.

“That’s what you have us for,” Abigail said, reaching for her phone off the dash as the truck started moving. The entire way back to school, I stared at Beth’s phone number, memorizing every digit.

Could I actually lose my virginity to this girl? No—this woman?

Don’t screw this up.