Chapter 25

“Dyusha!”

Andrew’s head snapped up. There was only one person who called him that. And given that he was walking home from school and the voice was coming from the road, he knew she wasn’t alone.

Damn Matt’s convertible, engine purring so quietly Andrew hadn’t heard it behind the music emitting from his headphones. Damn being late this morning, which meant his mom had to give him a ride to school, and he didn’t have his bike to ride home. His stomach hardened into a little knot as he turned around. Only for Nina he turned around.

“Dyusha, I am very glad we see you there,” Nina said. Her face was flushed from driving around in a convertible in October, despite her thick knitted scarf. Matt wasn’t even looking at him. Andrew narrowed his eyes. “Brayden has a thing to say to you. Hello? Bray-don?” She turned in her seat. Then punched between the two front seats to wake up the dark-haired boy slouched in the back between Tyler Gomez and Lance, the blond football god.

“Ow. Sorry,” Brayden Cobb mumbled.

“Is this how American people apologize?” Nina said.

Andrew watched all this, feeling clueless, until Brayden’s face clicked in his mind. Brayden was a sophomore, and he sort of blended in with all the other dumb jock faces in Andrew’s mind, so he hadn’t immediately realized that Brayden Cobb was the dickhead who had called him Edward Scissorhands a couple of weeks ago. When he understood what Nina was doing, he wished he could curl up inside his sweatshirt and die.

“You tell him good apology,” Nina ordered, with an added phrase in Russian that no one understood except Andrew, because during the few weeks they had sat together at lunch freshman year, she had taught him a number of Russian swears.

“I’m sorry I called you names,” Brayden said, louder, his eyes flickering over for Nina’s approval.

“Yes, yes, he is sorry.” Nina turned around and looked at Andrew. “So, in apology, we will like you to come to party tonight.”

“A party?” The apology was bad enough. “No, no, that’s okay.” He started backing up.

“Yes. You come to party. Also Codymitchell.” That was how Nina had always said Cody’s name: like it was one word. Codymitchell. “You will come. Is costume party. You have costume?” When Nina made up her mind, she would never back down, Andrew remembered. Great.

What would they do if I showed up dressed like Edward Scissorhands? he wondered. Then he thought of Cody, and how Cody would kill him if he found out they had been invited to a party by Nina and he had refused. Then there was Matt’s disinterested face hovering there behind Nina’s. Andrew wouldn’t mind going just to spite Matt.

And then there was Ryan. Ryan would be there. Sure, he’d be there “with Monica” but if Andrew could maybe sneak upstairs, and Ryan could meet him…

“I can come up with a costume,” Andrew said.

“Good, good. I am very happy, Dyusha. You will like a ride to there?”

“Where is it?” he asked, even though he knew.

Now Matt finally spoke. “It’s at Alex Harrison’s.”

Part of him wanted to make Matt give him a ride, even though he’d rather swallow nails. “I’ll find a ride,” Andrew said finally.

“I will look for you,” Nina said, smiling, just before Matt gunned the engine and the convertible roared off down the road.

“Fuck,” Andrew said.

“You always look so good in a suit,” Monica was saying. Ryan wished that somehow the floor would swallow him. Monica had arrived to pick him up in a full-on flapper costume, gold beaded fringe everywhere and her hair done up in a bob. Pretty sure that Bonnie and Clyde weren’t flappers, Ryan looked at his reflection in the mirror doubtfully. He looked like Al Capone or something, especially with the stupid fedora Monica insisted “made the costume.”

“So dapper,” said Mrs. Ross.

“The night nurse will be here soon,” Ryan told her. He’d been trying to get the woman to go home for over an hour now. “You don’t have to stay.”

“Honestly, you two are adorable. You want me to take some photos of you that you can post on your Facebooks?”

“Sure!” Monica jumped forward and handed over her phone.

It was like every formal dance he’d gone to with Monica, only with Mrs. Ross taking the photos instead of his mother or Monica’s parents. Somehow, it felt like he’d never broken up with her, and it bothered him.

A life where he could openly date Jacky felt so far away. Last night, as he imagined Jacky in his arms, he tried to picture it: walking through the school hallways holding hands, sitting together at lunch. So simply, and yet he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t imagine Jacky and his friends in the same world.

Part of him also liked having Jacky be a secret. Not a secret; just having Jacky all to himself. No one else needed to know.

Earlier, in school, he hadn’t wanted to ignore Jacky. So he had greeted Jacky in the halls every time they saw each other. “You sure are getting chummy with him,” Monica had commented at lunch, after she had witnessed Ryan saying hi to Jacky a couple of times already.

Ryan had shrugged. “We’ve been getting together to work on the project,” he said. “He’s pretty cool underneath all that other stuff.”

“Oh, you mean his piss-poor attitude?” Monica had shot back. Then she stopped herself. “I suppose I should try to be nicer to him, after all he’s been through.”

“I’m sure he would appreciate it.” Maybe he wouldn’t, if Monica was only being nice out of pity. Still, he hoped Monica would actually follow through.

“Let’s get going,” Monica said, after approving all the photos Mrs. Ross had taken.

Hadn’t Monica heard a word he had said? “I have to wait for the night nurse.”

“Can’t Mrs. Ross do that?”

“I don’t mind!” Mrs. Ross called out cheerfully from the kitchen.

“Let me just check on my mom first,” Ryan muttered. He had only just started down the hallway when the phone rang. He backed up and grabbed it before Mrs. Ross could pick it up.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s me. Andrew.”

Ryan couldn’t quite place the male voice on the other end. “Andrew who?” he asked.

“Andrew… Jennings?”

Even then, it took Ryan a couple of seconds to put it all together. “Oh!” he said, smiling. “Hi.”

“Hi. Um, so it looks like I’m going to Alex’s party tonight.”

“Really?”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

“I… It’s just, you didn’t mention it yesterday.” Now Ryan felt like an idiot in his stupid fedora. Jacky was going to be at the party. He didn’t know why he had a bad feeling about this, but he did.

“Nina invited me.”

Ryan could practically feel the swell of Monica’s impatience from the living room. “Okay.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll see you there, then.”

“Okay.”