A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone Page A

actually.
    But he isn’t calling me.
    I should just call him.
    555-
No, I’ll wait for him to call me.
The waiting is making me crazy.
555-31
    NO.
    Wait a minute, why should I have to wait for him
to call me? I’m not playing any games here.
If I want to call him, I’m going to call him!
    555-314
    555-3142—quick, hang up!
    Damn—he probably has caller ID so now he’ll know I called anyway.
    I’ll just call back and leave a message.
555-3142
“Hi, it’s me. Give me a call when you get this.”
    The phone doesn’t ring.

DRIVE-BY
    When my Mom has to go out and do an errand later, I ask if I can go.
    I ask her to take a shortcut to the store that just happens to cut down his street.
    I slink down in my seat as we pass his driveway.
    His bedroom light is on. I can see him working
at his desk.
    He’s home. He’s just not calling.

THE NEXT DAY
    When I get to school, I go by his locker.
    â€œHi, Viv,” he says.
    I can’t really get a read on him since he’s being sort of
friendly
but not normal. He doesn’t kiss me hello.
    â€œYou never called me back last night.”
    â€œOh sorry, I got home too late. I went out with my parents,” he says.
    â€œOh.”
    â€œI’ll see you at lunch, okay?” he says.
    â€œOkay.”
    I walk away, nothing seems to be too wrong,
but nothing seems to be too right, either.
Did I do something?
Was I not really actually supposed to sleep
with him?
    I want to throw up,
but I make it through my classes.
I wait for lunch.

LUNCH
    There’s a seat saved for me at his table, so it can’t be too bad.
    He smiles at me a couple of times, but never really looks at me or talks to me.
    A canyon between us.
    I look at Kristen.
I must look pretty bad, so she takes my arm and says,
“Come on, come with me.”
    We walk to the bathrooms and I’m starting to shake. “What’s going on?” I start to cry.
    â€œDon’t cry, Viv, what happened between you two?” I tell her a short version of yesterday.
    â€œYou told him you loved him?” she says. “No wonder.”
    â€œNo wonder what?” I say. “I don’t even think
he heard me, he fell
asleep.”
    â€œOh, he definitely heard you. If he’s acting weird like this, he definitely heard you.”
    â€œWhat, it’s a sin to tell a guy how you feel?” I’m really crying now.
    â€œNo, of course not, but you really should wait for him to say it first,” she says.
    â€œWhy? That’s so stupid! And I don’t even know if I meant it, it’s just—how do you make love and then
not
say ‘I love you’?” I blubber.
    â€œSweetie,
we
call it making love,
they
don’t,” she says.
    The phrase “nail her” flashes
like a huge neon sign in my brain.
    I definitely think I’m going to throw up.

LAST WORDS
    The last words he said to me when he was in my bed,
right before he left, were
“You’re beautiful.
I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    He said he’d call me dozens of other times
and he usually did.
I kept going over and over those last words
to make sure I didn’t leave anything out, or miss
some hidden meaning
that would have let me in on
what was going on now.
    But I really don’t have a clue.

THE TALK
    Kristen arranged it. She says we should talk. I don’t know if he has anything to say. But I meet him after school like she says.
    He’s waiting for me on our bench. I sit down
next to him. He’s looking at his sneakers.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” I say.
    â€œI don’t know,” he says. “Maybe things just got too serious.”
    â€œI don’t understand. You were the one
who wanted
to sleep together.
    You were the one
who wanted
things to get more serious.”
    â€œBut saying ‘I love you’ is
too
serious, Viv,” he says.
    â€œStop calling me Viv!”
    â€œMaybe we should just