No Use For A Name by Penelope Wright Page A

me, like, half an hour ago. He misses me sooo much. He practically begged to come over tonight. You know he wants to get back together."
    I froze, holding a pencil so tight I was surprised it didn't snap.
    "What did you tell him?" Amy asked.
    "I left him hanging," Hannah said. "I'm gonna tell him he can, of course. But I'll let him sweat it out a while longer."
    Derek wasn't exactly a unique name. It could totally be a different Derek.
    "God, Hannah, don't wait too long," Ashley said. "Some other girl will be all over that."
    "Did you see he got a tattoo?" Hannah asked. "Fucking sexy."
     I swallowed, hard. Probably the same Derek . Mechanically, I went back to putting school supplies in the bags and shoving them down the table at Amy and company. I was a faster worker than they were. About fifty bags were piled in front of Amy. None of the girls had even noticed that I'd stopped working briefly. I shot a glance over at them with each bag that I stuffed.
    Amy had an interested look on her face. "A tattoo? No, I didn't know. What's it of?"
    "A four leaf clover, on his neck," Hannah said.
    Definitely the same Derek.
    "On the back of his neck, like a girl?"
    Hannah scowled at Amy. "Of course not. It's on the side, like he's not afraid of anyone seeing it."
    "What's it mean?" Ashley asked.
    "Mean?" Hannah replied, confused. "It's not like it's a Chinese symbol or something. It doesn't mean anything."
    Amy took one of the pencils out of the bags and tapped the eraser against her teeth, then shrugged one shoulder. "You know Hannah, it's probably just a booty call."
    "No way." Hannah said, shaking her head vehemently. "You should have heard him. I'm his whole world. He wouldn't even look at another girl." She flipped her long red hair over her shoulder and put her hand on her hip. "Yeah, I'll take him back, but he's gonna squirm first. After that, if he wants to tap this ass, I'm all in."
    Hannah shook her hips and all three of the girls laughed. I don't know what the look on my face was, but it couldn't have been good. Lucky for me, Grady had walked by just in time to catch the "tap that ass" comment. His eyes met mine, and he took me by the arm, leading me away.
    "I'm sorry Mary," he said in a low voice. "I think they only come because their parents make them. Let me find something else for you to do."
    "Can you just take me home?" I was surprised by how tiny my voice sounded. I hardly knew Derek. Obviously. Sure, our bodies might have fit together real nicely in that closet, but wasn't I the one who'd shoved him away? Yes I was. And rightfully so, as it turned out. He had a girlfriend.
    Grady glanced at all the activity around us, obviously torn.
    I looked at my shoes and muttered, "never mind."
    Grady took my hand. "Come on Mary. Race you to the car."
    Dammit, if we could get past the fact that he'd want to burn me at the stake when he found out I was a total heathen, Grady would have been, like, the nicest boyfriend ever.
    I was roused from my reverie when the bedroom door smacked open. Monica stood there, all five-foot-one of her, eyes blazing and chin jiggling, ruddy spots standing out on her cheeks. "Get the fuck off my bed, Baby."
    Lazily, I gave her the finger. "Your bed's in Rachel's room."
    She screamed with rage before wheeling around and stomping away. I could hear Phoebe's wheezy laughter all the way from the living room.

 
SEVEN
    When my alarm went off at five-thirty the next morning and I stumbled over to my closet, there was nothing there. I stared at the empty hangers for a while before I remembered that I'd put my cheer uniforms under the bed. So where were my jeans and t-shirts?
    I got down on my hands and knees and snagged a skirt and top from under the bed, then grabbed a pair of socks from the laundry basket at the foot of my bed, carrying them with me into the bathroom. I took the hottest shower I could stand.
    Pulling my still-wet hair back into a ponytail, winding the hair band around and around until I