The Dating Deal by Melanie Marks Page A

make sure you clear your hard-drive.”  The way he said it, it was like a big-serious deal to him.  I thought it was incredibly sweet he was so concerned for me.
     
    “I will.”
     
    He looked at me questioningly.  “Did you clear your other one?”
     
    “Yeah—well, I didn’t.  But Conner did.”
     
    “I’ll clear it, okay?” Trent said.  “I’ll clear it for you.”
     
    I nodded.  “Sure.  If you want to.  It’s a big deal, huh?”
     
    I didn’t see how it could be, though.  I didn’t keep anything on it that could be used for identity fraud.  No social security or bank account numbers.  Nothing like that.  Just schoolwork and poems and songs I was working on, and sad, pathetic journal entries.  Nothing that would interest anyone but me.  Sure, I would be embarrassed if someone read my stuff.  I’d die.  But I doubted I could pay someone to actually sit down and read it, let alone worry they would seek it out. 
     
    But if he wanted to clear my hard drive, I sure wasn’t going to stop him.  He could clear away.
     
    “I’ll come over right after school,” he said.
     
    I smiled.  “Okay.” 
     
    He was coming over.  That couldn’t be shrugged off as a ploy to make the dance date “look real.”  There would be no Caitlin or Conner or anyone around to put on a show for.  It seemed Trent Ryan was really and truly actually my friend.  He was going to clear my hard-drive for me.  Wasn’t that proof? 
     
    I was glad I had already transferred all of my old hard-drive information over to my new computer.  I didn’t want Trent to have to do anything where he might actually see anything I wrote—since my computer was full of stuff about him.
     
    *  *  *  *  *
     
    When Trent came over I was in the midst of making cookies for the blood drive our school was hosting tomorrow afternoon.
     
    “I’m almost done,” I told him as Mom led him into the kitchen.
     
    He looked surprised when he saw our kitchen full of cookies.  “Are all these for me?” he asked with a grin.
     
    I laughed.  “Help yourself, but they’re for the blood drive tomorrow.  Everyone gets a cookie after they give blood.  It’s to elevate their blood-sugar level, or something.”
     
    Trent gazed at me thoughtfully.  “You’re always volunteering, huh?”
     
    I blushed at the way he stared.  “I just wanted to help and I can’t donate blood.”
     
    Trent raised an eyebrow.  “Why?”
     
    My blush went a few shades deeper.  I didn’t want to admit I’m a runt.
     
    “You have to meet a certain weight requirement,” I explained, and then quickly went on, hoping he didn’t have time to digest that I’m too scrawny to donate a little blood.  “But I wanted to help.  So,” I gestured around the kitchen, “cookies.”
     
    Trent munched on a peanut butter one, still gazing at me.  “You’re always doing good,” he said.
     
    Why’d he say that?  Why did he act as though he knew me so well?  And was it supposed to be some sort of slam?  After all, he said I bugged Caitlin by being “Miss Goodness and Light.”  Did I bug him too?  It didn’t seem like it.  And he didn’t seem to be making fun of me.  But was he?  Was I just too naive to see it?
     
    Nothing was clear.
     
    The way he was looking at me made it seem as though I was the most beautiful, special, wonderful girl that ever walked the planet.  But why would he look at me that way?  He didn’t know me.  Not really.  Not well enough to see past my lack of “obvious” beauty.  The kind that Caitlin and Aspen possessed.  That’s the kind you stare at.  And that’s the kind of girls he was used to dating. 
     
    I tried to look away from him, tried to get a grip.  He was only teasing, right?  That had to be it.  He seemed to like to make me blush. 
     
    But all I accomplished by trying to keep my composure was backing into the kitchen counter.  Ouch!
     
    “I’ll, uh, get my computer,”