Top 8 (24 page)

Friendverse Bulletin

From: Madison

To: All friends

Sent: 4/13, 12:05
P.M.

 

Hey everyone. As I'm sure you all know, my Friendverse profile was hacked over spring break. The hackers set out to do a lot of damage to my life, and to your lives. I'm writing now to apologize to anyone who was hurt by this hacking, and to take responsibility.

 

The hackers were discovered today, and I hope they'll be dealt with by the school administration. But it was actually due to my actions that you were hurt, and I wanted to apologize. What the hackers wrote about you on my profile, or in bulletins and blogs were things I had said in the past, behind your backs. I never should have said these things. And if I was going to
say them, I should have had the courage and decency to say them to your faces.

 

I regret this, and I'm truly sorry for any hurt I may have caused you.

 

And I promise, in the future, not to reveal your secrets, talk about you behind your back, spill your illicit hookups, or make fun of your eyeliner application.

 

And don't worry, my new password's encrypted.

I hope we're all still friends.

 

Love,

Mad

 

I finished typing this bulletin on my phone and, thumbs aching, pressed
SEND.
I watched the e-mail icon disappear, off to my friends' Friendverse inboxes. I felt a lot better now that I'd sent it. I hoped that now we could all begin to move forward.

My phone rang, and the display read SCHUYLER W. I answered immediately. “Hey, Shy,” I said.

“Omg, Mad!” Schuyler cried. “Are you okay? I just heard from Connor. I can't believe it! Ruth? I mean,
Ruth
? I'm shocked!”

“I know,” I said as I stared out at the ducks. “I couldn't believe it either. But it's what happened.”

“Well, I certainly can't be friends with her anymore,” Schuyler said after a small pause. “I mean, she told everyone about my nose job.”

“Sailing accident,” I reminded her.

“Right,” she said with a laugh. “But I just can't get my head around it! I mean, you two have been BFF since middle school!”

I smiled sadly into the phone. “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

 

Twenty minutes later, I was standing on the patio outside of Gofer, holding a cup of hazelnut gelato and a cup of mint chocolate chip, my heart pounding.

I'd called Nate and asked him to meet me there.

This was actually a lot harder than it sounded, because when I started to call him, I realized I didn't have his cell phone number. And I didn't have his parents' house number stored in my cell. So I had to call home and convince Travis to get their number from where my mother had put it on the fridge. Then I had to call Nate's house and ask his mother, who didn't sound that happy to hear from me — I think Nate may have hinted about the whole seeing my ex-boyfriend kissing me thing — but she gave me the number anyway.

And when I finally spoke to Nate, my heart was pounding really, really, hard and I could barely get my
words out. He said he was in the middle of running errands, but that he could try and meet up. When he asked where, I completely blanked and suggested the first place I could think of — Gofer.

I looked down at the ice cream in my hands and hoped he would get there soon, as it was starting to melt. But I felt like I couldn't start eating until he arrived. Maybe he wouldn't even hear what I wanted to say to him. Which would be understandable, because as far as he knew, I'd been making out with my ex-boyfriend when he had wanted to
ask me
something.

Maybe he wouldn't believe me. Maybe he didn't even really like me that way, and this had all been in my head. Maybe I'd never find my tortoise, and be like Lonesome George, the famous tortoise in the Galápagos who wandered the sandy beaches alone.

But I just had to make sure he knew the truth.

As I stared out at the parking lot, holding the two cups of rapidly melting ice cream, I saw a red pickup truck pull into the parking lot.

Nate got out and slammed the door. He looked so handsome in his jeans, Cons, and button-down that he literally took my breath away.

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump
, went my heart. I took a tiny bite of gelato for courage as Nate came up the stairs, a black messenger bag slung across his shoulders, and stood next to me — but not too close — at the railing.

“Hey,” I said before I lost my nerve entirely and ran away without saying anything because he was just so wonderful and what I was about to do was so scary. I held out the mint chocolate chip to him. “I got this for you. I don't know if you even want it, but I remembered you got it last time, so I thought…” I knew I was babbling, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.

“That's great,” Nate said. “Thanks.” He took his ice cream from me, and then the two of us ate in silence for a few moments.

I seriously had no idea how to begin this. But it felt like the longer I waited, the more it was going to seem like I'd invited him to come silently eat ice cream with me.

“Okay,” I said, finally, once we were both almost done with our ice cream. I threw my cup away, even though I still had a few bites left. I just couldn't eat anything else. My stomach was churning, and the butterflies that had been in there at the drive-in had decided to make another appearance. “About the party last night —”

Nate took one last bite, then threw his cup away as well. “Don't worry about it,” he said. “I mean, it wasn't like we were there together or anything. Was the guy your ex-boyfriend?”

“Yes,” I said. “But it's not —”

“It really doesn't matter to me,” he said, looking out at the parking lot. “I mean, you wanted to get back
together with him, right? So I'm glad. I'm…happy for you.”

“No!” I said, hoping with every fiber of my being that he was lying. “It wasn't what it looked like. What you saw last night, I mean.”

Nate shook his head. “You mean I didn't see you kissing your ex-boyfriend?” I could hear the hurt in his voice, which made me incredibly happy. He wouldn't sound hurt if he didn't care, right?

“No,” I said firmly, “you didn't. You saw my ex-boyfriend kissing
me
. It wasn't like I was kissing him back — or that I'd even wanted to kiss him in the first place.”

Nate raised his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything. It seemed like he was listening.

“He wanted to get back together with me,” I said, in the interest of full disclosure. “But I don't like him like that. I told him I didn't want to go out with him. Because, um, there's someone else that I like.” As I said this, I felt my face get hot, and I had a feeling that it was bright red. I now wished I hadn't thrown out my gelato, just so I could have held it up to my cheeks to cool them off.

Nate looked at me with a small, hopeful smile.

“So,” I said, “to make a long story short —”

“Too late,” we finished together. His smile got a little wider when I chimed in with him.

“Um, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime. I saw that the New Canaan Drive-In is showing
Clue
next weekend, and from everything I've heard, it's a cinematic classic.” I looked at Nate for his reaction, but he wasn't saying anything. In fact, he was looking down at the ground, at his messenger bag.

Oh, God
.

What if I'd misread this whole thing and he didn't like me at all? What if this was the
third
time this had happened this week? It was possible; I seemed to be misreading signals all over the place. Suddenly, I felt like the world's biggest idiot.

“Or not,” I said quickly, my heart not
thump
ing at all, because it was too busy breaking. “That's cool, too. I mean, if you don't want to. I mean…that's fine. Never mind.”

“Madison,” Nate said, with that small, amazing smile of his. He leaned down to his messenger bag and pulled something out. “I just got these developed,” he said. He handed me a photo envelope. “Here.”

Not really expecting this, I took the envelope and opened it — and saw a picture of myself. I was sitting on the outside deck on the boat in the Galápagos. It was followed by a picture of me smiling at a sea lion, and a picture of me laughing, face turned up to the sun. Then there was a photo of the neon Gofer sign, lit up against the darkening sky and, yes, beautiful. Then there was
one of the screen at the drive-in, with lightning bugs darting around, then one of me pointing happily at a tortoise. I looked up at Nate.

“Pictures of me?” I asked, surprised.

“I hope you don't mind,” he said. “But it's like I've told you…I have a weakness for things that are beautiful.”

“Oh,” I murmured, not wanting to say anything else, for fear I'd ruin the world's most perfect moment.

He took the photos back from me. “I've been falling for you since the moment I saw you on the boat,” he said. “Even though you could clearly never remember my name. So yes, Madison, I'd love to go out with you. It was what I was trying to ask you last night. Just name the day.”

“Oh,” I said again, my heart beating quickly. “Okay.” I smiled at him, and so wide that my cheeks hurt.

“Okay?” he echoed, smiling back at me.

I laughed. “Tewtally.”

And then he took a step toward me and I took a step toward him and he reached out and tucked that lock of hair behind my ear, and let his hand linger on my cheek for a moment, and then he leaned down and kissed me.

It was soft at first, his lips just grazing mine. But then it stopped being just a kiss, and became a
kiss
.

Wow.

I seriously don't know how I'd ever thought Justin was a good kisser. Nate was so much better it was like an entirely new thing, and we were kissing and kissing, and it was wonderful, and I was thinking about how glad I was that I'd just had ice cream, because that way I didn't have to worry about my breath at all, and how happy I was we were going to go out that weekend, and
Omg
he was good at the kissing thing.

Then we moved even closer and kept kissing some more, and his hands were in my hair, and I thought about how I was going to see if he wanted to go to the prom with me and probably Stanwich hadn't had their prom yet, and so maybe we could go to two…

When I realized that there was lots and lots of time for that.

I knew as soon as I got the chance, I was moving him to the number one spot in my Top 8.

But for right now — and for the foreseeable future — I was happy just to be kissing him.

FRIENDVERSE
…
for your galaxy of friends

About Me

I'll totally tell you if you have something in your teeth. To your face, not behind your back. Just please return the favor.

General:

Plays, traveling, mysteries, bringing the guilty to justice, pineapple pizza

Music:

Right now, power ballads for the prom DJ

Movies:

Anything at the drive-in

Television:

Currently obsessed with The Hills (thanks a lot, Kittson)

Books:

P.G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, SAT prep workbooks

 

Education:
High school

Graduated:
Next year…

Madison's Comments

Displaying 11 of 87

Shy+Connor
Mad! Are you and Nate coming in our limo? We need a headcount by tonight! Want to get coffee later??

La Feldman
I'm only going in the limo if Shy promises to cool it with the making out. She and Connor are ridicule!! Non?

pizzadude
Mad, great news — Big Tony threw his back out! I see a pineapple pizza coming your way…

Kittlen
Madison, I need your help with the programs! Glen can't do the eyelets as well as you can. And don't forget to bring the glitter to tonight's meeting. And did you hear my mom caught Olivia and Travis making out??!

the8rgrrl
Let's do a line-through tomorrow. Are you free?

ginger_snap
Thanx for the ride home last night, Mad! I have GOT to lay off the O'Douls!

Brian (grounded) McMahon
It was awesome of you and Nate to come and hang out with me yesterday! I think one of these days I might be allowed out of the house again…

RueRue
From what I've heard, I think Dell is adjusting to boarding school nicely, though there have been rumors that he's started some sort of gambling ring up there. It's good to be back at school — even though it was only two weeks, it felt longer. Hope all is good with you.

JimmynLiz
Hey Mad, how's it going? You and Nate want to double this weekend?