9How to Snag a Guy
Chapter 2
"Seventeen only comes once in a lifetime
Don't just let it fly by wild and free
Going anyway the wind blew, baby
Seventeen, Living on Crazy dreams."
Seventeen, Tim McGraw
The final bell rings.
Lila looks at me and grins.
"Congrats, Chey!" She laughs. "We are now officially seniors. And we have just started the best summer of our lives."
As we clean out our lockers, Jack comes up behind us.
"I'll wait for you outside, okay, Cheyenne?" He asks.
Sometimes, Jack and I walk home together since we live next door and all. And Lila lives in the other direction, so it doesn't make since to walk with her.
"Sure, just give me a minute." I reply.
"Jackson, hold on a minute." Lila calls.
Jackson looks up suspiciously.
"What?"
"What do you know about Parker?" She asks him.
Oh no, I know where this is going.
"None of you business." Jack snaps, and he begins to turn around.
"Fine, it's nothing to me," She begins casually, "It's just Cheyenne wanted to know."
Jack turns around and looks at me.
"Is that true, Chey?"
I shrug.
"Fine, he's moved here from Boston, where he's going to college. He plans to spend the summer here, just to relax. He's nineteen."
Lila smiles triumphantly.
"Thank you, that will do, Jackson." Lila dismisses him.
"I'll wait for you outside." He says to me.
"He's a good age." Lila tells me. "Why?" I ask, as stupidly as ever.
"He's not too old that he looks like a perv going for a seventeen year old, but he's older than the guys we normally hang out with." She tells me as if this is obvious. "Call me when you get home. Try to find out from Jackson when he works. Finally, Jackson has a purpose."
"Shut up, Lila."
"You know I'm just joking. Call me." She reminds me.
"I will." I promise and start to head outside.
* * * * *
"Did you really want to know about him?" Jack asks me on the way home.
"Who?" I ask, feigning innocence.
"You know who, Parker." He stares at me.
"I guess so."
"He doesn't seem like your type." Jack tells me, and for some reason this infuriates me.
"How would you know what me type is?" I stop walking and turn to face Jack.
He shrugs. "He just doesn't seem like your type." He continues to walk.
"You don't know me as well as you think you do, Jackson Flannery!" I tell him, my voice getting louder with each passing second.
"Obviously not." He walks off as cool and collected as ever. Leaving me in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at his retreating back.
Damn him! Who does he think he is? Telling me who my type is, like he would know!
* * * * *
"Hello?" I pick up the phone later that evening.
"You were supposed to call me!" A voice accuses angrily over the phone.
"Hello, Lila. How are you?" I say sarcastically.
"I suppose you didn't find out the hours he works either."
Opps, I knew I forgot something.
"Sorry, Lila. It's just Jack and I got in this fight, and . . ." My voice trails off.
"I don't even know why you bother talking to Jackson." She says, "Well, we'll just head up to the shop now and see if he's working."
"Okay." I tell her, I'm not sure if I really want to go through with this, but once Lila has an idea in her head, there's no point in arguing with her.
"And please, Cheyenne, wear something nice, and maybe a little makeup or something."
"You know, I don't own any makeup." I remind her.
She sighs. "Just meet me there in 20 minutes."
I think I look fine just the way I am, but I know Lila wouldn't think so. So, I put on a maroon tank top, left the jeans I was wearing on, and pull my dark hair out of the ponytail it was in. That's as good as it's going to get.
* * * * *
Lila sees me coming towards her.
"That's the best you could come up with?" She greets me, wrinkling her nose at my ensemble.
We walk in the shop, I quickly look around for Jack, relieved to find he's not working. However, I do see Parker.
"Okay," Lila tells me. "Here's what you do, if her talks to you act like you're interested in what he's saying."
"What if I'm not?"
"Oh, well, do it anyways. And bat your eyelashes and bite your lower lip."
"I am not batting my eyelashes." I tell her, that is definitely over the line.
She shrugs, in a way to say, your lost.
Parker looks up, he sees us and smiles. Lila elbows me.
"Smile back." She whispers.
I plaster a very fake looking smile on my face. We head over to our usual booth and soon after Parker comes over, not disappointing my memory of him at all.
"Cheyenne, Lila, What can I get for you two this evening?" He asks us.
"A cherry coke." We both answer simultaneously.
"That's it?" He asks.
"Yup."
That's all we ever order.
"Are you're parents gone again, this summer?" Lila asks me?
"Of course."
My parents are, well . . . free sprits, I guess you'd say. Every summer, they go on a road trip together. When I was little, I used to go with them, but as I go older I got bored, so they'd leave me with the Flannerys' or Lila. However, last summer, they decided I was old enough to stay by myself. They said they trusted me, besides, I don't think they'd care if I threw a party or something. And if I ever needed help, I could ask any of the neighbors.
Parker brings us the pop.
"I'm on break, do you mind if I sit with you?" He asks us.
I for one am speechless, but Lila of course is not.
"Sure." She tells him.
"So, you guys come up here often?" Parker asks us.
"Nearly everyday." Lila tells him.
"Wow, that's a lot. How old are you guys?" He asks.
"Seventeen." Lila answers.
"And, you are, Cheyenne?" Looking at me with those blue eyes and throwing me a smile.
"Seventeen." I say quietly.
"Ohh, seventeen is a big age." He tells us.
"And why is that?" Lila asks.
"I'm not sure, think about all the songs that are written about it. Maybe, it's the age when people lose their virginity."
I have to laugh at that one. "Too late for Lila." I laugh.
She kicks me under the table. Hard.
Parker smiles. "And what about you, Cheyenne?"
I blush. This conversation is getting a bit personal for me.
"Oh, no, Cheyenne is going to stay a virgin forever." She says, getting back at me. "Or maybe not, considering she has the hour to herself for the entire summer."
* * * * *
"Lila, I can't believe you told him that!" I yell at her.
"Who cares? Everyone knows your alone all summer!" She shrugs her shoulders in self-defense.
"We hardly know him!" I tell her.
She glares at me. "You know, sometimes, I really don't know my best friend." She storms off.
Yeah, well, that makes two of us.