“She doesn’t understand that I love Gary.”
“Sure she does. That’s the problem. She doesn’t want you to love him. She thinks you can do better than him.”
“There is no one better.”
“You know what I mean,” Donna Dee said, still searching through Jade’s purse. “She’d like to see you wind up with somebody rich and influential, you know—somebody like Neal.”
Jade shuddered with disgust. “Fat chance.”
“Do you think he really felt up Florene at the country club Valentine’s dance? Or was she just bragging? She can be all mouth.”
“I don’t think being felt up by Neal Patchett is anything to brag about.”
“Well, you’re the exception.”
“Thank heaven.”
“Neal’s good-looking,” Donna Dee observed.
“I can’t stand him. Look at him now. He thinks he’s so cool.”
The two girls watched Neal and his friends encircle Gary where he was waiting in line to place his take-out order. Neal punched Gary in the shoulder a couple of times, and when Gary told him to cut it out, he assumed a boxer’s stance.
“He’s so obnoxious,” Jade said with distaste.
“Yeah. I wish Hutch didn’t hang around with him so much.”
It was no secret that Donna Dee was madly in love with Hutch Jolly. She wore her heart on her sleeve. Secretly, Jade thought Hutch looked and acted like a bumpkin, but, at the risk of hurting Donna Dee’s feelings, she never voiced her opinion.
Nor had she ever told Donna Dee about all the times Hutch had called her asking for dates. She had declined his invitations because of Gary. But even if she hadn’t had a steady boyfriend, she would never have dated Hutch because of Donna Dee.
“You don’t like Hutch, do you, Jade?” Donna Dee asked her now.
“I like him fine.” Truthfully, Hutch made her uncomfortable. They had trigonometry class together, and she often caught him staring at her. Whenever she did, he would blush beneath his freckles, then assume an arrogant air to cover his embarrassment.
“What’s wrong with him?” There was a defensive edge to Donna Dee’s voice.
“Nothing. Honestly. Nothing except the company he keeps.”
“Do you think he’ll invite me to the prom, Jade? I’ll die if he doesn’t.”
“You won’t die,” Jade said wearily. Donna Dee looked so crestfallen at Jade’s lack of empathy that she changed her tone. “I’m sorry, Donna Dee. I hope Hutch asks you. Really, I do.”
Their senior prom, coming up in May, already seemed trivial and juvenile. To Jade it represented just one more delay in Gary and her getting on with their lives. She certainly didn’t think it was anything to get in a big stew over, although maybe that was because she was guaranteed a date with Gary. Unlike Donna Dee, she didn’t have to worry about the disgrace of not having an escort on that momentous night.
“I can’t think of anybody else Hutch would ask, can you?” Donna Dee asked worriedly.
“No.” Jade glanced at her wristwatch. “What’s taking so long? I’ve got to be home by ten or my mother will start in again.”
“And you’ve got to leave time to park, huh?” Donna Dee gazed at her friend and whispered, “When you and Gary make out, do you just want to die from being so turned on?”
“Yes,” Jade admitted, shivering slightly. “And because we have to stop.”
“You don’t have to.”
Jade’s sleek, dark brows pulled together into a frown. “If Gary and I love each other, how can it be wrong, Donna Dee?”
“I never said it was.”