Sis stuck her tongue out at me. “He’s a sophomore.”
“You said that already.”
“Fine,” she said with a frustrated shake. “He asked me to go to the movies this weekend. Like—him and me—on a date.”
On a date.
Sophomore.
I had a name…
“You talk to Mom about this?”
Her eyes were darker than mine, far more gray than green, and she rolled them at the moment, then looked at me like I was stupid. “After she just busted me for smoking…”
“He smokes.” It all clicked into place, and Trina winced. “That’s why you’ve been playing around with cigarettes.”
She gave a little shrug. “It’s not a big deal.”
I stared at her.
“Okay, yes, he smokes. But Mandy thinks he’s cute, too. When he offered her one, she took it and he gave her this great smile, and I wanted him to smile at me. So I took one, and they aren’t great but he is.”
Uh huh.
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“If we have to do that family meeting this weekend, I’m never going to get Mom to say yes to the movies.”
Oh, I had no doubt about that.
“Noah doesn’t have a car yet.”
“And you need a ride?”
She nodded slowly. “If I tell him no that I can’t go, he’ll probably ask Mandy, and I know she will go and then he won’t ask me again.”
Cause he was a douche if her saying no once would mean that was it. On the other hand… fuck.
“So you want me to what?”
“Maybe take us to the movies? I want to tell him yes and I need a ride for us to go, and you could take Frankie and we could double date if you took Frankie to a different movie.”
Yeah. That sounded like a plan—a double date with my sister, the eighth grader, and Noah, the sophomore who shouldn’t be looking at her sideways.
“Will you think about it? Please?” Sis continued. “And maybe don’t tell Mom?”
“I’ll think about it, but you have to tell Mom. You are way too young to date.”
“You took Frankie on dates when you were in eighth grade.”
“No, I didn’t. I hung out with Frankie in eighth grade. She’s also my age, and I’m not two years older.” When the older guys at school had noticed her when we got to high school, I hadn’t liked that, nor had Jake. It hadn’t taken long before Jake picked his first fight to keep that attention off of her.
It helped we met Archie day one. Archie proved very useful in keeping wandering eyes and hands away from her, too.
“Coop, you know what I mean. I really, really like him.”
I sighed. “Fine, you tell Mom and she signs off on it, then I’ll take you.”