“Oh,that.”
“Yeah, I still have the flowers for you. I kept them in a paper towel so they would be fresh.”
Julie sighed. “I don’t need flowers. Just this.”
“Just me, or . . .”
“I mean, you’re kind of a part of it. I mean the whole sneaking around thing. It’s fun.” She leaned in and her voice lowered into a purr. “You’re fun.”
“I can be more than just fun.”
Now she frowned. “What are you saying?”
“I wanna go steady. With you, I mean.”
She blinked, her cheeks turning red. “Wait, really?”
“Yeah.”
“But I’m about to go to college.”
“I’m going too.”
“I thought you were doing something else.”
“Trade school. I wanna be an electrician. But it’s still school.”
She laughed, but I hadn’t said anything funny. “That’s not ... That’s like a different kind of school. Not the good kind.”
There was a sinking feeling in my gut. This wasn’t going how I’d imagined. None of today had, but I ignored it and tried to keep moving forward.
“It’s still something. In two years, I’ll have a good job, and you’re going to school in Nashville, so?—”
“Whoa,” she said. “We don’t need to be thinking that far ahead. And besides, once I get to Nashville, things are changing for me.”
“Like what?”
“I’ll finally be a part of something better. I’ll be out of the small-town life.”
“I’ll be there too. We can both be out of it together.”
“Yeah, but ... my vision for this doesn’t involve a guy like you.”
Her words hit me right in the center of my chest.
“What does that mean?” I asked slowly.
She sighed as if I were the dumbest kid in the world. “I can’t date the guy from Shady Acres who’s going totradeschool. I need someone ... who’s like what I want to be. You’re good in bed, Dean. Or closets, I should say. But that’s about it.”
“I can be more than just good in bed.”
She looked me up and down. “You’re hot and all, but trust me, no one else wants anything more than sex from you. Stick to what you’re good at.Verygood at.”
Julie bit her lip, and I knew she was trying to steer me back to focusing on her. I’d spent weeks focusing on her, in all the ways.
I had a feeling she’d told everyone exactly what I was good at doing. My stomach churned as I saw the last few weeks in a new light.
Some girls were giving me double takes. A few had smiled in my direction, but I thought they were pitying smiles like they always had been.