She had a hard time believing this was the same Rick who had dumped her in the mall parking lot a week ago. Whatever it was that softened him, Christy was grateful for it and felt more relieved than she had imagined she would feel. Finally she could fully surrender this relationship to the Lord.
A vendor was heading for the parade route, carrying a flat of roses.
“We'll take one of those,” Rick called out to the guy. “How much?”
“Five dollars each,” the man said, displaying his assortment of colored rosebuds.
Rick pulled a crumpled five-dollar bill from his pocket and said, “Give me a red one.”
“Red is for love,” the man said with a satisfied grin, taking the bill and handing the rosebud to Rick. Christy remembered all the red roses Rick had given her while they were dating. Once they had died, she had thrown them all away.
Rick looked at Christy and then back at the assortment of buds. “Which one stands for friendship?”
The man reached for a yellow rose. “Yellow,” he said, trading the yellow bud for the red one in Rick's hand.
“What's white for?” Rick asked.
The man didn't seem to mind all the questions. “Purity of heart.”
“We'll take the white one,” Rick said.
As soon as the vendor was on his way, Rick turned to Christy, “You're the first girl I've ever given a white rose to. Did you hear what he said? It stands for purity of heart, and that's you, Killer Eyes.”
Christy accepted the white rose, swallowing a lump in her throat. It was the highest compliment Rick had ever paid her. This rose she knew she would keep.
joined the rest of the group, Doug noticed them first. Holding out the bag of cookies Christy had made for him, he said, “Rick, you have to try these. They're the best ones yet!”
Tracy came alongside Christy, “So? How did it go?”
“Good,” Christy whispered back. “I think everything is finally settled, and I feel good about it.”
“That's what I wanted to hear,” Tracy said. “Sorry if I kind of forced you into it.”
“I'm glad you did,” Christy admitted. “I don't think I would have talked to him otherwise. You did the right thing, Tracy. Thanks.” Tracy was staring at the white rose in Christy's hand, and so Christy added, “Rick gave it to me. A gift of friendship.”
Tracy smiled. “I'm glad that's settled. It's a good way to start the new year.”
For the next hour, the group ate and talked, and the guys and Katie played more football out in the street. More and more vendors appeared, selling souvenirs.
Christy was content to sit on her blanket and watch the action going on around her. The morning warmed up quickly, and she shed her thick jacket.
Then official Rose Parade guards walked briskly along the street, shooing everyone back up on the curb. People began to press in closer, crowding Christy and Tracy together on their blanket. The spectators stretched their necks to see what was coming up the street.
They heard sirens. A group of motorcycle cops led the parade's way. Then the official white Rose Parade convertibles with dignitaries waving from the backseats rolled by.
“Who is he?” Christy asked when the first convertible passed them.
“Who knows,” Tracy said. “Somebody important. Just wave at him.”
Tracy and Christy laughed and waved, like two little kids sitting on the curb. The important person waved back.
The Marine Corps Color Guard and Band followed the cars and started to play just as they marched past Christy and the group. It was so loud that she wanted to cover her ears with her hands but refrained, since no one else was. The drums seemed to shake the ground and make her heart thump. She had been to parades before, but nothing like this.
The first float that came by amazed Christy. It was a huge green dragon with steam coming from its nostrils. The monster swerved down the street and came within a few feet of Christy. She could see up close all the layers of flowers carefully placed on the float's frame. The variety of colors and types of flowers was astonishing. The dragon's scales seemed real.
“Look!” Tracy laughed as she pointed at the dragon's legs. “Those are brussels sprouts!”
“You're kidding!” Christy responded.
“They really are. And look, they used brussels sprouts on the tail too! It's a vegetarian dragon!”
The group around Tracy and Christy laughed.
Doug, who was sitting on the other side of Tracy, said, “I give it an eight.” He held up eight fingers and whistled.
Rick picked up on Doug's cue and held up eight fingers from his spot at the far end of their clump of friends. Christy noticed that Katie had planted herself in front of Rick's lawn chair, using his legs for a backrest. They looked awfully comfortable sitting together.
The next float appeared, and Doug and Rick, wearing matching sunglasses, slipped their glasses down their noses and looked at each other as if they were two official parade critics. Rick held up five fingers as the float motored by, and Doug gave it a six.
“That float deserves more than a five or a six!” Christy exclaimed to Tracy.
The float resembled a field of grass with giant wildflowers and a huge storybook spread open in the middle of the field. Animated butterflies escaped from the storybook, and a wobbly rainbow arched over the field, raining down colored glitter on the parade spectators.
“I give it a nine and a half.” Christy held up to Doug nine fingers and half a pinkie.
“Naw,” Doug said. “It's only a six. Wait until one of the award-winning floats comes by. You'll see.”
As soon as the next float arrived, Christy held up seven fingers, to which Katie responded over the heads of their friends with a three. Rick gave it a four and Doug a five.
“Come on, you guys,” Christy said. “That was a good one!”
“I'd give it a seven too,” Tracy said.
“Well, I don't see your fingers up there,” Christy teased.
Tracy stuck seven fingers up in Christy's face. “There!” she said.
A band from a Minnesota high school came by, and Rick started to whistle loudly, trying to get the attention of one of the girls playing a flute in the front row.
“That guy doesn't ever take a break, does he?” Tracy said, speaking loudly over the music.
Christy shook her head in response. “I suppose I shouldn't turn my back on him. That's what my boss, Jon, says.” Christy and Tracy were speaking so loudly that Doug heard them.
“You should have seen Rick last semester with this girl who lived in our apartment complex. He never let up on her, and she told him to get lost in at least four different languages.”
Tracy looked at Christy for her reaction. Christy carefully kept a straight face, looking at Doug as if she were interested in his amusing little story and eager for him to continue.
Doug started to laugh at some funny memory he had. Leaning closer to Tracy and Christy, he let them in on the joke. “Rick used to know when she did her laundry. I think she did it every Tuesday afternoon or something. Anyway, he would go down to the laundry room with a basket full of dirty clothes and wait for her, pretending he happened to be there folding clothes. He would come back to the apartment with neatly folded dirty clothes.”
“And she never went out with him?” Tracy asked.
“She didn't even tell him her name!” Doug laughed. “The guy can't handle being shut out.”
“Hey,” Rick called over to them. “Let's see those scores!” Rick was holding up a seven, and Katie had five fingers up in the air. Hie rest of the group had all joined in and were holding up their scores. Doug quickly checked out the float in front of them and gave it a six.
Christy didn't feel like playing anymore. Of course she knew when Rick went to college last fall he would meet girls and probably be his flirty self. But the first two months of ' school she was dating him. She felt sick in the pit of her stomach, thinking that while he was taking her to the beach on th
e weekends, he was chasing girls in the laundry room during the weekdays.
“Hey,” Tracy said, giving her a poke in the side. “Are you okay?”
Christy nodded, but apparently Tracy could see right through her. “Don't let what Doug said about Rick bug you. You and Rick are friends now, remember? Don't let any bad feelings start up again.”
“I was thinking that the girl in the laundry room was smarter than I was. She didn't fall for Rick's tricks. I feel foolish, that's all.”
“Why?” Tracy wanted to know. “Because you liked a guy and went out with him a few times? I don't see any harm in that. You guys are friends now. There's nothing foolish about any of that.”
“I feel like a fool because I believed everything Rick said. Why should I even believe what he told me this morning? Why did I so eagerly accept this rose from him?”
“You have to start somewhere.” Tracy slipped her arm around Christy and gave her a quick hug. “Don't make such a big deal out of it. Oh, look at this float—a definite ten!” Tracy held up all ten fingers and whistled wildly with the others.
Tracy's right I shouldn't make such a big deal out of everything. What Rick does or who he goes out with is no concern of mine.
By the time the next float approached, Christy had joined back in with the rest of the group in playing the rating game. Another band followed and then a float that turned out to be Christy's favorite.
Cinderella rode in an enchanted pumpkin carriage drawn by real horses. The carriage was completely done in roses and smelled wonderful as it passed by. It was a small float, it hadn't won any awards, and the Cinderella looked like she had been smiling and waving for too many miles.
Rick gave it a one; Katie a two; Doug and Tracy gave it a three and then slapped each other a high five for coming up with the same number.
Christy didn't hold up her hands at first. Then realizing that she was among friends and she should be free to express her opinion, she held up a perfect ten, thereby declaring to them all that she believed in fairy tales.
Rick noticed and, thinking it was a joke, joined in with Christy's ten, raising both his hands high over his head, standing up and whistling to get Cinderella's attention. The model in the float didn't pay any attention to Rick, and Christy tried to tell herself she shouldn't either.
She really did think it was a ten. So what if Rick made fun of her? What did he know about fairy tales, anyway?
After the Cinderella float, there was a lag in the parade. Someone behind them said there must have been a breakdown on one of the floats.
“Perfect opportunity to visit the little girls' room,” Tracy said, rising to her feet. “Want to come with me?”
Christy stood and instructed Doug, “Save our places. Don't let anyone sit here, okay?”
Doug stretched his long legs over their blanket and set his small ice chest on the far corner of the blanket to mark the territory. “If I'm asleep when you come back, just wake me,” he teased.
The two girls headed for the outhouse and were joined by Katie and another girl from their group named Katrina.
“That was a real cute joke, Christy,” Katrina said. “Giving the last float a ten, I mean.”
“I don't think she meant it as a joke,” Katie said. “Christy happens to be the world's most hopeless romantic. You really did think it deserved a ten, didn't you, Christy?”
“Yes, I did,” Christy said.
“Well, I kind of liked it a lot too,” Katrina admitted. “But I wasn't about to let all those guys know.”
“Why not?” Christy asked. “They're just guys. Some of them are as romantic as we are, if not more so.”
“Who?” Katie challenged. “Rick?”
“No, I meant Doug,” Christy said as the girls took their place in the long line at the portable restroom.
She lowered her voice as the other three girls tilted their heads in close. “Did you know that Doug is twenty years old, but he's never kissed a girl?” Christy whispered.
“No way!” Katie said.
“It's true,” Tracy confirmed. “He says his first kiss is going to be at the altar on his wedding day.”
“Is that romantic or what?” Christy asked.
“Can you imagine how special his wife is going to feel?” Katrina asked in wide-eyed wonder. “She'll probably wish she had never kissed another guy.”
“I know,” Christy said. “I thought the same thing. Kind of made me wish Id never kissed a guy before.”
“Me too,” said Tracy.
“Me too,” said Katrina.
Christy knew Katie had never been kissed, but instead of Katie popping off with one of her usual jokes about not having that problem, she turned slightly away from the rest of the girls.
“Katie?” Christy asked.
Katie didn't look at her. Christy tried to be funny and said, “Don't you have anything to say here, Katie? You're the only one with virgin lips.”
“Whatever,” Katie mumbled.
The outhouse door opened, and Katie disappeared inside.
“I don't think Katie's as inexperienced as she may have led you to believe,” Katrina said softly.
“Of course she is,” Christy said. “I know everything about her. She's never had a boyfriend, and the few dates she's been on have been disasters. Glen, the guy at church that she likes, gave her a hug, but that was all.”
Katie exited the restroom, and Christy stopped talking and waited for Tracy, who went in next.
Katie didn't look at Christy but instead spoke to Katrina. “I'm going to go back.”
Christy felt awful. She obviously had embarrassed Katie in front of these girls Katie barely knew. It didn't quite seem like the honor Christy had meant when she called Katie “virgin lips.” She tried to think how she would feel if she had never had a guy interested in her and her best friend had made a crack like that about her in public.
When the three girls returned to the group, Christy wanted to slip over to Katie and tell her she was sorry. It looked impossible though to maneuver through the jam of people without making a scene. Katie was tucked back in her spot, leaning against Rick's legs.
Tracy nimbly made her way back to their blanket, blazing a skinny trail for Christy to follow. The people behind them were not happy about letting them through to their front-row seats.
Doug straightened up when they arrived back to their little nest and said, “You didn't miss anything. A bunch of horses came by, that's all.”
The next float finally arrived, pulled by a tow truck. “Let's hear it for the tow truck!” Rick started clapping loudly.
Christy noticed that Katie didn't jump right in and join Rick in his antics. She still seemed upset. As several more floats passed by, Christy kept looking over to see if Katie had snapped out of it, but Katie looked deep in thought.
Near the parade's end, Christy saw Rick lean over and say something in Katie's ear. Her bright smile instantly returned, and she playfully slugged him in the arm. She seemed her old self, and Christy felt relieved.
When the group started to pick up its stuff to leave, Christy reminded her friends, “You guys all know about the party at my aunt and uncle's, right?”
Everyone said yes. A few asked for directions, and one girl asked Christy if they should stop to buy any food.
“No. I'm sure my aunt has enough for an army.”
“Your aunt doesn't know how these guys eat though,” the girl said.
“Actually, she has watched Doug in action, so I think she has a fair idea.” Christy smiled at Doug, who heard her comment.
“Okay.” the girl linked arms with the guy beside her. “We'll be there. Thanks for inviting us.”
“You're coming with me, aren't you?” Doug asked.
“I guess,” Christy answered as she looked around for Katie. “Would it be okay if Katie came with us?” Christy was hoping to use the ride back to apologize to Katie for her insensitive comment.
“Sure, if one of you doesn't mind ridin
g in the middle.”
“I'll ride in the middle. Let me go ask her.”
Christy wove through the mob and touched Katie on' the arm. She was standing next to Rick.
“Katie, do you want to come with Doug and me?”
Katie looked at Rick and then back at Christy. “I don't know. I thought I'd go with Rick since the rest of my stuff is in his car and everything.”
“Oh.”
Rick stepped in and with his half smile said, “You can come with us, if you want. You can have the whole backseat to yourself.”
Something about the way Rick said it felt like a slam to Christy. Why did he assume that Katie would be in the front seat and she would be in the back? Why was he stepping in and acting protective of Katie?
“Thanks.” Christy forced a smile at both of them. “I think I'll go with Doug so he won't be by himself.”
“Okay,” Rick said, sticking his lawn chair under his arm and reaching for the ice chest Katie had in her hand. “We'll see you at Bob and Marti's. I remember how to get there.”
Since he had on his sunglasses, Christy couldn't read his expression, but he sounded a little too arrogant and not at all like the tender person who had talked to her on the cement-block wall that morning.
“Ready?” Rick asked Katie, and the two of them headed down the street, with Rick carrying almost all their gear.
Katie didn't say a word to Christy or even look at her. She fell in step with Rick and marched down the street with him, her red hair shining in the late morning sun.
Something felt strange. Christy couldn't quite figure out what it was. She picked her way over the trash that people had left behind them and joined Doug and Tracy.
Tracy had found an empty paper bag and was going around picking up trash.
“Come on,” Doug said. “They hire people to do that.”
“We left such a mess though. Let me at least pick up the stuff from our group.”
Christy joined her, and in minutes the bag was bulging with candy wrappers and empty soda cans.