Two of Us

  “Wow,” he said as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Secrets and surprises. Not a bad first date, Bloom.”

  I looked at him, pretending to be shocked. “This is a date? Why I NEVER!”

  “That’s not funny.” He jokingly wagged his finger at me.

  “I think it’s hilarious.” I popped a tot into my mouth.

  He shook his head as he picked up his burger. “Looks like I’m going to need my strength to keep up with you.”

  You know it.

  I’d never had one of those dates where time didn’t seem to register. Even with Nate, I was always aware of how much longer we had together (since we dated in secret) and even what time it was.

  None of that mattered with Ryan.

  Well, none of that mattered to me. My parents, however, were more than concerned about what time it was and that I made curfew. Fortunately, Ryan was paying attention.

  “Yikes,” he remarked upon seeing the time. “I’ve got less than thirty minutes to get you home, and we might hit traffic.”

  “What?” I blinked like I couldn’t understand that it was close to nine-thirty, that we’d been at the restaurant for nearly three hours.

  Nate and I had our entire childhood filled with memories to discuss, and we never had the kind of seamless conversation that Ryan and I had had, or for as long.

  Stop comparing Ryan to Nate, Penny. Ryan is nothing, nothing like Nate.

  Thank God.

  By the time we got to Ryan’s car, I wanted time to slow down even further, for us to not have to part ways so quickly. There was so much left that I wanted to say and do on our date. While I knew that we’d have other dates and more time together, I wanted to make every second count with Ryan. The next couple of weeks were going to be great, but then school would be back and there’d be homework, more Lonely Hearts Club events, and more things to get in the way. I didn’t want anything to affect our relationship, but I knew it was going to be hard.

  I was going to have to make choices. But tonight, the decision was easy: Ryan.

  Now time was at the forefront of my mind, and not only in regards to the future. I stared at the clock as we made our way back to Parkview, and we were only a couple of blocks away from my house when I asked Ryan to pull over.

  “Are you embarrassed that people might see me drop you off?” he asked as he parked the car on the corner.

  “No, I wanted to say good-bye to you … in private.” It wouldn’t have shocked me if my parents were still staring out the window.

  “Oh.” Ryan’s eyes lit up. “Private is good.”

  “Yeah” — my stomach stared twisting — “I had a really good time tonight. Thanks for dinner.”

  “Thank you for letting me take you out, finally. It was a lot of fun.”

  I pulled out my phone and started the timer.

  “Ah, what’s going on?” Ryan’s voice was laced with confusion as my timer started to count down from five minutes.

  “I have to be home in seven minutes, but I have a feeling that I might get distracted, so I wanted to be careful.”

  “What would distract —”

  But before Ryan could finish his sentence, I pulled him in for a kiss for the second time that evening. But unlike the last public one where I was quick, this time I relished every second of his lips on mine. He unbuckled his seat belt, so he could reach around me and pull me in even closer. I cupped one hand gently on his chin, while my other ran through his hair.

  We both groaned when my phone started to beep. I begrudgingly pulled one hand away, then took my phone and threw it in the backseat.

  Ryan backed away from me reluctantly. “That was the shortest five minutes in the history of the world.”

  “Stupid phone.”

  “Yeah …” Ryan let out a long breath as we silently studied each other. “I guess I should …” But he thought better of it and went in for another kiss. This time I grabbed him closer.

  With a free hand, Ryan started his car up. “We need to stop, because I’m picturing your mom really mad at me.”

  “Ew, that is not what I want you to be thinking right now.”

  “Me neither.” He put the car in drive as I reached into the backseat for my phone, and we pulled in front of my house at precisely nine fifty-nine. “So, do you think you can make some time in your busy holiday schedule for another date?”

  “I think I can manage that.” I tried to play coy, but my huge smile betrayed me. “Let me have my people get in touch with your people.”

  “Can’t wait.” He squeezed my hand as I opened up the door.

  “Me, too.” I got out and immediately tried to calm down on my walk to the front door. There was no way I could walk in and face my parents with a goofy grin on my face. They would know something was up. Although I couldn’t appear to be upset, either. It was always a delicate balance with them.

  I took a deep breath before opening the door. They were both in the living room, reading.

  “How’d it go, kiddo?” Dad asked.

  “It was good. We went to a restaurant in Winnetka, nice food.”

  “I see he got you home without a minute to spare,” Mom commented.

  “Traffic,” I lied.

  Mom narrowed her eyes at me before going back to her book. “Well, I’ve always liked Ryan. I’m glad you had a good time.”

  “Thanks.” I took that as my cue to go upstairs and finally reply to the various texts Tracy’d sent throughout the night.

  I decided that short and sweet would be the best response to her query on how the date went:

  It was awesome.

  Nice! I take full responsibility for it.

  Of course you do.

  The Club expects full deets on Sat.

  A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.

  Yeah, but we’re not talking about a lady,

  we’re talking about you. Another date?

  Right then a text came through from Ryan: Still smiling.

  I almost squeed loudly after reading his text.

  (Wow, Penny, you really are becoming such a girl.)

  Of course, I typed back to Tracy, totally smitten.

  Thankfully, I no longer had to hide my feelings from my best friend. While The Lonely Hearts Club had brought us even closer together, my constant deceit and lies about how I was really feeling had started to put a wedge between us. Fortunately, Tracy could always tell when someone was full of it, and rightly called me out when I was too stubborn to admit the truth.

  Tracy’s response, Don’t play hard to get, confused me. I wasn’t playing hard to get. I admitted to her that I was smitten. After everything Ryan and I had been through, did she really think I would play hard to get?

  Unless.

  No, no, no, no, no …

  Crap.

  I didn’t want to believe it, but my phone confirmed that I had accidentally sent the smitten response to Ryan, not Tracy.

  This was why I should never do more than one thing at a time. If I tried to balance too many things, one was bound to end in disaster. After a perfect first date, Ryan would now assume that I was a complete stalker. I should send him a lock of my hair for good measure to totally freak him out.

  In the middle of my breakdown on how to repair the potential damage my gushing to Ryan would cause, he replied.

  I was almost too afraid to look.

  Me too.

  Those two words seemed to lift a weight off my shoulders that I wasn’t aware I was carrying. Even though I was so over Nate, there were still remnants from my bad relationships lodged into my subconscious. I always felt like I needed to be careful with what I said or what I did around a guy, though they never showed the same courtesy. Even with The Lonely Hearts Club supporting me, reminding me that all I needed to be was myself, those bad boy habits were still in me.

  I didn’t have to second guess myself around Ryan, though. He liked me for me, flaws and all.

  And I liked him … even though he was pretty clueless
about all things Beatles.

  I may be wrong about a lot of things, but there was one thing that I knew for certain: Ryan was one of the best things to happen to me.

  Now I just had to make sure I didn’t screw it up.

  Keep reading for a special sneak peek of

  We Can Work It Out, the return to the characters of The Lonely Hearts Club from romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg!

  ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF THE educational system doing everything by alphabetical order was that my school locker was only three away from my boyfriend’s.

  Ryan greeted me on Monday with a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “Hey!” I started pulling out my books for class. “And how was your weekend?”

  He closed his locker door. “It was okay.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Just okay? That’s weird — I heard that you were out with your amazing girlfriend.”

  “She’s also extremely humble,” he fired back.

  Eileen Vodak, a freshman member of the Club, approached me. “Hey, Penny, do you know who the guy with Diane is? I saw them in the office — yum!”

  “It’s probably our new foreign exchange student from Australia,” I answered. “I haven’t met him yet. Is he hot?”

  “I’m right here!” Ryan protested.

  I rolled my eyes dramatically at him before turning back to Eileen.

  She motioned in the direction of the hallway where Diane was now walking with a guy who was ridiculously good-looking. Out of respect for Ryan, I tried not to stare.

  Even though Diane was no longer a cheerleader, she still walked with an extra bounce in her step and enthusiastically greeted everybody in her path. She was chatting to the guy next to her, and despite the foot difference in height, they could’ve been siblings: both with blond hair (hers long and wavy, his shaggy) and light blue eyes. The big difference was that his skin was about ten shades tanner than Diane’s alabaster complexion.

  “Penny!” Diane sang out to me. “I want you to meet Bruce Bryson.” She turned toward him. “Bruce, this is my oldest friend, Penny Lane.”

  His expression lit up. “Like the Beatles song?” I nodded; this was always the question when my full name was used. “Bottler!”

  “Ah, thanks?”

  “Sorry, that means that I think that’s really awesome.” He spoke quickly, trying to explain himself. “I sometimes like the old Aussie slang.”

  “That’s cool — or I guess I should say bottler. It’s great to meet you. Welcome to Parkview, Illinois. I can’t imagine you’re thrilled about the weather we have for you.” I noticed he was wearing about three layers of clothing.

  “Yeah, I had a cozzie — er, swimsuit on at Christmas.” He smiled to reveal a set of dimples.

  I tried very hard not to imagine him in that cozzie.

  Diane turned toward Ryan. “And this is Ryan, also one of my closest friends, and Penny’s boyfriend.” It still felt weird to hear Diane call Ryan my boyfriend, since he’d been her boyfriend for four years. She kept insisting that it wasn’t uncomfortable for her, but I couldn’t help thinking it had to be.

  “Nice to meet you,” said Ryan, offering a hand to shake. Bruce shook back — universal guy behavior.

  We chatted with Bruce for a while and got all the basics. He was from Bondi Beach outside of Sydney, had never been to the US before, was a surfer (which didn’t surprise me in the least), and after a semester with us, he was going to meet his family in New York City and then spend the rest of the summer traveling the US.

  Diane gently took his schedule out of his hands and started to look it over. “Okay, you’ve got Spanish with Penny, World History with Penny and Ryan, and Chemistry with me.” She continued to scan through as Tracy approached us.

  “Hey, Pen, I forgot to ask you —”

  Diane interrupted. “Tracy! I’m so glad you’re here. I wanted you to meet the new exchange student from Australia, Bruce. You’ve got English with him this afternoon.”

  Tracy looked over at Bruce. “G’day!” she said in an exaggerated accent.

  He laughed. “G’day to you, Tracy!” He scratched his head, causing his messy hair to stick up on one side.

  “Welcome to Up Over, I guess.” She gave him a quick smile before turning her attention back to me. “Anyways, Pen, I completely forgot to ask you about our Trig homework.”

  It was a little inconceivable. Tracy was standing next to a guy who was not only totally her type but who had her full attention. And she was brushing him off.

  The Club had worked its magic on all of its members, especially Tracy. Six months ago, Tracy would’ve put Bruce at the top of her annual list of potential boyfriends, only to end up crossing him off for one petty reason or another. That list had brought her nothing but heartbreak, and now her focus was on her friends and being happy without a guy. Which was great, but still …

  I wasn’t the only one who noticed Bruce staring at Tracy as she looked over my notes. Diane raised her eyebrows at me, and I stifled a laugh. Tracy would’ve killed us if she’d known what we were thinking.

  Once Diane realized that Tracy’s attention wasn’t going to come back to her guest, she moved on. “Well, I’d better get you to your first class,” she told Bruce.

  Bruce nodded. “It was great meeting you all.”

  “You, too — see you en Español,” I replied.

  Bruce leaned closer to Tracy, who was now sitting on the floor, quickly copying my notes before class. “See you around, Tracy?”

  “Yep.” She didn’t even look up. “See you later, shrimp on the barbie, dingo ate my baby, and all that.”

  Even though Tracy was just being Tracy, Bruce took her jabs at Australian stereotypes as flirting. He walked off with a satisfied smile, pausing a few times to look back at her.

  “Okay.” Tracy closed her notebook and got up. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  I said good-bye to Ryan, and Tracy and I started heading to Trig. “So what do you think of Bruce?” I asked.

  “He seems nice enough.” She shrugged. “Do you think we’re going to have a pop quiz? It’s only the second week back from winter break — that’d be too cruel, right?”

  Tracy’s quick dismissal of a cute boy was just more proof of how much had changed in so little time.

  * * *

  There was never an agenda for The Lonely Hearts Club as we sat together every day at lunch. It was solely time for us to catch up. Sometimes we helped someone out if she had a problem (many times in the past, that had been me) or planned an upcoming meeting. As the group of over twenty-five members started to file into the cafeteria for lunch, we moved tables over to make room for everybody: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

  We were all into our lunch and gossip of the day when an unexpected visitor descended on our table.

  “G’day, ladies,” Bruce greeted us. “Would you mind if I joined you?” While Bruce sounded relaxed, his hands were tightly clenching his lunch tray. I couldn’t really blame him for his nerves. We were a little intimidating as a group.

  Our table had been buzzing with voices and energy a second before, but now had gone eerily silent. We’d never had anybody from the outside join our table. Even the boyfriends didn’t eat lunch with us. It wasn’t an official rule, just how it was.

  When no one answered, Bruce took a nervous step back. While all eyes on the table were on me to make a decision, my own eyes quickly swept the cafeteria. It was partly to see if there was a better place for him to sit and also to see if anybody else had noticed our predicament. There were a few people studying the table. At the jocks-and-cheerleaders-only table, Ryan’s boorish best friend, Todd, was nudging their friend Brian, pointing out Bruce. Todd’s cocky laughter sealed Bruce’s fate.

  “Of course.” I began to make room for him. “Come sit between me and Tracy.”

  “Cheers,” he said gratefully. “I appreciate it. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  The group continued
its silent study of our guest, which in turn made him self-conscious again. He hardly looked up as he played with his sandwich.

  “So …” I said, racking my brain for small talk. “How was your day so far?”

  “It was good.” He took a bite but still refused to look up, which was wise since all eyes were on him.

  I gave a warning look to the group, and a few resumed their conversations. “Well, I’ll take you to Spanish after lunch, and then we have World History, so you’re stuck with me for a bit.”

  “Sounds great.” He looked to his other side. “How was your morning, Tracy?”

  She took a long sip of her soda. “It was school. So do you miss your pet koala back home?”

  I could see the back of his neck turning a light shade of crimson. “Um, no. Koalas are an endangered species. We have them in sanctuaries for the most part.”

  “Really?” Her lips turned up into a smirk. “Are you related to any hobbits, then?”

  “Ah, those movies were filmed in New Zealand …”

  I jumped in. “She’s only teasing.” It was unclear whether he genuinely didn’t realize this, or if Tracy made him nervous because he was smitten. I was really hoping for the latter. It wasn’t that I wanted Tracy to date, but it was about time someone liked her. And if that someone was the hot foreign exchange student, even better.

  Tracy went back to talking with Morgan. Luckily, Diane was across from Bruce, so the three of us carried on a discussion about Australia, the US, and McKinley High, and avoided the very large elephant in the room: the Club.

  Later, as we gradually began to disperse, I headed back to my locker to get my books. When I turned the corner, Ryan was shaking his head at me.

  “What?” I asked, although I already knew where this was going.

  “So” — he twirled a piece of my hair around his finger — “I see what it takes to get an invite to your lunch table: an accent.”

  I swiped his hand away. “What was I supposed to do? It was so awkward.”

  He laughed. “Oh, really?”

  “Thanks for inviting him to sit with you guys,” I replied dryly.