As soon as I let myself into my house after school, I dialed Kate’s number. She answered on the third ring, and before she could even say hello, I was spouting,

“OMG OMG OMG, guess who I talked to today?”

“Who?!” She said, excitedly.

“Three guesses!”

“Um… Dante?”

I laughed, then fake-pouted, “How did you guess so fast? You’re spoiling my fun!”

She laughed as well, and then replied “Dante knows everybody. He probably just wants in your pants, though.”

Her last comment annoyed me.

“I don’t think so. I think he might… like me.” I said hesitantly.

“Well, he might, but he has a girlfriend. You remember Melinda? They’ve been dating for seven months.”

I was shocked. He had a girlfriend? Had he been playing with me the whole time in science? All I could manage to say was, “Oh…”

I heard Kate sigh and she said, “I’m sorry, I’ll maybe saying something to him for you?”

“Nah, it’s okay he’s not worth it anyways, right?. Look, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay…I swear I’m telling the truth about Melinda!”
“I believe you.”

“Well, good. And, yeah, Rosa and I will call you later tonight.”

“Okay. Bye.”

After I hung up the phone I sat on my bed, thinking. How could I let my self fall for this boy so quickly? I felt tears well up in my eyes, and slowly gave into them. I buried my face in my pillow and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. Was Dante really just like Blake and Andres? Just a guy trying to hit on me? I had boyfriends before this year, but I had never been the type of girl that all the guys went after. But today, in science I had finally been the center of all the attention.

I got up and walked to my mirror. My hair was messed up, and I was still wearing the sweater and skirt I had worn to school. I leaned in and studied myself hard. Was I beautiful, like Dante said? Was I hot, like Blake thought? Did I have something that the other girls in bio. class didn’t? My cheeks were flushed from crying, and my mascara had mad a sticky mess beneath my eyes. I couldn’t see how anyone could think I was pretty. It was 4:00 by now, and I had about 2 hours to get ready for youth group. I heard the garage door go up, so I quickly wiped my face and tried to fix myself so it looked like I hadn’t been crying.

I managed to navigate the rest of the day, and even put Dante out of mind for some of it. Crawling back in bed after youth group that night I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep WITHOUT thinking about Dante. Somehow I managed to drift off, but was soon awakened by my phone vibrating on my nightstand. I glanced at the screen, and it was a number that wasn’t in my contacts. Thinking it was Rosa, I flipped it open and pressed it to my ear.

“Yeah?” I whispered, checking the time on my radio. It was 12:49 in the morning, and my parents would be furious if they caught me on the phone.

“You never called me!” a male voice said. I could hear music and people talking in the background.

“Who is this?” I said, in hushed voice.

“Who do you think it is? It’s Dante. I had to call around and ask for your number from people. Do you know how embarrassing that is?”

“Oh.” I said. I didn’t know if I was mad at him, or just hurt that he didn’t tell me he had a girlfriend.

“What’s wrong?” He asked instantly.

“Nothing.” I said in a quiet voice.

“Something’s wrong. Wanna talk about it?” He persisted.

“Not really. Not with you.”

“Okay, Savannah. Tell me what’s wrong because I don’t deserve to be treated like this.”

“Yes you do, you lied to me!”

“What? I’ve only known you for less than a day? How could I have lied to you?”

“You have a girlfriend.”

“Yeah. Did I ever say I didn’t?”

“Well….. no.”

“Exactly. So I never lied to you.”

His logic made sense to me. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding. I felt the corners of my heart soften just a little bit.

“Well, I guess that’s true.”

“Of course it’s true! I’m always right!”

I laughed and said, “Sure you are…..”

He was just about to reply when a beeping sound cut through on conversation.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. I just have another call coming through.”

“Well, shouldn’t you see who it is?”

“Nah. I’m fine just talking with you.”

The beeping noise continued, and our conversation dwindled to the point where I was just listening to the background noises of wherever he was.

Finally, I said, “Dante. See who the other call is. The beeping is driving me crazy.”

“Fine.” I heard shuffling and a few buttons pressed. In a few seconds I heard his voice again. ‘It’s just my girlfriend. Let’s keep on talking.”

“No. You should talk to her!”

“Nah.”

The beeping noise continued, and we eventually started talking about our biology class.

“Blake likes you, you know that right?” He said.

“That’s nice.” I replied, deadpan.

“Aww, come on. Be nice to him. He’s actually a great guy.”

“Sure.”

“It’s like I was saying. He just don’t know how to act around you.”

“I still don’t understand what you mean by that.”

“Well, you are-”He began, but the beeping interrupted him. “Ugh. She’s not going to stop calling until I answer her.”

“Then go.”

“But then I’ll feel bad for hanging up on you!”

I could hear a door opening at the end of my hallway.

“Dante, you’re going to get me in trouble. I think my parents just woke up.” I whispered.

“OH REALLY?” Dante yelled into the phone, laughing.

I quickly hung up and ducked my head underneath my blanket. The door to my room slowly pushed open, and I could hear my parents.

“Is she asleep?” My mom asked.

“I don’t know.” My dad replied

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes.

“Mom? What’s going on?” I asked, trying to sound groggy and half asleep.

“Oh, go back to sleep, sweetie. Everything’s okay.” She replied..

Laying back down, I smiled and snuggled deeper into my blankets.
*****

The next day went by in a rush. I found myself looking out of the corners of my eye everywhere I went, hoping to see Dante. I didn’t end up seeing him until after the pep rally, at the very end of the day. I standing around with Kate and Rosa and a few other of our friends, trying to look like I was not looking for Dante. I spotted him coming towards us, and quickly turned, and pretended like I was in a deep conversation with Rosa. He came up in between me and Kate, and edged his way into our circle.

He smiled, and looked at all of us. Pointing his finger at each one as he went around or circle, he greeted us in turn.

“Hey Rosa, Hey Cammie, Hey Nicole, Hey Kate.” He turned to me and grinned, “Hey, baby.”

I laughed, and playful pushed him backwards. He grabbed my wrist, and pulled me into a giant bear hug. Murmuring, with his lips pressed into my hair, he said ‘I’ll call you tonight.”
And with that he gave my one last squeeze, released me, nodded to the other girls, and walked away. I watched him as he made his way down the hallway, stopping to talk to people or slap high fives. Suddenly, I felt the burn of curious gazes on my face, and turned to look at the direction that they were coming from. All four girls were looking at me, with an expression that was a mix of shock, jealousy, and disgust. Kate was the first one to speak.
“Did he ever call you last night? He asked me for your number, after I started talking about you but I didn’t think he would actually call you.”
“What? Dante called you?” Rosa joined in.
“When what did he say? added Nicole.
“Nothing, we just talked about nothing for a while. He had to get off to talk to Miranda, though.” I said calmly.
“Oh, he always acts so annoyed when she calls him, and we’re on the phone together.” said Rosa, “Why is he ever going out with her? She’s not even pretty.”
“Well-” I began, but Kate interrupted me.
“You’re much prettier than her. She looks like a man!” She blurted out.
“I know!” said Rosa, turning to talk to Kate, “He would look much better with Savannah.
“That’s true. Wait…. Savannah, do you like him?”
I considered my options.
A)Tell the truth to my new friends- Hmmm…. I didn’t know if I could trust them. They might tell Dante, and that would be a huge mess. Plus I would then have to worry about Melinda-the-man hunting me down and killing me.
B) Lie
I chose option B and responded with, “Ew, are you crazy? I just met him! And plus, I never go for Mexican guys.” I faked a laugh, and glanced at the clock on my phone. “Wow, look at the time. I’m going to go catch the bus now.”
I walked away, shaking my head. Wow, Savannah. Way to be discreet. I thought sarcastically.