Thats not what i heard, p.22
That's Not What I Heard, page 22
“You know I’ll do anything for a butterscotch dip.”
“Butterscotch is for old people,” he said automatically. Kim smiled. “But I got you one anyway.”
He held out the cone in front of him, and she took it.
“I’m sorry,” Teddy said. “I shouldn’t have—”
“Broken up with me?” she supplied.
“Broken up with you?!” Teddy asked, aghast. “What are you talking about? You broke up with me.”
“No I didn’t! You broke up with me!”
They looked at each other, and then burst out laughing. Teddy took a seat at the table, and Kim joined him.
“Listen,” Teddy said, “I’m sorry if what I said that day in the gym came out wrong.”
“I’m sorry I ran away without asking you what you meant.” Kim swallowed nervously. “So, um … what did you mean?”
“I meant …” Teddy tried to think, really think, about what he wanted to say. He had to put this perfectly. “I meant that I love you, of course. And that of course you’re one of the best parts of my whole life. I just wanted to make sure that we still have lives. Like, as separate people. As Kim and Teddy, not just as Kim-and-Teddy.”
“That makes sense.” Kim nodded. “But we do, you know. Just because we spend a lot of our time together doesn’t mean that’s all we do. We’re two totally autonomous, fully functioning individuals who choose to spend their time together.”
“Yeah. I think … I think I was getting freaked out about college. I am freaked out about college,” he amended. “Everything’s going to be so different. Not just for me and you, but for … well … absolutely everything.”
“It’s a lot.”
“What if we go to different schools? What if we’re really far away from each other? What if … Kim, sometimes I don’t think I know how to be me without you.”
“I don’t want to be me without you,” Kim said simply. “But I know that I can be if I have to be. I’ve been me without you for weeks. And it wasn’t, like, the time of my life, but I was fine. I was still me. I was still Olivia’s sister and my moms’ daughter and Jess’s best friend. I still played softball and did my homework and ate too many M&M’s. And I’m sure you kept doing all the things that make you Teddy, too.”
He nodded, looking down at his hands. Somehow Kim’s rationality was making him feel self-conscious about the crazy mess that had been created in the wake of their breakup.
“Look, Teddy, I love you. Do I hope that it’s me and you when we’re eighty, sitting here eating butterscotch dips as actual old people? Yeah, I do.”
Teddy laughed.
“I still won’t eat butterscotch even when I’m eighty,” he said.
“Fine. I’ll be eating the butterscotch,” Kim amended. “But if things change when we’re in college, then they change. Let’s just see how it goes. Wow.” Kim shook her head, laughing. “I can’t believe I’m being so Zen about this.”
Teddy couldn’t believe it, either. Kim, his Kim, with her five thousand planners and her perfectly scheduled life, wanted to just see what happened? These past couple weeks had changed a lot of things. But as Teddy watched Kim pick up her ice cream, he knew nothing had changed the way he felt about her.
Maybe, like Kim said, things would change next year. But for now, all Teddy wanted was to be by her side.
There was nowhere else he’d rather be.
“Okay,” Teddy said.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I want to be with you. And see what happens.”
“Okay, then.” Kim smiled. “So what do we do now?” she asked. “Do we tell everyone we’re back together? Wait—just to be super clear—we are back together, right?”
“Yes,” Teddy said firmly. But the idea of telling everyone … after the whole school had picked sides … made his stomach start doing backflips.
“Jess will lose it,” Kim murmured.
“So will Elvis. And Sophie Maeby.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that, anyway?” Kim took a big bite of her ice cream. “I didn’t even know you and Sophie knew each other.”
“Honestly? I have no idea.” Teddy shook his head. “All of a sudden one day she was just … there. With a billion teddy bear ears. Speaking Italian.”
“She must have secretly been in love with you for years.”
“Like that art guy? I heard Manteghi is making him create a ton of Mighty Flying Arrows posters as part of his punishment. But, you know, just with our school mascot, not with your face on it.”
“Who, Toby?” Kim shrugged. “Nah, I think he was just seizing on a moment in the cultural zeitgeist. He’s like the Andy Warhol of William Henry Harrison High, and I was just a can of Campbell’s soup.”
Teddy laughed.
“So what do we do, keep this a secret?”
“I guess?” Kim said.
“I don’t want to keep it a secret. I want to go to the prom with you,” Teddy said, impulsively, but as soon as he said it, he knew it was right.
“Prom? Are you serious? That’s kind of the opposite of secret.”
“I know,” Teddy said. “But it’s kind of a big deal. We’ve been talking about it for years.”
“I’ve been telling everybody for weeks that I wouldn’t go.”
“Everybody?” Teddy asked. “Like Corey Brooks?”
“Yeah …”
“We shouldn’t miss out on prom just because of Corey Brooks.”
“What’ll Jess say? Elvis? Everybody?”
“They’ll say what they want.” Teddy reached out to squeeze Kim’s hand. “I just want to dance with you.”
“Well … I guess I did put the deposit down on the limo already,” Kim said.
“So that’s a yes?”
“Yes, Teddy Lin,” Kim said. “I’ll go to prom with you.”
Teddy knew he was grinning like a gooey idiot, but he didn’t even care.
“Now there’s only one question,” Teddy said. “Which prom should we go to? I heard there’s four different proms.”
“All of them?” Kim suggested. “None of them? I don’t know, Teddy. But we’ll figure it out.”
Kim interlaced her fingers with his, and everything felt right again.
They’d figure it out.
“It’s really hot in here.” Noelle Bonolis’s voice was barely intelligible, muffled as it was by the bear suit.
“Well, if it’s hot in there, you shouldn’t have suggested Bears!” Sophie snapped. “If we’d done A Night in Firenze like I’d wanted to, you could have been wearing a toga or something.”
“I don’t think they wear togas in Firenze.”
“We would have gotten to the details later, okay?”
Even though she now knew Teddy wasn’t moving to Florence, Sophie still stood by it as a valid prom theme. Certainly more valid than Bears. But if Sophie had learned anything about human nature over the past few weeks, it was that people—herself included—did not want to back down. Hence why Sophie was still stuck in a Bears-themed quadrant, despite the fact that she’d attempted to disband the Teddy Bears.
That hadn’t been totally successful, either. Most people had flat-out refused when Sophie had told them the Teddy Bears were done, and absolutely no one had responded to her official disbandment Instastory. Almost everybody in the Bears quadrant was still wearing their ears. Well, Sophie was still wearing her ears, too, but that was just because she wanted to match the theme.
Sophie pulled a Kleenex out of her purse and dabbed at the sweat on her forehead, trying not to smudge her makeup. Even without a furry bear suit, it was hot in here. She looked anxiously around the Bear quadrant of the gym. Somehow, the fake pine trees were staying mostly upright, and after seven or so attempts, the twinkling lights really did look like stars in the night sky. The bear suit, borrowed from last year’s William Henry Harrison High drama department production of The Winter’s Tale, wasn’t totally realistic, but at least it was dark enough in here that no one would notice. The best part of all was the backdrop affixed to the wall, provided by Toby Neale. Sophie was pretty sure it was part of some Birth of Kim-us punishment, but the majestic bear standing on top of a waterfall really did look nice.
Honestly, it looked as good as a prom themed Bears could possibly look, and Sophie would have to content herself with that. She cast anxious glances over toward the other quadrants. Nihilism, with its random black balloons and its LIFE IS MEANINGLESS banner, obviously looked ridiculous, but Fifties Sock Hop was unbelievably cute. She watched Amelia Asaad and Emma Gertz chatting in their poodle skirts underneath a giant record and next to a pink Cadillac. How did they afford that pink Cadillac? It was a cardboard cutout, but still—it looked awesome. And then over in Perfect Catch, everything was even worse—by which Sophie meant, of course, that it looked even better. The whole floor of that quadrant was a baseball diamond, and the walls were decorated with baseball cards depicting famous couples—including Kim and Teddy. Josiah wore his baseball uniform with a bow tie, which looked surprisingly cute, somehow, probably because the bow tie matched the red-and-white stripes on Chris’s shirt. Now that every other long-term couple in the senior class had imploded, the two of them were probably a lock for prom kings.
Standing next to them, in a bright red jacket and black pants, was Nico. Her Nico.
Not her Nico anymore, Sophie scolded herself. As she watched his nose ring glinting in the light of the disco ball, Sophie didn’t want him back, exactly, but she couldn’t help but wonder what this had all been for. Teddy hadn’t fallen for her. He’d totally rejected her prom-posal, and now, he wasn’t even here. And even though he wasn’t moving to Firenze, by this time next year, Teddy would probably have forgotten that Sophie even existed. And all she’d have were pictures of her teddy bear ears squishing her updo and the memories of the travesty of an event she’d created. Actually, people would probably remember her forever as the sad girl who insisted on a stupid prom theme, which wasn’t exactly the kind of notoriety Sophie was interested in.
A prom themed Bears. It was too ridiculous for words. At least Sophie wasn’t in the bear suit.
“Can I please change into my dress?” Noelle whimpered.
“Fine.” Sophie sighed. What did it matter anymore? What did any of it matter? It’s not like anyone thought Noelle was actually a bear.
Sophie should go hang out with Wendy in Nihilism. As she watched Noelle pull off her bear head, Sophie had never been more aware of the absurdity of life. She’d worked so hard, and for what?
For absolutely nothing.
A gasp rippled through the gym, and Sophie turned to see what it was.
Kim and Teddy stood in the doorway, holding hands.
Together.
Teddy and Kim were back together.
And if that wasn’t proof that the universe was laughing at her, Sophie didn’t know what was.
Stop it, Sophie, she scolded herself as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she looked at Kim and Teddy. Really looked. And she couldn’t deny that there was a certain … rightness to seeing the two of them together. Teddy Lin and Kim Landis-Lilley were supposed to be hand in hand, just like they had always been. And Sophie found that she didn’t feel jealous of Kim in the way she thought she would. Like, she wanted what Kim had, but she didn’t want Teddy. Not really. She just wanted someone to stand hand in hand with, and to feel the rightness of it all the way down to the tips of her toes.
It would have been nice if Nico had been that person. Like, if he’d turned out to be “the one” after all. But he wasn’t, and Sophie knew now that it was better to be alone than to be with someone and not feel the rightness of it.
She never wanted to feel that way again.
“Is everyone staring at us?” Teddy whispered.
“Everyone’s definitely staring at us.” Kim squeezed his hand—once, twice. Teddy squeezed back, just once. Because that was their thing. The three squeezes. “But it’s okay. They’ll get used to it.”
“Do you, um, do you wanna dance?” Teddy asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the dance floor. The music was still playing, but everyone had stopped dancing. Instead, there was just a sea of people staring at them.
“Sure,” Kim said nervously.
There was nothing he could do about people staring. All he could do—all he wanted to do—was dance with Kim.
Teddy led Kim out onto the dance floor and started stepping from side to side, the only kind of dance move he ever attempted. But as he watched Kim start to smile, her arms flapping out at the side like an adorably uncoordinated chicken, Teddy let himself relax. This was just him and Kim, back together, dancing badly, but happy because they were with each other.
And that was all that mattered.
“Nico, my man,” Josiah Watkins marveled. “We did it. You did it.”
Nico couldn’t believe it. There they were, right in front of him, Kim and Teddy, back together.
Teddy led Kim out onto the dance floor, and they joined in the group of people who had mostly stopped dancing to stare at Teddy and Kim. Wow, neither one of them could dance. Like, at all.
It was actually kind of cute, in a spectacularly uncoordinated kind of way.
But even though they had no skills, Nico had never been happier to see two people bopping back and forth in the glow of the twinkle lights. Just as Nico had dreamed they would.
“We might actually have a shot of winning our last game now.” Josiah clapped Nico on the back. “Order and harmony have been restored to the universe. Everything’s finally going to be all right.”
Was it, though? Nico accepted the congratulations of his fellow HeartBeats. He received their hugs one by one as various HeartBeats peeled off to the dance floor. He watched them dancing, joined by Teddy Bears and AntiKaTs and Team Kim, and it was truly the reunified version of William Henry Harrison High Nico had dreamed of, come to life.
But he was still alone.
“Congrats, Nico.” She was standing behind him, but Nico knew it was Sophie before he even turned around. He would recognize the smell of her Sun-Ripened Raspberry body spray anywhere. “I guess the HeartBeats weren’t so stupid after all.”
“They were kind of stupid.” Nico’s breath caught in his throat as he turned to look at Sophie. Her dress reminded him of the night sky, small sequins twinkling against the dark blue fabric. Her curly hair was piled on top of her head, exposing the regal lines of her neck. His Sophie, more beautiful than he’d ever seen her before.
“I mean, yes, your felt hearts were stupid. But not the HeartBeats. It worked. Look at them. Kim and Teddy, back together.”
Nico looked out on the dance floor, at Kim and Teddy dancing together like two giant chickens.
“I didn’t do it for them, Soph. I did it for you. I did it for us.”
“I already told you, Nico.” She shook her head sadly. “There is no more us. But … I’d like to dance, if you would? As friends? For old times’ sake?”
“Sure, Sophie.” Nico nodded, hoping she couldn’t hear the sound of his heart breaking. “I’d love to dance. As friends.”
As they walked onto the dance floor, the music changed to a slow song.
Nico gathered her into his arms, one last time.
“And now, DJ Mr. Guzman is gonna kick it old-school.”
Ms. Somers recognized the song immediately. As the kids coupled up, slow-dancing with their arms around each other’s waists, it took everything she had not to sing “Dreaming of You” along with Selena. Ms. Somers had loved this song when she’d been in high school. She’d listened to it over and over again, thinking about the different guys she had crushes on, hoping that one of them might ask her to dance or something.
“You want to dance, Somers?”
Coach Mendoza stood in front of her, his hands jammed into the pockets of his gray dress pants, his black tie charmingly askew. Here he was, her unbelievably handsome boyfriend, better than any guy she’d had a crush on in high school.
“I’m sorry, were you not paying attention during our pre-prom chaperone meeting? Aren’t you supposed to be chaperoning the dance floor in quadrants one and two?” she teased. “Quadrants three and four are my territory.”
“I think we’ll be able to keep a better eye on all the quadrants if we team up. I feel like there might be something shady going down in Sock Hop that you might need backup on.” He held out his arms, and she walked into them.
“Oh, I see. You have no interest in dancing with me. This is purely a chaperone tactic.” He was warm, and solid, and Ms. Somers couldn’t help but rest her head on his chest.
“Obviously. Come on, Somers. Get your head in the game. Tonight, I’m a chaperone first. Boyfriend second.”
Boyfriend. Ms. Somers thought she’d never heard anything quite so wonderful as Coach Mendoza calling himself her boyfriend. And she thought that she’d never felt anything quite so wonderful as Coach Mendoza’s hand at the small of her back, steering her gently around the gym, from the Bear quadrant to the Baseball quadrant to the Fifties quadrant to the Nihilism quadrant. It was all so wonderful she completely forgot she was supposed to be on the lookout for any kind of unscrupulous dancing activity.
“Why, Somers and Mendoza,” Mr. Rizzo said as he moonwalked past them in his powder-blue tux, abandoning his post by the punch bowl in quadrant four to check up on them. “I knew I shouldn’t have been removed from dance floor duty. I’ve already busted three couples for dancing too close. And you two are the worst of them all! Do I have to give you a demerit for PDA?”
“Not right now,” Coach Mendoza said. “I can wait.”
Ms. Somers smiled up at him.
She hoped she wouldn’t have to wait very long.
He was waiting for her right where she knew he would be, where the northern woods of the Teddy Bear quadrant met the Fifties Sock Hop of the Team Kim quadrant. Jess walked right up to the masking tape line that divided them, remembering all the times she’d stepped up to the yellow line in the cafeteria, remembering how she’d vowed to destroy Elvis Rodriguez.
