Page 24 of Just Dare Me
Nora keeps her hands balled into fists under her chin. “Only if you give me permission.”
“Do it,” Charlotte says, sounding more challenging than inviting.
Nora reaches out a tentative hand, placing the tips of her fingers on top of Charlotte’s wrist. “Sorry if my fingers are cold. I usually wear…” Her voice trails off, and then she quickly pulls her hand back.
“What? What happened?”
“No, it’s fine. I just didn’t expect for him to sound so close. Incredible!”
“You heard him?”
Nora touches Charlotte’s wrist again, and she smiles, listening. “Oh, okay. I can do that.”
“What? What’s he saying?”
“He’s saying I should talk out loud, so nobody feels left out. That’s thoughtful. He sounds like a sweetheart, Charlotte.” Nora laughs. “Oh, really? He says, ‘What do you expect from a grandma’s boy?’”
“True, he was raised by his grandma,” Charlotte explains.
“He says that’s not all, and to ask you about junior high.”
“What about it? He was a grandma’s boy, he was overweight, and obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. Junior high was hell for him.”
“Oh no! That’s awful.” Nora listens for a bit, then melts. “Awww. He says it wasn’t awful, because of his best friend. You guys have known each other that long?”
Charlotte shrugs. “We weren’t always best friends.”
“‘That’s right,’ he says. ‘Charlotte got too cool for me in high school. And by too cool, I mean band geek.’”
“No!” I exclaim.
Russo smiles. “I can see it. What instrument?”
“Okay, we really don’t need to talk about ancient history.”
Nora interprets as she listens. “‘She’s right,’ he says. ‘We better stop talking like this, or Shayne is going to call me whipped and a limpdick.’”
I feign total shock. “Wait, Matt, are you sure you’re not inmymind right now?”
Nora turns to Russo. “He says he’d tell you how Charlotte likes her steak cooked, but you probably already know.”
As Russo is about to answer, Charlotte interrupts. “No, that’s okay, we really don’t need to pass the phone around.”
Nora listens for a beat, and her face falls. “Oh, that seems like…are you sure?”
“What? What is it?”
“Well, I shouldn’t get in the middle—”
“Just say it.”
“Matt says…you couldn’t hear a word he said this whole time?”
“What? Of course I did.”
Nora squirms under the awkward tension. “He says, ‘No, you didn’t. Not really.’”
Charlotte’s cheeks turn red, and her brows lower in a scowl. “Well, I don’t hear theexact words, if that’s what he means. I get images. Memories of junior high, of his grandma. So I get the general idea of what he’s saying, yeah.”
