Page 16 of Endless Summer: Stories
A minute later, Clen stood. “I have to go to the john,” he said. “And I might get a Coke. Do you want one?”
Dabney stood. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll go with you.”
“You stay here, please, and enjoy the game,” he said. “Protect our seats. I’ll get you a Coke. Anything else?”
“No,” she said. She sank down into her seat. She thought,He’s going out there to see Jocelyn. To smoke a cigarette with Jocelyn.He smoked cigarettes now. It was no big deal, except he hadn’t told Dabney, and he told her everything. Or he used to. Probably he was ashamed about it. But Dabney understood that he was under a lot of pressure with the newspaper, and pressure led people to smoke.
Dabney watched Clen head up the concrete steps, out of the stadium. She redirected her attention to the game, but she could focus only long enough to watch Blood Dellman—whose given name was William Youngblood Dellman, a young aristocrat just like everyone else—throw an interception, which the Yale cornerback returned for a touchdown.
The blue half of the stadium was cheering.
Advantage Yale.
Suddenly, Dabney heard her name being called, and she saw Mallory and Jason picking their way across rows of people—Sorry, ’scuse me—toward her. Jason took Clen’s empty seat and Mallory took the empty seat next to him.
“We found you!” Jason said. He seemed ecstatic about this fact, as though their plan all along had been to meet up, but Dabney knew this had not been their plan. “Where’s the big guy?”
“I don’t know,” Dabney said. “He went to get a Coke or something, I guess.”
They all watched Yale kick the extra point.
“This sucks,” Jason said. He stood up, cupped his hands around his mouth, and yelled, “Come on, Harvard, you pussies!”
Dabney looked past Jason at Mallory. Mallory was so cold, her lips were blue. “Are you having fun?” Dabney asked.
Mallory shrugged. “No,” she said.
Dabney wasn’t having fun either. She admired Mallory for just being able to admit it. Maybe that was the Montana girl in her. Dabney had inherited the stiff upper lip, but today it wasn’t doing her any good.
Mallory said, “I think Jason likes you.”
“What?” Dabney said. She looked up at Jason, mortified that he might have overheard this, but Jason was wholly absorbed in the game.
“I think he, like,like-likes you,” Mallory said.
Dabney was impressed that Mallory had managed to use the wordlikethree times in a row and still make sense.
“No, he does not. Don’t be stupid. You’re beautiful, Mallory. He likes you.”
“You were gone for, like, five minutes before he wanted to try and find you. We’ve been searching for, like, half an hour. And he kept telling me how you loved the idea for his thesis.”
“Oh my God,” Dabney said. She didnotlove the idea for Jason’s thesis; at best, she thought it might make an amusing party game at four in the morning while drunk or stoned.Which is better, original or cover?
“And when he was eating your sandwich?” Mallory said. “He was makingnoises.It sounded like… like he was having anorgasm.”
“You have to stop,” Dabney said. Jason was standing right between them, although she could tell he wasn’t paying attention. He let out a loud, piercing whistle for something that happened on the field.
“I’m serious,” Mallory said. “You somehow managed to steal my boyfriend.”
“I did no such thing!” Dabney said.
“I really like living with you,” Mallory said. “But I don’t want you to ride home with us tomorrow.”
Before Dabney could respond with the obvious question—How will I get home, then?—Jason plopped down into the seat between them and wrapped one arm around Dabney and one around Mallory. “How are my best girls?” he said.
Dabney stood up. “I’m going to find Clen,” she said.
She headed up the stairs toward the concession area. Jason didnotlike her. Or rather, he liked her, most people liked her, but he was not interested in her romantically. Possibly he thought she was smart or interesting or a good cook. Jealousy was making Mallory irrational. Dabney had notstolenher boyfriend! She erased from her mind the time when she drove Jason to visit his sister at Tabor Academy and he had noticed Dabney chewing on her pearls and had, gently, removed them from her mouth and arranged them back around her neck. His hand had lingered on her clavicle for an extra second or two. Dabney laughed and said, “Thanks, Preppie.”
