Protect My Heart by Judy Corry
Emma
I texted Maya and Kathryn: Running late. Still cleaning the office. Be there in ten min.
It was Saturday night, and I was stuck at work a lot later than usual. My mom had taken me shopping in St. George all day, so I hadn’t had a chance to clean the office until six. That would be fine normally, since my neighbor really didn’t care what time I cleaned his office building on Saturdays, but today I wanted to hurry. Landon’s beginning-of-the-school-year bash was pretty much the only time the whole senior class would hang out. Everybody would be there, since Landon was the student-body president and everyone’s friend.
I rushed through my dusting and vacuuming as fast as I could so my friends wouldn’t leave without me.
My phone beeped.
Maya: Hurry up before Kathryn loses her nerve to talk to Conner tonight.
A second later, my phone dinged, announcing another message sent to our group.
Kathryn: Feel free to take your time. I’ll talk to him next week instead.
I laughed and shook my head as I started grabbing the sacks from the trash bins. Kathryn would take any way out she could. She’d been crushing on Conner for months and had still barely said more than two words to him. Maya was right—we needed to get to that party fast.
I locked the building up. Fifteen minutes later, Maya, Kathryn, and I stood on Landon’s front porch, listening to the Chainsmokers blasting from his backyard. As usual, my two best friends were already arguing about Landon’s taste in music. They were yin and yang, while I was stuck in the middle, ever the referee.
But the funny thing was, they were dressed almost exactly alike—skinny jeans and black tops.
We waited at the door for a few more minutes before realizing we should probably just go through the gate at the side of the house.
As we were stepping off the porch, Maya grabbed my arm and pointed toward the sidewalk.
“Look! It’s Mr. Lund,” she squealed.
“What? He’s at Landon’s party?” I squinted into the fading light.
Mr. Lund was the new psychology teacher this year. He was fresh out of college, and Maya seemed all too aware that he was only five years older than us.
“Of course he’s not at the party. He’s walking down the sidewalk. Maybe he lives nearby.” Maya sounded way too excited that her teacher might live in her neighborhood. She ran a hand through her short brown hair and said, “I need to talk to him for a minute…about an assignment he gave us.”
“Go ahead.” I nodded in his direction, not wanting to be an accomplice to her flirting with a teacher. “Kathryn and I will wait here.”
“Yeah, go ahead,” Kathryn agreed.
Maya turned to us. “Come on, he has another guy with him who’s really cute.” She looked at me, pleading with her eyes. “Pretty please.”
Kathryn and I glanced at each other. “Fine,” I said. “Let the humiliation begin.”
“Thanks,” Maya said as she hurried us toward the two men.
The girls at school referred to Mr. Lund byhis first name, Shane, as they gossiped about him in the girl’s locker room before PE. I didn’t have any classes with him, so I’d never had the chance to notice whether his eyes were turquoise green or not. Maya had, of course, confirmed that his eyes were the dreamiest color of green she’d ever seen and he smelled even better than he looked. All I noticed was that Mr. Lund was tall, with light hair, and wore clothes that looked way too expensive for his teacher’s salary.
“Hi, Mr. Lund!” Maya waved as we came to stand on the grass at the edge of the sidewalk. “Coming to crash the party?”
“Sadly, I wasn’t invited.” He smiled. With him in jeans and a T-shirt, I could understand how Maya would have a hard time picturing him as just a teacher. He looked like a regular guy. “We’re actually headed to a barbecue down the street.”
“Darn it.” She twisted a strand of hair around her finger as she spoke. “So do you live around here? I haven’t seen you in the neighborhood before.”
“Nah, Damian and I share an apartment closer to the school.” He gestured to his friend, who was a really big guy. He wasn’t quite as tall as Mr. Lund, but he looked like he spent a lot of time either at the gym or pumping up on steroids, or both. I couldn’t help but wonder whether his muscles were compensation for his receding hairline. When my eyes met his, I quickly directed my attention back to Mr. Lund. He was much less intimidating.
“I don’t think I’ve met your friends yet.” Mr. Lund’s eyes wandered to Kathryn and me.
“This is Emma.” Maya gestured. “And this is Kathryn.”
Mr. Lund held out his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you officially,” I said, shaking his hand. “Maya’s told me how awesome psychology is this year. I wish I had room in my schedule to take your class, with how fascinating she makes it sound.”
“I’m happy to hear that.” He smiled. “You never really know how your first year is gonna go.”
“From what I’ve heard around school, you’ve definitely made an impact.” As in, all the senior girls have a crush on you.
I realized that the longer I stood there, the more it would look like I was a part of his fan club as well.
But before I could pull Maya away, Damian asked, “How long have you girls lived in Maplebridge? It seems like a great place.”
“I’ve lived here since I was five,” Maya replied with a smile on her full lips.
“My family’s been here since before I was born,” Kathryn said.
“I’m a native as well,” I offered.
Damian’s eyes narrowed as he looked me up and down, seeming to commit my tall, slender frame to memory. Creepy. Maya always joked that I had a somewhat exotic look, with my olive skin, dark hair, and light-blue eyes, but the way he studied me made me think we’d talked to them a little too long. This Damian guy had to think we were totally hitting on them. Maya obviously was, but I was not in the market for a man, especially not a creepy older guy with biceps bigger than my thighs.
“Anyway,” I said, tugging on Maya and Kathryn’s arms. “We have a party to get to. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Lund. You too, Damian.”
The two men continued on to their destination, walking past a black truck that was pulling against the curb. I did a double take and gasped. Was that Arie, the guy from the store? Could he be coming to Landon’s party?
Then I shook the thought away. Arie was probably going to the same barbecue as Mr. Lund and his friend. Wouldn’t that be a coincidence if they all knew each other? Maya’s crush and my new…my new nothing; I was on a boy-cleanse, after all. Arie was simply the guy I’d embarrassed myself in front of yesterday.
Yeah, good thing he was going to the barbecue and not the party. It would be so mortifying if everyone found out about my grocery-store incident.
“I’m glad you guys could make it,” Landon greeted us when we finally found our way into his backyard. He and Maya had been neighbors since kindergarten, so we’d spent plenty of time playing at his house while growing up.
Landon’s knucklehead friends, Derek and Kalon, soon joined us. While Landon was super chill, his buddies were cocky and thought every girl was in love with them, which—though I hated to admit it—was kind of true.
Derek sidled up to Maya and draped his arm around her shoulder. “How did you like watching me score the final touchdown in the game last night?” he asked, his wavy brown hair falling across his forehead.
“What? You were there?” Maya rolled her eyes and shoved him away. “I didn’t even notice.”
Derek took a drink from his cup, then said, “Ha-ha, very funny. I know you couldn’t keep your eyes off me.” He winked at her and gave her what I’m sure he thought was a charming smile.
“Oh yeah,” she said as if remembering something. “You were the one who fumbled the ball three times. How could I forget that?”
“Burn!” Kalon slapped Derek on the back.
Maya never could resist pushing Derek’s buttons. I figured he needed a little humbling, though, to keep his head small enough to fit inside his helmet.
“Okay, guys, that’s enough,” Landon interrupted. “Go try using your special charm on some other girls. Maya, Kathryn, and Emma are way too cool for you.”
The guys began to walk away when Maya stopped them. “Hey, wait—that reminded me of something.”
They stopped, probably hoping she’d suddenly become bewitched by their “special charm,” as Landon had put it.
“My family is planning a date auction later this month, actually in just a couple weeks, and I’m supposed to help find volunteers to be auctioned off.”
“You have our attention.” Derek cocked an eyebrow.
“It’s for my nephew, Braden,” Maya continued. “He has to have open-heart surgery next month, so we’re putting on the event to raise money to help my sister and her husband pay for the medical expenses.”
“And it’s going to be awesome!” I added. Maya had come up with the idea last week, and I’d been helping her and her mom with the plans since then.
“Do you guys wanna participate?” Maya tucked her hair behind her ears, looking at them as sweetly as she could…which was a feat in itself since she couldn’t stand them most of the time.
“Like, be auctioned off?” Kalon asked.
We all nodded.
“I’m sure just having you guys up for bid would raise a ton of money,” I added for good measure. I might as well cater to their egos while I was at it.
Derek shrugged and glanced at his buddies. “It would be fun to see the ladies fighting over me.” He flexed his biceps as he spoke. “I’m in!”
“Count me in, too!” Kalon chimed, folding his arms across his broad chest. “It’ll be fun to destroy Derek in this contest.”
“Guys! This is not a contest,” Maya said.
“Whatever! It’s totally a contest.” Derek nudged Kalon, a smug look on his face. “And I’m gonna win.”
“I’m sure you will.” Maya sighed. “I’ll be handing out fliers at school on Monday, so you’ll get all the details then.”
“Sounds great!” Derek rubbed his hands. “In fact, I’ll help you out right now by spreading the news that any girl can have the chance for a date with me. All it takes is a little money.” And with that, he and Kalon wandered off into the crowd.
When they were out of earshot, Maya turned to Landon. “Seriously, I don’t know how you can stand hanging around those two.”
“Ah, they’re not that bad.” He waved his hand. “Once you get to know them, they’re actually pretty funny.”
“I think we’ll just take your word on that,” I said. “No need to spend any extra time with them to see if you’re right.” My eyes caught on someone in the crowd. I leaned closer to Kathryn and whispered, “Conner’s here.”
Her fair skin immediately turned pink.
“Let’s go say hi,” I said.
We were on our way to the table when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Brian Dastrup, my fifteen-year-old shadow, was standing behind me. What was he doing at a senior party?And why hadn’t my guy-dar warned me of his approach? Oh yeah—this was Brian. The butterflies in my stomach were immune to him.
Brian was a few inches shorter than me, with black-rimmed glasses framing his hazel eyes. I first met him last year in concert choir, and I think he developed a crush on me while I was still dating Nick. He hadn’t asked me on a date since my breakup, but I figured that was only because his parents had the rule that he needed to be sixteen before he dated.
I quickly told Kathryn and Maya I’d catch up with them in a minute, and then I turned back to Brian.
“Hi, Brian,” I said warily, hoping he wasn’t about to ask me out. I’d seen him driving his blue car to school last week, which meant he’d turned sixteen over the summer.
“Hey, Emma.” He seemed to be piecing his next sentence together in his mind before he spoke. “Has Mrs. Jolley said anything about who she chose for the open spot in Madrigals yet?” Madrigals is the audition chamber choir at our school and one of the choir’s best baritone’s had just moved. I had tried out each of the past two years and had been thrilled when I made the cut last spring.
“No.” I shook my head. “Did you audition for it?”
He nodded.
When he didn’t offer anything more, I asked, “How’d it go?”
“I thought I did great, but apparently, some other jerk will be stealing my spot,” he huffed.
“Really? That’s too bad.” I made a show of frowning, though inside I was singing praises to Mrs. Jolley. “Do you know who she picked instead?”
“She wouldn’t tell me. She said she wanted to surprise everyone on Monday. That’s why I was asking you since you’re the teacher’s aide.”
Oh yeah, of course.
“I wonder who it could be,” I said, my gaze drifting past Brian’s ear to spy on Conner and Kathryn. She looked nervous, but it seemed like they were having an actual conversation this time…Maya wasn’t even having to say much.
Brian continued to talk to me for a few more minutes, giving the lowdown on every guy he knew had auditioned for the choir—all of whom sounded just fine to me, though Brian had a few arguments on that front.
Eventually, I broke away and was able to hear the tail end of Conner and Kathryn’s conversation.
“So tomorrow at four?” Kathryn said.
Conner nodded, his boyish face beaming about the prospect of whatever it was they were planning. “See you then.”
And with that, the conversation was over, and Conner and his best friend Troy were walking off with their cookies.
“What did I miss?” I asked once they were gone. From the smile on Kathryn’s face, it looked like I’d just missed some sort of miracle.
“He asked if I wanted to work on our English assignment together tomorrow.”
“Ooh, so like a date!” I squealed. I might be on a boy-cleanse myself, but I could still be excited for my friend. Conner didn’t seem like the cheating kind of guy.
“It’s not a date,” Kathryn said. “It’s just homework.” Though the huge smile on her face suggested otherwise.
“Whatever it is, I’m so happy for you!” I hugged Kathryn.
“You better call me after your date.” Maya grabbed a cookie from the table. “I’ll be expecting a play-by-play.”
“Me too,” I said.
The rest of the party wasn’t nearly as eventful as the first part had been. But we had a lot of fun hanging out with all our friends and dancing to the loud, upbeat music. By the time Landon’s parents shut the party down, I was tired and more than ready to leave. I almost tripped over my own feet when I spotted Arie among the departing crowd. He was standing against a tree a few feet away, by himself, looking at his phone. I didn’t think he saw me, but I did notice his lips twitch a little when I stumbled, like he was fighting a smile.
What was he doing at a high school party anyway? I thought he was a few years older than me.
Maybe he was friends with Landon’s older brother?
