“Of course Bailey caught it, she catches everything on camera!” Gabrielle Nimerichter laughed, remembering the time Bailey had caught her with that awful head gear on freshman year.
“Do you remember that picture of me with the napkin tucked into my shirt?” Brianna Osborn said.
“Yep, in fact, it’s right.....here!” Bailey replied, pulling it up from a pile of pictures they had laid in front of them. Bailey, Sydney, Gabby, and Brianna had been good friends for the last four years and they had all graduated this morning. They were having one final bash with their best guy friends. The girls had decided to look at the really embarrassing pictures before the guys had come.
“Oh gosh. Put it away, Bay. I don’t want Spencer to see it.” Brianna said, she had been in love with Spencer Elliot almost as long as they had all been friends. “I don’t believe it’s been three and a half years, and I’ve never even kissed him. We haven’t really gone on a date.” Brianna wistfully sighed.
“Not true. You two went to some dances and to SENIOR PROM together.” Gabrielle pointed out.
“That’s because he wanted to go, and didn’t have anyone else to ask.”
*Ding dong*
“Ah, they’re here. Put those horrid pictures away.” Sydney yelled, rushing to the door.
“Well, your party can officially begin. We have arrived.” Trevor Paxton said, giving Bailey a kiss on the cheek. He had arrived with his best friend, Brendan Shannahan, who also was Sydney’s boyfriend.
“Where’s everyone else?” Brianna asked.
“Oh, you mean, Spencer. He’s coming, he was right behind me.” Trevor said as Brianna’s face turned bright red. Everyone knew that she liked him. Well, everyone but Spencer. He seemed to be oblivious to the whole thing. Just like a typical guy.
Just as Brianna’s face returned to her normal color Spencer Elliot and Dylan Montoya arrived. Bailey quickly shoved the pictures under the couch and said hello to the guys.
“We brought some pizzas and pop. Where should we set ‘em, Bay?” Dylan asked. “Uh, how ‘bout on the counter.” She answered, pointing to the spot next to the stove.
“So, where are you parents and brother and sisters?” Spencer asked her.
“Oh, they went up to Kearney to stay with my grandparents for the weekend and I am to ‘be on your best behavior, don’t do anything we wouldn’t let you do, and keep the house clean’.” Bailey finished, mimicking her mom. They all laughed, and then made a run for the pizza. After they’d filled their plates full of pizza, chips, and bunches of other junk food they grabbed a spot on her living room floor.
“I don’t believe that this is our last summer together. I mean, after that, it’s, ya know, we’re not us anymore.” Gabrielle said, all choked up. The rest of the girls ran over to give her a hug. They knew it’d be especially hard for Gabby. She’d never been able to make friends easily, she was always the shy type. And she was the only one who wouldn’t be going to college with one of them, that they knew of.
“That’s not true. We’ll keep in touch. We’re best friends.” Brendan said.
“Yeah, we’ll see each other on holidays when we come back to visit. And we can always take trips together.” Dylan piped in.
“The trips. Those were awesome. I mean, do you remember Disney World?” Spencer added. They all did. Over Spring Break their parents had given the eight of them permission to go to Orlando for a week. It was the best time they’d ever had.
“Of course I do. That is where I finally saw what had been right in front of my nose for so long.” Brendan said, wrapping his arms around Sydney. It was a magical night, they had spent all day at Epcot and were planning a fancy dinner, when she walked out of the girls’ room in that dress, he finally saw it, she was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever met and he’d known her for three years. So, he asked her to take a walk with him after dinner and he kissed her. It was as perfect as he had hoped, and by the end of the night they were a couple.
“Florida was awesome. I’ve never seen so many hot babes.” Dylan said, envisioning the blond beach bunny who he’d had a night to remember with.
“Puh-lese, Dylan. We are not ‘babes’, OK?” Brianna always got on his case when he said things like that.
“I know, I didn’t say you were a babe, I said the girls that I met there were.” He retorted, laughing. Brianna shot him a vicious look.
“Hey, I think I have those Florida pictures around here somewhere. Lemme find ‘em.” Bailey said. She dug around and found them. As they all looked at them each one told a story. They talked for the next hour just about the trip.
“All right, so I have to know. Have you guys finalized your plans for college yet? Seeing as how today was the absolute END to high school?” Bailey asked, “I mean, Syd and I are going to Boston University, Gabrielle’s going to Yale, and Brianna and Spencer are going to NYU. And you three had ‘undecided’ next to your name in that little end-of- the-year supplement thingy.”
“Bay, do you really think we have no idea where we are going? It’s already too late to turn in the stuff. We’ve been registered just as long as you have. Well, not that long, but for a while. We just wanted to make it a surprise. Right guys?” Trevor asked Dylan and Brendan.
“Yep, you are in for a good one.” Dylan added.
“Drum roll please....” Brendan said.
“So tell us!” Sydney screamed, pulling Brendan’s arm off.
“Should we tell ‘em?” Dylan asked.
“Nah, make ‘em suffer.” Trevor said, with a wicked cackle.
“TREVOR!” Bailey punched his arm.
“OK, well, Dylan, tell them where you’re going first.”
“Well, I am going to be majoring in business at UNL, and am walking on to be a Husker!”
“Dylan! That’s great!” Gabrielle said.
“All right, Trev, where are you going?” Bailey said, she couldn’t believe he hadn’t told her yet, and was dying.
“OK, Bailey, calm down, I’ll tell you. Brendan and I were both accepted as pre- med. and pre-law, respectively, to...Northeastern University in....BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS!”
“AHHH!!!!!” The girls shrieked.
“You’ve known you’ve been going to Boston and you didn’t tell us.” Bailey said and Sydney’s arms were wrapped around Brendan’s neck instantly.
“You thought we could go a whole four years being away from you two?” Trevor asked, beaming He’d been waiting months to tell Bailey, and felt so much better.
“No, we know we’re irresistible.” Sydney added.
“Yeah, you love us.” Bailey said. When she said that it kind of hit a soft spot. She’d known she loved Trevor since the first time she had met him. And she remembered the day they met vividly...
*******
“Bailey Kizer, you’ll be in this seat.” Mrs. Garcia said. Then he walked in, a tall, handsome, tanned boy, whom Bailey had never seen before.
“And your name?” Mrs. Garcia asked.
“I’m Trevor Paxton.” The cute guy said.
“You’ll be in that seat next to Bailey.” Bailey smiled at the boy, and she was instantly in love. They talked a little bit through out the class and were smiling at each other in the hallways, the rest of the morning.
That afternoon she sat down at a table with three girls, who seemed friendly, and a few guys. Then Trevor walked in.
“Is this seat taken?” He asked her.
“No.” They sat down and began talking. They hit it off right away, and he asked her out for that weekend. The date went well and soon they were a couple.
They had lasted for 3 and a half years, practically a lifetime to high schoolers, and then after spring break they had decided they needed to spread their wings. They still went to prom together and had stayed really good friends. Bailey had gone on a few dates with some random guys, but it was never anything like it was with Trevor, and she had regretted their break up constantly. She knew she loved him, and hoped he loved her too. Now that he was going to college in Boston she felt a glimmer of hope.
*******
“Bay? Are you still with us?” Trevor asked, waving his hand in front of her.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Wanna know what I think we should do?” Dylan asked the group.
“Not really,” Brendan said.
“Shut up. OK, I think we should play truth and dare, but with out the dare. Ya know, just ask questions we’ve wanted to know about each other for the past four years. What do you think?” The group agreed, and Dylan had to start, since it was his idea.
“Um, OK, Gabrielle,” he started.
“Yeah,” she answered warily.
“Well, you know how we had that little flingy thing for a month last summer?”
“Uh-huh,” she answered even more warily. She had had a thing for Dylan for about six months and he finally asked her out. They went out for a month and he thought things were ‘weird’, so she agreed, was heartbroken, and tried to push it out of her mind.
“OK, well when I said I thought things were kinda weird, and you said you agreed, did you really think that? And remember the name of the game is, ‘Truth’.”
“Well, um, I guess not. I really liked you, but if you thought things were weird I wasn’t gonna disagree, and if you thought it was weird and I didn’t not much could happen, so I agreed.” She immediately turned bright pink and looked down.
“Are you serious? I didn’t either, see, I thought you thought they were, so that’s why I said it. OK, well, it’s your turn.”
“All right, my victim is Spencer. Spence, you haven’t dated anyone in a long time,” Gabby began, shooting Brianna a look, “so I was wondering, who would you like to date, if you could date anyone?” Brianna instantly shot her a dirty look, but looked at him waiting for his answer.
“Um, I’m gonna take the 5th on that one...All right, Trevor-”
“NO! You have to answer!” Bailey and Sydney said in unison.
“I don’t want to say right now. This isn’t the way I wanted her to know I liked her.” He said, his voice trailing off as he said the last part.
“You mean she’s in here?!” Brendan shouted, “Well who is it? You gotta say.”
“Yeah, she’s in here. But I really don’t want to say right now. I’ll tell her later in a more ‘private’ way, OK?” He looked around the room for their approval. Having to tell her he liked her like this was not the ‘magical moment’ he would have expected it to be.
“That sounds fair.” Brianna said, becoming VERY interested in the situation. They decided that would be all right as long as he told her tonight.
“OK, Trevor, ever since you and Bay split you haven’t dated any one. So I think we’d all like know, are you gonna find some hot babe this summer, or some chick at college and finally get back in the swing of things, ever?”
“Well, first of all, I really don’t think it’s your business. But I’ll tell you anyway. I have no intention of dating anyone else, I love Bailey, so why waste my time?” With that, he finished and proceeded to the next question as if he had said, ‘My favorite color’s blue.’ When he said that it put a huge lump in Bailey’s throat, she didn’t know if she should cry, smile, or just go jump on him and give him a big kiss. When she finally snapped out of it, Brendan was asking her a question.
“So, why did you go out with that Adam Praemy guy?” Bailey just cracked up. Adam was this guy who was nice to her, but a huge dork. He had asked her to go to a movie when he found out that she and Trevor had broken up, and she agreed.
“You guys! I felt bad for the poor guy. I couldn’t say no. It was just one time. Moving right along...Dylan,” She said quickly, trying to get off the her and Trevor dating subject for a while, “So, why’d you acted so shocked when Gabby said that she didn’t think it was weird when you two went out? I mean, you sounded upset that things had ended. Could it be, that you, Dylan Montoya, actually fell for a real girl, with personality and brains, besides some barbie doll, dumb blond?”
“Maybe...” He trailed off, he had liked her a lot, but honestly didn’t think she’d want to be in a relationship with some one like him. Of course, he couldn’t let her know. Unless she liked him...
“Maybe? What kind of an answer is that? Why is it guys have SUCH a hard time with yes or no questions?” Brianna asked.
“Hey, don’t judge us by our worst member!” Spencer added, jokingly.
“Geez! Stop hounding me! Fine, yes, I, Dylan Montoya, fell for a girl with a personality, brains, looks, everything.” He was now beet red. Almost as red as Gabby.
“You like me?” Gabrielle said, in a barely audible sound.
“Yeah, I do. Is that OK?” He was now looking her directly in the eyes; and she was melting.
“Yeah.” She was beaming. He went and sat next to her, and grabbed her hand. She squeezed back.
“All right, to continue this game ‘o love and embarrassment, I gotta talk to Brianna.” Dylan continued. She turned white. And knew what question was coming. “OK, Brie, we know that I like Gabby, and that Brendan loves Syd, and Trevor loves Bay. So, if my process of elimination is correct that leaves one guy, Spencer. Whom we also know likes someone in this room. So, what did you think when he said this? What were your exact thoughts?” He laughed wickedly, and waited.
“Well, when Spencer said that I thought, ‘Who is it?’” She said quickly.
“Right, we all wondered that. But were you thinking anything else, like, oh, I dunno, ‘I hope it’s me?’”
“Maybe,” She said warily. She would die if he didn’t like her, but knew she liked him. They’d been great friends for three and a half years, and were going to college together. This could ruin everything.
“I do believe I just got chastised for such an answer. Yes or no, Brianna?” The smirk on his face was enough to make her want to get up and smack it harder than she’d ever hit anything.
“Yes. Now, Bailey, it’s your turn again.” Spencer froze when she said this, he couldn’t believe she liked him. He was ecstatic.
“Hold up, Bri. I don’t believe Brendan or Syd went.” Bailey knew where her question was going to go, and didn’t want to go there.
“Yeah, that’d be when you were spacing out for like five minutes. Brendan even asked you a question, dork! Any way, I think a bit of information was brought up earlier that I think we’d like to hear your thoughts about. About what Trevor said. I believe his exact words were, ‘I have no intention of dating anyone else, I love Bailey, so why waste my time?’”
“My thoughts? On that. Well, I was, um, it, well-”
“T-t-t’day, Junior!” Dylan added. He could be such a pain.
“Fine, I thought it was one of the sweetest things I’d ever heard. And I didn’t know what to do, if I should cry, smile, or just run over and give him a kiss. I love him. I always have, and I don’t know why we ever broke up. Is that acceptable, Dylan?” She kind of stopped, she couldn’t believe she had just poured that all out. That’s when she saw it. Trevor Paxton, ultimate, macho guy, had a tear rolling down his cheek. He got up and ran over to her, and threw his arms around her.
“Bay, I love you too. And I don’t know why we broke up either. Will you take me back?” She was bawling, and her head was pressed deep in his shoulder. So she just nodded.
With that, the game ended. Each “couple” went off separately to do their own thing. Spencer and Brianna went into Bailey’s den, and talked. He told her that he liked her a lot, but didn’t want to risk losing their friendship, but then contradicted himself by saying that he couldn’t just not see what would happen. So they were now, officially going out.
Gabby and Dylan stayed in the living room. They both decided that since they were going to be miles apart after the summer to just let things happen how they would, and plan on going separate ways at the end of the summer. But they knew it would be one hell of a summer.
Sydney and Brendan hadn’t had any earth-shattering news that night, so they just went into Bailey’s basement and talked. They couldn’t wait to begin college, and talked about how much fun it would be.
Then Bailey and Trevor went in Bailey’s room, and we’ll just leave it at that. The night was full of many more memories and great stories to tell. They all were anxious and sad to have this summer begin, and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen. However, they did know one thing, they’d all remain friends forever. Some of them, more than friends. They all learned that the ‘Game ‘O Love’ is a difficult one, but can be great if you play it right.
