The Perfect Couple

9

I straightened up my bike, put my bag of cans in the rack and started to climb aboard. My eyes were blurred with tears and I hardly knew what I was doing. To me a friend was a friend and you helped him out no matter how you felt about what he wanted to do. Marcus had better not whistle and my window again, I thought darkly and expect me to come dashing out of the house, ready for any dumping he wanted me to do. I've never forget when we went panning for gold in Deer Creek. He'd read some place that there was still plenty of gold in California. I didn't think there was any in Deer Creek and I was right. Just the same I'd panned right along with him and almost got pneumonia from standing in the cold water.

"Hey, where are you going, Kelly?" He hollered after me, as I started to push off down the hill. In a few strides he'd caught up with me. "You didn't mean that about throwing yourself under Neil Rogers's car, did you?" He bent over, anxiously studying my face.

I've never been able to stay mad at Marcus for more than a few minutes. "No, of course not," I said. "I guess I was just doing what daddy called my Bette Davis act." I smiled, but then without warning my eyes filled with tears again and before I could link them back to big fat ones broke away and ran down my cheeks.

"You're crying!" Marcus gasped.

"I am not!" I couldn't help sniffling, though. It wasn't like me to be weepy and emotional, but I suppose that came from being in love and Marcus wasn't going to help me so Alan would never notice me. Never. My life was over almost before it had begun.

"You are, too," Marcus insisted gently. 4 minutes he looks helpless and bewildered. That I look once he thrust out his jaw. "We're going to sit down and talk this over." He pulled me off the bike and wheeled it back where it had been. Dragging my feet I still didn't think he was going to help me I followed. When we'd sat down on the bank again he said, "exactly what do you want me to do, Kelly? You know I'll help you if I can. You just caught me by surprise when you said well, you know." I was so choked up that Marcus wasn't letting me down, after all, that's I couldn't speak right away. For a few seconds I didn't even think about Alan in my relief that Marcus really was the good friend I'd always considered him. Then I remembered what this was all about and I repeated what I said about wanting to attract Alan's attention. "But he'll never look at me unless I'm going with another boy."

Marcus gave a puzzled frown. "Why would he be interested in you because you're going with another guy? I'd feel the opposite way that a girl was off limits if she was going with someone else."

I could see where Marcus would feel that way, but Alan was more competitive . . . which might be the reason he was a great athlete while Marcus was only second string. "That just happens to be the way Alan is," I said. "I've been watching him for three weeks now and he simply doesn't glance at a girl who is alone, or with other girls."

Marcus made a grunting sound that was really a word, then he said, "so you want us to pretend we're . . . in love."

"Sort of," I replied. "We'll hang out together around school, have shoulders at The Last Straw together and maybe go to the movies. Well laugh and talk and hold hands, the way a couple does when they're going together."

Marcus wrinkled his brow, what I could see of it under his shaggy bangs. Then, looking away from me, he picked up a handful of dirt and let it run through his fingers while he mulled the whole thing over. You could never hurry Marcus. He didn't rush into things, but once he made his mind up to do something you could count on him to see it through to the end.

I waited patiently while the leafy diet ran through his fingers. In the meantime, I did some thinking, too. The way he'd mentioned Alan being a show-off, it struck me that I might have hit a nerve in asking him to help me attract his attention. Alan was the star of the football team while Marcus was only a substitute. I could see where Marcus might hate the idea of being a substitute boyfriend, too.