The Entirely Fabricated Story of Lizzie Nickerson

Chapter 37

Lizzie sat on her bed, iPhone in hand, reading an article about the moon. She'd lost track of how she had gotten there. It may have started with something about first kisses or how much polar bears weigh. In any case, she'd followed an indirect path to the moon.

She was astonished when she read that Earth's moon was larger than Pluto and the solar system's two largest moons, Jupiter's Ganymede and Saturn's Titan were both larger than Mercury. She remembered that there were more than 90 known orbiting moons of Jupiter that made up the Jovian system along with a bunch of outer moons and inner moons. 'Jovian' stuck in her memory because she always thought that Jovian would make a good name for a dog.

Being a novice smartphone owner, Lizzie had not yet mastered the two-thumb typing technique, and so her google searches were agonizingly slow. She had just finished typing 'Jupiter's Ganymede' when she heard Aunt Sonya speaking to someone in the kitchen. Lizzie slid off her bed, went to the doorway, and peeked down the hallway.

She saw her Aunt Sonya conversing with Nikki Patterson who held two pizza boxes.

Lizzie approached cautiously noticing that Scooter's mother was smiling and that she was speaking in a friendly tone of voice.

"We were expecting more people," she said and placed the pizza boxes on the table. 

"I told you you ordered too much," said Scooter who slipped into the kitchen from behind his mother.

Lizzie met Scooter's friendly eyes and surprised herself at how long she maintained eye contact, with crackling impulses following a flowchart from her brain down her arms.

"They better come tomorrow," Nikki said, a tone of irritation slipping into her voice. "One guy must have texted a dozen times during the week about my father's rugs and then he never showed up."

Sonya sighed.

Nikki said, "I'm sorry if we disturbed you with all the noise and all the people coming and going."

"It was kinda loud," said Lizzie.

"No, it wasn't," said Sonya.

"Way louder than normal."

"Well, sorry about that," Nikki said.

"Go ahead ask," said Scott.

Nikki's mouth twitched.

"Okay, I'll do it," said Scott. "Do you have a couple of blankets we could borrow?"

His mother said, "We're sleeping overnight in my dad's apartment. I didn't bring enough–"

"Sure, said Sonya. "How many do you need?"

........

Scooter and Lizzie sat on the stairs, a pizza box between them, just outside Frederick Gibb's apartment. The door remained open so that Nikki could maintain surveillance.

Scooter chomped on a slice. Lizzie nibbled around the edge of hers. "What are these little green things?" she asked.

"Oregano, I think." Before he took his next bite, he said, "You look really pretty."

"I look like a farmer in these jeans. These aren't the kind of jeans most girls wear. They look like boys' pants, I think. Oh, geez. I don't know why I said farmer."

She was going to say, "That doesn't even make sense" but he interrupted with a warm smile. "I think you look pretty."

"I think I look better than I usually do but there's a lot of work to be done. Aunt Sonya said I should get my hair cut but I don't like that idea. They always start off by saying they're just gonna get a little trim and then they end up looking like Harper Judd."

"Who's Harper Judd?"

"She's a girl in my class who got a lot of her hair cut off and now her head looks really big. That seems backwards. You'd think her head would look smaller but it doesn't. That's why I don't trust people with scissors."

Lizzie glanced into the apartment where Nikki and Caleb were making up a bed on the couch.

"Your mom doesn't want you to have an autistic girlfriend," Lizzie said.

"She doesn't care about that."

"I don't blame her. I'm a weird girl. And that's probably not going to change." She sniffed her pizza. "Oregano?"

"My mom's not judgy. Not usually."

"Apparently it's bad to judge people but that seems hypocritical. Everybody makes judgments all the time. People just don't like to admit it."

"Doesn't make it right."

Lizzie shrugged. Usually, she had to remind herself to look like she was paying attention but with Scooter it was different.

He swallowed a mouthful of pizza, leaned closer, and lowered his voice. "I liked when you kissed me."

"Me, too," she said, feeling like a Girls' Life version of Lizzie.

"If I get a chance later." He took a quick look into the apartment at his mom. "Would it be okay if I kiss you?"

She nodded.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower," said Nikki. "Anybody need another drink? Soda? Water?"

Lizzie shook her head 'no.'

"I'm good," said Scooter with a wide grin.

Nikki pulled the apartment door closed.

Scooter waited a minute and then glanced up the staircase to see if Sonya lurked nearby. Seeing that the coast was clear, he dropped his crust into the pizza box, leaned sideways, and kissed Lizzie.

Her slice fell from her hand and landed a few steps below. "My pizza," she said.

"Forget it," he whispered and kissed her again, a more prolonged, deeper kiss.

She felt clumsy leaning into the wet warmth of his kisses, unsure of what to do with her hands. All the little feelings that spun like pinwheels in her stomach became big feelings spinning faster and faster. As they broke, she whispered, "I wish we were in my bed."

"Uh." He panted, taken aback. "Yeah."

"Or a couch or something." Lizzie winced. "My back hurts leaning against this railing and my butt is getting sore from sitting on these hard steps."

He pulled her onto his lap, Lizzie's gangly legs upsetting the pizza box, sending it sledding down the stairs. He kissed her hard.

"I'm all twisted," she said. "My neck and my everything is going the wrong way."

"Okay, sorry," he said. "Put your arms around me and scooch over further onto my lap."

The steep perspective of the staircase prompted an unpleasant sensation. "I feel dizzy. Like I'm gonna fall."

"I won't let you fall."

She flailed. "I need to stand up. Right now," She bolted to her feet and, had he not been holding her, she would have tumbled down the stairs.

The apartment door flew open, startling them.

"Hey! Said Caleb. "What kind of shenanigans are going on out here?"

"Leave us alone!" Scott grumbled.

Lizzie clenched her eyes and leaned back against the wall. "I got dizzy from kissing."

"Whoa!" said Caleb. "Scooter got game."

Scott's face flushed.