I Wish It Would Rain

Chapter 5

I could feel my mouth hanging open, not really believing the words that had just come out of Keith Bennett’s mouth. “Um, do you want to run that by me again? Because, it sounded like you asked me to go on a date with you.”

“You heard right. I asked you to go out on a date with me. Is there something wrong with that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“No. I’m just surprised, is all. I mean, this is me that we’re talking about. Do you know how much rap you’re going to take if people hear that we went on a date?” I asked incredulously.

Keith let out a snort as he tried to keep in his laughter. “Penelope, remember that you’re dealing with me,” he teased, throwing my words back at me. “Come on, people at school don’t laugh at me. They worship me. I won’t get any rap for this, if anything, being seen with me will better your reputation.”

I couldn’t help but give a slight laugh. “I guess that’s true. Nobody, I mean nobody ever thinks bad about you. What would happen if I didn’t agree to go on a date with you?”

“Let me just say this; you would no longer be made fun of. Instead, you would be one of the most sought after people in the school,” he smirked.

I was angry. I couldn’t believe that he was going to blackmail me in order to keep him from spilling my secret. But then, if it really were blackmail, couldn’t I just pay him instead of having to go on a date with him?

“Ok, I’ll go out on a date with you,” I heard my mouth say. Did I really just agree to go on a date with him? I must have, because his eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning.

“Great. Is tonight good? What time should I pick you up?” he asked, although he also seemed somewhat excited by my answer, which surprised me.

“Keith, tonight isn’t such a good night,” I said biting my lip.

“Why not? Can’t you just cancel whatever you’re doing and go out with me tonight?” he asked, or more like demanded.

“Well, Clark and I always have movie nights on Fridays. But since we went to the game last night, it got bumped to tonight. I can’t just cancel on him,” I said defiantly.

A look of annoyance appeared on his face, but it was gone in a flash. “Fine, if tonight’s no good, then how about Monday night, after I have football practice?”

“Monday night sounds good,” I said, not really caring. Hopefully this date would be like a onetime thing.

“Great. I’ll pick you up around 7:30. See you at school,” he said cheerfully as he started to walk away.

“Hey, wait! What is it that you came here for earlier wanting to talk about?” I said, remembering that he came here wanting to talk to me about something.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he gave me a heart stopping smile. “We already talked about it. I originally came here to ask you on a date. I wasn’t planning on blackmailing you, but I just wanted you to agree to go. See you later Penelope.”

With a wave of his hand and a quick wink, he turned around, leaving me to watch him make his way out of the arena. I watched him all right, and admired his backside view from far away. Immediately, I shook my head with disgust at myself. I shouldn’t be having thoughts like that about Keith!

“Hey you!” I heard Kathy yell, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry about that Kathy,” I said guiltily as I made my way over next to her.

“So, what happened?” she asked, eager to hear some good gossip news.

“Well, that was Keith Bennett,” I said while glancing back at the stands where he was just standing a mere minute ago.