Her friends may have had illusions that Bren would ask her to homecoming, but Megan didn't. She knew she and Bren were just study partners or 'study buddies' as she liked to joke.
When she called him Bren the first time he smiled at her. His smile made his eyes sparkle and brought out his dimples. There was a big difference between thinking he was cute, which she definitely did, and thinking that he might like her. She called him Bren because she considered him a friend. It wasn't a big deal, even some of the cooler teachers did. If Megan decided to be a teacher, which was her latest in a whole list of potential careers, she would use nicknames. The teaching idea started over the summer, when she and Jen were on the beach. Where else would they be on a gorgeous summer afternoon?
Megan said, "I want to always live on The Point and spend all day on the beach."
"You'd better marry a rich man. Have fun 'cause I'm dusting the sand off my feet and getting outta here the first chance I get."
"Not me. I need a job that lets me spend my summers on the beach."
"We've got one and I have to work three to ten tonight. I never want to work a cash register or make another lobster roll once I leave this sandbar we call home."
"And we're friends?" Megan felt as if Jen's words made her a traitor to her beloved Point.
"The best. Now if you want summers off, you can always be a teacher. Not sure you'll ever be able to afford to live here, but you can drive down every day like everyone else does."
Jen's suggestion started as a seed and grew in Megan's head. Studying with Bren helped to foster the idea. She liked helping him to learn the different facts and dates in American history, but more than that she like the discussions that they had about the history they were studying.
One day she and Bren were studying together. "You know whatever they cover on the news tonight will be part of history in a few years. We are in the middle of two wars and they will change the future just like the wars of the past did."
"Jeez Meg, you sound like Conrad!"
Megan almost corrected him, because no one called her Meg, but for that reason alone she didn't. Instead she said, "I love Mr. Conrad. I really think I may want to teach like him some day?"
"Really? You're so smart. You could do anything."
"I know, but that's what I've been thinking about lately. I may change my mind."
"Well I'm going to school for something that pays a lot of money like science. I'm tired of being poor."
"What's important to me is being happy and I am only happy when I can go to the beach in the summer."
"So now we have it, you only want to be a teacher so you can have your summers off. I would rather slave away five days a week and have money. I can always go the beach on the weekends."
Any grand schemes her friends had of Bren asking her to homecoming exploded in their faces. Megan and Bren were heading to chemistry from the library when his group of friends accosted him.
"Oh man, Bren!" One slapped him on the back.
"You dog! You really did it!" Another joined in.
"I can't believe you asked hot Harmony to homecoming!"
Bren didn't need to say anything his smile confirmed what his friends were saying was true. The whole school knew it was true because within days Harmony was attached to Bren like a new skin. It seemed every time Megan saw him, they were together except thankfully when they met at the library and in classes.
Harmony didn't take the same classes that Bren took, but she seemed to find him in the hallway between every class. Megan's friends had taken to making gagging sounds whenever they saw them together.
Harmony was definitely popular. She was blonde and had a body that belonged on a Hollywood screen. No one could miss her body, because she constantly broke dress code and worn cropped shirts, short skirts and shorts. She was all legs and boobs and every boy in the school wanted her and Bren won the trophy. Although she wasn't stupid, she didn't apply herself to school. School was a social event, and she was the queen. Like most every kid in her grade, Harmony had been in grade school with Megan, but they were never friends.
In third grade they were in the same class and Megan was invited to Harmony's birthday party. However, one day Harmony came up to her and said, "I didn't want to invite you. I meant to invite Meghan Brown, but my mother sent the invitation to you instead. She said that I have to let you come."
Megan went home and told her mother, who was furious. Megan said she still wanted to go, but her mother said they were busy that day and took her to Boston to the Science Museum instead.
Once soccer season was over, Megan knew that Bren was hanging out at Harmony's house most afternoons. Megan didn't need to guess what the two of them were doing alone. Megan's mother would never allow her to have a boy over when she wasn't home. In fact when they were assigned their chemistry at home labs, Megan had to tell her mother that her lab partner was coming home with her to work on chemistry.
Her father joked. "Chemistry! I'll bet."
"Dad, he's got a girlfriend. We're just friends."
Her mother said, "I remember the Brenner boy from when I volunteered in your second grade class. He was a quiet boy."
Megan said, "He's dating Harmony."
"Oh the little tartlet!"
"Mom!"
"Well am I wrong? I know it's a double standard, but a boy is going to take what she's giving out. It's their nature."
"My guess is that she's giving it out." Megan laughed.
Megan gave her mother a list of what was needed for the assignment and Megan drove Bren to her house on The Point.
She could tell he was in awe the first time he saw her house with its wall of glass windows looking out at the churning grey ocean. It was a cold, overcast late October day.
Inside the house was warm and on the counter, her mother had everything they needed for their experiment and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
Megan watched as Bren ate at least five cookies. When her mother came in to say hello, Bren said, "The cookies are delicious. Thank you, Mrs."
Her mother cut him off. "Call me Marie. I remember you when you were little. I always liked you. Some boys were unruly, you never were."
"Um, thank you."
"Mom! We need to get our work done."
After the experiment, Megan said, "If you don't need to rush home, we can write the report up and be done with it."
"It's not due until the end of the week."
"Yes, but once it's done it's done."
Megan was gradually teaching him the benefits of not procrastinating. He was teaching her how to be friends with a boy.
After she drove him home, her mother said, "Next time he should stay for dinner."
So it began every two weeks, they had a new chemistry at home assignment and Bren would come over and stay for dinner. Her mother made plenty, because he was a hungry growing boy.
YOU ARE READING
Shattered Hearts (TP1)
Romance(Complete) Peter isn't prepared for the reality of another man spending the night with his ex. He should be, but his heart has never let her go. Peter, who was abandoned by his father as a young boy, will do anything for his kids. He won't stop unt...
