Chapter Three

GEORGINA

 

 

I sat and ate my lunch on my own, surrounded by students coming and going in the huge cafeteria. I could hear discussions on plans for parties, games, dates, and everything except classes. The whole place smelled of tuna fish casserole and chai tea, and the noise levels were deafening. It was a beautiful mess, full of life. I let it all seep into me, churning with the guilt in my belly.

I shouldn’t even be here. There was somewhere else I was supposed to be today. I’m sorry Julie. I can’t. It’s too hard.

I poked my fork into the creamy pasta on my plate, as though that would help me hold myself together.

“I’m all clear! The results were negative.” Kaley appeared beside me so suddenly it was as though by magic. She grabbed the empty seat next to mine, bouncing into it. “No cancer, just a fatty lump or something, but nothing to worry about, totally benign. It’s all okay!” Priya followed not long after, taking the seat on the other side of me.

At nearby tables some other students sat alone, hiding behind their phones or laptop screens. How many were hoping someone would come along and sit beside them? I hadn’t realized how much I had been hoping for that, how much I’d needed the company, and the distraction.

I smiled gratefully at the twins on either side of me then settled my gaze on Kaley. “That’s awesome. I’m so happy for you.”

“Right? I couldn’t even imagine. I knew I was too young.”

I blinked. I took a deep breath. “Just make sure you keep getting check-ups, just in case. Sometimes it does happen very young.”

Kaley nodded, or maybe just kept bouncing. “We SO have to celebrate. You have to come! We could hit the Cannon after class, but I feel like we should do something more, you know? Go big or go home, baby!”

Priya put her hand on mine, speaking over her sister. “How about you? Got your results yet?”

I froze. What should I say? I had too many lies and half-truths to deal with. Blake thought the results were in and I was fine. Dad thought I was still waiting but that I’d been tested much earlier. The twins knew when I’d been tested—they’d been there. The results should have been in by now, and the waiting stretched my anxiety inside me like heavy taffy. Why don’t I have my results yet? Is there a problem?

I should tell them the truth. How likely were they to talk to Blake and mess up my lies?

I fumbled my words. The truth was hard.

Then the radio playing through the cafeteria speakers cut off and an eerie silence spread.

A male voice called from somewhere distant, “Georgie!”

“Huh?” My eyes went round. Why was someone yelling my name? Maybe it was meant for another Georgina, but the voice was familiar, and it made my face turn scarlet. I looked around and saw Kevin walking toward me. Was it him? No, he looked around as though searching for the source of the voice too.

Music started up again, louder than before.

Why can’t I go back, take back the times I didn’t say what I needed to?

Can you take me back, to the time my heart wasn’t broken by you?

Baby, take me. I want you, I want you back. 

Six guys from a table across the hall stood up in unison.

Moving in time to the song, they kicked back their chairs, stepped onto the table, and ripped off their jackets to reveal matching tight white T-shirts underneath. Half the cafeteria started whooping and applauding.

Maybe I was dreaming, but the rest of the students were gawping and laughing at the sight as well. A random flash mob seemed weird enough, but even weirder was that they were looking directly at me, dancing toward me.

I shot Kevin an accusatory glare, but he looked just as confused as I felt. He stood there staring and cringed away as the dancers moved past him.

The group reached the widest walkway between the tables which ran down the hall toward where I sat. Students scurried away, clearing a path, and trying to grab the best seats to watch the show.

The music slowed to build for the first chorus.

The dancers parted.

Stepping up in the middle of those cut physiques was Blake.

He looked sinfully handsome in blue jeans and a white singlet that showed off his muscled arms. It clung across his wide chest, and teased the smallest strip of midriff.

He also looked embarrassed as hell, but smiled bashfully through it.

Seeing him caused tremors to shoot through my body. I didn’t know whether to run to him or from him. I could only sit and watch, my jaw dropped, as he started to dance.

Blake doesn’t dance, I thought, my brain dumbstruck.

But he was. He was dancing toward me. He was dancing for me.

And oh boy, how he could dance.

His body seemed built for it. The way it rolled and pumped to the beat was like a force of nature. It was a complicated routine, and the dancers around him clearly knew it better than he did. He stumbled over a couple of moves, twirling left when the others went right. It didn’t matter. Blake was dancing. That was all that mattered.

The music picked up with the chorus, and he sang along. It was a song from five years ago, about wanting his baby back. His voice was as dreamy as his dance moves, his British accent making it even sexier.

And the song—I had loved it back in high school, complete teen-obsession loved it. I had fantasized about meeting the band, and being in their music clips, and which band member would ask me to marry him.

That was a teenage fantasy though, and this was very real. Mortifyingly real. Like having dinner at a restaurant on your birthday and all of sudden, in the middle of your meal while you have a mouthful of food, there was a group of people standing around you singing, while everyone in the restaurant stared at you. Once, I heard someone say that there was only one thing more embarrassing than singing in public, and that was being sung to in public. It felt as true as my face was red.

Blake and the dancers started doing the side-to-side bop that was the signature move of the boy band that had sung the song originally, and half the girls in the cafeteria squealed in delight.

The refrain ‘I want you back’ began to sink in. I hunched low into my chair to hide from the stares and cheers of the cafeteria crowd, as Blake and his backup dancers descended upon me. I covered my face in an attempt to ease my uncontrollable, embarrassment-born laughter.

Blake ended the song down on one knee beside my chair. “I want you back. Give me another chance, Georgina?”

Kaley’s jaw was practically on the table as she looked from Blake, to me, to Blake, mouthing, “Oh. My. God.”

Priya had her phone out. She’d been filming the whole thing. “This is amazing.”

Students across the cafeteria were calling out, “Say yes!” A few girls added, “If she says no, take me!”

On the other side of the room, Kevin stood stock-still. His face wore an expression that said he had no idea what to do next. He shook his head as if to clear it, gave me shrug, and walked off. Blake was not an act he could follow. Poor guy.

The music had ended. The shouts to say yes were picked up by the rest of the crowd until the whole room was chanting. I had to say yes, and Blake knew it. How could I say anything else after that, in front of everyone? It was a giant setup, and that made me angry. I wanted to run. All those days I had missed Blake, fighting every desire to see him again, and there he was, in my college cafeteria, ambushing me with my own teenage fantasy.

“Yes,” I squeaked.

Cheers erupted.

Blake got up off his knee and thanked his backup dancers with a quick round of fist bumps and high fives. Priya put her phone down, scribbled her number on a scrap of paper, and stuck it straight in the jeans pocket of one of the dancers, giving him a wink.

Blake turned back to me and took my hand. I could see the apology in his smile. “Let’s get out of here.”

The whole crowd applauded and wolf whistled as we ran out hand in hand.