Chapter 9

I spend a lot of my Monday night digging through my closet for something to wear with Sidney tomorrow. For some reason most of my clothes just don't seem good enough. I call up Ruthanne.
"You got anything cute for me to wear tomorrow?" I ask pathetically.
"I don't know. You'd have to come look through my closet." She invites me over. I drive over as fast as I can to dig through her closet. She has always found better deals on better clothes than me. Even the stuff we bought just the other day. I sigh, climbing out of my car.
Ruthanne opens the door for me. I guess she had been watching for me. We run up to her room. "now you can help me pick my outfit!" She squeals.
"You and Kris are just hanging out, aren't you?" I ask her slowly. She nods enthusiastically and opens her closet doors wide exposing all of her awesome clothes.
I look through it and pull out all the possibles. I end up picking a navy and white striped tank that she had from Hollister.
And a pair of my own regular denim shorts. Feeling happy about my choice I sit on Ruthanne's bed. Ruthanne decides on a navy dress with a flowery trim. We laugh because no matter what we're doing, she always looks more dressed up than I do.
We hang out for a little while, talking about tomorrow excitedly. I finally tell her that I absolutely can not stay any longer because my mother will have a conniption if I'm not home for dinner. I hop back into my car and drive home.
My mom greets me in the kitchen when I walk in to get a drink. I pick up a Coke which immediately reminds me of Max's house. I giggle a little bit, opening it up. "What's with you lately?" My mom says, her face the one she uses when she really can't understand something.
"um. I don't know." I lie.
"You just seem so happy lately." I stifle another laugh. If she had seen me this morning she wouldn't think so. I was on the verge of temper tantrum grumpy. I still really don't know why.
"oh?" I pretend not to know what she's talking about, not even realizing that I was so happy all the time.
"Is there a new boy?" She asks, looking like she understood everything better.
"Um." I say, not able to lie about this.
"Who?" She asks, walking over to me and leaning on the island in the middle of our kitchen.
'Um." I say again. "Sidney Crosby." I say and wince, waiting for her reaction. She jumps back, surprised.
"Really?" She asks looking a pretty skeptical.
"Yes." I say. "We're going out tomorrow night for dinner," I say and pick up the clothes I borrowed from Ruthanne.
"oh. Good for you, Caitlin." She says smiling genuinely.
"Thanks Mom." I take my Coke and go up to my room happy that we had that conversation now rather than when Sidney got here to pick me up tomorrow night.
I have 3 new voicemails when I check my phone. 2 from Sidney and 1 from Brittny. I almost have a spit take when I look again at who the 3'rd one is from. As much as I hate her, I have her number, just in case I want to be evil.
"Brittny?" I say to myself, not believing my eyes. I open hers first, just to see what stupid thing she had to say. Listening to it, it says, "Caitlin! Good news! Sidney and I are going out tomorrow." I hear her giggle and a couple other girls in the background. Then I hear Sidney's voice in the background as well. From what I could make out he said something like Get off of me or Oh Please. I close my phone confused. Sidney? With Brittny? I open the 1'st one from him.
"Caitlin. Call me." The second one said. "Caitlin. We need to talk. Call me."
I dial his number, hoping nothing is going on. Brittny answers. "Caitlin! So glad to hear from you!" In her fake voice. I sigh, not knowing what's going on, and not liking it one bit.
"Brittny? What the hell?"
The next thing I know, I hear Sidney's voice. "Give me my phone Brittny." He says, sounding pissed. There's a shuffle, then Sidney's on. "Caitlin." He gasps.
"Sidney. What's going on?" I ask him, suspicious.
"I'm not even sure myself." He says.
"What do we need to talk about?" I ask him, worried now.
"I was going to tell you to cancel tomorrow night. Don't worry about it now. It's fine. We can still go." He sounds like he's in pain.
"OK?" I say, "Sidney are you ok?" I ask him, hearing Brittny's giggle in the background again.
"NO." He says quietly, "but everything will be alright." He says trying to reassure me. The phone starts to break up on the other end. Brittny's back. "Caitlin. Don't worry, your date tomorrow will be fine. You'll be going with Danny and I'll be going with Sidney!" I hear Sidney say something in the background again, but I can't understand him.
"What?" I ask, on the brink of tears now.
"Yep! You know Danny. He asked you out earlier." She says, still using her fakest happy voice. "Bye!" She says and closes Sidney's phone.
I think of something to do. I remember that I have Max's home phone, at his apartment, from when Sidney called me the other day. I call it. "Hello?" Max answers, oblivious.
"Max?" I ask, although I'd know his voice anywhere.
"Yeah. Who is this?" He asks.
"It's Caitlin." I say. "Can you come pick me up?"
"Sure. Where?" He asks, the always helpful Max. I give him the info and run downstairs to tell my mom where I'll be. She doesn't mind that I won't be home for dinner, for once. I wait impatiently, pacing around the living room. My mom looks at me, worried, but doesn't ask. I'm sure she can tell that I would just freak out.
Max pulls up to the curb and steps out of his car to come get me at the door. I run outside motioning for him to get back in. He looks at me confusedly, but does what I want him to. I get in on the passenger side and sigh. "What?" He asks.
"Would Sidney really do this?" I ask him, almost crying.
"DO WHAT?" Max asks, still not totally filled in and getting frustrated.
"Go out with Brittny tomorrow instead of me?" I say, looking down.
"No no no no no no NO!" Max says, "She has annoyed him more than Valeska { ;) } ever did. He likes you. A lot." Max shakes his head.
"I called his phone and she answered. Then she gave the phone to him and he said that he was going to cancel but then she took it back and told me that she'd be going with Sidney and I'd be going with this kid who asked me out earlier." I ramble on.
"Oh." Max says, not sure what to say now. "Where were they?"
"I have no clue." I say, still looking down and trying not to cry. "Could you call him on your cell?" I ask hopefully.
"Sure." And he does it. I hear his end of the conversation. "Sid?...... Where are you?...... Ok... See you there." Max hangs up and looks at me. "He's at Mario's. We're going there now." Max pulls out into the street. I sigh.
"Why?" I ask, "Why can't anything happen normally for me?"
"Cause the guy you want is Sidney Crosby." Max points out, "and now just happens to be a bad time, what with his stalker and what not." Max says, I giggle a little bit, feeling a little better.
"But can't he just tell her to get lost?" I ask, "can't he just..." I trail off and a tear runs down my cheek.
"Caitlin." Max says, "everything will work out."