The next day I caught up with Bobby heading to the cafeteria for lunch.
“Gotta minute for me, Bobby?”, I asked.
“Uhm…sure.” He looked confused.
“I’m Abby Smith. We have English and World History together this year.” I’m so helpful it’s incredible.
“I know who you are Abby. I was just a bit surprised. We’ve never really spoken.”
“Well, that’s all in the past now. Here we are. Talking.” I paused there. I wasn’t sure how to go on.
“Ok. I’m on my way to lunch. Would you like to join me?”, he asked.
“It’s very nice of you to offer, but I need to speak with you privately. How about we walk out to the elm across the street in the park?”, I suggested.
“This sounds serious.”
“It is. For you at least. For me it’s merely an interesting possibility.”
“I’m hooked. Let’s go.”
We turned towards the exit and he gallantly held out his arm for me to link up with him. I looked at it, raised my left eyebrow and said, “This is not a date, big boy. We’ve got business to discuss. Get out there and show some hustle.” I’d heard that in while watching the practice yesterday. It worked then and in worked now. Bobby smiled at me and got a move on.
When we reached the elm, I was glad to see that no one else was there. I should have thought of that, but I was kind of just improvising.
Bobby broke the ice and asked, “So, do you come here often?”.
I groaned. “I hear that you’re looking for a certain binder from Northfield.”, I blurted out.
Bobby’s eyes bulged out like in cartoon. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but they did get bigger as his face showed his surprise. “Why do you say that?” He looked guilty. Not much of a poker face on our boy Bobby.
“I hear things and you’ve let word get out that you want the Northfield High football playbook. Eventually I was bound to hear about it and here we are. Please don’t insult me by denying it. I’m here to help you get what you want, but I’ll walk if you piss me off.” I am so tough! Look at me sounding like a bad movie.
“Do you know someone at Northfield?”, Bobby looked excited.
“Not a single person.”
“Then how can you help? Are you planning to break in and get the playbook? I can tell you now that the binders are watched closely. They’re not just lying around.” I almost burst out laughing. Well, they kind of are.You just need to be in a position to grab one.
“I’m not planning a break in,” because I already did that, “and even if I was, I certainly wouldn’t tell you about it. Loose lips sink ships. What I want to know is what I can get in return, if I can get you that binder.”
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“What do you want?”, he asked in a lecherous way, as he raised his arms and flexed his biceps. He was so over the top that I almost laughed again. Bobby had a good sense of humor.
Instead, I played up the valley girl in me, “Eww! Not you. That’s like SO gross!”.
He lol’d. “Fine. If you’re not looking to get a piece of this awesomeness, then what do you want? You obviously have something in mind, or you wouldn’t be here offering a trade. I don’t know you well enough, or at all really, to guess what you want.”
“If I get you the binder, I want to know why you stopped being friends with Eva Silver and once I hear the story, I might want you to be friends with her again.” I got that out in one breath, rushing so that I wouldn’t change my mind. It was a very strange request and I knew it.
“What?” Bobby looked stunned by the request.
“You heard me. Eva is one of my best friends. She feels bad that you guys aren’t friends anymore and she doesn’t even know why. She said that you used to be one of her best friends. I want to know how you can simply ditch such a wonderful person. If your story sucks and it’s something stupid about you wanting to break away from her so you can be more popular, I won’t ask you to be her friend again. If you had a better reason, like aliens abducted you and erased her from your mind, then I have the option of asking you to start being friends with her again.”
Bobby wasn’t saying anything. He was just looking at the ground. I got the feeling that he was embarrassed about something. When he finally looked up, I could tell that he was. His face was red. I hoped that I wasn’t misreading him, and the red was because he was angry.
“You can’t simply choose to become someone’s friend again. It’s not that simple. Ask for something else.”
“Bobby, we been in the same school for two years and had at least half a dozen classes together and today is the first time we’re even saying hi to each other. I could easily have gone to the end of high school without speaking to you. There is nothing else that I need or want from you. Eva told me the story the other day and she looked sad about losing your friendship. I have no idea why. The way she told it, you come off as a dick. But I trust Eva and she wouldn’t miss you if you were a bad guy. There’s something more to all this. My price for the binder is the story of that something more and you trying to be her friend again, if she’ll let you. Take it or leave it.” I really hoped he’d take it. I already had the binder.
Bobby turned his body like he was going to walk away. I held my breath. Please take the deal. Please take the deal!
“IF you get me the binder, it’s a deal. But this deal is only good for the next two weeks. We need time to study the binder for it to be useful.”
“Deal.” I held out my hand to shake on it and he took it. Then I opened my bag and held out the binder to him.
“You’re shitting me. That’s it? You already have it?”.
“Take a look.” I handed it to him, and he started going through it.
“Holy shit! This is the real thing. How the hell did you get this?” I was starting to get bored of Bobby’s stunned look.
“A girl’s gotta have her secrets. Keeps the boys on their toes.”
Bobby gave me an appraising look. “You’ve held up your end of the deal and I’ll hold up mine, but what would you have done if I’d just taken the binder and walked away?”
“I’d have dropped you like a rock and taken it back. It’s not like you can complain to anyone that I took Northfield’s playbook, the one you’re not supposed to have, from you and you definitely wouldn’t want to admit getting your ass kicked by a girl. That wouldn’t help your reputation any.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” By his slight smirk, I could tell that he was humoring me. I’d seen that look before. In this case, it didn’t matter much anyways. I had nothing to prove to him.
“Let’s sit at the picnic table and you can tell me the story.” Without waiting for him, I took the few strides to the table and sat down. He was still standing where he’d been when I left. He was hesitating because he didn’t want to tell me the story. He hadn't thought that I’d deliver on the binder and he certainly didn’t think that would I do it so quickly.
He let out a breath and came over to sit at the table across from me.