Мэг Кэбот: Pants on Fire

He’d hurried back to his table while Peggy, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes at me.

“Ellison,” she’d said in a suspicious voice. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” I’d grabbed Mrs. Hogarth’s cake and held it out. “Do you have a lighter?”

“I thought you were going out with Jake Turner’s little brother,” Peggy had said in the same suspicious voice, after reaching into the pocket of her khakis and pulling out a lighter, then lighting the number nine and seven candles.

“Iam,” I’d insisted. “Eric’s just a friend.”

A friend I like to make out with when I get the chance,I’d thought, but didn’t add aloud.

Peggy had rolled her eyes. She’s been managing the Gull ’n Gulp for ten years. I guess she’s seen it all. Heard it all, too.

“I knew I was wrong not to make you go home and get a sweater,” was all she’d said.

Like if my bra straps hadn’t been showing, I’d have somehow managed NOT to get caught kissing Eric Fluteley behind the soda station?

But Peggy wouldn’t have toldSidney about what she’d seen me doing. Peggy doesn’t gossip (and she busts her employees’ chops when she catches them doing it).

So how had Sidney found out?

Could she have seen me outside by the bike rack earlier today?

No way. Sidney doesn’t even own a bike. She never goes anywhere at all unless it’s in Dave’s Camaro or the white convertible Volkswagen Cabriolet Sidney’s dad got her for her sixteenth birthday.

“I’ll tell you why Morgan was there,” Sidney said knowingly into the phone. “She’sspying. On the competition.”

Oh, God! The competition for Eric’s affections? That’s totally me!

Except that if Sidney knew, why hadn’t she said anything to me? I mean, Sidney’s not exactly reticent with her opinions, and if she found out I’ve been macking behind an emergency generator with Eric Fluteley, you can bet she’d have a few things to say about it. Sidney thinks Seth and I are the perfect couple, and is looking forward to her and Dave and Seth and I being the It Couples of our senior year. My getting caught macking with Eric Fluteley would totally ruin Sidney’s plans for the prom, et cetera.

“I mean, her sponsor’s the Oaken Bucket,” Sidney went on. “How much do you really think they’re contributing to her campaign? Whereas you actuallywork for your sponsor, so they’ve got, like, a vested interest in actually promoting you….”

Oh. Oh my God.

I sagged down onto the side of the bathtub in relief. Okay. Sothat was what Sidney was talking about. Not Eric. Nothing to do with Eric.

“And, seriously, does she really think anyone’s going to vote for a Quahog Princess who doesn’t even eat quahogs?” Sidney wanted to know.

I can’t believe I almost forgot. That there’s another type of quahog. I mean, besides the clam and the football team.

There’s the town’s annual contest for Quahog Princess.

Which I’m running for.

And so is Sidney. And so is Morgan.

Which is why Sidney can’t stand Morgan, even though Morgan is really sweet once you get to know her. Which I did, because Morgan, who has been taking ballet since she was, like, four and is a shoo-in for the Joffrey Ballet Company in the city someday, danced Laurey’s dream sequence in the drama club’s production ofOklahoma! last spring (Eric played Jud. And let me tell you, he was the hottest, most brooding Jud ever. A lot of girls — like me, for instance — thought Laurey should have gone with Jud instead of that stupid Curly, who was played by Brian McFadden, who is kind of a girl), and I had to photograph her for the yearbook and the school paper.

Morgan was super nice about doing her grands jetés over and over, since I couldn’t quite get the shot right with my digital Sony, and her legs kept blurring. (I finally got an excellent shot of her in midair, with her legs perfectly parallel to the stage. It looks like she’s flying, but she’s got this calm expression on her face, almost bored, like “Ho hum, I defy gravity like this every day.”)

Morgan’s doing that same dance for the talent portion of the Quahog Princess pageant.

And can I just say that one of the things Sidney dislikes most about Morgan is the fact that Morgan’s talent is way better than Sidney’s, which is singing a Kelly Clarkson song — not to mention mine, which is the worst beauty pageant talent of all…playing piano?

Although, the fact that Morgan’s got this long, skinny neck and no body fat and never talks to anyone doesn’t exactly endear her to the Sidney types of the world, either. It isn’t that Morgan thinks she’s better than everyone, as Sidney insists. She’s just really shy.

It’s scandalous that Eric was trying to use her to try to make me jealous. I am fully going to have a talk with him next time we make out behind the emergency generator.

“Oh,” I said to Sidney, laughing with relief when I finally realized she was talking about Quahog Princess, and not Eric. “I don’t think she was there to spy on us. I think that’s just where Eric took her. It wasn’t like she could say anything. He had to have made that reservation a week ago.”

“Yeah, and what is up with that, anyway?” Sidney wanted to know. “Who makes a reservation at theGull ’n Gulp?”

Sidney, I knew, wasn’t dissing the Gulp. It’s just that no local would ever deign to make a reservation there, unless it was a special occasion, like Mrs. Hogarth’s birthday party.

Or a guy who wanted to make the girl he was currently macking with behind her boyfriend’s back jealous.

“Maybe he wanted to impress her,” I said, carefully fishing my comb out of the toilet, just as there was a thump on the bathroom door.

“I’m in here,” I called to the thumper, who I knew was my brother, Liam, just getting home from the video arcade at Duckpin Lanes, where he’d spent most, if not all, of his nights this summer. No one else in my house was awake, since it was after midnight.

“Yeah, but since when are Eric Fluteley and Morgan Castle a couple?” Sidney demanded. “It all seems a little too convenient, if you ask me. She’s running for Quahog Princess, and needs an escort for the evening gown event, and she just HAPPENS to start going out with the best-looking guy in school? I mean, besides Seth and Dave? And then just HAPPENS to show up at the Gull ’n Gulp on a night when we’re both there?”

“I’m at the Gulp almost every night, Sid,” I pointed out. “So are you, for that matter. I really don’t think Morgan was there to spy on us.”

“Oh, God, Katie,” Sidney said. “You aresuch an innocent.”

Sidney always calls me an innocent because even though Seth and I have been going out forever, I’m still a virgin, and Sidney lost hers to Rick Stamford two summers ago in his room while his parents were out attending the Eastport Towne Fair.

But I just don’t think it’s a good idea for a girl who can’t seem to stick to kissing one guy at a time to start sleeping with them, too. I mean, at least Sidney was sure she loved Rick (and thought he returned the feeling). I think the fact that I can’t stop kissing Eric Fluteley is a pretty good sign that, as hot as I’ve always thought he is and all, I’m not in love with Seth…

…and the fact that I can’t stop kissing Seth means I’m most likely not in love with Eric, either.

Although, I kind of wonder if Sidney would still think I’m so innocent if she knew why Morgan Castle hadreally been at the Gull ’n Gulp tonight — because Eric Fluteley brought her there to make me jealous.

Not that I’m going to tell her — or anyone else — that.

Liam thumped again. I flung the comb into the sink, turned on the hot water in hopes of killing whatever germs were now growing on it, thanks to its toilet plunge, and yanked open the door.