Crushing on the Geek(12)
“Neither. My mom is trying to bail on giving me a ride, so I was wondering….”
“Yeah, that's fine. I was going to ask you yesterday,” Hayden paused, taking a drink of something, causing Tamara's blush to deepen, “but you left before I could. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks.”
“Not a problem. See you then,” Hayden said and the line went dead.
“Never mind, Mom!” Tamara shouted, slipping her arms into her hoodie and went outside without waiting for an answer.
Leaves fell from the oak tree in the yard and were caught by the air currents. Tamara watched them swirl in mini-tornadoes before landing softly on the ground. She sat on the steps and rested her chin on the palm of her hand. Now that the adrenaline from arguing with her mother was fading, Tamara was exhausted. Her eyes drifted shut only to be startled open seconds later when Hayden pulled into the driveway.
Tamara drug herself onto her feet and into the car. She dropped her purse on the floorboard, fastened her seat belt, and locked the door before greeting Hayden.
“Morning.”
“You look like you got about as much sleep as I did.”
“Guilty conscience, I guess,” Tamara closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat.
“There was a damn bug trapped in my room last night and I couldn't find it.”
Tamara arched an eyebrow and opened her eyes.
“You too?”
“Huh?”
“A moth or something woke me up last night and then this morning I found tiny hand prints on my mirror.”
“What do moths and hand prints have in common?”
“I don't know,” Tamara yawned, “I haven't heard that one before.”
“It wasn't a joke,” Hayden smiled at her in the rear view mirror, “It was a serious question.”
“Oh, I don't know, but the hand prints were itty bitty,” Tamara said, raising her hands in front of her holding her the pads of thumb and index fingers less than an inch apart, “Tiny little hand prints.”
“I think you're sleep deprived, Tamara,” Hayden laughed, “Moths don't have hands.”
“No, duh. I don't know what it was. I've just had a weird feeling since yesterday.”
“Since the apples?”
“Yeah, since the apples. I don't think we should have stolen them.”
“You can't steal from an inanimate object,” Hayden yawned.
“Yeah, but Greg left them there....” Tamara tried to explain.
“Even if we didn't eat them someone else would have.”
“I don't know if that makes it better or not.”
“Maybe not, but we can't change that now.”
“What if we really did screw with the team's luck though, Hayden?”
“Once again, Tamara, I have to say it, I think you're suffering from lack of sleep.”
“Maybe,” Tamara said, closing her eyes again.
Tamara drifted off to sleep and didn't wake up again until the car pulled into the parking lot of a small diner.
“We're here already?” she asked, stretching her arms above her head, narrowly missing stubbing her finger on the roof of the car.
“Yeah,” Hayden nodded.
“Sorry, I fell asleep.”
“You were tired.”
“I haven't had any coffee yet.”
“Well, the coffee here sucks from what Greg and Cindy said, but you'll have to make due.”
“I don't drink coffee for the taste,” Tamara said, getting out of the car and stretching her legs, “I drink it for the energy.”
Breakfast didn't help with Tamara's exhaustion. With her belly full she wanted nothing more than to curl up and go back to sleep.
“Maybe you should get a coffee to go too,” Hayden said.
“I planned on it,” Tamara yawned, laying her head on the table, “Are they going to bring us the check or not?”
“They already brought the check,” Hayden laughed.
“I'll go pay for this, you drink more coffee.”
After her third cup of coffee Tamara began to feel and look more like herself. She even ducked into the bathroom before leaving to do her makeup. After examining her reflection she winked at herself, with a bloodshot eye.
“So besides the bug you couldn't find has anything else weird happened?” Tamara asked, as she slid back into the passenger seat.
“Not really,” Hayden shrugged.
“What do you mean, not really?”
“Nothing that I've noticed. Let's not talk about Sir Bedivere anymore, okay? I mean we're about to participate in a tournament. We don't need to worry that we've screwed it up. Superstition can only hinder you if you believe in it.”
“Who told you that?”
“My mother,” Hayden blushed.