Significance (Significance #1)(50)

“The girl who texted me was my ex-girlfriend. Beck was really weird about it when we went out before and when she wouldn’t return my phone calls, me and Christina went out again a few times. She freaked in the car on the way over. What am I supposed to do? She doesn’t act like she wants to be with me, but calls me out of the blue. Am I supposed to not ever go out with any other girls and wait for Beck to realize that I’m freaking in love with her?”
We heard a gasp behind us and turned to see Beck with a struck expression. She’d heard him. I bit my lip as I watched him stand and move towards her. She smiled and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. He laughed after a few seconds and pulled away.
“We’ll be right back,” he said quickly and pulled her away, giggling.
I felt extremely giddy and leaned on Caleb’s shoulder. I was glad when the waitress brought our food right as they came back, about eight minutes later. Beck’s lips were red and her hair was a bit disheveled. She beamed at me and when Ralph was getting a refill she looked at me and mouthed ‘Holy Cow!’
“Try these, Beck.” I pointed to the corn nuggets. “They’re really good.”Ralph stabbed one with a toothpick and nodded in appreciation.
“So. Caleb,” Beck started and laced her fingers into a fist under her chin. “What’s your major?”
She gave me a concerned look and then turned her gaze to Caleb with a little frown. I realized this was the grilling she’d been waiting for.
“Architecture.”
“Really? And what exactly are your intentions with my best friend?”
He choked on his sweet tea, laughing, and I looked at her in disbelief.
“Beck. What the heck?” I asked.
“What? It’s my job as best friend to make sure he’s not a serial killer. Or an English major, not sure which one’s worse,” she spouted indignantly and Caleb and Ralph both laughed.
“Well, uh, I adore Maggie.” He looked at me and smirked at my stunned expression. “And I am most definitely not a serial killer. But I do know a little English,” Caleb said grinning.
“Well, that’s a relief. So are your parents loaded?”
“Beck, oh, my gosh! Are you serious!” I yelled, but she ignored me and looked at him imploringly.
“Well, I’d say we’re well off enough,” Caleb answered carefully.
“Oh, yeah. Loaded,” Beck said and tossed her hair. “So what about siblings?”
“One sister.”
“Parents still together?”
“Yep.”
“When’s the last time you talked to your best friend?”
“Yesterday. Text,” he answered.
“And your mother?”
“This morning.”
She raised her eyebrows at that. “Really. When was the last time you went to the dentist?”
“Um. Three months ago,” he said grinning.
“Have you ever been engaged?”
“Nope,” he said laughing.
“What do you think about the current economical state of Iran?” Ralph and Caleb were laughing so hard, they looked about to cry. I just shook my head at her while she bantered. “Hey! That’s a legitimate selling point!”
“Don’t answer that, Caleb,” I cut in. “Ok, Beck, enough. Are you done?”
“Yes. You have my stamp of approval.”
He raised his glass in toast to her in gratitude and smirked. “So, are we going to the party or a movie or what?” Caleb asked after everyone settled down.
“I vote party,” Beck said and then recanted. “If that’s what everyone else wants to do.”
“I don’t care what we do,” Ralph said sweetly, looking at Beck.
“What about you?” Caleb asked me. 
“Whatever you want.”
“Well. We can go to the party. He’s a pretty nice guy so I wouldn’t think it’d be too crazy.”
“Ok. Party.”
We finished up just as Mrs. Amy came by and said hello.
Caleb drove us to a dark parking lot in the woods. I took my sweater off in the car and we piled out. As you came over the dunes you could see the red and orange bonfire lighting the sand and trees behind it. There were probably fifty people out there on the beach.
Beck jumped out of the car quickly, towing Ralph behind her. Caleb and I walked slowly hand in hand. I took my shoes off and put them in the pile along with a lot of other girls who hadn’t worn appropriate sand shoes.
Quite a few people called out to Caleb and he waved or said hello or bumped fists. A guy came and offered us drinks.
“I don’t drink,” I said as he forced the sloshing warm beverage into my hand.
“It’s just soda, cutie,” he said and winked before stumbling away.
I didn’t know if he was joking or not, but Caleb took the drink from me and threw it in a passing trash can.
“I’ll get us something we can drink in a minute,” he whispered as we walked over to the fire.
I wondered for just a second what his telling tone meant, but forgot all about it once I saw the crowd. They all turned to look at us when a guy yelled loudly to Caleb.
I felt my cheeks burn and was glad the red glow of the fire would hide it. And I swear there were a couple girls glaring at me, openly giving me dirty looks. I looked at them curiously as Caleb hugged a guy and bumped backs with their fists.
“Hey, man. Glad you could make it.”
“Yeah. Thanks for the invite. Tristan, this is Maggie.”
“Hi,” I said softly.
“Hey, there.” He smiled widely. “Caleb, dude, you've been holding out. It’s nice to meet you, Maggie. Any friend of Caleb is a friend of mine.” I smiled and he looked back to Caleb. “Where you been, man? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
Caleb nodded his head towards me. “Maggie doesn’t live here so I’ve been traveling back and forth.”
“I didn’t think you were dating anyone. I told Ashley to come because you might be here.”
I silently groaned.
“Man, come on. I’ve told you before, I am not interested in Ashley, at all. Never was.”
“Caleb!” The Ashley in question crooned sweetly from behind us. She even came up to him and grabbed his arm. “I’m so glad you’re finally here. I’ve been waiting. It’s so boring without you,” she whined.
She glanced at me and smiled unkindly. Caleb pulled from her grasp making her pout more pronounced.
“We’re going to get something to drink,” Caleb announced and pulled me by my hand.
Ashley called out behind us. “I’ll take a martini, dirty.”
He cast a rolling eyed look over his shoulder at her. “Give it a rest.”
“Come see me once you take preschool home to meet curfew.”
He turned back to glare at her. “Enough, Ashley. You really have to wonder why I never wanted to date you?”
She looked genuinely hurt and I wanted to feel sorry for her. Her look of hurt turned to snideness as she flipped us off before turning and almost tripping over a log. I laughed into Caleb’s shoulder.
“Oh, no. Did she really just flip us off?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t laugh though. “I’m so sorry. I wish we hadn’t come here, now. This isn’t my scene, even though I come to them a lot because there’s nothing else to do, but I thought Beck might have fun.”
“It’s ok. I’m not worried about Ashley. I’m not worried about anything.” I hugged him around his middle, pressing my face to his chest. “I’m going to be with these people in a few weeks anyway, right? I better get used to it.”“I guess. It’s really making me look bad with my choice of friends.”
“I’ve only met two of them. Let’s get a drink and then you can introduce me to anyone you want.”
“Really?” he asked curiously and looked down at me. “I thought you’d hate this.”
“I kind of do,” I admitted laughing, “but I want to like it.”
“I know I’ve probably said this twenty times already, but...you are amazing.” He cupped my face and kissed me with gentle pressure. I stuck my hands into his open jacket, grasping around his back for warmth and closeness. My lips tingled and it spread to my cheeks, then my neck. I pulled back before we got too carried away and licked my lips. I felt him sigh, his breath blowing across my face.
“Drink?”
“Yeah,” I answered in a squeak and looked up to see his smug smirk.
“Caleb!” I turned to see a very nice looking and very tall black guy strolling towards us with a wide easy grin. “My brother from another mother! Man, where you been?”
They hugged and verbally jabbed back and forth laughing, then Caleb took my hand.
“Maggie, this is Vic. Vic, this is Maggie, the girl I was telling you about.”
My gaze shot to him in surprise. I didn’t know he’d told anyone about us, especially someone from school.
“Maggie, Maggie, Maggie,” Vic crooned and hugged me. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to meet you, girl. You know, my boy hasn’t stopped talking about you.”
Chapter Twenty Two
“Vic, come on. We only talked like three times,” Caleb said and I could feel his embarrassment and also his glee about this guy liking me.
This was his best friend, the friend he mentioned that day. He had an over pronounced southern accent that was very cute. His hair was short and he had an earring in one ear. His sunglasses were hanging from his polo shirt collar and he wasn’t wearing shoes.