Defying the Diva by D. Anne Love

Author:D. Anne Love
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Chapter Eleven

“I don’t know about this, Haley. I doubt your parents would approve.”

Well, of course they wouldn’t, but I figured there should be some perks to being exiled all summer. And I would die if I had to cancel my first real date with Evan because Aunt B thought I was a baby.

We were in the kitchen, putting away the groceries we’d bought on the way home. I put a couple of jars of spaghetti sauce in the pantry and made room in the freezer for a carton of chocolate mocha ice cream. “I’m allowed dates,” I said. “I went out with Jason almost all of freshman year.”

She snorted. “And what a prize he was! But at least he was younger than Evan.”

“Not that much younger.”

She peered at me over a sack bulging with stalks of broccoli and two loaves of foil-wrapped French bread. “I’d feel better if we got your mother’s okay before I turn you loose with a strange boy.”

“There isn’t time! He’ll be here in an hour! And he isn’t strange. His great-grandfather helped build the resort. Evan has been here practically forever. Everybody knows him.”

Aunt B dropped the broccoli into the veggie bin and took her time folding the empty paper sack.

“Besides,” I went on, “you’re the one who told me not to let Camilla and them ruin my whole summer, and now that I have a chance to go out and have fun, you won’t let me!”

Aunt B filled the tea kettle, set it on the stove, and took her favorite mug from the cabinet. “All right. But you are to be home by eleven, Haley. Not one minute later.”

“Great! Thank you!” I hugged her and ran up to my room.

I really missed Suzanne and Vanessa then. Half the fun of going out is the anticipation of it, obsessing over what to wear, and now I had nobody to share it with. I couldn’t call Nora or Frankie; they’d just tell me I was making a huge mistake.

I chose a gauzy white skirt, a black short sleeved top, and black sandals. I smoothed on some lip gloss, poked my head into Aunt B’s office to say bye, and went downstairs to wait.

By seven ten there was no Evan. I was certain I’d been had, the butt of some sick joke. I imagined Evan laughing about me with his friends, and self-loathing welled up inside me. What an idiot I’d been to think he would look twice at someone like me. When he finally showed at seven twenty, I was so relieved he hadn’t stood me up, and so blown away by the fact he had actually asked me out, that I didn’t even ask why he was late. “You look good,” he said. “Let’s go.”

As soon as we got in the car, Evan said, “We can’t make the movie now. By the time we get there, it’ll be half over. But I’ve got a plan B.”

He punched the buttons on the radio, looking for some music, and finally stopped when a hip-hop song came on.

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