Him: “Two.”

Me: “Sounds good.”

Him: “Yeah.”

Me: “Well, I gotta get changed.”

Him: “Okay. Later.”

Chase mainly hung around with this other swimming guy, Josh, who was big and redheaded and laughed so loud you could hear him all the way inside the girls’ locker room.

It was early December, almost time for the middle school Christmas dance.3 One day, about an hour after practice, my phone rang. Josh.4

“What’s up?” I asked. I couldn’t think why he was calling me.5

“Chase wants to ask you something,” he said.

I was thoroughly confused. “What?”

“Chase! Get on the phone!” Josh started giggling. I wanted to hang up, but that seemed rude, and no boy had ever called me on the phone before either, so I was kind of curious.6 “Aw, he’s gone in the other room. Hold on!” Josh put the phone down.

I sat there. This was so dumb. But I couldn’t hang up, or I’d spend the rest of my life wondering what Chase had to say.7

“Ruby, are you there?” Josh’s voice sounded breathless.

“Yeah.”

“He wants to know—ow, Chase, that hurt!—he wants to know, do you want to go to the Christmas dance?”

“With him?” I so didn’t. Chase was repulsive to me. I couldn’t quite say why. But if I thought about slow-dancing with him, a creepy feeling went up my spine.

“She can tell me tomorrow!” yelled Chase in the background.

“Did you hear that?” asked Josh.

“She doesn’t have to say right now!”

“Did you hear?”

“Yeah,” I said. “All right. I’ll think about it.”

“She’s thinking about it,” Josh told Chase.

The next day, Josh came up to me as Kim and I were eating lunch. “This is from Chase,” he said, pulling a bead necklace out of his pocket and scooting it toward me across the table. “For you.”

The necklace was really pretty—but looking at it almost made me sick. I didn’t want it. Taking it would feel like a promise. Like telling Chase there was a thing between us.

I didn’t want a thing.

And why was Josh doing all the talking for him?8

I looked around the refectory, but I couldn’t see Chase anywhere. “How come he’s giving me this?” I asked.

Kim rolled her eyes. “Duh. He likes you.”

“Yeah,” said Josh. “I told you, he wants to know if you’ll go to the dance with him.”

Was the necklace supposed to convince me? Like, Oh, I didn’t like him before, but now that there’s jewelry involved, I want to go?

“You could just go as a friend if you want,” said Josh.9 “You could still have the necklace.”10

If I took the necklace, only horror could result. For instance, I’d have this necklace, and this Christmas dance date—both without even talking to Chase himself. Next time I saw him, I’d have to go up and say thank you, and tell him whether we were going as “just friends” or as—what? What would you even say? As “regular”? As “boyfriend and girlfriend”? There wasn’t even a normal way to say it! And then I’d have to wear the necklace, and people would know about it, and it would be like we were going out, which might be nice since I’d never had a boyfriend—except that he grossed me out.

The whole situation made me feel like I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs.

“I can’t go to the dance,” I said. “My family’s going out of town.” (Completely untrue.)

“Oh. Okay. Wait one sec.” Josh jumped up and ran out of the refectory for a minute, presumably to confer with Chase outside. Then he came back. “You can still have the necklace,” he said. “If you want to go to McDonald’s with him on Friday.”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

“You could order fries.”

I didn’t know what to do. If I said I was busy Friday, it seemed like he’d come up with some other day, or try to get me to keep the necklace anyhow. “I’m not allowed to go out with boys,” I said. “Or take presents from them, or anything. My mom says.” (Again, completely untrue.)

“Really?” Josh looked skeptical.

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