Free Geography Club by Brent Hartinger Page B

together and shout, “Gunnar doesn’t want to join the Geography Club!”
    We climbed on our bikes and started for home.
    “So,” Gunnar said. “You have a good time on Saturday?”
    It took me a second to realize he was talking about my date with Trish. Since the date had ended, I’d given Trish pretty much no thought whatsoever.
    “Yeah,” I said. “Trish is nice.” I knew Gunnar had to feel pretty bad about his date with Kimberly. There was no reason to make him feel worse for having set me up with Trish. Besides, my date really hadn’t been that bad. “Sorry it didn’t work out with you and Kimberly,” I said.
    “Who says it didn’t work out?” Gunnar said. He sounded offended.
    I had to look at him to see if he was making a joke. It looked like he really was offended.
    “What?” I said.
    “What what? What makes you think it didn’t work out with Kimberly?”
    “Well, I…” I thought back on what Gunnar and I had talked about on Saturday night after we’d dropped off the girls. Neither of us had ever said outright that his date with Kimberly had been a complete and utter disaster. But Kimberly had been such a bitch in general, and she’d seemed so indifferent to Gunnar all night long, that I’d just assumed he knew it had been a disaster. The only reason I hadn’t said anything Saturday night was because I didn’t want to make him feel any more miserable than I assumed he already did.
    “What are you saying?” I said. “You still like Kimberly?”
    “Sure! She likes me too. We talked today in free period. She wants to go out again this weekend.”
    “What?” I knew it was rude to sound so shocked, but I couldn’t help myself. I just couldn’t believe that Kimberly actually wanted to go out with Gunnar again. Was he making this up?
    “You sound surprised,” Gunnar said.
    I tried to pretend that the astonishment in my voice was just me huffing from riding my bike. “No,” I said. “No! That’s great. I mean, you like her, right?”
    “You don’t?”
    “I didn’t say that!” Why did everyone keep thinking I didn’t like Kimberly? It was true, but why did everyone keep thinking it?
    “So she got a little drunk,” Gunnar said. “She was just having fun.”
    I was torn. Part of me was happy for Gunnar. I knew how much he wanted a girlfriend. But another part of me thought, God, does it have to be that bitch Kimberly Peterson? She couldn’t possibly end up being any good for him. How could she be? She didn’t even seem to like Gunnar. She was probably just using him for something—but what?
    “Oh,” I said, because suddenly I knew exactly what she was using him for.
    Kimberly may not have liked Gunnar, but Trish liked me. That’s what Kimberly’s second date with Gunnar had to be all about. Trish wanted to go out with me again. Since they knew that Gunnar liked Kimberly—that was pretty screamingly obvious—Kimberly was stringing Gunnar along in hopes he, as my best friend, would use his influence to get me to go out with Trish again. Or maybe Trish just didn’t want to go out alone with me yet—maybe she wanted Kimberly and Gunnar along one more time. Either way, I knew in my gut that my going out with Trish was the only reason Kimberly was willing to go out with Gunnar. If I refused to go on another date with Trish, Kimberly would dump Gunnar’s ass.
    “‘Oh,’ what?” Gunnar said.
    “It’s just…” I started to say what I was thinking. But then I looked over at the guy on the bike next to me, and I saw the look on his face. He had one of those open, completely vulnerable expressions that made me just know if I said the truth, he would never look quite that innocent ever again.
    That’s when I decided he didn’t need to know the truth. Besides, maybe I was wrong. What did I know? Maybe Kimberly did like Gunnar. He did have kind of a geeky charm. I was the first to admit I didn’t know how these crazy straight people did their dating thing. (I didn’t