Free Cameo by Tanille Edwards

Craig. It was good to have someone else feeling the heat for once. I got a little ginger ale on my leg. It was a small price to pay, considering Craig’s fresh white tee was now an array of wet, patchy fruit juice colors.
    I bent down to wipe off my leg. I overheard a girl from my gym class talking to another girl. “Yeah, she’s outside with him now. They’ve been gone for like twenty minutes,” she said.
    â€œOh, there he is. Do you think they, you know?” the other girl asked.
    â€œWhatever happened to saving something for prom night?” the girl from gym class said. Apparently the girl from gym class was ticked off. I waited to see if the two girls were going to walk away so I could see who they were talking about. About sixty seconds passed before I realized that I didn’t have all day. So I decided to show my face. They took one look at me and cleared out. If I would’ve known that, I would’ve saved myself a wasted minute.
    Just then, I started to feel the burn of my three-inch stilettos. What I would’ve given for a pair of sneakers.
    â€œI didn’t know you’d be here,” Jason said.
    â€œMaybe you should pretend I’m not,” I said. What if they were talking about …? “Jason! Don’t grab me like that.” I couldn’t even complete a thought with this guy around. He leaned in close to me from behind with his arm around my neck. It was much less of a grab and much more of a hold that he had on me. It had been so long I couldn’t tell the difference.
    â€œLet me know when we get to checkmate,” he whispered in my ear.
    I took a deep breath and began to cough. I removed his arm from my neck. There was no telling where it had been. “Try again when you don’t reek of fragrance.”
    I only knew one girl who bathed in Undercover Starlet ™ fragrance as if it were lotion for a dry skin problem. How dare he think he could play me that? “I actually started to believe that …” I laughed uneasily. “Give my regards to Carolina. No hard feelings. I’ll consider this thing a cameo.” I shrugged it off and walked away.
    â€œNia,” he called out under his breath.
    I pretended I didn’t hear him. My body must have agreed with me too, because all of a sudden I found myself bouncing to the beat of the new song “Cameo.” The DJ must have been reading my mind.
    He tapped me from behind. I was walking upstairs to retreat to the bathroom to do the usual—every party, I did the same thing. I spent ten minutes in the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror and wondering why I was even at the party. I guess I could face him first, no?
    â€œSeems they’re playing our song,” I said.
    â€œWhat? Why do you say that?”
    â€œWe’re not really meant to be. I think you’ve found yourself a girlfriend,” I said.
    â€œYou think too much. She asked me to help her with her car. It wouldn’t start or something.”
    â€œHer car? Right! Did you give her a tune-up? I bet you checked under the hood.” Was I really pretending to be jealous of Carolina?
    â€œOkay. She kissed me, but I told her I was talking to someone.” He said that last part under his breath.
    â€œWe don’t have to talk about this. You could have any girl here. So, this is my shadow leaving the place.” I walked away from him, knowing he was probably telling the truth. I turned to him andsang, “I guess you understand why we can’t be. Thought it over and this is what came to me. You’re my cameo lover. No need for another.” I blew him a kiss.
    A few minutes later, my out-of-use cell phone had received its first text message all day. I opened the message: “Game on. Your cameo lover.”
    I checked the sender, and it was private. This was the second private message I had gotten this week. I didn’t even have Jason’s number saved. I was