Free How To Be A Perfect Girl by Mary Williams Page A

was no food left on his or Derrick’s
trays. Val, on the other hand, hadn’t touched her fries or the
second half of her sandwich. “You wanna get that boxed?” Derrick
asked.
    “Uh, sure,” Val was pretty sure she wouldn’t
want to see cheesesteak again by the same time tomorrow; she was
already regretting eating as much as she had.
    “Alright, just go to the counter and ask.
They’ll box it up for you,” Porter said.
    Val took her tray to the register, where the
man who’d served their food had taken over from the woman who’d
taken their order, “Hey, could I get a box for this?” She asked in
her nicest voice, “Or like a bag or something?”
    The man smiled; Val noticed a nose ring and
ear stud she had missed when he served their food. “Sure thing. You
aren’t anorexic, by the way.” The man talked as he retrieved a box
from under the counter, “You’re just about perfect.”
    Val blushed, “Thank you. I’ve never been
told that.”
    The man pulled the cap from a pen and wrote
something on Val’s box, “But surely you get compliments all the
time?”
    “I guess—but even when I get compliments,
it’s never like ‘oh, you’re perfect’. It’s usually just people who
say they like my hair or something.”
    “Well you are perfect. Have a great day,”
the man winked at Val as she grabbed her box from the counter. She
didn’t read what he’d written until she’d already taken a seat in
Porter’s car and they were driving back to school.
    “Oh my gosh!” Val exclaimed,
“Seriously?”
    “What?” both Porter and Derrick asked.
    “That guy, our server or whatever—“
    “Yeah?” Porter prompted.
    “He wrote his number on the box. Eww.”
    Porter laughed, “Really?” He looked at the
box in Val’s lap, “That guy must’ve been like thirty.”
    “Maybe he wasn’t hitting on me or anything.”
Val thought about it a moment, “Yeah, maybe he just was saying like
if I wanted to text and talk about stuff.”
    Derrick slapped the back of Val’s seat,
laughing hard. “Oh, sure, cause guys do that all the time!”
    “Do what?” Val turned in her seat to look at
him.
    “Give girls their number just to talk.”
    “Well, I mean—“Val was at a loss for words;
Derrick was right, and she knew it.
    “Look, Val, guys operate in three modes,”
Porter said, “The first is with our guy friends—we joke around and
just have fun. Then there’s the way we act around girls who are
family or that we don’t see in a sexual way. We act pretty much the
same with that group as with the first. Then there’s the way we act
around girls we think are hot—and it’s totally different from how
we act with anyone else.”
    “Ok—But what does that have to do with
this?”
    “That guy was acting like
a guy acts when he wants a girl.”
    “But he barely noticed me—I mean, except for
when I walked right up and asked for a box.”
    “He noticed you before then,” Porter said,
“He was stealing glances the whole time he was figuring out whose
food was whose. Didn’t you notice?”
    “No, I guess not.”
    “I saw it too,” Derrick added.
    “Yeah, take our word for it, Val. That guy
didn’t give you his number because he wants a friend; you’d be
smart to just toss it.”
    Val frowned, “Ok.” The car was silent for a
couple of minutes; Val was first to speak, “So which mode are you
in with me?” she looked at Porter.
    “’ scuse me?” he looked
worried.
    “Well you said there were three modes you
act in around people. You don’t act the first way around me, for
obvious reasons. But which of the other two categories am I
in?”
    Porter grimaced, “You—“ he took a breath,
“—I’d rather not answer.”
    “Why not?” Might as well make him sweat a little, Val thought, as revenge
for the anorexia jokes.
    “Cause you’re too young.” Porter nodded,
“Yup, too young.”
    “Too young for what?” Val asked
innocently.
    “For—for—“ Porter searched for the