Free Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

woo-hoo
!
    I check my computer one more time before I leave. Still nothing
. Luke, where are you? What did I do? Why aren’t you talking to me?
    If I’m honest, I have to admit that Billy cleans up well. He’s wearing black jeans and a button-down shirt, and truth be told, he’s really pretty cute. I suddenly feel kind of underdressed, like maybe I should have made more of an effort for this study date. I mean WTF? It’s not like Luke is sitting around at home checking obsessively to see if
I’m
around, is it?
    We sit on the sofa in his family room with our science notes, quizzing each other on convection and radiation and all the other stuff we have to know for the test. Billy’s smart; that’s one of the reasons I like having him for a lab partner. He can actually do his own homework
and
remember my name, two things Nick Peters
still
hasn’t mastered.
    “What are some of the properties that characterize a living thing?” Billy asks.
    “Um — it has a complex organization composed of one or more cells. It has a metabolism. Like, in other words, it has physical or chemical processes that create and use energy….” I’m ticking off on my fingers as I try to visualize all of the bullet points in the textbook. “Oh, and it’s responsive to stimuli in the external environment.”
    “Good,” Billy says, smiling. “Keep going.”
    “It grows by taking external materials and organizing them into its own structure. Like, I eat doughnuts and get fat.”
    Billy laughs. “You aren’t fat at all, Abby. You look great.” He leans a little closer to me. “You smell pretty good, too.”
    I feel the flush rise up my neck to my cheeks.
    “Um, thanks.”
    “Okay, back to business.” Billy grins, leaning back against the cushions. “Give me two more characteristics of living things. I’ll give you a hint: You left out the most fun one.”
    Fun one? I’m picturing the textbook, responsiveness, growth, complex organization, metabolism, responsiveness … oh!
    I hit Billy. “You are
such
a perv!”
    “Who me? What are you talking about?”
    “The most fun one?
Reproduction
? ”
    “Hey, even microorganisms gotta have fun, right?”
    “Well, it’s a good thing some of us are more
evolved
.”
    “Ding! Ding! Ding! You’ve just won the prize for getting all the answers right!”
    “So what’s my prize?” I ask Billy.
    He pretends to think for a moment, but I see him glance at the time on the cable box.
    “Your prize is to be escorted to the multiplex by, uh, the amazingly handsome, funny, talented —”
    “And modest,” I interject.
    “And
exceptionally
modest Billy Fisher.”
    “Well, lucky me.” I almost add a sarcastic “NOT,” but realize that I’ve kind of been having fun with Billy, and even better, I haven’t thought about Luke in more than an hour. Except, dang, now I have.
Go away, Luke thoughts
.
    Billy’s mom sticks her head in the doorway from the kitchen.
    “If you guys don’t want to be late for the movie, you better start packing up the books and get in the car.”
    Billy sighs.
    “It’s pretty much impossible to impress your date with how cool you are when your
mom
is driving you.”
    “Like you were
ever
going to impress me with how cool you were.”
    He punches me lightly on the arm as we walk to the car.
    “Just you wait, Abby Johnston. My coolness will hit you like a tsunami. You will be carried along by its raging power. You will be turned into a freaking icicle by the frostiness of my cool.”
    I roll my eyes.
    “Yeah, whatever, Iceman. Let’s just go to the movies, okay?”
    If I thought it was awkward having to make conversation with Billy’s mom in the car, it’s even more weird when it’s me and Billy sitting in the back of a darkened movie theater. First, our arms touch on the armrest between us. I quickly move mine away. I wonder if he’s going to try to hold my hand. I keep my soda inthe hand closest to him so he can’t, because I’m not sure if I want