Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor Read Free Book Online Page B

don't you want to hear what the note said?"
    "Oh, yeah. I totally forgot."
    "It said, 'Meet me at The Madison next Friday at ten.'"
    "Oh my God!" I jumped up and accidentally knocked over the last of my hot chocolate. "That is so cool."
    "I know," said Rebecca. "Sometimes I amaze even myself."
    "What if he has plans?"
    "He'll have to break them."
    Obviously there are about five million differences between me and Rebecca, but if I had to name the most
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    crucial one, it would be my asking What if he has plans? and her saying, He'll have to break them. Even if I could imagine seducing someone who works with my dad, which I can't, and even if I had the guts to lure him up to our nonexistent terrace and start kissing him, which seems unlikely given my history of relying on a first grader to make the first move for me, and even if I could think of a cool thing to write like Meet me at The Madison next Friday at ten, I would never ever ever in a million years be cool enough to leave it at that. If I'd written that note, it would have said Meet me at The Madison next Friday at ten, or, if that's no good, maybe you're free Saturday at ten. If you'd prefer to meet earlier in the evening, maybe around eight o'clock, that's okay, too. I realize it's also possible you're out of town next weekend, in which case the following weekend would be just fine. Then it would have had nine million ways to reach me, including e-mail, telephone, mailing address, and emergency contact information.
    Clearly this is one of the many things that separates an It Girl from a Not It Girl.
    "So how was baby-sitting?"
    "It was a disaster." I took a sock and mopped up most of the hot chocolate. The one advantage to my horrible rug is, it never stains.
    "Barbie and Ken have a big fight?"
    "Josh was there."
    "He was? Tell me everything."
    "I wish there was something to tell." Compared to hers, my night was suddenly even less Sex and the
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    City and more 7th Heaven than it had been an hour ago.
    When I got to the part about Josh sitting down with me on the couch, she said, "I thought you said there was nothing to tell."
    "That's the thing--that's all that happened."
    "What do you mean?"
    I told her about the rest of the night.
    "Bummer," she said.
    "I know," I said.
    "You should have just made the first move."
    "You know, I thought about it, but I didn't want him to think I was retarded and sexually deviant."
    "Making the first move does not equal sexual deviancy."
    "Why is it that in the middle of a dinner party you can seduce a guy whose career could be destroyed for life if he gets caught with you, while I am incapable of leaving even the slightest impression on Josh? Nothing, just hanging out. That's a direct quote. I can hear it like it was yesterday."
    "It was yesterday."
    "You're hysterical."
    "It doesn't mean anything that he said that. A person could say 'Nothing, just hanging out,' in response to a lot of questions besides 'What are you doing?'"
    "Name one."
    Rebecca didn't say anything for a minute. "Well, maybe he didn't want to reveal what he was doing. Maybe it was his girlfriend in Seattle, and he needs to break up with her so he can go out with you, only he
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    doesn't want to make her suspicious, so he didn't want to say, 'I'm hanging out with this really hot girl.'"
    "With the world's biggest butt."
    "Would you please get over your butt, Jan?"
    "Maybe I could if I was a pole vaulter."
    "YAHN!"
    "If he's going to break up with her, why did he spend the rest of the night on the phone?"
    "Maybe he was breaking up with her last night! Maybe he was breaking up with her the whole time just so he could be free to ask you out at Richie's party."
    I thought about it. "I want to believe you."
    "I know."
    "Yet I feel I must keep at least a minimal grip on reality."
    "I wouldn't bother. Reality can be very upsetting." I had to agree with her there.
    We decided Rebecca would come over to my house in time for us to arrive fashionably late at Richie's, even