Fabulous Five 009 - The Boyfriend Dilemma by Betsy Haynes Read Free Book Online Page A

could
respond, he added, "Are you doing anything tonight?"
    She looked at him. His eyes were full of expectation.
    "No," she said softly.
    "I was wondering if a best friend, who just happens to
be a boy, could ask a best friend, who just happens to be a girl, to go to a
movie?"
    Christie hesitated. Questions swirled in her mind. What
about Kimm? And was he really asking her as a best friend? Or did he want to
date her? Would it complicate things if she said yes? What would happen when he
took her home? Would he want to kiss her? Or would they be proving that they
could be best friends and go places together?
    "I mean it," he said. "I started thinking
about what you said, and I think maybe you were right. A guy and a girl should
be able to be best friends like two guys or two girls. It's just that we'd be
doing something new, and the idea takes a little getting used to."
    "Had you thought about asking Kimm Taylor to go with you?"
Christie asked.
    Jon got a surprised look on his face. "To be honest
with you, I did think about asking Kimm, but I decided I wanted to ask you
instead."
    Christie was quiet for a moment, thinking. "Why?"
she asked.
    "I know you're having a hard time now, and people don't
seem to want to believe that a guy and a girl can be best friends. I thought we
ought to show them that you and I can do it."
    "Are you sure you wouldn't rather go with Kimm?"
    "No. I'd rather go with my best friend," he
replied.
    Christie squeezed his arm. "I'd love to go to the movie
with you tonight. We'll show everybody. We'll both pay our own way, right?"
    "Right," Jon said with a laugh, and Christie felt
light-headed with relief.
     
    The line at the movie theater was long, and Christie pulled
the money for her ticket out of her pocket as she and Jon got on at the end.
Jana and Katie were already on line with Randy and Tony.
    "Beth and Melanie are inside!" called Jana. "They're
going to save a row of seats for us!"
    Christie nodded.
    "Hi, Christie! Hi, Jon!" Dekeisha Adams yelled as
she joined Dan Bankston, who had just bought tickets for them.
    Christie waved back and said to Jon, "Dekeisha and Dan
make a nice couple, don't they?"
    He looked at her with a half-smile on his face and nodded
agreement. Ooops! Christie thought. Why did I automatically assume they're
a couple? Why can't they just be best friends going to a movie, like Jon and I?
She was expecting Jon to think that way, and yet even she didn't all the time.
    She didn't know what to say to Jon after that, and the
silence hung between them like a thick curtain. Christie wondered if he was
thinking about her comment.
    Why did girl-boy relationships always have to come down to
dating or hardly knowing each other? Jon and she had talked about a lot of
things . . . just like best friends. She sneaked a glance at him. I wonder if
he has told anyone some of the things I've told him? Like what I said about
Melanie and Beth? He wouldn't do that, she assured herself. But she
looked at him and wondered in spite of herself.
    She had told him how boy crazy she thought Melanie
was. But the rest of The Fabulous Five thought that, too. Katie was always
asking Melanie if she ever thought of anything else but boys.
    And Beth was so theatrical. Christie had confided in Jon
that she thought Beth was a little bit of a show-off and that she said some
pretty wild things at times. It was the kind of thing she would have
said to any of The Fabulous Five. But she had told Jon, not one of them. And as
far as Christie knew, Katie didn't tell anyone outside of The Fabulous
Five that she thought Melanie was boy crazy. If Jon got mad at her, would he
tell someone else what she had said about Melanie and Beth? As much as she didn't
think he would, the thought made her uncomfortable, as if she were a traitor.
    Inside the theater it was a madhouse. Kids were moving in
and out of the rows of seats to talk with friends, and every once in a while an
empty popcorn box would go whizzing through the