Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown by Adena Halpern Read Free Book Online Page A

I’d seen him playing at a Harriton vs. Lower Merion soccer game. Soccer was to my neighborhood what I’m assuming football is to other parts of the country. It was the sport to play, and it made celebrities out of the guys who were on the team. You’d get dressed in your best relaxed Levi’s and Koala Blue or ACA Joe sweatshirts that you’d cut the neck wider on so it would slide off your shoulders like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, then you’d sit in the stands and watch the most popular and cutest Harnton boys like Eddie Blume and Robert Weiss kick that ball back and forth from one end of the held to the other, scoring goals, and pretend each point was in your honor.
    Julie Pelagatti was dating one of the players on our team, thus giving Amy and me the slick VIP groupie status of getting to go onto the field after the game to congratulate our players. While Julie made out with her boyfriend, Amy and I took the opportunity to scope out some of the other guys up close. Stanley Denton was talking to Robert Weiss, and I went over to say congratulations. As Robert introduced us, I fell into teenage lust. Stanley was sweaty and dirty and wearing the wrong team colors, but his light brown hair was shabby and long, covering his eyes, and he had the coolest gold stud in his ear.
    “Hey,” he said.
    “Hey,” I said back.
    It was love. I stood there thinking of romantic ideas as I hunched my shoulders in the hope that the side of the ACA Joe sweatshirt would fall over my shoulder.
    I couldn’t ask Robert Weiss for the setup; we didn’t have that kind of friendship. Just then, Debbie Ellick and Lori Levin walked up to Stanley and interrupted our deep conversation and, although I walked away, I found my in. I knew that Debbie and Lori were friends with my friend Jennifer Klein, who went to the Friends Central School. If Debbie and Lori were friends with Stanley, then it was a good chance that Jennifer was too.
    “Of course I’m good friends with Stanley” Jennifer declared on the phone later that night when I got home. “I was just at Lloyd Bucher’s keg party with him last Saturday night! Why? Do you like him?”
    “I think he’s cute.”
    “Do you want me to say something?”
    “If you want.”
    The setup was put into motion. How amazing was it going to be: me, dating a soccer player. Granted, from a rival school, but who cared? I would be a traitor for the man I loved. How romantic:
    A couple of days later, I was in my house after school watching General Hospital in the family room. I was sitting there with a box of Ritz crackers and a jar of peanut butter, dipping my finger into the jar and spreading the contents onto my cracker when the doorbell rang.
    In retrospect, I should have asked who it was at the door. In retrospect, I should have been doing my Jane Fonda Workout tape instead of eating butter crackers and peanut butter in the middle of the afternoon. In retrospect, I should have been doing a lot of other things, but most of all, in retrospect, I should not have been wearing boxer shorts that were three sizes too big with the Betsey Johnson multicolored neon-orange, pink, and lime patchwork cropped sweater I’d worn to school that day when I opened the door to try to lure Stanley Denton into my life.
    “Did we catch you at a bad time?” Jennifer asked as I stood in the doorway with peanut-butter-soiled fingers.
    “No,” I hastily replied, “come on in.” In retrospect, I should have said, “Yes,” and slammed the door on them.
    “This is Stan,” Jennifer announced as they walked in.
    “Hey,” I said.
    “Hey,” he said staring down at my shorts.
    We walked back into the family room, and I sat there as composed as I possibly could, sneaking licks of my fingers to get the peanut butter out of my fingernails. I sat on the edge of the couch, crossing my legs and sitting up as straight as I could. Stanley was even more gorgeous clean than he was on the soccer field. He had these piercing blue