“I have $500 in the bank.”
“$500!” Beth shouted.
Well, shit. She’d just spent all my savings. Everyone turned to her, and Gary got a big smile on his face. The doofus finally realized that Beth was into him. That killed the bidding and Beth had won her date. She turned and looked at me, and the joy on her face was worth every penny.
Towards the middle of the auction, things got interesting. Suzanne’s brother was being auctioned off but there was no bidding. I started to feel bad for him when finally someone opened with twenty-five dollars. I suddenly realized it was Suzanne. That couldn’t be good if she’d had to bid on her own brother. I could tell he knew who’d bid, too. He put on a brave front, but I could see this was killing him. Then I heard a bid of $250. Everyone gasped. After the opening bidding for Gary, only one other bachelor had reached the $250 mark. This was high school here. None of us had a ton of cash.
I then saw who had bid: it was Tracy. I think every person in the theater’s head snapped to look at me to see how I’d react. I suddenly felt physically ill. I jumped up and ran off the stage, sure that I would vomit in front of the crowd. It took me a few minutes to calm down. I was supposed to be next, but they skipped over me. I was taking deep breaths when Beth came back to check on me.
“I’m okay. It just caught me off guard. I’m sure she did it so that Suzanne and Jim wouldn’t be embarrassed. That was a good thing she did.”
Beth looked at me and we both knew I was full of shit. I needed to get it together and put on a happy face for Beth and her charity. I allowed her to guide me back to my seat. I was glad they took pity on me and had me go next. I wanted this day to end.
I got up, found Tracy in the crowd, and smiled at her. She gave me a half smile and then the bidding began, or for me, didn’t. I thought Jim had it bad. Everyone sat on their hands. I looked at Tracy and she gave me a little shake of her head to indicate that she wouldn’t bid on me. The only thing I could think of that kept me from bursting into tears was she’d run out of money.
The crowd started to get restless. Beth walked out to Tracy and I could see them talking. I then heard Tracy.
“I am not bidding on him!”
Beth turned to me. I took another deep breath, this time I found my center, and I felt the weight of the world fall off my shoulders. I mentally said a little prayer: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.’ I pushed all my feelings into a little box and hid it deep inside of me. At least now, I knew. It was the doubt that had been eating me up. I surprised everyone when I smiled, and they could tell it wasn’t a forced smile, but a genuine smile.
I walked up to the auctioneer and took his mic.
“You heard her, ladies. I just got dumped in the most public way possible. There’s no doubt I’m a free man. Please don’t be mad at Tracy. I’m not. I honestly hope she’ll be my friend after this. I think she and I make better friends than we do a couple, anyways.”
I could see her cover her mouth and start to cry. That, honestly, was not my plan.
“Tracy, please don’t cry. I’m not trying to be a jerk. I really do care about you and only want what’s best for you.”
Well, that didn’t seem to help, and now I had several girls crying. Then Luke saved me. He came up and grabbed the mic.
“All the guys pooled our money and we have $278 we would like to bid for a guys’ night out with a great friend we all look up to.”
Then from the middle of the crowd, I heard a bid.
“$300!”
Everyone turned to see Cindy Lewis grinning at me. She was going to get so lucky. I would be the biggest slut and be her boy-toy on our date. I surprised everyone when I jumped off stage. Cindy was about six rows back. I didn’t want to wait to go around so I stepped up on the armrest of the first-row chair and then the back. I stepped on the back of the next-row chair, and so on, until I reached Cindy. I’ve no idea how I didn’t kill myself as I balanced from row to row. Cindy had a happy smile and her eyes were moist with emotion.
“I think you’re happy to see me,” she said.
I didn’t answer her. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. I was so happy that Cindy had picked me. I knew this wasn’t going to be a forever thing. Cindy would be off to college next fall, but this could be a for-right-now thing. With Cindy, I had no doubts. I’d wanted her from the first day of school. I knew she liked me and I liked her. With Cindy, I realized I didn’t need any labels. The difference was that there was no doubt in my mind.
When our kiss broke, I realized the place was quiet. I opened my eyes and I saw a sea of happy girls watching us. They all seemed to want what we had. Then someone started clapping and soon everyone was joining in. We both blushed, she grabbed my hand, and we worked our way to the aisle.
I looked around and saw that Tracy had left. It made me sad she felt she had to end things this way. If she’d just spent the time to talk to me, things would have been much better. We could’ve set each other free. I wish I knew why she felt the need to hurt me. It wasn’t as if we were actually dating. I had followed her lead and not asked for more than she was willing to give. My concern was that if she was doing something this extreme, there had to be something wrong. I thought I should call her mom and dad and talk to them. I didn’t want to see her going off the deep end and end up hurting herself.
Cindy led me to the table where she needed to pay for the auction.
“Hey, I’m going to go and change and I’ll meet you here,” I told her.
“Okay, I’ll wait for you. Hurry back.”
By the time I got backstage, the auction was over, and Magic, Luke and Mike were waiting for me. Luke was in typical big-brother mode. At some point, he’d adopted me as his little brother.
“Are you okay? That was brutal.”
“I’m a little concerned about her. Are you guys going to the party tonight?”
The band had organized a party for after the event. It wasn’t the group my friends normally hung around with and I wasn’t sure if they’d be going.
“We are. Tomika wants me to go with her as our date,” Magic explained.
Tomika was the cute girl who’d won the bid to go out with Magic. I knew he’d wanted to ask her out, but he’d been afraid she wasn’t interested. I was glad to see she was moving things forward.
“How bad can the party be? We all are taking the girls who won the auction to get to know them. Plus if Beth organized it, I’m sure it’ll be fun,” Magic said.
“If Tracy shows up, could you spread the word to the guys to look out for her?” I asked the guys.
“What’re you worried about?” Luke asked.
“Two things: first, she has a tendency to go for the bad boys. Bill Rogers still thinks she’s his property, and if she hooks up with him, it would be bad for her. It could be even worse for Jim. He may try to protect her, and Bill and his gang would kill him. Suzanne is our friend and I don’t want her brother getting hurt.
“The second thing is she might go completely crazy-town. I fully expect she’ll sleep with Jim. Tracy is a sexual person. I’ve actually been a little surprised she hasn’t been hooking up with other guys already. My concern is she might go wild and pull a train or something. It would destroy her reputation. If she wants to get a little freaky and do that in a private setting, that’s one thing, but doing it in public would be terrible for her and her family,” I said.
All three of them looked at me and could see the genuine concern in my eyes. They all nodded their agreement to help. I then smiled as I remembered Cindy.
“Now I have to go home and tell my brother that I stole his girlfriend.”
Mike barked out a laugh and Luke turned on him. Mike’s eyes got big as Luke gave him a hard stare.
“You better not get any ideas about my girlfriend.”