look like a bottle of Pepto-Bismol?
âThanks,â I said, feeling a lot pinker than I wanted to feel at the moment.
After Molly had danced with the redheaded boy, she found Whitney and me. Luckily, she kept her mouthshut about Ethan until Whitney got asked to dance. When the two of us were alone again, she demanded, âWhy havenât you talked to Ethan yet?â
âBecause Iâm waiting for him to come over and say hi to me first.â
âWhy does he have to say hi first? This
is
the twenty-first century, you know. Girls donât have to sit around waiting for boys to come to them. We can make the first move.â
âI donât want to stalk him! Boys hate that.â
âJordan, so far you havenât gotten within five hundred feet of him or even made eye contact. Iâm pretty sure that stalkers tend to be a wee bit more outgoing than that. Whatâs the worst thing that could happen if you said hi to him?â
I could think of about fifteen bad things that might happen. Number one, he didnât remember me. Number two, he didnât like me anymore because of some random, weird thing Iâd said in that e-mail last year. Number three, he had a girlfriend back home. Number four, he had his eye on someone else he wanted to dance with. Number five, he was looking at me right now and thinking,
What did I ever see in that pink nightmare?
But if I tried to explain this to Molly, sheâd tell me I was just making excuses. âSo youâre saying youâd bewilling to go up to any boy here and ask him to dance?â I asked her.
âSure I would. Why not? Whatâs the worst thing he could do?â
âLaugh in your face. Say no. Make up some lame excuse why he doesnât want to dance with you.â
âOh, like, âSorry I canât dance with you. I have blisters on my brainâ?â asked Molly.
âJust because I didnât run right over to him the second I saw him and say, âI can see my future, and guess whatâyouâre in it,â doesnât mean I wonât talk to him eventually,â I told her.
Molly put one hand on my shoulder. âLook, I know youâre afraid. But sometimes you have to face your fears. You know what wouldâve happened to you if youâd been on the
Titanic
?â
I glared at her. âAre you going to tell me I wouldâve drowned?â
âYes! And you know why? Because youâre afraid. A lot of people were afraid to get in the lifeboats at first. They didnât want to be lowered hundreds of feet into the cold, dark ocean. They wanted to stay on that warm, safe,
unsinkable
ship. You wouldnât have gotten on a lifeboat, Jordan. But I would have! Donât you get it?â
âNo, I donât. Whatâs your point?â I asked. I wastotally confused by how lifeboats applied to me talking to Ethan.
âMy point is, sometimes you have to face your fears and do something that looks dangerous. It just might save your life.â Molly crossed her arms and nodded at me, convinced that sheâd just given me an amazing argument.
âWell, youâre wrong about me drowning on the
Titanic
. I wouldâve been too afraid to cross the ocean on a ship in the first place. So fear can save your life.â
Molly sighed. âI give up. Iâm going to ask that boy to dance with me. The band kept playing till the end, Jordan. Right up until the ship sank. Remember that!â
Okay, I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but I didnât want her abandoning me again.
âMolly, wait!â I yelled. But sheâd already walked over and asked a tall, skinny boy in a âRock Starâ T-shirt to dance with her. How could she leave me alone like this?
Just then I felt someoneâs hands on my shoulders. A really deep voice said, âHey, cutie. Wanna dance?â
I almost died. It honestly felt like my heart dropped out of my