Suzie’s House 128: Two Tickets to Paradise

“Would you quit doing that?” Ben was ready to start pounding on Gene.

For the last half an hour Gene had been sitting on the bed, staring into space looking all put out, and spinning the wheels of his skateboard. Ben was sitting at his desk with his back to the bed, but he could still hear the ball bearings clicking, and remembered Gene’s expression between glances.

“Do you like Lisa?”

“What?” Ben nearly snapped the pencil in his hand. He put it down carefully before turning around. What the heck. It wasn’t like he was going to get his great American novel written tonight anyway.

“I saw you, you know.” Gene didn’t glare or anything, ‘cause he was still messing with the wheels, but he still made it sound like an accusation. “After school. She gave you something, didn’t she?”

“What if she did?”

“Maybe it was for me.”

Ben remembered how cute she’d looked, waving goodbye after giving him two tickets to the ShapeShifter concert. She had given them to Ben, not Gene. She hadn’t said anything about Gene. Except she had been looking for him. And she couldn’t use the tickets herself because she wasn’t even in town. And there were two. So maybe she meant for one to go to Ben and the other to Gene.

Whrrrrrr, whrrrrrrrr, whrrrrrrrr. Gene was driving Ben nuts. The last thing he wanted to do right now was give him a ticket to ShapeShifter. He didn’t even want to see the dude, let alone go to a concert with him.

And he didn’t want to give him anything Lisa had once held.

“It wasn’t for you.”

“You sure? ‘Cause, I think she likes me.”

Ben jumped out of his chair like someone shocked him. The chair didn’t fall over, but he had to grab it and it banged against his desk. He went for the door, wanting to get as far away from Gene as he could.

“What’s that in your pocket?”

“Nothing.” Ben was afraid Gene would come after him, but he stayed on the bed.

“You like her, don’t you.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe.” Ben made it as far as the hall. He hung onto the door, thinking maybe he should go in and give Gene one of the tickets.

“I like her too.”

That tore it. “I’m getting something to eat,” he said before taking off down the hall. He ran downstairs to the kitchen. He wasn’t hungry, but maybe if he sat there a while he’d think of what to do about the tickets.

Miranda was already there, digging a box of ice cream out of the freezer.

“Miranda!” Perfect. She was the solution to everything. “Here, I got something for you.”

He handed her both the tickets.

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