Little Divas by Philana Marie Boles Page A

and then laughed when I did.”
    Travis was speechless.
    I continued, “So, maybe I don’t always want to talk to you because maybe you haven’t always been so nice to me, Travis. Ever thought about
that?”
    Wow. It sure felt good to speak my mind for a change.
    After a moment he said, “Well, we really were just playin’.”
    “Well, it wasn’t much fun.”
    “I tried to catch up with you to tell you, but you—”
    “And
you
laughed the loudest,” I pointed out to him.
    “Look. It’s not because I didn’t like you, all right? Like I said, we were just—”
    “You could’ve just come over and said, ‘Hi,’ Travis.” I was on a roll now. “How about that? If you like somebody and want to be friends, sometimes you can just go over to them and say, ‘Hi.’ You could have asked me about my fish, what his name was going to be.”
    He looked a little uncomfortable. “Can we just forget about that day, pretend it never happened?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because it did, Travis.”
    He sighed. “Well, all I can say is that I’m sorry then. Dang.”
    I felt my face start to cool off. “Well, that’s a start.”
    “Let’s just go for a walk.”
    “No.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I don’t wanna leave.”
    “I’m just talking about away from the speakers and everybody.” He stood up and waited.
    I shook my head. “No thanks.”
    “Man, Cassidy, come on. Stop trippin’.” He held his hand out for me to hold. “Come on. For real.”
    I stared at his hand, waiting for
me
to hold, and my heart fluttered,
hard
this time.
    Rikki and Darwin. Golden and Sam. Mary and Archie.
    Me and Travis?
    “Cassidy,” he said. “Come on.”
    But what else were we going to talk about? I’d already said all the things that I’d ever wanted to say to Travis.
    “Fine,” I replied. And my heart rippled again.

thirteen
    Travis looked like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He was even
more
shocked when I reached out and put my hand in his. He squeezed it tight, like he wanted to make sure it was really there, but then he relaxed, which made me do the same.
    After we started walking, he said, “You cold?”
    Actually, I was only shivering because I was nervous, but I didn’t admit that. “No,” I said. “I’m okay.”
    As we walked past the shed I caught a glimpse of Rikki, her arms reaching up, wrapped snug around Darwin’s neck, his hands on her butt, right there in plain view. Uncle Lance and Aunt Honey would have had a fit!
    Suddenly I planted my feet right there in the grass. Travis better not try to touch my butt.
    Travis looked confused. “What?”
    “Nothing.” I shook my head. No matter what, there was no way I was going to let that happen. No. Way.
    Once we were around the side of the house, Travis leaned up against the house and took my other hand in his. I felt my face burning again as I saw both of our hands together.
    He asked, “Will you wear your hair like that to my games?”
    I looked away. To his games? Was he serious? He was really serious. This was really happening. He gave my hands a squeeze and laughed. “What? You don’t think I’m cute?” he said jokingly.
    I couldn’t help but laugh a little too.
    He laughed some more. “What? My breath stinks? I got bad BO?”
    I laughed a little louder now. Laughing sure does help when you’re nervous.
    And then Travis was quiet for a minute. “For real, Cassidy. My bad about your fish.”
    I started to pull my hands out of his, but he felt me doing so and gripped them tighter.
    “Do you forgive me?” he wanted to know.
    I shrugged.
    And then I wondered, why
didn’t
I like Travis? He wasn’t anywhere near as silly as he used to be, he was much cuter now, and he did seem genuinely apologetic about what happened to Goldie.
    He asked me, “When is your birthday?”
    “October.”
    “October what?”
    “Twenty-third.”
    “All right,” he said. “And what’s your favorite color?”
    I sighed. “Purple.