“Thank you for finding him,” she said to Zoe and B.B. (he stood in the doorway, unable to fit in the room). “I’m surprised that he would do this.”
Are you? Zoe wanted to ask, but she didn’t say anything. Obviously Elmo’s parents didn’t know their own son.
Behind her Elmo was starting to come around. He had had his stomach pumped and a number of other nasty things that Zoe didn’t want to think about.
“You may leave now,” his mother said.
And then, what was there to do but just that?
She and Big Bird walked out, silent. He had his hands in his pockets.
“Are you all right?” Zoe asked him when they were in the car. “You’ve been really quiet.”
And it was true, she thought. Looking back, she couldn’t remember him saying anything from the time they’d arrived at the hospital.
“I’m okay,” said Big Bird quietly. Then, “You like Elmo, don’t you?”
Zoe, caught a little off guard by this question, wasn’t entirely sure what to say. “Oh—I—I guess—we sort of—”
“My God,” he said impatiently. “Just give me a straight answer!”
Startled by his angry tone, Zoe didn’t dare speak.
B.B. blew out a hard breath and relaxed his grip on the steering wheel. They were almost home before he spoke again.
“So…it’s him, isn’t it?” he asked. “Elmo, I mean.”
“I don’t understand,” Zoe asked, confused.
“Never mind,” said B.B. as he parked.
They climbed out and strode up to the front door.
“Well, I’ll see you around, Zoe,” said B.B. He hurried up the stairs away from her.
“Big Bird!” Zoe cried. “Big Bird, come back!”
He ignored her.
Zoe dragged her feet slowly up to the fourth floor. For the first time she regretted being up so high. She was exhausted.
How could it have been only three hours ago that she had charged to Elmo’s rescue?
Her mom was waiting up, worried. Zoe endured her lecture on wandering around late at night. She didn’t answer any of her mom’s questions, replying with a weary, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Then she shut herself in her room and threw herself down on the bed.
She fell asleep fully clothed, feeling strangely disappointed.
On Monday Elmo wasn’t at school. Zoe glanced all around the cafeteria at lunch. She tried to be subtle about it, but Cookie Monster noticed.
“What’s up?” he growled.
“Um, nothing,” Zoe replied quickly.
Elmo didn’t show up Tuesday, either, and he wasn’t at his locker Wednesday morning. But that day at lunch, as Zoe did her now-routine look around, she spotted him. He wasn’t sitting with the others, or even with Abby Cadabby and her friends. He sat alone at a table in the corner that was still covered with trash from last period’s lunch.
“I’ll be back, guys,” she said. Her friends nodded and went on with their conversation. Zoe picked up her tray and went to sit with Elmo.
He didn’t look at her as she sat down. “Hey, Zoe,” he mumbled.
“Hey,” she said. “Are you all right? I mean, from—”
“I know what you mean,” Elmo interrupted. “And I’m great. Never better.”
There was a nasty sarcastic tone to his voice.
“Did your parents bust you?” Zoe asked him.
“Oh, not at all,” Elmo said, still in that sarcastic tone. “They just took away my iPod, speakers, radio, computer, TV, and play station and I’m not getting any more allowance. Ever.”
Zoe winced. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, you should be.”
She stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, why the hell did you have to drag me to the hospital? They did some nasty s**t to me. Bad way to come off a buzz.”
“A buzz!” exclaimed Zoe. “Elmo, you weren’t soaring—you were completely stoned!”
“Hell with that,” he said. “So not only do I get all this s**t stuck in me but my parents yell at me the minute I get home. ‘You’re a disappointment this, Elmo’, ‘I don’t know how you could be so stupid that, Elmo’. You know, they wouldn’t have cared if I’d been out the night, I’ve done that before, but you had to go and take me to the goddamn hospital!”
Shocked by the venom in his voice, Zoe leaned back. “Elmo, you called—”
“And not only that, Abby won’t even look at me! She must think I’m a wuss, needing a girl to come rescue me—”
“You f**king called me!” Zoe snarled fiercely. “And if we hadn’t come, who knows what could have happened to you—you could have been hurt, you could have died—”
“Oh, don’t be such drama queen—”
“And you’re still pining after some slut who was getting laid in the parking lot—”
Elmo leered. “You just don’t like her ‘cause she’s hotter than you, and you know it.”
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter anymore, does it? Because she doesn’t give a damn that you want drool over her boobs; she’s so over you.”
Elmo’s jaw clenched. Compulsively, both of them looked over at the table where Abby was sitting. She didn’t even glance around at Elmo; she looked quite satisfied, tossing her sparkly green and purple hair.
“I don’t even know what you saw in her,” Zoe said bitterly.
Elmo glared at her. “You’re one to talk. What do you see in Big Bird?”
Zoe felt a flash of irritation. “A way nicer boy that you, for start.”
Elmo didn’t flinch. “You mean a goody-goody with s**t for brains.”
“No, that’s not what I mean!” Zoe snatched up her tray. “Have fun eating alone. And next time you need rescuing, find someone else to save your warty ass!”
Elmo’s glare followed her all the way back across the cafeteria, but Zoe didn’t turn around. As she sat back with Cookie and the others, he asked, “So? What happened? Looks like you two had a fight.”
Bert watched her greedily.
“We did,” said Zoe with dignity.
“You gonna shut him out?” Bert demanded.
“Until he decides to act his own age,” she replied coldly.
“Sometimes I think he does,” Grover mumbled.
Elmo and Zoe wouldn’t quite ever make up. The closest they got to forgiveness that year was sitting at the same table and having polite conversation. Zoe realized she was over Elmo.
That was official the next weekend, right before Homecoming, when Big Bird raced her out to the clothes store to buy a new dress, and then over to the school to the dance. They got a few funny looks, and a sneer from Abby and her friends, but Zoe didn’t care: B.B. was a very good dancer.
The next day they went to a good part of town, where there were lots of little shops. They spent an hour wandering around, in and out of stores, before stopping to get lunch at a quiet café. And when Big Bird kissed her, his beak was sort of poky, but it was nice all the same.
Three weeks after Homecoming, Zoe looked up from her lunch to see Abby smirking at her from across the cafeteria. To her surprise, she saw Elmo sitting with his arm around her.
It hurt quite a bit less than Zoe thought it would. A twinge of jealousy, no more. Later when Big Bird asked her about it, she would just shrug.
At that moment, though, she was feeling unusually liberated. Plattsburgh had just accepted her last night, you see. So Zoe merely smiled and winked at Abby.
Then she raised her hand and gave her the finger.
Hey, not all of youth is wasted on the young.
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