Play Me Backwards (30 page)

“But, then again,” he went on, “you might also end up moving to England to raise a bunch of babies with her. A bunch of little British twits named after jazz greats who spell color with a
U
and get free glasses from the National Health Service. Shit.”

“Right,” I said.

“You're not a freshman anymore. Moving to England isn't completely out of the question.”

I finally put down the rag I was using on the counter and just looked up.

“So, what do you think, in your infernal wisdom?” I asked. “If she came back, what would happen?”

“Sorry, asshole. You only get so many prophecies per soul. You're on your own now.”

“Quit dragging it out, Stan, you fucker!” said Jenny. “Leon, just look in the parking lot.”

“Huh?”

“Go,” she said. “Look.”

I knew right away what was probably happening, and my knees started to rattle a bit. But I made my way around the counter and stood against the soaking wet window, so I could see that there was one car, Jenny's, with a light on inside of it. Through the splattering rain on the windshield, I could make out the silhouette of someone who hadn't come inside. Someone with long hair.

“Oh, God,” I said.

Jenny came to stand next to me. In her reflection in the window
I could see she was smiling so big she would probably be sore in the morning. “We've been planning this all month,” she said. “She's just here for a couple of days, but her dad's meeting got scheduled for this weekend, and she wanted to see us all graduate. Surprise!”

“Is she coming in, or what?”

“No,” said Jenny. “We're kidnapping you, and we're all going to go to Cafe di Scala. Now.”

“I have to work,” I said.

“I'll handle the counter the rest of the night,” said Stan. “Go get some closure.”

I turned around and faced everyone, but couldn't think of anything to say. I didn't say anything stupid, though, so I guess I was coming out ahead of my usual average.

“Aw,” said Catherine. “He's nervous!”

“No, I'm not,” I said. “I'm fine.”

I was at least a little nervous, not having prepared for this at all. But I wasn't terrified or disgusted with myself or any of the things I would have been feeling if she'd shown up a few months before.

I stood there for a second, staring at her silhouette like I was seeing some mythical creature, like a unicorn or a leprechaun, still too in shock to move.

“Go on,” said Stan. “Or I'll drive you to Chicago and personally feed your ass to a whale at the aquarium.”

Jenny and Edie each took one of my wrists and dragged me through the stinging rain towards Jenny's car. I didn't put up a struggle, but my head was spinning in every direction at once and there was a puddle deep enough that the water got into my shoes.

When we made it to the car, I stood there like an idiot in the rain,
looking at the window for a few seconds before I found the sense to open the door.

“Get in, dumbass!” said Jenny as she ran to her own door. I climbed in and sat there.

And there she was, smiling in the seat next to me.

Anna Brandenburg.

She was older now. She looked like an adult. Her hair was chestnut brown, not blond anymore, and in a totally different style.

“Hey,” she said. “Surprise.”

“Hey,” I said. “How've you been?”

“Up and down,” she said. “But I'm feeling better lately.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah.”

Jenny was laughing like a hyena as Jake joined her in the front seat. “We totally fucking got you, Leon!” she said. “You had no idea, did you?”

I shook my head out and tried to look back at the Cave, but it was just a blurry blob of lights through the rain and mist now. The other couples were going back to their cars. Edie patted the windows as she passed us.

Anna dug in her purse and pulled out a pair of devil horns.

“I heard about the rally a few weeks ago,” she said as she put them on. “Nicely done.”

The rain and the thunder kept coming down, and Seventieth Street seemed almost like a river, washing away all that came before it as we talked about this and that and what we'd been up to and what we were planning to do next. We joked about old times and regaled Jake, who we hadn't known back then, with tales of Gifted Pool glory.

Anna wasn't the same Anna I remembered. She was the real one, not the version of her that had lived in my head for three years. I almost felt like I was meeting her for the first time. Maybe nothing I could do with her now would make me feel like I was getting a new soul again. Maybe we'd just have a fun weekend and never see each other again, and we'd just shake hands before she left. Maybe even if we kissed at the same streetlight it wouldn't feel the same.

But, then again, maybe it would.

Just as hard as the snow fell on that night years before, the rain fell now, and as we rode up the slowly flooding road towards the interstate, past Anna's old neighborhood and the last pay phone in town, I felt more like I was finally saying good-bye to an old friend than rekindling an old flame. But it still felt good just to be laughing with her again. I didn't need her to kiss a new soul into me. I'd get one somehow.

It was the first night in years that I felt as though I deserved to have one at all.

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2014 by Adam Selzer

Jacket photograph copyright © 2014 by Nathaniel Wood

Front jacket photograph and pitchforks by Nathaniel Wood; photographs of ice-cream cone and tire tracks by Thinkstock

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Book design by Chloë Foglia

Jacket design by Chloë Foglia

The text for this book is set in Berling LT Std.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Selzer, Adam.

Play me backwards / Adam Selzer.

pages cm

Summary: A promising and popular student in middle school, Leon Harris has become a committed “slacker” but with graduation approaching and his middle school girlfriend possibly returning to town, Leon's best friend Stan, who claims to be Satan, helps him get back on the right track—for a price.

ISBN 978-1-4814-0102-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4814-0104-3 (eBook)

[1. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Conduct of life—Fiction. 4. Devil—Fiction. 5.Soul—Fiction. 6. Iowa—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.S4652Pl 2014

[Fic]—dc23

2013041619