A Young Adult Romance Collection

by Victorine E. Lieske

  Brandon raised his eyebrows. “Ah. You’re Spotted Cow guy.”

  “I’m what?” Chris stepped back, like he’d been slapped.

  Brandon smirked; a look that somehow made him even more handsome. Oh, man, what was wrong with her?

  A woman came out of the office. Her blonde hair matched the same shade as Brandon’s. She had a stack of papers in one hand and a leather jacket in the other. She approached them. “Okay, you’re all set to start on Monday.” She stopped, noticing the group. “Oh, I see you’ve met some kids your age already.”

  “Aunt Monica, this is Stephanie, Jade, and…Chris.”

  His aunt smiled, her eyes kind. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Can I hang with them tonight?”

  His aunt paused for a second, like she wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but after assessing them, she slowly nodded. “Yes, if you’re careful. The doctor still wants you to take it easy.”

  Brandon lifted his good arm. “I swear. Taking it easy. I just want to get to know some kids my age,” he said, repeating her words.

  Monica smiled. “Okay. I don’t see how it can hurt.” She held out the jacket. “Let me help you put this on.”

  Brandon shrugged into the jacket, not putting his injured arm through. “Thanks, Aunt Monica. I’ll get a ride home later tonight.”

  She hesitated before nodding. “All right. See you.”

  After she left, Brandon grinned and turned to the group. “What do we have planned for tonight?”

  The look on Jade’s face was priceless. Like she’d just won the lottery. “You want to hang with all of us?”

  “Sure. Why not?” Brandon took a step closer to Stephanie. “You can show me all that Rockford has to offer.”

  Stephanie couldn’t help her smirk. “You mean we get to show you the two-mile strip the kids drive up and down on Friday nights? Gee, I can’t wait.”

  Jade gave Stephanie a small kick. “There’s more here than the strip. Let’s go to Grind it Up. We can get something to eat and show off that we’re friends with Brandon Travers.”

  Embarrassment shot through Stephanie. “Jade!”

  Brandon chuckled. Why was it that he could look so adorable, no matter what he did? “I kind of want to keep a low profile. But getting something to eat sounds good to me.”

  Stephanie suddenly felt self-conscious, standing so close to Brandon. She could smell his cologne, or aftershave. Whatever it was, it smelled amazing, and didn’t help her wobbly knee thing she had going on.

  “Yeah. Let’s do it.” Jade nudged Christopher. “You in?”

  Chris didn’t look happy at all, but he nodded and hefted his backpack strap up. “I’m in.”

  “Great. I’ll ride with Stephanie.” Brandon flashed a smile at her, and she knew right then and there she was in trouble.

  Chris took a step toward them. “Steph, can I talk to you for a sec?”

  “Sure.”

  Everyone stared at Christopher. He cleared his throat, looking quite uncomfortable. “Alone?”

  Brandon looked like he wasn’t too pleased with that, his lips pulling down into a frown. Jade stepped back. “Come on, Brandon. I’ll show you where we always park.”

  He hesitated a moment, then nodded. “All right.”

  After they left, Stephanie turned to Chris. “What is it?”

  He fiddled with his backpack strap, not looking at her. “I don’t know if you should trust that guy. I’m worried.”

  “Why?”

  Christopher raised his gaze. “He’s a big shot actor. Did you hear about his car accident? That’s why his arm is in a sling. He was drinking and driving, and got in a police chase.”

  Some of that was wrong, but Stephanie didn’t feel like correcting him. “I heard. But it wasn’t exactly like that. We’ve talked about it. Brandon is here because he wants to turn his life around.”

  “How long have you known him?”

  How long had it been? Two weeks? That seemed lame, so she just said, “We’ve been chatting online for a while now.”

  “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

  That was super sweet of Chris, but he didn’t understand. “There’s nothing going on between us.”

  Chris gave her a look like she was a child to be pitied. Or maybe she was just reading more into it than was there. “Okay.”

  “Come on. Let’s go.” Stephanie started toward the stairs. This wasn’t going to be anything other than a few friends hanging out together. Right? What bad could come of it?

  Chapter 16

  Bandon slid on his sunglasses as they walked into Grind it Up. From the looks of it, this was the teen hangout on Friday nights. The place looked like it was trying to be trendy, but with a low budget. None of the tables matched. Each had a small potted plant on them. Two of them had benches instead of individual chairs. An area off to the side had bean bag chairs, which were filled with teens roughhousing with each other.

  “We’re inside. You can take off your sunglasses,” Chris said.

  Why did that make Brandon want to punch the guy? He opened his mouth to explain, but Stephanie beat him to it.

  “He doesn’t want to get recognized.”

  Chris looked like he was going to speak but changed his mind and just ended up frowning. The guy was a barrel of fun. Why was he hanging around Vlogger girl? He was about as friendly as a pair of wet socks. And he was standing quite close to her, which bugged Brandon as well.

  Jade pointed to the counter. “Let’s go order. I’m starved.” She was shorter than Stephanie, with dark, straight hair. If Brandon had to guess, he’d say she had some Asian ancestry.

  His baseball cap and sunglasses did the trick, and not one person came up to him and asked for an autograph. Which was good, because he only had one hand, and he didn’t want to awkwardly sign stuff for people.

  They ordered sandwiches and found a table in the back. Brandon waited to see where Stephanie would sit before he sat next to her. Unfortunately, Chris sat on the other side of her. Brandon wanted to put his arm around her, stake his claim, but he knew Stephanie wouldn’t like that, so he just curled his good hand into a fist and sat back in his chair.

  “So,” Jade said, curling a strand of hair behind her ear. “What’s it like being a movie star?” She grinned at him.

  Brandon chuckled to himself as he watched Stephanie blush and then whack Jade’s side. He liked Vlogger girl’s spunk. And she was even cuter in person, if that was possible. “Don’t ask that,” she hissed.

  “I don’t mind.” Brandon sipped the coffee he’d ordered. “I’ll tell you what it’s like. Everyone knows who you are and wants to talk to you. You can’t go anywhere without being mobbed, unless you disguise yourself.” He motioned to his hat. “You have people telling you what to do every minute of every day. You can’t go do something by yourself. And you’re never by yourself. You don’t know who your real friends are, because everyone wants something from you, so you don’t let anyone get close.”

  Jade’s smile faded as she listened to him. “Oh. That doesn’t sound like much fun.”

  Stephanie nodded, her hands wrapped around her drink. “I can only imagine.”

  “But there are perks, too. You get to meet famous people. You get paid a lot.” Like, a crazy amount. He’d made his first million before he was twelve.

  “You get all the girls,” Chris said under his breath before he picked up his sandwich and took a bite.

  Jade laughed and poked Chris in the side. Brandon raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, girls like Alisha Waterstone.” He hadn’t meant for it to sound so bitter.

  “What’s wrong with Alisha Waterstone? She’s gorgeous,” Chris said, still chewing.

  Brandon groaned. “Don’t get me started. She’s horrible. Just think of someone flicking your ear, over and over, until you want to punch them in the face. That’s Alisha.”

  Jade threw her head back and laughed. “Sounds annoying.”

  “She’s more than annoying
. She’s stupid, too. But her father’s super important, so I can’t tell her off.” His phone chimed and he pulled it out to look at the screen, not thinking for a second that the person he was hoping had texted him was sitting next to him. Duh. He slumped when he saw the name on the screen. “Oh, speaking of stupid. Here she is now.”

  Where are you?

  Chris stopped chewing. “Alisha Waterstone is texting you?”

  “Yeah,” he said while he typed his response with one hand.

  Recovering from surgery.

  “Dude. I can’t believe you’re complaining about her. She’s freak’n Alisha Waterstone.”

  Brandon reached over to Chris with his good hand and flicked his ear. “See?” Brandon said. “Annoying. Only take that and times it by a thousand.”

  Chris scoffed and Stephanie hid a smile behind her drink. His phone chimed again and he looked at the screen.

  You’re still taking me to the gala tomorrow night, right?

  “Oh, this is ripe. Here she is, wanting me to go with her to some stupid party tomorrow.” He held his phone so Chris could see her message. “This is what it’s like. I hate her, but she doesn’t care. She wants to be seen with me. She doesn’t care that I was in a terrible accident, and that I just had surgery.”

  Chris looked down at the table. “Yeah, that’s not cool.”

  Stephanie’s cheeks turned pink. “How rude.”

  He fired off another text to her.

  I can’t. I’m out of town recovering. From surgery. Because I was in a terrible accident.

  He tossed his phone on the table and frowned. “She can rot.”

  “So, you know Stephanie, how?” Chris asked, leaning forward, his gaze sweeping over Brandon.

  The way he stared at him made Brandon feel self-conscious. “We met through her Vlog.”

  “Stephanie didn’t believe it was him at first. She kept telling him to buzz off.” Jade laughed as she dabbed at her mouth with a napkin.

  Stephanie flushed. “Come on. I had no way of knowing. Who would have thought it was actually you?”

  Brandon chuckled. “It was quite funny. But that does bring up something very important.” He held up one finger. “You never apologized for totally trashing me on your Vlog.”

  “What?” Stephanie’s mouth dropped. “I am not going to apologize for that. I spoke the truth.”

  Before he could refute, his phone rang, vibrating against the wooden tabletop. He huffed and picked it up. “What?”

  A flurry of curse words streamed out at him in Alisha’s screechy voice. He held the phone away from his ear while she yelled. When it seemed like she was done, he put the phone back. “What is your problem?”

  “You promised, Brandon. We had a deal. You were going to go to the Save the Sea Gala with me. You can’t back out. I don’t care if you’re in a body cast. You are showing up tomorrow to take me to that gala.”

  Irritation rose in him. Why wasn’t she giving up on this? It wasn’t like there weren’t other famous guys she could go with. “I can’t. I’m not even in California.”

  “You have a private jet which you’ll be on tomorrow. I swear, Brandon, you stand me up for this, and I’ll ruin you.”

  “Stand you up? I’m telling you now. I can’t be there. Make other arrangements.”

  She screamed into the phone, and he hung up on her. Then he blocked her number. “Sheesh, could you hear that?”

  Chris nodded. “Yeah, I’m starting to understand. She was pretty loud.”

  “Do you think hanging up on her was a good idea?” Stephanie cringed. “She seemed super mad.”

  Vlogger girl was right, and he probably shouldn’t have hung up on her. Even though he hated Alisha, she could do some real damage, simply because of her family connections. Still, he was feeling kind of protected now that he was out of Hollywood. “I think I will have everyone’s sympathies if she goes nuts on social media. I am the one who almost got killed in a car crash.”

  Chris swirled his drink. “Weren’t you running from the police, though?”

  Brandon sat up. “That was all Tony. I told him to pull over. And it’s not like they chased us for hours. Their lights went on, he pressed the gas, and we crashed moments later. But I agree, it was stupid.” He let out a breath. “The whole thing was idiotic.”

  “And now you’re here…because?” Chris asked.

  “Because my aunt lives here. And my mom is worried I’m going off the deep end. Which I’m totally not. But she thinks I’m on a dangerous path.” He made air quotes with his good hand.

  “Hopefully Alisha will calm down,” Jade said. “I wouldn’t want her on my bad side.”

  A somber feeling crept over Brandon as he stared at the table, but it was too late. Whatever fallout was going to happen would just happen. He could take bad publicity. He’d rolled with that in the past. It always worked out okay in the end.

  Chapter 17

  Stephanie shoved her hands in her coat pockets as they walked outside. It was only six thirty, but the sun had gone down and her breath came out in a cloud of steam. Had the temperature dropped that much? It was freezing out. Of course, it was Wisconsin, so November was always freezing.

  “Hey, Vlogger girl, where else do teens go on a Friday night?” Brandon lifted his sunglasses, and his blue eyes probed her.

  “We can go to the lake. I heard some kids talking about meeting out there,” Jade said.

  Stephanie shot a look at Jade. Since when was she into the party scene? “It’s cold.”

  “Where’s your sense of adventure? Let’s go.” Brandon grinned at her and she swore her legs were going to buckle. Oh, this was so not good.

  “Come on. It will be fun,” Jade said.

  How could she say no? She’d look like the lamest person. “All right. I’ll follow you.”

  Stephanie hopped in her car, tossing her phone in the cupholder. That’s where she always put it when she drove. Brandon climbed into the passenger seat. He pulled the seatbelt with his right hand. “I’m kind of glad it wasn’t my right arm that got hurt. Doing things one-handed is a pain.”

  “I bet.” Stephanie pulled out into traffic. She glanced at his arm in the sling. “Does it hurt?”

  “Yeah. But I have pain killers so it’s not so bad. And it’s getting better.”

  “How’s Tony?”

  Brandon winced. “He’s still in the hospital. I guess they don’t know how long he’ll be in there. He was messed up pretty bad.”

  “I’m sorry.” She bit her lower lip. “That must feel weird.”

  Brandon’s eyes widened. “It is weird. Like it’s my fault or something, but I know it’s not. He was driving. I didn’t force him to take drugs. I didn’t even coax him into driving fast. He did that too. Yet, I feel kind of responsible.”

  “I think it’s a form of survivor’s guilt.”

  “Yes.” Brandon slapped his leg. “That’s it. No one else understands.” He turned to her. “Why is it that you do?”

  Emotion swelled in Stephanie’s throat. She didn’t want to talk about why she knew what survivor’s guilt felt like. She swallowed and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Brandon studied her. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  She couldn’t get into it. Not right now. “How long does your arm have to be in that sling?”

  He made a face, like he knew she was evading his question, but then settled back into his seat. “A few more weeks. They said I was super lucky. I guess a piece of the guard rail ripped off and got embedded in my arm. It severed some muscle, but that’s it. The surgery went well. With physical therapy, I should regain full movement.”

  “You are lucky.”

  “I’ve learned my lesson. No more getting into the car when I know someone is high.”

  “And no more pill-popping?” Stephanie gave him a sideways glance.

  “Not when I’m about to get into a sweet ride. I can’t imagine how mad Tony was when he found out what he did.” Brandon laugh
ed and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh, man. He probably passed out.”

  She stared at him. Did he think this was a game? Even now, after almost getting killed? What was the matter with him? “You don’t think it’s time to give it up for good? Even when your career and your life is on the line?”

  “My career?”

  “Yeah. Don’t you think getting high affects your performance?”

  “What?” Brandon gave her an incredulous look. “You’re not serious.”

  “Of course, I’m serious.” She frowned. “You can’t tell me you never went to work high while you were filming The Paper Pirate.”

  Brandon opened and closed his mouth a few times before he huffed. “Yeah, but I didn’t think anyone could tell.”

  “I could.” Stephanie said the words before she really thought about it, then wondered if she was being too harsh. “I mean, maybe no one else would have.”

  Brandon snorted. “Now you’re just trying to be nice. Which is funny, coming from you. After all, you did compare my acting to a drunk monkey.”

  Her cheeks heated. She had been mean to him. But she wouldn’t take it back. “You did look quite hungover in the forest scene.”

  “Oh, I was. You’re right.” He shook his head. “But that happens all the time in Hollywood.”

  “I know. I review movies, remember?”

  He laughed, but it came out stilted. “You are one harsh girl.”

  “Just think about it. If you’re having trouble getting jobs, maybe it’s time to get more serious about your work. Give up the booze and the pills.”

  “Then what will I do for fun?”

  She shook her head. He really didn’t get it. Even now. He’d almost been killed. If that wasn’t his wake-up call, then he would never figure it out.

  “Hey, I’m only kidding,” he said, twisting so he could nudge her with his good arm. “We’re having fun, and I’m not high.”

  Her phone buzzed and Brandon picked it up out of the cupholder. “You got a text from someone named Marissa.”