Dare You to Chase the Soccer Player (Rock Valley High Book 5)

by Lacy Andersen

  Zane closed the distance between us with another barely suppressed smile and leaned his hand on the frame above my head. “I do love pizza.”

  “Hmmm.” I nodded, never taking my eyes off of his face. “Me, too.”

  “But it would never work.”

  I frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because.” He ran a tongue quickly over his lips. “Because tomorrow, when you go to school, everything will change.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about. Junior year wasn’t amazing enough to distract me from the beautiful blue-eyed boy standing in front of me. But just the way he talked made me want to grab ahold of his t-shirt and never let go. It was so crazy. I hardly knew him. But there was an instant magnetism between us that I’d never felt with anyone else.

  “Nothing will change for me,” I said, tipping my chin up. “I promise.”

  His lips quirked a bit in a sad smile. “I wish I could believe that.”

  And I thought I played hard to get. This guy was a master. I’d definitely met my match.

  “Fine.” I shook my head sadly. “Goodbye, Zane, my-mystery-boy. You were sweet. I could’ve fallen for someone like you.”

  His eyes flashed as he pressed his lips tightly together. “Goodbye, Lexi Black.”

  He began to move away, but hesitated for a moment, his eyes darting directly to my mouth. I hitched a breath as he quickly leaned in and brushed his lips gently over mine. It was barely enough contact to count as a kiss, but every nerve in my body lit up like a pinball machine.

  I gasped as he pulled away and then stroked my cheek tenderly with the tips of his fingers. Normally, I would’ve cringed at such a touch. It was the only place I felt truly vulnerable. But at that moment, I didn’t care about my acne scars. It was nothing but him and the scorching heat of his touch.

  “Zane!”

  The sound of his name came from the other side of the shelter. Zane dropped his hand from my face and then spun to reveal a tall and broad-shouldered man in an expensive black suit hulking in the doorway. I could only assume this was Zane’s dad. He had the same dirty-blond hair as his son, although his was longer and slicked back with some kind of product. His thick jaw quivered with disapproval as his brown eyes landed on me for a mere second, and then immediately dismissed me as he returned his attention to his son.

  “Zane, to the car, now,” he barked.

  All the passion went out of Zane’s face. His shoulder’s drooped and his mouth formed a deep frown that made him look much older than a high school boy. It was strange to see him go back to that brooding, disinterested guy under his father’s attention. The warmth that he’d filled the shelter with had disappeared. I shivered and wrapped my arms around my torso.

  “No worries, Dad,” Zane said, marching toward the door without so much as a look back. “I was just about to leave.”

  His dad nodded and then shot me one last suspicious glare before turning to follow his son. I ran to the window to watch them as they descended the hill to the parking lot. All the while, I prayed Zane would glance back at me. One last look, to tell me that what had happened between us wasn’t a complete hallucination brought on by a near-death experience.

  The farther away he got, the heavier my heart became, until I was scolding myself for letting me think this boy was any different from the dozens I’d flirted with before. Staying detached was my job. I wasn’t about to start letting them have the upper hand now.

  But then, as he went to open the passenger-side door of the SUV, Zane looked over his shoulder. My heart threatened to explode as I drank in the hint of a smile on his face and the half-wave goodbye, hidden from his dad’s sight.

  I hadn’t imagined it. We really had connected.

  And as they drove away, I practically skipped over to my face paint set I’d left sitting on the table. So maybe Zane’s dad was a hardhead, but I knew one thing: Zane was just about as irresistible as a sale on my favorite lip stains. He’d said that tomorrow, everything would change, but he didn’t know just how stubborn a girl I could be. Where there was a will, there was a way.

  I was going to make my way onto that makeup crew. Knowing that Zane would be there, too, was only icing on the cake. Yummy blue-eyed, muscular, gives-me-shivers kind of icing.

  It was like the universe was daring me to try.

  I couldn’t let the universe down.

  Chapter Two

  “You know, I’m starting to think this friendship has serious perks.”

  I rested my ballet flats up on the dashboard and filed my nails as Beth Frye pulled her car into the Rock Valley High parking lot for the first day of our junior year.

  She glanced over at me, amusement dancing in her vivid green eyes. “Oh yeah, like what?”

  “Like the fact that I don’t have to ride the bus to school anymore.” I bit my bottom lip and tried to hold back a grin. “You make an awesome chauffeur, girly.”

  Beth rolled her eyes and blew a blonde curl out of her face. She’d worn a black t-shirt for the first day of school with a cartoon character plastered on the front from one of her weird video games. A pleather bracelet hung from around her wrist and lightning bolt earrings swung from her earlobes. It was totally geeky and totally her.

  We’d only been hanging out for the summer, since our sisters practically forced us to be friends, but I’d gotten to know Beth well enough by now to realize she was a fashion force of her own. There was no use trying to mold her to my ways. Besides, it seemed to help her stay under the radar. She was stunningly gorgeous, even without a speck of makeup on. That kind of thing drew attention, something that she didn’t seem to like.

  It was another thing about her that made us total opposites.

  I wouldn’t have minded drawing a little attention today. There were two reasons behind that.

  One: I was on a mission to hunt down the head makeup artist today and beg her to hire me for some real-world experience. Dad had said that as long as I kept my grades up, he’d let me spend every extra minute I had learning the trade from her. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

  And two: to dazzle mystery boy, aka Zane, when I inevitably ran into him on set and reminded him of the awesome connection we had yesterday in the rain.

  Gorgeous, wonderful Zane with the melt-me smile.

  I could just eat that boy up.

  “I think there are more benefits to this friendship than just free car rides,” Beth said, drawing my attention back to her.

  I gave her a devious smile. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

  “Like having people around to call you out on your hallucinations.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “Are you sure you kissed that boy yesterday in the rain, or were you just high on the fumes from your face paints?”

  She’d been reading my mind. I snatched an unused napkin from the cupholder beside me, balled it up in my hand, and tossed it at her. It bounced off her nose and she didn’t even blink. She just grinned at me, raising her eyebrows in a challenge.

  “Yes, I’m sure.” I’d spilled to my friends yesterday over a group text what had happened with Zane. It wasn’t a hallucination. It’d been the single most amazing moment of my short life. “And I’m going to find him on set today, just as soon as I secure my spot on the makeup team. You’ll see the sparks fly. Believe me.”

  “And you’re sure he’s not just another flavor of the week?”

  I scrunched up my nose. That sounded slightly judgmental. “Are you calling me boy crazy?”

  “Um...yes.” She laughed. “I’ve never met any girl who goes through as many crushes as you, Lexi. So excuse my skepticism.”

  “Well, this one feels different. Trust me. We’re walking off into the sunset together.”

  Beth pulled into a parking spot, put the car into park, and then turned to look at me. “Could you cool it with the eternal optimism? I haven’t even had my morning caffeine.”

  “Hmm...nope.” I smiled sweetly at her. “Sorry, but when life hands you lemonade, yo
u have to shout about it.”

  Her head fell back, and she made a sound like she was clearing phlegm from her throat. “Pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes.”

  “It is today, girl.”

  Nothing was getting me down. Not the rainstorm of homework and pop quizzes coming my way with the start of another year of high school. Not even Beth’s morning sourness. I hopped out of the front seat and glanced across the lawn stretching out in front of the white limestone school. Was it my imagination, or was the grass a more brilliant green than usual? And that clear sky...it was as blue as Zane’s eyes the moment before he kissed me. There were all the signs that today was going my way.

  “All right, Little Miss Sunshine, let’s get to English lit.” Beth shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders and nodded her head toward the front doors where a steady stream of students had already begun to file inside. “Mr. Garret isn’t afraid to give out tardy slips on the first day.”

  I shuddered and hugged my bag to my stomach. English lit was bad enough. English was my worst subject. But Mr. Garret was like the human version of a blackhead smack dab in the middle of my nose. He hated me. And I hated his class. We were in a mutual hate-itude. Nothing would change that.

  I fell in beside her as we walked toward the entrance. “Okay, fine. But I’m sitting in the back, as far away from mister spits-a-lot as humanly possible.”

  “Deal.”

  Beth pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced down at the screen, disappointment flashing in her eyes when no new notifications popped up. She’d been doing that a lot lately, and not just because of her never-ending obsession with her video games.

  I hadn’t quite gotten the full truth out of her yet, but I had the feeling she’d been talking with a boy. Maybe she wasn’t quite ready to spill her guts, but I was prepared and willing to discuss all the juicy details once she was. I lived for that kind of stuff.

  I’d already succeeded in getting one of our friends together with the love of her young life. Maybe it was my destiny to find us all love by the end of our high school careers—a girl could only dream.

  “Lexi! Beth! Where have you been?”

  The moment we strolled through the doors of the school, Charlotte practically tackled us. She had her phone in her hand and was bouncing up and down like an energizer bunny on caffeine. Charlotte was my matchmaking success story and the final piece in our friendship triad that our sisters had built before they went off to college. Her brown hair was pulled into a low ponytail and she had a new spattering of freckles across her cheeks from spending every free moment this summer learning how to barrel ride with her boyfriend’s horse. It was her new obsession. Our little cowgirl in the making.

  Charlotte released us from the hug and grinned madly. I giggled into my hand at the sight. She wasn’t usually so bouncy. That was my role.

  “Did you see the news this morning?” She waved her phone in front of us, but moved it too quickly for me to see. “Oh my gosh, I about died when I saw it. I can’t believe we met a real, live, movie star. I thought that party had been a total bust. But we just didn’t know. And then you spilled shrimp sauce on your shirt. But he was there for that, too, wasn’t he?”

  I squinted at her, trying to understand her babbling rampage. Giving up, I leaned over to look at her boyfriend standing behind her with his hands stuffed in his jean pockets.

  “Hunter, can you translate for your girl?”

  He shook his head and grinned softly. The boy was country, from the rodeo buckle holding up his Wrangler jeans to his blue flannel shirt. His hazel eyes shone with fondness as he draped an arm over Charlotte’s shoulders.

  “What Char Char is trying to say is that as it turns out, the guy we met the other night at your dad’s work party is one of the actors in the movie they’re shooting.”

  “Wait.” I held up a hand. “Who? What are you talking about?”

  Charlotte’s eyes grew wide as she finally stopped bouncing. “The boy. The one that thought you were the paparazzi.” Her eyes darted around the busy hallway before she leaned in closer to whisper. “The one you...kissed.”

  “No way!” Beth exclaimed, finally shoving her phone back into her pocket to give Charlotte her full attention. “Really? Let me see.”

  I froze, my entire body stiffening. She couldn’t have meant Zane. That was insane. It just wasn’t possible. Laughter bubbled out of my mouth before I could stop it. I bent over at the waist, slapping my knee like that was the funniest joke I’d ever heard.

  “You guys almost had me going. You’re good.” I pushed past them and went to my locker. It wasn’t much farther down the hall. The bold green locker door swung open before my friends could surround me again.

  “Lexi, I’m not joking.” Charlotte crossed her arms, hurt entering her eyes. “This isn’t a prank. It’s on the RockValleyBiz Instagram account. It’s legit.”

  RockValleyBiz was the notorious gossip site of Rock Valley High. No one knew who ran it, but I suspected a few of the most popular girls in my class had their hands in it. I’d seen them whispering over the posts at parties but hadn’t been able to fully infiltrate their circle.

  Yet.

  I was working on it.

  “Let me see that.” Beth grabbed Charlotte’s phone and her gaze darted over the screen as if she were reading a major newscast. Her eyes grew wider the further she read, until finally, bright red spots appeared on her cheeks. “It’s true, Lex. Take a look.”

  “Yeah, yeah, okay.” I quirked an eyebrow and took the phone delicately from Beth’s hand.

  Now, they were all in on the joke. If that was how they wanted to play it, I’d give in and let them have their laugh. Zane wasn’t some famous actor. Famous actors didn’t hide in the shadows at parties. His dad worked on the film, just like mine.

  Except, when I finally looked down at my phone, there was a picture of Zane. And it wasn’t from the party. It was him, looking absolutely dashing in a sleek black suit with a white t-shirt underneath. He had his arm draped over a gorgeous girl with jet black hair. And they stood in front of a white screen, as if they were attending a red-carpet event.

  “What the...?” I scrolled down to the description as fast as I could and read aloud. “Are up-and-coming Hollywood royalty expected at Rock Valley High? With the new shoot for Kicked starting soon, keep your eyes peeled for the star, Zane Rees. Zane is the son of the famous actress Maria Irving and it looks like he’s got acting chops of his own. Does any girl have a chance of pinning this bachelor down? Doesn’t seem likely with all the broken hearts left in his wake.”

  My hand shook as I scrolled back up and stared at his photo. Sirens went off inside my head. It wasn’t a joke. Not even close.

  That was what I got for not cyber-stalking a boy. Of course, he was the son of a movie star. And well on his way to becoming his own star. A guy didn’t have the right to be that gorgeous without being in the same line of business as Brad Pitt and K.J. Apa. The masterful curve of his jawline should’ve clued me in. Or the way he acted when I didn’t react to his name.

  He’d left some very specific information out of his introduction...

  “I’m guessing he didn’t mention anything about it.” Charlotte gently took the phone from my hand and tucked it in her pocket. She and Beth both watched me carefully. Hunter must’ve smelled the girl drama in the air and booked it for his own locker down the hall. Smart man.

  “Do you really think I’d be able to keep something like that a secret?”

  My gaze darted between their stricken faces. They both shook their heads, not a moment of hesitation between them. Everyone knew I was horrible at keeping secrets. This would’ve been especially impossible to keep on the down low.

  “Maybe he didn’t tell you because he didn’t want that to influence you.” Beth took her massive purple Bose headphones from a pocket in her backpack and strung them around her neck with a shrug. “It can’t be easy, with girls falling at your feet all the time.” />
  I closed my locker door with a sour expression. “Yeah, right.”

  No guy I’d ever met had a problem with girls falling at their feet. Most of them would’ve taken advantage of it. But then again, Zane was unlike any other guy I’d met in my life. Maybe he was different. And maybe, he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

  “You know what, no. I’m sure you’re right.” I set my jaw and gave them both a steady look. They were still watching me with puppy dog eyes, as if they were afraid I was going to burst into tears or have a massive melt-down at any minute. But that wasn’t me. “I’ll just go on set today and after I secure my job on the makeup crew, I’ll find Zane and let him explain.”

  “Exactly.” Relief washed over Charlotte’s face. She looped her arm around mine and Beth’s and pulled us toward English lit. “And until then, you can tell us again just what it was like kissing a movie star.”

  I laughed. “Haven’t you ever heard the phrase don’t kiss and tell?”

  She brushed me off with a shake of her head. “That doesn’t apply to girls. Spill, woman, or I might just have to ban you from using my Lit notes this year. I need the deets.”

  Outwardly, I laughed, but inwardly my gut twisted. Any girl would’ve rejoiced at the experience of kissing a movie star in the rain. It was romantic. It was the perfect meet-cute. But this was real life and real life had complications.

  The image of Zane’s dad came to mind, as he stood in that doorway looking very much like one of those meathead club bouncers I saw on TV shows. And now, with the realization that Zane was so much more than he let on...it was starting to feel complicated.

  And I was pretty sure I hated complications. After a terrible two years which included my parents’ awful divorce and my father’s remarriage, simple seemed the better way to go. It was the way I’d kept all of my relationships up until now.

  Of all the things Zane had neglected to tell me since we’d met, he was truthful about one fact: things had changed the moment I got to school. But that didn’t make me any less anxious to see those blue eyes again. Or, to feel the electrifying sensation of his lips brushing up against mine.