A Bolder Version of Me (The Destiny Clark Saga Book 3)

by Cindy Ray Hale

  “Something like that.” I scooted my chair closer to the table. “Not that it matters. Since I’m totally unavailable,” I said to Destiny, flashing a smile.

  She lowered her lashes, but I didn’t miss the joyful expression that crossed her face.

  After dinner, several groups mingled around the gym. Destiny and I stood to join them, but once again, several people came up to me trying to make conversation. Five minutes later, I spotted Destiny standing beside a cluster of balloons, and I walked to her.

  I stepped closer and smiled. Her eyes melted into blue watery circles. “Hey.” I leaned my head toward hers. “You want to get out of here?”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Like away from the school?”

  “Yeah.” I felt reckless tonight.

  “Won’t you be missed?”

  “I don’t care. I’d rather be with you,” I said. “You came with Shanice, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Tell her you’re going home with me. She’ll understand.”

  “Don’t you want to wait to discover who gets crowned Homecoming King? It’ll probably be you,” she said.

  “Nah, let them give it to Will. I don’t care anymore.”

  “Well, I want to find out. They’re about to announce it. Can’t we stay until then and then leave?”

  “All right. Just for you.”

  She responded with a sweet smile.

  Dad walked to the middle of the stage clutching an envelope. He lifted the microphone from its stand. “It’s time to announce our Homecoming King and Queen,” he said. “The Bethel Baptist Academy Homecoming Queen for this year will be…” He pulled a slip of paper from the envelope. “Aspen Adams.”

  “Are you sure we can’t go?” I asked, my mouth close to Destiny’s ear.

  She laid a hand on my arm and looked into my eyes with sympathy. “I’m sorry. I should have realized this would be hard for you.”

  “It’s not hard. I just don’t want to be here.”

  Destiny slid her arm around mine and gave me a disbelieving look but didn’t comment.

  Aspen strutted onto the stage like she wasn’t only queen of our little school, but queen of the entire world. I could hardly watch. How had I never noticed this side of her? I’d been so taken by her appearance I hadn’t realized what an arrogant person she was.

  Dad placed a tiara on her head, and Aspen’s smile was triumphant. I’d better not be voted king. I’d rather clean Josh’s toilet than be up there with her tonight. And that was saying something. His bathroom was a scary place.

  Dad beamed, and I was sure he was assuming, along with the rest of the student body, they would crown me king. “And now, this year’s Homecoming King will be…” He opened the second envelope and scanned the name on the paper, and his brow knit together for a moment before becoming smooth once again. He lifted the microphone to his lips. “Michael Clark.”

  Relief flooded through me.

  The crowd broke into applause, but underneath the cheering, a few murmurs of complaint rumbled behind me.

  Aspen’s face contorted in shock and horror, and I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself.

  “Woo-hoo! Go Michael!” Hannah called from beside Destiny who clapped and cheered exuberantly. I recovered enough from my overwhelming relief and surprise to remember to join in the applause.

  Michael walked up to the stage with a stunned expression on his face. Dad placed the crown on his head stiffly, his brow creased and his eyes serious. He probably wished there was a way to prevent Michael from getting the crown, but he’d been voted in fairly by the other students.

  Michael and Aspen stood together for pictures, and Aspen plastered a gigantic fake smile onto her face.

  “I didn’t see that coming,” Shanice said.

  I put my arm around Destiny’s shoulders and grinned down at her. “I’ve never been so glad to lose.”

  Destiny laughed, a mirthful sound that boosted my spirits. No matter what came between us, as long as I could hear her laugh like that, we’d be okay.

  4

  Destiny

  I slid my hand into Isaac’s. This PDA stuff would take some getting used to. I thought I’d be terrified to show the world I was dating him, but now that I’d tried it, I decided it wasn’t so bad. There was something satisfying about seeing the fury on Jessie’s face from across the room. The haters would hate. I couldn’t hide my relationship forever, could I? I might as well get it over with. “Are you ready to go?” I asked Isaac.

  “Am I ever,” he said. “Have you talked to Shanice, yet?”

  Covering a hand over my mouth, I said, “I forgot. That would have been bad.” I scanned the room to spot where she’d gone.

  “Isaac?” Jessie called from about thirty feet away like a cat tracking her prey. She must have spotted us trying to leave together. Ever the gentleman, Isaac turned to her.

  Jessie eyed him like he was a delicious treat. I shot her a dirty look. She grinned back and ran her fingers through her silken, red strands. Irritation flickered in Isaac’s eyes.

  I found Shanice by a cluster of balloons talking to Hannah and Evan. “Hey Shanice, I won’t need a ride home.”

  “Ooh girl, what’s that supposed to mean?” Shanice asked with arched eyebrows and a sneaky smile.

  “You can wipe that smile right off your face. Isaac’s a total gentleman. We just want to be alone.”

  “You sure about that?” Shanice said, giving me a disbelieving stare. “I’ve seen the way he’s been looking at you.”

  “Believe me,” Hannah said, rolling her eyes. “She’s right. He won’t even step foot in a girl’s bedroom.”

  “See?” I said.

  “Whatever,” Shanice said. “You have fun and don’t you go getting yourself into too much trouble with your parents.”

  I cringed at her last words. “Thanks for bringing them up. I’m leaving now,” I said, jabbing my thumb toward the doors. They retreated, and I spun to find myself face-to-face with Jessie.

  “Where’re you going, Destiny?” Jessie asked, tossing her head to the side.

  “None of your business,” I retorted, stepping around her.

  She spun around, grabbing my arm. “Oh, I think it is my business. You’re leaving with Isaac, aren’t you?”

  “Like I said, that’s none of your business,” I said, shaking her hand off my arm.

  “If it has to do with Isaac, I make it my business.”

  “Not anymore, you don’t,” I said, fighting the urge to claw her eyes out with my fresh manicure.

  “What?” Jessie laughed. “You think he wants you? What would Isaac want with you? He may take you somewhere tonight, but he’s on the rebound and you were easy to pick up. He may even stay with you for like… a week. Who knows, if you’re lucky, maybe even two. But eventually, he’ll see you for what you really are, and you’ll be tossed out like a bag of garbage.”

  Her words slammed into me like a fist to the gut. “You know what? I don’t need this conversation.” I turned to walk away, but Jessie knocked into me, spilling her cup of punch down the bodice of my white dress.

  “You should watch where you’re going,” she said.

  I gasped and bit my lip, tasting blood.

  “Are you okay?” Isaac said, rushing to my side, his eyes full of concern.

  All I could gasp out was “Jessie.” I was on the verge of tears, but I refused to cry in front of the entire school. I wouldn’t.

  “I know, I know. I saw the whole thing.” He stared at my mouth and tenderly brushed his thumb across my bottom lip. “How’d this happen?” He pulled his hand away, revealing smear of red on his thumb.

  “I bit my lip. I was so upset.” My voice broke. It wasn’t so much the embarrassment of having punch spilled on me or my dress getting ruined that bothered me enough to bite my lip. It was what Jessie had said before she spilled the punch that did it. The worst part was, I believed every word she’d said. It was logical. I was Isaac’s rebound girl.
He would drop me like garbage. Her words had hit me to the core, and I knew they would haunt me. After what she’d said, I wanted burrow into my pillow and cry all night long.

  Isaac put an arm around me. “Let’s get you to the bathroom to get cleaned up.”

  “I want to go home. I can’t go anywhere looking like this,” I said, using the soiled dress as an excuse. Isaac couldn’t know what Jessie had really done to hurt me. Because, he’d see her point, and he’d agree.

  And he’d leave me.

  “Go to the bathroom, dry off, and I’ll take you home. Okay?”

  I nodded stiffly. “Okay, thanks.”

  “All right. I’ll meet you at my truck in five minutes. I’m parked in my regular spot.”

  Opening the bathroom door, I sighed with relief to find it deserted. Bunching several paper towels under a stream of cold water, I dabbed at the bright red stain across my chest and down my torso. But it was no use.

  Hannah shuffled into the bathroom and came to an abrupt stop when she spotted me. “What happened to your dress?”

  “Jessie happened,” I said bitterly.

  “Are you serious? Did she do it on purpose?” Hannah balled her hands into fists at her sides like she was contemplating punching Jessie in the nose.

  “It doesn’t matter.” I hated how deflated my voice sounded.

  At least Mom was a master at removing stains. If it weren’t for that, I’d be a lot more disappointed. The groceries had been sparse the past week, and I suspected Mom had used some grocery money to buy my dress.

  “Yes, it does. You can’t let her get away with this. Just because she’s jealous of you because you’re with Isaac doesn’t mean she gets to attack you with punch.”

  I gazed in the mirror, and everything seemed funny. I giggled hysterically.

  “What’s so funny?” Hannah asked.

  “I look like Éponine.”

  “How’s that?”

  “The stain looks like the blood she has on her dress in her death scene.” If it had been ratty peasant clothes instead of a formal, I could save it and wear it in the musical for when I got shot.

  Hannah looked at me with her arms crossed and shook her head. “You have lost it. That’s okay. I still love you. And so will Isaac. Go see him. Show Jessie that a stupid stain on your dress won’t keep you from him.”

  “You know what? You’re right. Why should I care what she says? She’s sad and jealous. I’m here to have fun with Isaac, and that’s what I plan to do.”

  I stepped outside the bathroom with Hannah at my heels and saw Jessie and her friends standing outside the bathroom. When she glimpsed me, she gave me a big fake smile. “Looking good Destiny.” The surrounding girls giggled and whispered amongst themselves.

  I smiled right back at her. “Thanks, Jessie. You look good, too. Y’all have fun tonight. Don’t get into too much trouble.” And I meant it. Jessie looked nice. Just because she hated me didn’t mean I had to hate her back.

  The girls gawked, open-mouthed as Hannah and I passed. When we were out of earshot, I turned to Hannah. “I’m meeting up with Isaac in the parking lot. We’re heading out.”

  Hannah hugged me and said, “Ooh! Fun. I’m going stay here with Evan.”

  I left the building with a bounce in my step and the lyrics to “A Little Fall of Rain” running through my mind. I strolled down the sidewalk, and as I neared the corner, I heard a female voice coming from the other side of a holly bush.

  “Did you see Destiny getting cozy with Isaac tonight?”

  “Syd, I’m not worried about it.” It was Aspen talking to Sydney Carter, one of the other senior sopranos in Primus. “He’s just playing her.”

  “You think so?”

  “Oh, I know so. He told me himself. He’s playing nice to find dirt on the Mormons.”

  I came around the corner and faced them. “Can’t you just be happy with Will? Why do you need to spread lies about Isaac?”

  Her eyes widened and then flicked down to the stain. A hint of a smile appeared on her face. “What happened to your dress?” she asked in a superior tone.

  I clenched my fists at my sides. “Forget the stupid dress! Answer my question!”

  She stared at me with narrowed eyes. “I don’t care about you and Isaac.”

  “Good. Because this is happening, whether or not you like it.” I was determined to hang onto Isaac with everything I had left. I was finished with letting stupid girls like Jessie and Aspen get to me. I had enough of my own self-doubt. The last thing I needed was their interference added on top of it.

  When I climbed into Isaac’s truck, he studied my face in the dome light and asked, “Are you okay?”

  I leaned forward to kiss him, and I didn’t care if Aspen could see us in his lit up truck. After a long kiss, we pulled apart, and I said, “I am now.”

  “I can tell,” he said with a smile that turned my insides to mush.

  “I love the smell of your truck.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “It smells like you. Your cologne. What do you wear anyway? It’s amazing.” I nuzzled up close to him.

  He reached across my lap and opened the glove compartment, pinning my ribs against the seat with his muscled torso. He leaned back with a bottle of Abercrombie & Fitch cologne.

  I popped the lid off and inhaled. “Oh, my heck! It’s bottled Isaac.”

  He laughed.

  “Can I spritz this on something and keep it forever?”

  “Here,” he said, grabbing a gray baseball cap from the dash. “You can put some on this.” He offered it to me, but I just stared at it. “Take it. It’s yours.”

  “You’re going to let me have your hat? But that’s your favorite! You wear it all the time. I can’t accept this!”

  “But you’re my favorite girl, so it’s all good.”

  My heart had melted a little in my chest. Take that, Aspen! “Well, in that case, I change my mind,” I shoved it onto my head, not caring what it did to my fancy hairdo.

  As we drove by, Aspen stood on the corner, still wearing her tiara. Her eyes followed me wearing Isaac’s hat as we drove away. She looked furious, but I didn’t care.

  I turned to Isaac. “You know what? I’ve changed my mind. I refuse to let them ruin my night. Let’s go do something fun.”

  “You don’t want me to take you home?” he asked. “What about your dress?”

  “I don’t care. Let’s go somewhere. You pick.”

  Isaac grinned. “I know the perfect place. But first we need caffeine.”

  I opened my mouth to object, but then I closed it. I wasn’t a caffeine-drinking kind of girl, but after the night I’d had, maybe Isaac was onto something.

  5

  Isaac

  I parked in front of the gas station and hopped down from my truck. Whisking to the other side, I opened the door for Destiny. Thank goodness Destiny had agreed to get caffeine with me because I was craving a frozen Coke like crazy, and it had been forever since I’d had one.

  Destiny smiled down at me, and I took her hand to help her down from the truck. “Thanks, Isaac.” The stain on her dress was huge. I wriggled out of my suit jacket and offered it to her. She gave me a grateful smile as I helped her into it.

  “Your jacket smells good,” she said. “It smells like you.”

  “Good to know I don’t stink.”

  She shook her head and giggled. “I don’t that’s possible.”

  “Oh, believe me, it is. Catch me after a football practice one day, and you’ll see what I mean.” I locked up the truck and opened the door to the convenience store for Destiny. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Besides coffee, which I know you don’t drink, the best thing to get here is the frozen Coke. Ever had it?”

  “Nope.” Destiny chewed her lip.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Well, it’s just…” her voice drifted off.

  “You okay?”

  “I’ve never had caffeine.”

&
nbsp; “Oh. I can get you an orange juice or something.”

  “No.” Destiny’s voice was firm. “After the night I’ve had tonight, I need some caffeine.”

  I quirked an eyebrow at her. “How do you know you need it if you’ve never had caffeine?”

  She swiped a cup from the stack of large clear cups beneath the frozen drinks. “I just do.”

  “Why do I feel like I’m corrupting you right now?”

  She rolled her eyes and threw a teasing smile at me. “It’s only caffeine.”

  “If it’s only caffeine, then why haven’t you had it before?”

  She shrugged, looking so cute in my jacket as it swallowed her whole. “I don’t know. I guess my parents didn’t want hyper kids. They never keep soda in the house, and we don’t go out much. And when we do go out, we order water.”

  We filled our cups, and she took a sip. “Oh wow. This is fantastic.” She took a longer sip and her eyes rolled back a little. “Ahh. That’s like really, fantastic.”

  I chuckled. “My poor, deprived girlfriend.”

  She smacked my chest with the back of her hand.

  Dang. That was kind of hot.

  “I’m not deprived.” She took another long sip and closed her eyes.

  I tugged on her hand. “Come on. Let’s buy these drinks before you have nothing left for me to pay for.”

  She giggled and skipped behind me to the counter. The bored cashier rang us up, and I shoved my card into the reader. I grinned over at Destiny. “You got the biggest size, huh?”

  “Mmhm,” she said with her mouth still wrapped around the straw.

  I pushed open the door, letting the cool night air wash over us and took a sip of my drink.

  “Where are we going now?” Destiny asked. “Please don’t say you’re taking me home. I’m not ready yet.”

  “No. I told you I know the perfect place. Ever been to the planetarium?”

  Destiny scrunched up her face in concentration. “I think I went once on a field trip in second grade.”

  “Well, it’s a lot cooler now. Last year they added a brand-new exhibit.”