Bella and the Happily Ever After

by Amy Sparling

  “It only takes one look at you to realize I’m dating someone way out of my league,” Liam says. “Anyone who thinks otherwise can go suck a lemon.”

  “You are completely wrong, but I don’t feel like arguing with you right now,” I say, smiling up at him.

  “Smart move,” he says, kissing me. “Because that’s an argument you’d lose.

  I roll my eyes.

  He just grins and kisses me again.

  12

  Liam

  As Bella gets ready to go to the starting line for her race, I’m remembering conversations from my days on Team Loco. Keanna Adams had told me all about how hard it can be to be the girlfriend or wife of a racer. Fans can be extremely rude to girlfriends, and it’s a hard thing to deal with. Back then, I was single, so I didn’t put much thought into it. But now I see exactly what she meant. I hate this, so much.

  I hate seeing how nervous Bella is before the race. I hate the way those girls looked at her earlier. They don’t like her just because she’s my girlfriend. You know what? I’m glad I quit racing. I’m going to live my life for me now, without the fame or the money that comes from being a professional racer. It’s just not worth it. Soon, I’ll be old news and people won’t care about me anymore. I’ll fade away from people’s minds, getting replaced with new professional racers they can love and adore. Then Bella and I can have a real relationship.

  “You ready?” I ask her as she pulls on her helmet and straddles her bike.

  Her shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. She nods once, her helmet bobbing. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  I reach for her gloved hand and give her a squeeze. “You’ll be great. Tell your nerves to piss off.”

  She laughs. “I’ll try.”

  I jog alongside her as she rides up to the starting line. There are at least twenty other girls racing with her, making this a lot bigger of a race than she’s used to. I blow her a kiss and then jog over to the bleachers so I can get a good view of the race. This track is large and sprawling, taking up several acres of sloping land, so I won’t be able to see the entire track from any one viewpoint.

  I walk up to the top of the bleachers, where I can see as much of the track as possible. A few people seem to recognize me from the bleachers, but I ignore them. I try to look uninterested and hope that no one talks to me. My sunglasses shield my eyes, and my hat does a pretty good job of keeping most of my face hidden. Maybe I should dye my hair and grow it out long so I can blend in even better. I’m sick of being recognized.

  I sit on the bleacher seat and watch the starting line. Bella got a good spot, right in the middle of the gate. If she gets a good holeshot, she’ll be able to pull out ahead of most of the other riders. While I’m watching the track, I can tell someone is looking at me. Knowing my eyes can’t be tracked through my dark sunglasses, I glance down and see a kid, probably only about seven years old, watching me.

  I nod at him. He jumps, then turns back around.

  On the track, the gate drops, and the racers take off. I watch intently as Bella pulls out in the lead, one of the fastest riders by far. I let out a whoop of pride as I see her become the first person to speed around the first turn. Then the track dips down below the tree line and I lose sight of her. But she was in first place. I’m so proud. Hopefully her nerves will wear off now that she’s killing it out there. I always stopped being nervous shortly after the races started. It’s before the gate drops that all your insecurities and fears buckle up inside you. But once you’re riding, it all just eases up and you can focus.

  “Excuse me,” a man says as he stomps up the metal bleacher stairs. “You’re Liam Mosely, right?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I say. I can’t believe I almost lied, but there it is. On the tip of my tongue, I almost said nope, not me. You’ve got the wrong guy. But my face has literally been printed on T-shirts, so I’d be kind of stupid to deny it.

  “I’m a big fan, big fan,” the large man says as he shakes my hand. “You’re a great rider.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  I finally get my hand back from his overly boisterous handshake and I spot Bella on the track. She’s still in first place. A few seconds later, I lose sight of her behind a hill.

  “It’s cool that you’re out here supporting the race,” the man says.

  “Yeah, I’m actually supporting my girlfriend,” I say, not looking at him because I’m trying to find her on the track. “She’s out there racing right now.”

  “Oh, right on. Very cool,” he says. “I run the hot dog stand down at the food area. You come on by later and get some food on the house, okay? Your girlfriend too.”

  I look over at him and give him a grateful smile. He’s just being nice and not being an annoying fan, so I shouldn’t be so dismissive of him. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

  He walks back down to where his family is sitting, and I pray that no one else recognizes me, at least not right now. I’m trying to focus on my girlfriend. When I find her again, she’s in second place. Someone on a bike I’ve never seen before has passed her. That sucks, but second place out of all these people isn’t too bad. Only four more laps to go. Maybe she’ll be able to get back into first place.

  I’m so focused on watching Bella race that I don’t realize another person has approached me until she speaks. “Hello, Liam.”

  “I’m busy,” I say, not taking my eyes off the track. Bella is so close to passing the person in front of her. She might actually win this. “I can’t talk now.”

  “Too busy to talk to me?” The voice is annoyingly sweet, and it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I don’t know how I know this voice, but I do. It’s familiar.

  I look over and almost don’t recognize her at first. Her hair is longer, her makeup isn’t as bold and smoky as it used to be. She’s taller, and more mature. But it’s the same girl.

  Samantha.

  “Long time no see,” she says, reaching out to hug me.

  I flinch away and she lowers her hands. “Fine,” she says with a mock pout. “Don’t hug me.”

  “I am not in the mood to deal with you.” I look back at the track, hoping she’ll leave. But she doesn’t leave, and I can’t concentrate anyway. All the bikes out on the track are just blurry figures, moving too fast for my addled brain to focus on.

  “Aw, Liam, don’t be mean,” Samantha says. She slides closer to me on the bench. “We used to be friends.”

  “We were never friends.”

  “You’re right,” she says with a little carefree laugh. “We were more than friends.” I hate how she gets to sit here, laughing and having fun, having no idea how much she’s messed things up for me.

  “You should go,” I tell her. “I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to see you.”

  “Wow,” she says, putting a hand to her chest. “Why? I thought we had fun.”

  “We didn’t. And you almost ruined a really good thing for me, Samantha. I haven’t seen you in years and yet you’ve still somehow managed to make my life harder. So just go. You’re the last person I want to see right now.”

  “Wait… what are you talking about?”

  I want to ignore her, but she seems genuinely confused, and maybe even a little hurt at how I’m treating her. I realize that what I did in my past was back when I was a stupid kid, and she was a stupid kid too. Maybe she’s a nice person now, someone who isn’t exactly worthy of my hatred.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, glancing at her quickly before looking back at the track. “I don’t mean to be rude, but the last time I saw you, you ruined my friendship with Brent. Now I’m dating his sister and he totally hates me because of what you did.”

  “Brent?” She crinkles her nose. “Brent who? Oh! Castro?” She laughs. “Oh man, how is he? I forgot about him.”

  “How could you forget about someone you dated for years?”

  She shrugs. “We weren’t, like, serious or anything.”

  I give her a look.


  “What?” she says defensively.

  “He seemed to think you were exclusive. He liked you a lot. And now he hates me because of what we did.”

  “I’m sorry,” she says with a shrug. “Tell him to get over it. Me and Brent were not exclusive in my mind… I must have made out with, like, every motocross guy my age back then. And even some who were way too old for me.” She sighs and shakes her head. “I’m extremely embarrassed by my behavior, by the way. I’m not like that anymore, I swear.”

  I don’t even know what to say to that. This girl is sitting here next to me acting like what happened a few years ago was so meaningless it wasn’t even worth the memory. And yet, over here in my life, what we did has affected me so very much. It made my girlfriend’s brother hate me. It made my girlfriend not trust me when we first met. It made me feel like an awful person for what I did.

  But mostly, I’m just feeling a little sad for Brent. Every day since he caught me kissing his girlfriend has been spent in this bitter mood. He’s never gotten over Samantha, and everyone knows it. And yet, ironically, this whole time, Samantha probably hasn’t thought about him once.

  13

  Bella

  This raw energy takes over me when I’m on the race track. I’m not normally a competitive person in any other subject in the world, but with motocross, it’s different. It’s like this sheer willpower to win the race takes over my body and pushes me to ride faster and harder than normal. I’m doing it, too. I’m fast. Faster than I was in practice. Faster than I normally am at my home track. I’m in second place, and I want this so badly. My fingers ache from gripping the handlebars so hard.

  I spin around a wide sweeping turn and then launch my bike over a jump. I am right. On. Her. Heels.

  So close to passing her up.

  But then the checkered flag flies and the race is over. Second place.

  Ah well. That was still fun.

  The adrenaline wears off the second I pull off the track and head back toward Liam’s truck. My entire body aches as my muscles start to relax. I didn’t realize how tuned in to the race I was until now, when it’s over.

  I don’t see Liam waiting for me at the finish line like he normally does at our home track races. This is a much bigger track though, so he’s probably waiting for me at his truck.

  But he’s not there either. I park my bike and then pull off my helmet, my chest heaving with heavy breaths. I’m in pretty good shape ever since I spent the summer practicing every day, but I feel exhausted right now. Like I just ran a marathon.

  I climb up into Liam’s truck bed and grab some water from the ice chest back here. I down half the bottle before I finally see him, walking up to the truck. He waves at me.

  “Took you long enough,” I say, tossing him a playful grin.

  “I was on the bleachers. This is a huge freaking track.”

  I laugh and toss him a water bottle.

  “You did amazing,” he says, throwing his arm around my shoulders while we sit on his tailgate. “Second place, yeah? You were fantastic.”

  “What do you mean, yeah?” I say, elbowing him. “You were watching me, right? You should know what place I got.”

  He hesitates. Takes a deep breath. “I was watching, but I got distracted.”

  “Annoying fangirls?” I say, trying not to let it bother me. Everywhere we go, Liam is surrounded by annoying fangirls. It is what it is.

  “Not exactly.” He chugs some of his water and then tosses the empty bottle into the bed of his truck.

  Anxiety settles over my bones, making me tense up again. Something is clearly bothering him, and I’m not exactly sure I want to know what it is. But I also can’t let it go. “What does that mean?”

  He shrugs. “I just had a weird experience.”

  I give him a look to continue.

  “Samantha is here.”

  I choke on my water.

  Coughing, I take a deep breath and look at him. “What did she do?”

  “She apologized, for one,” he says, scratching the back of her neck. “It was weird. She acted like she didn’t even care about your brother… like they weren’t in a serious relationship or anything.”

  I snort. “Yeah, right! He was head over heels for that cheater.”

  “I guess she didn’t feel the same way.”

  “Ugh,” I say, curling my lip. “Let us never speak of her again. I don’t want my day to be ruined.”

  Liam’s gaze drifts off to somewhere behind me. “Oh, babe, I really wish I could make that promise.”

  An uneasy feeling falls over me as I slowly turn around. There she is, tall and as beautiful as I remember her, walking right in front of us. She doesn’t see us, luckily, but it’s hard to miss her. I remember her so very well. She was always with my brother. She was always so cool. I wanted to be just like her. And now, I can’t stand the sight of her for two reasons.

  She broke my brother’s heart.

  My boyfriend has made out with her.

  The uneasy feeling in my stomach turns to anger. I know I shouldn’t be jealous, but I am. She’s made out with my boyfriend. Her stupid lips were on his stupid lips. I know I didn’t know him back then and I know it shouldn’t matter, but it does. I’m only human, filled with all these pathetic human emotions.

  “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t,” Liam says softly, squeezing his arm around my shoulders. “That’s in the past. You’re my present. And you’re my future.”

  I force a smile and look up at him. “I know. But I still wish she wasn’t here. It kind of ruins my awesome day.”

  “Think of it as a slight annoyance,” he says. “Not a total day ruiner.”

  I grin. “I guess you’re right.”

  He pops an invisible collar on his T-shirt. “Psh, I’m always right.”

  I punch him in the arm. “Don’t go getting all cocky, Mr. Mosely.”

  Liam’s fingers are quick, and soon he’s tickling me and I’m unable to wriggle out of his grasp.

  “Not fair!” I call out, laughing even though I don’t want to. Being tickled is weird like that. You hate it, but you laugh anyway.

  Liam stops tickling my sides, but his hands stay where they are, wrapping around my hips and pulling me in for a kiss.

  “I smell like sweat,” I say, pulling away.

  “Why on earth would I care about that?” he says, kissing me. He tastes like lemon lime Gatorade, and I bet I taste the same way. I get lost in his arms for a few seconds. The loud rumble of dirt bikes on the track becomes just background noise to the main show, which is Liam’s lips on mine. That’s all I care about right now.

  Then I hear, “Wow. Maybe you two need a room!”

  I jump back as if I’ve been electrocuted. Samantha is here, having appeared out of thin air. I don’t know when she saw us, but the last time I saw her, she was walking away from us.

  “Looks like someone needs to mind their own business,” Liam says. He flashes her a wry smile, the kind that is all fake niceness and one hundred percent snark.

  She doesn’t seem fazed one bit. “Hi, there. You’re Bella, right?”

  “Who are you?” I say, trying to do my best impression of not-giving-a-crap.

  “It’s me,” she says with a big Texas-sized smile. “Samantha! I haven’t seen you since you were a little kid!”

  I’m only a few years younger than she is, but whatever. I can still remember how cool I used to think she was, and how badly I wanted to be her friend. Now that very thought feels repulsive.

  “Oh, okay,” I say, pretending like I only just now figured out who she was. I reach for my phone from the tailgate and unlock the screen, casually checking my messages instead of looking at her. “I think I remember you. Aren’t you that girl who cheated on my brother?”

  She actually looks a little upset, but only for a split second before she shrugs the thought away and replaces it with a sweet smile. “I didn’t cheat on him. We weren’t exclusive.”

  “Reall
y? Because my brother thought you were exclusive… how weird is that?”

  “Well, you know Brent,” she says, waving her hand. “Always making more of an issue out of something than it is.”

  “Right… yeah, that sounds like Brent.” I feel dirty talking bad about my brother, but I do it anyway. “I remember he was so upset when you cheated on him that one time.”

  “One time?” She laughs. “If he thinks what me and Liam did was cheating, then he’d be pissed if he knew about the other guys.”

  I feel so, so, gross, but I lean forward and look intrigued instead. “Oooh, do tell! Any hot guys?”

  Liam looks positively betrayed, but he doesn’t say anything. I can feel his gaze burning into me though, but I just smile up at Samantha.

  “You remember Jake Weston?” She says, in full on girl-gushing mode.

  I nod.

  “Him, and Brian… oh, what was his last name? That hot guy who rode the Kawasaki?”

  “Oh, yeah, I remember him,” I say. “He was one of Brent’s friends, too.”

  “Oh yeah, they all hung out together.” She reaches out for my hand and instead of repulsively jumping away, I let her take it. “Girl, there’s no weird feelings now, okay? It’s totally cool that you’re dating Liam. He’s off limits, I promise.”

  “Thanks, girl,” I say, using her same tone of voice. “I really appreciate it. Hey, while we’re on the subject, did Liam come on to you that day or did you flirt with him first?”

  “That was a long time ago,” she says, waving away my question. “He’s all yours now, I promise.”

  “No, that’s cool. I was just wondering if he had as much swagger back then as he does now?”

  I can sense Liam’s jaw tighten next to me. He’s looking at me like I’ve just ripped out his heart and tossed it on the ground. I glance at him and smile, hoping he can read my mind, but the hurt expression on his face tells me he can’t.

  “Nah, he wasn’t very suave,” she says with a giggle that makes my skin crawl. “I had to work hard to get his attention. But good on you, girl. You seem to have won him over.”