Spring Unleashed (The Summer Unplugged Series)

by Amy Sparling

  She doesn’t even look me in the eye. “No, honey.”

  My fork drops to my plate. “Why not? I thought you and David were going shopping? He always takes his truck, so…”

  She nods. “We are going shopping but you can’t take my car. Sorry.”

  “Why?” I ask, trying not to sound so annoyed, but I know it doesn’t work.

  Mom gives me a warning glare as my only answer. Ugh. I pick up my fork and take another bite so my mouth isn’t free to talk because the only words I can think of will get me in trouble. I don’t want to be a jerk right now, but I desperately need the car to fulfill my mission. I guess I’ll have to tell her my mission so she’ll let me use the car. It’ll be no fun surprising her with the news that I got a job when she already knows I’m looking for one.

  I swallow and take a deep breath. “I’ll just have to find another way, I guess.”

  “Another way to do what?” Mom asks curiously.

  I shrug and take a while to answer since I know I’ve piqued her interest. “Oh I just had something important to do, and I really needed the car…but I guess I’ll survive on my bike instead.”

  David lets out a little snort of laughter, which takes a lot of energy for me to ignore. Mom shakes her head. “I’m afraid you won’t be doing anything this morning, Bayleigh.”

  Okay now I’m really pissed off. “Why do you say that?” I ask, mentally picking up and dusting off my I’m eighteen and I can do what I want card just in case I have to use it.

  Before she can answer me, the doorbell rings. The four of us turn toward the door and Bentley jumps off his barstool, screaming “I’ll get it! I’ll get it!” as he runs to the living room. Mom stands as well, placing her fork on her plate and taking one long sip of her coffee. She nods toward the front door. “That’s why.”

  I hear Jace’s voice before I see him, and then I see his hand reach out and rub the top of my little brother’s head. “What’s going on, little man?” he says as Bentley lets him inside the house.

  Three things run through my mind at the same time: ridiculously huge amounts of excitement that Jace is here, annoyance at my mother for knowing he was coming over and not telling me, and then a horrendous embarrassment at the realization that I’m wearing ugly pajamas, my hair is unwashed and in a messy bun and my eyes probably look like raccoons from the eye makeup I totally didn’t wash off last night. I had gotten home so late, all I had the energy to do was fall face forward in my bed, despite staying up late, deep in thought.

  “Oh my god,” I say as I bury my face in my hands. When I slowly lift my head again, Jace hovers in front of me with a big smile on his face. David small talks to him about motocross and the professional race that’s coming to town next month. I really wish Jace would look at David as they talk, but instead, he keeps sneaking glances at me. I climb off my stool and rush to Jace’s side, throwing my arms around his rib cage and pressing my face against his side. Now I can hug him and he doesn’t exactly get to see my ugly morning face.

  “You’re a little early,” Mom says. “Would you like some coffee?”

  “Sure, I could use it,” Jace replies as his fingers wrap around my side.

  “Would somebody please tell me what’s going on here?” I ask, looking from my boyfriend to my mom, temporarily forgetting to hide my gross face.

  Jace lets a smirk slip out from under his coffee mug. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, glancing sideways at Mom who has an equally sneaky grin on her face.

  “Guys, this isn’t funny. What are you keeping from me?”

  Jace sets down the mug and reaches into his pocket, grabbing his keys. He tosses them a few inches in the air and catches them. “You’re wrong, babe. I think it is very funny.” He tosses the keys up and catches them a few more times.

  David laughs. “Yeah, it’s definitely funny.”

  I look from my boyfriend to my family and back again. “Fine, don’t tell me,” I say giving Jace a little shove that almost makes him drop his keys. Only…wait, those aren’t his keys. His keys have a tiny metal dirt bike keychain on them. I grab the keys out of his palm. It’s one single car key with a pink sparkly keychain attached. The keychain is the initial B.

  …for Bayleigh?

  “Who’s car is this?” I ask.

  Mom clasps her hands together in front of her chest as she bounces on her heels. “It’s yours,” she squeals as if she might burst from holding in the information any longer.

  A flash of confusion hits me, followed by excitement. Total chaos erupts as I take one look at Jace and then bolt to the front door. The whole family follows me as I dive off the porch and stop suddenly in the middle of the grass when I see my new car.

  A pearly blue, extra shiny Chevrolet Cobalt with a big pink bow on the hood. I’m transfixed for a few moments, unable to move or think clearly as I put the pieces together.

  “That bow was a nice touch,” Mom tells Jace. “Good job.”

  I look back to see them high-five each other and that’s when I finally get my voice again. “You.” I point at my boyfriend. “You were in on this! How did you keep this a secret from me?”

  He smiles. “Some secrets are worth it.”

  Bentley runs his fingers over the pink bow, his mouth open in childlike wonder at how a bow could be so huge. Mom comes forward and wraps her arm around my shoulders. “How do you like your graduation present?”

  “Mom, I can’t believe this,” I say, lowering my voice for the next part. “You don’t have the money for this kind of gift.”

  “We all pitched in,” she says, glancing back at Jace and David. “All of us.”

  Chills prickle over my arms. I can’t believe everyone cares about me enough to do this. “Thanks, you guys. This is amazing.”

  We all take turns playing with the car, sitting in the driver’s seat and checking out all the features. Mom takes pictures of Bentley while he pretends to drive the car despite his feet not being able to touch the pedals. Jace grabs my hand and brings it to his lips. “I love you, Bay.”

  “I love you, too.” Being next to him brings a sense of peace over my body, smoothing over all my anxiety from last night. Realization hits me as I remember my restless sleep. “This is what you meant when you said you had things to do this morning. I thought you just didn’t want to hang out with me.”

  “Psh.” Jace rolls his eyes. “I always want to hang out with you. Like I said, some secrets are worth keeping. Oh yeah,” he says, scratching the back of his neck. “Um, I kind of need a ride home.”

  “Oh my god I’m so excited,” I say, bouncing on my heels. “I just realized that I’ll get to go visit you now. You don’t always have to come get me anymore.”

  Mom clears her throat. “Jace…did you not talk to her yet?”

  I glance at Jace just in time to see him cringe. “I thought you were going to talk to her.”

  Chapter 3

  Bentley yells my name from twenty feet in the air. I look up and see his chubby face squished into the hole in a red tube at the McDonald’s Play Place. “This is so cool,” he squeals before ducking back into the tubing and disappearing amongst all the other kids. Jace and I brought him to lunch with us since Mom and David are shopping for patio furniture and being drug around from store to store is considered pure torture to a third grader.

  I sip on my milkshake and watch the energetic blobs of children race through the ball pit and climb up to the slides. I never know where Bentley is at any given time because his messy hair blends in with everyone else’s kid.

  “You’re being quiet,” Jace says, leaning back in a swivel chair. His foot rocks him slowly from left to right. As his fingers rest in his lap, intertwining with each other, I find myself fascinated with the veins in his forearms. “Like, quieter than I’ve ever seen you.” He reaches up and pokes me. “I’m not even entirely sure if you’re conscious or not.”

  I pull my gaze away from his sexy arms and shrug. “I’m not being quie
t.”

  He slides back in his chair, pulling his arms up and lacing his fingers behind his head. He is so ridiculously sexy in this position and all I want to do is throw myself on his lap. Too bad there are a dozen kids and their parents around. Jace is hell-bent on continuing to talk even though I’m content with sitting quietly. “I kind of thought we’d be talking about the situation now.”

  The situation, as he calls it, is the weird offer my mother presented to me this morning, after Jace revealed that he hadn’t talked to me about it. Apparently my boyfriend and mother have schemed against me, talked behind my back and without my knowledge and came up with what Mom considers a great plan for my future. That plan involves me signing up for Brazos Community College in exchange for Mom’s permission to move in with Jace.

  Yeah. Talk about making me want to crawl into a hole and die. My mother called Jace a week before graduation and basically backed him into a corner, telling him she knows I’m planning on moving in with him this summer. The thing is, I totally wasn’t planning on it! I mean, I was, but I hadn’t told Jace about it yet. I was still holding out hope that he would ask me to move in instead of me asking him if I could. And I sure as hell hadn’t told my mother about it. I guess she just guessed what my intentions were, and unfortunately for me, she guessed right.

  Now I’m humiliated beyond repair. I’m not exactly mad at Jace for taking her call and hearing what she had to say. It wasn’t his fault that she contacted him like that. But I’m upset and I feel betrayed that he didn’t tell me the moment it happened. When they sat me down in the kitchen after giving me my car this morning, Mom told me all about her plan and Jace just sat there and listened with me. I kept watching his facial expressions to see if he didn’t want me to move in with him, but he was a blank slate.

  Anyway, I don’t want to go to college. I don’t want my mother telling me what to do. And in case she forgot, I am eighteen now and I sure as hell don’t need her permission to move away from home. Of course, I don’t want her to hate me either. Now I’m stuck with some stupid plan my mom made for me, and a boyfriend who hasn’t implicitly told me if he’s okay with it or not. Hell, I’m not even okay with it.

  So when Jace tells me I’m being quiet, I don’t even know what to say.

  “Sorry,” eventually comes out of my mouth.

  “You don’t need to be sorry, babe.” Jace waves at Bentley, who has his hand shoved through the netting in the ball pit, waving at us. “I understand that the kids’ area of a McDonald’s isn’t exactly the best place to discuss our future. I’m just anxious for your decision.”

  “My decision?” I snap. “I don’t think you and Mom left me room to make a decision.”

  “Baby, don’t be like that. This is your life. It’s our life. What you want matters.”

  I fold my arms over my chest. “Then why is my mother involved?”

  Bentley reeks of sweat as he comes crashing into me a split second later, knocking the breath out of me. He crawls into my lap and grabs a handful of fries. “Those boys keep using the slide over and over,” he grumbles, shooting a glare toward a group of older kids who probably shouldn’t be on the playground at all.

  “Want me to beat them up?” Jace asks. Bentley breaks into an evil smile but then shakes his head. “I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

  Jace smiles at me and I smile back, our universal gesture for This isn’t over yet, but we can’t talk about it now. That’s fine with me, of course. I’m not sure I want to talk about it at all.

  Chapter 4

  The sound of whipped cream spraying out of an aerosol can makes me turn away from the first episode of Supernatural on the television. It’s Monday afternoon and Becca and I have decided to spend our summer rewatching all of our favorite shows from start to finish. She doesn’t know that I might be moving out soon, and at this point I’m not even sure if I know what my plans are. The frothy sound comes again and I glare at her.

  “You’re holding out on me, jerk.” I laugh and steal the can of whipped cream from her. She nods to the fabric shopping bag she brought over from her house. “There’s another can in there. I know I can’t trust you to use it sparingly. I also brought sprinkles?” she says as if it’s a question. “I’m not sure if we’re too old for sprinkles on our ice cream now.”

  I dig into the bag of ice cream and syrup toppings, pull out a plastic jar of heart shaped sprinkles and scatter them on top of my oversized bowl of ice cream. “If we ever get too old for sprinkles I want you to kill me.”

  Becca rolls her eyes and settles next to me on the massive bean bag couch in front of the television in my room. “Yeah right. If I killed you then Jace would kill me.”

  As we settle in to watch our show, I eat my ice cream and try to think of a way to bring up the stuff I need to talk about with my best friend. The whole moving in with Jace thing and the college thing and the stupid nagging in the pit of my stomach that’s telling me he doesn’t want me living with him since he never actually asked.

  This whole past weekend was muted with my feelings of worry and anger with my mom for letting Jace in on a matter that should have been a private one between him and me. It was, hands down, my least favorite weekend with my boyfriend. Nothing was bad—we didn’t argue or anything—but I just felt like a total loser around him. I kept waiting for him to ask me to move in and he never did. Just the thought of bringing up this subject with Becca makes me lower my head and dive my spoon back into the ice cream.

  Becca interrupts my thoughts with one of her own. “One thing we have to do this summer is throw some kick ass parties at your boyfriend’s apartment.”

  “Definitely,” I say with a smile. “If I get my way, I won’t ever be leaving his apartment.”

  Becca’s eyes widen. “Are you moving in with him?”

  I shrug. Now is as good of time as any to tell her about my situation with Mom and Jace. Becca’s expression flickers from surprise to mortification as I tell her about my secret desires to have Jace ask me to live with him and how Mom totally ruined it by getting to him before I did and demanding that I attend college.

  “That is so rude and annoying,” Becca says after my ten minute long rant on my mother. “You’re a legal adult now. I can’t believe she would butt into your life like that.”

  “TELL ME ABOUT IT,” I say before instantly realizing that Mom might hear me from the other room if I don’t stay quiet. “It was so embarrassing! Jace and I haven’t even had the official talk about moving in yet.” I run my hands through my hair, balling them into fists at the back of my head. “We have had talks about how I’m free to stay with him whenever I want to. Plus I have a lot of my stuff at his place already. I just can’t believe my freaking mother beat him to it before I did.”

  “Don’t get pissed at me for saying this,” Becca begins, “But why don’t you just go to community college and move in with Jace? I mean, I don’t even understand why you refuse to go to college in the first place.”

  My shoulders sag as I let out an exhausted sigh. “Because I’m not smart, Becca! I can’t take stupid college classes. I suck at math and would have to take remedial courses before I can even take the ones you get credit for.” I lower my forehead into my hands and stare at the carpet below my feet. “Jace doesn’t have a college degree and he does just fine.”

  Becca places a reassuring hand on my arm. “Not everything requires lots of math classes. Do what I’m doing and get a certification for something.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I say just to shut her up about it. I know that college is important for a lot of people but it isn’t important for me. All I want is a fun job that makes me happy. One that doesn’t require math. If only there were paid professions that involved watching Jace work in the hot sun with his shirt off at the motocross track. Hey, a girl can dream.

  “So how’s the fancy new car?” Becca asks during a particularly boring part of the episode where Sam and Dean aren’t on screen.

  “It’s p
retty amazing but I’m starting to wonder how I’ll ever fill it up with gas or pay the insurance without a freaking job.” Yeah, job searching was promptly put on hold since Jace was with me all weekend. Guess I should start looking first thing tomorrow morning.

  “I wish you would come get a job at the pharmacy,” Becca says. “We’re still hiring and you and I could totally work the same shift together.”

  “But it’s the evening shift,” I whine and reach for the can of whipped cream. “Evenings are the only time I can hang out with Jace.”

  “Blah blah blah,” she says, flapping her fingers and thumb as if they were my mouth. “I’m Bayleigh and all I care about is my hot famous boyfriend.”

  “You’re damn right I do,” I say as I toss my head back and empty the rest of the whipped cream into my mouth.

  “My college classes don’t start until August but even I know that shit will rot your teeth,” Becca says as she watches me look like a chipmunk with my cheeks stuffed with delicious sugary goodness. She’s studying to be a dental hygienist and I am so not ready to be lectured by her.

  I point my spoon at her in an accusatory way. “If you’re suddenly all about dental health then why did you bring over this bag full of cavity causers?”

  She shrugs. “Bayleigh, do you think I’m too bossy?”

  I lift an eyebrow and look away from the television. “No, I knew you were joking about the teeth thing just now.”

  She shakes her head. “No, I know. I just mean in general. Am I a bossy, nagging bitch? Do I think I’m better than everyone else and use my supposed superiority to look down on others?”

  I grab the remote and press the pause button, causing the characters on screen to freeze while in the middle of a life-threatening fight. “Where the hell did that come from?”

  She looks at her hands and shakes her head. “It seems like every guy I date ends up telling me that at some point in our relationship. Do you remember Blake?”

  I nod. How could I not remember Blake? He’s a year older than us and up until two weeks ago, he and Becca were in the tangled web of sort-of-dating-sort-of-not-dating. She got so sick of me asking what was up with them that I finally just let it go, despite being desperate to know what happened. The dejected look on my best friend’s face tells me that I finally get to discover why they quit talking.