‘Jelena, y-you’ve got this completely wrong,’ I stammered, blown away by what she’d said. ‘The only thing Alex kissed was the ground, because I —’
‘Pushed him away?’ Jelena said scornfully. ‘You really expect me to believe you pushed away your secret admirer, the one you were destined to be with?’
‘Alex was Aurora’s secret admirer?’
I turned to see a shocked-looking Lindsay standing behind me, an even more dumbfounded Sara with her.
‘You must be the last two people in this whole school to find out the truth,’ Jelena told them loudly. ‘Besides me, of course. Yup — Alex sent the roses, and he wrote the gushing poem. And Aurora’s standing here, trying to deny the whole thing!’ She let out a sarcastic laugh.
Jelena’s words stung like crazy, but it was the devastation in her eyes that was killing me. I had to get her to believe me.
‘Jelena, somehow the truth has got mixed up,’ I said. ‘Yes, Alex came to my house and told me he was the secret admirer. But I told him that there was no way I’d go after a guy you liked —’
‘’Cause I’m your friend,’ Jelena said in a singsong voice. ‘Spare me the story.’
‘There was no kiss!’ I cried. ‘I don’t know how this whole crazy story started, but there was no kiss. I swear!’
‘Sorry, Aurora, but I don’t believe you.’ Jelena looked away. ‘And I don’t think anyone else here does either.’
I looked at the faces in the crowd. A lot of them looked confused, lost in early Monday morning haze. Others wore intrigued expressions: here was fresh gossip of the best kind — a betrayal of the code of sisterhood. Half the girls gathered in the courtyard were glaring at me already.
Lindsay took a step towards me. ‘I believe her.’
‘Lindsay, are you sure you want to do that?’ Jelena said quietly. ‘She’s stolen my boyfriend. Who’s to say yours won’t be next?’
Lindsay looked uncertainly at me.
‘Remember how insistent she was about you not taking Tyler back?’ Jelena pressed. ‘Don’t you think it might have been for a different reason? She obviously gets a kick out of this sort of thing.’
‘It was so Tyler would feel truly sorry about the way he behaved —’ I started.
Jelena cut me off. ‘You don’t want to lose him again, do you? Lindsay?’
Lindsay stepped over to Jelena’s side.
‘Lindsay, please believe me …’ But I knew it was hopeless. Jelena had hit Lindsay’s weak spot.
Sara took my arm. ‘Well, I believe Aurora. The whole story’s a bunch of crap. She would never touch anyone else’s man.’
Thank you. I smiled at her, my only ally, as the first bell sounded.
‘Come on, Lindsay, let’s go.’ Jelena swept away, a muddled-looking Lindsay in tow.
The crowd around us regretfully broke up.
‘I can’t believe everyone’s listening to this ridiculous story,’ I said as a group of girls walked by with their noses in the air. ‘I mean, I’ve never looked twice at anyone’s boyfriend and they know it.’
Sara rolled her eyes. ‘They just love the idea of a juicy rumour. Don’t take any notice of them. The whole thing will blow over. Let’s get to class.’
I sat in my maths class under the glare of accusing looks, surrounded by whispers.
‘How low can you get? Taking your best friend’s boyfriend!’
‘Now she’s a model, I guess she thinks she can have anything she wants.’
‘Please, it’s a Facebook competition. We should write some stuff on that wall about her.’
How was everyone so ready to believe that I’d do what they were accusing me of? Not only Jelena, but Lindsay AND the whole school body? If they could believe this, who was to say that Cassie — who was at a dentist’s appointment — would be on my side when she got back? Or Hayden?
I felt like crying. This wasn’t just going to blow over. I had to take action.
‘I’m going to do something about this,’ I said when Sara met me outside the classroom at break.
‘What?’
‘Talk to Alex. Somehow the story about us has got completely mixed up, and maybe he can tell me how.’
I marched outside, Sara behind me, and headed for the table where Alex was sitting with a group of guys.
One of them nudged him. ‘Ooh, Alex, look who’s coming over.’
Alex gave me a wink. ‘Hey, babe. Come for another kiss?’
I stopped short as they all laughed at me. ‘You.’ The truth dawned on me. ‘You made up the rumour.’
I couldn’t believe it. I’d thought maybe he might have mentioned the incident to someone who’d then got the story twisted, but I’d never considered the fact that he might have spread the lies himself.
‘Rumour?’ Alex grinned lazily. ‘I wasn’t aware of any rumour. Just some people discussing the mind-blowing kiss we had.’
The guys gave him high fives. I bunched my fists, struggling to keep my cool.
‘I want you to tell everyone the truth,’ I said, pointing at the gathering crowd behind me. ‘The real truth about what happened yesterday.’
Sara snickered. ‘Yeah, not the Alex-wishes version.’
The crowd tittered.
‘Alright, I’ll admit that I haven’t exactly been honest,’ Alex said, holding up his hands. ‘The truth is, Aurora kissed me.’
‘I what?’
The crowd exploded in whispers. I felt like hitting him.
‘She planted one right on me,’ Alex said, and laughed.
‘You —’
‘Don’t feel embarrassed, babe,’ he cut in. ‘I like a girl who goes after what she wants.’
‘You’re lying.’ Hayden pushed his way through the crowd and stood beside me.
Hayden believed me! I shot him a grateful look.
Alex let out a snort. ‘What would you know about it, Paris? We all know why you’re sore about it though.’
‘I know that you were in the guys’ locker room on Friday when everyone was discussing how they’d never been lucky enough to kiss Aurora,’ Hayden replied. ‘And I know that you bet some of the guys in there, including the ones sitting with you now, that you’d be the one to actually do it.’
My jaw dropped.
‘Yeah, so?’ Alex said, looking unworried. ‘I knew that I had the best chance of scoring a kiss, being the secret admirer and all. Why not make some cash out of it?’
‘Are you for real?’ Sara spluttered.
I saw Jelena join the outskirts of the crowd.
‘Okay,’ Hayden said flatly, ‘if you are Aurora’s secret admirer, why don’t you quote a few lines from the poem you wrote for her?’
I looked at him, feeling confused. How was Alex reciting the poem going to prove anything? Then I noticed that Alex’s smile had faded slightly. The crowd had gone very quiet.
‘Go on then,’ Hayden said. ‘We’re all waiting.’
‘She’s like the stars,’ Alex began loudly. ‘White, shining high in the sky —’
‘Wrong,’ Hayden said. ‘The lines are “Aurora, she’s like the stars, far above me …”’
I gasped. How was it Alex didn’t know the words but Hayden did?
Hayden continued, without looking at me. ‘“I stand transfixed. She’s my Alpha, radiating light across my world of sky.”’ He paused. ‘Care to go on, Alex?’
Alex laughed. ‘What does that prove anyway?’
‘It proves that you were lying about being her secret admirer,’ Hayden said. ‘And if you were lying about that, then I’d say it’s pretty likely that you were lying about the kiss too. In fact, I know you’re lying, because I saw Aurora push you into a puddle when you went to kiss her.’
The crowd burst into laughter. I knew no-one would believe Alex’s story now.
I felt dizzy from all the revelations. Alex wasn’t my secret admirer? That meant he was still out there somewhere …
‘I know who sent Aurora those things,’ Hayden said. �
��And it wasn’t you.’
I was going to pass out. I was going to sink down onto the courtyard stones …
‘Who is it?’ I dimly heard Lindsay ask above the roaring in my ears.
‘It’s someone who sees her as more than a fashion model who can up his status,’ Hayden said, looking pointedly at Alex. ‘Someone who meant every word of that poem and the message.’
‘Who is it?’ the crowd roared.
My own heart shouted the same question, then went into overdrive as Hayden turned to face me.
‘It’s a friend of mine,’ he said.
The bell rang and the crowd dispersed. I vaguely noticed Alex slinking off.
I stared at Hayden. ‘A friend of yours?’ I whispered. ‘Who?’
I wanted it to be you, my heart said.
‘I can’t tell you right now,’ Hayden said. ‘The whole thing will be revealed to you really soon — I promise!’ He grasped my hand briefly, then let go. ‘I’ve got to get to a Student Council meeting. We’ll talk later.’
‘But —’
He dashed off before I could say another word.
I stood staring after him, and caught sight of Jelena, ten metres away. Her gaze met mine.
‘Jelena!’
Before I could take a step towards her, she broke eye contact and rushed off.
‘Hi!’ Cassie called. She came bounding through the school gate, hand in hand with a beaming Scott. ‘I just got out of the dentist’s. Scott came with me to hold my hand — isn’t that sweet? Did I miss anything?’
CHAPTER 32
The World’s Greatest Romance
‘How could Alex make up such a lie?’ Cassie gasped at lunch.
‘Such a horrible lie,’ Lindsay added.
Lindsay had come up to me first thing at lunch, a massive apology bouquet (which she’d obviously cut class to get) in her arms. Her eyes had been so distraught that I’d forgiven her instantly.
‘Male ego.’ Sara rolled her eyes and took a bite of her sandwich. ‘It knows no bounds. He obviously wanted to date the most popular girl in school, who, up until last week, was Jelena. When that looked like it was going to change, he ran after Aurora.’
‘The awful thing is, everyone believed him.’ I shivered as I remembered everyone’s accusing looks.
‘Even me,’ a cool voice said. ‘How stupid was that?’
‘Jelena!’ I turned around to face her.
She gave me a small smile, and pulled off her sunglasses, revealing eyes that were red around the edges. She looked at me uncertainly. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you straight away, but I was embarrassed. I just felt so stupid for believing Alex’s lie, and accusing you in front of everybody! There’s no excuse for it, but I liked him so much — I’ve never felt that way about anyone. So when I heard all those messages on my phone, I just lost it. What killed me the most was thinking that you’d betrayed me.’ Her eyes misted up. ‘’Cause you’re my best friend and, despite all my ambition, I would never do that to you. Loyalty is everything to me.’
We looked at each other for a moment before throwing our arms around each other.
‘Can you forgive me?’ Jelena cried.
‘Jelena, she’s hugging you,’ Sara responded. ‘What do you think her answer is?’
‘Just promise me that if you ever hear anything odd about me again,’ I said, ‘you’ll ask me first!’
‘Okay.’ Jelena wiped her eyes and sat down at the edge of the picnic rug.
It would obviously take us both a while to get over our respective hurts, but I wasn’t going to let Alex’s stupidity destroy something as important as our friendship.
‘How are you feeling about Alex?’ Cassie asked as she handed Jelena a cup of lemonade.
‘Pretty upset,’ Jelena replied. ‘But the fact that his social standing has plummeted is some consolation. His lie about being Aurora’s secret admirer has shown the entire female population of Jefferson High just how desperate he is to look good. No-one’s going to go near him for a long time.’
We all burst into laughter.
Lindsay sighed. ‘What a morning. Alex’s accusations, a schoolyard showdown, the revelation that Aurora’s secret admirer is a friend of Hayden’s —’
‘What?’ Cassie cried, knocking over the bottle of lemonade.
Lindsay, Sara and Jelena all tried to explain at once as they mopped up the soft drink.
Cassie stared at me. ‘How do you feel about that?’
I couldn’t answer. My feelings were too jumbled up to put into words. My secret admirer was one of Hayden’s friends, but it was Hayden himself I wanted to throw my arms around and never let go. Hayden Paris, who’d helped right my world twice this morning, whose smile made my heart leap. But he obviously didn’t feel the same way. Why else would he willingly help his friend to woo and win me?
The walk home that afternoon was a miserable one. As I trudged up the driveway, I saw the NAD sitting on the front step, waiting for me.
‘Dad …’ I wasn’t sure what to say. I was mortified to remember myself screaming after his departing taxi. ‘You’re back.’
‘Yes, honey.’ His face looked tired, not angry. ‘I shouldn’t have gone.’
‘Dad, no. You had an important presentation. I was just so upset about Snookums that I wasn’t myself.’
‘I wasn’t myself either.’ Dad frowned. ‘Dana broke up with me minutes before you arrived —’
‘Oh no!’ I cried. ‘Dad, I’m so sorry!’
He gave me a sceptical look. ‘Aurora, you were hardly her biggest fan.’
‘No,’ I admitted. The fact that the woman who’d called my aura black was no longer part of my home life was hardly very distressing. ‘But I am sorry that she hurt you. What was her reason?’
‘She broke up with me because of a tarot reading.’ Dad’s voice was bitter.
‘A tarot reading?’
‘Stupid cards,’ Dad muttered. ‘Anyway, honey, I’m sorry I was insensitive about Snookums. I know it’s hard on you with me being away all the time. I’m going to try harder to spend more time with you.’
I felt a lump rise in my throat. My dad wasn’t going to leave me. It was time to let that old fear go.
As Dad headed inside, my phone jangled with a text.
I told Carlos about you. We both want you to come for dinner next week. Mum xx
It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. Perhaps my mother would never love me the way I wanted her to — my heart gave a squeeze as I considered it — but maybe there was some kind of dynamic there that was worth keeping and working on. She was reaching out, in her way, and I still wanted to close the crevasse between us, even if certain cracks in the surface always remained.
‘Aurora,’ a voice called.
I looked up to see Hayden dashing up my drive.
‘I have a message for you from your secret admirer. He wanted me to deliver it personally, to ensure there are no more cases of mistaken identity.’
He handed me a silver envelope. I looked at it uncertainly. How could I tell him that my heart was breaking?
‘He wants you to open it as soon as possible,’ Hayden said.
‘I … okay.’ I slowly unsealed it and pulled out another creamy sheet of paper written on with deep blue ink.
To the beautiful Aurora — I want to tell you who I am and exactly how I feel. Just like Much Ado About Nothing, all will be revealed in the end. Meet me on the school stage at 6 pm. Love, your secret admirer.
‘He wants to meet me tonight?’ I stared at the message.
‘He has a surprise for you,’ Hayden said. ‘Don’t worry, he’s a friend of mine, so it’s safe. I got permission for him to use the stage after hours. I pulled a few strings with the school board.’
‘Hayden, I …’
The one I want to be with is you.
‘He wants you to be there more than anything in the world.’ Hayden’s voice was low.
If I said no and hurt his friend, I’d also be hurting
Hayden. I couldn’t bear to do that.
‘I’ll be there,’ I said, somehow managing to conjure up a smile. ‘I promise.’
He smiled back and headed down the driveway. I went inside, feeling like I wanted to cry.
I needed support. It was time to confide in someone.
‘Cass!’ I cried as soon as I heard her bright ‘Hello!’ on the other end of the phone. ‘My secret admirer wants to meet me tonight.’
‘Oh my god! That’s fantastic!’
‘No, it’s not, because —’
‘You need help getting ready, right? I’ll be right over!’
‘Cass, wait —’
The line went dead. I stood clutching the phone in the living room. I guessed the whole I-know-you-won’t-believe-this-but-I’ve-fallen-for-Hayden-Paris thing would probably be better said in person. Just in case she passed out from shock.
Ten minutes later, there were excited thumps at the door. Cass Shields, life counsellor extraordinaire, was finally here, and she’d help me figure out exactly what to do about this whole crazy, mixed-up, excruciating situation in the — I looked at my watch — one hour and forty-five minutes before I was due to meet my destiny.
‘Surprise!’
Cass, Lindsay, Jelena and Sara stood on the front step, grinning at me.
‘Your secret admirer’s revealing himself!’ Sara shrieked.
‘About time.’ Jelena rolled her eyes.
‘We brought hair curlers AND straighteners!’ Lindsay said, wielding one in each hand.
‘And perfume. You’ve got to have an intriguing scent,’ Jelena said. ‘Are you going to let us in?’
She didn’t wait for an answer. Next thing I knew, the four of them were pushing me inside and upstairs, past a gaping NAD. Excited shrieks resounded through the house.
Sara bounded into my room. ‘Let the makeover begin!’
‘Okay, first decision: outfit.’ Jelena whipped open my wardrobe door. ‘We want something eye-catching.’
‘Guys —’
‘How about this?’ Sara tossed me the tiniest black boob tube.
Cassie looked at the garment doubtfully. ‘It’s a bit revealing.’
How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You Page 33