He leaned back in his chair and sprawled out his legs like she’d seen her brother do a million times. It always bothered her with Zach because he ate up all the free space, but it was different with Talon.
“No response? That’s not like you,” he said.
It wasn’t. But she was speechless.
He reached over the table. “Thanks for getting this for me. You’re a peach.” Ignoring her confused look, he grabbed her drink and took a long sip. He added a satisfied sound at the end with an exaggerated wink.
It was the wink that jolted Keeley back. “Listen, Talon,” she began, fingers drumming against the table. “Not everything revolves around you. You can’t just —”
“There you are,” he interrupted, his knee grazing hers. “I was wondering if I had the right girl, but I guess I just need to make you mad.”
Keeley jerked her knee away. “You are so … so …”
“So wonderful? Majestic?” He lifted the cup till the straw was touching her bottom lip. “You want a sip?”
She pushed the cup away. “I was going to say infuriating.”
“But it got you talking.”
He didn’t get it. That girl on the phone wasn’t who she was, but who she wanted to be. How could she explain that to him without sounding crazy?
“Hey, want to get out of here?” he asked.
She wasn’t sure that was such a great idea. She felt comfortable at Java Hut. “And go where?”
He jerked his head to the pier. “We can walk around. See what’s happening.”
She nodded. It was worth a shot. Then she remembered Nicky and their plans. “Actually, I’m supposed to meet my friend at the arcade after this.”
“So you don’t want to go, then?” he asked. She couldn’t tell if he was disappointed.
“Um, well … you could come with if you want. I’m supposed to meet her in half an hour.”
“Sounds good to me. Better bring your A game. I dominate at air hockey.”
They left the safety of Java Hut, and Keeley felt as awkward as before. She cleared her throat and tried to think of something to say. “So ... how was football camp?” she said as they walked toward the beach.
“Exhausting, but worth it. We got a new kid who’s a great punter.” He paused. “Wait. Are you a football fan? We never really discussed that.”
“I kind of have to be since my brother plays.”
“I didn’t know he played.” Then Talon gave a short laugh. “I love that I don’t know. Everyone wants to talk football, but with you …”
She completely understood. He saw her, not Zach’s sister. “It’s nice, isn’t it? I love my brother, but I don’t want to always be talking about the great Zach Brewer.”
Talon stopped abruptly. “Brewer?”
“We’re twins. Everyone says we look the same, except Zach got the dimples and I didn’t. See?” She pointed to her cheek and grinned.
“Shit,” he muttered. He glanced at her, his eyes widening as if seeing her for the first time, then looked away.
She bit the inside of her mouth. He looked angry. Did he know Zach? Had Zach done something to him? Worried, she reached out to touch him, but he flinched. Her hand dropped and she felt her heart do the same. “Are you okay?”
Jamming a hand in the front pocket of his jeans, he pulled out her phone and gave her an unreadable look. Grabbing his phone from her hand, he said, “It was nice meeting you, Keeley.” Then he placed her phone in her open palm and strode away.
“Where are you going?” she called out. She thought he was going to turn back, but he didn’t. Soon, he was no more than a speck in the distance.
Confused and hurt, Keeley called Nicky from her own phone.
“He just left? With no explanation?” asked Nicky.
“Like he couldn’t get away fast enough.” Keeley ignored the people milling around. Java Hut was starting to get busy, but she stayed where she was. Maybe a small part of her was hoping Talon would come back.
“It was probably for the best. Did you really want to hang out with someone like that?”
“Someone like what?”
“You know, the overconfident guy who has testosterone to spare.”
“He’s not like that.” Or he was, but it wasn’t all he was.
“Is he hot?”
Silence.
“My point exactly. His looks are blinding you.”
It wasn’t just his looks that caught her attention. There was something else that called to her — a complexity she hadn’t noticed at first. She thought of his willingness to help her. She thought of his issues with his father. Yeah. There was depth. “He ... surprises me.” Keeley tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Pretty stupid, huh?”
“Not stupid if that’s the way you feel.” Nicky cleared her throat. “Maybe you should call him.”
“And say what?”
“‘Hey, Talon, want to be friends?’”
She thought they were friends. What a joke.
Keeley sighed a little as she pulled into the school parking lot. First day of senior year and her last first day at Edgewood High. She wanted to savor the experience, but her heart wasn’t in it.
Zach glanced over. “Nervous?”
“Didn’t sleep much last night.” She’d been rereading her texts with Talon. Maybe she’d imagined their connection.
“That’s what happens when you procrastinate. You did finish the stats homework, right?”
She didn’t correct him. Better he thought it was about homework than a guy. “Everything’s done.” Thanks to Talon. She couldn’t have finished without him.
Zach gently tugged a lock of her hair. “You sure you’re okay? You look sad.”
His concern touched her. “Yeah, I’m fine. And hey, good news. You can take the car. Nicky’ll take me home.”
“You sure? Cort said he would drive me after practice.”
“I want to go with Nicky. Haven’t seen her much.”
“I noticed. What’s up with that? You’re usually joined at the hip.”
She didn’t want to explain. Not to him. “You wouldn’t get it.”
“Try me. Back in the day, we were the ones joined at the hip.”
The memory made her smile. “We even shared the same blankie. Mom had to cut it in two when we were old enough for our own beds. But I would always sneak in when I got scared.”
“And you hogged the covers. Man, you used to come to me for everything.”
“Yeah, I did,” she said fondly. Then she playfully nudged his arm. “But then you got into football and became too cool.”
His grin faded. “We better go. Don’t want to be late.”
They got out and she handed him the keys. She was halfway across the parking lot when he called her name and said, “Catch.”
With her lack of hand-eye coordination, she completely missed, but luckily it landed by her feet. It was Zach’s Batman eraser. The one he’d given her the first day of kindergarten. It was a nub now, barely enough to use. She hadn’t realized he’d kept it.
“For luck,” he told her. “This is our last year together. Let’s make it the best, okay?”
She pushed her sadness to the side and gave Zach a firm nod. They’d make this the best year yet.
Keeley could feel the excitement in the air as groups gathered in the hallways and friends rushed to find one another. When she got to her locker, Nicky was already there. She was wearing a cute dress, but wore sneakers so they could match. Nicky pulled a paper out of her binder. “Brace yourself. We only have one class together.”
“How do you know?”
Nicky waved the paper in front of her face. “I got your schedule when I picked up mine.”
“Don’t you have to show a photo ID?”
“I might have lied and
said you had a bad case of the Cochin.”
“Cochin?” Keeley frowned. “What is that?”
“I made it up. Told the administrator it’s a rare type of virus that you can only get through chickens.”
“So now people think I’m infected with some type of chicken flu?”
“You’re welcome.”
Keeley shoved a couple of notebooks into her locker. “And you’re crazy. How did you even come up with that?”
“Well, you are too chicken to call Talon.” Nicky folded her hands under her armpits and started flapping her arms like wings.
“I am not!”
“Did you call him?”
Keeley slammed her locker shut. “Forget about him.”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
The phone went both ways. He could have called her. “What class do we have together?”
“Sixth period AP English with Mrs. Miller,” Nicky told her.
Well, that was one class Keeley could look forward to. But first period? Statistics.
On her way to class, Keeley saw a boy trip and fall. His stack of books fell to the ground, making a loud sound. People snickered, but no one stopped to help. To Keeley’s surprise, it was Gavin. Her brother’s freshman buddy.
She picked up a book. AP economics. The same one she had. “Are these Zach’s things?” she asked, handing it to him.
Gavin artfully arranged it on top of the others. “He wants me to store these till after lunch. Thanks for the help.”
“Rough morning?”
He shrugged, refusing to meet her gaze. “It’s okay.”
“It gets better, you know.”
“What does?”
“Getting ordered around by the senior football players. They’re usually toughest at the beginning of the year.” She remembered Zach’s first year. He’d been worried, too, but they got through it together.
“How would you know?” asked Gavin.
“Who do you think helped Zach? One time during finals week, his mentor called in the middle of the night and wanted fast food. We rode our bikes all over town and finally found a twenty-four-hour burrito stand.”
“My cousin told me what to expect when I signed up. I just thought he was exaggerating.”
Keeley knew his misery like it was her own. She leaned in and whispered, “I’ll let you in on a secret. The whole point of this is to force you to bond with your freshman teammates.”
“I can bond without having to carry all of Zach’s books. Your brother is bossy.”
“That’s no secret. He bosses me around even though I’m technically older.” Gavin’s gaze moved to something behind her. It was a poster of their high school’s mascot crushing Crosswell’s mascot. “Ah, the famous rivalry. You know about that, right?”
“I’ve heard it’s intense, especially between the football teams.”
“That’s an understatement.” It’d become worse since Zach joined the team. He seemed to encourage the rivalry.
The warning bell rang.
“Before you go.” She wrote a couple numbers on a blank page in her notebook and tore it out. “My locker and combo. Use it. It’s in the middle of campus. It’ll be easier to store your stuff.”
Gavin looked at her like she’d just given him a million dollars. “I’ll make it up to you somehow. What do you want? Money? Food? My kidneys?”
“I’m good on all three, thanks. See you around.” She texted Zach as soon as Gavin disappeared around a corner.
Go easy on Gavin.
Chill. Today he’s only going to carry my books and get me lunch off campus.
Off campus? Why?
Usually Zach got pizza or burritos from the school cafeteria.
Heard there’s some nasty chicken virus going around. Not taking any chances on the school food.
Keeley burst out laughing. Nicky’s fake flu just went viral.
The day passed in a blur of back-to-school paperwork and what-I-did-last-summer conversations. And in the building fear of what she was going to do when the year was over. By the time she got home, she was in a full-fledged panic. Naturally, that was when Talon called.
She resented the flurry of nerves hiding in her stomach. “What do you want?”
“Keeley.” He sounded slightly off. “Guess what? I’ve been drinking!”
So he drunk-dialed her. He knew she dealt with her brother’s drinking all the time, so he ... What? Thought she’d do the same with him? “Goodbye, Talon.”
“No! Wait!” he cried out. “I wanted to ask something.”
To forgive him, maybe? Not that she was sure she would.
“I need an honest opinion,” he said, voice solemn. There was whispering in the background, and then he asked, “Boxers versus briefs. Which do you like better?”
Disgusted, she hung up. Her cell phone rang again approximately three seconds later and she answered against her better judgment. “What?” she asked. Her tone so frosty her phone could grow icicles.
“I’m sorry! I was just kiddin’! That’s not what I wanted to ask you. Let’s say I was really, really … really drunk and I called you.”
“You mean like right now?”
“Would you pick me up?”
The answer was easy. “No.”
The playfulness in his voice was gone, hostility taking over. “Why not? You pick up your douchebag of a twin all the time.”
“Don’t bring my brother into this.” At least Zach never left her.
“I asked around. Learned all about you. ’Cuz I — Oomph!” There was a loud noise, and then his voice cut off.
“Talon? Talon! Are you okay?”
In the background, Keeley heard a scraping noise and then Talon muttering under his breath. “Stupid chair. Wasn’t there before.”
“Where are you?”
“At a friend’s house. I just walked to the backyard. I need to sit down.” He paused. “What was I saying?”
“How amazing you think I am.”
“You are, you know. Keeley Anne Brewer. Twin of the famous football star Zachary Brewer. Senior at Edgewood. Loves reading. But I don’t get something. It doesn’t make sense. How come no one knows you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your texts.”
She sucked in a breath.
“No one gets it. They think you’re …” He paused. She could hear the harsh sound of his breathing. “Why are you so different on here? Is it me? Are you different with me?”
She’d wrestled with the same question. She knew she’d acted different in the texts. Why did Talon bring out this other side of her? More confident and flirty?
Well, she wasn’t admitting anything to him. Not after the way he’d treated her. “Of course not,” she told him. Then she asked what she’d been dying to know. “Why did you leave me at the Hut the other day? I thought everything was going great.”
“Does it even matter? Not like we’re going to see each other again.”
“We could if we wanted to.”
“We can’t.”
“Then why the hell did you call me?” He was yanking her around and it wasn’t fair.
“I don’t know! I just wanted to — Argh!” he cried out in frustration. There was a loud bang, like something had been kicked over.
“Talon?” The line between them felt fragile. “What did you want —”
“Just forget it.” With that, he hung up.
“All right, pens down, everyone. Pass your papers forward,” Mrs. Miller told them.
Keeley’s was riddled with crossed-out words and arrows, but she felt good about what she wrote. Then she saw Zach’s paper, since he was sitting behind her. It was neat and concise. How’d he do that? They were twins. Weren’t they suppose
d to be alike? “You’re giving me a complex,” she whispered to him.
“I messed up in a couple parts.” He always said that, and then he got an A. Zach leaned forward. “Hey, can I have the car today? I want to stay after practice and work on my throws.”
“Didn’t you stay late yesterday?” And the day before? Zach knew he shouldn’t overwork his arm. He could get injured and then he wouldn’t be able to play.
“I know what I’m doing,” he argued.
She glanced at Nicky, who made a what-can-you-do gesture. “Fine. You can have the car.” But when he got home, they were going to talk.
Mrs. Miller stood up from her desk. “You’re seniors now and that means college applications are coming.” A collective groan went up. “In the next couple of months, we’ll be working on your admission essays. These essays are important. They can be the difference between getting accepted or rejected. Now, you can write about anything — your favorite TV show, a unique hobby, a personal story — anything that shows who you are. I even had a student write about why he hated broccoli.”
Someone called out, “Did he get in?”
“He did. See, it’s not about writing how much you love to study or bragging about your GPA. This is your chance to show what those test scores, grades and extracurricular activities can’t. So, this weekend, I want you to get started.” She held up a stack of papers. “Here’s a list of prompts to help you if you’re stuck. Be sure to pick one up on your way out.”
It was a relief her grades wouldn’t be the sole factor colleges used to make decisions. An essay could be Keeley’s chance to prove she wasn’t just ... average.
When the bell rang, Keeley turned to Nicky. “Can I get a ride home?”
Nicky became apologetic. “I kind of already made plans. I’m meeting that college guy I was telling you about.”
Keeley tried to look happy, she really did, but thoughts of Talon and the pier made it hard. She replied as cheerfully as she could manage. “That’s okay, I’ll find someone else. Go. Have fun. Text me the details.”
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