I can’t hear what he’s saying, but from the looks of it, he’s laying it on thick. The girls are smiling and giggling and sneaking peeks at our table. I cringe, wondering what he’s telling them. I groan when he waves me over.
“Yo, Jake! C’mere for a sec!”
“Go on. You don’t want to leave them hanging.” Austin prods.
I scowl and wad my napkin, throwing it down on the table, then trudge over. With a sour look on my face, my shoulders hunched, and my hands in my pockets, I must look like the opposite of Dylan.
“What do you think, girls? Is my friend here more Abercrombie & Fitch or American Eagle?” Dylan holds his hands out like I’m a display model.
Half the girls say one thing, and half say the other. This, of course, sets off a round of giggling. They fawn over me for a few minutes, cooing about my attributes and discussing my style. Being in a group must make them braver about speaking their minds, or maybe just more idiotic. They sound like vacuous Barbie dolls. I prefer being yelled at by KC to this drivel.
“I guess you better go to both stores and see which one you like best,” one of them suggests.
“Can you show us where they’re at?” Dylan asks, and the girls crinkle their eyes and exchange goofy glances.
“Yeah, sure. Why not? We’re done here, right?” One of the brunettes stands up and grabs her tray, and the others follow her lead.
“Hey guys, these girls are gonna show us where the stores are,” Dylan calls out to Austin and Connor. They get up and come over, and the girls get even more moony-eyed, if that’s possible.
“I’m Dylan, and these are my friends Jake, Austin, and Connor.” Dylan points to each of us in turn, and the girls all repeat our names. It sounds like we’re in an echo chamber.
“What are your names?” Austin gives them his movie star smile, and I swear they swoon.
They each introduce themselves, but I don’t bother trying to remember any of them.
We walk en masse down the hall to Abercrombie, then the girls start picking out clothes for each of us.
“This would bring out the green in your eyes. Why don’t you try it on?” one of the blondes says, draping a dark olive henley over my chest. What was her name? Brandy, Bethany? Something with a B, I think. She looks like a Bubbles to me.
“Oh yeah, I like that one,” the redhead says, and several of the others nod their heads in agreement like dashboard bobbleheads.
“What about these?” A black-haired, asian girl with porcelain skin picks up some jeans and holds them out to me.
“Uh, sure, yeah.” I stick out my arm, and they start piling clothes on it.
“Why don’t you go try some of that on then come out and let us see it?”
I nod and head for the changing rooms, eager to get away from them for a minute. But as soon as I come out, they’re buzzing all around me again like flies at a picnic. I’m tempted to swat them.
“I like this shirt, Jake. What do you think?” the blonde girl asks.
“It feels a little tight.” I pinch at the material, wiggling uncomfortably. It’s a size too small and clinging to every inch of me.
Bubbles runs her hand over my chest, grinning. “No! It looks good this way! We can see your muscles.”
“And those jeans make your butt look great.” The tall brunette eyes me hungrily. I tense, wondering if she’s going to grope my ass.
“Okay, I’ll get these.” I dash back into the dressing room.
“What about you? Aren’t you going to try on anything?” The brown-haired girl asks Austin as I’m coming out again.
“Nah, I like to let my girlfriend pick my clothes out.” He runs a hand through his longish, blond hair. Doesn’t he know girls think that’s a turn on?
“Yup, me too,” Connor croaks awkwardly.
“That’s so sweet!” she says, but I can tell she’s disappointed. “So then why didn’t you bring your girlfriends with you?”
“Jake and Dylan just broke up with their girls, so we thought we’d take them out, show them a good time.” Austin waves a hand at us.
“Aw, that’s too bad.” She sticks out her bottom lip and turns her attention back towards me. Another girl heads for Dylan.
“Yeah, we’re gonna go to the batting cages next and take it out on some baseballs,” I quickly say, hoping to fend them off before they invite themselves to hang out with us.
She pulls back, and she and her friends glance awkwardly between each other like they’re making some kind of decision without speaking. “Well, do you want some company?”
“I think I just need a guys’ night, but thanks for the wardrobe advice,” I answer before anyone else has a chance to. Dylan frowns at me, but I’m really not interested in anyone but KC right now, so there’s no point leading them on.
“Oh, okay, then. Maybe another night?” She still looks hopeful.
“Yeah, sure, maybe we’ll run into each other again some time,” I say, not wanting to lead her on. At this point, I can’t imagine ever wanting to go out with any of them.
“Can we get your numbers?” Dylan pipes up, trying to keep me from ruining all our efforts.
“Yeah, sure!” the girls parrot and start exchanging digits. I pull out my phone and tap at the screen, but I don’t actually save any of the numbers.
“Well, I better go pay for this.” I hold up the clothes, trying to give them the hint that I’m ready to leave.
“I guess we’ll see you around then.” They wave goodbye and head out without us, on to the next opportunity.
“You idiot! What’d you go and do that for?” Dylan whacks me in the shoulder as soon as they’re out of earshot.
“I wasn’t interested in any of them. They’re all brainless lemmings who don’t care about anything but hair and makeup.”
“What, you want a tomboy who doesn’t make any effort? Who cares if that’s what they like? It’s working for them. Those girls were smokin’ hot!”
“He prefers emo chicks now, remember?” Austin says.
“It’s not that, it’s just…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Nobody measures up to KC. I feel the same way whenever I go out with anyone but Macy,” Dylan says in a surprising show of sensitivity.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” I toss the clothes on the nearest table.
“Aren’t you gonna buy those? Olivia said they make your butt look good.” Austin winks at me.
I scowl at him. “Do you think they’ll win over KC?”
Dylan smirks. “Probably not, but maybe she’ll be less likely to want to kick your ass if it looks better.”
I slug him in the shoulder and walk out without buying them.
“Where to next?” Austin asks when we get back out into the hallway.
I open my mouth to say, “home,” but Connor beats me.
“I still want to get a present for Kerri. Let’s go to a jewelry store.”
“Yeah, girls like jewelry. Maybe we’ll find some better options there, since you didn’t like the last group of total hotties.” Austin makes a face at me.
There’s a Claire’s nearby, so we head for it. They’re playing a Kidz Bop version of a Beyonce song, it smells like strawberry bubble gum, and it’s full of twelve-year-olds. They gawk at us and skitter around, pointing and giggling and whispering to each other.
“Does anybody else feel really out of place in here?” Austin mutters, picking up a pair of glittery, unicorn earrings and holding them up to his lobes with a grimace.
“Yeah, I like my women to have at least hit puberty.” Dylan sneers as he tries to avoid knocking down the jewelry displays with his broad shoulders.
I head for the St. Patrick’s Day clearance section. “What’s your budget, Connor?” I ask, holding up a necklace with a green rhinestone hanging from it.
He takes it from me and turns it around to look at the price tag. “It’s a little more than $5.” He wrinkles his nose. “I don’t think this is the kind of stuff that will impre
ss Kerri.”
“Maybe we should go to Zales or one of the department stores,” I suggest.
“Good idea.” Connor puts the cheap necklace back and we head out in search of some place a little fancier.
While we’re walking, a flash of black catches my eye, and I screech to a halt, causing the other guys to crash into me.
“What’d you stop for?” Dylan grumbles, rubbing his arm like he got a bruise from bumping into me.
“I thought I saw… something.” I crane my neck to look into Hot Topic, and the guys follow my gaze.
When I catch another glimpse, my feet automatically start moving in that direction, but I stop suddenly and my shoulders slump when I realize I’m mistaken.
“You thought that was KC?” Dylan snickers and nods towards the dude in Hot Topic with chin-length brown hair wearing a black tee, black cargo pants, and black combat boots.
“It looked like her from the back.” I wince when he turns the rest of the way around and I can see his pasty, white skin and multiple facial piercings.
Dylan rolls his eyes at me. “You’re pathetic, you know that? You had half a dozen hot girls fawning over you a few minutes ago, and you’re caught up on a girl that dresses like Marilyn Manson. You need to get over her, dude! She’s not that great. Why do you like her, anyway? She seems like a bitch to me.”
I shake my head. He just doesn’t know her like I do. She’s so much more than the image she presents to the world. “You wouldn’t understand.”
We find a jewelry store that has a necklace Connor likes, a Claddagh symbol set with a small emerald. The grin on his face when he sees it makes me just as green with envy. Why can’t I have a relationship like their’s where making us both happy is as easy as buying her the right necklace? Connor forks over a wad of cash and they gift wrap the necklace in a shiny box with a red ribbon.
“Where to next?” Connor asks, swinging the little bag with his treasure.
“We got food, we got the necklace, can we just get out of here?” My voice sounds a little whiny, but this is not my idea of a good time.
“Why don’t we go back to your place and set up a Tinder account? The right girl for you might not be hanging out at the mall, but she’s out there somewhere,” Dylan says.
“Oh, she’s here, all right.” I grab Dylan’s arm, and he grunts and looks at my hand then follows my gaze down the hallway.
KC is walking down the hall, sandwiched between Kerri and Mia. She’s smiling and laughing like she doesn’t have a care in the world, and she looks beautiful even though it tears at me to know she’s not missing me. When she sees us, she stops in her tracks, and her happiness immediately vanishes.
“Well, hello ladies.” Austin grins at them.
I tense, expecting him to reach for Mia and kiss her, but I guess he’s smart enough to know better than to do that in front of me right now. The last thing I need is for Austin and Connor to make out with their girlfriends while KC and I stare awkwardly at each other.
“What are you guys doing here?” Kerri asks, wrinkling up her freckles.
“Looking for babes.” Dylan smirks. Am I imagining things, or did KC flinch at that?
Austin jabs him in the side with an elbow, but it’s too late. KC is already curling her lip in revulsion.
I wince and look at her. “That’s not what I’m doing.”
“I don’t care, Jake. Go out with whoever you want. Why should it matter to me?” KC tosses her hair and holds her head up like I’m the last person in the world she cares about, and her words cut through me like I’m paper.
Obviously, any hope I was holding out of making up with her is a total waste of my emotional energy. KC has been burnt too many times to give me any more chances. I’ve blown it. I might as well accept the fact and move on. She is never going to forgive me.
I steel my face so she can’t see the hurt and glance at my friends. “Are you ready to go, guys?”
They look a little confused but murmur in agreement, and we wave awkwardly and move past.
“Let’s go back to my house and do the Tinder thing. You guys are right. It’s time for me to get over KC.”
“Yeah, you deserve way better than her, bro,” Dylan says, and I snarl at him and grab his shirt.
“Don’t talk bad about her, Dylan.”
The silence in the car is tense as I drive back to my house. The guys don’t have any idea what to say to me, and in truth, nothing they say could help the way I’m feeling.
Half an hour later, I’m sitting at my desk in front of my computer, the guys hovering behind me. I wanted to do this on my phone, alone, but they insisted on helping me.
“Use that pic, you look hot.” Austin points at a picture on the screen, and I cringe over my shoulder at him.
“I’m glad to know you find me attractive.”
He flicks me on the ear. “Trust me on this. I know what girls are into.”
I click on the picture, my cheesy grin filling the screen. I think I look like a dumbass, but whatever.
“Now you need a bio. Make it sound like you’re into stuff that girls like,” Dylan says.
I scrunch up my face. “What, like long walks on the beach and warm bubble baths? Piña coladas?”
“You should be honest, or you’ll just attract the wrong people,” Connor says.
“You have to do both. Writing the perfect bio is like an art. Make the real you sound irresistible in under 500 characters.”
We all look at Austin like he’s lost his marbles.
Eventually we hack together something that sounds decent. I wouldn’t want to date me, but hopefully a girl will.
“Okay, here goes my self-respect.” My finger hovers over the button, and I mash it down, sending my profile out into the wild to be judged by lonely girls all over. Or, at least those within a 30-mile radius.
“Awesome! Now start swiping.” Dylan nods towards the computer.
I swipe left on a dozen girls that look like Bubbles and a few others who look like Fidos, and the guys start nagging me about how many I’m rejecting.
“What’s wrong with her? She’s hot!” Austin gripes when I pass up another girl that looks like a model.
Dylan whistles. “There’s a ton of hot girls on here. Way more than there used to be.”
There’s even a few goth girls that remind me of KC, but they don’t grab my interest, either.
Austin sighs dramatically and plops his elbows down on the desk beside me. “Jake, you have to swipe right on somebody. You don’t like the hot girls, you don’t like the ugly girls, you don’t even like the goth girls. What are you looking for?”
I just stare at him. He knows what I’m looking for. The problem is, I’m never going to find it.
Eventually, a picture of a blonde girl looking off into the distance and smiling at whatever is beside her catches my interest, making me pause in my rapid swiping. Kaitlyn, it says.
“Ohh, she’s cute.” Austin perks up.
Dylan shoves him out of the way to get a better look at her and nods. “I’d do her.”
She seems carefree and happy, and from the side she even looks a bit like KC. But it’s her bio that cinches it. She likes basketball and funny guys. I swipe right and hold my breath, expecting some kind of magic, but nothing happens.
“Now what?” I look back at the guys.
“Now you go swipe some others while you wait to see if she swipes right on you,” Dylan explains.
That seems wrong somehow, but I do it, swiping left on all of them, despite the loud complaints from the guys about how many babes I’m passing up.
“Look, if you think they’re so great, why don’t you get your own account?” I gripe.
“Nah, I think Macy and I will get back together eventually. She just needs a little break. Eventually she’s figure out that we’re meant to be together.”
I wish I could say the same for me and KC, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact opposite.
I keep swiping
till all the girls are starting to look the same to me, waiting for the one I’ve swiped right on to do the same with me.
Chapter Fifteen
KC
I’m swiping left on picture after picture like it’s the only direction my thumb can go when my breath catches in my throat and my eyes widen. I stop my hasty thumb barely a millisecond before I swipe left out of reflex and stare at the gorgeous guy smiling back at me.
He has brown hair threaded with shades of chestnut, caramel, and mahogany. The skin is crinkled next to bright, hazel eyes. And his mouth is open in a wide smile like the photographer caught him mid laugh.
I sigh and entertain a moment of regret before shaking myself out of it. I do not like Jake Matthews. He is not a nice guy. He’s a weasel who needs to be taken down a notch. In fact, he lied to me again last night. He told me he wasn’t out looking for babes, yet here he is, on Tinder. I give a little grrr and almost swipe left on him before reminding myself that this is what I wanted.
I needed him to create a profile if I was going to catfish him. I wonder if he’s seen mine yet. There’s only one way to find out, so I take a deep breath and swipe right then go to check my matches. My heart stutters when I see a tiny version of his profile picture.
I’m nervous about making the first move, but I want to lure him in, so there’s no point in waiting. I tap on his face and type out a message.
Hi Jake, how’s it going? I love your smile
April Fools' Joke (Holiday High Series Book 3) Page 12