by Kieran Scott
My face burned at the memory, but I barreled on. “But she’s not like that. Not all the time.”
He brought his hands to his head, cupping the sides of his skull, which made his hair stand up on the top. “Yes! Yes she is! She totally has you brainwashed. It’s because of her that we’re not friends anymore. It’s because of her that you have no clue how amazing you are. How amazing you’ve always, always been.”
My breath caught. “I’m amazing?”
Wallace took two steps toward me, his eyes on mine. “Yes. You are. How could you not know that?”
I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. “Wallace—”
“But I don’t know, maybe it’s not entirely her fault. Maybe it’s just that no one’s ever bothered to tell you. Because your dad bailed and your mom’s never here and you have a boyfriend who, while well-meaning, is—let’s face it—kind of a pretty-boy doof.”
I was speechless. And when I realized my mouth was hanging open slightly, I snapped it closed.
“You, Darla Lea Shayne, are amazing,” Wallace told me hotly. “You are smart. You’re creative. You’re stylish. You’re giving. You’re determined. You make everything beautiful. You don’t have to be anyone’s sidekick, because you kick ass on your own.”
Wow. Was that really what he thought of me? I had never felt like I could kick ass on my own. I’d never even felt like I could stick up for myself, not really. Not without knowing Veronica would agree—that she’d have my back. But right then, right there, looking into Wallace’s eyes, I did feel pretty strong. I felt indestructible, actually.
“Wallace,” I said finally. “That was . . . thank you.”
He took the teeny-tiniest step toward me, and my skin hummed. He was going to kiss me. Wallace Bracken was going to kiss me. But then something shifted in his expression, and the world seemed to pause until suddenly he backed away.
“I have to go,” he said.
And he bolted for the door.
“What?” I breathed, needing a second to recover myself before I went after him. “Wallace, wait!”
We blew past Lisa, who was coming through the foyer with a tray of chips, salsa, and bottled water. Wallace yanked open the door, and as his foot hit the threshold, I knew I couldn’t let him go. I wasn’t done with him yet.
“Wallace, stop!” I ordered.
I kick ass on my own. I kick ass on my own.
He looked back at me from the front step. I walked up to him, grabbed him by that stupid Big Bang shirt, and pulled him to me.
“If you won’t do it, I will,” I said.
And then I kissed him. I kissed Wallace Bracken, the guy my friends thought was a dork, the boy who Veronica had once teased to within an inch of his life, the kid who’d polled the school and found out he was a detriment to me.
I kissed him, and nothing had ever felt more right. Wallace took a second to respond, but when he did, his arms went around me and he held me close and the warmth of him, the sureness of him, made me feel safe and excited all at once. Wallace was my best friend. Why did I ever think he wasn’t? He believed in me. He saw things in me I could hardly believe. I would have kissed him forever if I could have.
But then he pulled away.
“I really have to go,” he said. “You—you have a boyfriend and I—I really have to go.”
Orion. Crap. Homecoming. Crappity crap. My lips felt swollen as I watched Wallace cut across our lawn in the direction of his house.
“Wait! What about my speech?” I shouted after him. It was the reason he’d come over in the first place.
“I’m sure it’s great!” he shouted, walking backward. “How could it not be? You wrote it!”
He disappeared into his house and slammed the door. Then I went back inside to have the nervous breakdown I was clearly in need of having.
Tomorrow Orion and I would give our speeches, telling the student body why we should be king and queen. We would sit up onstage next to each other in the gym surrounded by posters of the two of us, hugging, smiling, kissing. We had conveyed the picture of the perfect couple to the world, and we had a really good chance of winning. This was my moment. The moment I’d been working toward for years.
And all I’d be thinking about while I was up there, all I’d be thinking about every second until then, was Wallace Bracken.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Orion
Josh and I were completely silent as we watched Wallace Bracken break from a lip-lock with my girlfriend and take off for his house. The stereo inside my car blasted an annoyingly bass-heavy dance tune, and I reached up to click it off. The tux I’d rented for homecoming was hooked by its hanger from my headrest, hanging down behind my seat in its black plastic bag.
Wallace closed the door of his house. Eventually, after touching her lips with her fingertips and smiling, Darla went back inside too. She never saw us. My car was just behind the hedge down the hill from her house, so unless she’d turned to look right in our direction, she never would have.
“Dude,” Josh said finally. “I’m sorry.”
My hands gripped the steering wheel, wringing it like I should have been wringing Wallace’s neck. You don’t just kiss another guy’s girl. You don’t do that.
But then the white-hot flash of anger passed. My hands fell to my lap, and I realized . . . I felt nothing. Slightly betrayed, maybe, because I thought Darla really liked me, but I wasn’t heartbroken. I didn’t feel crushed.
“You all right?” Josh asked.
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my forehead.
“You gonna go talk to her?”
I glanced up at Darla’s brick-faced house with its many windows and huge front porch, wishing I knew what she was thinking. It was just a kiss, and I knew as well as anyone how easily a kiss could happen without too much pre-thinking it, and it wasn’t until afterward that you realized how much it could affect everyone around you. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it had just happened. If that was the case, I could let it go. She’d already let me have one slipup—not that she knew that she had—but that meant I owed her one.
“Nah. Not tonight,” I said.
Maybe she did like Wallace, or maybe she didn’t. Who knew? But I didn’t have to find out right this second. Tomorrow I’d ask her what was up. I’d find out what she wanted. Right now, I needed some time to think about what I was going to say.
I put the car in first, and quietly drove away.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
True
I was playing Bach’s Prelude in C Major at the piano in Wallace’s beautifully appointed foyer with its incredible acoustics, when he burst in through the front door. I had come over for dinner after he told me he was going to be meeting up with Darla, just to give him a last-minute pep talk.
“We kissed!” he shouted. His eyes were about to burst from his skull. “We actually kissed!”
Wow. It looked like my pep talk had worked. I got up from the piano bench as Wallace crossed toward me. He shoved his hair back, brought his fists to his mouth, turned in a circle. It was like he had no control of his body.
“Wallace, that’s great!” I cheered, my heart as light as air. “Tell me everything.”
“I told her,” he said. “I told her how incredible I thought she was. And then I almost kissed her, but then I chickened out, and then she kissed me!”
Oh my Gods. Oh my Gods! Darla had kissed him. There simply couldn’t have been a better outcome. Her feelings for him were confirmed. I felt like crowing my victory from the rooftops.
“I’m so happy for you, Wallace,” I said.
And then, suddenly, his face fell. “Yeah, well. She still has a boyfriend.”
“True.” I nodded, a mischievous glint in my eyes. “But things change.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Darla
My throat was so ti
ght I could barely swallow. There were way too many people in the bleachers. I mean, really? That many people went to this school? And why did it seem like every one of the teachers who stood along the three non-bleacher walls of the gym was looking at me? Like maybe they couldn’t believe I was really up there. I wiped my palms on my jeans as Josh sat down to rabid, psychotic applause from his teammates and the rest of the school. Veronica got up to make her speech, leaving a cloud of heavy perfume behind her.
“You okay?” Orion whispered to me.
The left side of my face suddenly felt a lot hotter than the right, as if his eyes were boring through my skin or something. Could he tell I’d kissed someone else? Did he know that was why I’d avoided him this morning? That I was planning on breaking up with him when this was done? I turned my iPad, where my speech was stored, over and over in my lap.
“Yeah. Fine.”
“In conclusion, I believe I would make a fantastic homecoming queen and represent our school to the world,” Veronica said.
What the hell did that even mean?
“When this is over, I think we should talk,” Orion said.
Veronica’s speech was over. Everyone was clapping. Which meant . . .
“Thank you, Miss Vine,” Principal Peterson said. “And now, Darla Shayne.”
“Yeah, okay,” I told Orion.
I walked past Veronica, who was on her way back to her chair in her chic blue shirtdress and high-heeled boots. I was wearing my favorite jeans, flat riding boots, and a white V-neck sweater. My hair was up in a high ponytail and I wore stud earrings, but the diamond D still glittered around my neck. I felt comfortable. I felt like me. Which was what I was going to need if I was going to get through this.
My head swam as I stepped up to the microphone. The lights above the bleachers were trained right at my eyes. I opened my iPad and glanced at Wallace, who sat in the front row of the junior section. He was completely still, leaning forward over his knees with his hands laced together. There was something very confident about his posture, which I took as a good sign.
I cleared my throat and looked down at the words I’d typed up last night after Wallace had gone. I couldn’t believe I was about to do this, but I’d made my decision. It was go time.
I kick ass on my own.
“Hi everyone, I’m Darla Shayne.” My voice blasted back at me through the speakers, and I tried not to wince. “And I don’t want to be elected homecoming queen.”
There was a wave of uncomfortable laughter. Wallace sat up straight.
“I don’t want to be elected homecoming queen because none of you really knows who I am, so your vote would be cast for someone who doesn’t really exist,” I continued, holding on to the sides of the podium to try to keep myself from shaking. “You probably think I’m the ditzy girl who dresses like her cooler best friend and landed the hot new guy, and maybe I sort of am that person, but that’s not all I am.”
I glanced over at Veronica and Orion. He looked stunned. She looked like she just swallowed her gum.
“I’m also a girl whose parents kind of suck, who spends half her time alone at her house watching Real Housewives and eating way too much ice cream.”
That got a bigger laugh, which made me smile. I was doing this. I was really doing it. And it was working.
“I’m a girl who got a job at a boutique downtown because I love helping people find clothes that make them feel good, but also because I just wanted to get out of my big, empty, boring house.”
I took a deep breath, knowing that for whatever reason, the next part was going to be hard to say, even though I knew how wrong it was that it was going to be hard to say. Because if you’re a straight A student, why not tell the world? If you’re going to graduate near the top of the class, why not own it? I took a breath.
“I’m smart,” I said, and paused. “Even though I sometimes pretend I’m not. I’m great at math and science, and I especially love my calc class. I like to talk to people and I also really like to help people so, actually, if you ever need help in math or science, let me know.”
More laughs. Wallace was grinning from ear to ear. Even True Olympia, who sat next to him, looked impressed.
“And, as it turns out, as of like a week ago, I’m also really into football.”
The football team, clumped in the middle of the bleachers, went wild, along with the cheerleaders and the half of the school that cared about sports.
“The thing is, I’m still learning about myself,” I continued. “So if I’m going to promise you anything, it’s that whether or not I’m elected homecoming queen, I’m not going to pretend to be anything I’m not anymore. Thank you.”
As I walked back to my seat, the volume of the applause nearly knocked me over. Even the teachers, who had mostly done nothing but give a respectful two-clap acknowledgment to the other speeches, were full-on applauding. I sat down in my chair between Orion and Veronica, smiling so wide my cheeks hurt.
“That was awesome,” Orion said. “You totally nailed that. I’ll be shocked if you don’t win.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling overwhelmed.
“Next up, we have Orion Floros.”
Slowly Orion rose to his feet. He looked so broad and strong walking over to the podium, and it occurred to me that even though we’d been trying to act like we were in this together, I had no clue what he was going to say. I hadn’t told him about my speech, and he hadn’t told me about his.
Orion leaned toward the microphone, looked over at me, and smiled that killer smile that had floored me from day one.
“I think you guys should vote for Darla Shayne.”
Then he sat down again, and the crowd went nuts. Stunned, I felt suddenly like I was choking on emotion. I couldn’t believe he’d just done that for me. When just last night I’d been kissing another guy. How could I break up with him now?
My eyes searched the crowd and found Wallace again. He stared back at me, his expression unreadable. For some reason, that unreadable expression opened me up. It gave me the ability to breathe again.
I turned to look at Orion. “That was amazing,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Well, I know how much this thing means to you,” he said.
I swallowed hard. There was that comment again. Like homecoming was all that mattered to me. And maybe it had been, for a while. For forever. But it wasn’t anymore. I was grateful to him for what he’d just done, but it didn’t change anything. Not really.
“Orion, you were right, what you said before,” I told him as Claudia took the microphone. “After this assembly, we really need to talk.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
True
I was filling a to-go box with cupcakes for a middle-aged couple on Thursday night, when the door opened and Orion walked in. He was wearing a leather jacket over a white sweater, his hair freshly washed and still wet around the ears. I glanced past him at Artemis, who had taken up her vigil at the table near the window again. She followed his progress with suspicious eyes.
“Hey,” Orion said as I handed the couple their cupcakes. “I need to talk to you.”
“What is it?” I jammed the buttons on the register with a trembling finger.
“I’ll wait,” Orion said with a knowing, flirtatious smile.
I was fairly certain that Apollo hadn’t told Artemis he’d threatened Orion’s life. She would have killed him for it. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t go back to wherever the two of them were holed up and tell him I was talking to Orion. And if she did, my love was as good as dead. I looked at my customers.
“That’ll be ten fifty.”
The man handed me twelve dollars. “Keep the change.”
“Thank you!” I made change, dropped the extra in our tip jar, then slammed the drawer loudly and looked at Orion. I tried to keep my expression as cool as humanly poss
ible.
“Darla and I broke up,” he said. “After the assembly. I just . . . thought you should know.”
Instantly Artemis was forgotten. The relief that filled me flooded out everything else. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” he said with a laugh.
I knew this was a possibility, of course, but I could hardly believe it. It was over. The torture of seeing him with her every day was over. The wondering what they were doing when they were alone. The horrible turns of my imagination every time they drove off together or snuck into the back corner of the library together. But why was he telling me this? Did this mean he wanted to be with me? That my dream was finally, finally coming true?
Over Orion’s shoulder, Artemis shifted to the edge of her bench. Her teeth were clenched, as if priming for a fight. I took a step back and hit the rear counter with my butt.
“Okay,” I said.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say? Okay?” Orion asked.
“I’m very sorry it didn’t work out with Darla, but I already told you . . . I’ve moved on.” I raised my voice so Artemis could hear. “I told you it was over.”
Orion’s confidence sagged. “I know, but I figured—”
“Whatever you figured, you figured wrong,” I snapped, hating every minute of this. The tears I held back were so hot I began to choke on them. “This is never going to happen, Orion. Get used to it.”
I walked into the back room, leaving Orion stunned behind me. As soon as I got to the break room, I pressed my hands into the wall, letting the bumps in the bricks cut into my palms. I breathed in and out, in and out, telling myself it was okay. That everything was going to be fine.
Darla and Wallace had kissed. They were going to declare their love for each other soon. I was sure of it.
And once they did, Orion would be free to make his choice. He would be free to choose me.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Orion
Nothing felt real. I walked through my day on Friday like a zombie. Everyone else was hyped up for the pep rally ninth period, for the homecoming game that night, for the dance tomorrow, but the excitement couldn’t touch me. It was like everything was happening around me and I was inside a bubble in the middle of it, just rolling along.