by Chris Cannon
Bryce turned his hand over and threaded his fingers through mine. More than physical warmth shot up my arm. I checked his face, expecting to find a smile. Instead, he looked confused.
“What? You don’t consider yourself a good person?”
“Mustang was the first dog I saved. Being described as a good person is a new thing for me.”
…
Bryce
Haley thought I was a good person. No one had ever described me as good or nice. I didn’t know if I should be flattered or offended. No guy wants to be labeled nice, but good was a different story. I knew I was smart and could talk my way out of most situations without breaking a sweat. But good? That was a new one.
“Let’s not spread this good-guy theory around. I have a reputation to maintain.”
“Please, at this point your reputation is as shot as mine.”
I straightened in my chair. “At least I had a reputation before my life went to hell.”
Haley’s fingers stiffened, and then she yanked her hand away. “And when, exactly, did your life go to hell?”
If I was being honest, I would say the moment she blackmailed me but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I lied. “Whatever time we found the stupid card taped to my locker this morning. Why? What did you think I meant?”
She reached across the table and placed her hand in mine. “I was afraid you’d say it was when you met me.”
“Before giving Mustang a bath, I might have agreed with you.” God. Being this honest was painful, but it made Haley smile.
“What does bathing a dog have to do with anything?” Nathan asked.
Haley’s cheeks colored, and I thought it was cute. What is wrong with me?
“I’d guess that’s the first time he kissed her.” Jane said this like she didn’t know. I bet a thousand dollars Haley had told her everything five minutes after it happened.
Nathan cleaned up his lunch, shoving his trash back into his bag. “Doesn’t sound like a romantic moment to me. Back to your problem, Bryce. How are we supposed to counteract the pregnancy rumors?”
“Don’t most people realize Brittney is a lying skank?” Jane asked.
“Not that she’s my type,” Nathan said, “but I don’t think guys pay much attention to her personality.”
Haley shot me a glare.
“Hey, I broke up with her three times, remember?”
“Let’s talk about something else.” Haley ducked her head. “Are we still going to a movie this Saturday, or did you want to join Jane and Nathan at the banquet?”
If we went to the banquet, would that quiet rumors or inflate them? How would my dad feel about it? I ran my hand back through my hair. What would get me off the hook faster? “Let me talk to my mother and get her spin on it. If she thinks going to the banquet would help smooth things over with my father, then that’s what we’ll do. If she thinks it will make the situation worse, we’ll go to a movie. Deal?”
“Deal.” Haley squeezed my hand before letting go to clean up her lunch.
“Let’s go look for a dress,” Jane suggested. “If you don’t end up attending the banquet, I’m sure Bryce will take you somewhere else you can wear it.”
The bell rang. We headed for the door, moving along with the herd of students. I realized I had my hand on Haley’s lower back as we threaded our way through the crowd. It hadn’t been a conscious decision. Not that it meant anything.
…
Haley
The warmth of Bryce’s hand seeping through my shirt made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Okay, I admit it, it made me want to launch myself at him and kiss him. Doing that at school…not a good idea. People had enough to talk about.
Then again, the entire student body thought I was knocked up. What did I have to lose? When we reached the hallway outside my classroom, Bryce looked down at me. I touched his chest, threading my finger through the opening between the buttons on his shirt and gave a gentle tug.
He laughed, but this time I knew he wasn’t laughing at me. The fact that he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine showed he wasn’t opposed to the idea. The kiss lasted five seconds, but my lips tingled with warmth. I entered the Physics classroom with a smile on my face.
I was no longer so worried because my dad asked me to stay at Jane’s. I didn’t love it, but being around Bryce made the situation less stressful. Being with him felt right. If I was being completely honest, the whole boyfriend-bait plan was over, because the only boy I wanted was Bryce.
The rest of the day flew by. I ignored the muttered comments from students in the hall. In gym, I stayed away from Brittney, afraid if I came too close I’d give into the burning desire to wrap my hands around her neck. I’d never considered myself a violent person, but for her I’d make an exception. She must’ve sensed my mood, because she kept her distance. Several girls clustered around her at all times. What was she saying to them? Would she admit she’d placed the card on Bryce’s locker? Probably not. I can’t believe she thought Bryce would take her word she was pregnant and dump me. And the more I thought about it the harder my head pounded. Thank God it was the end of the day. All I wanted to do was go home and crawl under my covers. But I couldn’t go home. That realization didn’t help my head.
We met up with Bryce and Nathan in the parking lot. Some sort of invisible force pulled me toward Bryce. Did he feel the same way? I leaned against his Mustang, my arm a few inches from his. When he moved closer and draped his arm around my shoulders, stress ran off of me like water. I leaned into his warmth.
He chuckled.
“What?”
“You remind me of that dog from the shelter who sat on my lap. What was his name?”
“Leo.” I elbowed him in the ribs. “If I wasn’t such an animal person, I might find that comment offensive.”
He squeezed my shoulders. “You know what I meant.”
That I wanted to sit on his lap and have him rub my tummy? Okay. My brain had veered into weird territory. I pushed the thought away. “I’m too relaxed to argue right now. Being with you makes everything seem better.”
A strange, slightly panicked look crossed his face.
“Oh, no you don’t. If I’m not going to freak out at what you said, you can’t freak out at what I said.” I bumped him with my hip. “Deal?”
“Deal.”
“If you two are done with your bizarre conversation,” Nathan said, “I have a suggestion. Why don’t we all go to my house, order pizza, and watch a movie?”
…
Jane and I sat in her car, waiting for Nathan, who was two cars ahead of us, to explain to the security guard at the entrance to his subdivision that we were his guests. Country Club Estates was not only a gated community, there was an actual guard tower made of stone where a man in an official uniform checked ID’s before you could enter.
“Are they going to fingerprint us, too?” Jane mumbled.
“It seems the richer people are, the more afraid they are someone will try to take away their money.”
Nathan sailed through the checkpoint. Bryce flashed his ID out his car window and said something that made the guard laugh. Jane rolled her window down and moved the car forward until she was even with the man in uniform. “Hello. I’m Jane, and this is Haley.”
We both flashed our driver’s licenses. The guy looked at me like he was trying to solve a puzzle. “You’re the landscaper’s kid, aren’t you?”
I nodded. He gave Jane the once-over, not in a creepy way, but in a, I’m-memorizing-your-face-so-I-can-give-a-good-accounting-to-the-sketch-artist kind of way. He checked our ID’s again, wrote down Jane’s license plate number, and then gave us the nod of approval.
Bryce’s Mustang sat idling on the side of the road. He pulled out in front of Jane’s car and led us down a twisty road. Hedges lined both side of the street. No houses were visible.
“This is the perfect setup for a horror movie. I keep waiting for something to jump out of the bushes.” What were the
y hiding from view?
We took two more turns, and I gasped. I’d been on the grounds of the country club, planting flowers around the clubhouse or pool. I’d never been back to see the actual houses. The one sprawled on the right side of the road was as big as the high school.
“What do you do with all that space?” Jane asked.
“Wander aimlessly and get lost?” Another gargantuan house came up on our left. This one was more the size of an elementary school. We drove on, gawking at the houses that seemed to be spaced one per block on either side of the road. A sign announced we were headed into a dead end.
“Nathan must live on the cul-de-sac.” Jane turned the wheel and then hit the brake. “No way.”
Nathan’s house didn’t sit at the end of the cul-de-sac. It was the cul-de-sac. Made of stone blocks, three stories high with two wings jutting forward, it looked like a castle.
“Is his dad a duke or something?” I asked.
“I guess we’ll find out.” Jane pressed the gas pedal and we rolled forward.
Bryce sat in his Mustang at the top of a driveway, which turned out to be a road. We followed him down the road, around an Olympic-sized pool and parked in a building that could have held two dozen horses.
“I feel like a peasant,” Jane muttered as we exited the car.
Nathan stood leaning against his car, waiting for us, oblivious to the fact Jane was having an inferiority crisis. Bryce and I joined them.
“Do you hand out maps to visitors so they won’t get lost?” I asked.
“No,” Nathan said. “We set out food and water for those who can’t find their way back to their cars.” He grabbed Jane’s hand and tugged her toward a door.
“Is your house this big?” I asked Bryce as we followed our friends.
“Not even close and it drives my father crazy any time he has to attend an event here.”
“Event?” He made it sound like Nathan’s family hosted carnivals or something.
“Charity dinners, pool parties, political rallies, things like that.”
After walking into a giant foyer, down several long hallways, and up a flight of stairs, we came to Nathan’s own private movie theater. I kid you not. There was theater seating and a screen that took up an entire wall.
“Do you have a bowling alley tucked in the basement?” Jane asked.
“Why would I want to bowl?” Nathan picked up a phone and hit a button. “We need two large pizzas. Hold on a minute.” He pointed at Jane. “Pepperoni?”
She nodded. He looked at me. “Pepperoni,” I said, like I was talking to the speaker at the drive-through.
After placing the order with the mystery person on the other end of the phone, he hung up and descended the stairs toward the screen. We followed. The theater seating consisted of single seats and longer couch-like seats. Everything was upholstered in black leather. The floor and walls were covered in smoke gray carpet.
“Why is there carpet on the walls?” Jane asked what I was thinking.
“Dampens the sound.” Bryce said this like it was common knowledge. Then, he sat down in one of the single seats. I’m sure that’s where he normally sat, being the creature of habit that he was. It’s not like he and Nathan would want to cuddle. Didn’t all males put a mandatory empty seat between themselves so people wouldn’t think they were a couple?
I shouldn’t read too much into this. Still. I was standing there looking at him like he was an idiot. Why wasn’t he noticing? He wasn’t noticing because he was leafing through a magazine he’d pulled from the pocket of the seat in front of him. Had they taken these seats from an airplane? Were there barf bags in the pockets, too?
I shimmied past him to sit down, leaving an empty chair between us. He kept his head in the magazine like it held the secrets to the universe. Was he ignoring me on purpose? I briefly considered grabbing the magazine, rolling it up, and whacking him on the head.
“Bryce?”
“What?” He didn’t look up.
When I didn’t say anything else, he continued to read. What the hell? Were we on the downward cycle again? It’s like he reverted to a jerk every twenty-four hours. But I couldn’t sit there staring at him like an idiot so I exited the row on the far side and headed up the stairs. There had to be a bathroom somewhere in this monstrosity of a house.
Taking my time, I climbed the steps toward the door. From the top, I waited for Jane to notice me. When she looked up I signaled she should come with.
In the hall outside of the theater room, I slumped against the wall.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Pushing off the wall I headed down the hall. “Good question. Bryce sat in a single seat rather than sitting with me which isn’t that big of a deal, but now he has his head buried in a magazine and when I tried to talk to him, he didn’t even look up. Where’s the stupid bathroom?”
Jane turned in a circle and picked a side hall. Honest to God, there was a door with Ladies’ Lounge written on it in golden calligraphy.
We pushed through the doorway, and for a moment we both stared. There was a marble fountain in the middle of the room like you’d see in front of a posh office. Sleek black leather benches lined the walls.
“I didn’t have to pee before we came in here, but the running water is inspiring.” Jane moved around the fountain and through the marble columns, which lead to a room with marble sinks and bathroom stalls. We each picked a destination and took care of business. Reconvening on the couches in the fountain room, Jane said, “What do you want to do?”
“I want to tell him he is not acting like a good boyfriend, but I don’t think that would end well.”
“Probably not.” Jane stared off into space. “I don’t get it. I know this started with blackmail, but at least from an outsider’s perspective it seemed like he was coming around.”
“I know. It seemed real last night and this morning. Now I’m not sure. Am I being too needy? Do I need to give him some space?” Frustrated, I lay back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Cherubs floating on clouds grinned down at me. “You have got to be freaking kidding me.” I pointed up so Jane would see what I was talking about.
“They should have gone with the fountain or the mural on the ceiling. Both is too much.” She stood. “Let’s give him some room to make the next move. We’ll walk back in together. You can sit with me and Nathan. The pizza should be here soon. The three of us can eat together, and then if Bryce is still being an idiot, we’ll leave.”
Bryce didn’t look up when I followed Jane back into the theater room. Nathan pretended nothing was wrong. We talked about the movies he had on DVD. When the pizza arrived fifteen minutes later, Bryce finally noticed he was the odd man out.
The three of us sat on a small couch while Bryce sat across from us in a chair that swiveled around.
“Did you read about the new blah-blah car?” Bryce asked Nathan. Okay. He didn’t call it that, but he used some technical term I didn’t catch or understand. Nathan answered him. It was like they were talking in code.
“Any idea what that’s about?” Jane asked.
“Shiny metal, vroom-vroom, more shiny metal. That’s what I got out of it.”
She picked up a clean fork and poked Nathan in the shoulder.
He startled. “What was that for?”
“We’re your guests, and you’re ignoring us to talk about a topic we know nothing about. If you and Bryce would like some alone time, just say so. Haley and I will hire a Sherpa to guide us back to my car.”
Both of his eyebrows went up. “A Sherpa?”
“You know. Those men who wear funny hats and guide people through the mountains.”
“I don’t think we have any Sherpa on staff, so I guess I’ll have to pay attention to you and talk cars with Bryce another time.”
She scooted closer to him. “Good choice.”
Bryce didn’t seem to enjoy Nathan’s defection. He sat, eyes narrowed, eating his pizza and staring off into space. To
recap: Nathan and Jane were cozy on the couch, and Bryce was treating me like the invisible woman.
I grabbed the magazine he’d brought with him and whacked him with it. “How did we end up back here again?”
He blinked and looked at me like I’d materialized out of thin air. “We’ve never been here together before.”
It took every bit of self-control I had not to call him a dumb-ass. Instead, I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat. “I’m talking state of mind, not physical location. This morning you wanted me to skip school with you, and now you’re doing everything but putting your hands over your eyes and saying, ‘I can’t see you.’”
Setting his plate down, he leaned back in his chair. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Every muscle in my body tensed. “Excuse me?”
He reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. “That didn’t come out right. What I meant is Nathan and I do this a lot after school. We talk about cars, eat pizza, and watch movies. You being here is throwing things off.”
I pointed at Nathan and Jane. “He’s coping with the change in routine. Why can’t you?”
He pointed at himself. “Hello. Mr. I-like-everything-a-certain-way, remember?”
“So he’s better adjusted than you are. Fine. Now, that we’ve diagnosed the problem can you move on and go back to being a guy who isn’t annoyed by my presence?”
“Sure.” He leaned forward and grabbed another piece of pizza.
“Try not to be too enthusiastic,” I bit out.
He froze with the piece of pizza a few inches from his mouth. “Now who’s being a pain in the ass?”
“Enough.” Jane stood and pointed at Bryce. “You need to understand that normal people have feelings.” She pointed at me. “You need to accept that Bryce is emotionally stunted. If you can deal with this logic, there’s a chance we can have a pleasant evening.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s it going to be?”
I felt like a child who’d had her hand slapped. “Fine, Ms. Bossy-pants. I’ll deal with Bryce’s issues, if he can deal with mine.”
Bryce ignored Jane and spoke to Nathan. “Have I mentioned your girlfriend is pushy?”