Canary
Page 9
personal gain.
Your Beacon basketball player boyfriend may demand a large amount of your time.
Your Beacon basketball player boyfriend may start to lose interest in you if you do not treat him properly.
BEACON BASKETBALL PLAYER BOYFRIEND
INTERACTIONS
Having a Beacon basketball player boyfriend might interact with the following character traits:
Morals
Common sense
Good judgment
Ethics
Principles
Values
You may start to lose the person you once were as you date your Beacon basketball player boyfriend, but if you follow the directions above carefully, you will transform yourself as a Beacon basketball player girlfriend.
PLEASE SEEK EMERGENCY HELP IF your Beacon basketball payer boyfriend decides to no longer be with you.
EXPIRATION DATE
As long as you can properly care for your Beacon basketball player boyfriend, there is no reason this relationship should expire.
Posted By: Your Present Self
[Thursday, October 17, 4:03 PM]
Chapter 24
After Brett challenged my friendships at Beacon, I made sure I didn’t have to depend on him to get home anymore.
I started to hang at Ali’s house while she babysat, and it was a lot better than my place, where Brett would sulk around, giving me dirty looks whenever I came into the room.
Ali’s home was the complete opposite of my empty and quiet house. The moment you entered her place, your ears rang with shouts, jokes, and name-calling coming from every room. Ali along with her mom, dad, older brother, and sister made five. If you wanted to get specific, you could also add the two labs and the goldfish to make seven. I loved hanging out at Ali’s.
The day after I got into it with Brett, I headed to Ali’s after school to study with her.
Ali’s five-year-old sister, Heather, cracked the door open and belted out an enthusiastic, “Hi.”
The two dogs stuck their panting faces out the door. I helped Heather hold onto them while I walked into the house.
Heather grabbed my hand. “We have a hamster at school, and Mom said if I keep my room clean I can bring it home for a weekend. We’re allowed to do that, you know.”
“Wow, sounds fun.” The dogs ran circles around me and didn’t calm down until I gave them a proper hello. I bent to pet them, and they covered my face in drooling kisses.
“I’m not sure Jack would like you kissing someone else,” Ali joked, walking into the room. She’d changed out of her uniform into white yoga pants and a Beacon hoodie. Her hair was pushed back in a headband.
“Yeah, well, he’s going to have to fight these two off if he wants to get to me.”
Ali grabbed my bag and steered me through the chaos of her house: blocks all over, a jump rope hanging from the banister, water guns and a headless doll on the floor. We walked into the kitchen.
“Let’s sit in here. My mom said she’d order pizza for dinner.”
The kitchen was my favorite room in Ali’s house. Her mom loved to cook, and the kitchen was the center of everything. It was one of the biggest rooms, with an open cooking area on one side, a huge old wood table with benches and chairs, and my favorite part: a fireplace. I’d never met anyone with a fireplace in their kitchen. It was between the kitchen and the living room, open to both sides. The kitchen was so big that two comfy chairs fit next to the fireplace. Everyone hung out in there while Ali’s mom cooked. They’d do their homework at the table, read in the chairs, or lounge around the island and talk.
We worked on our homework for an hour when my phone vibrated. I checked the screen. “Jack.”
“Answer it. I don’t mind.”
“I’ll call him back later. It’s no big deal.” I went back to reading a passage of my book and writing notes on what I thought it meant, notes that were most likely the opposite of what it really did mean.
“Pick it up. You know he can’t live without you.”
I grabbed the phone and walked into the hallway. “Jack?”
“Where have you been?”
“I’m at Ali’s, finishing my English assignment. I told you I’d be here tonight.”
“Can you get away?”
“Not really. I have to get this done.”
“I need your help. My essay questions for history are a lot harder than I thought.”
“We can go over them at lunch.” I rolled my eyes at Ali, who was watching me now.
“It’s due tomorrow,” he said.
“Tomorrow?” I tried not to sound angry. “Why do you leave this stuff until the last minute?” I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples with my free hand.
“I thought I could do them, but I can’t. I need your help. Please? I’ll come to your house. Just for a little bit.”
“Okay. I’ll leave in twenty minutes. Give me some time to get home.”
“Thanks, Kate—”
“I’m the best.”
“You are.”
“I’ll see you in a little bit.”
I hung up and turned to Ali. “Jack needs help with his history assignment that’s due tomorrow. He thought it would be okay to put it off until tonight.”
“So what else is new? That boy can’t live without you,” she joked, but I caught a bit of an edge in her voice. This wasn’t the first time Jack had called, and I’d left Ali because of something he needed.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. He says he doesn’t understand it, but how much do you want to bet all he’s done is put his name on the paper?”
“Yeah, first name only. If it asked for the last, he’d need your help too.”
I closed my book and collected my stuff. “You’re right. Where would he be without me?”
“Without you and everyone else who helps him?” Ali smirked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“My guess is Jack and the rest of the team would be warming the bench quite nicely if their playing time depended on their own work. Now he’s got you doing his dirty work too.”
“I’m not doing it for him.” For a second, Brett’s comment in the car flashed in my mind. I pushed it aside. My friends weren’t using me.
“He just called, and now you’re running right over there.”
“To help him. Like I was helping you.” My tone was hard. It was obvious what Ali was getting at, and I wasn’t letting her get away with it.
“Okay, okay, call me later if you want.”
“If I have time. I may be too busy working with Jack.” I didn’t wait to see if she took it as a joke or a dig.
Chapter 25
Jack and I never got to his homework that night. Dad stayed late at Beacon with the other coaches, and since Brett was somewhere with Julia, we had the house to ourselves.
We made out for over an hour. Neither of us wanted to separate. We were wrapped up in each other, all hands and feet and lips. I told myself this was the way it should be. This was Beacon. This was happy. This was my life.
It was getting late, and Dad would be home soon. I knew Jack should go. We’d pushed the time limit, but I didn’t want him to leave. Not yet.
“You don’t have to worry,” I said, rolling over and trying to wrap my arms around him, although he was already pulling his shirt on.
“Your dad would kill me. It’s almost the start of basketball season. I’m supposed to be focusing on the game, not the coach’s daughter.”
“It’s okay. Seriously, he wouldn’t know you’re here even if he comes home. He’ll lock himself in his office.”
“Right. I’m upstairs in his daughter’s bedroom while he’s not here, and he wouldn’t think it was a big deal?”
“Really, he doesn’t care.”
Jack fished around for his cell phone, which neither of us could find. “Damn it, where the hell did it go? I need to get out of here.”
“It’s okay. We’ll find it. It’s gotta be somew
here in here.”
We pulled pillows off the bed, shook out the comforter, and made a bigger wreck than we’d started with. I purposely tried to bump against Jack, giggling each time we touched.
A door slammed downstairs, and Jack froze.
“Shit,” he whispered. “That’s why I didn’t want to stay.” He grabbed the rest of his stuff, pushing my arm away when I tried to help. “Let me figure this out.”
Jack raked his hands through his hair, messing it up in the sexy way that drove me crazy.
“Relax. It’s okay.” I put my hand against his chest to stop him. “Wait. You’ll see. Trust me.”
We both looked at the door when we heard someone coming up the steps.
“Didn’t you say he wouldn’t come up here?”
Someone reached the bedroom door and knocked.
“Kate? Are you in there?”
I let myself relax. “Hey, Brett. I’m here.”
The door opened, and he walked in. “Is the rest of the pizza for me?”
“Sure. I had a few pieces . . .”
Brett looked at Jack. “What is he doing here?” He said it as if Jack had crawled out of the deepest, darkest hole and trailed slime everywhere he moved.
Jack took a few steps toward the door. “That’s the same thing I said when you walked into my school, asshole.”
I stared at Jack, shocked.
“Go to hell.” Brett slammed the door, leaving us behind.
I stood in the middle of the room, not sure who I should be supporting.
Jack grabbed the rest of his stuff. “I have to go. I meant what I said about not wanting to be here when your dad shows up.”
“Wait a minute. What was that about? I’d expect something like that from Luke but not you.”
“Brett was the one with the problem.”
“You both have problems, and I don’t understand it.” I walked to my bed and started moving pillows around again to help Jack find his phone. “You say you care about me. Well, how about you show it?”
“I’m sorry, okay? I was worried about your dad showing up, and then Brett came in with a big attitude. I’ll ease up, but your brother better do the same.”
“I’ll talk to him.” I touched his arm.
“He’s not going to say anything to your dad, is he?”
“You’re fine.”
Jack found his phone under the nightstand, and I followed him down the stairs. I prayed Brett was in his room and Jack wouldn’t spot him as he headed out. I followed Jack through the kitchen. I didn’t know I’d been holding my breath until Jack was safely away.
www.allmytruths.com
Today’s Truth:
Sometimes it’s possible to love someone, even if those around you hate them.
I/Brett
grew
to
love /hate
Jack.
I/Brett
loved/hated
Jack’s
laughing/taunting
smile/sneer
hands/fist
heart/black core
confidence/ego
promises/threats
touch/jabs
friends/gang
walk/swagger
whispers/insults
attention/vigilance
popularity/reign
Jack
became
everything/nothing
There is a thin line between everything/nothing
A line that can easily bend/curve/twist/bow/crack/splinter/fracture/break/
c
r
u
m
b
l
e
Posted By: Your Present Self
[Tuesday, October 22, 6:47 PM]
Chapter 26
A few days later, I ended up at Ali’s house. She’d called me just as I arrived home from school. I threw my book bag on my front step and fished out my keys while I talked to her.
“What are you doing tonight?” she asked.
I unlocked my front door and stepped into an empty hallway. The sun had started to go down earlier as fall approached, and the house was dim with shadows. “That’s a hard one,” I said. “I have a few choices. There’s a dinner party I’m supposed to host with diplomats and that Hollywood premiere I planned on attending . . . I’m at a loss for which to blow off.”
“How about both? If you do, you can come to dinner at my house. My dad is making his famous chili, and there’s enough to feed a small country.”
I weighed the real options of TV dinners, leftovers, or cereal without milk against a night with Ali’s family. My dad was with the team, and Brett had gone paintballing with some old friends.
“I have to check with my publicist, but it should be easy to get out of my plans.”
“If it’s not too much trouble,” Ali said.
Later that night, I sat next to Ali, surrounded by her parents and siblings, fighting to get a word in among everyone’s conversations. Ali’s brother kept getting yelled at for having his phone out, and her sister pouted when I got the last piece of cornbread. I threw a jab back at her dad, who teased me about Jack. I felt as if I belonged.
It was later, when I stood between Ali and her mom, helping with the dinner dishes that I understood what was happening. My family had shifted.
My world had cracked open when Mom died, but now it felt more whole again. Beacon had given back something missing in my life. Ali, Jack, and Jenna had become my family.
Chapter 27
It was my birthday, my sweet sixteen and I’d been kissed, as Jack said when he met me at my locker with a bouquet of roses. Luke joked he got them from the gas station on the way to school. As if I cared.
Jack took me to dinner at a fancy steak house. There was so much food we left enough on our plates for another whole meal. Dad had told the two of us to save room for cake.
When we got home, we gathered around the kitchen table. Brett had invited Julia, probably as a buffer from Jack. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” off-key, and I blew out the candles on the store-bought lemon cake, a flavor I didn’t even like.
Dad gave me the new cell phone I’d been asking for, Brett handed me a card with money in it, and Julia pulled a bag out of her purse and held it out to me. “It’s nothing big, but I thought you’d like it.”
“You didn’t need to get me anything,” I said,
surprised.
Even though she had been dating my brother for a few weeks now, the two of us had probably only said a few words to each other. Usually Brett picked her up, and the few times she was at our house, Brett ushered her to his room before I had the chance to say anything.
“It’s your birthday,” she said, pushing it into my hands. “Everyone deserves something on their
birthday.”
I pulled the tissue paper out of the bag and found a bracelet made of dark red and yellow glass beads. “Oh, wow, I love this.”
“I figure it’s the colors of Beacon, so you can wear it to a game or something.”
“That’s great, Julia,” Dad said, clapping his hands. “It’ll be perfect for when she’s cheering for Jack.”
“Thanks.” I slipped it on my wrist and watched it catch the light. It really was pretty.
“Now let’s get into this cake.” Dad sliced a big piece for each of us.
Jack dipped a finger into his frosting and winked at me when he tasted it.
The two of us grabbed our plates and slipped away to the living room. I sat down on the couch, and Jack scooted next to me. It was dark, and I lit the candle still stuck in my piece of cake with a box of matches I had grabbed from the kitchen.
“I haven’t given you your gift yet.” Jack slipped a box out of his pocket.
“No, you haven’t.” I cupped my hands and let him drop his present into them. I held the box and shook it. “What could this be?”
“Hey, be careful. For all you know, that’s made out of fine china.”
&nb
sp; “Sure, right.” I broke off the ribbon, lifted the lid, and pulled out a pair of small gold heart earrings. “Oh, Jack, I love them.”
“I remember you talked about the locket your mom gave you when you were a baby. I figured you’d like something to wear with it.”
“It’s perfect.” I fought back tears. Mom should have been there, singing “Happy Birthday” with everyone, getting to know Jack, and laughing with Dad. “Thanks for being with me tonight.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Jack whispered into my ear.
I bent forward and blew out the candle so we were sitting in nothing but darkness. Jack took my hand and pulled me closer, and we started kissing. I closed my eyes and thought not about what I had lost but what I had gained.
Chapter 28
Later that night, I woke to my phone vibrating under my pillow. I grabbed it, thinking it was Jack wishing me one last happy birthday. It had become a joke with him. He’d probably said it at least fifty times that day.
“Kate,” Ali whispered loudly into the phone. “I need to talk to you.”
“I’m here,” I mumbled.
“Are you listening?”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
“No, seriously. Are you really listening or just saying you are? Because what I have to tell you is big.”
“I’m listening.” I sat up against my pillow. I turned on the lamp next to my bed. I figured she was calling because of my birthday. She’d sent me a text earlier, but I hadn’t heard from her since then.
“Promise you won’t judge.”
“Mm . . .”
“I’m serious.”
“I promise,” I said, but I would have promised pretty much anything at that point.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I slept with Luke tonight.”
Now I was awake. “What? Like had sex?”
“No, we just spooned. Yes, sex, Kate, and I know it’s soon and we’ve only been together for a few weeks, but I like him.”
“You had sex with Luke? Really?”