Getting Lost with Boys

by Hailey Abbott

  “Yeah, well, maybe if Jake had enough common sense to drive a reliable car, we wouldn’t have had that problem.”

  Molly nudged her. “That was pretty mean.”

  “No, she’s right. What do I know about being reliable?” Jake said coolly. “Cordy’s the authority on that subject and everything else. And she never makes mistakes.”

  Cordelia pushed Molly aside and squared off against him, just like old times. “Well, being reliable is certainly better than letting people think that you’re one way when you’re actually something else altogether.”

  Jake looked at her, confused. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Oh, you know what I mean,” she said with a sneer.

  “No, I don’t,” he barked. “That made no sense.”

  “It made perfect sense!” she shouted. “Molly, what did I just say?”

  Molly’s face became pinched as if she’d just swallowed a lemon. “Sorry, sis. You lost me at ‘reliable.’”

  Jake’s stern expression suddenly broke into a smile. Then he chuckled a bit, which made Molly giggle like an elf. Soon, they were laughing so hard that tears were running down their cheeks. Cordelia tried to force a halfhearted grin, but on the inside, she was crumbling into a pile of confetti.

  Molly wiped her eyes once she was done laughing. “You guys must be hungry. Want to hit a diner? There are tons of cheap places around here since Eureka’s a college town.”

  “Sounds awesome,” Jake said.

  “Then you can tell me all your road stories.” Molly clapped her hands together as if she were applauding.

  Cordelia shuddered nervously. “Can I take a shower first?”

  “You and your showers,” Molly said, and put her arm around Cordelia. “Just don’t take forever in there. Jake doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

  She growled and dragged her bags through the front door. “Yeah, whatever.”

  Molly and Jake followed her into the bachelorette pad, which was bedazzled with glittery pink fabrics. The walls were painted a bold shade of fuchsia. The shag rugs were in the shape of hearts, and a beaded curtain hung in the middle of the living room.

  “Better than my VIP suite back home, huh, Cordy?” Molly said proudly.

  Cordelia managed to smile at the Mollyness of it all. “Way better, sis. You do all this yourself?”

  “Some of my male admirers helped me out,” Molly replied.

  Jake plopped down on a huge plush Love Sac chair. “How many are there now? Five? Ten?”

  Molly leaped in next to him. “Don’t worry, none of them could ever replace you.”

  Cordelia had to dig deep and will herself not to throw up. “I kind of lost my appetite. Maybe you should just go ahead to breakfast.”

  Jake tried to wiggle out of the chair, but Molly had him trapped. “Don’t be ridiculous. Come with us,” he said.

  Cordelia searched his face and realized he was being sincere. He did want her to go with them, but for what? To watch him and Molly laugh and cry and be all BFF with each other? She just knew she wouldn’t be able to handle it. Reliving how Jake had dissed her less than twelve hours ago over and over again in her mind was torture enough.

  “Really, go ahead,” she said wistfully. “I’m tired so it’s probably better if I just wash up and crash in the room.”

  Molly popped up and grabbed her purse off the kitchen table. “Okay, sis. Just push back the beads and your AeroBed is ready to go.”

  Cordelia sighed. Forget about trying to study for that class of hers. Obviously, she’d be sleeping in the Molly Packer Party Central thoroughfare for weeks, not getting any shut-eye whatsoever.

  “Want me to bring you back something?” Jake asked Cordelia as Molly bolted out the front door.

  She couldn’t bring herself to speak to him. She knew that she was one syllable away from wailing like a toddler, so she just shook her head.

  “Jakey! I’m not getting any younger!” she heard Molly call out.

  He turned on his heels and walked away. Surprisingly, Cordelia was relieved, because now she was alone and didn’t have to pretend that she wasn’t crying.

  Cordelia spent the next two hours in organization utopia. She finally was someplace that she could recharge her Treo and access her e-mail, to-do lists, and Outlook calendar. So after taking that shower, she sprawled out over her AeroBed and attempted to plan out the rest of her summer. There would be no more surprises, no more unexpected turns-of-events, and definitely, absolutely no more “calculated risks.” She was going to regroup and restructure and coordinate and overthink her way out of this enormous funk she was in. Once she established a routine, everything would fall into place. She’d be in control again and that would be much better than any kind of fun she might have had while experiencing how the other, less-structured half lived.

  But as much as she wanted to focus on assembling her summer reading catalog, which she was downloading off the Humboldt State University Web site, Cordelia wasn’t able to shake thoughts of Jake feeding Molly blueberry pancakes and dousing her with maple syrup ´a la her sister’s favorite soft porn classic, 9 1/2 Weeks. She also kept flashing back to that fantastic kiss she and Jake had shared on the beach. The way his thumbs had pressed up against the bare skin of her stomach. The way his lips moved urgently against hers. The way his body responded so well to her touch—it was all so perfect. Better than perfect, actually. It was…

  Cordelia’s reverie was interrupted by the slam of the front door.

  “And then she kneed Mike right in the balls,” she heard Jake say.

  “Oh my God, she didn’t!” Molly replied.

  “Yeah, when I showed up he was rolling around on the floor in agony.”

  Molly let out a hyena laugh. “That’s so hilarious. Cordy, get out here!”

  She begrudgingly hoisted herself off the AeroBed and peeked out through the beaded curtain.

  “Jake was just telling me about all of your exploits,” Molly said, grabbing Cordelia by the arm.

  All but one of them, I bet, she thought.

  “I can’t believe you lost all your money gambling. That’s so unlike you, Little Miss Responsible,” Molly added.

  Jake looked at Cordelia sheepishly and shrugged.

  “And then to attack Jake’s friend? That’s un-freaking-believable!”

  “She didn’t attack him, Molly. She was fending him off,” Jake corrected her.

  Molly rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m impressed that she did any of this stuff. She’s usually so reserved.”

  Cordelia folded her arms across her chest. They were talking about her like she wasn’t even there. How shocking. She was about to give Molly a little attitude, when Jake stepped in.

  “Actually, Cordy is pretty spontaneous. She really took me by surprise,” he said with a wink.

  She wanted him to say more, but Molly was already moving on to another subject.

  “So what are we going to do tonight?”

  “Well, I thought I’d head out now and let you girls start your summer,” Jake said. He put a tinfoil container on the kitchen table, smiled at Cordelia, and mouthed the word breakfast.

  Cordelia would have ripped it open and chowed down if her esophagus hadn’t immediately tightened the moment Jake said he was leaving. As much as she hated seeing him and Molly joined at the hip, the thought of him getting into the Charger and driving away made her feel like she might collapse.

  Molly didn’t seem to like the idea much either. “Don’t be retarded, Jake. We’d love you to hang around. Right, sis?”

  “Sure,” she mumbled.

  Molly playfully kicked Cordelia in the shin. “What’s the matter with you?”

  Jake shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at his feet. “Really, it’s fine. I should get out of your way.”

  Molly smirked. “You’re not going anywhere until we have your party.”

  Cordelia was completely confused, and so was Jake. “My what?” he asked.
/>   “We’re celebrating your…confirmation!” Molly said excitedly.

  “But I’m not thirteen, or Catholic,” Jake replied.

  Cordelia tried to suppress a laugh, but it was pointless. She couldn’t believe it, but she’d actually fallen in love with Jake’s sense of humor.

  “Well, it’s a metaphor. You’re taking your first steps into the adult world and we should commemorate it,” Molly explained.

  Cordelia and Jake both did double takes.

  “I’m taking this class called Literature and Religious Theory, okay?” Molly said.

  Jake chuckled. “Wow. I never thought I’d hear any of those words come out of your mouth.”

  “So will you stay? We’ll take you out to a club and show you a really good time,” Molly pleaded.

  Jake took a couple of steps toward Cordelia. Her heart ricocheted off the inside of her chest with each of his slight, yet graceful movements.

  “What about you, Cordy? Do you want me to stay?” he asked.

  She was mesmerized by the sound of his voice just then. It almost beckoned her to take another chance on him. Maybe there was some way she could get him alone. Maybe there was some way she could get him to stay forever, or at least for the rest of the summer. But when she glanced over at Molly, she could see that her sister was beaming. There was no way she’d be able to justify coming on to Jake when Molly would be circling them like a bird of prey! She’d already stepped over the line of bad behavior once. She couldn’t do it again, could she?

  Cordelia cleared her throat and hoped that when she spoke, Molly wouldn’t be able to tell that her little sister was infatuated with her ex-boyfriend. “If you want to stay, then you should. I don’t mind.”

  Jake frowned as if he were disappointed. “Fine, then.”

  Molly leaped up and down. “Fantastic! Oh, I know just the place we should go. It’s called the Hit Stop. Saturday nights are amazing there. You guys will love it.”

  “Great,” Cordelia said solemnly.

  “Lighten up, sis. We have loads of prepping to do! Jake, would you mind if Cordy and I went out shopping? You could busy yourself for a few hours, right?”

  “Of course,” Jake replied.

  Cordelia gulped down a mouthful of anxiety. A trip to the mall with Molly was code for “I need you to listen to me as I ramble on and on about some boy.” She had a feeling that her sister had a specific guy in mind, and the thought of talking about how awesome and/or “scrumptious”—Molly’s favorite adjective—Jake was would be as painful as tweezing the hairs on her bikini line. Besides, if she stayed behind, she had a shot of getting some one-on-one time with Jake.

  “You know, I’d love to, but I really should, like, get settled and—”

  Molly wasn’t going to hear any excuses. “You’re helping me max out Dad’s credit card and that’s that!”

  Jake grimaced as Molly snuck behind the beaded curtain and grabbed Cordelia’s purse. “Resistance is futile, Cordy.”

  She sighed as her sister practically pushed her out the front door and into her silver Ford Focus.

  Jake couldn’t have been more right. About everything.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Cordelia wanted to dig her own grave as she watched Molly try on another pair of super-low-slung, tight-as-sin jeans. These were dark indigo Sevens. Molly’s ass looked dynamite in them, as they did in the other ten pairs she had discarded on the fitting room floor. She didn’t think it was possible that Molly could have gotten any prettier, but Cordelia was being proven wrong with each piece of denim that cradled her sister’s curvy thighs. And were her boobs bigger too? Cordelia glanced down at her own chest and suddenly felt very insecure. How could Jake possibly think of her as anything but prepubescent when she stood next to her sister’s drool-inducing bod?

  Molly checked herself out in the full-length mirror. “These are it, honey. What do you think?”

  Cordelia gaped at how the back of Molly’s neon pink thong was jutting out. “Whatever you do, don’t bend over.”

  “C’mon, guys like it when girls do that.”

  “I’m sure you’ve made it into an art form, Molly,” she said icily.

  Molly spun around and gave her a wicked look. “What’s with you today? You’ve been cranky ever since you showed up.”

  She swallowed a witty comeback and lowered her eyes. “Sorry.”

  “Well, are you going to tell me what’s wrong? That’s what sisters are for, you know.”

  “I’m just tired from the trip,” Cordelia said while mindlessly fiddling with a stray Guess? asymmetrical tunic tank top that Molly had rejected about forty minutes ago.

  Molly slipped off the Sevens, balled them up, and threw them in her face. “You’re so full of shit. There’s something wrong, I know it.”

  “I said I’m just tired,” she said curtly, and tossed the jeans back at Molly.

  “Give it up, sis. Jake already told me,” Molly replied knowingly.

  A surge of panic seized Cordelia. Her breathing became so labored that she began chanting the words to the Pledge of Allegiance in her head to calm down. “What did he tell you exactly?”

  She was hoping that Jake had told Molly that they messed around. Molly’s demeanor was very amiable (as usual), so maybe it didn’t even matter to her. Perhaps she couldn’t care less if her little sister was into her ex-flame. Not that it would change the fact that Jake didn’t seem that interested in Cordelia.

  “He said that you and Paul broke up.” Molly perched herself on Cordelia’s lap. “I’m sorry, sweetie.”

  Cordelia gazed into her sister’s shining eyes and felt comforted for a minute. Then she realized that Molly still didn’t know what the hell was going on. Life sucked on so many insurmountable levels.

  “You know, Jake said he was an asshole anyway,” Molly said, kissing Cordelia’s forehead. “I wouldn’t even sweat it.”

  “Isn’t that funny?” she snipped. “Jake called someone else an asshole?”

  Molly laughed. “Yeah, well, things have changed, my dear. Didn’t you notice?”

  She squirmed a bit so Molly would get up. “Notice what?”

  “Let’s start with how scrumptious Jake is,” Molly said devilishly.

  I’m going to be sick, Cordelia thought. She hunched over and buried her head in her hands.

  “It’s like I’ve died and gone to hottie heaven!” Molly exclaimed.

  Cordelia snickered. “Oh my God, Molly. Are you for real?”

  “C’mon, like that never crossed your mind?” Molly asked.

  She knew there was no way she could look her sister in the eye and lie, which is why she stared at her knees. “No! He’s…he’s…”

  “Delicious? Delectable? Yummy?”

  “It sounds like you’re describing a candy bar,” Cordelia teased.

  Molly giggled. “God, I wanted to bite his lower lip and gnaw on his neck the second I saw him.”

  Cordelia was now curled up in the plane-crash position, not that she’d ever been taught how to do it properly. She was just imitating what she’d seen on TV and hoped that it would save her from imminent death; she was certain it was near.

  “Hey, Cordy? Maybe you could, like, disappear for a little bit tonight.” Molly strutted over to the mirror and gazed critically at her pores. “I was hoping Jake and I could find a cozy dark spot and…get reacquainted.”

  Cordelia’s feet felt numb and she could barely squeeze enough air out of her lungs to respond. It didn’t matter, though. Molly seemed to take her silence as a yes.

  “Not that I want to get back together or anything,” Molly said offhandedly. “I just want to see what kissing Hot Jake is like.”

  Cordelia wanted to tell her it was better than anything she’d ever imagined. But she just sat there motionless until Molly bolted out of the dressing room with her new pair of jeans under one arm and her little sister’s broken heart under the other.

  The Hit Stop was just as Molly had described it. Fantastic
ally beautiful people were squished together in a room the size of a broom closet, dancing to the lush sounds of BT and drinking blue liquid out of martini glasses. It wasn’t really Cordelia’s scene, but then again, she’d forgotten what having fun felt like since Jacob Stein’s Infamous Kissing Smackdown. Molly, on the other hand, could never, ever forget how to have fun. It was ingrained in every strand of her DNA.

  After hours of primping and a misguided fashion makeover, Cordelia had slinked into the club at around eleven thirty, looking like Molly’s personal stylist had accosted her. Not only was she wearing a dress that was so short it could double as a shirt, but she was also covered in the entire MAC cosmetics line. She’d tried to hide behind Jake and Molly, but that hadn’t stopped the crowd from taking notice of the tiny pixie girl who was hobbling onto the dance floor in a pair of gold Dolce & Gabbana platform strappy sandals. Molly had glued herself to Jake from the moment they’d gotten back to the apartment. Cordelia could barely keep down the California rolls she’d had for dinner as she’d watched how Jake hung on every word that Molly had said. And he’d called Cordelia the more interesting one. What a joke!

  Molly was sipping a cosmo while shimmying seductively to a pulsating techno beat. “I love this song!” she yelled above the music, the contents of her glass sloshing onto the floor.

  Jake leaned in and shouted, “It sounds the same as the last one!”

  Cordelia just stood there, unamused and unhappy. A random freaky guy was grinding his hips up against her back, and no one seemed to feel the need to rescue her. Then Molly winked and gave her some sort of hand signal that she didn’t really recognize.

  What does that mean? she thought. Am I supposed to steal third or something?

  But before she could figure it out, Molly finished up the rest of her drink and handed Cordelia her glass. “Could you get me a refill, sweetie?”