Cat Bennet, Queen of Nothing
Page 25
Oh. Geez. He really was serious, and I had to make a decision before Jeremy punched something.
He wasn’t anyone I’d ever thought about dating. He was just Jeremy—a jokester with crazy hair most days and hot hands with a pair of drumsticks. A guy who knocked over his drums trying to punch out Kirk just because Kirk had helped humiliate me. A guy who tried to stop me from getting humiliated in the first place.
I suddenly realized he might’ve cut his hair and took out the dye because he wanted to go out with me, not because his mom made him. Being a guy, he hadn’t bothered asking what I thought.
I looked at his hands and forearms, which did look good. His hair looked cute, too, but it didn’t look like the Jeremy I knew. He was so tense, I thought he might explode.
Drew walked by then, hand in hand with Chelsea, and I rolled my eyes. So much for wanting to hook up again. But I’d basically told him no. I was totally good with it.
I looked back at Jeremy, who seemed to be holding his breath. And then I realized that I was holding mine, too.
“Sure. I mean, yeah. I’d like that.”
And the truth was, I think I would.
Chapter 22
She was not of so ungovernable a temper as Lydia, and removed from the influence of Lydia’s example, she became, by proper attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and less insipid.
— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume III, Chapter Nineteen
A few weeks later, I wandered around the cafeteria in a daze, seeing my portraits everywhere, hearing congrats and “wow”s and even a few whistles.
And not just from Jeremy.
“You’re great, you know.”
I glanced up at him. Even in my new black boots with three-inch heels, I couldn’t get used to how tall he was standing next to me. Or maybe I just couldn’t get used to the fact that he was standing next to me. Pretty much all the time.
I rolled my eyes. “Are you talking about my portraits? Or me?”
“Both. I really like those portraits you did of me. Even the one when my hair wasn’t dyed.”
“Yeah, for about two seconds.”
Grinning, he put his arm around me just as my mom and dad walked up, so I gave him a subtle nudge. Too subtle, apparently. He didn’t let go.
“Cat, I’m so proud of you. This is all so wonderful.” Mom had tears in her eyes and kept squealing as Dad pulled a crumpled Kleenex out of his pocket and gave it to her. “I only wish Lydia could be here to see it!”
I felt Jeremy flinch next to me, but his smile didn’t leave his face.
He’d already told me, about a million times, that he thought Lydia going to reform school was the best thing that ever happened to me. After the hell I’d gone through, I couldn’t agree, but I was starting to understand what he meant. I wasn’t the queen of nothing; I just hadn’t known who I was. With Lydia gone, I had to find me. And I’d been so hidden, so buried, it wasn’t exactly easy. Or pretty.
“Everything is so beautiful.” Mom kept bubbling over as Dad steered her toward the far side of the cafeteria.
He glanced over his shoulder to wink—his own way of telling me he liked my portraits—and I mouthed my thanks. For his support, for taking Mom out of the view of my friends, and even for getting the Jeep repainted this week: electric blue, because it was my favorite color.
Tess walked up, stunning the crap out of me. We hadn’t spoken since the day Ms. Mickel kicked her out of English class. Then I saw Tess’s parents, her mom nudging her in the back the whole way.
“Tess, you have something you want to say to Cat, don’t you?”
Her face was beet red, and if she’d been anyone else in the world, I would’ve saved her. But she was Tess, and I savored her pain. So shoot me.
“Yeah, uh, I just wanted to say they’re good. Your portraits are good.” She probably wasn’t referring to the one I’d done of her that day in the Motel 6 in the Dells.
“And?” Another nudge from her mom, who smiled broadly at me, trying and failing to make up for the total lack of a smile on Tess’s face.
“And my mom said I had to apologize to you.”
“Tess.” It wasn’t a nudge this time. It was more like a thwack.
Tess glared at me. “I’m sorry, okay? It wasn’t your fault, but nothing was working the way it was supposed to, and I was mad, and Lydia wasn’t there to protect you, and—”
I held up a hand. “Drew figured it out for me.” I felt Jeremy go tense at my side, but Drew and I were ancient history, and even kinda pals now. Kinda. “But you didn’t have to go to all that trouble. I’m not Lydia. I don’t need to be Lydia. And the truth is, neither do you.”
Tess waved off her dad and mom, who smiled at me again before moving across the room. Tess bent close to my ear. “It’s not like I wanted to be Lydia, and I don’t even like Chelsea. But Drew is friends with Kirk, and I wanted Kirk to—”
She broke off when Kirk crossed the room twenty feet away from us, his arm around Amber. I guessed Tess and Amber weren’t too tight anymore, either. Which left Tess with no one. Wow. I almost did feel sorry for her.
But not quite.
“Anyway. I’m sorry. And your artwork is cool.”
“Extremely cool.” Liz’s words hit my ear just as Jane’s arm wrapped around my shoulder, forcing Jeremy to finally give me some breathing room. Tess mumbled an excuse and practically sprinted to get away, as if she thought Liz might humiliate her again.
Smart girl.
“You did good, babe.” Liz glanced around the room, her gaze finally landing on a portrait I’d drawn of her sprawled on the floor of my room, looking like a tiger ready to spring. “Well, except for that one of me.”
“They’re all good.” Jane squeezed my shoulder. “Omigosh, Cat, you weren’t kidding when you said you liked to draw. I wish we’d—”
“Paid attention?” Shrugging, I smiled at her. Jane and Liz were paying attention now, and that’s what counted. I just wish they’d pay less attention to how much time I spent with Jeremy. A girl deserves some privacy, doesn’t she? “It’s not like I was right about you guys, either.”
“No kidding.” Mary joined our little group, punching my arm the way Liz always did. “Welcome to the club.”
Jeremy didn’t say anything, but he hadn’t gone out with me long enough to get totally comfortable with my sisters—or to believe Liz wouldn’t skewer him the way she’d nailed Tess and Kirk at Kirk’s party. Liz always said it was a good thing to keep a guy on his toes, but I’d rather take my dating advice from Jane. Or even Mary. Believe it or not.
Josh was a cool guy, after all, and Mary had managed to wind up with him. Sure, it still surprised me when I thought too much about it, but he’d seen something in Mary. And I’d never even bothered to look.
Megan walked up just then, her pal Bethany in tow, which sent my sisters strolling off in search of their boyfriends or, knowing Liz, possibly Tess.
“Hey, Megan. Nice paintings. I hadn’t even seen half of them before.” I nodded at Bethany, too, but couldn’t think of anything to say to her. She’d always been so frosty to me, and still was. It probably didn’t help that none of her drawings were in the art show.
Megan, still tiny even in boots with the highest heels I’d ever seen on her, grinned at me. “Thanks. It’s hard to see my paintings, thanks to all these portraits by Cat Bennet cluttering up the place.”
“Ha ha.”
“Your portraits are really good. I never told you that before.” Bethany’s green eyes pierced right through me, so intensely I almost took a step backward. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? Not telling me? Your work is good, too.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t enter the art show. I didn’t have the guts.” She broke off, but Megan elbowed her until she kept going, even if she had to stare at her feet to do it. “I always wished I had your guts. You took so much crap from so many people, including me. I was just afraid my parents wouldn’t like me ha
nging out with you, even when Megan told me you weren’t at all like your reputation.”
I blinked. “I had a reputation?”
As a cool girl, sure. But not in a bad way.
Bethany finally met my gaze again. “You know. The parties, the crowd you hung out with.” She leaned closer. “Like Tess. She is such a bitch.”
“Thanks.” I smiled, even though I’d thought the same thing about Bethany. “I managed to figure that out.”
Megan chimed in. “Thank goodness. Maybe you’ll join the art club now.”
Jeremy wrapped an arm around me, possessively, which would be really annoying if it didn’t feel so good. “Maybe she won’t have time.”
Everyone laughed, even Bethany, although I knew Megan would keep working on me. It was what she did. It was part of what made her such a great friend.
Megan and Bethany wandered off, and I curled into Jeremy, then smiled up into his eyes as I ran a free hand through his hair. His spiky bright-blue hair streaked with purple.
He really was a crazy guy, and I liked him like that. And he liked me just the way I was, which seemed to keep changing. Constantly. Like Jeremy said when we arrived here tonight, I’m my own portrait in motion.
I liked that. Even better, I actually liked myself now. I wasn’t necessarily cool, or an art freak, or anything else you could put a label on. I was just me. Cat Bennet, queen of my destiny. Whatever that turns out to be.
About the Author
Mary Strand practiced corporate law in a large Minneapolis law firm for sixteen years until the day she set aside her pointy-toed shoes (or most of them) and escaped the land of mergers and acquisitions to write novels. The first novel she wrote, Cooper’s Folly, won Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart award and was her debut novel.
Mary lives on a lake in Minneapolis with her husband, two cute kidlets, and a stuffed monkey named Philip. When not writing, she lives for sports, travel, guitar, dancing (badly), Cosmos, Hugh Jackman, and ill-advised adventures that offer a high probability of injury to herself and others. She writes YA, romantic comedy, and women’s fiction novels. Cat Bennet, Queen of Nothing is the third in her four-book YA series, The Bennet Sisters. Sign up for her newsletter to find out when the fourth and final book is coming out!
You can find Mary at www.marystrand.com, follow her on Twitter or Instagram (@Mary_Strand), or “like” her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/marystrandauthor).
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Website: www.marystrand.com
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Also by Mary Strand
The Bennet Sisters Series
Book 1: Pride, Prejudice, & Push-Up Bras
Book 2: Being Mary Bennet Blows
Book 3: Cat Bennet, Queen of Nothing
Book 4: Livin' La Vida Bennet
The Bennet Sisters Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4)
Cooper’s Folly, Bell Bridge Books