Again, adorable. Verging on adorkable. He just didn’t know how amazing he was, did he? “Must be kind of awkward having them just show up everywhere you go,” I said.
“Makes me want to stop updating Facebook about where I’m going,” he agreed with a rueful chuckle. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you can help Jill and Casey keep me sane.”
“Sure.” I felt a rush of warmth, immediately followed by an unpleasant lurch in the pit of my stomach. On the one hand, it was cool that he already counted me in as one of his friends. But it only reinforced the fact that he clearly didn’t see me as anything more. Let alone as The One.
I forgot about that as he put his hand on my arm. It was like a bolt of electricity shot through me at his touch, and for a second I sort of forgot to breathe.
He was pointing to one of the tunes in the jukebox. “How about that one?” he said. “Seems like your kind of vibe. Am I right?”
I did my best to focus on the words on the little card. The song he’d indicated was one of my favorites.
“You’re so right,” I told him, feeling a little breathless but doing my best to hide it. “You know me pretty well for someone who’s only known me a week.”
I’d meant it as a joke, one of those cute throwaway lines that Britt always produced so effortlessly. But maybe I didn’t pull it off. In any case, he didn’t crack a smile as he glanced over at me.
“Yeah,” he said, his eyes thoughtful as they caught my own and held them. I stopped breathing again. “It’s weird. I really do feel like the two of us are on the same—”
“Riley!” An impatient, giggling female voice interrupted, shattering the moment. “Hurry up and put on some music. You promised me a dance, remember?”
Twelve
I fell back a few steps, feeling as if I might hyperventilate. That moment between Riley and me had been brief but intense. What had the questioning look in his eyes meant?
I felt hopeful for a second. But only a second.
“Here, let’s play this one!” The girl who had interrupted us, a toothy brunette with an obviously fake tan, punched a button on the jukebox. The strains of a treacly Top 40 ballad poured out of the speakers.
“Ugh,” one of the girls on the couch said, looking up from her PlayStation controller. “Did you pick this piece of crap, Riley? Lame.”
Riley shot her a sheepish smile and shrug, but Tanny McTannerson ignored the comment. “Come on,” she ordered, grabbing him by the arm. “Let’s dance.”
Apparently, to her, “dance” was pretty much synonymous with “grind.” She pushed herself up against Riley until you couldn’t have fit a sheet of tissue paper between them. He looked a little uncomfortable but made no move to push her away.
I didn’t want to watch but was too horrified to turn away. It was like a train wreck—a terrible, bloody train wreck with lots of casualties. As I stood there frozen in place, another girl came over to stand beside me. This one was a cute redhead in a form-fitting halter dress.
“I can’t believe how pushy she is,” the redhead commented, staring at Riley and the brunette.
“Yeah, me either,” I said numbly.
The other girl looked me over. “My name’s Kelsey,” she said. “Who are you? One of Riley’s friends from Grove?”
What was the point in lying? All of a sudden I was feeling pretty tired of pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Or maybe that should be pretending not to be someone I was.
“No,” I told the other girl wryly. “I’m the girl from the planetarium.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Aren’t we all, sweetie.”
Another girl had just wandered close enough to overhear us. She let out a sniff, looking me up and down.
“You’re trying to pass yourself off as Planetarium Girl?” she said. “Get real. If you’re going to be serious about this, at least you could cut your hair or pull it back or something.”
“Good point,” Kelsey agreed with a nod. “Everyone knows that Planetarium Girl didn’t have all that crazy long hair.”
“They do?” I said, perplexed.
The second girl stared at me as if she’d just realized she was talking to a complete moron. “Riley posted an update about that this morning. Didn’t you see it? I guess he’s trying to weed out the fakers… .” She paused to glare around at all the other girls in the room. “So he put down everything he remembered about her. Like how tall she was—about five foot six or so …”
Kelsey narrowed her eyes, looking the other girl up and down. “Yeah. Come to think of it, you look a little short to be Planetarium Girl yourself. Sure there’s not something you want to confess?”
The other girl ignored her. “And that her hair seemed kind of short and sleek from what he could tell in the dark and all.” She patted her own dark brown pixie cut.
My hand wandered up to my own long, wavy locks. For one crazy, confused second I wondered if this was all a big misunderstanding—if Riley had met some other, short-haired Planetarium Girl that day at the museum… . It would certainly explain why he was so certain I wasn’t her… .
Then I remembered. I’d had my hair pulled back into a bun because of that stupid cockpit experience. Duh. It hadn’t seemed like a particularly important detail at the time. But now I wondered if my long, wavy hair was what was holding him back from seeing that I was the real Planetarium Girl.
I’ve got to go tell him! I thought frantically, my gaze shooting back to Riley.
He was still dancing with Ms. Fake Tan. I couldn’t see his face, only hers. Her eyes were closed, and her orange-tinted face wore a blissful expression. She still had her body pressed up against him and was now running the tips of her fingers up and down his spine in time to the slow beat of the song.
What was I doing? Suddenly I felt like the world’s biggest loser. Here I was, all dressed up and looking my best, mooning over a guy who clearly didn’t see me that way at all. Talk about pathetic… .
“Excuse me,” I said to the other two girls, who had just started arguing with each other about how tall they were. “I’ve got to go.”
I turned to make my way toward the stairs, wanting nothing more than to find Britt and escape before I turned into an entirely different person. A desperate, needy person who was throwing herself at a guy because of a few pings and a BFF with romantic delusions.
When I was halfway to the stairs, the song ended. Riley pulled away from Orange Glo Girl and looked around, spotting me right away.
“Yo, Lauren,” he called, hurrying over.
What could I do? I didn’t want to be rude or anything. So I stopped, turning to face him with a forced smile.
“Hey,” he said, skidding to a stop in front of me. “Um, are you having fun?”
“This is quite a party,” I hedged.
He laughed. “Yeah. Mikey’s parents go out of town a lot, and he never fails to throw a kick-ass bash.” Running one hand through his dark hair, he glanced around the rec room, an uneasy expression wandering briefly across his face. “This one’s maybe a little weirder than most, though.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. For one crazy second I was tempted to channel Britt and just blurt out something blunt, maybe along the lines of Hey, doofus, it would be a lot less weird if you’d get your head out of your butt long enough to see that I’m the girl you’re looking for… .
Before I could decide whether I had the guts to actually say something like that, I heard a chorus of giggles from over by the jukebox. A moment later another song started; it was another slow jam. At least this one didn’t suck as hard as the previous song. In fact, I kind of liked it.
“My turn!” Kelsey sang out, hurrying over. Completely ignoring me, she started pawing at Riley. “Come on, sexy. Let’s dance.”
Riley smiled, looking uncomfortable. “Uh …” He shot a look at his two female friends, but they were bent over their controllers and completely caught up in their game.
“What are we waiting for?” Kelsey
stretched up, draping her arms over Riley’s shoulders. “The song’s half over!”
Riley did a quick little sidestep, neatly escaping from her embrace. “Maybe later, okay?” he told her with a winning smile. “Sorry. But I already promised Lauren she could have this dance.”
Kelsey looked just as surprised as I felt. Before I knew what was happening, Riley had taken me by the hand and pulled me gently after him to an open spot in front of the jukebox.
“Sorry about that,” he whispered as we started to dance. “I just couldn’t deal with another one of them right now.”
“N-no problem,” I stammered, too busy focusing on the way his arms were wrapping around me to spit out anything more coherent than that. It was making me flash back to that moment in the planetarium when I’d crashed into him and felt those same arms hold me. Did he feel it too?
Apparently not. He was peeking over my shoulder at the other girls. I could only imagine the looks they were giving us, especially Kelsey… .
“Guess I owe you double for saving me,” he said quietly. “You’re a sport, Lauren.”
That brought me down to earth with a thud. A sport. Yeah. Just what I wanted to hear from him.
“At least this time those girls picked a better song,” I commented, determined to hang onto my dignity if at all possible. And the best way to do that was to survive this dance and then leave before I had some kind of pathetic emotional meltdown in front of him.
He nodded. “I like this one too.” He started humming along with the music.
That distracted me from my angst. “Wow, you have a good voice,” I said.
“Thanks.” He smiled down at me, then switched from humming to actual singing, crooning the words into my ear. I felt a shiver start somewhere around my ear canal and travel through my entire body.
This time he seemed to feel something, too. Still singing softly, he tightened his hold around my waist, pulling me closer. Then he went back to humming again, swaying more and more slowly.
I could feel his heart beating against my body. His hands started moving, tentatively exploring my back. Was something happening here?
When I tilted my head back to look at him, I found him already staring down at me. Our eyes met, and once again I saw a question in his. I just held his gaze, not really caring much about the whole Planetarium Girl thing right then.
He wet his lips, and his eyes fell shut for a second. Then he opened them and started moving his face closer to mine. My lips parted of their own accord, already tingling in anticipation of the kiss… .
“Hey, everybody!” A sudden commotion over by the stairs drowned out the music.
Riley jumped back. He didn’t quite let go of me, but the spell was definitely broken. I was left with dry lips, a pounding heart, and a racing mind. When I looked over at the stairs, I saw Marcus bounding toward us.
“Dude,” he exclaimed, pounding Riley on the back. “Is this a party, or what?”
Riley gulped, then barked out a quick laugh. “You run out of girls upstairs, or what?” he asked Marcus. “I don’t want you to, like, go into withdrawal or anything. Why don’t you cut in, bro? Lauren’s a good dancer.”
He stepped back. Marcus moved forward to take his place, holding out his hands to me with a smile. He said something—probably something witty and charming. But I had no idea what it was.
That was because I was too busy watching as Kelsey swooped in and grabbed Riley. He turned away to dance with her, not quite meeting my eye.
It seemed that the Moment—if that was what that had been—was over.
Thirteen
The next few minutes passed in a haze. Before I knew it, I’d danced with Marcus for several songs. After the first one they were all fast songs. Riley had somehow extricated himself from Kelsey and was once again controlling the jukebox.
I kept sneaking looks at him over there, but he wasn’t looking my way. In fact, he wasn’t really looking at anyone. He was keeping his head down, poring over the jukebox’s song list as if it held the meaning of life.
What was he thinking? Had he felt what I’d felt while we were dancing? I was pretty sure that he had. In fact, I was 99.9 percent confident that he’d been on the verge of kissing me when Marcus had interrupted. So why was Riley acting like this now? Why had he made a break for it as soon as he got the chance?
At first such questions were wistful. But the more I turned them over in my head, the more annoyed I got. Riley wasn’t stupid. So why couldn’t he just get over himself and admit that I was the real Planetarium Girl? Surely he was smart enough to figure out the hair thing on his own… .
Luckily, Marcus didn’t seem to notice how preoccupied I was, or at least if he did notice he didn’t care. He was a good dancer and seemed to be enjoying himself. He grabbed my hand and spun me, then dropped me again and did a little spin of his own.
“Nice moves,” I said, finally focusing on him.
“Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.” He twirled me around one more time. “By the way,” he added in a too-casual voice, “I’ve been meaning to ask you. What’s the deal with your cute friend?”
For a second I thought he was talking about Riley. I almost blurted out something stupid to that effect.
But I caught myself just in time. “Wait,” I said. “What cute friend? You mean Britt?”
He nodded. “The girl you came with. You pointed her out earlier, remember?”
Now that he mentioned it, I had. Britt’s name had come up while I was talking to him and Rachel in the dining room.
“I know you said she came here to meet Tommo,” Marcus went on. “Do you know if she’s, like, serious about him?”
I was surprised. Only not. Guys always went for Britt. Why should this one be any different?
“Um, no,” I told him. “She’s definitely not that serious. They only met like a week ago.”
“Oh! Cool. So do you know what her type is?”
The song ended and I stepped back. “She doesn’t exactly have a type,” I told him. “Go talk to her. I’m sure she’d love to meet you. You can tell her I sent you if you want.”
I couldn’t help smiling as Marcus thanked me and took off. It figured. Hadn’t I thought all along that he reminded me of Britt? I couldn’t imagine what Britt was going to do with the male version of herself, but I was looking forward to hearing all about it later. If only I had something equally fun and juicy to tell her about my own evening… .
I glanced around for Riley. When I found him, I caught him staring back at me. My heart gave a little jump when I saw the serious look on his face.
Enough is enough, I told myself firmly. We need to just deal with this already. I’ve got to stop playing games and lay it on the line, tell him—again—that I’m The One he’s looking for. And not stop telling him until he believes it.
Summoning up all the courage I could find, I headed toward him. He was still watching me, not moving.
“Where is he?” a female voice cried out from the stairs. “Where’s my sweet baby Riley? Because his Planetarium Girl is here at last!”
All eyes turned toward the newcomer, including mine. A girl was hurrying down the stairs. She had wide, teddy-bear-brown eyes, a big, round booty encased in a tight skirt, and a freakishly high-pitched voice. Her shoulder-length platinum hair was pinned back from her face with sparkly clips, and the heels of her wedge slides added about four inches to her petite height. Think a blond Betty Boop on steroids. Another girl, taller and a little less flashy in general, was right behind her.
The first girl spotted Riley just as she reached the bottom of the steps. She stopped short and clutched at her own heart.
“Oh my God,” she exclaimed, her voice approaching a pitch that only dogs could hear. “It’s you. It’s really you! After our wonderful, romantic, inspiring meeting in the planetarium, I was afraid I’d never find you again!”
“Get in line, sister,” one of the other fakers called out. “You’re not the real Planet
arium Girl. I am!”
The newcomer ignored her. She raced over and flung both arms around a surprised-looking Riley. “It’s so awesome to see you again, Riley. I’m so glad you posted that thingy looking for me on MySpace.”
“It was on Facebook,” one of the video-game-playing girls called out, already sounding kind of bored. “Riley doesn’t do MySpace.”
“Whatever.” The spawn of Betty Boop didn’t seem too concerned. She never took her eyes off Riley as she went on. “Anyway, I’m glad I can finally tell you that my name is Tiffie. And since you said you wrote me a song, I decided to write you one, too! Can I sing it for you, baby?”
“Um, sure, I guess.” Riley seemed nonplussed.
Tiffie took a deep breath, then burst into song. It was a fairly tuneless, rambling thing with goofy lyrics about kindred souls and planetary alignment. I had to give her an A for creativity, though her singing voice rated about a D-minus. I guess everyone was too surprised to do anything but listen to the entire song—all three verses. Even Riley’s friends put down their PlayStation controllers and turned to watch.
By the end almost everyone was laughing, including Riley. Tiffie didn’t seem to mind. She beamed at him.
“See?” she said. “We inspired each other.”
“That’s cool.” Riley seemed amused. “I, um, appreciate you laying it on the line like that, Tiffie.”
The rest of the faker gang seemed pretty skeptical of the whole thing. “You can’t be Planetarium Girl,” one of them told Tiffie. “You’re way too short.”
“Oh, but she totally is!” I’d almost for gotten about the second girl, the one who’d been behind Tiffie on the steps. But now she hurried forward. “See, I was there, too, and I saw the whole thing.”
“You couldn’t have,” Kelsey said bluntly. “It was dark, remember?”
“Of course she doesn’t remember that, because she wasn’t there,” one of the others called out. “But I was. Because I’m Planetarium Girl.”
Tiffie’s friend clasped her hands in front of her. “It was super-romantic,” she said. “See, we’d noticed Riley before the lights went out. It was totally love at first sight for Tiffie, you know? She was just going over to say hi when everything went dark. And, well, the rest is history.”
At First Sight Page 9