The Bad Boy's Girl (The Bad Boy's Girl Series Book 1)

by Blair Holden

  “Well?” She places her hand on her hip and taps her manicured fingers impatiently.

  “Let it go, Celia, you’re being pathetic.” A voice breaks through the silence and my eyes shoot to the source. Lauren Philips, head cheerleader, is walking toward us with a frown on her face. It’s like she’s got “Celia” here on some kind of command-control program. The moment Lauren orders her, she backs away.

  “I’m sorry about her; she tends to get a little intense at times.”

  Lauren is a gorgeous girl with the perfect body. She’s blond just like me but her hair is like spun silk, all shiny and smooth. It’s in loose curls now, styled for the evening, framing her face and reaching her waist. All the cheerleading and gymnastics have given her the most toned body I’ve ever seen. Her gold, floor-length shimmering dress clings to her like a second skin without looking obscene. Her high heels make her already long legs look endless.

  My ego has just taken a huge hit. She’s breathtakingly beautiful and she’s nice.

  “That’s okay, thanks for intervening. I . . . I better go.”

  “Wait,” she calls as I spin on my heels and prepare to flee.

  She’s smiling warmly at me as I face her. I’ve known her since kindergarten and she’s never once acknowledged my existence. The fact that I never seemed to want a friend other than Nicole might also possibly explain why we’ve never really talked.

  “Where are you going? Your vanity is this way.” She points toward a row of dressing tables with huge mirrors. Oh, right.

  “I just, uh, I need to get some air.”

  She shakes her head. “You can’t let them get to you. I can tell you’re new to the world of beauty competitions. They’re sharks, all of them. They’ll smell your fear from a mile away so try not to look too intimidated.”

  “I don’t see how that’s possible. I don’t even know most of them and they’re looking at me like they wouldn’t mind having me for dinner.”

  She waves her hand dismissively. “That’s because they’re scared of Nicole. She doesn’t like it when they try to talk to you or your friends.”

  I know that, I’ve known that for a very long time but it still hurts. I’ve never done anything to Nicole, ever. I stepped out of her way when I was starting to become a liability. I didn’t cling to her like the Saran Wrap she is around Jay. So it’s kind of a mystery as to why she hates me so much.

  “Oh, and the fact that you’ve got Cole Stone wrapped around your finger doesn’t help things either,” she says in a hushed tone as we both sit at our dressing tables.

  The statement knocks the breath out of me temporarily. Is that the impression they get when they see Cole and me together?

  “It’s not like that. We have a . . . complicated relationship.” I unzip my makeup bag and add the finishing touches like Beth instructed. She’s done most of the work. My hair’s twisted into a stylish chignon at the base of my neck and my makeup is already done. I try not to be taken aback by the difference it has made. I look . . . older, less like the twelve-year-old everyone mistakes me for.

  Maybe Cole will notice that too.

  “That’s not what it looks like,” Lauren says as she reapplies her lipstick.

  I try to convince her that there’s nothing going on between me and Cole. Perhaps if she’s convinced then all her followers will stop giving me the death glare.

  Speaking of death glares, I can see Nicole’s face reflected in my mirror and she doesn’t seem too happy. Although she’s left me alone for the most part, I can see the barely-there restraint on her face. She’s itching to do something; at this point I almost welcome an attack. It’s better if she just goes ahead and does what she wants right now rather than coming up with a master plan when I’m strutting around on stage.

  The girls and I spend another thirty minutes or so before the host comes back again. This time he tells us that guests will start arriving soon and that we better have a dress rehearsal now. I fear tripping and breaking my neck as I struggle to balance myself in the six-inch heels Megan had forced me into. She said I needed every inch I could get to compete with the “Amazon-sized gorillas” I would be going against.

  She’s right. Most of these girls have the perfect supermodel height and I welcome the height my heels give me, even though they’re a walking deathtrap. My dress is still earning me glares as we practice. It’s a fairly simple process. As our names are called, we walk out from the dressing room and take our place at one of the staircases. With five on each one, we introduce ourselves to the crowd and judges. One by one, we walk down to our partners who lead us to the dance floor. Each pair has their own five minutes to dance and impress. Then contestants merge into the crowd and take the floor by talking and charming the pants off old people. This is where judges mark you for your personality. You can dance with anyone you want but the pressure of being judged remains.

  The escorts will arrive once the show starts so we have our dress rehearsal without them. My stomach is twisted into knots as I think about seeing Cole. A part of me wants to throw something at him for spending so much money on me. Another part wants to hide behind him and just vanish into our bubble. When I’m with him, all I can concentrate on is either arguing with him or trying to keep up with his crude remarks. I kind of miss his unending attempts to flirt with me right now.

  “Tessa, sweetie, is that you?”

  Cassandra pops her head inside the dressing room, where we’ve all come back to. She looks ravishing as usual in a cream-colored lace dress. Her hair is in an elegant French twist but obviously she pulls it off much better.

  I’m extremely aware of Nicole stiffening as her boyfriend’s mother walks in and takes the empty seat next to mine. As much as I love Cassandra, I wish she’d just look in Nicole’s direction to appease her.

  “Your mother told me I’d find you here. You look beautiful, honey, and I knew the dress would look wonderful on you,” she gushes and I blush. I’m trying to avert my gaze from Nicole’s piercing one.

  “Thank you,” I say meekly, hoping she’d pick up on my lack of enthusiasm. I’d given Nicole a big reason to pounce on me, what with the bathroom incident; I didn’t need to instigate her further.

  “You have no idea how hard Cole made us look for it. I canceled all my appointments just so we could go shop but nothing was good enough for him.” She shakes her head, reminiscing fondly. Whoa there heart, stop melting.

  “After two days of finding nothing, I called in a favor. One of my friends works with this famous designer; I’d operated on his daughter once and he was very grateful. I took Cole to see him and with the way my son fussed, I thought the poor guy would have a heart attack. Nothing we saw made him think that you’d like it.”

  Does he think I’m fussy? Does he think I’m an obnoxious brat who wouldn’t settle for anything less than a dress costing thousands of dollars?

  “Don’t be mad at him, Tessa. I know Cole pretends to be this bad boy and I’ve seen enough of them when I was your age, but when it comes to you he’s a big softie.” She places her hand over mine and gives me a smile that warms my insides.

  “I honestly thought he’d stick to his routine of being with a different girl every week but when I see him with you, it gives me hope. Jay’s my son, my flesh and blood, but he really is an idiot for not knowing what he had.”

  I gape at her. Wait, did everyone know that I liked Jay? Had I had a sign plastered on my forehead all these years?

  “I don’t . . . I mean I don’t like him, we’re friends . . . I, I don’t,” I stutter but she laughs gently and pats my hand.

  “I’m not judging you. I love my sons equally but I’m glad one of them had the balls to fight for what they want.” She winks at me as I sit there, utterly flabbergasted.

  “Right, okay, no more scandalizing the contestant. I just came by to wish you luck and give you this.” She places a gift bag in my lap and looks at me expectantly. I dig inside and the first thing I touch is a smooth wrapper. Pulling
it out, to my delight I see a huge bar of a chunky KitKat.

  “That’s from Cole.” Cassandra grins and I match her expression. He sent me KitKats! How am I supposed to fight with that? I dig around the bag for a second time and my fingers curl around a velvet box. Pulling it out, I’m stunned to see a maroon Cartier box.

  “This is from me, open it,” she urges and I cautiously follow her instructions. Inside I find the most stunning pair of diamond teardrop earrings that I’ve ever seen. They gleam brightly, reminding me of how much they must have cost.

  “Cassandra, I-I can’t accept this, it’s too . . .”

  “Nonsense, I’ve had these for ages but never got around to wearing them. They’ll look lovely with your dress.”

  “So can I give them back to you after the pageant?”

  She shakes her head and pushes the box into my hand, making me fist it in my palm.

  “I want you to have them.”

  Cassandra leaves then and I’m a mess. Did I actually have this conversation with Cassandra Stone and did it actually mean that Cole’s interested in me?

  But the worst thing that happened is the fact that she blatantly ignored Nicole. It’s like she didn’t even notice her sitting there. That’s bound to have consequences.

  Trying not to hyperventilate, I take deep breaths and prepare myself for the show. Guests are arriving; we can hear the polite yet totally nonsensical conversations taking place downstairs. Any moment now we’ll be herded outside and made to parade around these people.

  “Ten minutes, girls.” The turkey sub I had for lunch threatens to come up. Deep breaths, Tessa, that’s it, just take deep breaths and you’ll survive this. After that you can take off your six-inch heels and clobber Cole with them.

  “Try not to choke, fatty,” Nicole sneers as she pushes past me to take her place in the line. The one-shouldered crimson silk dress she wears flows behind her as she walks away. She’s playing her best asset, her more-than-ample chest and her boobs are mostly on show. The back of her dress is more or less nonexistent with a singular strap connecting the top of the dress to the small of her back. She looks every bit as stunningly fierce as she is and I’m scared for my life right now.

  My head’s spinning by the time they call my name and I have to go take my place at the stairs. A large crowd is watching us and it’s apparent that everyone in town is here. My mother stands at her podium calling off our names. The partners line the elevated dance floor in the middle of the room. My heart skips a beat as I see Cole’s eyes on me. They never leave me as I walk and take my place.

  He looks so good, so perfect, that I shiver slightly. He’s wearing a suit just like the rest of the boys but he seems to look just so much . . . sexier, I blush at the word, than the rest. He’s wearing a steel-gray tie to match my dress over a plain white shirt and it brings out his eyes beautifully. He winks at me when he catches me watching and I hold back a giggle.

  I mouth “thank you” to him and I hope he understands that it’s for the dress. Then I realize that he can’t actually see how I look since I’m obscured by the girl in front of me and she’s a good five feet nine inches tall. Oh well, he’ll see me when we walk down.

  One by one the ten of us introduce ourselves to the crowd. I see my father standing amid everyone else but Travis is nowhere to be found. He’s tall enough so I’d know if he was here but he isn’t.

  Disappointment courses through me. He’d promised to come and support me, after he’d stopped choking on pizza, that is. I get that he wanted to avoid all the judgmental stares, but if I was going to do this, I needed people here who wouldn’t make fun of me if and when I choked. Travis was one of those people.

  Soft music plays as one by one the escorts guides participants to stand at the edge of the dance floor. My heart’s practically ready to tear itself out of my chest by the time I reach Cole. My breathing’s heavy and I’m feeling so faint that I could just fall to the ground any second. With a trembling hand I reach for Cole, who’s staring at me wide-eyed at the bottom of the stairs.

  It’s something that only happens in the cheesiest of chick flicks and for that moment I feel exactly like those girls. Time seems to stop and the only people in the room seem to be this bad boy with the heart of gold and me—the awkward girl he likes spending time with.

  My skin tingles with excitement as he interlaces our fingers and helps me step down. His eyes unapologetically roam my face and body and I don’t try to hide. It’s his dress I’m wearing, if he wants to look then he’ll look. It doesn’t matter that he’s searching my body like it’s a map to Atlantis. I’m doing this for him, this entire charade is for him, and it’s about time I admit it. I feel an immense amount of gratitude toward him, for everything he’s done for me so far. I’d like to thank him in whatever way works best.

  “You look beautiful,” he says as our Lifetime Movie moment ends and I become aware of people applauding all around us. I even see Megan jumping up and down at her spot, squealing and waving at me frantically. I laugh at her excitement as poor Alex looks clueless as to what to do with her. Waving back, I let my eyes scan the room looking for more familiar faces. Beth grins at me as I catch her eye behind the DJ booth. She looks professional and at home with her headphones and a complicated-looking contraption in front of her.

  My eyes continue wandering as Cole walks us to the raised platform. They zero in on Jay, who’s standing at the sidelines and I frown. What is he doing there? Isn’t he supposed to be escorting Nicole? Immediately I look toward Nicole, who’s on the arm of the deputy sheriff’s son, Henry.

  The nerve of the evil bitch. I know what she’s done, I know the second I see Jay’s downtrodden expression. She’s ditched him for Henry because everyone knows Jay can’t dance. Obviously someone who’s so set on winning won’t choose a guy with two left feet to be her partner, but still he’s her boyfriend! They’ve been dating for three years. He must be so embarrassed right now. Especially seeing as Henry’s kind of groping Nicole’s butt and she’s doing nothing to stop him.

  “Why are you frowning?” Cole asks as we take our place and I crane my neck to look at Jay. Yes, after everything he’s said and done I still feel horrible for him. Standing there with his hands stuffed in his pockets and shoulders slumped, he looks so . . . sad. I want that sadness to go away. I want to kill Nicole for treating him like this.

  “Nicole didn’t choose Jay to be her partner,” I mutter angrily and Cole sighs.

  “Trust me, Tessie, he doesn’t care. That’s not why he looks miserable.” He clutches my hand so tightly that it verges on being painful. I don’t understand what he’s saying but the dangerous clenching of his sharp jaw tells me that I need to steer in another direction.

  “This dress . . . it’s absolutely gorgeous, Cole. Thank you; I don’t know what to say.”

  He chuckles slightly and shakes his head. “Since when do you have a lack of things to say to me? Did you finish Great Comebacks for Dummies already?”

  I give his hand a hard squeeze. “Be serious for once, I really do appreciate it, you know.”

  “No big, we didn’t have to look much. I found it at some vintage store Mom took me to.”

  Thinking about Cassandra’s words and Cole’s contradictory statement has me smiling to myself. I know he’s the one who’s lying. What I’m wearing doesn’t seem likely to belong at a vintage clothing store. I might be fashionably challenged but I know an expensive dress when I see one.

  If he wants to just shrug off his kind gesture then that’s his choice. If he feels uncomfortable telling me about the effort he made for me then I’ll leave him alone. I like teasing him, I love getting under his skin, but this time I’ll let it go.

  One by one each couple goes to the middle of the floor and dances. Whenever we practiced, Cole always told me to maintain eye contact and now I can see why. Apart from Laura and her boyfriend, Mike, none of the others have chemistry. Their routine looks robotic, practiced, and, frankly, boring. It’s espe
cially entertaining to watch Mr. Golden Boy. Henry Riley drops Nicole on the floor when he attempts to dip her. It’s hilarious but I literally have to stuff my fist in my mouth to stop from cackling like an idiot. It didn’t help things when Beth accidentally played Kanye’s “Gold Digger” just as they were about to leave the floor. She apologized, looking sheepish, and I was reminded why we’d become friends in the first place.

  When our turn arrives, my entire body freezes. Cole tugs at my hand to lead me forward but I’m this close to passing out. He watches me with concern on his perfect face before bending down slightly so that our faces are level.

  “Freaking out?”

  I nod.

  He tucks a lose tendril behind my ear and his fingers brush my cheek, making my skin blaze. “Look at it this way, if you fail, I fail, and I hate failing. We’ve got this, I’ve got you, Tessie,” he promises.

  “You said that when you asked me to jump down from your tree house. I ended up in the emergency room with a broken ankle.”

  He scratches the back of his neck, wincing slightly. “I thought you’d aim for the trampoline. But in any case, this is different. I-I’m not that stupid kid anymore. I promise no more trips to the emergency room.”

  “You sure?” I ask, already feeling much better.

  “Cross my heart and hope to die, shortcake.”

  Grinning at him, I loop my arm through his elbow and together we take center stage.

  Chapter Fifteen Part Two: Ripping Jay’s Bieber-Sized Ego into Shreds

  The beginning chords of the song I’d heard way too many times as a little girl startle me. But even Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” can’t distract me. I’m fully aware of all the eyes that are focusing on Cole and me. Some are smiling, warm faces full of encouragement, while others, mostly my escort’s relentless admirers, are scowling fiercely. The tension is palpable; no one is talking as the only voice that resonates around us is that of the singer.

  “Hey, don’t look at them. Look at me, just me, like we practiced,” he whispers gently and I find myself staring deeply into his eyes. Seriously, how can they be this blue?