Microsoft Word - santaanna1234567.doc

by Lauren Barnholdt

  “But it wasn’t just you and them.”

  She giggles. “Maybe you charmed them with your sexy smile and your Justin Bieber hair.”

  I grin, “I do not have Justin Bieber hair. This is a very expensive, perfect fade, thank you very much.” I pull my hat off and run my hand over my head, and she laughs.

  “So do you want to stay over?” she asks. “You could spend the night and everything.”

  “I don’t think so.” A wind blows through the open screen door and I shiver. “I should probably head out.”

  “Are you sure?” She runs her hand down my chest.

  “Yeah,” I say, “I told my folks I’d be home at a reasonable hour and I can’t do…whatever the hell you did to get your folks to chill.”

  “You just have to be persistent.” She smiles, leans in and kisses me. Her lips are soft and warm. Her tongue goes into my mouth.

  I’m kissing her back.

  And for some weird reason…thinking of Natalia.

  Chapter Three

  Natalia

  Brunch seems kind of like something only rich kids would do. I mean, we never went to brunch at my old school. In fact, no one even made plans before noon. And now here it is, ten o’clock on Saturday morning, and I’m standing outside on my porch, waiting for Brody to pick me up.

  I’m wearing a pair of skinny jeans, a black cowl neck sweater (bought last night in an emergency I-need-something-to-wear-to-brunch trip to the mall), and flat black boots. I showered this morning, but didn’t wash my hair, so it looks kind of tousled. I didn’t want to seem like I was trying too hard.

  I almost, almost thought about showing up in a pair of my PINK sweatpants and a hoodie, but then I looked up the restaurant we’re going to online – Cowboy Charlie’s—

  and realized that definitely wasn’t going to fly. Cowboy Charlie’s is a bar, but it’s slightly upscale, with cloth tablecloths and all kinds of exotic-sounding things on the menu, like toasted goat cheese omelettes and blueberry agave smoothies. Welcome to Santa Anna, I think, as Brody pulls into my driveway, right on time.

  “You look great,” he says as I hop into his truck.

  “Thanks,” I say, “So do you.” He’s wearing a pair of jeans and a dark green sweater, and his hair is still wet from the shower.

  “So Raine and Cam are going to meet us there,” he says, as he pulls out of my driveway. “I hope that’s okay.”

  “Fine with me,” I say, wondering if I should mention the fact that Cam called me yesterday and that’s how these plans even got made. But then Brody will probably want to know why Cam called me, and then I’ll have to make something up, so I decide to just go ahead and let him think it was his idea. I’m guessing Cam must have called Brody last night and mentioned brunch, pretending that he and I never talked about it beforehand.

  I’m afraid Brody’s going to bring up our kiss again, and how I freaked out, but instead, we chat about sports and music until we pull up in front of the bar a few minutes later. Brody circles the block a couple of times until easing his truck into an empty spot.

  When we get inside the restaurant, the hostess shows us to a table in the back, the smell of French toast and bacon following us as we take our seats. Cam and Raine aren’t there yet, and so we order smoothies (vanilla blueberry for me, strawberry banana for Brody), and an order of potato pancakes to share while we wait. The bar is warm and cozy, with dartboards lining one wall, and a digital jukebox in the corner. There are a few other people around, but it’s actually not that busy for a Saturday morning.

  Five minutes later, Cam and Raine come breezing in.

  “I’m sooo sorry,” Raine says, “Cam was late and then we couldn’t find a parking spot.” She leans in and kisses Brody on both cheeks, then leans down and does the same to me. She smells like cherries and some kind of flowery perfume. “Cam was late, yes,”

  Cam says, “But then Raine made me wait in her driveway for fifteen minutes while she finished getting ready.” He scowls and sits down in a chair across from me. He doesn’t acknowledge me or Brody.

  “Wow,” I say, in an effort to lighten the mood, “Someone’s not a morning person.”

  “Nope,” he says. Then he reaches over and takes a sip of my smoothie, bypassing my straw and drinking right out of the glass. Something about the gesture is intimate, like we’re so close that we can just go around sharing each other’s drinks, and I feel my face get hot as it puts it down next to me. As if he can sense it, Brody reaches over and grabs my hand.

  “What is everyone having?” Raine asks as she looks at the menu. If she’s bothered by the fact that Cam was sharing my drink, she doesn’t show it.

  “I think I’m going to try the goat cheese omelette,” I tell her, figuring that if she’s making an effort to be nice, I should, too.

  “The omelettes here are amazing,” she says. But when the waitress comes over to drop off our potato pancakes and take our order, Raine gets a stack of pancakes with extra chocolate chips and a side of bacon.

  “I’m starving,” she says, forking up a piece of potato pancake and popping it into her mouth.

  “What’s up, Cam, my boy?” Brody asks, grinning at him across the table. “You hanging in there?”

  “I’m fine,” Cam says. “Just tired.”

  I look at him, questioning, wondering if he’s okay, if him being tired has anything to do with how he collapsed yesterday.

  “I know what’ll wake you up,” Brody says. He nods toward the dart board.

  “Loser buys breakfast.”

  “You’re on.” The boys get up and head to the darts, leaving me alone with Raine.

  I take a nervous sip of my smoothie.

  She leans in close to me. “I’m glad they left,” she says.

  “You are?”

  “Yeah.” She leans in even closer. “Is your sweater new?” she asks.

  I think about lying, but then I say, “Yeah.”

  She smiles and then reaches down and pulls off the sticker that’s stuck to the side of me, the sticker with the big M on it for medium. She sticks it onto the table.

  “Ohmigod!” I say, “How embarrassing.” I feel my face flush hot.

  “It’s fine,” she says, waving her hand like it’s no big deal and helping herself to more potato pancake. “No one saw. The only reason I even noticed is because I’m sitting right next to you.”

  “Thanks,” I say, wondering if Cam told her she should be nicer to me. And if so, what else did he tell her? That I’m no threat? That he only invited me to her house yesterday to be polite?

  “So what’s the deal with you and Brody?” she asks, watching as the boys set up their dart game. Brody walks behind the white line that’s painted on the floor of the bar, takes aim, and throws his dart into the board. The muscles of his shoulder flex under his sweater.

  “Um, I’m not sure,” I say.

  “He’s hot.” She looks at me. “I’m, like, in love with Cam, but I can still say that Brody’s hot, can’t I? I mean, it’s not really a matter of opinion.”

  “True,” I say, “He is hot.” I think about him kissing me yesterday, how his lips felt on mine. I twist my napkin nervously in my lap.

  As if she’s reading my mind, Raine says, “Did you kiss him?”

  “I don’t kiss and tell,” I say, taking a sip of my orange juice and trying to seem like I’m being coy. She might be acting nice, but we’re so not ready to start swapping kiss stories and acting like we’re BFFs 4eva.

  Raine leans into me then, her deep blue eyes staring right into mine. Then she says, very slowly and carefully, “It’s okay, Natalia. You can tell me. Did you and Brody kiss? How do you feel about him?” Her voice is soft and slow, and it’s actually kind of creeping me out.

  “I don’t know,” I say shrugging and looking away. “I mean, I just met him.”

  A look of shock and almost… terror passes her face. But that can’t be right. Why would she be scared of me? Is she nervous that I like Cam sti
ll? I’m about to say something else, but before I can, loud voices come from where the boys are playing darts.

  “You pulled it out and it wasn’t even in the bullseye,” Cam’s saying.

  “Man, you are tapped,” Brody says, shaking his head and handing Cam the darts.

  “It was in.”

  “Then why the fuck did you pull it out so fast?”

  Brody takes a step closer to him. “I didn’t know I needed someone to check on my darts.”

  “Well, you don’t, unless you’re cheating.”

  “What the fuck is your problem? I wasn’t cheating.” Brody takes another step closer to Cam, and their voices are getting louder A few people at the tables around us turn to look, and Raine pushes her chair back, like she’s about to go over there. But before she can, Cam pushes Brody.

  “Get out of my face, man.”

  “I wasn’t in your face,” Brody says, “And don’t put your hands on me.”

  Cam pushes Brody again. And then Brody pushes Cam. And before I know what’s happening, the two of them are wrestling. A guy at one of the nearby tables stands up and pulls them apart, and Raine and I rush over.

  “What the fuck, man?” Cam asks, straightening his shirt as he and Brody get separated. I’m over by Brody, my hands on his chest, trying to calm him down. I can feel his heart beating hard through his shirt.

  “Calm down,” Raine says to Cam. She’s talking in that same voice she was just using on me a few minutes ago. And then, suddenly, she turns to the guy who broke it up.

  “Thanks,” she says.

  “No problem,” he says. “But you guys might want to think about paying your bill and getting out of here before they decide to kick you out.”

  A finger of icy dread runs up and down my spine. That voice. I would know it anywhere. I force myself to turn around.

  “Hello, Natalia,” he says.

  Chapter Three

  Campbell

  This friendly brunch has basically turned into a WWE match. Everyone in the place is staring at us. Some random guy is talking to Natalia. Apparently they know each other -- he’s acting really nonchalant but she doesn’t seem very happy to have run into him.

  “We should be going,” she says, pulling at Brody’s arm. “Let’s just pay. Come on.”

  “Fine,” Brody says, glaring at me. I glare right back.

  “No hello, how are you, what’s new?” the guy who broke us up says to Natalia, touching her wrist briefly. She pulls away a step. He’s tall, but on the thin side. Wiry, though, and you get the vibe that he’s not physically weak. He broke Brody and I apart no problem. He’s wearing a popped collar shirt and a pair of jeans, totally prepped out, but there’s Tattoo of a Jack of clubs just visible on the lower part of his neck, near his collarbone.

  “How are you, Derek?” Natalia says, after a long pause.

  “I’m fine, Natalia. Just having a nice breakfast until World War III broke out at the table next to me. Who are your friends? They seem like really nice people.” His tone is sarcastic.

  I’ve already calmed down and Brody seems to be cooling off as well. He gives me a little smirk and then turns his attention to this Derek kid. “Brody Ketterling the Third.” He holds out his hand and the two of them shake for what seems like ages.

  Derek is practically laughing in his face. “The Third, huh? A long line of Brody Ketterlings, I take it?”

  “Yeah. Something funny about that?”

  “Not at all. Not at all. My grandparents probably cleaned your grandparents’

  toilets.”

  “Cool story, bro.” Brody turns away from him and makes a face like the guy is a tool. Natalia looks like she wants to just disappear.

  Raine taps my shoulder. “This is soooo lame. Let’s get out of here. Brody and Natalia can stay with that guy --” she wrinkles her nose in distaste – “if they want.”

  I nod, then dig into my wallet and drop a fifty on the table. Raine grabs my hand.

  “Come on, Cam.”

  “We’re coming, too,” Natalia says, as Brody adds some money to the total. The waitress comes over and picks it all up, scowling.

  A moment later the four of us are outside, about to get into our cars and depart.

  It’s pretty awkward.

  “You’re lucky there are ladies present, Elliot,” Brody says to me.

  “Come on man, it was a game of darts,” I say, shaking my head and realizing how stupid we’re both acting. “Just let it go already.”

  “Stop being a punk,” he says. “You should apologize to Natalia for ruining brunch.”

  “He doesn’t have to apologize. Can we just pretend it didn’t happen?” She wipes a strand of hair from her face and Brody looks down at her, all fake concerned, puts a hand on her shoulder.

  That should be me, I think, but I shake the feeling off. Sling my arm over Raine’s shoulder instead. She instantly moves closer to me.

  “So who was that douche in there?” I ask Natalia.

  “Just some guy from my old school. He’s nobody.”

  “Is that the type of person you used to hang out with before Brody?” Raine says.

  “If so, congrats on stepping up like a hundred rungs on the social ladder.”

  “I barely knew him.”

  “Whatever.” Raine sighs like she’s totally over it. “Well, thanks for inviting us to eat, Brody. It was…nice.”

  Brody looks confused and I panic, not wanting him to mention that I invited them.

  “We should definitely do this again sometime,” I say. “Have your people call our people.”

  And then I quickly open the passenger door and usher Raine into the car. As I walk around the other side I see Natalia’s face. She looks positively ashen. Like really shaken up. She keeps looking back toward the bar.

  I know there’s more to the story with that Derek guy than she’s telling.

  But I get in the car and we drive off.

  Raine is reapplying some makeup and fixing her hair as we drive back to her house.

  “Ugh, that was so not a good time. Brody is a total idiot, I forgot how annoying he can be,” she says, fixing her eyeliner.

  “Yeah. And he calls me a punk.”

  “You think you could take him in a fight?”

  I glance at her. She says it like she’s genuinely curious and not caring much more way or the other. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “That doesn’t sound very confident, Cam.” She drops her eyeliner back into her purse “I’ll bet if I asked Brody he’d say that he could take you. Without a doubt.”

  “So what? That’s like when we play some football team and they all talk trash leading up to the game. I never say a word and I’m not always sure what’s going to happen—but we stomp them just the same.”

  “True.” She thinks about it, and then her face breaks into a smile. “That’s pretty hot, actually. The whole quiet confidence thing.”

  We’re both silent for a bit. I still feel really tired this morning. Just can’t seem to get any energy going. I wonder if it has anything to do with fainting. Could I really be getting sick?

  I tell myself not to be paranoid.

  A few minutes later I drop Raine off and we kiss briefly. Then I go home and crash. I sleep until the early evening.

  Chapter Five

  Natalia

  When Brody and I get outside of the restaurant, I’m not doing so well. Seeing Derek in there threw me for a loop, but I’m trying not to show how rattled I am. The last thing I want is Brody asking tons of questions about who Derek is. I’m not ready to talk about that, and besides, it’s none of his business. We make conversation on the way home, but not about much. He seems a little tense after his fight with Cam, and after a few minutes of awkward conversation, we lapse into silence until he drops me off in front of my house.

  Once I’m inside, I head upstairs and run a bath, letting the water get as hot as I can stand. I pour in tons of bath salts and bubbles, and soak until the wa
ter’s gone lukewarm and my fingers are wrinkles. Then I wrap myself in a pair of cozy sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and warm socks and head to my bed for a nap. The whole morning was exhausting.

  I must have been asleep longer than I thought, because when I wake up, late afternoon light is filtering through the blinds, and someone’s ringing the doorbell.

  I stumble downstairs and fling open the door, figuring it’s my mom. She had to work today, and she’s notorious for forgetting her key. But it’s not my mom. It’s Cam.