She rolled her eyes and walked away.
I just grinned, because last night I’d been certain I’d lost, but now…?
Now I was back in the game.
“I’m back, baby!”
“You’re an idiot.” Harley’s reaction to this news was just as I’d expected.
We were in my car, heading home after school. “You’re just bitter because you’re going to lose.”
She arched her brows. “I don’t have anything to lose, loser.”
I stared at the road ahead of us and silently stewed. It was true. While she’d issued the challenge, she had nothing at stake here.
And yet, I still wanted to win. Why? To prove a point. It wasn’t the school, or the band, or the fact that everyone had known me forever that had made me popular at our old school. It was me.
I was the ruler of my own destiny. The captain of this ship. The…
Okay, yeah, I ran out of metaphors. But the point remained the same. Even if Harley was sitting there gloating like she’d already won.
“Would you quit smirking?” I said. “You know, I don’t have to drive you to and from school every day.”
She glanced over at me, clearly unimpressed with the threat. “So, just to be sure we’re on the same page here—you’ve been trying to woo the ice queen for a full week now, and I’m supposed to be amazed because…you got her notes from class?”
I scowled over at her. “You’re just jealous.”
“I am?”
“Yeah, because I at least have a shot at a date for homecoming, whereas you will be stuck at home with Frank and my mom watching the Hallmark channel because no one asked you.” She was quiet and I…was not proud of myself. Not even a little bit. Especially when the silence lasted way too long. “I was just kidding, Harley, I’m sure—”
“Tristan asked me to homecoming.”
I shot her a look and stared so long that she finally snapped, “Watch the road.”
The road. Right. I stared straight ahead but my gaze was still unseeing. I was officially in shock. “Tristan, as in…the quarterback?”
She didn’t answer.
“What did you say?”
“No, obviously.”
“Why?” When I looked over she was staring at me like I was nuts again. “Why, Harley?”
She sighed and stared straight ahead. “I don’t want to talk about Tristan.”
We sat there loudly not talking about Tristan or Rosalie the remainder of the ride. That painful tense silence was preferable to the welcome we got when we arrived home.
“It’s family night,” my mom said. Actually, she sang it with so much forced enthusiasm that I cringed.
I exchanged a look with Harley, whose expression was just as wary as I felt.
“Um, haven’t we been having family nights every night this week?” Harley asked. It was true. Thanks to my lack of a social life and Harley’s introverted ways, all two of us had been home every night this week.
Every. Night.
Our parents had at least gone out for dinner with my mom’s coworkers one night, which meant… Oh man. My mom and Frank had a better social life than I did. How depressing was that?
Frank came over to join my mother, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “After dinner you two just escape to your rooms. Lanie and I thought it might be nice to have a game night tonight.”
I looked to Harley again and this time it was clear. For the first time in history, she and I were on the same page. We looked back to our parents.
“Ummm…” Harley started.
I cut in before she had a chance to finish that thought. “I wish we could, you guys.” I used my best ‘aw shucks golly gee’ tone as I grabbed Harley’s arm and dragged her toward the stairs. “But Harley and I already have plans.”
Frank looked confused, and my mother looked doubtful. “You do?”
I nodded. “Everyone’s going to be hanging out at the diner tonight and we told our friends we’d go.” I shot Harley a look. “Right?”
She nodded quickly. “Right.”
It wasn’t until we were upstairs that she turned to me. “We’re not really going to the diner, are we?”
“Of course we are.”
Her eyes were wide with horror. “But…but…”
I arched my brows. “Would you rather stay here and play board games with Frank and my mom?”
Horror filled her eyes. “No, of course not, but—”
“No buts,” I said. “We’re going.”
She sighed. “You just want another chance to get into the ice queen’s pants.”
“Hey,” I said. “The bet was your idea.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d be so persistent.” She crossed her arms. “Honestly, I thought you would have given up the moment you realized she wasn’t easy.”
I ignored the sting from that comment. It wasn’t like I didn’t know my reputation. I’d created my reputation, and it definitely wasn’t one of a hard-working, noble goody-two-shoes. I was a slacker and everyone who knew me knew it.
“Yeah well, maybe I actually like Rosalie,” I said.
Her brows shot up. “Do you?”
She sounded so surprised, I found myself insulted on Rosalie’s behalf. “She’s not the wicked witch everyone makes her out to be.”
Harley pursed her lips, clearly unconvinced. “You really like her, huh?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
I did. Or at least, I liked her enough to want to get to know her better.
“You like her so much you’re going to ask her out just to win some stupid bet?”
I scoffed. “It’s not exactly a bet,” I said. “Just a…challenge.”
“Oh yeah, that makes it way better.”
“Hey,” I said. “Need I remind you again that this was—”
“My idea,” she finished with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. I just didn’t realize you’d take it so seriously. I mean, I knew you liked being popular but I didn’t think you cared that much.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Oh suddenly you’re above it all, Miss-I’m-so-scared-I-won’t-fit-in?”
She narrowed her eyes at my mocking tone. “I didn’t care if I fit in, I just—”
“Uh huh.”
“I just—”
“Admit it, Harley, you were jealous of me back at our old school.”
“I was not!”
“You were,” I said evenly. “And now you’re just bitter that I’m going to be popular again while you’re stuck sitting on the sidelines…again.”
The only sound in the room was our breathing. She’d riled me up, she’d pushed my buttons…
So why did I feel so guilty? “Look, Harley—”
“No,” she snapped. “Don’t apologize. We’re family now, right? We can tell each other the truth, right?”
It was a challenge and I wasn’t about to back down. “I guess.”
She took a step closer. “Fine, then let me spell it out for you. I wasn’t jealous of you, Conner Stone. I was sickened by you.”
Her words had my head snapping back like I’d been snapped. Sickened? That was…harsh.
Her eyes were cold, her expression fierce. This was a side of her I’d never seen before. It wasn’t just challenging, it was filled with anger and hurt and a lifetime of rage. “You have no idea how miserable school was for the rest of us. You and the other popular kids lived this perfect, easy life, dating and going to dances and having fun and goofing off in class. Meanwhile, you know what I was doing?”
I didn’t answer. I was a little afraid to.
“So yeah, do I like the fact that Danny and his friends are calling you a homeless drug dealer?”
“They’re calling me what?”
“I love it,” she said, continuing as if I hadn’t interrupted. “But more than anything I love watching you make a fool over yourself with a girl who couldn’t care less about you.”
Ouch. It wasn’t so much the words that hurt as mu
ch as the bitterness in her voice. “Wait a second, you never…I mean you never had a thing for me, did you?”
Her eyes flew open. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“What?” I held my hands up in defense. “It sounds like you’ve got some serious resentment and—”
“It wasn’t you,” she shrieked. Then she slapped my arm for good measure. “Ew, you’re my stepbrother.”
“So? I wasn’t always.”
“No, before you were my stepbrother you were just some cocky moron who thought he was God’s gift.”
“Fine,” I said, my jaw clenched with barely controlled annoyance “So it wasn’t me. Who was it?” Who on earth had made my stepsister so very prickly and filled with hatred toward anyone remotely popular? There it was again—some weird protectiveness that seemed to come part and parcel with sharing a house. “Want me to kick his butt?”
She squinted like I’d spoken in another language. “What? No. Of course not.”
“Is this guy the reason you’re so…bitter?”
Her nostrils flared and for a second I feared she’d breathe fire in my face. “You are the reason I’m bitter.” Then, seeming to reconsider, she flapped a hand in my direction. “Or, you know…people like you.”
People like you. The words cut more than she knew. Because I understood exactly what she meant. Idiots. Pretty faces with nothing underneath. She thought so little of me just because I wasn’t book smart. Sure, I didn’t care about school—I only did enough to get by. But when you figure out at a young age that you’re one of the class morons, you kind of stop caring all that much. A girl like Harley—one who’d always been in the advanced classes and being given gold stars and called on first and smiled at by the teachers…she’d never know what that was like.
“We all have our gifts, Harley,” I said, summoning the calmest tone I could manage. “Mine just happens to be making people love me.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, and how’s that working out for you at Talmore?”
“I’m making progress,” I started.
She laughed.
“It’s only been a week.”
“Yeah, and in that week, you’ve been mocked, dissed, and ignored.” She arched her brows. “How does it feel?”
Awful. It felt freakin’ terrible. Not something I felt like admitting though, not even to myself. So I did what any mature, confident sixteen-year-old would do. I turned it around on her. “And what about you, sis?” I folded my arms across my chest and leveled her with a look just as snide as hers had been. “You’ve been whining about how hard it is to be unpopular, but now you have a shot at being one of the beautiful people…and what do you do?” I arched my brows as if waiting for her to respond. She pressed her lips together in response. “You run and hide,” I answered for her. “You ignore the opportunities in front of you because it’s easier to stand back and judge everyone else for actually caring about their social lives.”
She glared at me but I noticed she didn’t try to deny it. I felt a flicker of sympathy beneath my own anger because…yeah. She was afraid. “I’ll tell you what,” I said. “I’ll keep chasing the ice queen—Rosalie—” It felt just plain wrong to keep referring to her by her nickname anymore. “You can keep laughing at me and my unpopularity, but—” I pointed a finger at her nose, making her jerk back. “If I get Rosalie to be my date for homecoming, you have to say yes to the quarterback.”
“What?” Her voice was so high-pitched I was afraid the neighbor’s dog would come running. “That’s…that’s…no,” she sputtered.
I arched my brows in challenge the way she’d been doing to me these past few weeks at every opportunity. “What, are you scared?”
“No,” she said. “I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work.”
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “What? If I win, then we both go to homecoming, and if I lose—”
“If you lose, I get to use your car whenever I want,” she said.
I stared at her. “You want my car?”
She held her hands up defensively. “What? You try feeling cool when you have to ride the bus like a middle schooler.”
“I’ve been giving you rides—”
“So I’m at your mercy,” she said. “Yeah, that’s way better.”
“Fine. If I lose, we share the car.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, that works.”
We stood there in silence for a minute and I thought we were both contemplating what exactly we’d just agreed to. Harley definitely looked a little green…
Just then Frank’s booming voice carried from the bottom of the steps. “Conner, if you don’t feel like cooking tonight, I can make some of my world-famous chili.”
I hadn’t thought Harley’s eyes could widen any further or contain any more horror.
“That bad?”
“The worst.”
“I’ve got dinner covered, Frank,” I shouted back. “But thanks!”
I looked to Harley. “We’re going to the diner…after I make us dinner.”
9
Rosalie
I had no desire to go to the diner. But I had even less desire to go home, so…there I was. Eating fries and pretending to pay attention to Tara’s latest boy drama. I was still in my uniform, just like the other girls, although the guys had showered after the game before coming here.
Later, there’d be an after party—most likely at Tara’s house—and with any luck I could avoid my house until morning. The boys were staying at my aunt’s house for the weekend so I only had to worry about keeping myself out of the danger zone for now.
“Ugh, I can’t believe he showed up.” The change in Tara’s voice had me paying slightly more attention and I followed her gaze toward the door, half expecting to see Chad, the guy she’d been obsessing over all night standing there.
Instead, I found Conner. Messy, sexy, slouching, rugged Conner. And that girl. The new girl. “Who is she?” I asked.
“The drug dealer’s stepsister,” Allie said. “We’re supposed to be nice to her.”
“We’re supposed to…what?” This was the first I’d heard of it and I had no idea why we were supposed to be nice to her and on whose orders. Not that I cared, I had nothing against the girl, but the wording was odd. I couldn’t worry about it because the rest of the girls were still fixated on Conner being here, and I’d have been lying if I’d said I wasn’t hyper alert to his presence in the room. My body was aware of him even if I wanted to pretend that I didn’t care. My nerve endings felt raw and it took everything in me not to turn and stare.
“I seriously can’t believe he’s here,” Tara said. “He’s totally asking for trouble.”
The thing that irritated me the most was the sheer, unbridled excitement in Tara’s voice. That bizarre glint in her eyes could only be described as bloodlust as she looked from Conner to the table filled with Danny and his friends in the back.
Tara’s sidekick Bethany leaned forward with saucer-like eyes. “I heard he was bashing the team the other day to anyone who would listen.” Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “He told his entire history class that our school sucks.”
I stared at her for a long moment. “I’m in his history class.”
“Oh.” She stared back blankly waiting for me to make my point.
“I’ve never heard him say anything bad about our school.”
Tara leapt on that before I finished speaking. “Are you defending him?” Her voice was just a little too loud, drawing looks in our direction.
“Just speaking the truth,” I said. I met her gaze evenly and she noticeably withered beneath my stare. “We wouldn’t want to be spreading lies about someone, now would we?”
Allie choked on her soda beside me. We all knew Tara had been one of the main sources of fake news when it came to my breakup with Danny.
I might not be the wicked witch I’m made out to be, but I’m also not quick to forgive or forget.
Erika on the other hand, was still focused
on the girl. “What’s her story? Anyone know?”
Tara’s bloodlust was back, but this time it had a different focus. She couldn’t even hide her glee as she faced Erika with a smirk. “Tristan has a thing for her.”
I braced for impact and felt Allie do the same at my side. Erika was super tight-lipped when it came to boys and she rarely dated, despite the fact that she was crazy hot and totally in demand. Everyone harbored a hunch that she was holding out for Talmore High’s hottie equivalent…Tristan.
She never said so but it was widely believed anyway—which was really how our school worked. There was very little scientific evidence involved in the rumor mills of Talmore High.
“No way,” Allie said. “I mean, look at her. The girl is a freak.” Allie, ever the supportive bestie, rushed to try and make Erika feel better, although it wasn’t clear if Erika was even put out by the news. She’d barely reacted at all, pulling a page from my book.
We were all looking at this point, but it was Conner who looked over at us…at me.
“Whoa, the hottie has laser focus, doesn’t he?” Tara murmured, looking beyond smug.
I didn’t blush—it wasn’t in my body’s repertoire, but I felt the heat rush through me, pricking my skin and making my hands clammy as that lopsided, lazy smile fixed on me. Like it was meant just for me. His gaze held mine like there was no one else in the room.
“Ugh, both of them are freaks,” Tara announced.
“I don’t know,” Allie said in that saucy tone she loved to use. “I’d be fine getting freaky with that guy.”
We all ignored her. She was happily committed and everyone knew it. That’s how she could get away with saying something like that. To everyone else it would be a dangerous slip of the tongue to admit they’d give him the time of day.
“Ooh, Danny just spotted him.” Tara literally rubbed her hands together in glee. “This should be good.”
I found myself looking from Danny to Conner and back again. Danny was glaring at Conner but Conner didn’t seem to notice him. He was too busy watching me, leaning over to whisper something to his stepsister before heading in my direction.
“Oh wow,” Bethany said. “He’s actually coming over here.”
Charming the Cheerleader (The Bet Duet Book 1) Page 7