The inside of the restaurant was decorated brightly in the colors red, yellow, and green, and the walls were covered in different festive items that ranged from streamers and piñatas, to photos and sombreros. The wall nearest to our table had an enormous sombrero on it, as well as pictures of Mexico that were labeled with the place that they were taken.
“Well, I’m glad you had fun. You’re more than welcome to come to the next game night too.” He leaned against the table and stage whispered, “Maybe you can help us level out the psychotics that Jade and Damien bring to the table.” He winked at me, causing me to smile.
“Hey, I’m not psychotic!” I defended myself.
Matt casually placed his arm over the top of the booth behind me, no doubt coming off as the cute protective boyfriend as he said, “Yeah, you’re not psychotic. You’re somewhere in between psychotic and iconic.”
I furrowed my eyebrows at his statement. My dad and I shared a confused look. “So, basically you’re saying that I’m slightly crazy, but also an icon?”
He answered my question with a nod. “It’s an undeniable fact that you’re slightly insane, Jade.”
Nodding in agreement, my dad added, “And you have become kind of iconic since you were in the paper in your birthday suit.”
I smirked, chewing on a tortilla chip slowly before I spoke. “You think so?”
They both nodded.
“You’re a symbol for rebellion,” Matt stated, poking me in the side.
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Am not.”
My dad rolled his eyes at Matt’s words. “I wouldn’t say rebellion. I would say that she’s a symbol of freedom. You know, she’s how every teenage girl wants to be but can’t be because they have to live under the rules of their parents.”
“Maybe she is,” Matt agreed, nodding his head. He grabbed a chip and munched on it as my dad grabbed one.
As they chewed their chips and salsa, I spoke. “I wouldn’t say that I’m an icon for freedom. Not even for rebellion.”
“Then what are you a symbol for?” Matt questioned.
Their eyes landed on me as I thought for a moment.
“I’d say that I’m a symbol for bad publicity. The meaning of publicity is attention that is given to someone by the media, and all of the attention I have received from the media has been bad.” My dad frowned, obviously thinking about the article that the senator stopped about me and Damien kissing. “I also get a lot of bad publicity at school. I feel like all of the attention I receive from people is biased or based on rumors. It’s like I have this flashing sign stuck to my forehead that says ‘bad’ in all capital, bolded letters.”
Matt smirked. “Well, you aren’t the most approachable person.”
My dad smiled at Matt. “Yeah, Jade, maybe you’re the fuel to their flames. No one is just going to assume that you’re bad unless you give them a reason to.”
I laughed at his words. “Not anymore. I’ve been photographed naked in the papers. I think the whole 'Jade is nice and innocent' ship has sailed.”
To my surprise, my dad even laughed at my statement. “I hate to say this, but I agree completely.” He sighed as he managed to stifle his laughter. “Maybe you can fix that with time though. We can all learn from the past, and use our mistakes as learning tools to help us grow into better people in the future.”
I shrugged my shoulder just as the waitress showed up, placing our food in front of us. Most times I wished I could forget everything and have amnesia for a few days, but then I would know nothing about my life or how much fun it was at times.
Matt glanced at me sideways, giving me a knowing smile as he said, “It’s not always easy to change who you are or what you represent.”
I nodded my head furiously. “Don’t I know it.”
He smirked. “Lucky me. I’m dating an icon.”
My dad rolled his eyes, but I could see the hint of a smile on his lips. “Yeah, an icon for bad publicity.”
Chapter 23
The front door flung open to reveal a smiling Brooke and a wide-eyed Austin. They had come over to see the house I would be moving into, and hopefully to help me cope with the transition. I didn’t want to leave my mom’s house; it was where I grew up, and even though I knew our house couldn’t hold the new additions to the family, I still resented moving into the senator’s home.
“This is going to be your new house?” Austin let his mouth open to form a small ‘o’ as he leaned inside to try and get a better view of everything.
“Yeah.” I laughed, gesturing for them to come inside.
Austin turned toward me, another question hanging on his lips. “Can I move in too?”
Brooke rolled her eyes at her brother’s question. “Now,” she began, crossing her thin arms over her chest, “you and I both know that if anyone moved in with Jade, it would be me.”
“Sure,” he scoffed, walking toward the entrance to the next room. He peeked in, looking upward before turning back to me. “That chandelier is bigger than my car. Just how rich are these people?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “The senator grew up in a pretty wealthy family. I’m sure most of her money is old money, but her job pays well too.”
“No kidding,” he responded. “Is there a bathroom I can use?”
Brooke and I shared a knowing glance before fixing our eyes on Austin. The way his black hair was styled today made him look younger than usual.
“No, Austin, they don’t have a bathroom,” Brooke mumbled sarcastically.
I nodded in agreement, “Yeah, we have a pool, a car-sized chandelier, and enough bedrooms to fit the Brady Bunch comfortably, but we don’t have a bathroom.”
“They pee in the pool,” Brooke added, making me laugh instantly.
Austin crossed his arms, rolling his eyes at us in annoyance. “You know what I meant.”
I poked my tongue out at him, pointing to the opposite side of the staircase. “The door right there.”
“Thanks,” he said quickly, dashing toward the bathroom door. “I’ve had to go since we left my house.”
As soon as Austin disappeared into the bathroom, Brooke wrapped her arms around me, squeezing so tightly that when she pulled away I had to gasp for breath.
“I miss you so much, you little green-eyed-monster.” Suddenly, her mood shifted and her expression turned angry. “You go and get yourself a gay boyfriend and suddenly I’m replaced?”
A slight smirk curved my lips. Leave it to Brooke to mention my fake boyfriend instead of my real one. I had told her about Damien and me in class one day, and to my surprise, she had already figured we were going to happen at some point. Apparently she knows me better than I know myself. “You know what they say, gay guys make the best friends.”
She frowned. “I know. It’s so not fair. How can I possibly compete with that?”
I poked her in the side playfully as I said, “You don’t have to! You’re my lesbian lover. I’d choose my lesbian lover over my gay boyfriend any day.” I smiled as she laughed at my admittedly cheesy joke. “Besides, I see you in school every day too.”
She waved her hand at me. “Screw school. We need quality girl time.”
“Like painting each other’s nails and talking about boys until we fall asleep?” I clapped my hands, feigning excitement.
Brooke rolled her eyes. “Ew. You know that is definitely not what I mean when I say girls night. I mean, we need to go out! Remember that time we snuck into the strip club downtown, and tried to perform at amateur night?”
I laughed as I nodded furiously. “And then the manager kicked us out for being underage, but still asked for our numbers.”
Brooke struck a pose, placing both hands on her knees and poking her butt out. “He just couldn’t resist this,” she joked.
“Oh yeah, that’s what it was,” I replied, the obvious sarcasm in my voice made her toss me a glare. “Maybe it was what we were wearing,” I offered, thinking about the lack of clothing.
�
��No, it was definitely the Brookade charm that he couldn’t resist.”
I furrowed my eyebrows just as Austin came out of the bathroom. “Did you just mix our names together?”
Brooke nodded, smirking slightly as she repeated, “Brookade.”
“Brocade?” Austin questioned.
“No,” Brooke and I corrected simultaneously. “Brook-ade. Isn’t it cute?”
“Oh,” he sighed, giving us a strange look. “So are we going to stand here all day, or are you going to give us a tour of your crib?”
I smiled at his MTV reference and nodded. “Of course. Follow me.”
I gave them a tour of the house from the basement up, and not once did Austin’s wide-eyes return to normal. Once we finally made it upstairs, I showed them the guest bedrooms, and my bedroom, leaving out Damien’s and Alyssa’s since they weren’t home yet. Alyssa had forced Damien to take her out to eat since he had apparently promised her that he would after she had kept quiet about something he had done. Lucky me, I didn’t have a sibling who could blackmail me to get what they wanted; yet.
Brooke plopped down on my bed, falling onto her back as Austin went to examine my wall. I had added more pictures to it, and had removed the poster of me in my birthday suit. Austin pointed to a picture of him, Brooke, and me from four years ago, smiling at it. “Oh man, I remember this!”
Brooke looked up, smiling as she saw the picture. “How could you forget?” She settled her head back down on the bed, crossing her arms beneath it.
“I know I can’t forget it,” I sighed, earning a smirk from my friends. I walked over to stand next to Austin and peer at the picture.
Brooke was standing in the middle with her head thrown back, laughing so hard that all you could see of her face was white teeth and flared nostrils. Her hair was much longer then, and was loosely flowing down to her hips. She had loved her long hair, but she eventually cut it, saying that it was too hard to manage. Standing on the left was Austin with his arm tossed over her shoulder, wearing a dirt covered soccer uniform, and on the right was me, glaring at the camera so hard that I looked like I was possessed. My clothes were just as muddy as Austin’s were, but I was wearing ripped blue jeans and a crop top that stopped just above my belly button.
I remembered that day as if it was yesterday. Brooke and I had told my mom about these guys that we liked on Austin’s soccer team, and so for his next game we both wanted to look our best to get the guys attention. To help us out, my mom took Brooke and me out shopping and we each were allowed to pick out one outfit. Once we had finished, my mom thought we both looked adorable even though we were fourteen and, in our minds, too old to be labeled as adorable.
The game had started fine, and Brooke and I had both spoken to our crushes before the game. They had come up to us, complimenting how we looked. It wasn’t until after the game started that things went downhill; it started to rain. Our outfits got wet, and our hair and makeup got messed up. Thankfully it only rained for a bit before the weather cleared up. After the game, Brooke and I headed over to congratulate the team for winning, and somehow, Austin and I ended up in a puddle of mud. My mom had forced us to take the picture, saying that one day I would look back at that picture and laugh. That day still hasn’t come, but I do like the picture.
“We know you can’t,” Austin agreed.
I rolled my eyes at his words. Suddenly, a high pitched voice yelled my name, causing everyone to stare at the doorway to my room.
“Jade?” called Alyssa, as she walked into my room. Her hair was curled and framed her face nicely, something that Austin seemed to notice since he had already put his flirting face on.
“Yeah?” I questioned, giving her a curious look as she waved at Brooke, before glancing at Austin and ignoring him. I almost laughed at the way his expression fell when she didn’t wave at him.
“Damien wants you. He’s in his room.”
“For what?” I asked, earning an eye roll from her.
Alyssa crossed her arms over her chest. “Why do you always ask me these questions? I’m just the messenger. Go ask him yourself.”
“Why didn’t he come to me? His room is literally five steps away,” I replied, pointing out the fact that he was right across the hall.
She shrugged. “Go ask him that too,” she said with a smile before leaving my room.
“Well, that was strange,” Brooke pointed out.
“Tell me about it,” I replied. “I’ll be right back. If I’m not back in ten minutes, come and save me,” I joked lightly as I walked out of my room and shut the door.
I walked into Damien’s room, closing the door behind me, and seeing that he was in the process of changing his shirt. My eyes couldn’t help but scan the muscular back and body that held so much control over my body. Absentmindedly, I took a few steps toward him, wanting to get closer to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and rose up to my tippy toes so that I could place a light kiss on his shoulder. I heard him sigh before turning around and showing me the lust in his eyes.
“I missed you,” he said honestly as his hands traced up my sides and pulled me closer to him.
“Oh really? You missed me or my body?” I questioned with a light smile.
“Both,” he growled as the lust in his eyes started to fill his gaze completely. “Alyssa had me take her to that Italian place where we first met and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. All of you,” he added as he looked over my body. I could feel his little friend stir as I pressed my body against his, and stared at his lips.
“Maybe Alyssa should take you there more often,” I said as our fingers tangled into each other’s hair and our lips slammed together in a mutual passion.
Damien immediately took control of the kiss and pushed me toward the bed. He quickly spun us around so that when we fell backward he was on the bed and I was above him.
I felt the familiar fire of kissing Damien flash through me as his hands went over my body, clear for a single destination. Without breaking the kiss his hands went to my jeans, popping the button open smoothly. A small sigh escaped my lips as the zipper of my jeans slid down. I was about to undo his when the sound of a door opening and a familiar voice reached my ears.
“You’re cheating on Matt with your brother-in-law?” the voice yelled from behind us, causing us both to jump off of each other and glance at the door to see a furious Austin.
“Austin, it’s not like that, man,” Damien said hurriedly as he started to try to tell him to keep his voice down. We didn’t want the senator to hear him calling us out for being together.
“I don’t want to hear it, especially from you,” Austin snapped angrily as he glared Damien down.
“Austin, I’m not cheating on Matt. Matt already knows.”
“He knows that you’re cheating? Oh, so I can call him right now and tell him that I found his girlfriend straddling another dude and he’ll be okay with it?”
“Well, he’s gay so he won’t care. Especially since Chase isn’t the other guy,” I answered with a shrug and a light smile, hoping I’d get him to lighten up, but it only made it worse because he took my words the wrong way; as usual.
“You chose a gay guy to play your fake boyfriend so you could have him and just not get caught?” he scoffed as he raked his hands through his hair and groaned in frustration. “I can’t believe this! I can’t believe you did this, Jade. Oh wait, actually I can! You always do stuff like this, and it always seems to bite me in the butt!”
“Austin!” I cried out in hurt as he started to insinuate that I did this to hurt him.
“Does Brooke know?”
“Yeah, of course she does. Why do you think she probably tried to convince you to not come over here? She knew from day one because we caught Matt and Chase making out in the wrestling room,” I stated as I got off the bed.
“Don’t, Jade! You always try that!” he growled, backing away from me. He knew that I was trying to get close to him because he had a hard time staying mad at
me if I was close to him since he still had feelings for me. I knew it and he knew it, but normally he didn’t mind. This time was different; this time he was mad at me with everything in him. “But I know the one thing Brooke doesn’t know,” he threatened as he walked out of the room and called to Brooke, saying that it was time to go.
“What’s wrong?” Brooke asked as she ran into the room to glance at me and Damien, then out into the hallway at her brother. Brooke figured Austin was angry in a matter of seconds before trying to decide which one of us to yell at first. What she didn’t know was that Austin was mad because we had been hooking up before Damien came into the picture. She must have decided not to yell at either one of us for now, because suddenly she said, “Let’s go Austin. I’ll see you tomorrow, Jade.”
I walked out into the hallway just as Brooke headed into my room to grab her stuff.
“Not if I tell you what happened between us,” Austin mumbled as he glared at me. The words were directed at Brooke, but only said loud enough for me to hear them. He was taunting me.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I whispered back as I followed him down the hallway and stairs to the front door.
“I would, and I will. I can’t believe you chose him over me. I was with you through everything. I was here when your mom passed away and you needed someone to lean on. I was here when—”
“You were there when I loved you and you broke my heart. You even laughed in my face while I cried because you thought I was kidding, at least I’m not laughing at you because I know the pain you’re going through. I understand it because of you, and now you know how I felt.” I wanted to yell at him, but since I didn’t want Brooke to hear me I had to whisper.
In response to my words, he yanked the door open and when Brooke came down he pushed her out the door before she could say anything. I hadn’t even noticed that she had come down the stairs to join us again until her blonde hair swept past me and then out of sight. I had been too busy glaring at Austin, while he did the same to me.
“You can’t hold that over me, Jade. I was young and stupid. You knew perfectly well what you were doing and you overstepped your boundaries, so now you have to pay,” he finally replied as he slammed the door behind him and sent a loud vibration through the house so hard the chandelier could have fallen and shattered into a million pieces.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 16