“No,” Laney said. “Too casual.” She threw me the yellow sundress.
Claire said, “She said she was going to tell you.”
“This is the first I’m hearing of it. But that’s great,” I said from in the closet because I wasn’t sure if my face would support my words. “It should be fun.” I really did have to fix something, because there was no way I wanted to continue this drama in college. “Now I really wish you were coming too, Laney.”
“I know. Don’t remind me. Community college is sounding worse and worse every day.”
“It’s not too late to join us,” Claire said.
“Actually I’m about four years’ worth of good grades and thousands of dollars too late for UCLA.”
“Who needs money and good grades when you have community college?” Claire said.
“Exactly what I’ve been saying for the last four years,” Laney said. I could hear the embarrassment in her voice and I felt bad that school had been a struggle for her.
I pulled the dress over my head, straightened it, then joined them in my room. “You’ll have fun, Laney. And we’re only three hours away. We’ll see each other all the time.”
She folded the outfit I had already tried on and smoothed the shirt over and over. “You hardly saw Bradley at all and he was your boyfriend.”
“Exactly. He was just my boyfriend. You’ve been my best friend for five years. It will be way different.”
Claire joined Laney on the bed and wrapped her up in a hug. “Who needs a Laney sandwich?”
I rushed over to hug her from the other side.
“It’s fine, guys. Don’t feel sorry for me.”
“We don’t feel sorry for you. We just needed a hug.” I squeezed her tighter.
She laughed. “I’m going to miss you.”
I gave her one last squeeze then stood up.
“I think that’s the outfit,” Laney said.
I let her change the subject, sensing she needed to. “You think? Does it say backyard barbecue?” I did a turn. “It even has pockets for my cell phone.”
“I’m so confused. Who is this new guy? I can’t get over the fact that you haven’t told us anything about him.” Claire reached for her drink still sitting on the desk and nearly fell off the bed.
Laney grabbed her leg, preventing the fall. “Yes, don’t we get to know?”
“It’s a blind date. I don’t know anything about him.”
“Who is setting you up on a blind date and since when have you ever agreed to go out with someone sight unseen?”
I flinched. I’d never been set up on a blind date before, but I assumed I would’ve said yes if I trusted the person setting me up. “This girl in my government class. She’s a junior. It’s her older brother.”
“What? Some girl from your class set you up with her brother and you said yes?”
“I kind of owe her a favor.”
“Why?”
“I haven’t been very nice to her and her friends.”
“Oh, I get it. This is like a charity date? Are you going to be safe?”
“No. I mean, yes, of course I’ll be safe. And no, her brother is not in need of charity.” I turned and looked at myself in the full-length mirror. “So yes? No?”
“Yes, it’s perfect. Wear your hair down and wavy and pair it with your wedge sandals. Unless he’s short. Is he short?”
“No, he’s not short.” He was actually a really good height for me. “So, are you guys going to Logan’s party tonight?”
Claire, who had been stirring her straw around her cup, looked up. “Logan’s having a party tonight?”
“Yes.”
“We hadn’t heard about it,” Laney said.
“Oh, sorry. I should’ve told you. I thought he was just inviting everyone. You should go.”
“We weren’t invited.”
“He probably figured I’d tell you. Sorry.”
Claire and Laney met eyes for a brief second and then Claire went back to her drink. “Yeah, that sounds like fun. Maybe we should go, Laney. Let’s invite Jules too.”
I couldn’t tell if they were mad at me for not telling them or what. I felt bad. I’d just figured he was telling everyone. “I’ll try to join you all after my date.”
My mom was trying to be polite; I could tell by the smile on her face. The problem was it was the most forced smile ever and there was no way Bec couldn’t tell.
“Where are you going again?” my mom asked, looking mostly at me but her eyes kept darting to Bec, this time lingering on the row of earrings that lined her left ear.
“Just to my house. We have Government together and Gia said she would help me study. Here’s the address.” Bec slid a piece of paper across the counter to my mom. “And my parents’ phone number is on there too if you need to talk to them.” She smiled and my mom’s smile became a little less forced.
But to me my mom said, “Your brother is in town. I wanted us to go out to dinner tonight as a family.”
Just as she said this, Drew walked through the kitchen holding his car keys. “I’m going out with some friends, Mom. Can we do dinner next time I’m in town?”
“What?” my mom asked.
Drew stopped in the middle of the kitchen when he saw Bec, a look of curiosity taking over his expression. He took in both her outfit then mine and didn’t need to say anything out loud for me to know he was wondering who Bec was and why she was here.
“This is Gia’s friend,” my mom said. “Bec, right?”
“You two are friends?” His tone conveyed his disbelief.
Bec let out a single laugh. “Not so much friends as study partners.”
This explanation didn’t change Drew’s expression. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. “Huh,” he grunted, then finished walking through the kitchen. “We good, Mom?” He flashed her the smile I remembered always got him out of the trouble he’d caused when he lived here.
She shooed him away with a smile of her own.
I pointed toward the front door. “See, he’s not even staying. So I can go, right?”
“How come you’re so dressed up for a study session?” Mom asked, looking me up and down.
The excuse came easy. “Because she has a cute brother.”
My mom rolled her eyes as if she now understood the whole reason I was hanging out with this strange creature standing in her kitchen. “Okay, keep your cell phone on, Gia.”
“Of course.” I kissed her cheek and Bec and I left my house silently.
When we got outside, I said, “Why the need for an elaborate story? I thought your brother would pick me up.”
“Obviously not.”
“It’s just I didn’t prepare my mom for . . .”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, parents love the ‘she’s helping me study’ thing. It makes them think their kid is smart. But for the record, my grade in Government is two percentage points higher than yours. So if you need help studying . . .”
I laughed.
“Is she going to be pissed that you went out when she was planning on going to dinner as a family?”
“I don’t think she’d been planning on it necessarily.” I mostly thought she was using that as an excuse not to let me go with Bec.
“So she always looks like that?”
“Like what?” I glanced over my shoulder expecting to see her standing on the porch, but it was empty.
Bec unlocked the car doors and we climbed in. “Perfectly put-together.”
I thought about my mom, her hair always styled, her makeup always done. I’d rarely seen her any other way. “Yeah . . . I guess so.”
As Bec backed out of the driveway my mother appeared on the porch. I smiled and waved. “So when my mom calls your parents, because she most likely will, they’re going to be okay?”
“I gave her my phone number.”
“Oh. Right.” Other kids probably tricked their parents like that all the ti
me but I’d never had to. “So wait, if you can drive, why did your brother have to drop you off at prom?”
“Because supposedly he needed the car that night, which was another reason I was so angry to see him at prom with you.”
“What was he supposed to be doing?”
“I have no idea.” She pulled away from my house. It was the moment of truth. I was about to see fill-in Bradley again.
CHAPTER 11
When we got to her house, Bec ushered me inside and straight into her bedroom, closing the door. Had this been some sort of elaborate plan to murder me? I did a full circle, taking in a room that didn’t seem like it belonged to her. Well, some of it did—like the band posters of boys wearing guyliner and the roughly sketched charcoal pictures. But then there were beautiful photographs of nature—a wave breaking against a rock, the canopy of a tree, a cloud-filled sky. On her dresser was a big vase full of colorful sea glass.
“That’s what you’re wearing to the barbecue?” she asked, forcing my attention back to her. She was staring at my shoes.
I looked down at my outfit in a panic before I remembered who I was taking fashion advice from. “It got the three-girl vote of approval.”
She sighed. “Okay, whatever. My brother will probably love it. You look . . .” She waved her hand at my outfit as if that counted as an adjective. “So anyway, here’s how this is going to work.”
“Wait. What do you mean how it’s going to work?”
“What I’m going to tell him.”
“He doesn’t know?” I practically yelled.
“Shh.” She looked back at the door then shook her head twice. Here I’d thought he had been the mastermind behind this plan and that Bec had reluctantly arranged it but he didn’t want this at all. Great, he was going to think I wanted him or something when all he really wanted was his old girlfriend back. It was Bec who didn’t. “Believe me, he will be happy that he doesn’t have to go alone.”
“He’d better be or I’m out of here.”
“Oh, no you aren’t. You owe him and even if he doesn’t know this is for the best, you have to help me convince him that it is.”
“You want me to help you convince him?”
“Only if he needs convincing. Now wait here while I talk to him.” She left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
There was no way I was waiting here and going into this blind. I needed to know what he thought of this whole thing. I cracked the door just in time to see her disappear around the corner then I followed her.
I pressed my back against the wall at the end of the hall and listened.
“Hey, Bec, what’s up.” At fill-in Bradley’s voice my mind was able to conjure up the perfect image of him—blue eyes, brown hair, tall, a defined jawline.
“Looks like you’re going somewhere,” Bec said.
“I am.”
“I know where you’re going.”
I could almost hear his eyebrow raise.
“And I don’t think it’s a smart idea.”
“Have you been snooping in my mail?”
“She treated you like crap and then cheated on you and you’re going to give her the satisfaction of seeing you show up at her party dateless and alone.”
“How do you know I’m not taking a date?”
I let out a small gasp of surprise. He’d already figured this out without our help. He had claimed on prom night that he would never be in need of a fake date. It was obviously true. Bec wouldn’t even have to reveal that I was here if he really was going with a date. She’d probably be happy that he’d found someone so he didn’t have to take me.
“Oh, please. You don’t have a date. You’ve been a recluse since she broke up with you.”
He laughed and my heart returned to beating a normal rhythm. “Are you trying to go to the party with me, Bec? If you want to go, all you have to do is ask.”
“No, I’m not. Me being there would do nothing for you. What I want is for you to show up confident with proof that you have moved on from that horrible girl.”
“She’s not horrible.”
“I think time has made you forget the extent of her betrayal.”
His voice went low. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“Then why are you going? Why?”
“I guess I need some closure.”
“And you can’t talk to her at school or something?”
“I haven’t seen her at school lately. She goes off campus for lunch. I’m not going to hunt her down.”
“And yet here you are . . . hunting her down.”
“Getting closure.”
“Only that’s not what is going to happen. I know her. She would only invite you for two reasons. One, she wants to rub in your face how happy she is with he-who-will-not-be-named and make sure you haven’t moved on. Or two, she’s dumped him and realized how great you are and wants you back. I’m pretty sure it’s the second, and I think you might just be crazy enough to take her back.”
“I’m not going to take her back.”
“You’re right. You’re not because I found a date for you. Not just any date, a gorgeous one who will pretend to be in love with you.”
“You hired me an escort?”
Bec laughed. “That was my backup plan.”
There was silence for a moment then he said, “You’re serious, aren’t you? You really did get me a date for this.”
“Yes, I’m very serious. She’s here right now.”
“Bec! No. This is not happening. Tell the poor girl she can go home.”
“She’s not a poor girl. She knows why she’s here.”
“And she agreed?”
“Yes, she owes you a favor.”
“She owes me a favor . . . ?”
He obviously hadn’t been thinking about me as much as I had about him because with a clue like that he should’ve immediately known it was me.
Bec cleared her throat. “I know you’re in the hall so you might as well come out.”
How did she know I was in the hall? Also, I didn’t want to step out now because I felt beyond stupid. I just wanted to go home . . . after I asked him why he went to prom with me.
“Hello? Time to come out. You promised.”
I swallowed and stepped out from behind the wall.
Fill-in Bradley’s eyes went wide and he took me in from head to toe. “Gia?” His head whipped to his sister. “Gia?”
“Yes. Gia,” she said. “You’re welcome.”
“You know I had nothing to do with this.” He tugged on the bottom of a T-shirt that said, You can’t take the sky from me. His hair needed my help again, but he was cuter than I remembered.
“Yes. Well, I know . . . now.”
“You do not have to come with me. You look amazing, really amazing, but I’d actually rather go by myself, no offense.”
“None taken.” Technically I hadn’t wanted to go with him to this stupid party where I wouldn’t know anyone either, but his saying he didn’t want me to go was a little jab to the gut. He’d rather go by himself than have to take me? Whatever. It didn’t matter. If I left right now I could go to Logan’s party with my friends. “I should probably just go home.”
“Yes,” fill-in Bradley said at the same exact time Bec said, “No!”
I looked between the two of them. Bec’s eyes were pleading. I had told her I’d try to convince him, plus I kind of agreed with her. He shouldn’t be going to his ex’s party alone. Especially if he was trying to win her back.
“Listen, I don’t have to pretend to be your girlfriend or anything. I could just go as your friend.”
“I really don’t want to make you do that.”
“You wouldn’t be making me. Plus I got all dressed up.”
He smiled. “We wouldn’t want that to go to waste.”
“Right?”
“Good,” Bec said. “It’s settled.” Then she grabbed my arm and pulled me back toward her room before he could object any more. “I just need to
talk to Gia for a second and then she’ll be ready.”
“Okay,” he said.
When we were in her room, she turned to me. “Good call on the friends thing. That will get you there, then once you’re there you can hold his hand and kiss his cheek and whatever other girlfriend stuff you need to do to pull this off.”
“Bec, I was serious about the friend thing. It wasn’t a ploy. It’s so obvious he wants his ex back.”
“You see that too?”
“Yes.” He may have been claiming some closure thing, but it was obvious.
I picked up my purse from where I had left it on the floor of her bedroom. “At least he’s agreed to let me go, right?” On her dresser as I was leaving the room I saw several bottles of hair product. “I’m borrowing one of these.” I held up a small tube of gel and shoved it in my purse.
“Do your job,” she said as I left. “It’s not too late to save him from her.”
I was not going to force my fake girlfriendness on anyone tonight, so I just laughed and went to find fill-in Bradley.
CHAPTER 12
I pulled the seat belt across my chest and clicked it in place. “Did you know that your sister never uses your first name? It’s just ‘my brother this’ and ‘my brother that.’ It’s maddening.”
He laughed a loud laugh that made me smile, then he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.
“It’s actually really cute. I think that’s how she thinks of you always, as her big brother.”
His amused look softened. “So you still don’t know my name?”
“No. And I need it for tonight.”
He didn’t provide me the answer but instead asked, “What have you been calling me in your head, then?”
“What makes you think you’ve been in my head?”
He just smirked like he knew he had. And he was right.
“Fill-in Bradley.”
He laughed. “Wow. Creative.”
“It’s all I had to work with so help me out here.”
“Here’s the problem. There’s this huge buildup now. I almost feel like I need to make up a name that fits this moment of anticipation.”