Lorylyn laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure he did!”
“So are you and Brady doing anything tonight?” Jill asked as she did a full turn.
“No.” Lorylyn gave Jill a glum look. “He came over this afternoon, but he didn’t feel good at all. He was just being bummy all afternoon, like laying around, and he didn’t wanna go take Moon for a walk or anything.” Moon was Lorylyn’s dog. “So when he dropped me off at practice he said he was just gonna go home and sleep.”
“Aww, that sucks.” Jill gave Lorylyn a sympathetic look, then paused to do her back handsprings. She was connecting them with no problem now. “Hey!” she said suddenly as she prepared for a jump. “We should hang out tonight! You can spend the night if you want.” She whirled her arms around her head and twisted through the air in a three-quarter camel jump, landing with her back to Lorylyn. She landed perfectly, then stuck her arms out to the side, holding the pose for a brief second before jumping down to the mat.
“Yeah!” Lorylyn brightened. “That’d be fun!”
***
When Brooke pulled into the driveway, Brady’s car was already there. The driveway lights weren’t on; Brady probably didn’t want to draw any attention from the neighbors. But Brooke could see a light on inside, behind a closed curtain. She checked her reflection in the mirror of her car, then climbed out.
Brady opened the door before she was halfway there, and she hurried inside. She felt like they were adults stealing away for a weekend in the country, to their own private cottage.
“Hi,” he greeted her with a grin, his curl falling in front of his eye. He kissed her quickly on the lips.
“Hi.” Brooke smiled back.
Brady headed for the kitchen, and Brooke followed him. “I found some wine,” he said over his shoulder. “Want some?”
“Sure.” Brooke leaned against the counter and waited while Brady grabbed a bottle from the wine rack and uncorked it. He already had a glass out for her; he must’ve been getting ready to pour it before she got here. “You don’t think they’ll notice?” she asked.
“No. Or they’ll just think it was Landon or Corey. So I don’t give a shit.” He grinned mischievously, and Brooke grinned back.
She loved this. Just in the two minutes she’d been here, she was having more fun than she’d ever had with Matt. She also felt more anticipation than she’d ever felt with Matt. She realized all that the time apart from Brady had accomplished was causing her to fall even more in love with him. At the moment, that seemed like a good thing. She was so happy to be with him. This was going to be a night to remember.
Brady brought her the glass of wine, still grinning at her in that irresistible way he had.
Brooke took the glass and sipped. “Good,” she said, even though it tasted bitter. She hadn’t ever had much wine, and she wasn’t the biggest fan. But it was a romantic gesture.
Brady watched her while she sipped. She loved the way he was looking at her, like he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Suddenly he ripped the glass out of her hand and reached around her waist, setting it on the counter behind her. “Fuck the wine,” he said, crushing his lips against hers.
Brooke shivered all over, even though his mouth was hot. She felt tingles all the way down to her toes. This was what she wanted, this was what she lived for. Not Matt’s fumbling, clumsy attempts, but Brady’s passionate kisses and touches. Right now she couldn’t remember why she’d ever thought Matt was a good kisser. She knew no one else would ever be able to turn her on the way Brady did.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this while you’re still with Matt,” Brady said as they moved to a bedroom, Brooke stumbling backward while Brady guided her with his hands on her hips, still kissing her hungrily. “I never thought I’d be able to talk you into it.”
Brooke fell onto the bed, tilting her head back as he sucked at her neck. At this point, she didn’t even care if he gave her a hickey. She’d just say it was a curling iron burn.
“Oh...well...he’s gone,” she said breathlessly. How could someone sucking on her neck feel this good?! “And I lied, he wasn’t that good anyway.”
chapter 7) she may be nice, but i’m a bitch
On Tuesday at practice, Jill decided to start working on her half-fulls. Normally she didn’t even do vault every day, and when she did, she’d only take about five or six turns, just enough to make sure her half-halfs were still good. But today she felt lazy and didn’t want to go through any of her routines, so she got out a pit to put behind the horse and decided to spend the whole time, or as much as she could get away with, working on her half-fulls.
Lorylyn vaulted with her, and they were having a great time joking around and giggling and flying off the horse onto the pit. When Coach Tanner had her back to them, they decided to spin around in circles on the floor ex mat to make themselves dizzy before running down the vault runway. They spun for several seconds on their tiptoes, and then Jill went first. She was halfway down the runway when she started laughing so hard she fell down and rolled on the ground, still laughing hysterically.
Lorylyn burst out laughing too and collapsed on the floor exercise mat, kicking her legs in the air.
Coach Tanner turned around. “Lorylyn, I think it’s time for you to move on,” she called. “Unless you’re working on a new vault, which it doesn’t look like.”
Jill and Lorylyn looked at each other and laughed even harder. Coach Tanner gave them a look and then turned back to spotting Rachel Winebrenner, who was working giants on bars.
Jill pushed herself up off the vault runway and walked over to Lorylyn, reaching out her hands to pull Lorylyn up. “Let’s get a drink,” Jill said.
“Where are you girls going?” Coach Tanner asked as they left the gym.
“To get a drink,” Jill told her.
“Well, when you get back, you better be working a lot harder than you have been so far today. Lorylyn, I want you on beam. You need to work on connecting your front walkover right into your tuck full.”
“Okay,” Lorylyn said as she kept walking, sticking her finger down her throat.
Jill giggled again, glancing back at Coach Tanner out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t look too thrilled. Jill pursed her lips to hold back her laughter and hurried to keep up with Lorylyn.
As soon as they were out the door and headed across the lobby to the drinking fountain, Jill burst out laughing again, and Lorylyn joined her. Just then, another door to the lobby opened, and the JV basketball team came out from the hallway on the far side of the varsity gym.
“Ooh, there’s the boys,” Jill whispered, and she and Lorylyn giggled even harder.
As they stopped to get their drinks, Jill watched the boys out of the corner of her eye. She felt so small in her bare feet and leotard next to the boys in their huge shoes and baggy shorts and practice jerseys.
“Hey, girls!” Dirk yelled as the boys headed into the gymnastics gym, and Bennett whistled at them.
“Hoooterrrrs!” Todd called.
Jill looked down and realized she was wearing her Hooters shorts. That set her off laughing again. “I’m so hyper!” she gasped to Lorylyn.
Lorylyn looked at her, and they both laughed even harder. “Me too!”
Last year Jill and Lorylyn had taken practice more seriously, but this year, since they both had sealed spots on varsity and felt more comfortable around Coach Tanner, they goofed off a lot and were hyper like this at least half the time. It made practice a lot more fun, and they still got a lot accomplished. Coach Tanner got on their case sometimes, but she didn’t really care since they were two of her better gymnasts.
When Jill and Lorylyn walked back into the gym, the JV boys had started their walk-through for that night’s game.
“Look how pale they are,” Lorylyn whispered to Jill, who giggled.
Todd ran toward the basket and went up for a lay-up. The ball hit between the rim and backboard and came back down right at his face. Jill and Lorylyn looked at each other an
d doubled over in laughter, both holding their stomachs as they ran behind the curtain to their half of the gym. They ran all the way to the floor ex mat and collapsed on it. Jill was laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face.
“Girls...” Coach Tanner called.
“Okay.” Lorylyn pushed herself up, breathing hard from laughing.
Jill stood up too, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. As her hand neared her nose, it made her think of the nose gesture Brooke always did and the time at Landon’s when they’d snorted beer through their noses. She laughed again, still drying the tears as she walked back to the vault runway.
As Lorylyn stepped onto the low beam to warm up, she glanced back at Jill, and they both started all over again.
***
A little while later Lindy came over to join Jill on vault. “So, are you excited for Landon’s on Thursday?” she asked with a grin.
“Oh, yeah!” Jill said.
“Are you going with Todd?”
Jill shook her head quickly. “No. We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, but I just thought you guys might go together so you don’t have to worry about drawing somebody awful.” Every year at Landon’s New Year’s Eve party, any girl who didn’t come with a date had to draw a dateless guy’s name out of a hat and kiss that guy at midnight.
“Eww.” Jill wrinkled her nose. “I hadn’t even thought of that! That’s a good idea.” Just thinking about it gave her little butterflies in her stomach. She was so glad Lindy had suggested it…now the only problem was making it happen.
***
Hilton got to the school around 5:30 that afternoon for the basketball game. She was stretching in a corner of the gym with some of the other cheerleaders when Brooke stormed in, dumped her bag on the ground, and then turned to face the girls, her hands on her hips.
“Do you guys know Kara Darson?” She sounded furious.
“I used to sit with her at lunch for a couple months last year,” Hilton said, wondering what all this was about.
“Yeah, but we moved back to our old table after Lorylyn and Brady got back together,” Hillary said, flashing a smile in Hilton’s direction.
Hilton knew it was meant to be a direct slam to Brooke. Not the time, she thought, pretending not to see Hillary’s look. She turned back to Brooke.
“Well she is a little fucking bitch,” Brooke declared loudly.
“What happened?” Tiffany and Stacy asked together.
Hilton had never been a big fan of Tiffany or Stacy, but she didn’t have any real issues with them. They were just stuck-up and bitchy, so she tried to avoid them. Now she looked from them back to Brooke expectantly.
“She hooked up with Andy.” Brooke, with her hands still on her hips, waited for their responses.
It took Hilton a moment.
“Lindy’s Andy?!” Tiffany cried, her mouth hanging open. She threw a quick glance at Stacy.
“Yep. UGH! Stupid little bitch! I just wanna beat the shit out of her!”
Hilton stared in disbelief. First of all, Andy cheating on Lindy?! They’d been together forever, and they never seemed to fight or anything; they seemed so happy and cute. Second of all, Kara Darson? Where the hell had that come from?! When did Kara Darson even talk to Andy?
“Kara Darson?” Stacy said, echoing Hilton’s thoughts. “What the hell? Isn’t she that geeky girl who’s like really quiet and doesn’t even know what to say to you if you talk to her? Yeah, I remember her from junior high. Wasn’t she in your grade, Hillary? She was in our lunch and she sat by herself, and we like always made fun of her. That was like, seventh grade.”
“Yep, that’s her,” Brooke said. “Fucking whore. Have you seen her lately? She doesn’t have glasses anymore, and she got the ‘Rachel haircut’; she probably thinks she’s all big shit now.”
“How does she even know Andy?” Hilton asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, I guess they have like chemistry together or something, and he switched into it like the second day and she didn’t have a lab partner, go fucking figure, so they got put together.” Brooke was fuming; Hilton had never seen her so mad. Hilton was still in shock about the whole thing.
“How’d Lindy find out? Did she just find out today?” Tiffany asked.
“Andy’s mom called her. I guess little slut girl like called his house or something asking for him, so his mom asked him about it, and he said it was nothing, but his mom didn’t believe him so she called Lindy this afternoon and told her about it. ‘Cause I guess when Kara called, she actually told his mom to have Andy call her about ‘when they were going out.’ And she like introduced herself to his mom and tried to have a conversation with her. What a stupid fucking bitch. What the hell was she thinking? She was just asking to get caught. She’s so freaking pathetic that she probably wanted the whole school to find out, just so she’d get some attention for once and people would all know she hooked up with him! Ugh!” Brooke balled her hands into fists. “She’s so stupid! Oh, she’ll get attention now, I’ll fuckin’ make sure of it. She’ll regret ever fucking with Lindy.”
“So Lindy just called Andy out on it, or what? How’d she find out they actually hooked up?” Stacy asked. She and Tiffany glanced at each other again. Hilton narrowed her eyes at them warily. There was something suspicious about those looks they kept giving each other.
“Well, she thought it was probably nothing at first, so when he came over, she was just like, ‘What’s going on with you and Kara Darson?’ ‘Cause she didn’t wanna give away that his mom told her, so she just pretended she heard something at gymnastics today, and she figured he’d be like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ and it’d be over. So he got this really worried look on his face, I guess, and was like, ‘Why? What’d you hear?’ So she said that she heard at gymnastics practice that he hooked up with Kara while they were working on chemistry one night and that Kara’s been spreading it around, and somebody on the team heard and told her. And he actually admitted to it!” Brooke shook her head angrily.
“He just flat-out admitted it to her?” Stacy was surprised.
“Well, at that point he probably thought she already knew; he didn’t know she was making up hearing it from somebody at gymnastics. So he probably just thought it was easier. But then he tried to all, like, downplay it, and he told her how it was just a one-time thing and it would never happen again and blah, blah, blah.” Brooke rolled her eyes dramatically. “So she was like, ‘Well Kara’s telling people you guys are supposed to go out on a date,’ and Andy was all like, ‘Oh, she’s so dumb, I never gave her that impression at all.’ So Lindy just told him to get the fuck out of her house.” Brooke looked a little pleased as she said the last sentence.
“So they’re broken up?” Hillary asked in disbelief.
Hilton knew how Hillary must be feeling. This was so random and out of the blue. Andy was about the last guy Hilton would’ve ever expected to be a cheater. She could see Dirk cheating way before Andy.
“Oh, fuck yeah. He’s a total dick. I can’t believe he did that to her,” Brooke said.
“Neither can I,” Hilton said, shaking her head. “That really is pathetic; who’s so desperate they have to broadcast to the whole school that they hooked up with a popular guy? Does she actually think it’ll make people think she’s cool or something?! Everybody loves Lindy. Kara’s gonna get her ass kicked.”
“Hell yeah!” Brooke said. “By me! If she even dares to show her face at the game tonight...”
***
Jill got to the basketball game early and stood in the bleachers, looking around anxiously. She wished Lorylyn and Brady would hurry up and get here; it was starting to get crowded, and she hated standing by herself and trying to save seats.
“Jill! Come to the bathroom with me!”
Jill looked over to see Hilton standing down on the gym floor at the end of Jill’s row. “I can’t, I don’t wanna lose our seats.”
“No, you have to come
now!”
Jill looked at Hilton in alarm. What the hell was going on? Hilton didn’t really look upset, but something huge must be happening. Jill squeezed through her row to the steps, then darted down and ran around the side of the bleachers to meet Hilton.
Hilton walked hurriedly out of the gym, not looking back at Jill till they were in the health hallway, away from all the people and noise.
“Why are we going all the way down here? What’s going on?”
Hilton glanced around, then in a low voice began repeating Brooke’s story for Jill. Jill listened in shock.
“What?!” she cried when Hilton was done. “Andy? And Kara Darson? What a fucking bitch! I can’t believe Andy would do that either! That’s so depressing! I always thought they were like, the perfect couple!”
“I know!” Hilton shook her head. “Dude, if Andy cheats, what guy doesn’t?”
“Oh, I’m sure Landon doesn’t.”
“He fucking better not ever.”
***
Jill felt a rush as she jumped on the bleachers with the rest of the student section in time to the pounding drums. She loved basketball games, and this was her favorite part. She also loved how mean the BC student section was to the visiting teams. As Logan North’s starting lineup had been announced, the whole student section had stood with their backs to the floor, and Jill knew they’d just get ruder as the game went on. She couldn’t wait.
“STARTING AT ONE GUARD…” Mr. O’Malley’s voice boomed over the drums, almost in slow motion, “A 5’11 SENIOR, NUMBER TWELVE, KYLE JEFFRIES!” Mr. O’Malley was a guidance counselor and always announced the basketball games. The sound of his thundering voice along with the drums always gave Jill a huge adrenaline rush and excited chills. She could feel the noise from the drums vibrating through her whole body and the whole gym. She absolutely loved it. “STARTING AT TWO GUARD, A 6’0 JUNIOR, NUMBER SIXXXTEEEN, LANDON KESSLER!”
Landon sprinted onto the floor, throwing a T-shirt up into the crowd. Tiffany did a tumbling pass, and Kayley Bradbury, who was up in a lift, unrolled a banner reading KESSLER in large green letters.
“STARTING AT ONE FORWARD, A 6’2 JUNIOR, NUMBER TWENTY, REED MITCHELL!”