I was the only one sans costume, but that was also the norm. I’d done away with costumes right around the time that most girls started donning sexy ones. You know—sexy nurse, sexy vampire, sexy witch…
I didn’t do sexy. It just wasn’t in my wheelhouse. I’d never gotten the big boobs or curvy hips like Margo and even if I had, I wouldn’t have had the nerve.
Margo looked at her phone when it dinged. “The guys will be here in a minute,” she said. She wore that happy grin she always wore when she was texting with Jason.
It was sickening…but also, I kinda-sorta got it.
I mean, this thing between me and Luke was new…and weird. But more and more whenever I thought about him I found myself smiling. This would have been weird in and of itself—I’d never been one to have crushes, at least not on guys from school, and this thing I felt for Luke? Well, crush didn’t really seem like an adequate term. So yeah, this feeling would have been odd in the first place, but add to the fact that this was Luke we were talking about and we were officially in Bizarro World.
“I can’t believe you’re actually going through with this,” Matt muttered.
I heard him hiss and knew without looking that Margo had smacked him. She was more annoyed with his bad attitude over all this than I was. I didn’t love his comments, but it sometimes felt like he was voicing my inner thoughts. He was saying out loud just how crazy this was.
I didn’t want to get into it with Matt, not now when Luke would be here at any moment.
Would he kiss me again? Would he take one look at me in my boring boxy sweater and jeans and declare that he’d made a mistake? Would he spend the entire night bored out of his mind and wishing he’d gone to some party where there would be beer and girls and the possibility of sex?
I took a deep breath and tapped at the keys on my computer to bring it to life.
Nope, DataG still hadn’t logged on. He’d been weirdly silent this whole week but I was hoping to chat, just for a minute, at least. Nothing calmed me down or gave me more of a confidence boost than sparring with DataG, and right now when Matt was being so ornery and Margo was being so overly excited for me, I could have really used DataG.
He knew nothing about me and Luke. I hadn’t told him about last weekend’s kiss or this week’s flirting or tonight’s imminent date. Part of me wondered if I would have told him all about Luke if he’d been online this week, but a little voice of honesty told me I probably wouldn’t have. I mean, I’d gotten used to telling him everything, but… I kind of felt like I was cheating.
On DataG.
I know. It was stupid. It wasn’t like we had an actual relationship. We were just friends. Friends who’d never even met in real life. For all I knew he’d been MIA this week because he had a new girlfriend, or multiple girlfriends. The one and only time he talked to me about girls I got the impression that he, unlike me, actually had some experience with the opposite sex.
I shut off the computer with a sigh. I was being stupid. Of course I wasn’t cheating on him and of course he’d be happy for me once he found out. And I didn’t need him to give me a pep talk when I was about to spend the evening surrounded by friends.
“You’re making a mistake,” Matt said, jarring me out of my positive thoughts.
I came crashing down in a heartbeat.
“Matt, that’s enough.” Margo’s voice was sharp but Matt didn’t seem to hear her.
He shook his head, his glare focused entirely on me. “I thought you had more sense than this.”
I stared at him in horror. Seriously? He was doing this to me now? “It’s just a date,” I started.
“With Luke Warner,” he said. “The guy who’s done nothing but mock you and your friends since—”
“He’s never been mean,” Margo interrupted.
Matt ignored her again. “He’s friends with them.”
“Them?” Margo scoffed. “Do you hear yourself? This isn’t us versus them, Matt. It’s not that simple.”
“Maybe it is.” Matt looked more worked up than I could ever remember seeing him. He was typically a pretty laid back dude but lately nothing about him had been typical. This outburst was just another example of that.
Margo and I watched in horrified fascination as he leapt off the bed and started pacing. “You dating Jason was one thing,” he said to Margo. “Jason is different.”
“So is Luke.” I surprised them both—heck, I surprised myself—with that outburst.
“No, he’s not,” Matt said. “He’s just like the rest. Cracking jokes at everyone else’s expense and laughing at us behind our backs.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he clearly wasn’t done. “It’s guys like Luke that wouldn’t let that stupid slideshow incident go. It was him and his friends who made that hashtag go viral and who turned what should have been a stupid prank into something cruel.”
I gaped at Matt, not even sure what to say to that. “None of that was Luke’s fault,” I said.
“How do you know?” he snapped.
I blinked at him. How did I know? I just…did. The more I got to know Luke the more I was beginning to see that he was so much more than everyone thought him to be. Underneath the devilish smirks and the hottie, player vibe he was actually quite…nice. Kind, even. He was definitely thoughtful, and genuine, and…trustworthy.
My eyes widened in surprise at the realization. Since when did I trust Luke Warner?
But Matt misinterpreted my wide-eyed look. “See?” he said. “You can’t even answer that, can you? Because you know that he didn’t even notice you until you were the butt of a joke. You weren’t even on his radar until he thought you were some sort of party girl.”
My mouth opened but I didn’t know what to say. All of that was true, I supposed, but he was twisting it. He was making something out of nothing.
Wasn’t he?
“Matt,” Margo said again, his name a warning. I glanced over at her sharp tone and had to stifle a nervous laugh at the sight of my best friend in cat ears looking all fierce on my behalf.
But that hysterical urge to laugh died instantly when Matt ignored Margo’s warning once again. “You don’t know what he’s really up to, Suzie. He could be using you.”
“Using me?” I echoed. I felt like an idiot suddenly because of the way he was looking at me and because of the way those words refused to make any sense. “I’m just saying, we don’t even know what he’s about,” Matt continued. “This could all just be a joke to him.”
The sudden silence in the room was deafening. Margo was staring at Matt in horror and I was…well, I was trying my best not to cry in the face of all the emotions that rushed to the surface.
“Matt,” Margo said again, but this time her voice was soft. Sad.
Matt flinched like she’d struck him and took a step toward me. “Suzie, I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just looking out for you.”
“You think…” I started and stopped to swallow down bile. “You think that the only way a guy like him would ever date a loser like me is if it’s a joke?”
“No, Suzie that’s not what I meant.” He reached out to me but I jerked away.
“Matt, I think you should go,” Margo said. He started to protest but she cut him off with a stern look. “Suzie’s date is about to show up at her front door at any moment and I will not have her crying when he gets here.” She moved closer to him and lowered her voice, but I could still hear her. “You were going to drive separately anyway, right? Meet us there and you and Suzie can talk later.”
He was quiet and I could feel his eyes on me but I refused to look up. “Fine,” he said with a sigh. I looked down at my feet, hurt mixing with humiliation. Did my own friend really think I was so pathetic?
And is he right?
I heard Matt approaching and saw his shoes enter my line of vision. “Suzie, I didn’t mean that the way it came out. You’re too good for Luke and you always will be.”
I swallowed. I had no idea what to say t
o that. I didn’t think I was too good for Luke and right about now I was really starting to wonder if Matt didn’t have a point. I mean, what did Luke see in me? Not this week, necessarily, but before that. What had changed that all of the sudden he noticed me?
That stupid photo. That was the only explanation.
I shivered as Matt opened the door to the hallway and slipped out. “I’ll see you guys there,” he said quietly.
In the silence after he left I could hear my heart pounding and my mind racing.
“Okay, stop,” Margo said, coming over and bracing my shoulders in a surprisingly strong grip. “Just stop. I don’t know what’s up with Matt these days but he’s been a weirdo about anyone who’s not a proud card-carrying nerd at Grover High.”
I felt a smile forming despite myself. She had a point. He had a chip on his shoulder for sure and it was time we found out why.
But not today. Not tonight.
“Tonight is your first date,” Margo said, ending with a giant grin and a squeal that made me laugh. “This is a big deal, lady. You need to enjoy this.”
“But what if—” Some of the fears Matt had stirred up started to pour out but Margo literally shut my mouth by clamping a hand over it.
“Nope,” she said. “Not going to go there. We can overanalyze to your heart’s content tomorrow but for this one night, just enjoy yourself, Suzie. You deserve to go out with a guy who’s so clearly head over heels for you. Stop doubting yourself and him, and just go with it.”
By the time the doorbell rang a couple minutes later, I led Margo out to greet them with a smile that was only partially forced. I’d managed to push Matt’s suspicions to the side but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still nervous.
I was.
One look at Luke when he entered and the nerves were washed away by my laughter. “Wow,” I said as Margo threw her arms around Jason, leaving Luke and I standing there face to face. “You didn’t,” I said through my laughter.
He gave me two thumbs up and struck a pose à la the Fonz. “Ayyy.”
Chapter Nine
Luke
Yup, this ridiculous fifties getup was totally worth it to see Suzie cracking up on our first date.
“I love it,” she said.
“What about you?” I eyed her outfit, which looked exactly like what she wore to school every day.
She looked down too, a blush creeping up her neck and into her hair, which I was happy to see she was wearing loose. “What about it?”
“You look beautiful,” I said, making that blush deepen to crimson. “But don’t tell me you’re going to make me walk around in a dorky costume all by myself.”
“Well, um…”
“Margo’s dressed up,” I said. “And so is Jason.”
“That’s because I made him,” Margo said with a proud grin. “He makes a cute zombie, right?”
Jason rolled his eyes but he was grinning down at his girlfriend like a love-struck moron.
“I don’t really do costumes,” Suzie said, shifting from one foot to the other. “I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in years.”
I took a step closer, my heart starting to thud loudly in my chest. It was nerves, plain and simple. Not because this was our first date, but because I’d promised myself that tonight would be the night. I wouldn’t let this thing between us go any further until she knew the truth about who I was.
The secret had been eating at me all week. I couldn’t even go online because I’d feel too guilty if she tried to talk to me about…well, about me. Or about tonight. Or the project. About any of it.
Tonight I planned to tell her and this could very well be my opening. “Come on,” I said, meeting her gaze. “Don’t tell me you don’t have some costume lying around. Princess Zelda, maybe?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “How did you—”
“She does,” Margo interrupted loudly. “She totally does.” And just like that she was taking off for Suzie’s bedroom with a laughing Jason in tow.
“She wouldn’t,” Suzie muttered.
A second later Margo walked back out of the bedroom, proudly holding up a Zelda costume.
Suzie frowned up at me. “How did you know—”
“I can’t believe you remembered that, Luke,” Margo interrupted with a shake of her head. She faced me with a look of awe, the princess dress dangling from one fist. “You remembered Suzie’s costume from the freshman year costume contest?”
Suzie’s frown eased and her eyes filled with a new, unexpected warmth.
Guilt had me looking down at my feet. This was definitely not the moment to explain that I hadn’t remembered her costume from years ago, I’d just assumed that a girl who loved Zelda enough to use it as her screen name would have a costume.
I was right.
“I can’t imagine it fits,” Suzie said, eyeing the fantasy princess costume with a wrinkle of her nose.
Margo scoffed. “Oh please. You’re still the same string bean you were three years ago.” She gave Suzie a shove toward her bedroom. “It’ll fit.”
I looked up at the ceiling as she changed and Jason headed to the bathroom to touch up his face paint. That was my big chance to come clean right off the bat and it had disappeared in a heartbeat.
That was what I got for trying to be clever. No more beating about the bush. I’d just find a moment when we were alone and I’d tell her. It was that simple.
A minute later my inner pep talk was interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door opening. I stopped breathing as Suzie walked out hesitantly. “I look ridiculous.”
I grinned. “You look amazing.”
Her cheeks flushed and she ducked her head.
“You ready to go, Princess Zelda?” I asked.
She nodded and we all headed out, Suzie shouting out goodbye to her folks as we went. Jason and I drove separately so Suzie and I agreed to meet them there.
“Where’s Matt?” I asked as we climbed into my car.
“He’ll meet us there too,” she said.
Something in her tone told me not to ask too many questions. We fell back into silence, which was unusual for us. This whole past week we’d been alone more than ever and I’d grown used to the easy chatter. But this time… I shifted uncomfortably. Well, now I had a secret to share and this could very well be the opportune moment.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to—”
“Matt thinks you’re dating me as a joke.”
She spoke at the same time as me and her words shocked me into silence. “He what?”
I glanced over and saw her staring straight ahead.
“You know that’s not true, right?” I honestly wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or horrified by the insinuation. I mean, I knew I had a certain reputation at school, but I didn’t think I was known for being cruel.
She fidgeted with the skirt of her dress. “I told him you weren’t.”
I didn’t miss the way she’d worded that—not exactly saying she believed me but not saying she didn’t either. I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.
The moment I’d been waiting for?
This was not it.
If she was already doubting me and my intentions, dropping this on her now was a surefire way to send her running. I loosened my death grip on the wheel and turned to her with a smile. “I’m sorry to hear Matt’s so suspicious of me, but as long as you know that this is for real, that’s all that matters, right?”
She gave me a small smile in return. “Right.” Then she turned her attention back to the silky material in her hands as she adjusted her skirt. “I can’t believe I let Margo convince me to wear this.”
I covered her hand with one of mine. “You look beautiful.”
She gave a little snort of amusement that had me grinning. “I look ridiculous.”
“Join the club.” I glanced down meaningfully at my leather jacket and white T-shirt. “But that’s what Halloween is all about, right?”
She didn’t
answer. Instead, she shifted in her seat so she was facing me. “You look good as a fifties greaser.”
“I do, huh?” I gave her an exaggeratedly cocky grin as I waggled my eyebrows. “Maybe I’ll wear leather more often.”
She laughed and just like that the tension in the car eased. All talk of Matt and his mistrust were forgotten—for now, at least—and I focused on the fact that for tonight we were just two people on a date.
My secret could wait a little while longer.
We met up with Jason and Margo in the parking lot and entered the carnival. I laughed as we stepped through the gates, and Suzie gave me a questioning look.
“I just remember this all being so much…bigger,” I said.
Suzie smiled and for the first time since we arrived, she looked at ease. She slipped her hand into mine and tugged. “Come on, the haunted house is this way and it’s my favorite part.”
I let her lead me, reveling in the fact that she was relaxed enough around me to hold my hand, loving that she felt comfortable enough to eat cotton candy and squeal like a kid at the ridiculously hokey haunted house.
It was all so childish and ridiculous and…fun.
We were having such a good time, neither of us got too weird when Matt showed up along with some of his guy friends. I recognized them, of course—our school wasn’t all that big not to know everyone in our class. But they weren’t guys I’d ever hung out with before. They were the AV club geeks. Nice enough, but they were all eyeing me oddly like they were waiting for me to pull them into a headlock and give them a noogie or something.
I leaned down to Suzie as we all stood around eating corn dogs and laughing about the costumes that passed us by. “Do I really have such a bad rep?”
She patted my arm. “It’s not your fault, really.” She shrugged. “Ever since the whole hashtag thing there’s been a lot of…resentment.”
“Toward me?’
“Toward popular people,” she said diplomatically.
My Virtual Prince Charming: Geeks Gone Wild #2 Page 10
