Her Book Boyfriend (The Awkward Duckling Books 1)

by K. R. Grace

  Morgan let out an exaggerated groan of frustration before grabbing my shoulder and putting herself a mere few inches away from my face. Close enough that I could smell grape Jolly Rancher on her breath. “Look, you are a space ninja warrior. You have the strength of ten thousand men.”

  I waited for her to continue, but judging by the way she released me and resumed her stance next to Reese, that was it.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’ve had enough of this. I’m out.”

  I shoved past them and made my way to Oscar in no-man’s land. Thankfully, Clay was more subdued than usual when I picked him up. That meant I could wallow in silence, at least until we got home and Mom would go through her typical third-degree interrogation of our days.

  And as expected, as soon as Oscar was parked in the driveway and we were inside the house, the questions began. “Hey, guys! How was your day?”

  Clay’s response was to stomp up the steps and slam his bedroom door.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Mom frowned as she turned to look at me.

  I shrugged. “The heck if I know. He’s a teenage boy. Probably just hormones.”

  She hummed in disagreement as she looked back up at the steps. “I think it’s more than that.”

  “You’re the shrink, not me. Go poke his brain and see if he cracks. And while you’re at it, why don’t you snoop around my room and see if you can find the box of condoms I’ve hidden in there.” I definitely shouldn’t have said that. Mom slowly turned to look at me, fire in her eyes, and I knew I was in for it.

  “Is that how you speak to me?” she asked, her tone quiet and ice cold.

  I felt like I was three inches tall. “No, ma’am.”

  “Maybe two weeks without phone, social media, or internet will do you some good. You’ll go to school and work, but that’s it.” And with my sentence quickly issued, she went up the steps to talk to Clay.

  A part of me wanted to scream that life was so unfair and have a total emotional outburst, but I knew that only made matters worse. Besides, the fact she completely skipped over my condom confession was enough to ensure my silence. Obviously, my emotions were getting the best of me. So, I trudged up the steps and slipped into the privacy of my room.

  Several minutes later, Mom came in to confiscate all my electronics, with the exception of my laptop since I needed to work on a research paper for college English.

  “I’ve changed the wi-fi password. Stay out of trouble for the next two weeks, and you’ll get your privileges back.” I hated how she called access to my phone and internet “privileges.” It made doing normal things like texting and tweeting feel like it wasn’t a right but something that was earned.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I grumbled. It wasn’t fair. For one snippy comeback, I was exiled into purgatory for two weeks. Two whole freakin’ weeks! My life was over.

  I heard my phone ringing as she walked down the hall, and a small part of me died knowing I couldn’t answer it. It was probably Morgan or Reese calling to pick up where I’d forced them to leave off.

  Why was everything going so crappy for me? The plan had been simple and executable. Why had Kenton lied? Why did Evan and Lydia have it out for me? Why did Cam hurt me?

  Life sucked. Everything sucked. I just wanted to stay under the covers and never, ever show my face again.

  With absolutely nothing better to do, I began working on my paper on an eco-criticism of Moby Dick.

  A little while later, with only two sentences on the massive blank document, the doorbell rang. I listened closely to hear Mom answer the door, but she and whoever was on the other side were talking so low, I couldn’t make anything out.

  Then there were footsteps coming up the stairwell, and I immediately started typing at random to look as if I was hard at work just in time for the bedroom door to swing open.

  “That was Noel. She has to go in for work this week and asked if you would babysit Winter after school until she gets home.”

  My first instinct was to ask why Cam couldn’t just watch Winter, but the fact I was being allowed to stay somewhere other than the house or work during the week kept my mouth shut. My prison sentence wasn’t looking so bad all of a sudden. Of course, I could do without seeing Cam for a while longer, but I had to take what I could get.

  “Okay.” I made sure to keep my face neutral so she wouldn’t think I was enjoying the new clause in my punishment. “Can I ask you something, Mom?” I asked. Why was my mouth talking? What was it doing to me? Abort mission! Abort mission!

  Her face brightened, and she walked into the room. “Sure, sweetie. You know you can ask me anything.”

  I gnawed on my bottom lip as I tried to formulate the words. It was as if all of the sudden, everything hit me square in the chest, and I needed to hear words of affirmation from my Mom telling me I wasn’t a slut and that Cam and I were going to make it through whatever rough patch we were in. But as I looked into her hopeful eyes, I knew she wouldn’t understand.

  “Cam and I are fighting, and I’m worried we’re not going to recover from this.” Okay, so maybe I felt comfortable about the Cam issue but not about my new-found problem with serial dating.

  “What happened, sweetie?” She scooted over so she could pull me into a hug. I gladly moved in to rest my cheek against her chest and breathed the smell of lavender and lemon grass, her favorite essential oil combination.

  “Cam did a really stupid thing. A really stupid thing that really hurt me.”

  “Did you confront him about this?” she asked. That’s what I loved about Mom. She didn’t prod into what the specific act was but rather focused on the resolution of the problem.

  “Yes, but it didn’t help anything,” I muttered as my eyes began burning with unshed tears.

  She ran her fingers through my hair like she used to do when I was little. “Then give it time. He’ll come around. You two have had some nasty fights over the years but always managed to bounce back.”

  I took in a deep breath and thought about some of those big fights. There was the time he rode my brand new bike down Devil’s Back and wound up at the bottom in a heap of bicycle parts. I didn’t speak to him for a month over that.

  The worst fight we ever had was when we all went to the beach together, and he tossed my Harry Potter book into the ocean. His reasoning had been that he was trying to get me out into the water, but all I could see was my favorite book floating face down in the gentle gulf waters. Of course, he had tried to make it up to me by retrieving the book and spending the entire evening attempting to blow-dry the ruined pages. However, I hadn’t been ready to forgive just yet and made him grovel for the rest of the vacation.

  But this fight felt much worse than that. So much more serious. “I hope you’re right.” I smiled weakly at her.

  She hugged me tightly. “Now, if only we can figure out what’s upset Clay, I’ll consider this a successful day.”

  Her voice had that ring to it that it got when she was trying to passive aggressively tell me she wanted me to take the initiative on something.

  “I think he’s past the stage when he wants to confide in his gross big sister, but I’ll try,” I said reluctantly and sat upright.

  She gave my shoulders another squeeze before she said, “He’s lucky to have you for a big sister.”

  Five minutes later, I wasn’t feeling the love from little bro.

  “Clay, please unlock the door. Let me talk to you!” I smacked the crap out of the door for the millionth time.

  “Go away!” his voice croaked.

  Not thinking, I clapped my hands and said dryly, “Congratulations! You hit puberty.”

  The door swung open, his face blood red. “I did not hit puberty!” His voice cracked all over the place, and I instantly felt like a heel.

  “Clay, we all have to go through the changes. It’s just part of life.”

  “Leave me alone!” he croaked as he slammed the door in my face.

  Well, at least I knew
what the problem was. I made my way down the steps and into the kitchen where Mom was working on her homemade spaghetti sauce.

  “Did you two have a nice talk?” she asked without looking at me.

  “Clay’s upset because his voice is cracking. Not my department.”

  She hummed. “Yeah, I’ll send Dad up to talk to him when he gets home.”

  The whole situation was weird for me. I didn’t need to know about Clay going through “the change,” and I certainly didn’t care how Mom and Dad tried to deal with the situation.

  “If you don’t need anything else from me, I’ll be upstairs working on my research paper.”

  I was almost to the steps when Mom called out, “Make that one week instead of two!”

  I did a fist pump of excitement but made sure to keep my joy in check as I calmly said, “Thank you,” and took the steps two at a time before she could change her mind.

  For the next four days, I occupied my time going to school, putting together the final touches on the yearbook, hanging out with Winter, and avoiding Cam at all costs.

  Winter was a cool kid. Every night she had a new made-up game she wanted to play that involved unicorns, leprechauns, and fairies like Tinkerbell. All week she asked for unicorn food, but I had no idea what she was talking about. So, as a way to hold her off, I promised I’d make it on Friday. Well, it was Friday, and I still had no idea what the heck unicorn food was.

  Knowing there was only one person who could help me, I sat across from Morgan at the lunch table and smiled brightly. “I need your help.”

  She pulled her purple sandwich out of her purple zip-lock baggie and opened it to assess the grape jelly and purple peanut butter before closing the sandwich bag and taking a bite.

  “I need to make unicorn food for Cam’s sister tonight, but I don’t know what that is.”

  Her sandwich fell from her grasp and flopped down onto the table. “It’s only the greatest food ever. How do you not know about unicorn food?”

  I shrugged. “Because I live under a rock?” No need to make her think I didn’t believe in the existence of unicorns or unicorn food.

  She wiggled in her chair as she picked up her discarded sandwich. “What color are unicorns?”

  “I’ve never seen one in person, so why don’t you tell me?” Okay, so that came out a little too harsh. What did she expect? We were talking about a mythological creature for crying out loud.

  “Well, if you are referring to the last unicorn, it was all white. However, modern unicorns are every color in the rainbow.”

  “Okay.” I dragged out the single word.

  “Oh, for cripes sake, just tell her what the heck unicorn food is and how to make it.” Reese gave an exaggerated sigh as if she had better things to do than listen to our conversation.

  Morgan shot her the stink eye before redirecting her attention to me. “It’s rainbow food. You make something that has every color of the rainbow with a heavy dose of pink and purple, and you have unicorn food.”

  “I need ideas, Morgan. You know my brain doesn’t work like yours.”

  She took a sip of her grape soda before answering, “True statement. Well, there is unicorn pizza where you do a row of purple onion, green bell peppers, yellow squash, and orange tomatoes. You can also make rainbow sushi or rainbow spaghetti. Ooh, and there’s also unicorn yogurt bark and unicorn grilled cheese.”

  “What makes spaghetti or grilled cheese…unicorn?” I frowned.

  “Same way I get my colored food. Food coloring, duh.”

  Food coloring. Just the thought of how horrible the aftertaste had to be for anything with that much dye in it made my mouth recoil like I’d just swallowed a mouthful of hairspray.

  Nevertheless, I promised Winter unicorn food, and I aimed to deliver. “Then I guess I’ve got to make a trip to the grocery store before I go over to Winter’s.”

  “Don’t you think it’s weird that Momma Noel asked you to babysit Winter instead of Cam?” Reese asked as she picked at her salad. A sign she had a meet the next day. She never could eat before a big competition.

  “Yeah, and he’s been acting so strange this week. What’s up with that?” Morgan glanced over to the empty chairs that were usually occupied by Cam, Bruce, and Teagan. Apparently, the guys decided on a trip off campus for lunch but failed to ask us.

  I thought I knew what was going on with him and was one hundred percent certain it had everything to do with me. Every night I spent with Winter, either he wasn’t there or he came in and went straight up to his room without saying anything to us.

  “He’s in love.”

  We all froze and turned to look at Wen Li in shocked surprise.

  “You speak English!” Morgan blurted out.

  “I mean, what Morgan meant to say is…wow, you can talk?” Reese gawked at our friend.

  Wen Li blushed and hid her face behind her sandwich.

  Rather than following in the other’s footsteps, I decided to go with what she said. “What makes you think Cam is in love?” I asked her.

  She shrugged, and I was almost convinced she’d resumed her silence when she finally whispered, “He’s writing a song for a girl. A love song.”

  “And you know this because?”

  “He works on it in English class.”

  I didn’t like the strange feeling I got in my chest at the thought that Cam might be in love with someone. I definitely didn’t like the fear I felt at the realization that if he decided to be serious about one girl, that would mean the end of us. Because let’s be real, what girl would be okay with their boyfriend being best friends with another girl?

  “Good eye, Wen.”

  Wen blushed, flashed the first smile we’d ever seen on her, and resumed eating her lunch.

  So, Cam had a girlfriend. Explained why he wasn’t hanging around his own home anymore.

  Dang, that sucked.

  Dying spaghetti noodles was a lot harder than one would think. I had to boil the spaghetti in small batches, each in a different color of water. Then, because it took so long to get every color of the rainbow, some noodles were overcooked and mushy while others dried out too much. Finally, I managed to get enough edible noodles into a bowl and added a jar of Alfredo sauce that I died pink.

  When Winter bounded into the kitchen with a huge smile on her face, I prepared myself for my toughest critic. Her eyes landed on the unicorn food, and she began jumping up and down and clapping her hands in delight. “Unicorn food!” she squealed.

  My body relaxed, and I began serving up the pasta in bowls.

  She opened the refrigerator and retrieved two juice boxes and climbed up into the seat beside mine at the table.

  “Can we play princess dress up after dinner?” she asked excitedly.

  “Sure, whatever you want to play.”

  As soon as her bowl was placed in front of her, she dug in and didn’t look back.

  “What’s the difference between a friend and a best friend?” she asked with her mouth full of food.

  “Well, friends are people you talk to and hang out with at school, but your best friend is the one you do fun stuff with outside of school like sleepovers and fixing each other’s hair and watching movies and talking on the phone for a long time.” I was trying to make my answer applicable to a six-year-old, but my only best friend at that age had been Cam, and we’d been inseparable.

  “That makes us best friends, right?” She bounced in her chair.

  I laughed and reached over to tug on the French braid I’d done for her before cooking dinner. “The bestest of friends,” I assured her.

  The front door opened, and we both turned to see Cam walk in with his guitar case strapped over his shoulder.

  “Look what Macey made me, Cammy!” Winter exclaimed as she held up her half-eaten dinner for inspection.

  He hesitated and darted his eyes over at me before stepping into the kitchen to get a better look.

  “Hey, unicorn food. Cool.” He ruffled her hair
which earned a wholehearted protest from his disgruntled little sister.

  However, because she could never stay mad at her brother, Winter smiled and motioned to the pot of pasta. “You want some? Macey made a ton!”

  “Nah, I’ll let you ladies enjoy your dinner.”

  Because I missed my best friend, and deep down I knew our days were numbered if he had a girlfriend, I called out, “No, please, eat with us. You’ve never eaten until you’ve had unicorn food.”

  When he looked like he was about to protest, I mouthed, “Please.”

  He finally shrugged and deposited his guitar on the couch before joining us at the table. The next twenty minutes were filled with smiles and laughter, and there for a little while, I completely forgot what we’d been fighting about.

  After dinner was over and the kitchen cleaned up, Winter roped Cam into playing princess dress up with us. If the girls in school could see bad boy Cam with purple eyeshadow, magenta lipstick, glitter all over his body, a purple feather boa, and his hair twisted into a princess bun positioned perfectly in the center of his sparkly pink tiara…he’d lose his bad boy status.

  When I pulled out my phone, he glared in warning.

  “What? I thought we’d all take a selfie together.”

  “That you’ll use as blackmail against me somewhere down the road? No way.”

  Macey looked up at Cam and stuck out a trembling lip. Dang, the kid was a master. “Please, Cammy? One picture?”

  His face twisted into one of extreme pain, as if he was trying to fight back against a giant, before he finally caved. “Fine. One picture, but it never leaves this room. No social media. No printouts.”

  Winter held up her hand with all five fingers splayed out. “Scout’s honor.”

  We all knew she’d never been a girl scout let alone a boy scout, but neither of us said it aloud. I held up my phone as we squished our heads together to fit into the frame of the picture. With the press of the “down” volume button on the side of the phone, the moment was memorialized forever.

  “Let me see! Let me see!” Winter clapped her hands.

  I pulled up the picture and together we looked at our smiling faces, each of us wearing feathery tiaras and clown makeup. While Winter squealed with laughter, my eyes focused on Cam’s face. He bore a soft smile, and his eyes weren’t trained on the lens but at the phone. As if he was looking at someone special. He had the smile of a guy in love.