by April Marcom
“Uh, yeah I am. Unfortunately, I don’t associate myself with total geeks, so I’m gonna have to let you go. And just so we’re clear, never—call me—again.” She hung up on him. Then her free thumb went bouncing around her phone, blocking his number. “I am so over this. That loser’s been trying to talk to me all week. We have to do something about it.”
“He has been following you around like a love-sick puppy,” Steph said.
Brittany gasped. “We could TP his house.”
“That could be fun!”
“Yeah, but what good would it do?” I asked. “How would that get Bryan to leave Nicole alone?”
“Well…” Nicole narrowed her eyes as she stared out her window. “We could use eggs and shaving cream… Write ‘loser’ all over his bedroom window.”
I stopped painting Nicole’s nails and stared at her. That’s cruel, I thought, unable to bring myself to say it out loud.
“I’m in, but no eggs,” Steph said, “and how do you even know where he lives?”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does. Is he an old flame? A secret crush?”
“Ew, no! We used to ride the same bus and he got off before me. He lives a few blocks that way.” Nicole pointed toward her door. “So at midnight we’ll just pay him a little visit.”
As I began painting gold lightning bolts on Nicole’s fingernails, I couldn’t help but wish I was out with Ty instead of here.
Once we’d taken pictures for the Smokin’ Six website, I faked cramps and went to bed early at the sleepover. I just couldn’t bring myself to take part in something so mean. Lavender ended up staying too, so she could text Nicole if her parents woke up and the girls needed to come home before finishing the job.
It was difficult to fall asleep Sunday night. I couldn’t stop thinking about what school would be like the next day. Did Ty think I was his girlfriend? Was I supposed to act like I was his girlfriend? And would it lead to Nicole terminating me from the team? That was absolutely my greatest fear—getting cut from the squad—losing my friends—losing everything, basically.
It felt so good just thinking about Ty, though. I knew I would take the risk if he asked. My heart had already made that decision for me.
Monday morning, nothing I owned was good enough to wear. I could not get my eyeliner right. My hair kept getting minor humps here and there when I tried pulling part of it back. It was Friday night all over again!
Finally, I decided on a blue dress with matching sandals, along with the heavy black-silver locket my mom had given me for Christmas last year. It had an old picture of her and my dad in it.
“Have a great day, honey,” she called after me when Nicole’s van pulled up outside.
The other cheerleaders were pretty drowsy and quiet all the way to school—typical Monday morning. I was wide awake, of course.
We barely made it into the school building before the warning bell rang, so I wasn’t surprised that Ty wasn’t at his locker. I was surprised when I didn’t see him all morning, however. He wasn’t even in home ec when I got there!
Bryan walked in the room right as Nicole sat down beside me. He stared us both down all the way to our desk. “Was it you?” he asked us both.
“What do you mean?” Nicole glared back.
“You know what I’m talking about. My mom called the cops Sunday morning. You’re lucky I kept my mouth shut, not that you deserve it.”
Nicole sat back indifferently. “What, did you get robbed or something?”
Bryan’s nostrils flared as he let out an angry breath. I was glad I wasn’t tangled in Nicole’s mess. “Just remember, you’re the one that came on to me,” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Whatever.” Nicole rolled her eyes.
Bryan went back to his desk right before the bell rang.
Miss Peters walked in carrying a stack of papers. “Good afternoon, everyone. Today we will begin studying food and nutrition. You’ll each receive two questionnaires, one to test the knowledge you already have on the subject, and one to help me know what you want to learn most on the subject. Pencils only please—”
The door opened and Ty walked in carrying a pink hall pass. He handed it over to Miss Peters.
She glanced at it, then held out half the stack of papers to him. “Since you’re already up here, you can hand these out. Nicole, you come hand out the other ones. Both are due at the end of the hour whether they’re finished or not. You will be graded on your efforts, not what you know.”
I couldn’t help but stare at Ty as he walked down each aisle, handing out papers and looking as dangerous as ever. It was disheartening the way he was so oblivious to me. He simply winked when he handed me my paper. It was nice, though, like a secret we shared.
“Snap out of it,” Nicole whispered when she set a paper on my desk next.
I frowned at the paper.
* * *
1) How many glasses of water should you drink in a day?
* * *
Was it six or eight? I asked myself. I’ll just write seven.
* * *
2) Which food group should you be eating the most of?
3) Which should you be eating the least of?
* * *
It was impossible to focus. I didn’t know the answers. And it was impossibly boring. And Ty was sitting just a few desks behind me! I couldn’t stop wondering what he was thinking and if he was watching me, but I dared not turn around. By the time the bell rang, I’d barely started on my second page. Nicole had finished both.
Again, I hoped Ty would stop by my desk and say something. He hurried past me as I stood up, and only looked back to grin and nod to me before he handed Miss Peters his paper and was gone.
Blaine appeared in the doorway just then. He watched Ty walking down the hall while he waited for me. He knew about my date with Ty. I knew he did.
“Hey, Hadley.” He stepped in front of me when I left the room.
I glanced at him as I side-stepped and tried to ignore him. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? Didn’t he know how hard this was for me?
“I need to talk to you.”
“No.”
He stepped in front of me again. “I’m really sorry, baby. Missing your birthday was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I’ll never do it again.”
I’d heard that one a hundred times before. I tried to walk around him.
He grabbed my wrist. “When are you gonna talk to me?”
I stared into his eyes, desperately wanting to give in. I caught sight of the back of Ty’s head before he turned a corner. It strengthened my resolve, because even though the way he was ignoring me hurt too, it reminded me that there really are incredible guys out there. I would get over Blaine eventually and find one that made me happier than he ever did. I just wished the pain would end now. My eyes watered when I looked back at Blaine.
“I missed you all weekend,” he said. “How can I make it up to you?”
“Blaine,” I whimpered, looking down as a tear trickled out.
“Let go of her.” Nicole grabbed my hand away from him. “She doesn’t want you anymore.” She put an arm around me and started walking me down the hall away from him.
I had to cover my mouth to muffle the cries. Nothing could make me stop wanting to run back into his arms. Even though he broke half his promises and hurt me on a regular basis, I missed him.
Ty’s smiling face, dripping from the rain, and the way it felt when he kissed me filled my mind. I figured if I at least had that to look forward to this weekend, I would survive.
“Thanks, Nicole,” I said quietly.
15
I saw Blaine twice more during the day. Both times I struggled to shake him and somehow succeeded.
On the other hand, Ty was nowhere to be found. I was beginning to get the feeling he was avoiding me. Like the whole thing had been an act. It was totally depressing.
Looking forward to cheer p
ractice after school was all that got me through the day. When the final bell rang, I ran to my locker— “No running in the hall,” Mrs. Smelting shouted—threw my school junk into it, grabbed my cheer bag, and took off for the gym. The crisp air felt good outside. A sense of peace and normalcy surrounded me.
I always loved being the first cheerleader in the gym after school. Once I was inside the girls’ locker room, I changed into my black tank top and tights. Then I put on my white cheer shoes.
Brittany trudged in next, slumping onto the bench beside me. “Gah, we survived Monday.”
“Yep, it can only get better from here.”
The locker room door flung open suddenly. Steph shrieked, then burst into giggles.
Zaniah followed her inside, poking her in the ribs. “I’m not stopping ‘til you say you’ll come over and help me with my English homework.”
“Okay, okay.” Steph was always a walking spellcheck.
The trivials followed and it got a whole lot noisier. Brittany and I rolled our eyes at each other, because we both knew what the other was thinking: fake, fake, fake!
When we walked out the back of the gym toward the football field, I could hear Coach Sanders blowing his whistle and guys slamming into each other. Blaine was somewhere in all that. I’d dealt with practicing just outside the football field’s fence all of last week and it hadn’t gotten any easier.
Still, the routineness was nice.
“All right, ladies, let’s get down to work,” Ms. Nordik shouted over the football players once we’d all gathered near the north end of the field.
Everyone snapped to attention. Our coach’s super short blonde hair and mannish appearance always made her extra-intimidating.
She hit a button on her cordless CD player and a great beat started playing. “We’re going to learn a new routine today. Nicole, you’re going to swing your arms from side to side like this, turning your body in the opposite direction, while you shout, ‘Hey Silver Wing, you know we got it.’ Then the rest of you do the same thing, echoing what she says.”
A few kids gathered in the stands to watch or wait for siblings who’d be driving them home as she gave us the rundown on the whole cheer. It was pretty cool. I knew it’d be one of my favorites. We went over it, over and over and over, then practiced a couple of other cheers. It didn’t take long for me to get in the zone and stop worrying about Blaine watching or trying to catch my eye waving at me like he’d done at every practice the previous week.
No-one noticed the loner leaning against the stands, watching us, until we stopped to take a drink and sit down for a few minutes.
“OMG, is that Ty Black?” Brittany asked.
All ten of us stared openly at the hottie in the shadows. He nodded to me and grinned. I smiled and waved back, filling with total excitement at seeing him. My mind conjured up an image of me running into his arms with no-one else around.
“What’s he doing here?” Nicole asked.
“I bet he’s here to see Hadley,” Lavender said. “It sounds like he’s a true romantic at heart.”
“He can stand there and admire us all he wants, but he is not hanging out with us.”
“Come on, girls,” Ms. Nordik called. “Let’s go over our new routine three more times, then we can all go home.”
I glanced at the football field to make sure Blaine hadn’t noticed my exchange with Ty. He slammed into one of those football dummies and drove it several yards across the field.
It was hard to concentrate on what I was doing, with Ty watching me. He made me so darn nervous; it was ridiculous!
“I’m gonna talk to him when we’re done with practice,” I told Nicole between the end and beginning of the routine. “Then he won’t have to come over here.”
“Fine, just don’t make this a habit.”
During our final run-through of the new routine, I had to listen to two of the trivials whispering about how hot Ty was, blending into the shadows in his dark sunglasses and holding his motorcycle helmet against the side of one leg. At least I hoped it would give Nicole the idea he was worthy of me.
“All right, girls,” Ms. Nordik said when we were done, “good work today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.”
Sheer joy swept over me as I grabbed my duffle bag and ran full speed at Ty. I’d been so crushed over Blaine and so depressed about being ignored by Ty all day. My level of happiness at seeing him, waiting there just for me, was spectacular!
He set the helmet on the ground when he saw me coming. I dropped my duffle bag at his feet and threw my arms around his neck.
“Hey, Hadley,” he said, crossing his arms over my back and pressing his hands into my sides. “Sorry I haven’t seen you all day. I checked in late, then I was scrambling between classes to get my missed assignments and finish them before school let out.”
“That’s okay. I thought maybe you didn’t want to see me anymore.”
Ty sniggered. “That’s not going to happen. I drove my motorcycle today in case you wanna come over to my house. Nobody will be home until at least six-thirty. Poppy’s there, but she’s cool.”
“I’d love to. I’ll just have to call my mom to let her know and check with Nicole. We were all going to get manicures after practice. I don’t think she’d mind if I missed it this once.” I bent over to pick up my bag.
“I’m gonna bench press your dead body, Black,” Blaine shouted behind me.
“No!” I screamed, looking up in time to see Blaine punch Ty on the side of his face. I jumped out of the way when Ty swung his leg around and kicked Blaine in the back.
My ex lay sprawled face-down on the cement. He had plenty of safety padding separating him from the hard ground.
Ty pressed one knee against his back and twisted his arm around. “Bench press your way out of this.”
Ms. Nordik’s whistle blew long and loud. She was running toward us, waving for Coach Sanders to come too.
This was the first time I’d gotten to see Ty show off his muscles. They were clearly tight and hard enough, he was plenty equipped to handle himself.
Cheerleaders and football players were gathering where they could see what was going on. Nicole fixed a sneer on her face, while Lavender put a hand over her mouth.
“What’s your problem, Blaine?” I asked. “We broke up.”
“We break up all the time,” Blaine said, twisting his neck around. “It doesn’t mean nothing.”
“Cut it out, boys!” Coach Sanders shouted, rounding the bleachers. He reached up and caught his hat when the wind blew it off his head, revealing his wild, gray hair.
Ty stood up looking tense, like he was ready for another attack.
Blaine pressed his hands against the ground and popped up, looking murderous. His anger faded when he looked at me. “Rodney said he saw you at the movies with Ty Black, but I didn’t believe him.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “How could you cheat on me, Hadley?”
I shoved away his hand. “I told you it was for good this time. If I stayed with you, you’d just keep slitting my heart open with all your broken promises and watching me bleed all over the place like you don’t even care.”
“Young man, you’ll have detention for a month for attacking one of my football players,” Coach Sanders said.
“It was self-defense,” I cried.
“You’re really taking his side over mine?” Blaine asked me.
“She’s right,” Ms. Nordik said. “I saw the whole thing. Blaine attacked him.”
Coach Sanders’ eyes popped open wide. His mouth went into a crazy, angry frown. “Two weeks of after school detention, and you’re benched for the next football game.”
“What?!” Blaine shouted.
“Coach, no!” football players shouted. “That’ll cost us the game.”
“QUIET!” Coach shouted back. “I’ll see you in Principal Horawitz’s office first thing tomorrow morning, Marksen. For now, you better follow me to the locker room. I can’t risk leaving you out here to t
hrow away another game.”
“Stay away from Hadley,” Blaine snarled at Ty as he walked past him. “And you better watch your back, Black.”
Coach Sanders smacked him on the back of his head. “Are you happy, Marksen? You just let everyone down. You’d better not pull another stunt like that ever AGAIN!
I felt awful, and freshly brokenhearted. I hated for Blaine to suffer, even if maybe he did deserve it.
For how much I still loved Blaine, I really hoped Ty wasn’t some rebound I’d be over in like a week, or maybe it would make things easier with Nicole.
Of course, I was already getting attached to Ty. At this point, I wanted them both.
“I could probably find some ice in the cafeteria for that shiner,” Ms. Nordik told Ty.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Ty answered.
“Suit yourself.” The other cheerleaders followed her away from the field, glancing back at me.
“I’m sorry, Ty,” I said, reaching out for the swollen purple spot between his cheek and ear. “It’s okay if you never want to speak to me again.”
Ty cupped my hand between both of his to stop me. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been studying MMA for years. I’m not afraid of Marksen.” He lifted my hand to kiss my wrist. “You still want to come over?”
“Yeah.” I pulled my hand away to retrieve my cell, feeling like one lucky girl. I doubted many guys would stick around after an attack and a direct threat from Blaine.
Ty kneaded my shoulder with one hand as the phone rang. I got totally lost in his beautiful eyes. His hand slid across my back when I leaned against him, smiling, and feeling all the gaping holes Blaine had left in my heart begin to fill with happiness.
I knew in that moment, there was no way this was just a stupid rebound.
16
Ty’s house smelled mildly of Pine-Sol and majorly of the pot of chili simmering in a crockpot on the kitchen counter when we walked inside.
We set our backpacks on the table, where Poppy was cutting out yellow and white stars with an X-acto knife.
