As cool and collected as Kevin looked, Ciara could tell he was nervous from the way the corner of his lip twitched. He flipped some switches on the mixer and dropped the needle onto the record. At that moment, AJ came leaping out from the sidelines and into the spotlight. The crowd went nuts, clapping and screaming until Ciara was surprised they had any voices left.
“Did you see that?” Heidi whispered as a tiny orange lace thong went flying onto the stage, landing at AJ’s feet. AJ raised his eyebrows at the panties and shrugged comically.
Up there in the spotlight, AJ looked as beautiful as ever. For as long as she lived, Ciara would have to admit that he wasn’t just hot—he was an amazingly, extraordinarily good-looking guy. That was part (not all, but part) of the reason the B-Dizzy Crew had been so successful with local audiences. It was why whenever he went somewhere, girls stopped and giggled and stared. It was why panties went flying onto the stage the moment he took the spotlight. But just because AJ was gorgeous, charismatic, and driven didn’t mean he was the perfect guy for her. Nope—Ciara’s perfect guy was behind the turntables, laying down some deeply complex scratching and loving the music instead of the glory. If only she had some way of knowing whether he felt the same way!
AJ launched into a song that had everyone dancing and waving their hands in the air. “Wow, baby,” Ciara overheard Todd yelling in Heidi’s ear. “You didn’t tell me your friends were this good!”
Ciara grinned to herself as she bopped around to the beat. You’d have to be deaf not to realize that the B-Dizzy Crew was on fire.
After a couple more songs that practically had the walls shaking, AJ took a break, wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, and smiled down at the crowd as Kevin eased the beat down to a mellow background noise.
“You’re an amazing crowd,” AJ said, flashing his million-watt smile. “And I want to dedicate this next song to an amazing girl. She’s the only one who can keep my ego in check—and after this show, believe me, I’m gonna need it!”
The crows laughed appreciatively as AJ’s eyes scanned the crowd. “This one is called ‘The Right Girl.’ And it’s for you, baby,” he said, smiling tenderly.
Ciara’s blood froze in her veins and her heartbeat slowed down so far she wondered if she was going comatose. AJ was looking right at her! This wasn’t supposed to happen…he wasn’t supposed to decide that they were right together after all…not when she’d finally come to the conclusion that Kevin was the perfect guy for her!
But to her surprise, AJ extended his hand down toward her—and past her. A small hand with blunt, pearly fingernails wrapped itself in his, and Ciara let out a long, ragged breath of relief as AJ pulled Marlene up onto the stage with him.
So that was why Marlene looked so radiant all of a sudden! After all their talk about how much sense it had made for them to break up, they were back together again. Even Ciara had to admit that Marlene would probably be good for him. She was the only girl who was straight up enough to call AJ on his ego and not fawn all over him like all the other girls and…well, and even like her. Ciara’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she remembered all the times over the course of the summer that she’d gone out of her way to tell him how great it was that he had so much talent and drive. Sure, it was true and everything, but a guy as self-assured as AJ didn’t need that kind of constant reaffirmation. Marlene would be able to boost him up when he needed it but also bring him down a peg or two when he got too into himself. As Ciara watched AJ rapping to Marlene on the stage and Marlene’s happy smile, she realized they were perfect together.
At the end of the song, AJ kissed Marlene lightly on the lips and helped her down off the stage. Ciara could hear a chorus of disappointed sighs mixed in with the cheers. All over the room, AJ’s female fans were realizing he was taken. Maybe a few of them were even formulating plans to get him anyway. Ciara laughed to herself. At least she had already learned her lesson about doing that—even if it did have to be the hard way.
“Sooooo,” she and Heidi said at the same time, leaning close to Marlene.
Marlene’s blush turned even more fiery red than before. “So what?” she said in mock defense. But she was smiling. “So it turned out I missed the lug head. Kevin helped me realize that and ran interference once I realized I wanted him back.”
“Poor Kevin.” Heidi sighed. “All he ever gets to be is AJ’s best friend. I wonder when he’ll get a girl of his own.”
Hopefully before tonight is over, Ciara thought. But she kept it to herself.
At the end of their set, the B-Dizzy Crew did shout-outs. AJ thanked God, his mom, the Coup for letting them open, Tupac (RIP), Marlene, Kevin, and all his friends. Kevin thanked his parents, the Coup, AJ, his friends, and Qbert. A small thorn of disappointment lodged in Ciara’s chest. Sure, she was one of Kevin’s friends, but he hadn’t thanked her specifically. Then again, why should he? She managed to keep a smile pasted on her face as the B-Dizzy Crew left the stage in a shower of thunderous applause and shouts of “encore!” But inside, she felt let down. She hadn’t been able to admit it to herself, but ever since AJ had pulled Marlene up onstage, she’d been hoping Kevin would do something special like that for her too. She should have realized that pulling people up onstage and making a big public show of your love life was not at all Kevin’s style.
“Encore, encore!” the crowd shouted. Someone began a chant of “One more song,” and everyone joined in, stomping their feet, waving their hands in the air, and screaming rhythmically, “One more song! One more song!”
“Wow, I guess they were a hit,” Heidi said, turning to Ciara and Marlene.
“Jeez, listen to them,” Marlene agreed. “I guess so.”
Finally, AJ came loping back onstage, followed by Kevin. The air swelled with hoots and cheers, and AJ held up his hands for silence.
“Okay, all right already.” He laughed, taking the mike. “You want one more song, we’ll give you one more song. Just chill already.”
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” screamed the crowd.
“DJ Kev-lar?” AJ said, sweeping a hand toward Kevin. “Why don’t you take it away?”
“All right.” A hush fell over the room as Kevin leaned into the microphone. It was clear that he wasn’t used to speaking to crowds. “This one’s for Ciara, if she’s out there.”
With that he ducked his head, put on a record, and dropped the needle. The opening beats of “Still Not a Player” came floating through the speakers. Ciara’s head began to spin as the vocals kicked in. Not only had Kevin just dedicated a song to her, but it was her song—the song that had changed the way she thought about boys, about relationships, about everything. How did he know?
And then she remembered that foggy morning at the diner on the dock, the morning after they had almost kissed. She had played that song on the jukebox and said she’d been into it lately. And he had remembered!
Kevin was scratching the record, remixing it before the crowd’s astonished eyes, as AJ rapped over it. He’d ditched the Big Pun lyrics and written some of his own, and they sounded even better than the original. The crowd was dancing so hard she could feel the floor shake. And in the midst of all of this, Kevin looked down off the stage, right into her eyes, and smiled.
When the song was over, he didn’t even bother going backstage. He came right down to the lip of the stage, where she and Heidi and Marlene and Todd were standing, and leaped off. The lights in the house had come up, and the air was full of crosscurrents of conversation, shrill bites of laughter, and the dull thud of the canned music they played between sets. But Ciara didn’t hear any of it. The only thing in her universe that moment was Kevin leaping off the stage and coming toward her. It was only a matter of inches, and in seconds he was standing right in front of her, his forehead gleaming with sweat from the stage lights and a shy, expectant smile on his face.
To Ciara, he was the most perfect boy in the world right then. He looked down at her, his grin stretching expectantly from ch
eek to cheek. Her heart sped up past forty-five to seventy-eight and she felt as dizzy, happy, and excited as she had ever been.
“Did you like the song?” Kevin asked, blushing a little.
All of a sudden, the truth came crashing into Ciara’s mind. Kevin had liked her all along. Looking into his eyes, she knew it all made sense…the time he spent helping with Project Woo-ha, despite never getting results.
There was only one answer to his question. Ciara leaned forward, put her hands on his shoulders, and kissed him. When they pulled away, Kevin smiled down at her, his hands still firm and warm on her shoulders. For the first time that summer, Ciara felt like she’d gotten everything she wanted.
“Of course I liked the song,” Ciara said. “Did you like the kiss?”
Kevin grinned. “Woo-ha,” he said.
About the Author
Hailey Abbott grew up in Southern California, where she split her time between creative writing and creative beaching. She is the author of GETTING LOST WITH BOYS, THE SECRETS OF BOYS, THE PERFECT BOY, and WAKING UP TO BOYS, as well as the Summer Boys books and THE BRIDESMAID. Hailey now lives in New York City.
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Books by Hailey Abbott:
GETTING LOST WITH BOYS
THE SECRETS OF BOYS
THE PERFECT BOY
WAKING UP TO BOYS
Credits
Cover art © 2007 by GettyImages
Cover design by Sasha Illingworth
Copyright
THE PERFECT BOY. Copyright © 2007 by Alloy Entertainment. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Epub © Edition JANUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780061971570
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