by Box Set
“He’s a nice enough person. I don’t hate him.”
“But you said you don’t have a crush on him. So why would you ask him out?” Liz asked.
“To keep you two away from him,” I said.
“Maybe she doesn’t have a crush on him,” Liz said to Felicity. “I don’t think she could ask him out if she did.”
“Exactly,” I said. I didn’t think I could ask him out anyway, but I would deal with that problem later.
“She has to like him,” Felicity argued. “She screamed at me in the hall. Then she started wearing makeup to school.”
“She definitely has a crush,” Liz said. “But on who? On whom? On who?”
“Maybe it isn’t Noah!” Felicity mused.
Could my life seriously get any worse? I had to stop this runaway train. If they stopped thinking it was Noah, they might realize the next obvious choice. It didn’t help that we were turning into his driveway now. I punched in the code.
“Listen,” I said. “I might like Noah, okay? So just be cool about it.”
“I knew it,” Liz shrilled.
I rubbed my ear. “That hurt!”
“Why won’t you let us talk about it in front of Hearst?” Felicity said.
“Because, I don’t want to have to listen to him talk about those bimbos he dates,” I said.
“Speaking of bimbos,” Liz said. “Here comes one now.”
The pretty pirate girl from yesterday was maneuvering a giant SUV down the driveway.
He had invited her over even knowing we were coming? That hurt worse than my ear.
“That boy is never alone,” Felicity said.
He was alone a lot, but I couldn’t tell them that.
I waved at her as we passed, and she waved back.
Hearst was waiting at the front steps. He actually looked nervous, which was weird.
“Hey, guys!” He rushed over to open my door. “I’m glad you finally got here.”
Felicity gave him an incredulous look from the back seat. “Yeah, looks like you were real hard up for company.”
We all got out of the car.
“I didn’t know she was coming by,” Hearst said to me. “She wanted to apologize for offending me yesterday.”
“Charmed life,” Felicity muttered.
“She’s nicer than your usual,” I said. “Maybe you should ask her out.”
Hearst scowled. “I’m not interested in her.”
Liz was hanging back, still on the other side of my car.
“Come on, Liz,” I said. “Let’s go inside. You have to see this place.”
My friend took a deep breath and stood up as straight and tall as she could. “I want some promises first.”
“What?” I asked.
“I want to be assured safe harbor for the night,” she said.
“Are you seriously making more pirate jokes?” Hearst asked.
“No.” She shook her head vigorously. “I can’t relax and watch a movie if I know you are going to torment us at any time.”
“Liz,” I said. “Quit being a ninny.”
“It’s okay,” Hearst said. “I promise not to get my revenge on you two tonight.”
“You do?” Liz asked.
“You do?” I asked, searching his face for the truth.
“I thought I should finally get to know your friends better. You pointed out that they don’t know the real me. Then I started thinking that if they had known what I was capable of, they wouldn’t have tried that pirate talk stunt. So I’m ready to try to be friends with your friends.”
I couldn’t believe he was serious. After almost two and half years, he was going to give my friends a chance?
Liz relented and walked over to us.
“I’m pretty sure we know what you’re capable of,” Felicity said, rolling her eyes. “And we know you don’t care about school or well, anybody but Townsey and yourself. We know you are rich, and you date a lot of girls.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “He loves school and he does his homework early. He has a 4.3.”
“Yeah,” Liz said. “I heard that but I figured he was paying somebody to do the work.”
Felicity was looking at Hearst with curiosity. “You mean you don’t hate your parents and get tattoos and piercings just to torture them?”
“That part is true,” he said.
“Can we see all your tattoos?” Liz asked.
Hearst looked at me. “I guess so.”
“I think I believe you are smart,” Liz said.
“Um, thanks,” he said.
“There’s no denying that you turned the tables on us with the pirate thing,” Felicity said, studying him with interest. “It was almost genius.”
Hearst smiled at her. She stepped back at the force of his smile.
“Wow,” Liz said. “I didn’t know he could do that.”
“I know,” I said. “He’s got all kinds of surprises.”
“Would you rather swim first?” he said. “That way you’d see most of my tattoos.”
“We don’t have suits,” Liz said.
“And it’s cold,” Felicity added.
“There’s tons of suits here, and the pool is heated,” he said.
“Let’s do it,” Liz said. And then she glanced over at his arms.
Was Liz checking out his arms?
“What about the new piercing?” I asked.
He touched the anti-eyebrow piercing. “I can put a Band-Aid on it and keep my head out of the water. It should be fine. Come on inside.”
Chapter 8
An hour later, I found myself sulking in the pool. There was something terribly wrong with me. For almost two-and-a-half years, I had wanted my friends to see how great Hearst really was. I had asked him over and over to give them a chance.
Now he was. And I didn’t like it one bit.
I didn’t like the way he teased Liz about her shyness and made her giggle.
I didn’t like how he called Felicity on her brazen act and tickled her until she screamed.
I was a total and complete head case.
I stayed in the deep end, treading water and watching them bond, and tried desperately to get my head on straight.
He’d forgotten his promise to keep his piercing dry and had been underwater more times than I could count.
“Does she think she’s hiding from us?” Hearst asked my friends.
Felicity pursed her lips. “I don’t know.”
“She doesn’t think she’s safe down there, does she?” Hearst asked.
I had been in his pool a hundred times, and I had never seen him play around like this. We had talked and talked in the pool. We had swum laps for hours. We had never engaged in this kind of horseplay.
I could not have been more confused.
“Let’s get her,” Hearst roared. Then he disappeared under the water and I knew he was coming for me.
“No!” I screeched, as terror tore through me. I was a great swimmer, but being stalked in the pool by someone with malevolent intent scared me silly. “Guys, help!”
“No way,” Felicity said. “I don’t want my hair any wetter than it already is.”
Liz laughed with glee. “You are so going down, Townsey.”
He had to be close, but I couldn’t see him in the dark water. Then I felt a sudden tug on my left ankle, and I was pulled under the water.
He was inches from me as he rose and I slipped downward. Then he grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes, his lips curved into a smile. I’d never seen him so joyful and free. Had my friends done this for him?
Then he leaned closer and touched his lips to mine.
I almost sucked in water I was so startled. He pulled back and tugged on my arms and we broke the surface of the water.
I was stupefied by the kiss.
From the shallow end of the pool, Liz and Felicity celebrated my downfall, oblivious to the kiss.
I reached for the wall so I wouldn’t drown as I struggled to ge
t my wits about me.
He hammed it up a minute for my friends, and then grabbed the wall and pulled himself next to me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. I wasn’t, but I didn’t want him to know.
“Sorry. I got carried away.” He kissed my cheek and then shoved away from the wall, swimming toward my friends.
The kiss on the cheek, so natural casual, surprised me as much as the underwater kiss on the lips. What had gotten into my friend?
* * *
We spent almost two hours in the pool. When we finally got out, my fingers were wrinkly prunes.
“He’s so normal,” Felicity said as we dried off and put our clothes back on.
“He’s so much fun,” Liz said.
“Why didn’t you ever tell us?” Felicity demanded.
“I’ve never seen him like he was tonight. He was like a kid, and he was having such a blast.” I used the brush on the counter to work on my hair.
“What’s he usually like then?” Liz asked. “You have seen him smile before, right?”
It was ridiculously sad that she had to ask. “Of course. He smiles. He even laughs. We talk about all kinds of things. He has a really big heart.”
“I don’t understand why he hides himself from everyone,” Felicity said, leaning toward the mirror to apply some lip gloss. “Why would he do that?”
He didn’t trust anyone. I shook my head. It wasn’t my place to tell them his business. Plus my theories were just theories.
“Do you think he lets all those girls see the real him when he’s kissing them?” Liz asked.
My heart fell. He certainly kissed a lot of girls.
“Well?” Felicity said. “Do you?”
Shaken by the question, I searched for an answer as I handed Liz the brush. “I think he hides himself from them too—”
“I wonder why he never trusted us before,” Felicity mused.
“Probably because you guys were rude to him.”
Liz stopped running the brush through her hair. “We were not.”
“You were. You acted like he was crashing our group of friends,” I accused.
“He was,” Felicity said. “He really cut into our time with you. And he didn’t exactly make any effort to know us.”
True.
“Are you guys ready yet?” Liz asked. “I’m starving all of a sudden. He promised popcorn and a movie, right?”
My stomach rumbled. “He makes the best popcorn. He even melts chocolate chips in it.”
“Oh my God. I think I’m in love with this man,” Felicity squealed.
She better not be.
I followed them out to find Hearst. He had changed into a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt. He munched from one of the two bowls of popcorn.
“I already put the movie in,” he said, waving the remote. “Come sit.”
He sat in the middle of the large sofa in the front row of the theater room. There were two more sofas behind it, and each could easily seat five people.
For a moment I thought my friends were going to take the spots on either side of him. But at the last moment, Felicity shifted over and made room for me between her and Hearst.
I sat down and looked at him. He had no makeup on at all. He’d removed the soggy bandage from his piercing. He looked so different, relaxed, and happy. I didn’t know quite what to make of it. He smiled and held out the popcorn.
I took a couple of pieces and savored them in my mouth.
“What are we watching?” Felicity asked.
“You’ll see.” Hearst dimmed the lights and started the movie.
It only took a few seconds for my friends to recognize it.
“Pirates of the Caribbean,” they screeched.
Hearst laughed. “It was Townsey’s idea really.”
“No it wasn’t,” I protested.
Hearst raised a brow. “You’ve been taunting me with those black pearl earrings all day.”
“Black pearls,” Liz said, leaning around him to look at my ears. “I didn’t even notice.”
“The Black Pearl,” Felicity said. “That’s funny. I didn’t catch it either.”
“Hearst, you acted like you didn’t notice!” I said.
He grinned at me. “I knew you wanted me to say something, so I didn’t. But trust me, Towns, I notice everything about you.”
He does?
He tore his gaze from me finally and said to my friends, “Now that we’re really friends, I can admit that you guys pulled a brilliant prank on me.”
“Yeah, we did,” Felicity said.
“Why though?” he asked.
“Why what?” Liz asked.
“Why target me?”
“You were easy,” Felicity said. “And watching all those girls trip over themselves to get your attention is annoying.”
I nodded.
“Really?” Hearst was looking right at me. He had seen me nod.
“Well, yeah,” Liz said.
Somehow though, I knew he was asking me, not them.
I concentrated really hard on not looking at him and on finding the perfect bite of chocolate and popcorn.
“So what happens on Monday,” Liz asked.
“What do you mean?” Hearst asked.
“I mean at school. Are you going to be friendly like now? Or are you going to be all icy and disconnected.”
The girl didn’t pull any punches.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll be there for you guys if you need me, but I won’t be blowing bubbles and handing out puppies.”
I grinned at the thought.
“You are kind of damaged, aren’t you?” Liz said.
He didn’t answer her. She didn’t know she’d hit the nail on the head. If she had known, she wouldn’t have blurted it out so casually.
“Are we going to watch this movie or not?” I asked. I took the remote from him and turned up the volume.
When I reached for popcorn a second later, Hearst’s hand was already in there. He squeezed my hand for just a moment and then released it.
I knew he was saying thank you for changing the subject.
I relaxed and started to lose myself in Johnny Depp’s pirate world.
We were halfway through the movie when Liz’s phone started buzzing.
“Already?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on?” Hearst asked.
“We have to go. Liz has a ten o’clock curfew.” I reached for the remote and paused the movie and brought the lights up.
“On Friday night?” he asked. “How is that possible?”
“My mom is overprotective,” Liz said.
“Her mother is amazing,” I said. “But she worries.”
Liz stood and stretched. “Thanks though. I had so much fun.”
“Me too,” Felicity said. She stood next to me.
Hearst stood and set the popcorn container on the couch. Liz surprised me by hugging him. Then Felicity did the same.
He actually blushed. I’d seen a dozen girls with their paws on him over the years and not one of them had made him blush.
“Come on, Townsey,” Liz said walking toward the front door. “Give him a hug and let’s go. I’m going to be late.”
Heat rose in my cheeks.
“Oh, look,” Felicity said. “You have matching red faces.”
I stuck out my tongue at her.
Hearst reached for me, in an awkward kind of side hug. Both of my friends were watching us as if we were some kind of zoo animals.
I started walking toward the door and he followed.
“Call me when you get to the loft,” he said under his breath. Then he raised his voice and said, “You guys be careful going home.”
“Thanks for letting us get to know you,” Liz said.
“Same,” he said.
We went out the door and down the steps.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Hearst called after us. “You do know that I’m still going to ge
t my revenge, right?”
Liz froze.
Felicity turned and put her hands on her hips. “That’s cold, Hearst.”
He let loose a maniacal laugh.
“We’re so dead,” Liz said.
“Nah,” I lied. “His bark is worse than his bite.”
“It is?” Felicity asked.
“No.” I laughed. “You two are so dead.” At least they were all friends now and Hearst wasn’t likely to do anything to ruin their lives.
“Hey!” Liz said.
“Sweet dreams,” Hearst called as we got in the car.
“I’m going to have nightmares,” Liz whined.
“I think that’s the point,” Felicity said.
* * *
After dropping them off, I went home to the loft. Graham was home, which was good, because coming home in the dark really creeped me out. He was sitting on the couch watching television.
“Hey,” I said. “How’s the face?” I hadn’t seen him much in the last couple of days.
“Tons better,” he said. “I think I can let my beard grow out some this weekend and stop the makeup completely.”
“That’s good news,” I said. “I bet that sample pack is about to run out.” I sat down next to him.
“It ran out on Tuesday,” he said. “I had to ask Lori to go to the mall and buy me some.”
“I would have gone,” I said.
“She seemed kind of excited about it.”
“I bet she never gets to go shopping.”
“I don’t think she does. I’ve even seen her order toilet paper online.”
“No way.”
“I’m serious,” he said.
“People really do that?”
He shrugged. “They must.”
I wanted to ask him if he’d heard from Megan, but I didn’t think he had. I hadn’t liked her, but at least she’d been someone for him to hang out with.
“Can you get somebody to sleep over tomorrow night?” Graham asked. “I’m going to play pool with Joe, and I don’t know how late we’ll be.”
“Sure,” I said. “No problem.”
My phone started to vibrate in my pocket.
“I forgot to let Hearst know I got home safe,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”
I answered as I headed for my room and some privacy. “Hi, Hearst.”
“Hey,” my brother yelled. “When I said invite somebody for tomorrow, I did not mean him.”
