All Pepped Up (Pepper Jones #2)

by Ali Dean

  Jace gives me a mischievous smirk. “Kayla and the girls told us to watch. They’re playing Lincoln Academy.”

  A shiver runs through me. Madeline is the captain of Lincoln’s tennis team. Did the Barbies pull another laxative prank? I’m not sure I want to witness that.

  Still, curiosity compels me to show up thirty minutes later with Zoe, Claire, Charlie, Rollie, and Ryan. When I told Zoe the Barbies asked us to watch the game, she spread the word. There’s a hill overlooking the courts and it’s scattered with spectators. Jace and Remy have prime seating at the top and center of the hill, and they clear space for us when they see us coming.

  I’m surprised to see Wesley sitting next to them.

  “Sorry I missed your race, Pep,” he says, standing up to greet me with a hug. “Just got here.”

  As far as I know, Wes doesn’t normally watch girls’ tennis either. He must be here for the same reason we are. In fact, looking around, the crowd seems unusually large.

  “Madeline and Emma are playing Lisa and Andrea in doubles,” Jace tells me as he settles me between his legs.

  Well, that match-up alone will be entertaining.

  The girls have just finished warming up, and Lincoln serves first. The teams are fairly evenly matched and it’s point for point. But the close match and rivalry between the schools can’t be why we’re here.

  It’s fifteen minutes into the match when I start to notice Madeline’s game changing. She doesn’t get to the balls quickly enough, and when she does, she hits them out of bounds. Like, way out of bounds.

  I glance around, trying to determine if anyone else notices the difference. Is it all in my head because I’m looking for it? I glance back at Jace, who leans forward and whispers, “Just keep watching, Pep.”

  I turn my eyes back to the court, and watch Madeline walk slowly to the line to take her serve. Emma is crouched in position by the net, but keeps glancing back nervously, clearly wondering what is taking Madeline so long.

  Madeline rolls the tennis ball around in her palm, staring at it with concentration. It must be minutes later when she sighs, finally tossing it in the air and swinging her racket. She completely misses the ball and almost falls on her face after swinging her racket blindly in the air. I hear gasps from those watching around me.

  The expression on her face is one I’ve never witnessed. She’s lost her cool. And Madeline Brescoll actually looks embarrassed. That alone is satisfying. But it gets worse. A lot worse.

  Madeline pulls a ball from a hidden pocket in her tennis skirt and takes a second serve. She successfully connects her racket with the ball, but it hits Emma in the bum. Emma squeals and grabs her bottom while jumping in the air. The crowd roars. I have a hard time controlling my own laughter.

  There’s something satisfying about seeing such girls who are usually so put-together and cool acting ridiculous.

  Madeline keeps attempting to serve, usually whiffing, but occasionally connecting with the ball only to hit it backwards or out of bounds. The funniest thing is that she seems oblivious to her horrendous playing.

  “What did they do to her?” I ask Jace.

  “I have my suspicions.” The corners of his mouth turn up. “But let’s wait and see.”

  When Brockton Public serves, Madeline’s play continues to deteriorate. At one point, she runs right into the net in an attempt to get to a ball. She flies over the net, half her body on Lincoln’s side of the court, and half on Brockton Public’s.

  Emma helps her off, and pulls her aside, talking animatedly. They’ve now attracted attention from players on the other courts, who have paused in their own matches to watch the spectacle.

  Suddenly, Madeline erupts in ear-splitting laughter. She falls to her knees, the sound so screechy it pierces the air. Emma tugs her up to her feet, and places her hands on her hips, apparently scolding Madeline, but we can’t hear her words.

  They attempt to resume the game, Madeline’s play becoming increasingly erratic and pitiful. When she hits herself in the head with her own racket and twirls around looking for the ball, their coach intervenes. After a brief discussion with Madeline and Emma, he announces a forfeit.

  “Now are you going to tell me what you think they did to her?”

  Jace speaks quietly in my ear, aware that others are probably trying to listen in. “My theory? They somehow got pot into something she ate.”

  They drugged her. Like they drugged Dorothy. If this is part of their wicked game, what will be Madeline’s next move? And will I be the victim? The blood drains from my face.

  “Hey, hey,” Jace soothes, stroking my cheek. “No one’s going to mess with you anymore. That’s what the point of all of this was.”

  I want to believe him, but I don’t.

  Chapter 19

  Jace was right about the pot. Kayla, Lisa and Andrea baked muffins and granola bars with pot butter. They wanted to make sure Madeline would eat at least one of the baked goods, and she ended up eating both. One of Madeline’s teammates, whom Madeline apparently pissed off when she slept with the girl’s boyfriend, helped the Barbies out. I could see that plan going very badly wrong – with the whole team accidentally eating the baked goods – but the teammate orchestrated it flawlessly.

  We learn all this over pizza at Lou’s. Kayla is especially proud of herself, and by the time we’re ready to leave, she is plastered. Her cousin waited on our table again, and she convinced him to serve her whisky shots in celebration of their successful prank.

  I’m not sure how I feel about all of it. I know it wasn’t my idea. But I laughed along with everyone else, and I’m hanging out with them while they celebrate. Does that make me just as mean?

  In the parking lot outside Lou’s, Jace’s friends decide to meet up at Ben’s house.

  “Pepper and I are heading to my place,” Jace tells them.

  The guys give him a hard time about it, but he says we have plans to hang out with Wesley. It’s true – Wes didn’t want to come to Lou’s with us, claiming the tiff between the Lincoln and Public girls puts him in an awkward position. He doesn’t want to be seen as taking sides.

  “I side with you and my brother,” he’d told me in a low voice after the tennis match.

  Wes is already at the Wilders’ house by the time we get there. He sits with Jim in the kitchen, drinking a beer. Jim doesn’t try to pretend that his sons don’t drink. It still surprises me sometimes to see the two of them together like father and son. But once they started hanging out again, their relationship came easily.

  It’s rare that I hang out with the three of them at the same time, and I feel a bit like an intruder. Even though Jace made his friends believe he ditched them for alone time with me, it was really for family time. No one else knows that Wes is his half-brother.

  I stop wondering whether I should leave so they can have father-son-brother bonding time once we settle in for a game of poker. Jace holds my feet in his lap, and the guys include me just like I’m part of the family. It feels good. Warm and fuzzy. Gran would fit right in too. Maybe next time I’ll invite her.

  They’re giving me a hard time about how I pretend to be clueless but I keep winning when we hear several phones beep with text message alerts. Wes, Jace and I look at each other in anticipation.

  There’s no way she retaliated that fast.

  “Well, is anyone going to check their messages?” Jim asks.

  None of us move, and we continue to glance at each other.

  “What’s going on, guys?” he asks.

  “We’ll have to check it eventually,” Wes says. He’s right.

  I remove mine from my sweatshirt pocket and see it’s a video. Oh joy.

  “I’ll look first.” The guys watch me as I click on it.

  It’s dark and there’s a rustling sound as the picture comes into focus. An object is moving back and forth. No, up and down. The video zooms in, and I see it’s a head, with long dark wavy hair. Her head is between two legs.

  Oh no
.

  But I can’t stop watching as the sound of heavy breathing comes through my phone. The video moves up the legs to show the body lying on a bed, his arms behind his head. And then he lifts his head up to say something to the girl. The chiseled cheekbones and messy black hair are unmistakable.

  Jace grabs the phone out of my hand, takes one look at it, and throws it across the room. It hits the refrigerator, but doesn’t shatter.

  My heart clenches. Is the video from last Saturday night? When he said he was talking to her, is this what he really meant?

  He’s on his feet, looking like he’s going to pick up his chair and throw that across the room too. Jim stands up and puts his hand on Jace’s shoulder.

  “Jace,” he says sternly. That’s all he says. Jim has no idea what’s going on, what the video was, but his presence might be the only thing preventing me from screaming and Jace from destroying the house.

  I can feel Wes watching me. And when Jace’s gaze finally turns to me, he rushes to my side, crouching in front of me. I haven’t shed any tears yet. In fact, my face feels numb. It’s my chest that feels like it’s going to explode with pain.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that, Pep.” He takes my hands and leans forward to cradle my head in his chest. I stiffen. I don’t mean to, my body just can’t be that close to him right now.

  His face contorts in anguish. Is there remorse there too?

  “You know it’s from before us, right?” he asks slowly. “I would never do that to you, Pep. You believe me, don’t you?”

  I gulp down a lump in my throat. Oh, I want to believe him. But all I see is Madeline’s head moving over him, his abs clenching as he sits up to say something to her, the look of enjoyment on his face when he relaxes back on the bed.

  Jim and Wes are watching us, and I think I see sadness, or pity, in their eyes. For me, or for Jace?

  “I just need to be alone for a minute,” I choke the words out.

  Jace shakes his head, panic overcoming his beautiful features.

  “Pep,” he pleads, trying to pull me to him as I stand up on shaky legs.

  I want that video to be from a long time ago. I want the images erased from my brain. And I want to go back to ten minutes earlier, before it was sent. But right now, all I know is I can’t be here. My heart is hammering so hard that it’s not leaving much room for me to think.

  “Just give me tonight to process this,” I say, searching his face, hoping he’ll understand that I don’t know what to feel right now. If he broke my trust, I should feel anger, and if it’s someone using his past to hurt us, I should be fighting for him. But there’s just confusion wrapped around the pounding in my chest.

  Wes is behind me, placing a hand on the small of my back. “I’ll walk her home, Jace.”

  Jace shoves Wes’s arm off me and pulls me to him, giving me no choice but to bury my head in his chest. “Please, Pep, don’t do this.” His breath is in my ear, and I wish I could just crumble, let him comfort me, and forget this happened.

  “I’m not doing anything, Jace.” I pull away and walk shakily down the stairs to the front door without looking at anyone. The cool night air hits me, and as I make my way to the sidewalk, the tears start to flow. They aren’t hard sobs, just gentle tears that run slowly down my cheeks.

  I turn around at the sound of footsteps, expecting Jace. But it’s Wes there with my bag, which I hadn’t even realized I’d left behind.

  He hands it to me and we continue walking in silence.

  “I haven’t looked at the video,” he says when we get to my apartment building. “All I can tell you is I’d be shocked if he cheated on you. He’s wanted you for a long time, Pepper, and now that he has you, I don’t think he’d do anything intentionally to mess it up.”

  Wes’s words linger in my head as I make my way up the stairs to my apartment and into my bedroom. His faith in Jace means something, but I don’t miss that Wes left some room for doubt. He said he’d be shocked if Jace cheated on me, not that he knows Jace didn’t. He doesn’t think Jace would do anything intentionally, but he doesn’t know it either.

  But I’ve seen Madeline with guys before. She literally turns heads. And when she turns on the charm, guys melt at her feet. Maybe even do things they don’t intend to.

  ***

  I don’t sleep much that night, and it’s still dark out when I wake up to my phone ringing.

  It’s Jace. I let it go to voicemail and check the time. 5:48 in the morning. He gave me some time to process it, but I need more.

  I’ve tossed and turned in my bed, my thoughts going back and forth and around in circles.

  I remember Wolfe’s words at Wes’s party. He saw them go upstairs together. Jace admitted he talked to Madeline, but he seemed to have been gone for a long time based on how long I was looking for him.

  What about when he said he was sorry? Maybe he was talking about cheating on me. No, he was talking about Wolfe and Rex.

  But I’ve never done to Jace what Madeline was doing. Only because he insists on taking it slow. Is he being patient with me because he’s sleeping with other girls? Ugh!

  I rip my sheets off and sit up in bed. My head is its very own ping pong match. The thoughts are driving me insane.

  And the worst part is, I feel absolutely terrible for doubting him at all. He trusted my word about the photos with Ryan. Shouldn’t I do the same for him?

  This feels different, though.

  Dave watches me with concern from the foot of my bed. He wiggles up next to me and nudges my thigh with his nose.

  I sigh heavily and rub his ears.

  “Let’s go for a run,” I tell him.

  I make the mistake of glancing at my phone again before leaving. It has been on silent all night and I see there are missed calls and texts from Zoe. That means the video’s gone viral.

  As my feet hit the pavement, it dawns on me that the video humiliates Madeline too. Would she really put a pornographic video out of herself just to break up me and Jace? Besides, she must suspect that the retaliation was initiated by the Barbies, not me. Who would spy on them like that and record it?

  I inhale the fresh morning air and try to let the sound of the creek and chirping birds clear my head.

  The love I feel for Jace is so intense that it absolutely crushes me to think he could betray me. He’s hasn’t given me any reason to distrust him. Yet, if I believe him on this, it means I’m surrendering everything to this boy. I’ll be more vulnerable than ever before. In the past, hearing about him with other girls pierced me, and left me with a queasy stomach. But I’ve always kept a shield up, however flimsy, to protect myself from my own feelings for him. Without it, he has the power to break me. If I take his word about the video and later find out he’s been unfaithful, I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same again. My body shudders.

  I’m still letting my head swarm with possibilities as I jog along the familiar path. He was angry last night, but didn’t look confused or surprised by the video. Was he so upset because he knew he made a mistake, or because the video hurt me?

  I’m still not feeling any better by the time I turn around on the dirt trail to head home. Dave senses my mood and his gait is subdued. He refrains from chasing a squirrel, and instead glances at me cautiously. I know, buddy, I’m a hot mess.

  We take a turn into the woods and I come to a halt before colliding with a familiar chest. Jace is breathing heavily, his hair even messier than usual, and his eyes are dry and red. We’re nearly two miles from home, and he never goes for runs unless he’s forced to for football or baseball training.

  My immediate reaction is to comfort him, and I step forward to reach for him, before the image of him lying on a bed, a girl between his legs, pops unwillingly into my head. His jaw clenches as he watches me retract my hand.

  Dave’s head swings back and forth. He’s unaccustomed to the tension between us.

  “I’m sorry.” The apology spills from my mouth, and I’m not sure where i
t comes from.

  “You’re sorry?”

  “For not believing you. You believed me, and I’ve doubted you.”

  “So you believe me now?” He looks like he wants to close the space between us, but holds himself back.

  My eyes drift down to my feet. Why am I so ashamed of myself for being distrustful? He’s been with so many girls over the years; it’s only right that I question his newfound monogamy. Right?

  “I want to believe you, Jace.” I can’t meet his eyes.

  He takes a step forward and tilts my chin up with his finger, forcing me to look at him.

  “So just believe me, then.” It’s a cross between a command and a plea.

  I nod. With years of friendship between us, I should at least be able to give him the benefit of the doubt. If I keep pushing him away while I figure it out, who knows how much harder it will be to fix things? Or if our relationship would even be fixable. It’s better if we work through this together.

  We jog back along the trail side by side, Dave forging the way. When we get to Shadow Lane, we slow to a walk. Jace takes my hand and kisses me on the cheek. The sunrise is in front of us, and in this moment, just for these brief minutes at least, I’m content.

  ***

  I hadn’t even considered the consequences at school if Jace and I hadn’t made a united front. Everyone is talking about the video. Because we’re still together, the consensus is that it was another prank – like the photos of me and Ryan. But there are some who believe Jace gets around and that I allow it. A part of me still wonders if those rumors are true. Will I ever stop wondering?

  The hotter topic of discussion is less about our relationship and more about who sent the video. No one seems to know.

  When Wesley confronted Madeline about the video, she acted outraged that it had gone viral. But she wouldn’t say when it was taken. Even if she didn’t send it, she’s smart enough to use it to advance her ploy.

  Whoever sent the video, if their intention was to put a rift between Jace and me, they succeeded. I haven’t decided if I trust him yet, and he knows it.