I turned away, conscious of the unpleasant scowl that pursed my lips. Lately I’d found that I had little tolerance for watching Adam flirt. I don’t know what my problem was. It’s not like I didn’t want him to be happy. I did. It’s just that it’s not pleasant watching others be all lovey dovey when my heart felt like a prickly pear. A mangled and rotten prickly pear.
Oh great. One disastrous heartbreak and I was already a bitter old spinster.
That was it. I had given this party a shot and now it was time to give in to a night of TV and a tub of ice cream.
“Hey!” a voice came from behind.
I whirled around to see Chad Locke, homecoming king and basketball star extraordinaire, grinning down at me. “Eve! I didn’t think you’d be here.” He slapped a meaty arm around my shoulders.
I tried to think of the last time Chad Locke and I had held an actual conversation but my mind drew a blank. Definitely not since junior high, that much I knew for sure.
“Why not?” I asked. “I like a good party as much as the next.” This entirely untrue. I wasn’t what anyone would call a partier. I found them simultaneously nerve-wracking and boring. Why was I lying to this guy?
His smile never faltered. “I don’t know. I guess I just thought you weren’t into the whole class bonding thing. You always seem….I don’t know…”
I thought of Lindsay’s words mere minutes before. “Too cool for school?”
“Like you’re above this kind of thing,” he finished.
I had to laugh at that. “Okay, I admit this is not really my scene,” I said, pointedly watching a group of football players doing keg stands at the far end of the pool. “But this is Senior Week, right? I think a little class bonding is sort of required.”
There was an awkward silence and my mind went completely blank. I literally could not think of one thing to say to this guy.
Luckily, after a long excruciatingly silent moment (which felt like an hour) we were rescued by Todd Macowitz, the resident class clown who chose that moment to do a cannonball into the pool, effectively drenching everyone in a six foot radius….including me and Chad.
Chad found this hysterical. Me, not so much.
One of the guys on the other side of the pool shouted “Everybody in the pool!” That was followed by raucous shouting and laughing as half of the party stripped down to their swimsuits and jumped in while the other half were tossed in by their friends.
I saw Adam heading toward me but before he reached me one of the guys from the football team ran over and in one fell swoop, picked me up in his arms and neatly deposited me in the pool.
I came up choking and yelling but I was drowned out by the laughing shrieks from the others in the pool. Adam was leaning over on the poolside next to me, an amused smile hovering over his lips and in his eyes.
His amusement was really not helping my mood.
He offered me his hand to help me out of the pool. I glared up at him but I took his hand….and pulled him into the pool.
Spluttering and cursing, his face was very close to mine as we both clung to the side of the pool.
“You are so gonna get it,” he growled.
I let out a squeal as he reached out and dunked me. I pulled him under as well and soon we were laughing and shouting as we tried to one up each other in the water.
“Enough, enough!” I yelled.
We were both laughing so hard we were in danger of drowning. He helped tug me over to the side where I saw Ashley was waiting with a tolerant smile.
Clearly she wanted to look like she was having fun too and laugh along with us but wasn’t sure how she felt about being abandoned so her date could roughhouse with another girl.
“What are you guys doing?” she asked.
“Cooling down before we dance some more, right Eve?” Adam asked.
“You guys go on ahead,” I said as I hoisted myself from the pool. “I was actually just about to head home.”
Adam pulled himself out of the pull with considerably more ease. “What?” he protested. “But we just got here!”
I saw Ashley eyeing Adam apprecitively. He did look pretty amazing with his shirt and jeans plastered to his body—like a walking, talking Abercrombie ad.
“Come on, Eve, don’t be lame,” Adam said. “Just because you’re single and alone doesn’t mean you can’t try to have a good time.”
I couldn’t help myself. He was standing so close to the edge, it was really just too easy.
I grinned at a very surprised looking Ashley and walked away, smiling to myself as I heard Adam sputtering in surprise in the pool behind me.
I had tried to be a good sport, I really had. But really, how much was an anti-social outcast supposed to endure for the sake of nostalgia?
Cold and decidedly soggy in my drenched clothes, I made my way back through the crowd. A night in alone was sounding extremely appealing.
I hadn’t gone far when a figure stepped in front of me and I stopped in my tracks. I stood there like a statue, frozen in place. I couldn’t have moved if my life had depended on it.
“Is she all right?” I heard someone near me say. “She looks like she’s going to puke.”
Two feet away, in the orange glow of the fire, heartbreakingly scruffy with shaggy blond hair and the beginning of a beard, Ryan smiled at me like I was the only person in the world.
“Hey, Eve.”
Chapter Nine
“Ryan,” his name slipped out as a whisper.
“Hey kitten,” he said.
His voice was low and he took a few steps closer and suddenly we were the only two people on the beach. Like a cheesy romantic movie, it felt like the crowds parted and the music and voices faded into a low murmur. We were alone in our own little world.
A part of me was watching us from a distance. I could see that my mouth was slightly open and that I was staring at Ryan with wide, unblinking eyes. He, in turn was smiling at me with that tender, gentle look that used to make my knees melt. Still did, it turned out. He seemed to be waiting for me to say something. It was my turn to speak.
I opened my mouth and took a breath but then I stopped short of speaking. I was speechless. I mean, I physically could not speak.
My throat was constricted by the tears that were threatening to overflow. The shock of seeing Ryan again and him standing there smiling like nothing had happened…it was too much. I couldn’t fight the tears any longer. My eyes welled up and I gasped for air with a quiet sob.
With an overwhelming sense of horror I realized that I was about to break down right there—in front of my classmates and … oh God … I was going to bawl like a baby in front of Ryan.
The look he gave me could melt butter and his arms were reaching for me as though he was going to draw me into a hug. I was drawn toward him, my feet had a mind of their own.
The private two-person bubble that surrounded Ryan and I was abruptly broken as Adam came up next to me. “Hey,” he said, calling me out of my trance.
I blinked up at him, my eyes swimming with tears. Before I could say anything or even comprehend Adam’s sudden appearance, he wrapped a strong arm around my waist and pulled me up against his side.
“What…” I started to whisper but the rest of my question was silenced by a kiss.
The kiss wasn’t long, but it was thorough.
My initial shock melted into a lightheaded daze as Adam’s lips pressed against mine in a way that was anything but friendly. A bolt of lightning passed from my lips to my toes and I instinctively returned the kiss, losing all sense of time and place in the process.
Adam pulled back first and, flashing me a quick grin, stuck a hand out to Ryan.
“Hey, man,” he said. “Good to see you again.”
Ryan looked as stunned as I felt. He shook Adam’s hand halfheartedly.
“Yeah,” he said. “Uh…you too.”
Adam’s arm was still snug around my waist and it was a good thing too because my legs had turned to jello a
nd I was not at all sure that I would have been able to stand on my own.
“So how’ve you been, Ryan?” Adam asked. His voice sounded loud and unnaturally bright compared to Ryan’s mumbled responses.
“Good. Real good.”
“Last I heard you were in California,” Adam said. “What brings you back to the East Coast?”
I barely heard Ryan’s mumbled response. He must have asked how Adam was though because he started to talk about his plans for college in the fall and his move to New York.
“Eve is coming too. We both got into schools in New York which was lucky for us,” he grinned down at me and I summoned up a wobbly smile in return.
A cold ocean breeze helped to cut through the foggy dreamlike feeling and I was suddenly very aware that I was soaking wet and my clothes were sticking to my skin, leaving nothing to the imagination. I could only imagine what my makeup and hair looked like.
Somebody please kill me know, I begged silently.
I was also vaguely aware of Ashley’s eyes shooting death rays at me over Adam’s shoulder as Adam and Ryan continued their awkward small talk.
Whatever Adam was up to, he would have some major groveling to do—but there was no room in my befuddled mental state to worry about Adam’s latest romance. I had enough romantic troubles of my own.
Ryan was telling Adam how their gig in Philadelphia was canceled and Lindsay, in her infinite kindness, had suggested that the band continue to stay with her and her friends at the hotel.
“…so, yeah, I’ll be here ‘til the end of the week. I guess I’ll see you guys around,” Ryan was saying.
He was still glancing back and forth between Adam and me with an almost comical look of confusion.
“Yeah, stop by anytime,” Adam said. He looked down at me with a sexy smile I’d only seen him bestow on his girlfriends. “What do you say, babe? Should we go back home and change out of these wet clothes?”
I blinked up at him and nodded like an idiot.
Adam steered me away, moving me like a puppet.
“Bye, Eve,” Ryan said.
I tried to smile as normally as possible but am pretty sure it came across as more of a grimace. “Bye.”
To my credit, my voice was audible. Not by much, but it was better than nothing. I watched him walk away, quickly swallowed up by the crowd and I exhaled slowly in relief. I hadn’t realized that I had been holding my breath.
Adam turned to me with a look of concern. “Are you all right?”
I nodded but I must not have been very convincing because his frown deepened. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”
His arm was still around me and he effortlessly steered me away from the crowd in the direction of our beach house. We were far enough away from the party that the music was just a throbbing bass line when I started to come to my senses.
“You should go back,” I said. “Ashley is going to be pissed.”
He shrugged. “She’ll be fine. I’ll tell her what was going on.”
“What was going on?” I asked.
He was annoyingly calm and collected while I felt like my world had flipped upside down.
As if the tidal wave of emotions brought on by Ryan’s sudden appearance wasn’t bad enough….I had just shared an extremely passionate kiss with my best pal. This was not exactly business as usual.
“I’ll tell her that I was just pretending to be your boyfriend. I won’t go into details or anything but I’ll let her know that the kiss wasn’t for real,” he said.
“Wasn’t for real,” I echoed stupidly. “Right. Good. I mean, it’s good that she’ll know that.”
Adam was looking at me in concern. “Are you all right? Do want to sit down or something?”
I collapsed into the sand, giving my shaky legs a much-needed break. I watched the waves break against the shore and cleared my head with some deep breaths.
“Better?” Adam asked. He was sitting next to me and hadn’t taken his eyes off of me as though he was afraid I was going to run away.
“Yeah, thanks. I just need a minute.”
“Take your time.”
He put an arm around me when I shivered. It was a warm night but the ocean breeze combined with my soaking wet clothes was making me uncomfortably cold.
“Hey, Adam?” I asked after a few minutes of silence.
“Yeah?”
“Why did you do it? Kiss me, I mean.”
I could feel him shrug next to me. “I saw your face when you saw Ryan. I could tell that you were going to cry and there was no way I was going to let you cry in front of that guy.”
I looked over in surprise at the anger in his voice.
“I didn’t want him to have the satisfaction.”
Now it was his turn to study me. “Honestly, I thought you’d been starting to get over that loser. I kind of thought that if you ever saw Ryan again, you’d be more likely to slap him than burst into tears.”
I had to laugh at that. It was true. I’d come a long way from the weeping basketcase he’d left behind nearly a year ago.
“I know, I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” I moaned, my head dropping into my hands as I mentally relived that moment when I first saw him.
“It was just so unexpected,” I tried to explain. “And the way he looked at me and the way he talked, it was just so…so Ryan.”
The name sounded weird coming out of my mouth. I hadn’t referred to him out loud as anything but what’s-his-name for months. “And there I was standing there looking like a wet rat,” I groaned.
I shot Adam a sideways look. “Otherwise, yeah…I totally would have smacked him.”
Adam grinned and ruffled my hair, in a comfortingly familiar way. “If it makes you feel any better, you make an adorable wet rat.”
“Thanks. And thanks or the save, by the way,” I said, giving him a playful little shove. “But do you actually think that Ryan bought it?”
“Are you kidding me?” Adam said. “Did you see his face? He totally bought it! And he was so jealous he could barely see straight.”
Adam was laughing now remembering Ryan’s stunned expression. I started to laugh a little too. Ryan’s reaction really had been something to see. And, I had to I admit, it felt good to make Ryan jealous.
“One problem though,” I sighed. “Ryan is sticking around until the end of the week. There’s no way he won’t figure out that that kiss back there was entirely for his benefit.”
I let out a pathetic moan as a fresh wave of embarrassment washed over me. As soon as he found out, Ryan would not only know that I still had a thing for him but he would think that I had been pathetic enough to try to make him jealous! I could just imagine his condescending, or worse, pitying look when he figured out that Adam had just felt sorry for me.
“This is too embarrassing,” I wailed.
I flopped back onto the sand and stared up at the stars, trying to think of the best way to deal with the situation. It was time for damage control.
Adam watched me suffer with a mixture of amusement and confusion.
“You’re that embarrassed to have me as a boyfriend?” he teased.
I shot him a look of disbelief at his lack of foresight. I explained it all to him…how it was just a matter of time before I was totally humiliated in front of Ryan and the rest of the senior class once they figured out the kiss had been a kind favor…like a nice nephew taking his loser of a cousin to the prom.
I could just imagine what Lindsay and her friends would say. She would have a field day mocking me. Or she would hear that we’d kissed and go into a blind rage, causing death and destruction to any living creature in her path.
One or the other.
But that at least I could handle. Besides, in one more week I would never have to see Lindsay and her friends ever again.
“So, what you’re really concerned about is Ryan finding out,” Adam said, once I had finished talking it all out.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “
I just don’t think I can handle feeling any more pathetic than I already do around him.”
“Well then there’s no problem,” Adam said, brushing the sand off of his hands in a decisive manner. “I’ll just pretend to be your boyfriend for the rest of the week.”
And with that he turned briskly on his heel and started walking to the house.
Chapter Ten
“Ha! Very funny,” I said, scrambling to my feet to catch up with him.
“I’m not joking,” he said. “It’s only a week, we’ll just keep the lie going.” He shrugged as though this was no big deal. As though he and I pulled this kind of prank every day.
“But…but what about Ashley?” I asked, my feet scrambling a bit in the sand to keep up with him.
“Ashley and I are definitely not serious,” he said as I fell into step. “It’s not like we were ever going to see each other after she leaves, anyways. I’ll tell her about us later if it’ll make you feel better.”
I glared at him meaningfully. If it would make me feel better?
“So it’s settled,” he continued. “We’ll be the next hot couple for the week…long enough for Ryan and the rest of the class to be convinced. Why give Ryan the satisfaction of thinking that you’re upset over him when you can convince him and everyone else that you’ve moved on to someone way better?” He finished with a cocky grin.
I rolled my eyes at his arrogant remark. “I don’t know,” I hedged. “I feel like it’s never going to work.”
“Why not?” he challenged.
I fixed him with a serious look. “Who is going to believe that you and I…that me and you…,” I couldn’t finish the sentence. “Everyone knows that we’ve been best friends forever.”
“Exactly. It won’t be a huge stretch to say that somewhere along the way we fell for each other. The girls in our class will love it. We’ll be like a modern day When Harry Met Sally.” He was clearly amused by his latest scheme but I was still far from convinced.
“I’m a terrible liar,” I started.
“Yes,” he cut in. “But I’m a pro. I’ll do all the talking. All you’ll have to do is sit back and look pretty.”
Senior Week Fling Page 6
