Suzie prayed to the porcelain gods and she prayed hard.
It was…disgusting. And it seemed to last forever. When at long last she came to a stop, she was shaking and pale. “I am never drinking ever again.”
I rubbed her back. “I don’t blame you.”
She seemed to actually see me for the first time since before the keg incident. Her brows drew together as she took in the sight of me. “Um, Margo? What are you wearing?”
Chapter Three
Jason
I tossed my copy of Catcher in the Rye on my bedside table with a groan.
Three more chapters until my summer reading would officially be done, and it was ending on the most depressing note possible. This coming from a guy who’d read The Bell Jar last week.
Was reading bummer novels my favorite pastime for a warm summer’s evening and one of the last free nights before school began?
Hell no. But I only had one more year. I only had one more chance. College wouldn’t pay for itself and I had to keep my eye on the prize if I wanted to get out of this town on a free ride.
All eyes would be on me this year and as the captain of the football team it fell on me to make sure that not only I passed my classes with flying colors, but that my teammates didn’t get into trouble either.
I wasn’t too worried. Last year we’d had a few bad seeds which was why our coach had been giving us warning lectures about how we were all on behavioral probation this year, whatever the hell that meant. His threats seemed like overkill since we all knew that the worst influences graduated last spring so, like I said, I wasn’t worried.
Still… I glanced over at the most depressing book of all time. Lead by example, right? That was the coach’s favorite new phrase and the one that was currently ringing in my ears. I’d been repeating it to myself ever since I’d gotten the first text from Joel, inviting me over for one of his epic end-of-summer parties.
The temptation was real. I liked to party as much as the next guy and it sucked knowing that my friends and teammates were all there having fun without me.
But there would be parties in college, right?
Right.
Good pep talk, Connolly.
Screw it. There was no way I could read the rest of this book without some sort of sustenance. I got up and headed out of my bedroom, but not before pausing in front of my window for just a little too long.
Margo wasn’t there. Her bedroom window was on the second floor and while we weren’t close enough to talk, or even see much of each other’s bedrooms, it was obvious that the lights were off. Don’t ask me when I’d started to pay attention to Margo’s comings and goings. Maybe I kind of always had—I mean, we had been friends once upon a time.
I found myself looking down at her backyard, even though the sun had set. What, did I really think I’d find her laying out in the bikini again?
It had been a fluke that I’d seen her that once, and now…well, now I couldn’t seem to pass my window without glancing over there. Just in case.
But of course she wasn’t there, either. She, like every other soon-to-be-senior, was probably out enjoying her last weekend of freedom with her friends.
What exactly did she and her friends do for fun?
I’ll admit that this question kept me occupied for too long. I was still pondering the secret life of my band geek of a neighbor as I rifled through the fridge for some leftovers. Maybe if I hadn’t been thinking about my frustratingly hot former friend I might not have reflexively answered when my phone rang.
I looked at the caller name and groaned. I’d been dodging Joel’s texts and calls for nearly an hour but the guy was insistent, if not subtle. “Dude,” he said the moment I lifted the phone to my ear.
“What’s up, Joel?”
He said something but it was hard to hear over the music in the background on his end and the sound I was making unwrapping the lasagna my mom had wrapped in tinfoil. I kicked the fridge door closed behind me. “Turn down the music, man. I can’t even hear you.”
“Can’t,” Joel said. “It’s not me, the music’s coming from next door. Get this. The geeks are trying to party.”
I paused with one hand in the silverware drawer as he laughed on the other end. The geeks? Jesus. Sometimes Joel was so the epitome of a jock, it was hard not to cringe. However, that being said—his description was accurate. I knew exactly who he was talking about.
“Seriously, bro, you’ve got to see this.” Joel said something to someone else on his end. “And grab me another beer while you’re in there.”
I stared down at the fork in my hand and waited to speak until I knew my voice wouldn’t betray my annoyance. “Don’t forget we have practice in the morning.”
“Yeah, yeah. When has a few beers ever put me off my game?”
I didn’t reply. It was one thing to lead by example but I wasn’t exactly into the idea of being the team’s nagging mother.
“Lighten up, man,” Joel said after a brief silence on my end. “It’s senior year.”
That prompted someone behind him to shout and Joel’s next speech was almost entirely drowned out between the music and the shouting. Almost. But not all of it. I caught the last part. It was something about Margo.
“You’ve seriously got to see this,” Joel said. “Man, Margo’s smokin’ hot in a bikini. Seriously, she’s a secret hottie, dude. And Suzie…holy crap, dude. Suzie did a kegstand.” Joel burst out laughing. “It’s seriously geeks gone wild over here, dude. I totally nailed it with that one.”
Nailed it? Nailed what? Didn’t matter. Joel was laughing. My teammates in the background were laughing.
And I was fuming.
All I could think of was Margo. I knew exactly how she looked in a bikini, I’d seen it myself with my own eyes, and I’d known for years that she was hot. I’d honestly wondered why no one else ever seemed to notice. I mean, sure, her way of dressing was a bit out there and she didn’t do the whole makeup and tight clothes thing that the other girls did, but I’d always known that she was hot.
For some reason the fact that Joel noticed had my blood pounding in my ears. I was here, and Joel was there. With Margo.
With a bikini-clad Margo, no less.
I gripped the edge of the counter and counted—to ten, then twenty, then fifty.
“Bro, you still there?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Joel didn’t seem to notice and I caught another voice talking to him in the background. “Hey, Luke’s here. He says you need to stop being such a wuss and get your butt over here.”
Luke Warner. My best friend, ladies and gentlemen. Of course he was there. If there was a party of any kind, you could count on Luke to be there.
“Julia’s on her way,” Joel added. As if that would be an enticement.
I scrubbed at my eyes and ignored his attempts to lure me to the dark side. Someone on this team had to be responsible. Someone had to be the leader. I let out a loud exhale. “Don’t get wasted,” I said. “And don’t be late to practice in the morning.”
“Yes, sir,” Joel laughed, but if he said anything else I missed it because I hung up on him.
I headed back upstairs, but now the dark window across from mine seemed to taunt me.
What the hell was she up to?
It wasn’t weird to feel protective of Margo. I mean, we might not hang out like we used to, but that didn’t mean I’d stopped thinking about her. It didn’t mean I didn’t still have a soft spot for the girl who used to go camping in my backyard with me.
The fact that she was out there at a party—and in that bikini that I could picture so clearly—it didn’t sit well. But it wasn’t just thoughts of Margo that had me laying there in bed, unable to finish the stupid emo book or even go to sleep, despite the fact that we had practice in the morning. Because that was just the thing. We had practice. Not only that, school started Monday. I needed this year to be better than the last. They’d promised me it would
. Each and every one of my teammates had vowed that this year would be different—they wouldn’t jeopardize our chances at state by being put on academic probation, or by getting into trouble, or by showing up late for practice with a hangover.
Exhaustion had me closing the book once and for all. But I wasn’t tired enough to sleep. This sort of exhaustion wasn’t so much physical. The year hadn’t even started up yet and I was already tired of this crap. I’d spent my whole junior year playing nanny to these guys—either busting my butt to keep them out of trouble or intervening on their behalf when their stupid actions inevitably caught up with them.
I was sick of it. This year would be different. Did I love being the guy with a stick up his butt who had to say no to a party and give his friends lectures over the phone? No. But I’d done what I’d had to do.
Hours later, I was no closer to letting it go. I grabbed a pillow and shoved it over my head, trying to silence the irritating thoughts that made sleep impossible. It didn’t help. Although it wasn’t thoughts about Joel or my teammates that had me tossing and turning for the next couple hours.
It was the thought of Margo. In a bikini. No, it was more than that, it was that my teammates were getting to see the sight that I’d been maybe just a little obsessed with for the past two months.
It was the fact that those morons had seen her in what basically amounted to skimpy underwear, which was just wrong. I mean, the girl was allowed to wear whatever she wanted, but I had a feeling she had no idea how tempting she looked. How incredibly appealing.
I shifted under my pillow. Not every guy would draw the curtains closed and walk away from a sight like that like I’d done, and not every guy would have her best interests at heart.
Like Joel and his buddies, for example. They were my teammates and we got along, but there was no denying the fact that Margo was out of their league. She was too good for them. She always had been.
Right before I finally succumbed to sleep, a far more disturbing thought broke through my half-awake thoughts. It wasn’t the fact that Margo was at a party, or that she was wearing a bikini, or that there was every possibility she was currently hanging out with my teammates.
It was the fact that my teammates were there, with Margo…
And I wasn’t.
Chapter Four
Margo
My father glanced up from his newspaper when I came down wearing my new favorite vintage find—a psychedelic mod dress from the sixties that was bright, cheery, and perfect for the last days of freedom.
“Done with your summer reading?” he asked.
I nodded as I sank into the seat across from him. “All done. Papers are written and the books are back at the library.”
He grinned at me and ruffled my hair like I was twelve. “Good girl.”
He nodded toward an envelope sitting in front of me. “Mail for you.”
I tore it open and gave a massive eye roll. One last call out for seniors’ summer photos to liven up our principal’s annual boring speech about “a new year and a new opportunity.”
Mandatory, participation is key to success…blah blah blah. We’d received a similar letter at the start of the summer but this was the reminder that today was the last day to participate. At least one photo had to be submitted and signed on the back. The poor guys in the AV Club would be putting them all together in a slideshow on Monday and Tuesday, in time for our first day on Wednesday.
I skimmed to the end. So basically, I had to go to the school today to drop off a photo. Yeah, because that’s how every senior wanted to spend Labor Day weekend. Making a trip to school.
Granted, I’d already planned on going to the high school today—we were trying out new formations and songs for the coming year. But still, it was the principle of the matter.
I’d already texted Suzie once this morning to make sure she was alive—she was. But now I texted her again, reminding her about the photo drop we had to make today. I offered to pick up her photos and drop them off for her but she said fresh air might help her feel better.
She interrupted my next text with a phone call to discuss the logistics. Suzie never had much patience for texting.
“Hey lady,” I said.
“Shhh.”
“Sorry.” I lowered my voice to a near whisper.
“This is the stupidest idea ever,” she mumbled.
I grinned. I knew exactly what she meant. Principle Kramer was rather renowned for his bad ideas—all in the name of being innovative. Sometimes I wished our principal would care a little less about his job.
“If he truly wanted to be innovative, he’d join us in the twenty-first century,” Suzie said. “I mean, who prints out hard copies of pictures anymore? It’s a waste of paper.”
“Mmm,” I agreed. “One of these days Kramer will learn about the digital revolution. Until then, it would almost be a shame to burst his innovative bubble.”
Suzie adopted a thick southern accent. “Bless his heart.”
It was Suzie’s nice way of calling our principal a simpleton and it never failed to make me laugh.
“So, what do you think?” I asked. “Want to meet me after band practice? We could drop them off and then go grab some lunch.”
She moaned pitifully. “Don’t talk to me about food.”
“Still feeling that bad, huh?”
Her answer was another groan.
“Wow, you puked your guts out and still ended up hung over. That’s kind of impressive.”
“I’m never drinking again,” she whispered.
“Yeah, you mentioned that last night. A few hundred times.”
She ignored that. “Come to my house. We can print them out here and then take them over to the school. I’ll drive separately so you can stick around for band practice.”
“Deal.”
An hour later we’d sorted through our massive collection of photos from the summer—all equally generic and boring—picked a few and printed them out. The highlight, though, was watching Dale clean up after his party. He looked no less miserable than Suzie and my beautifully stubborn friend refused to help him clean up after his bad decisions.
“What about Matt?” Suzie asked as we headed out to deliver the goods.
“He already dropped his off.”
“Early bird,” Suzie said.
“Overachiever,” I added.
Both were true. Matt was one of those weirdos who didn’t seem to need more than four hours of sleep and who did his homework as soon as it was assigned.
“He probably picked out his photos the day after school let out for the summer,” I said.
Suzie shook her head in amusement. “He’s such a freak.”
“A freak who’ll be running the world someday,” I added.
She pretended to think that over before she nodded. “Thank God he’s our best friend.”
I hadn’t expected to see Principal Kramer today. But there he was, alongside Mrs. Merkel, the AP Bio teacher, standing in the lobby like they had nothing better to do with their Labor Day weekends then watch incoming seniors begrudgingly stop by and slip envelopes into a slotted box.
Maybe they didn’t have anything better to do.
How sad.
“Senior year,” Principal Kramer said when he spotted us. He arched his brows meaningfully. “How’s it feel?”
I gave a fake smile. “Great.”
Suzie’s expression looked equally strained…and green. I said a little prayer that she wouldn’t puke on the principal’s feet. “Can’t wait.”
We dropped our photos and headed out but not without another unexpected and unwelcome run-in.
“Hey guys.” Jason grinned at us as he jogged up the steps toward the front door.
As usual, my insides responded to the sight of him. To be clear, I did not have a crush. I might’ve been the only girl at school who didn’t fall all over herself at that warm, easy grin and those brown eyes that crinkled up at the corners when he smiled. Once upon a time,
way back in the day, I might have had a tiny infatuation with my neighbor.
But those days were long gone.
However, much as I didn’t harbor any deep-seated yearnings toward Prince Charming, I also wasn’t blind, nor was I an android. The guy was hot. My response was totally normal and all it proved was that I was a human.
I braced myself for the expected red-blooded response to his tall, well-built frame and the short, dirty-blond hair that always seemed to be mussed just enough. Not too much to make him look like he’d just rolled out of bed, but enough to make one wonder if he’d just finished making out with a particularly passionate girl in a broom closet somewhere.
“Hey.” I shifted from foot to foot, adjusting my clarinet case in my hands.
Jason glanced past me, no doubt seeing our intrepid principal waiting. “So lame, right?” he said with a shake of his head.
“Totally,” I mumbled. What I wanted to say was: why? Why are you talking to me? Seriously, why did he always insist on talking to me every time we bumped into each other? It would be so much easier to dislike this guy if he would stop being so dang nice all the time. It wasn’t like it was just me, either. Believe me, there was nothing special about me in his eyes. He was unfailingly nice to everyone. This was all part of his appeal. That was why he was the captain of his team, why every girl in the school had a crush on him—minus me, of course—and why he was a shoe-in for Homecoming King and Prom King and any other crowns they might be handing out this year.
Was it churlish and bitter of me to hate the fact that he was so nice all the time? Maybe. But I’d never made any claims to be nice. Just honest.
Suzie just kind of nodded. Her skin was a frightening shade of greenish white and I had a feeling she just wanted to be out of the sun and away from this school. I opened my mouth to make our excuses but it seemed he wasn’t done making nice.
Love at First Fight (Geeks Gone Wild Book 1) Page 3
