The Starter Boyfriend

by Tina Ferraro

  “But why? The first flyer just made Randy and Jacy madder at each other. She barely knows them. What could she possibly get out of that?”

  “Making sure Randy needed a Homecoming date. And remember, his mother was already pointing towards me. Saffron was totally in sync with that, telling me what a great catch he was.”

  “Are you saying she did it to help you?”

  I scoffed. “More like to get me out of the way.”

  He shook his head.

  “Out of your way. So she could grab you.”

  Adam blinked. Hard. “Huh?”

  That’s when I realized what I’d said. That oh, yeah, Adam was pretty much the only person on the planet who didn’t know how I used to (okay, let’s get real: still) felt about him. Crap!

  Going with my newfound resolution to tell the truth (whenever possible), I pushed out a little laugh and just spilled it. “Oh, must have been because I’d said something about you being hot.” Once or twice or ten thousand times.

  His ego burst forward in a crooked smile. “You think I’m hot?”

  Oh, God! Awkward! “Sure. I wouldn’t have...you know, in the car other night...if I didn’t. Right?”

  His smile deepened to touch his eyes—and something in me, too. That I love/hated.

  “Back to Saffron,” I said and tucked some hair behind my ear in a struggle to bring myself back to the present. “Let’s say she made the first flyer to get to you. And the second—”

  “Only thing I can see is to diss you.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t compute. It wasn’t like my broken date in any way affected Saffron. In fact, lately she’d been nicer to me than she’d been in ages.” Since, I mused, the outfield incident. And she’d been making her grand play for my best friend. “And even if her date with you was a big nothing, why shoot daggers at me? Someone who didn’t even get to go to the dance?”

  “Yeah, and what really seems off,” he said, squinting his eyes, “is that she’d use the same anonymous flyer idea for two such different reasons. To get someone, and then to hurt someone.”

  He had a good point, but I didn’t have much time to dwell on it because emanating from the buildings all around the quad was the sound of the bell.

  “Guess we just blew off first period,” I said and let out a little laugh.

  “What can they do? Give us detention?” He lifted a hand in farewell. “I gotta hit my locker.”

  I did, too. Instead of falling into the oncoming crowd, I found myself rooted in place, simply watching him leave. In that slow, sexy saunter of his, the one that—despite my better judgment—continued to turn me inside out. In fact, I couldn’t imagine how a girl could see that and not lose a little bit of herself...

  And that’s when it happened. The final layer of confusion lifted from my brain. I knew for sure those flyers had been from Saffron. And I knew why.

  The question now was, what to do about it?

  Chapter 24

  “There you are!” Flea cried as I took my customary seat out at the courtyard lunch table beside her. “You weren’t in first period, then didn’t come out at break. I thought you were sick or something.”

  I did a quick scan of the table. The usual teammates, including Saffron directly across from me. Perfect.

  “Sorry,” I said, pinning my gaze on Flea. “It’s just been a totally weird day. Starting in Hioki’s office, with Adam and me getting a week’s detention.”

  Several voices piled up on top of each other, one-word responses like “Adam?” and “Detention?” and “Huh?”

  But not a sound from Saffron, just the lowering of her brow into a faraway look, like she was struggling to make the pieces fit into place. Confirming my suspicions that she had personal information. Not to mention there was no question from her about Adam. She didn’t seem to care he was in hot water.

  “Here’s what happened,” I said and paused until I had the attention of everyone at the table. “Friday night after the bonfire I realized I’d left my phone back at the beach—”

  “Courtney,” thundered a female voice from my end of the table. “We need to talk.”

  I looked up to see Jacy, her bleached hair pulled tight off her face, her eyes narrowed with such effective evil that I almost cringed.

  This was why I’d gone missing at morning break. I’d been holed up with her, sharing the flyer and my suspicions. Luckily she’d been more than happy to cash in on the favor she felt she owed me. Especially since it meant clearing her own name.

  While what was about to go down meant bending my resolution to keep strictly to the truth, the only way to take Saffron on was to play by the rules she understood.

  “So talk, Jacy,” I challenged, lifting my chin.

  Soft gasps sounded around me. Which I totally got. Regular people didn’t go head to head with the super-popular. If I hadn’t been on the outside looking in, I’d have probably gone straight to static wheezing.

  “In private,” she spat.

  I summoned my inner strength and my best scowl, too. My teammates had every reason to think Jacy and I were at odds over Randy, and I was playing it to the max. “Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of these girls.”

  “Whatever!” A hand went to her hip. “I know you ripped those flyers down this morning. Every single one of them.”

  My gaze locked into Jacy’s, I kept my senses on high alert for the slightest sound of movement from Saffron. “What do you expect? No way I deserved that, Jacy. After I let you go to Homecoming with Randy.”

  I reached into my back pocket and extracted a flyer. Unfolding it, I slapped it face-up on the table. Flea and Madison dove forward to get a good look. After a long moment, Madison let out a gasp, while Flea shook her head and patted my arm. Telling me they were completely innocent.

  I took a lightning fast glimpse at Saffron’s gaping trout mouth before searing a look at Jacy. “Of course I tore them down. Just like Randy did after you posted that nasty piece of work about him having a short, stubby ‘thing.’”

  “Tail,” she corrected. “I wrote tail. Not my fault someone changed it.”

  “Before photocopying?”

  Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Saffron shot to her feet. Just as I’d hoped, we were getting her where it hurt. Stealing credit for her precious artwork.

  “Let me be crystal clear here, Courtney,” Jacy continued, her eyes narrowed at me. “Randy and I are back. No more texting with him, like you’re ‘friends’ now or something. Or next time, I’m gonna hit a lot harder than making fun of you for not having a boyfriend.”

  Saffron’s chin was clenched so tight it was slightly trembling. “Jacy, I can’t believe—”

  “Stay out of this, Saffron,” I told her, hoping/praying that Jacy’s and my gut here was right. That Saffron’s sense of self was so inflated that she’d blow at someone else taking credit for her hard work.

  “Yeah,” Jacy said, practically baring her teeth. “This is between Courtney and me.”

  “You’re full of crap!” Saffron screamed at Jacy. “You didn’t make those flyers!”

  “Excuse me?” Jacy said, cold as ice.

  “You heard me.”

  “I just don’t know why I’m hearing you.”

  Wow, Jacy was good. So good that Saffron pushed away from the table to thunder toward her way. I moved fast from my side, too, praying this didn’t get physical. The last thing I wanted was my butt back in Hioki’s hot seat.

  Fury radiated from Saffron’s pores as she shook a finger at Jacy. “You can lie all you want. We both know you didn’t make those flyers. They were precision set using Photoshop and on twenty four weight bond, which is way out of your league.”

  Bingo.

  I moved in around the head of the table, closing a small circle of Saffron, Jacy and me. I realized this made it harder for my teammates to see, but figured most important was hearing, and that they’d go all Superman or basically bounce sound waves off the moon if that
was what it took.

  “What I want to know,” I said, turning to Saffron and going for broke, “is why you made the flyers. I mean, I get that you wanted to keep Randy and Jacy apart so that he’d ask me, so that you could ask Adam to the dance.”

  “Adam asked me.”

  I bit back my smile. Progress. “Then why the second flyer? Just petty jealousy because you heard I’d made out with Adam on Friday night?” (A little...)

  Her only reaction was pinky cheeks.

  “Or,” I pushed out of the box, “because you hooked up with him and then he didn’t call?”

  “I did not hook up with him!”

  “Then why the flyers?”

  Her face deepened to a cherry red. “Because someone had to knock you off your high horse!”

  It took all my strength not to knuckle-bump Jacy.

  But not only were we unfinished here, we were moving into uncharted territory, where anything and everything could go down.

  “Someone had to show you that can’t have everything you want in life, Courtney,” Saffron spat out.

  I felt my mouth drop open. “Seriously? You’re accusing me of entitlement? You, who feels born to be served? And whatever you don’t already have, you think you can buy? Including a boyfriend?”

  “I never wanted Adam, anyway. I just wanted to make you watch him with me.”

  I flashed a knowing smile. Yeah, I’d figured that out a couple hours earlier. She had played on my eternal weakness for Adam, the fact that I was still crazy about him whether I admitted it or not, and that I thought everyone else should feel that way, too. Because that’s how love worked.

  That phone call to ask me to arrange a tuxedo for him? It had had nothing to do with her wanting to see him in it, and everything to with the fact she knew he’d balk at me. That’s why she’d brought it up to him, too. To cause as much friction between Adam and me as possible.

  “For once, Courtney,” Saffron continued, her voice almost hoarse with anger, “you’d know how the rest of us feel when you get everything you want.”

  “For once?” I repeated, thinking maybe my hearing had failed me. I had it all? Puh-lease!

  “We slam into each other in the outfield, you get a headache and I end up freaking bald. You go looking for a job, and end up working in the one place that caters to hot guys. One minute, you have no Homecoming date, and the next, you’re going with a guy on Court. You’re even getting a cool step-mom.” She exhaled, kind of dragon-fire-like. “What’s so special about you that everything you touch turns to gold?”

  “Yeah, babycakes,” Flea said, pushing in, her gaze all over Saffron.

  Which was like a speedball slamming into my heart. It was true, then? Flea had been siding with Saffron in all of this, thinking me unfairly lucky and needing of a good comeuppance? She was ready to throw me over?

  “And when Coach found out you were planning revenge on Courtney for that outfield collision,” Flea said to her, “she threatened to kick you off the team.” Her gaze moved from Saffron to me. “Even Coach is part of the world-wide conspiracy to make your life miserable, Saffron, and Courtney’s wonderful, right?”

  “Right.” Saffron’s tone came out weak and confused.

  Flea winked at me—giving me a smile too big to physically hide—then turned back to Saffron. “It’s not too late for some of us to talk to Coach. Tell her what you’ve been doing to Courtney. If I were you, I would drop this whole thing now and forever.”

  Saffron blew out a resigned sigh.

  I reached down and squeezed Flea’s hand. She had Saffron’s back all right: against a wall.

  Jacy stepped closer to Saffron. “Look, while I don’t know much about Courtney’s life, I do think you’re missing something here. How many girls would have given a Homecoming Court date back to his ex, and missed the dance altogether? And it’s simply karma: good things happen to good people. Randy and I will always be grateful to her.”

  Wow, that was go big or go home recognition from two people placed very high in the S.B. statusphere. I crossed my arms and sent her my best smile.

  Courtyard security Betty Anne suddenly appeared in the center of things, a hand on her uniformed hip. “Everything okay here?”

  I glanced around the circle, then back at the all-eyes-on-us table behind. And then shifted my grin to Betty Anne. “Thanks, but you know, I think it finally is.”

  Chapter 25

  The bell rang, and I started across the courtyard toward my next class. Only to feel Flea scurry up beside me.

  “I can’t tell you how happy I am that this Saffron thing is over, Courtney. It’s been making me crazy.”

  I was thrilled that she’d rushed up to me, but knew I had to brace myself for words I might not want to hear. “Did you know she had it out for me?”

  Her cheeks rose with her grimace. “I knew something was up, that she wasn’t taking the head shaving thing as well as she’d pretended. I’d heard her mumbling your name in the dugout right after it happened, followed by a line from one of The Godfather movies about revenge being a dish best served when cold. Which I wrote off as petty and creepy.”

  People passed by us, some giving us perfunctory nods, but it was hard for me to be anywhere but inside Flea’s confession.

  “Lately, she’d made one too many digs about you being more interested in your job than the team and how you didn’t come out with us anymore. So with her party.” She paused, and seemed to swallow hard. “I really did think you knew about it, but was worried that she was using it as a test to see if you’d show up. And if you did, how you’d react to her going after Adam. To see if you’d roll with things and put the team first.”

  “Her first.”

  “Well, yeah. And you sure passed that one.”

  “Although she still she came at me with both barrels blazing.”

  “No joke. The Randy thing made no sense, either, because in your face she acted so excited and supportive of the two of you being together, but behind your back she was predicting you were going to dump all of us for him and his crowd.”

  I knew it!

  “She said you were a social climber.”

  “Oh, right! Did you call her on it?”

  “Absolutely. But you know Saffron. Once she has her mind set on something...”

  I nodded, feeling the obvious statement hanging in the air between us. We were best friends. Why hadn’t she come to me about this as it was happening?

  “I’m sorry,” she blurted, clearly on the same page. “I know I should have said something sooner. But Courtney, she did have a point about some of it. You weren’t coming around much. You were pulling back, and changing. I didn’t really know where I stood with you anymore. If we were still besties, even.”

  I felt my muscles tighten. “I wasn’t changing. You guys were. With the drinking.”

  “Hey,” she shot right back, “we’re juniors now. Everybody drinks.”

  “Not everybody, Flea.”

  Her mouth quirked, then froze. She had to know I was right.

  “People were making it super-hard for me not to drink,” I pushed on. “Making cracks, hinting I was no longer fun. There was only so much I could take, and it seemed easier to say I had to work late or early in the morning and avoid the whole thing. Which was why I applied for my job in the first place,” I admitted with an exhale. “It wasn’t about the money, it was about trying to keep the peace with you guys.”

  Stopping beside my classroom door, she studied my face, her lips pressing into a thin line. Okay, okay, it was fair to say these past months hadn’t been easy for her, either.

  “Flea, you know my mom’s a drunk. Well,” I added, and felt an surprising surge of pride, “apparently a recovering one now. She just got her ninety day chip.”

  “That’s wonderful!”

  “Yeah. Anyway, her alcoholism probably makes me hyper-sensitive about this stuff. But in any case, even if I didn’t have to deal with that, it’s okay not to drink. I need
you to respect that.”

  She did this big nasal inhale, making me think (hopefully) of a fresh air and a fresh start. “Yes, you’re right.”

  “Thank you. I’m going need your help, when people get on me about it. Saffron, Madison, whoever.”

  “First of all, Saffron’s, like dead to me after those fliers. And secondly, that’s what best friends are for, right?”

  I smiled.

  While I’ll never know who made the first move, suddenly we were smashed together in a full-contact, true-feeling, BFF hug. I even suspected there was some thick-throated, wet eyes involved. At least, I know there was for me.

  * * *

  I was on a roll. These things didn’t happen very often—at least not to me—and the timing couldn’t have been better since I had one really crappy thing left to do: text message Phillip about a good time to return the dress.

  The problem was, I had detention all week and of course the wedding on Saturday, so it had to be an evening that he was staying open. If he’d agree to see me at all.

  I labored over the wording, finally going with a straightforward question, and sending the text moments before entering the detention room. Then I dutifully turned off my phone. I was going for model student, just in case there was “time off for good behavior.”

  Ninety incredibly boring minutes later, I jacked my phone back on. Nothing from Phillip.

  A reply didn’t arrive until that night, while I was helping clear the dinner dishes: I’ll be here Thursday until six.

  Short, but definitely not sweet, giving my heart a cold whack.

  Glancing over at Jennifer, I fleetingly reconsidered her offer to drop the dress back for me or to tag along as moral support. The thing was, as uncomfortable and embarrassing as this mess had become, it was my mess. The only way I’d be able to put it behind me was to see it through alone.

  Besides, she was frantic with the wedding just days away. Not to mention all the crazy moves she kept breaking into every time she remembered what Saffron had said about her.