by Anne Eliot
Vere chattered away. Hunter’s eyes had locked onto the curve of her upper lip again. She chewed lightly on it every time she paused in her speech.
She must be worried when she does that.
Is she worried about me?!
His chest tightened at the thought.
She doesn’t even know me...and from what I can tell, no one here is being paid. Could they all really be this nice?
She stopped talking and blinked expectantly, still chewing on that damn lip.
Hunter shot a glance around the room. Everyone seemed to be waiting for him to answer. He crossed his arms and hid his clenched fists under his arms, forcing himself back into the conversation.
“Great, sounds like a good plan.” He blinked, adding in a convincing smile. “I’ll do whatever you recommend.”
When they all just stared at him as though they were surprised by his too jovial response, he concentrated on what he knew he was supposed to do next. Go shopping with Vere, then meet everyone up at the cabin later.
“And thanks, everyone. For helping. Mrs. Roth, I’m really looking forward to seeing this lake cabin and hanging in the mountains. I think I could use a few days of true hiding out. Whatever happens, it’s very kind of you to host me,” he added, using his most polite voice.
They all still just blinked at him, like he’d eaten the family dog or something.
Do these people even have a family dog?
They probably do. A really cute and perfect Golden Retriever or something.
He shrugged helplessly. “What? Let’s get started. Where’s the car?”
That worked. Everyone moved at once.
10: lying to jenna
VERE
Vere headed to her room to gather enough stuff for the long weekend. She dialed Jenna on her cell as she ran up the stairs.
“OMG! What’s the PROJECT?” Jenna yelled as soon as the call connected. She never answered with a simple ‘hello’. “Have you recovered from your day?”
Vere chose to ignore the second question because there was no recovering from this day. Not with Charlie swearing Curtis Wishford had asked about her on the crush level! And not with a famous rock star waiting for her downstairs somewhere?
This day had exploded out of all normal reality.
“The project is not an exchange student. Not at all. It’s worse. It’s uh...Nan’s nephew. Moved in with her.”
“Nan has a nephew?”
“He starts school with us Tuesday. I mentioned him to you, I think? Do you remember?” Vere rolled her eyes at herself in the bathroom mirror.
Let the lies begin.
“You did?” Jenna sighed, sounding miffed. “What’s he like?”
Oh, sort of exactly like Hunter Kennedy?!!
Vere bit back a giggle, shoving her toothbrush into her weekend bag and answered, “I don’t know yet. You know how it is. Hard to break the ice at first. Awkward mostly.”
At least some of what she’d said wasn’t a complete lie. Vere’s heart sped up and then clenched. Twisting with guilt.
Best friends tell best friends when famous rock stars moved in next door, don’t they?
GuardeRobe was one of Jenna’s many rock-band-religions.
She probably followed Hunter Kennedy on Twitter! If Jenna ever found out Vere had kept this information from her, she’d make Charlie’s reaction to Hunter Kennedy seem puny and quiet.
She’d also murder me. Never speak to me again. EVER.
Which would be easy, because I’d be dead from the part where she’d murdered me.
“Did you work on your mom to relent and let me drive up to the cabin? At least for Sunday night?” Jenna whined. “It’s such a long weekend.”
“No. You’re banned. Mom’s convinced that Charlie and I are going to be this guy’s new besties. That’s the project. She wants us to bond with him minus any other friend distractions. She says you and I would disappear and ignore him. Probably true.”
“Gah. Bummer. You? Bonding with a guy? Has your mom forgotten exactly who you are? Is the guy hot at least? What’s his name?”
“Dustin. Dustin McHugh.”
“He sounds hot. Scottish last name hot.” Jenna’s tone had turned hopeful.
Vere laughed. “Yeah. About that. You’ll have to see him for yourself. He’s not...your type. And he’s sure not my type.” She snorted, not needing to fake the annoyance in her tone, remembering how he’d called her a gnome-stick-tumbleweed. “He’s more of a—”
“He’s ugly. Admit it.”
“Not ugly—just—different. Kind of tall. Seemed nice once we broke through the stiff introductions. Charlie’s not into it though. He and Mom got in a fight about Dustin’s presence screwing up Charlie’s precious senior year.”
“Gah. Guy must be hideous if your brother had to battle.”
Vere sidestepped the lies again. “However he looks, I think it will be good for me to try to make friends with him. You know, to have a guy-best-friend."
"Are you serious?"
“Yeah. It might help me get over my problem. And we could use him like some kind of bodyguard. Um...he’d be good for that.”
Jenna sighed, “What would a bodyguard do for us? Battle our invisible boyfriends?”
Vere laughed. “Heck yes. Invisible boyfriends can get really out of hand.”
“Hmm.” Vere could hear the pout in Jenna’s tone. “As if you need friends other than ME. You’re lucky I’m not feeling jealous. I can tell from the sound of your voice that you’re serious about his potential—and that he’s a total, hideous geek whom you will probably never love more than you love me.”
“Hey. That’s not nice. You haven’t even met him.”
“Fine. But I reserve the right to veto this new friend. We have enough problems trying to be cool without you adopting a social charity case into our lives. Your parents and Nan can’t expect us to hang out with him all the time, can they?”
“Yes. They expect us to hang with him. Hopefully he will be half-cool because I’m not going to hurt Nan’s feelings, or his. Nan says he’s here for the year, but Dustin’s hinted it might only be for a few weeks. I’m not sure of his exact deal, but I’ll find out.”
“Ugh. You do that. And tell your mom she sucks for not letting me go,” Jenna whined again.
“I’m sorry.” Vere was surprised how quickly Jenna had bought into the idea of Dustin McHugh the possible freak. Maybe everyone else would do the same.
She yanked a small duffel out of the hall closet, grabbed her swimsuit off the bathroom rack, some other favorite hoodies and shoved the whole pile into the bag. “What will you do without me?”
“I’m going to sit here alone, eating ice-cream, Jello, cookies and stealing my little brother’s stash of Skittles until you come back. Tell your mom that, would you? If I become a diabetic this weekend, it’s her fault.”
Vere planted one last line on Jenna: “Just don’t call everyone, telling them that Dustin McHugh is an ugly loser. Give him a chance. Not everyone can be all...normal...you know?”
“Pffft. NOT making me feel any better about him.”
Vere smiled and went on, “I’m trying to have an open mind. The guy takes me way out of my comfort zone though.”
“Oh God. Now, you’re scaring the shit out of me. I’m not hanging out with him. This is not happening to us.”
Vere but her lip to stop a giggle. Jenna had epic gossip-networking skills. This information would send her all over Facebook and into text-landia with chatter that would spread quickly.
On the way down the stairs, Vere added, “Remember. It’s what’s INSIDE a person that counts.”
“Not in our high school.” Jenna snorted. “Tell Charlie he sucks too, and not to miss me,” she added.
“As always. I’m sure Charlie will be heartbroken to not see you all weekend long,” she said loudly. Her brother was in the back hall getting his football gear together.
“What?” He frowned.
“J
enna says, ‘Hi’ and, ‘Don’t miss her too much’.”
Charlie raised his upper lip in a disgusted sneer. “Tell that girl they still have a few spots at the special high school for creepers, and that she should go there and stop stalking me.”
“I heard that!” Jenna giggled, completely not offended. “Your brother so wants to date me.”
Charlie paused. “What did she say?”
“Something about how you know you want her.”
Charlie answered with a round of loud, dramatic dry heaving.
Jenna, hearing him, laughed louder. “He’s such an ass. I’m going to die without you, Vere. Text me when you make it back to town.”
“I promise.”
Charlie butted in with a whisper. “Call the freak back later,” he said knowing Jenna would hear.
“Did he call me a FREAK?” Vere held the phone away from her ear so Charlie could hear. “I heard that you EGG-HEAD-UGLY-JOCK!”
He paused to roll his eyes at the phone while shooting Vere a hilarious, co-conspirator eyebrow wiggle. He spoke in a really quiet voice, “Dustin has been in the car, waiting this whole time. If he messes with you, say the word and he’s dead. K? I don’t care if he’s famous. I will trash him.”
“Shut up. And shut up!” Vere said, rolling her eyes at Charlie’s endless, overprotective impulses.
“Are you telling me to SHUT UP?” Jenna’s voice squeaked through.
Vere turned back to her phone. “No. Not you. Charlie. Gotta go. Call you when I can. Promise.” She glanced at the waiting Charlie and couldn’t resist. “Oh. And Charlie says, bye beautiful.”
She hung up fast before Jenna could hear Charlie yell, “I DID NOT SAY THAT. I said, BYE FREAK, that’s what I said!”
11: my new bestie
VERE
Vere made it to the garage and flung her bag into the back of the new, white, VW Bug she and Charlie shared.
Dustin McHugh was there, sitting ramrod straight. As she got in, she noticed the guy was so large that he seemed to fill every extra inch of space inside the car.
“Hope I didn’t take too long.” She smiled. “Can you try to slouch or something? I don’t want anyone to get a good look at you until you’re ready, or fixed, or...”
“Unmade.”
“Yeah. Unmade.”
“That’s the official term.”
Her smile wavered at his dark tone. “I’m sure this is going to be all kinds of fun. Why do you look so terrified?”
“Maybe because you appear to be too excited about frosting the cake that marks the end of my life?”
“Oh. Is that what this is? I’m sorry. I just love doing costumes, that’s all. I guess I didn’t think about what it all means to you....”
He blinked, seemingly ignoring what she’d said. But she got the feeling he wanted her to change the subject.
He stared at her hands on the steering wheel as he went on, “Or, maybe I’m simply afraid of you. Are you sure you’re old enough to drive?”
“Ha. Ha. Now slouch.”
Dustin tried to slide down, but his knees bumped into the glove box.
“I think you’re faking that you’re happy to do this.”
“What?” Her cheeks flamed.
“I saw you choke when your mom asked you to shop with me.”
Ugh. Figures.
How could she explain her brother’s earlier comments—and her freeze-up without sounding like a total mental case? She tried the truth. “That wasn’t about you personally. It’s...I don’t hang out much alone. I mean—I don’t often hang out with guys. Alone. They usually make me... uh....”
Panic, turn bright red, feel dizzy, want to vomit, stutter, stop breathing, drop things, die from the inside out, and let’s not forget head-butt the people I truly love until they require hospitalization.
“Nervous,” she finished. “I’m...shy...or whatever. Sometimes I choke, that’s what you saw.”
He nodded as though he’d already made his own pile of assumptions about her. “You seem to be relatively fine hanging with me now. Do I make you more nervous than most guys?”
“No. Less, actually,” she smiled again.
He laughed. “Well, damn girl. That’s a first. What the hell? Why?”
“I think it’s because, in my mind, I’ve decided to believe forever that you aren’t a real guy.”
He raised his eyebrows.
She grinned wider, and went on, “Not really real, anyhow. Not to me. If that’s not offensive. I know, of course, you’re a person and all that. But to me, I’m determined to think you’re a fake guy. Dustin McHugh,” she managed, feeling stupid now. “Does that make any sense at all?”
He laughed again, shifting in his seat. “Yeah. It’s perfect, actually. I don’t feel real. Not even to myself. Would you believe they—my mom and my agent—hired a stand-in for me? A guy to wander around and hang with the band while I’m here?”
She blinked. “Wow. That’s weird.”
He grimaced. “You should have seen him up close. My perfect twin. Totally weird.”
“Almost as weird as you having to come here and disguise yourself so you can go to my high school?” she asked softly, her heart wrenching as she watched him work to mask his emotions.
“Ya think?” He shook his head, and let out a long breath of air.
Vere did the same, catching another round of darkness crossing though his clear gaze.
This kid was supposed to be Charlie’s age—only one year older than she was—but he suddenly seemed ancient in comparison. She let her hands drop from the steering wheel. “God. I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t be. It’s my fault. Things in my life got out of hand. No matter how much I don’t what to be here, I think I need this rest. I do. For what it’s worth, I’m not hating it as much as I thought I would.”
She frowned, biting her upper lip, not sure what to say.
He went on, “I like your idea of pretending I’m not real. I’ll try to do the same. I think it will make it easier for me to get through all this.”
“You sure I didn’t hurt your feelings?”
“Yes.” He fiddled with his sun visor. “Are you always this entertaining?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
He laughed again.
“Are you laughing at me?”
He laughed more. “No. Not at all. You just—make me laugh. I honestly don’t know why. I find myself wishing I could read your thoughts, though.”
“Well I’m pretty glad you can’t. And back at you, fake guy from the planet Los Angeles. I’m sure I’d love to read your thoughts too.”
He grimaced.
“Ha,” she added. “Scary to think about, huh?” Vere pushed the button on the sun visor that opened the garage door. A telltale tingling moved up her spine as a blush threatened to take over. If the guy ever read her thoughts, he’d run fast and far away from her when he figured out what a total mess she was.
In the meantime, he was stuck with her.
Fake. Paper. Poster. Guy.
With fake, plastic, blue eyes.
That seemed to work to calm down the blushing until she darted him another glance and her attention riveted on the very real pulse that beat rapidly in the side of his neck.
Her breath caught.
Holy help.
You are sitting alone in a car with a living, breathing guy.
Living breathing HUNTER KENNEDY!
No. Living, breathing, fake guy Dustin McHugh.
Don’t blow it. You were doing well.
She let out a slow breath, and gripped the steering wheel. Closing her eyes to get her head together, she willed herself to find some control. As she pulled in a full breath she realized she there was a strange smell coming off him.
God. You’re smelling a pretend guy.
HOLY COW, you’re smelling Hunter Kennedy!
He’s Dustin McHugh. Not a real guy.
Just a guy who’s going to be your friend.
“Please don’t tell me you drive with your eyes closed,” he drawled.
She reacted instantly to the sarcasm in his low, rumbling voice and knew right there she was going to be fine. She snapped open her eyes and wrinkled her nose.
“Do you smell like...chemicals?” she asked, looking for a way to tease him somehow—a way to stop her blushing.
He nodded. “Hair dye. A few hours ago I had blond hair.” He pulled at the waves of brown hair near the base of his neck. “I think it looks okay, though. Fits the new me, don’t you think?”
“Oh. Sure. I like it. I do,” she said lightly, pretending that his answer hadn’t caused her heart to twist—hadn’t sucked any and all teasing comments out of her lungs.
Poor guy. She could only imagine the series of events that had led him to sitting in this car, counting on HER to help him. Popping the car into reverse, she rolled it back, and almost fainted.
Curtis Wishford and that stupid Howie Rutheford were both leaning on the hood of Curtis’s red truck wearing their practice uniforms and waiting for Charlie.
“Oh, no!” she muttered before she could stop herself. Like an addict, Vere had to stretch up in her seat to try and catch a better view of Curtis. She couldn’t get enough of him.
And bonus on the new practice uniforms too. Sigh.
Guys wearing shoulder pads, cleats and football pants worked for her. Her entire face flamed unchecked to a bright cherry red. She looked away, realizing that she’d allowed Dustin McHugh front row seats to her personal Curtis-longing-lifestyle.
So what. Sigh. Sigh. And sigh. Curtis is worth it.
“Do you know them?” Dustin asked.
“Charlie’s friends. They’re like interchangeable clones,” Vere evaded. She tied to squelch the butterflies rushing around her stomach as the memories from the afternoon poured in.
Did Curtis really ask about me? Really?
“Face the street, in case they recognize you. Are you worried that they might?”
Dustin watched the guys from under the brim of his cap. “Nope. Are you? Worried about me?” He met her gaze. “Nice of you to care, gnome girl.” He tapped his cheeks, grinning now.
