Maybe not even his football team. Certainly not her, some girl he’d dated for a little while.
And definitely not me.
Mr. Brenner was staring at me, waiting for me to respond. No, waiting for me to fix this situation. But considering I’d rearranged the schedule so that Brian wasn’t there, and now one of the other leads had mysteriously taken ill…
I mentally flipped through the script. “Let’s start the rehearsal with Cecily’s scene,” I said, sounding far more confident than I felt. “Jenny could use some work on the stage directions.
Mr. Brenner nodded quickly, clearly relieved to have a game plan. “Right. We do need to iron out the staging on that one.”
I forced a smile. “After that we’ll move on to Algernon’s dialogue. He could use some work running his lines.”
This was all true. These were scenes we needed to address at some point, and it made sense to do them now since two of our leads were not here. A nagging fear made me ask, “Did Hayley say when she’d be back?”
Mr. Brenner shook his head. “She didn’t say.” His frown deepened with worry. “You don’t think she’ll be out tomorrow too, do you?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it.”
What I meant was, I hoped not.
It was one thing if Brian’s stupid attempt to look good for his buddies made me look pathetic to Julian and like some boyfriend stealing hussy to the rest of the school. But if he messed with my play on top of it all?
I swear to God, I would kill him.
Chapter Eight
Brian
I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t expecting a pleasant greeting when I reached Alice’s house. But what I got? Well, I hadn’t expected that either.
She stopped me from entering her house by blocking the doorway. I could have just picked her up and moved her but something told me that would not go over well. Her cute little features were all screwed up in anger as she pointed beyond me to my truck.
“Get back in your truck, drive over to Hayley’s, and make things right.”
I stared at her for a second, certain that I’d heard her wrong. “Excuse me?” Then I stared some more. “So…you’re angry, then?”
“Are you seriously asking me that right now?” She drew herself to her full, miniscule height and crossed her arms. She was very clearly fuming.
And she looked adorable.
I tried not to smile, but seriously—she was so cute when she was angry.
Also, what the hell was wrong with me? One kiss and all the suddenly I couldn’t stop thinking weird thoughts about Alice. One kiss and suddenly I couldn’t see her the same anymore. I shifted from one foot to the other as I tried to figure out what to say to make this right, which was made much more difficult by the fact that I wasn’t entirely sure what she was pissed about.
It also didn’t help that I was confused as hell thanks to this new perspective I seemed to have on my former friend. For years I’d thought of her as my best friend. The quirky, funny, oddball who was my confidante and my favorite person to play with.
Then puberty hit and she’d become my enemy.
And now? Well, after that whole crying on my shoulder thing the other night when she’d been all soft and vulnerable, and then there was that kiss… Not to mention the way she’d kicked my butt and forced me to be in the play. That shouldn’t have made her appealing, but for some reason it did. No one pushed me like that these days. Not even my teammates questioned my decisions or gave me a hard time if they thought I wasn’t being an upstanding guy.
Again, that kind of badgering should not have been a turn on. But it had been. Arguing with Alice had made me see her in a whole new light. Seeing her cry had too, and it had also nearly destroyed me. And then kissing her? Well, I’m pretty sure that kiss had altered my world forever.
You know…not to be melodramatic or anything.
In short, I was confused as hell as I stared at her, but she wasn’t backing down one inch. And if that kiss had changed her life, she definitely wasn’t letting on.
Was it possible that connection had been totally one-sided? Maybe. I guessed there was a chance. I mean, she was the one who’d hated me all these years. I’d been angry too, but defensively. I’d hated being hated. I’d also hated the guilt she’d made me feel every time those judgy little eyes glared at me…kind of like she was doing right now.
“You want me to talk to Hayley?” I finally asked, latching on to the most ludicrous part of her statement. “Why?”
“She called in sick to rehearsal,” Alice said, using air quotes for the word ‘sick.’ Her lips pursed in a pout at the end and I got the distinct feeling that this was somehow my fault.
“Why are you looking at me like this is my—” I stopped short as understanding dawned.
She arched her brows at me in a decidedly condescending way. Basically her eyebrows were saying, Now do you get it, dumbass?
“You think she’s mad because you and I are dating,” I said, stating the obvious.
Alice held up a finger as she started ticking off points. “One, we are not dating. Not in reality and not in some pretend world.”
I opened my mouth to protest but she wasn’t done.
“Two, of course she’s mad. Are you seriously that dumb that you don’t see it?”
Of course I saw it. Now that I thought about it, it was totally obvious. Hayley Hayes was just as proud as I was. She might even be more image-conscious than I was and to find out that the guy she’d thought was pining over her had moved on so quickly, and with Alice Kern of all people…
Yeah, I really should have thought this through.
“It’ll blow over,” I said.
I hoped.
She did not look appeased.
I looked past her. “Can we go inside, please? We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
I kind of hoped talk of work would distract her. It did not.
“Work?” she said. “Look, I might be able to get you up to snuff so this show doesn’t totally suck—”
“Wow, your confidence in me is overwhelming,” I muttered.
She ignored me. “But if we lose Hayley Hayes too?” She kind of screeched Hayley’s name and I realized she kept calling her by her full name like she was an actual celebrity and not a spoiled, entitled, selfish, attention hog.
Kind of like me.
I shoved that thought to the side. No, not at all like me. I was not like Hayley Hayes. Er, Hayley. Just Hayley. I was a dedicated team player. I was Brian freakin’ Kirkland and—
Oh my God. Even in my inner monologue I was referring to myself by my whole name, just like Alice had done with Hayley. Maybe I was like Hayley.
“What is wrong with you?” Alice asked. “You look like you’re going to puke.”
She was watching me warily, like I might actually vomit at her feet. She looked concerned, but grudgingly so, like she didn’t want to let go of her anger.
I didn’t want her concern or her anger so I manned up, shoving those terrible thoughts aside to stew over another day. Right now I had bigger concerns. Like how the hell I was actually going to make this right. “She’ll get over it,” I started again.
Alice shook her head before I could finish. “You don’t get it, do you? Hayley was humiliated. She’d not going to just roll over and accept that.”
She had a point, but I was pretty sure she was missing something crucial. “Hayley might be pissed at me, but she would never give up her leading role.”
Alice bit her lower lip and I tried not to look. The girl was pissed, she was my friend—sort of—and she was only talking to me because she had to in order to save her show. There was nothing sexy about this moment. Her lips were off limits. I would absolutely stop watching her nibble on her lip and I would definitely stop fantasizing about kissing her again. Any second now, I would totally put an end to this ridiculous fantasy.
“What are you staring at?” she asked.
Yup. Fantasy terminated. I cleared my throat. “Nothing. S
orry. Just…uh…just thinking…” About your lips.
What was happening here? I could feel a crisis about to break out. I was not supposed to have these sort of feelings for Alice. She wasn’t my type. She wasn’t my friend, and she didn’t like me. At all. She was barely putting up with me.
Maybe that was it. Relief had me grinning at her like an idiot. Of course! That was the appeal. She didn’t like me.
There was no way to say this without sounding cocky but…all the girls liked me. I knew how that sounded but it was the truth. I could have my pick of the girls at school. Except for Alice. She was the only one who didn’t like me so clearly that was the perverse appeal. It was a known fact that hard-to-get added allure and there was no one more unattainable in my life than Alice Kern.
Oh man. It was such a relief to figure that out. That kiss had seriously messed with my head, but I could feel my sanity returning. With it came my trademark confidence.
I took Alice by the shoulders and gently eased her to the side as I let myself into her house, heading straight toward the kitchen as my inner twelve-year-old reminded me that Alice’s mom always had snacks sitting out. Always.
I stopped short in the kitchen. Rice Krispies Treats. Mrs. Kern would always be my hero. “I love your mom,” I said as I helped myself to a treat—okay, two treats—and sat down at the kitchen table.
Alice stood next to me, scowling down. “So you’re seriously not going to fix this?”
“What do you want me to do?” I asked. “Get back together with Hayley for the sake of the play?”
She shrugged.
I stopped chewing and stared at her. “I was kidding!”
She nodded quickly. “Right. Yeah, I know. Getting together with her for the play would be wrong. Totally morally reprehensible.”
I continued to chew but I watched her warily. Why did I get the feeling that she was trying to convince herself of that? And also, why did it feel like a punch in the gut that Alice wanted me to get back together with another girl?
Alice sank into the seat beside me and reached for a snack of her own. Instead of eating it, she started tearing off pieces methodically and I knew she was still lost in thought. “I’m just saying,” she said slowly. “If you thought maybe the two of you would get back together eventually, then maybe you could hurry things along a bit.”
I stared at her long enough that she started to blush. Finally, I swallowed the marshmallowy treat, which now tasted like sawdust thanks to her. “So you do want me to get back together with Hayley?”
The part I didn’t say was, Really? After that kiss and everything else we’ve been through, you’re hoping to see me get back together with the girl who clearly didn’t care about me?
I still had some pride. No matter how much her words stung, I wasn’t going to let her see that.
Alice shifted in her seat, obviously uncomfortable with this conversation.
Good. I mean, the girl I’d just kissed was asking me to hook up with the girl who’d callously broken up with me. Call me a jerk, but I didn’t exactly want to make this easy on her.
“I just…” She stopped when she took one look at my face. Then she fell back in her seat with a sigh. “Sorry. I guess you don’t have to get back together with her if you really don’t want to.”
“Thank you.” I popped the last piece of the marshmallowy cereal in my mouth. “That’s very gracious of you.”
Her eyes narrowed at my sarcasm. “You’re not totally off the hook here, Bry.”
Bry. The use of her old nickname for me made me freeze with my hand hovering awkwardly over the plate of treats. Suddenly it was like no time had passed. Like we were still the best of friends and she was giving me a hard time over eating more than my share of Rice Krispies treats rather than giving me a hard time over kissing her in the hallway.
Man, when had life gotten so complicated?
Alice didn’t seem to notice my shock. I wasn’t even sure she knew she’d used my old nickname. She was frowning at me all over again. “I can’t believe you used me like that.”
I choked on the food, managing to spit words out as I coughed. “I used you?” I shook my head in bewilderment. “How?”
She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips and for the millionth time I had to wonder if she had any idea how not scary she looked when she did that. Something told me she’d be horrified if I told her that her intimidating face was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. I popped the rest of the Rice Krispies treat into my mouth to keep from saying it.
“You were clearly bent out of shape because the legendary king jock was dumped and everybody knew it.”
I tried to be angry at her harsh tone but I was fighting a laugh at her words. “Legendary king jock?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course that’s all you hear.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes but I couldn’t quite match her levels of annoyance because I was far too amused by this situation. “I heard the rest,” I said, “But I don’t get what the problem is.” Before she could continue, I admitted the truth. “Being dumped sucked. What’s your point?”
“My point is, you kissed me and lied about dating me to save your precious reputation.”
Alice had officially blown my mind. And not in a good way. How many times was I going to sit here staring at her in complete and utter shock. “Is that how you see it?” I said, finally starting to feel irritated in return. “Because the way I see it, I was saving your pretty butt.”
Her mouth fell open and she widened her eyes. “What?”
“That’s right, I was saving you,” he said. “I don’t know why you’re trying to rewrite history here, but if you’ll recall, the only reason I came up to you and your…your…Julian was to save you from embarrassing yourself.”
I hated myself for a second when she turned a crimson shade of red and dropped her gaze to stare at the kitchen table.
Ah hell, I hadn’t meant to embarrass her further. I knew she felt like crap about what had happened at the movie theater on Friday night. But I also wouldn’t sit here and let her cast me as the villain in all this when I’d been trying to do a good deed.
After a second her gaze shot up and met mine. “Then why did you kiss me?”
Because I wanted to. But no, that wasn’t the truth. The truth was, I wanted to kiss her now and in a bad way. But in the hallway? I’d had no idea how much I was going to like that kiss, or how much it would affect me. “I was trying to sell it,” I said. “And judging by the look on Julian’s face, I’d say it worked.”
She scowled and I couldn’t resist. Leaning forward, I lowered my voice. “Judging by the look on your face, I’d say you liked it.”
I heard her gasp and watched that blush creep up her cheeks once more. I was right, I knew I was right. Nothing in the world could stop me from kissing her again. Her lips were right there, so close that all I’d have to do was lean a little bit further and—
“You kissed me so Alex would tell everyone you’d moved on with someone new,” she said, her voice totally emotionless, her expression shockingly cold.
Nothing in the world could have stopped me from kissing her again—except that.
I hadn’t seen this side of Alice in a while. It was the ice-cold shield she’d used against me after our friend “breakup” all those years ago. I hadn’t seen it in days…weeks, actually. That fight in the parking lot had shattered the cold, silent distance between us and I’d thought it was gone for good.
I guess I was wrong.
I straightened in my chair as a vaguely queasy feeling spread through me at her accusation. She was right, of course, but what was so wrong about that? “I came over to help you,” I said, trying not to let the full extent of my feelings show. I tried to be reasonable, rational, calm…but nothing inside me felt calm. And nothing about the way I’d been feeling since that kiss could be called reasonable, not by any stretch of the imagination.
Alice waited for me to continue with a distant lo
ok that I hated.
“And yeah, when Alex came over I realized that maybe the whole movie-date story could work to my advantage.”
I saw her judge me, it was clear as day in her eyes.
“But that’s not why I came over,” I said. “I wasn’t trying to pull something over on you. I was trying to help.”
She gave a short nod but her lips were pinched together. “I get it. You came to save me from looking pathetic—even though I never asked you to—and when you saw a chance to save your own reputation you leapt on it.”
I shrugged. That about summed it up, but it sounded so bad when she said it. “It wasn’t like I planned any of this,” I said.
“No, I would hope not,” Alice said. She crossed her arms. “If you had thought it through you might have realized what a terrible position you were putting me in.”
“How so?” But as soon as I asked, I started to think. And then I realized just how little I’d thought about it before. Don’t get me wrong, I’d done little but think about that kiss ever since it happened. But I’d been thinking almost entirely about how good it had felt, how right, how sweet. I’d been thinking about what that meant. But now…
Alice was way ahead of me. “Did you think at all how awkward that might be that the girl you’d supposedly moved on with works on the same play that Hayley’s starring in?”
No. The answer was very clearly no. I didn’t have to say it. Besides, she’d continued on to the next point, which made me feel like vermin.
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want to be known as Brian Kirkland’s latest conquest? Or maybe that I didn’t want to be known as anything at all?” She paused and I saw her draw in a deep breath. “How about, did you think about the fact that now I’d be the butt of jokes, the subject of gossip? Do you know what they’re saying about me?”
I opened my mouth but couldn’t think of a single thing to say except the truth. “No,” I said. “I guess I didn’t think.”
My honesty seemed to take some of the wind out of her sails and she slumped forward over the table.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
A Whole New League (Briarwood High Book 2) Page 8
