by Marie Hall
Laughing, and very aware of the multiple sets of eyes on them, she nodded. “Don’t wear brown. You look terrible in brown.”
Pretending to be affronted he clutched his chest. “Damn girl, you telling me I have to go shopping again?”
“A price must be paid, Joey.” She sniffed.
They sealed their date with a handshake, which was probably not at all what Joey would have wanted. For months now Elisa had gotten the feeling that Joey was going to ask her to be his girlfriend.
Which was cool. She had every intention of saying yes, but Mom had always told her guys didn’t like desperate girls, so until he asked, she’d continue to play coy. But even though she got the feeling he would, he never actually had. They flirted like crazy, but not much beyond that, which had begun to make her wonder whether it was all in her head.
With a wink and an air kiss to her, Joey turned and pumped his fists in the air as the table he’d been sitting at erupted with cheers of, “Score!”
The silly smile died on her face when Julian’s chair scraped back. He didn’t look down at her or even wave goodbye. Picking up his tray, he turned and walked away.
She didn’t see him again in school that day.
And after Rome and Chris’s game, the Wrights went to the Adrian’s for dinner, which she hoped would be her opportunity to talk with him. But tonight Julian didn’t show.
Which made Elisa feel terrible. She shouldn’t feel terrible about it. But she did. She wasn’t sure what she was doing wrong, but Julian was obviously upset with her. Was it the ear comment?
Or her making the date with Joey?
Her mouth grew dry at the thought. Did Julian like her more than he should? No way.
She almost laughed at that dumb thought. Julian barely even spoke to her. There was no way that he was upset about the Joey thing, which meant he was angry about the ear thing. She sighed. Maybe he’d feel better in the morning.
But her hopes for getting a chance to apologize flew out the window when he failed to show the next day too.
It was stupid to think he wouldn’t go because of her, but he didn’t show up to dinner again that night, either.
She knew she needed to apologize to him for the comment she’d made to Chastity, but there was no way to do it when he continually refused to show up. When she’d asked Roman about it Thursday night at dinner, he’d just shrugged.
But it was Mrs. Wright who’d glanced up at her with a sad look in her eyes and lips that’d thinned down to slits that made Elisa stop talking about it.
She didn’t ask about him after that.
It was a shock to her when she finally saw him on Friday in the lunch line. But now so many days later, it felt weird to go up and apologize for that. What if he wasn’t mad at her for that at all? What if he’d been sick and she was just crazily overreacting?
Unsure of herself, she sighed and walked over to where Chas was saving her a seat.
They talked about dresses again, and Elisa had almost forgotten about Julian or her nerves when a shadow fell across them.
Glancing up, her heart jerked when Julian stared back at her with his intense, moody eyes.
“Julian, I’m—”
She didn’t get to finish her apology. Reaching into his dark aviator jacket, he pulled out a shiny red apple from his pocket and set it gently on her tray.
Then he turned on his heel and walked out of the cafeteria.
Chapter 5
Dressed in black pumps, a cherry-red thigh-high dress, and with an intricately braided knotwork bun, Elisa felt a little like a pinup Barbie doll.
“Mom.” She winced, glancing down at the long expanse of exposed thigh and calf. “Are you sure this isn’t too short?”
Her arms were bared and the dress had a heart-shaped corset to it—Elisa never dressed like this. She was an athlete, so sexy clothes was usually the last thing on her mind.
Joey was going to arrive to pick her up in about ten minutes and there were no other dresses appropriate enough for a dance in her closet. At this point, Elisa was very tempted to just call him and cancel.
She never should have let Chastity sway her into getting this dress. What had she been thinking to take advice from a girl who’d never worn a dress in her life? Elisa’s father’s eyes had bugged out of his head when he’d seen her walk out of her room tonight, and he’d hidden himself away in the study and refused to come out, claiming he’d punch Joey straight in his face if the boy so much as looked at his daughter the wrong way.
But her mother only laughed. “Elisa, you look amazing. You’re going to give those boys a heart attack tonight.”
Her mother had Elisa backed into the corner of the living room with her camera out, locked and loaded and ready for action. She’d tried at one point to sneak away back upstairs, but her mom had barred the way and given her the upraised brow of disapproval. She was determined to put something in her scrapbook whether Elisa wanted her to or not.
Grumpy, Elisa glowered and crossed her arms, which caused her breasts to pop up. Elisa wasn’t busty in the slightest, but there was something about the way the corset hugged her body that gave her the illusion of big boobs, which only made her more self-conscious than she already was.
“Where are those kids?” Elizabeth frowned and stared out the window toward the Wrights’ house. “I told them to be here five minutes ago.”
Muttering beneath her breath, she padded over the white lacy curtains and pulled them back.
Why her mother had decided to tell Mrs. Wright that not only should she let the boys go to homecoming, but they should also go as part of Elisa’s entourage, was so completely beyond her.
Worst part of it was, Mom hadn’t bothered to ask Elisa’s opinion of it first. She’d simply told Lori that it was fine. Elisa loved them both, but they were busybodies. How was she supposed to get in some good flirting time with Joey now that the three amigos would be tagging along?
She sighed, belly going crazy as she thought about what Joey would say. Elisa had not yet shared that latest development with him.
The doorbell rang.
“Finally,” Elizabeth growled and dropped the drapes, rushing to open the door.
Stomach a mass of swarming butterflies, she gripped her belly as her mother greeted the Wrights.
Christian and Roman wore goofy smiles on their handsome faces. Their light brown hair had been slicked back stylishly and even though they were dressed in steel-gray slacks and silk button-down shirts, they’d managed to keep it cool by wearing black Chuck Taylors with it. Christian wore a green shirt and Roman a dark blue one.
Even Elisa could admit they looked adorable.
Shockingly, Julian also stood behind them. She’d halfway expected him to bail on the offer, not because of his deafness, but because of how anti-social he was about everything.
Dressed in jeans, and his rocker-print shirt with black Chucks, he looked no different than he did for school. So maybe he wasn’t going after all. But the moment he stepped through the door she could smell the soapy scent of his aftershave and it was obvious that he’d tried to get his messy hair into some sort of order. It still feathered out from his face, and she couldn’t help but smile about that.
They’d not gotten to talk after the last week when he’d set the apple on her tray. Elisa was beginning to suspect that maybe Julian just didn’t want to be her friend anymore. The thought bothered her, but there wasn’t much she could do about it, either.
She snorted when Roman and Christian began flexing for the cameras as both moms started flashing one picture after another. Elisa tried to get into the spirit of it, but she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off of Jules. Even when she tried to stop staring, she was crazy aware of his presence. How he moved, how he breathed—it was kind of freaking her out a little bit how fascinating she suddenly found him.
Not being close to him for a week, and now he was here, her eye took in his every little detail. He had his arms crossed and was leaning ag
ainst the front door and every once in a while Elisa would feel the hard press of his eyes on her too. And when that would happen her whole body would tingle with a sudden rush of blood.
The air would become a little thicker, her breaths just a little choppier. Then he’d glance down at his sneakers, nibbling on a corner of his full lips as if internally grappling with something, and she couldn’t stop her fingers from feeling jittery. Couldn’t stop from wondering what in the world he was thinking of that would make him look so serious and intense.
“C’mon, Elisa, smile.” Her mom mimed drawing a smile on her face, jerking Elisa from her thoughts.
“Yeah, girl.” Christian shoulder-bumped her. “You’ve got the honor and privilege of taking pictures with us, so at least pretend like you’re enjoying it.”
Aware that she was surrounded by a bunch of people who would probably be freaked out by her turn of thought, she plastered on a weak grin and pretended to get into it. Determined to ignore the sullen boy who’d every once in a while give her a look that made her blood hot.
The boys were so silly, though, and after a minute she no longer had to pretend to be having fun. Feeling ten times more at ease, she draped her arms around their shoulders. “Cheese!” She grinned proudly when they both draped an arm around her middle and kissed one side of her cheek.
After ten shots she began to find her rhythm, taking her lead off the boys’ cue. They’d do a stupid model pose, and so would she. Then they dropped to their knees, pretending to propose and she fanned her face. Toward the middle she was laughing so hard there were tears running down her face.
The moms were happily snapping away, and Elisa knew that whatever made it into the scrapbook would probably be a cringe-worthy shot as she’d be captured in a horrible facial pose, but she didn’t care. She was just having too much fun.
Until she made the mistake of glancing up to see Julian’s lips were parted and his chest was rising and falling rapidly; in fact, his entire body seemed to be quivering like a tightly wound spring.
Immediately her skin flushed pink and the laughter died on her tongue. No one had ever looked at her like that before.
Elisa didn’t see the coastal decorations of her mother’s living room, or the pretty lace curtains, or the potted ferns her mother insisted on planting in every corner of the house. She no longer saw Christian or Roman, Lori, or her mother.
She only saw Julian.
His pale skin. His dark hair. And his sea-green eyes.
Elisa drowned in their depths, lost to his scrutiny. She didn’t fight the current of it, either; she simply let herself be swept away in his heated gaze.
His hands were balled into fists at his side. His gaze roamed up and down her body slowly. So, so slowly that it felt like a physical caress against her anywhere it touched.
Her scalp tingled, her neck flushed, her breasts ached, her stomach tickled, her thighs shook, and it was suddenly too hard to swallow.
She blinked when the glare of the flash blinded her. What had felt like an eternity had barely lasted all of five seconds. Now it was no longer just she and he in the room, no longer a stolen moment in time where she could have sworn that she’d seen beneath Julian’s skin into his soul and he into hers.
Everyone was still talking and laughing, and posing, and no one else seemed to notice that for a split-second her world had turned completely on its axis.
The doorbell rang again.
She jerked her gaze away from Julian’s.
What was wrong with her tonight? Digging her nails into her palms until she left crescent moon imprints behind, she reminded herself that she was Joey’s date, not Julian’s.
And that Julian was almost two and a half years younger than her.
A kid.
That reminder helped a little. But only a little.
Her mother opened the door and this time Joey was the one to walk inside. His smile turned into a frown the moment his gaze landed on her posse.
She took a tiny step back away from the boys, pressing her spine into the stand of one of the potted ferns, needing just a little separation from all of them. Even if it was only a few inches’ worth.
Joey looked nice tonight in black slacks with his dark red shirt he’d bought to try and match her dress. Determined to make this night the best she’d ever had, she walked up to him and placed a quick kiss on his cheek, and if he didn’t smell like clean soap and mint, it was okay, it didn’t matter that those were her two favorite smells in the world. And maybe his hair wasn’t quite as long as she liked, or feathered out the way she liked, but that didn’t matter either.
“Hey, you look nice,” she whispered, taking the red rose from his lax hand.
His brown eyes looked stormy when he turned to her. “You never told me the Three Stooges would be tagging along.”
She frowned. “I didn’t know until just a little while ago, and they’re fine. We’re all riding together, but I’m sure they’ll be doing their own thing when we get there.”
His lips thinned.
And of course her mother chose that moment to come up and cheerily ask them to pose for a picture. But by that point Elisa’s heart was definitely not in it. That picture would definitely not be going into her scrapbook.
Thankfully Joey had a truck with a huge cab. The Wright boys—including Julian—climbed into the back, while she got into the passenger seat. It was a squeeze, but they all fit.
Neither she nor Joey talked much on the drive up to the school. He was pissed and she knew it, and where she’d cared earlier, now she didn’t.
The boys were laughing low and between themselves, but as if they sensed that things weren’t going smoothly with her and her date, they didn’t try to include them in their conversation.
The Wrights were her friends, and if Joey wanted to date her, he needed to understand they was a package deal. All or nothing.
Only once he’d parked in the gymnasium parking lot, did he finally turn to her, after the boys had climbed out. “I was surprised. Sorry about that.”
Frowning, she sighed. “Don’t be a jerk and maybe we can have fun tonight, Joey. They’re my friends.”
“Fine.” He held up his hands. “But you’re my girl.”
Not really, but if it helped him to feel better, she wouldn’t argue the point that he’d still not asked her out. Getting out, he walked around to her side and opened the truck door for her.
The night was cold and just this side of nippy. The dark sky gleamed from the soft glow of fluffy white clouds. Music thumped and blared, and even out in the parking lot she could feel the steady thump of heavy bass booming through her.
And just like she’d said, the Wrights were already walking off. But unlike Christian and Roman who were laughing and chatting it up with a group of guys from their soccer team, Julian had his head lowered and his hands shoved into his pockets as he disappeared into the crush of kids.
She nibbled her lip. What kind of fun could he possibly have here all by himself?
“You ready?” Joey asked, holding his arm out for her.
Knowing she had no choice but to stay put and be the date he expected her to be, she plastered on a fake smile and nodded. “Yup. Ready.”
The dance was…well, just another school dance. The punch was awful. The music too loud, and the theme—Arabian Nights—pretty damned lame.
Two hours in Elisa was ready to go. But when she looked over to where she’d seen Christian and Roman last, the boys were dancing on the dance floor and looking like they had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
“Yeah, man,” Joey snickered, “she had a rack out to here.” He mimed an obscenely large set of breasts.
Mike, the Mariners’ varsity team nose tackle, chortled. Heavyset, as most nose tackles tended to be, with a ruddy complexion, and small beady blue eyes, Mike Albert wasn’t exactly what a girl would call a stud. “Dude, I’d have hit that thing,” he snorted then sipped on his sixth glass of punch.
Elisa b
it down on her tongue to keep from saying what she really wanted to say. That no girl that looked like what Joey had described would have ever let Mike “hit it,” not unless he was making NFL kind of money.
“Yeah, but it took some serious beer goggles, dude. Nah.” Joey swatted his hand. “I wasn’t gonna touch that snatch with a ten-foot pole—too many snakes swimming in that pond, if you know what I mean.”
They laughed as Mike banged his fist on the table.
She cleared her throat, giving them both a withering glare.
“Ah, come on, babe.” Joey tossed an arm across her shoulder. “You know you’re the only girl for me.”
Mike snickered and nudged his date, a quiet, mousy-looking girl from eleventh grade. “Let’s go dance,” he told her and she nodded silently, just like she’d been doing all night.
Elisa was bored out of her mind. Brushing Joey’s arm off her, she twisted in her seat and scanned the crowds.
She’d yet to find Julian again after he’d disappeared.
“You ready?” Joey asked a minute later, leaning into her ear to whisper it.
His lips feathered along the shell of her ear far longer than she liked. Breaking her out in a wash of goosebumps, but not the good kind.
All night he’d been grabby. His hands all over her ass and even once grazing the swell of her left breast, it had always felt like accidental contact, but then again, it was homecoming and high school guys pretty much only ever had sex on the brain. And the way he’d been talking about that rival team’s cheerleader for the past ten minutes, she seriously doubted her date didn’t realize what he was doing.
Beyond irritated, she vaguely wondered how rude it would be if she just begged off from that after dance party and get her own ride home. Chas said she’d probably be there, though, and Elisa did actually want to see her. Could she stomach the torture of being Joey’s “date” for another couple of hours though? That was the real question.
Wetting her lips, she ignored his question and continued to the scan the crowds, looking for the one face she’d not seen since the moment they’d arrived.
