He met my gaze and gave me a knowing smile. “As if seniors don’t have anything better to do this weekend than show up here on their summer break.”
It was pretty much exactly what I’d been thinking earlier. Still, I found myself shrugging. “I was planning on being here anyway.”
His gaze flicked to my clarinet case. “Band practice?”
“Perceptive,” I said, a smile tugging at my lips and lightening the mood. I might not have been overly nice like Jason but I wasn’t a shrew. I could be civil.
I was rewarded with a smile that made his eyes crinkle up at the corners and my lungs contract. My heart also opted to take a short timeout.
Dang. I hated it when he did that.
He nodded in the direction of the field. “We just got done.”
“Yeah, I know.” I couldn’t have stopped my caustic tone if I’d tried—and I didn’t really try. “We had to wait for you guys to finish so now we can go out there and swelter in the afternoon sun.”
“Oh. Yeah.” He looked up like he’d just now discovered the blistering hot August sun. “I didn’t realize you guys were waiting on us.”
He didn’t realize? He didn’t realize? Of course he didn’t. That would have meant that Jason and his band of braindead followers would have had to think about someone other than themselves.
I let out a humorless laugh. “Heaven forbid the precious football team ever adjusted their schedule to accommodate us lowly band members.”
He blinked at me, that epic smile fading ever so slightly.
I cringed inwardly at the bitterness in my voice. I wanted to call back the words, but at the same time I felt a jolt of satisfaction that I’d managed to put him in his place.
Where was his place, exactly? On the football field. With the other jerks…oh, excuse me. I meant jocks.
Ugh. Okay, now that really sounded bitter, didn’t it? It wasn’t that I disliked all athletes. I didn’t even dislike Jason, not really. It was just impossible to look at him and not be a little bit…hurt.
Sure it was an old wound, but it had never totally gone away.
Once upon a time we were friends. And then we weren’t. He’d never been mean, or shunned me in public or anything dramatic like that. His betrayal had been far more subtle, and far less exciting.
He’d just…chosen them. His new friends. The change was gradual but clear. He no longer had time for a girl who didn’t fit into his world. By the time junior high rolled around, it was final. The separation complete.
He had his friends and I had mine. We might’ve still lived next door but we existed in separate worlds.
His eyes were searching mine and that fleeting triumph faded fast leaving nothing but regret. I shifted on my feet, searching for an olive branch. “So, think you guys will do well this season?”
He arched his brows, no doubt surprised at my unexpected interest in his team. It was true, I’d never expressed an interest before. But I’d also never been so catty for no known reason before, either.
“Yeah,” he said, his smile returning and making me feel twice as guilty than I’d already felt about ever having made it fade. “We’ve got a good team this year. Lots of good guys.”
My mind flashed back to the night before. To Joel and his buddies harassing us from their side of the fence. Good guys, huh?
I impressed myself by nodding and giving him a little answering smile rather than express my skepticism. Jason might’ve been a good guy. Maybe even a great guy. Despite my own personal bitterness toward him over age-old issues, even I could admit that he was one of the good ones. But Joel?
I didn’t think so.
After Suzie puked, I’d changed and she and I had stayed inside. Matt came in too and the two of us took care of her, but not even a shower and a change of clothes could erase how gross I’d felt after Joel’s nasty leering.
Once again, I tried to walk away. I mean, Jason was nice and all, but what more could we possibly have to say to one another?
“So,” he said, stopping me in my tracks. I heard Suzie’s exasperated exhale beside me. She was never one to be rude, but my guess was she was barely holding it together. She needed to get home and I needed to get to band practice.
But we both managed to give Jason a pleasantly expectant look as he determinedly made small talk.
“So,” he said again. “I heard you guys had quite the party last night.”
I didn’t know about Suzie, but I was pretty sure my expression had turned to one of horror. “Why? What did you hear?”
Suzie made a little squeaking noise beside me as Jason arched his brows in surprise. “Uh, not much. Just…I just heard you had a party.”
I pressed my lips together, anger flaring. Joel. Of course he’d opened his big mouth. A memory of that stupid bikini had me stifling a squeak of my own. Please say Joel didn’t tell Jason about that. It was bad enough that Joel had seen me, I could only imagine the kind of comments he’d make behind my back.
I found myself tugging uncomfortably at the hem of my tank top as if I could somehow cover up my bulging belly and butt. Too little too late, obviously. I stopped myself from any further fidgeting. Instead, I placed a hand on Suzie’s arm and started to steer her away from Jason, but in backing up I bumped into someone.
Luke Warner. Jason’s best friend and the king of smirks.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
“Looking good, ladies,” he said to all three of us, his voice a taunting sing-song tone that was probably meant to be funny.
I was pretty sure I could speak for Suzie when I said that neither of us were in the mood for humor this morning. Luke positioned himself between me and Suzie and slung an arm around our shoulders like we were all old friends. We’d all been going to school together since kindergarten so we were definitely old…somethings. Friends was not the accurate term.
“I can’t believe you two are up and at ’em so early,” he said. He was looking down at Suzie. “Not after the night you had.”
I saw Suzie squirm out from under his arm as I elbowed him in the side.
He let out a little oof, but his grin never faltered.
He tugged lightly on Suzie’s messy ponytail. “Heard you were quite the wild child, Suzie Q.”
The pink of her cheeks clashed with her hair as she ducked her head and kept quiet.
I clenched my fists to keep from punching him. To respond in any way would only encourage him. He lived to get a response out of people and there was no way I’d give him the satisfaction.
Luke was our resident class clown. Actually, the term class clown would have fit him better when we were in junior high. Since then he’d gotten far more popular with the ladies, but no less obnoxious. These days, resident playboy was probably more accurate than class clown, but he still made it his mission to tease mercilessly and mock incessantly. Basically, he was beyond annoying, but inexplicably adored by everyone other than me and my friends.
“We should go,” I said loudly, avoiding Jason’s apologetic look on his friend’s behalf. I started down the first step but fate was not kind. My path was blocked by Julia Farrow as she jogged up the steps to join us, a bounce in her step as her pretty blonde hair swung around her shoulders like she was in a freakin’ shampoo commercial.
Seriously? I glanced over at Suzie and saw her misery clear as day. Couldn’t a person go two steps without bumping into our school’s illustrious homecoming court? No, it wasn’t official yet, but anyone who’d been in our school for more than a day could tell you who the homecoming court would consist of. And these three? They were definitely on the list.
Julia reached the top and her smile enveloped all of us. “Hey guys.”
Her smile was wide, inclusive, and worst of all…genuine. That’s right. Julia Farrow, goddess among women, beautiful beyond belief, and soon-to-be homecoming queen was nice. Just like Jason.
I held back a sigh. It would’ve been so much easier to hate her if she was a mean girl.
&nbs
p; “How’s your summer been?” she asked Suzie, with a light touch on the arm.
Suzie managed a small smile in return as she mumbled, “Good, thanks.”
Julia turned to me. “Hey, I heard you’re going to be first-chair this year. Congrats.”
It was impossible not to return her smile. “Thanks, Julia.” She didn’t mention how she was going to be head cheerleader this year as well because she wasn’t just nice, she was humble.
And it was precisely because she didn’t mention it, that I had to. “You must be psyched to be head cheerleader, huh?”
She dipped her head with a cute aw shucks sort of smile that was straight out of the Jason Connolly playbook. Come to think of it… It was kind of insane that they weren’t a couple. It was impossible to avoid the rumor mill and whether I wanted to know it or not, I was privy to the fact that Julia’s fling with Robert Mitchell ended when he graduated last year. Which meant she was single. And so was Jason. As far as I knew he hadn’t dated anyone since his last long-term relationship ended with a fizzle.
Not that I was paying attention or anything.
Julia was standing beside him now and while he didn’t wrap an arm around her or anything, they just seemed to fit together. Grover High’s star quarterback and its head cheerleader. The alpha hero and the sweetheart princess. The homecoming king and queen.
Basically, they were Grover High’s very own Ken and Barbie. Now that they were both single, it was only a matter of time before they paired up and claimed their throne as Grover High’s most perfect couple.
“You okay?” Julia asked, her head tipping to the side like a cocker spaniel, her big blue eyes filled with concern.
“What? Yeah, of course. I just…” I held up my clarinet case. “I’ve got to head to practice and Suzie—”
“Suzie needs to go home and sleep it off,” Luke interjected, his voice filled with laughter as he leaned over and lowered his voice as if letting Julia in on a secret. “Suzie here had a crazy night.”
Suzie blushed, I scowled, but it was Jason who smacked his friend upside the head. “Cut it out, Warner.”
Julia rolled her eyes and smiled at Suzie. “Ignore him.”
Suzie gave her a grim smile in return, no doubt the best she could manage at the moment.
I slapped on a beaming grin. “We always do.”
That made Suzie’s smile turn genuine and finally, finally we managed to make our escape.
“Just one more year,” I muttered as we reached the bottom of the steps and prepared to head our separate ways.
“One more year,” Suzie repeated. It had become something of a mantra for her, me, and Matt this summer. A reminder that while the rest of our class might be eagerly awaiting a year of memories to last a lifetime, we just had to keep our noses to the grindstone and survive.
Because the best days of our lives?
They sure as hell weren’t going to take place in high school.
Chapter Five
Jason
First day of school. Maybe I was supposed to feel different since it was the first day of senior year, but that wasn’t the case.
“Hey man.” One of the juniors on my team clapped me on the shoulder as I headed past him toward my locker. I smiled and gave him a nod. Then I waved at one of the cheerleaders who looked like she’d had way too much caffeine this morning by the way she was jumping up and down to say hello.
Clearly someone was excited to be here today.
I waved, I smiled, I said all the stuff I was supposed to: hey, welcome back. How was your summer? Mine was good, too. No, I’ve got Mr. Matthews for English this year.
Same old, same old. I had a smile in place the whole time but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was going through the motions. Same people, same team, same teachers, same responsibilities. Same pressure to win, parties to attend, dances to dread, classes to pass, practices to lead, college applications to ace.
Well, the college applications part was new, but it wasn’t exactly welcome. It just added more stress to an already stress-filled semester. There was a big part of me that wished I could just fast forward to next year. Have the stress of applying to colleges out of the way, have the season over and done with, and be moving on with my life already.
Did I sound too jaded for a seventeen-year-old? Maybe. I mean, I had a good thing here at Grover High and I knew it. I should be appreciative of all I had and instead I was just…ah hell, I was just bored.
When the bell rang I headed to the homeroom I’d been assigned. One quick glance was enough to show that there was nothing new here. No new kids to shake things up. No one had gone and broken the mold this year, either. Everyone was paired up with the same groups as always.
I don’t know what I’d been expecting—that suddenly Matt Cartwright had gone goth? That Julia Farrow had stopped being pretty and perfect?
But no, Matt was sitting next to Margo, as expected. They had their heads together and were whispering and laughing over…something.
It was bizarre how much I wished I knew what they were laughing about.
And Julia? Well she was flanked by two other cheerleaders from the squad, but she’d caught me looking at her.
Crap.
I tried to look down, making a show of rifling through my bag, but it was too late. She’d caught me looking and I saw her heading in my direction out of the corner of my eye.
“Hey, Jason,” she said.
I heard the brilliant smile in her voice and wasn’t surprised to see her beaming at me, as if meeting me here was some unexpected surprise and not totally, one hundred percent predictable.
Our school always divvied up homerooms based on last names so me, her, Margo, and about twenty other kids had all been sharing the same classroom for the past decade or so.
Trust me, there were no surprises here. Sadly, the same could probably be said for the rest of this day and the remainder of the school year.
Only ten months to go, I told myself, even as I made the expected chit-chat with the girl who probably should have been my girlfriend. According to every one of our friends, it was all but a done deal. Everyone seemed to be waiting for me to make a move. And I guess, for all intents and purposes, Julia would be my ideal girlfriend. I mean, she was the head cheerleader and I was the star quarterback. It didn’t get any more cliché than that. But on top of the fact that our respective roles pretty much begged to be paired up, there was the fact that she was sweet, thoughtful, outgoing, and beautiful.
Any guy would be lucky to have her at his side, and she’d made it absurdly clear that she wanted to be at my side ever since I’d broken up with Emily Hollister last winter.
There was no big story there. Emily was a nice girl—smart, nice, and a great basketball player. We’d been good together for a little while there, but after a few months we’d run out of things to talk about. That was pretty much it. I think we both just got tired of one another. So no, there was no big heartbreak keeping me from moving on.
So what was the holdup? Why was I so resistant to Julia’s flirting?
I couldn’t really tell you. I had no good reason for not liking her like that, I just…didn’t. There were no sparks when we talked, no rush of desire when I looked at her. There was just a nice, easy conversation with a girl who I didn’t really think about when she wasn’t immediately in front of me.
I wouldn’t say she was boring, necessarily. She was just boring to me.
There was a difference.
But the fact that she couldn’t seem to take a hint had made her go from boring to clingy to downright irritating. I prided myself on being a nice guy. I didn’t want to be mean. But she was making me be rude, and it was hard to not feel slightly resentful.
“Do you want to sit with me?” she asked.
I’d honestly only half been paying attention because up until now the conversation had been of the auto-fill variety. I could have had that first-day small talk in my sleep. But now I blinked at her. “I am si
tting with you.”
Unless she wanted to climb into my lap, we were sitting as close as any two people could get.
She grinned. “No, silly, in the auditorium. For the welcoming presentation?”
I slid down in my seat. Right. That. “Uh, sure.”
Except, two minutes later, our homeroom teacher put that idea right out of its misery. “After last year’s antics it’s been decided that there will be assigned seating.”
‘Last year’s antics’ were a nod to those former teammates who’d mercifully left this school after giving the football team a terrible reputation to live down.
Old Mrs. McDougal frowned down at the sheet of paper in her hand as if she was just as put out by this turn of events as my classmates seemed to be. Julia pouted prettily beside me as her latest plan to enforce more bonding time between us failed.
Mrs. McDougal looked up and waved a hand toward the door. “We’ll line up alphabetically, starting with Joshua Arcott.”
I glanced over in Margo’s direction and caught her gaze for a millisecond before she looked away. Alphabetical order had always meant one thing ever since Jeff Cobban moved away in the third grade.
“Margo Caruso,” Mrs. McDougal called. “Jason Connolly.”
I took my place beside Margo. She didn’t look in my direction. I leaned over slightly and lowered my voice. “Looks like we’re destined to be neighbors.”
She let out a little snort of amusement and glanced up at me, a smile tugging at her lips. I didn’t know at what point Margo had become so grudging with her smiles, but I did know that it only seemed to be when she was around me. With her friends, it was another story. As far as I could see, she was never stingy about giving them that bold, wide grin that made my heart beat faster.
Although, even this grudging little smile had me mesmerized in a way that was so not neighborly. I couldn’t look away from the little dimple on the side of her mouth when her lips curved up ever so slightly. She’d turned her gaze to the rest of the line so I was free to stare. Unlike the last time I’d seen her, she wasn’t wearing a mouthwateringly short sundress. Instead, thanks to the overactive air-conditioning she sported a thick black oversized wool sweater with a giant colorful peacock on it. A yellow collar poked out the top and it perfectly matched the color of her leggings. To top it all off she had little hot-pink ankle boots that looked like they belonged in another era. On anyone else this colorful getup would’ve looked bizarre. On Margo? Adorable. And oddly fitting. She was undeniable in those loud colors and the unique, bold print.
Love at First Fight: Geeks Gone Wild #1 Page 4
