Winter Untold (Summer Unplugged)

by Sparling, Amy

  The red light appears again, this time in a wavy red circle on my ceiling. I recognize it this time; a laser beam. It enters from my bedroom window and swirls around my room before going dark again. Unless someone is trying to kill me, I have a pretty good idea as to why a laser is being directed through my second-story window…but I’m too depressed to yell at him right now.

  I walk up to my window from the side, pressing myself against the wall so no one who is looking into my window can see me right away. I peak around the side of my open curtains and see the window of the house next door. Just as I suspected, Chase is the owner of the laser.

  He sits on his bed facing the window, watching his TV while he absentmindedly swirls around the laser pointer in his hand. I step in front of my window and pull open the glass, crossing my arms over my chest once the window is open.

  He notices me immediately. “Hey, you. What’s up? Spying on me?”

  I nod. “Yep, you caught me. I totally didn’t get up because you made me.”

  “What?” he says with a coy smile. “I did no such thing.”

  I roll my eyes and slouch down to sit on my window sill with my side facing him. He cringes. “Don’t do that. You’re going to fall.”

  I shrug. “Eh.”

  “What do you mean by that?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.

  “Nothing.”

  He turns off his TV and walks to his window. We’re about ten feet apart now, separated by the ground between our houses and a bunch of awkward hanging in the air. I don’t know why I’m sitting here talking to him. I don’t even like him. And I don’t really want to talk to anyone right now.

  He rests his hands on his own windowsill and leans forward, looking at the ground below. “What’s so bad in your life right now if you’re okay with the idea of falling this far?”

  “Yeah, like I’m going to talk about it with you.”

  He shrugs. “I don’t see anyone else to talk to.”

  “Becca was here earlier,” I say, changing the subject to the first thing to come to mind. “I think she has a crush on you.” Think is obviously a lie.

  “Oh yeah?” he says, but he doesn’t sound as interested as his words imply.

  “Well she thinks you’re hot. So, I’d say that’s interested.”

  “Hmm.” He rubs his forehead. “I can’t remember what she looks like.”

  “Seriously? You saw her earlier today.”

  He shrugs. “Do me a favor and tell her I’m not interested in dating anyone. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but…” he scratches the back of his neck. “…Yeah.”

  “Will do, weirdo.”

  “Why am I a weirdo?”

  I don’t have to answer this question because my phone bursts into song in the next moment. Without excusing myself, I dive across my room and find an unknown number on my phone’s screen. “Hello?” I answer, turning around to see if Chase is still watching me.

  “Hey there, Gorgeous.”

  Chase is still watching, so I give him an apologetic frown and then close my window and curtains. “Hey, Jace.”

  “I’m calling from my hotel phone since I can’t get much cell phone signal. What’s up?”

  I stare at my nails. “Nothing.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ugh. I hate being asked what’s wrong. Answering the question is never as easy as telling him exactly what’s wrong. I wish it was, but it isn’t. “I don’t know, babe,” I say with a sigh. I called him babe instead of you freaking bastard, so I guess I’m already starting to forgive and forget this stupid Facebook photo thing.

  “I miss you,” he says. “Vegas isn’t as much fun without you.”

  “You’re in Vegas?” My hand balls into a fist.

  “I didn’t tell you?”

  “Of course you didn’t tell me!” My voice gets higher but I can’t help myself.

  “Babe—” Jace tries unsuccessfully to stop my ranting, but I’m on a roll now.

  “Why would you bother telling your girlfriend you’re going to freaking Las Vegas? The place where what happens there stays there? Because I’d never need to know right?”

  “I wasn’t keeping it from you,” Jace says but I cut him off before he can keep explaining.

  “Well guess what, Jace? What happens there won’t stay there when girls post it to Facebook.”

  Chapter 5

  Becca speeds through the residential streets from the high school to my house, narrowly missing a dog on the side of the road as she turns onto my street. “Slow the hell down,” I tell her as I grip onto the handle on the roof of the passenger side.

  “Can’t,” she says as she slams on the brakes, coming to a stop in front of my house. “I need all the details, now.”

  I roll my eyes and climb out of the car. All day I had moped around the school, trying to recover from my fight with Jace and how freaking horrible it made me feel. I flat out refused to talk to Becca about it during lunch and also during second and fourth period, the two classes we share together. I had told her it was too much to talk about at school and that I needed to be in the safety of my own bedroom when I share it with her just in case I start to cry.

  Judging by the warm pools of tears in the corner of my eyes, I probably will cry.

  I guess Becca’s desperate need to know all gossip is what made her drive like a NASCAR racer. Although my life was in danger for about ten minutes, at least I didn’t have to ride home with Chase. His incessant friendly chatter this morning really drove me insane.

  Mom took Bentley to get a haircut, so we’re all alone for a while. Becca puts her hands on my shoulders and shoves me away from the refrigerator where I want a snack, pushing me through the kitchen and up the stairs to my bedroom. She drops her cell phone on my bed and crosses her arms over her chest.

  “We’re home. Talk.”

  I stare at the floor and tell her about my talk with Jace last night. I tell her about the stupid Facebook photo that he swore was nothing, and I tell her how insanely jealous and pissed off that stupid photo made me. I tell her about Vegas and his many more business trips to come and how I’m just not the girl to handle it. Once I’ve told her every single detail about last night, and all the subsequent thoughts I’ve had after it, I sit next to her on the bed and pull my knees up to my chest.

  “He wouldn’t let me get off the phone until we had made up and were okay again,” I say, suppressing a sniffle. “So basically, he thinks I’m not mad at him anymore but I am.” I look up at her for the first time since I got in my room. “I’m still mad.”

  Becca gives me a sad look and I swallow, blinking away tears until my vision is clear again. The fact that I’m still technically not crying is a freaking miracle. Way to go, Bayleigh. You’re turning into a cold hearted, take no shit from anyone, bitch.

  “You know…” Becca begins, biting her lip while she probably tries to think of something productive to say. Good luck, I think. There is nothing productive to say in this situation. I am totally screwed. “I’m not saying you should break up with him,” she says, holding out her hands in surrender. “Because I don’t want you to break up… I like Jace, I swear. I just… I don’t know, Bay. Some relationships aren’t meant to last forever.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  She shrugs. “I believe in fate and I think that if you two are supposed to be together then you’ll find a way to make it work. But, you won’t have to force it to work, you know? It’ll just happen.”

  “Sure feels like forcing it now,” I mumble.

  “Maybe you should step back and just see what happens. See if you can be happy with him without forcing it.”

  “I am happy with him!” More tears threaten to fall but I force them back. “I want Jace, I don’t want anyone else. The problem isn’t Jace. The problem is me. I’m stuck in this stupid town, going to this stupid high school. It’s not Jace’s fault that I can’t go with him to these parties. It’s mine.”

  Be
cca leans her head on my shoulder. “Maybe it’s just not the right time. Maybe one day you’ll run into Jace at one of those parties and you’ll be older and he’ll be older and then it will be the perfect time for you to date each other.”

  “I can’t get into those parties without him,” I say. I know she’s trying to have a productive conversation with me but I can’t really pay attention to anything she says because even though she’s using many different words, I only hear four: Break up with Jace.

  “It can work between us, and I want to make it work. I don’t want to give up.”

  “How many teenage relationships actually last?” Her eyes look upward. “I can’t think of any of my brother’s friends who married the people they dated in high school. Everyone breaks up and moves on and meets other people. This is your first real relationship so the odds are already stacked against you.”

  “I thought you weren’t going to tell me to break up,” I snap, kicking her lightly with my shoe. She laughs. “I’m not, I swear. I’m just trying to give you lots of information that will ease the pain in case you do break up.”

  “It doesn’t feel like my first real relationship,” I say, twisting my bracelet around my wrist. “It feels like the only relationship that matters. Jace is my soul mate and I want him forever. I’m still so freaking mad about those photos though.”

  “What was his excuse about that?” She glances toward my computer but I know she’s not bitchy enough to make me look at them now. Then again, if Jace has any kind brain, he would have deleted them after I yelled at him last night.

  “He said he goes to these big supercross after parties after the races and that he goes with his boss and the Team Yamaha guys. He said he doesn’t even remember that girl because apparently—” I make air quotes at the next word, “—tons of girls come up to him asking for an autograph or picture. I don’t know why he thinks that would make me feel better…tons of girls talking to him every night.. but he said he can’t just tell them no, so he smiles and takes the picture and then moves on.”

  Becca shrugs. “That makes sense. I’d be pissed too. That’s your man and other girls need to keep their skank hands off him.”

  “Tell me about it!” My heart twists in pain at the mental image of hot girls lining up to wrap their stupid arms around my boyfriend’s waist to take a photo with him. If I were more confident, I’d be proud of him for being so popular. But it’s hard to be confident when you’re a high school loser stuck in Lawson, Texas.

  Becca leans forward on my bed, turning to face me. She has a huge grin on her face, meaning she’s already switched topics in her head. “…What is it?” I ask.

  “Your new neighbor…” she says with an eyebrow wiggle that makes me want to punch her for being such a dork. “Have you found out any more about him? Is he single?”

  “Oh, he’s single. He’s so single he told me he doesn’t want to date anyone.”

  “What?” she balks with a roll of her eyes. “That’s stupid.”

  “It is stupid. He told me not to even bother trying to set him up with someone.”

  Her face turns pale. “You didn’t tell him I liked him, did you?”

  “Nope,” I lie. Usually guys are happy to hear that Becca has a crush on them. How was I to know that he’d turn her down? Luckily, he doesn’t seem like the kind of asshole to tell her to her face that he doesn’t want to date her. I’m sure he’ll keep quiet about it so there’s no need for me to hurt her feelings.

  Becca shakes her head as if shaking off the bad news about Chase’s permanent single status. “That boy just doesn’t know what he’s missing,” she says with a sinister smile. “I heard from a little birdy that he’s going to Harvey’s party on Friday night.”

  “A little birdy?”

  She shrugs. “Maybe it wasn’t a bird, maybe I was following behind him in the hallway and I heard him tell Harvey he’d be there. It seemed like they already knew each other which is weird because Chase just moved here.”

  “So, what are you going to show up and seduce him?” I ask.

  “Duh.” She punches me in the arm. “And you’re going to be my wingman.”

  “I don’t know about that,” I say, thinking of high school parties and how completely lame they are compared to the two motocross parties Jace took me to back in the summer. Once you hang out with famous people, high school parties aren’t any fun anymore. Plus Jace won’t be there so what’s the point?

  “Of course you’re going!” Becca says, giving me these big eyes as if she knows something I don’t. “Hello! Party?”

  “So? I don’t wanna go.”

  “It’s a party, dumbass. This will be your revenge opportunity. I’ll take lots of photos and post them to your Facebook. Maybe get one with you and Chase’s fine ass. We’ll make Jace jealous.”

  I laugh. “You are completely evil. Remember when you used to be the shy quiet one and I was the crazy one? What happened to those days?”

  “What can I say? You were a bad influence on me.” She squishes her bra to adjust her boobs as if to prove her point. “And now we’re going to make Jace remember why he chose you in the first place.”

  Chapter 6

  I used to have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. But over the last few days, I’ve had a whole lot less love and a whole lot more hate for the addicting social network. Three more photos of my boyfriend have popped up on his page, Jace’s gorgeous face tagged by some attractive girl I don’t know and have never seen before. There are a few girls who occasionally post photos with Jace and it doesn’t bother me. Those girls are his cousins, his boss’s fifty-year-old wife, and Hana, the girl he works with who is dating his friend.

  Everyone else makes me want to punch them in the face. After another ten minutes of going through the newly tagged photos on his Facebook, I sign out and close the computer window. I may not be in control of who posts on his page, but I am in control of how long I’ll let myself look at it.

  Becca walks in my bedroom, starling me as I spin around in my computer chair.

  “Dammit, Bayleigh. You were on Facebook again, weren’t you?”

  “No…” I say in the world’s most guilty-sounding voice.

  She puts her hands on her hips and gives me a Mom Look. “Yes you were. I told you to stop looking! Those girls are just excited that they met a famous person. That’s all there is to it.”

  “I know,” I say, noticing the lumps of clothing in her arms. “What’s that?”

  “It’s every piece of clothing from my closet that I look even remotely hot in,” she says, tossing the pile on top of my bed. “You’re going to help me pick out what to wear.”

  “Oh right. The stupid party.” I say it mostly to myself because I’m only just now remembering that I had agreed to go with her to Jackson Harvey’s house party tonight. The week really goes by fast when you spend all your time with your head in your hands, thinking about your boyfriend. Jace and I talked a lot more than usual in the last three days. I think he knew I was pretty pissed off and wanted to make up for it as much as he could. As of now, he thinks our relationship is on par, happy as always.

  I’m still not so sure. I love the boy with all my heart but I’m not happy with the idea of him having a job that requires partying as part of the job description. He did assure me that it’s only for a few months at most, but still. A few months are forever in girl time.

  Several outfit changes later, when Becca is as hot as she’s going to get in a black V-neck tank top and short shorts despite it being cold outside, we get in her car to go to this stupid party. I’ve been missing Jace like crazy and he can only call me at night from a hotel phone, so even though the party will be stupid, at least I’ll get out of the house. Doing anything is better than sitting around missing him. Becca blasts the heater to warm us up, and I might accidently make a comment that she wouldn’t be so cold if she’d dress according to the season.

  She turns the heater up even higher. “You are no fun an
ymore. We used to get hot and go to parties together. Now you look like an old housewife.”

  I furrow my brows and glance down at my outfit. Skinny jeans with black flats and a long sleeve shimmery shirt. There’s nothing old about it—it just doesn’t allude much sex appeal and that would make the old me very upset. The new me doesn’t really care though. “I’m only here for you, Becca. Not for anyone else.”

  “You could at least look sexy for me,” she mutters under her breath. “Wingmen are supposed to be slightly less hot than the person they’re wing manning for.”

  “Wing woman, thank you very much.” The car slows to a stop and I realize we’ve arrived at the party much sooner than I expected. A knot forms in my stomach. Do I even remember how to act at a party anymore? It’s not like things used to be, back when I was single and came to these things hoping to meet a hot guy and get a phone number or two. And it’s definitely not the same as when I go to a party with Jace and get to hold his hand all night, snuggling up against him as the hordes of people stop by to talk with my semi-famous boyfriend.

  Now I’m just me—not single and not currently with my boyfriend. Playing wing woman for my best friend who wants to hook up with a guy who doesn’t like her. I can do this.

  It shouldn’t be too hard at all.

  Becca leaves the engine running and turns to face me, grabbing my cold hands in her warm ones. “Okay, here’s the thing. I might have to tell a few…white lies…tonight. You know, just to make myself look more interesting. As my best friend, I trust that you’ll just go along with them and not say anything that would embarrass me. Okay?”

  I nod. I know all too well what I’ve put Becca through in the past—lying about our age to college guys, lying about my curfew, lying about why I didn’t have a cell phone—the list could go on forever. Now that the tables are turned, I’m more than happy to do what it takes to make sure all the attention is on her tonight.