“There sure are,” Isla replied with a delighted smile. “Like I said, the band is really popular with college students, and you’ll see why once they start playing. Come on, let’s go get a spot close to the stage.”
Isla took my hand as she wove through the crowd. I was glad she was leading the way, because I was still in shock over how many people Ethan had to perform for. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than singing for a crowd this size. I was scared enough about singing in the shower in case I was overheard by my family.
As we walked, I scanned the crowd for Owen and his friends. I didn’t recognize anyone we passed though. Maybe they weren’t here yet. Hopefully, they arrived before the gig started. I knew Ethan wasn’t crazy about the thought of his brother watching them play, but I hated to think of Owen coming all this way to support him and missing some of the performance.
We stopped when we found a spot that wasn’t too busy but was still close to the stage. We weren’t right at the front, but we’d get a pretty good view of the guys once they took the stage.
“Do you think they’ll go on any time soon?” I asked.
“Man, I hope so.” It wasn’t Isla who had responded but a blonde girl standing next to her. She was wearing an extremely revealing dress and looked to be a few years older than us. Given her heavy makeup, it was hard to tell her exact age though.
“Yeah, they’re taking forever to get started tonight,” her brunette friend agreed. She was just as scantily clad as the first girl, and the two of them looked like life-sized dolls. They had friendly smiles though, so I decided not to hold their long legs and stunning looks against them. It wasn’t their fault they looked like Malibu and Disco Barbie.
Malibu pushed a strand of her white-blonde hair behind her ear as she checked the time on her phone. She gave the phone a disappointed pout before looking at us again. “Do you guys come to the Velocity gigs often?”
“Every single one,” Isla replied.
“It’s my first time,” I admitted.
“Oh, you’re going to love the guys,” she said. “Their music isn’t what I’m normally into, but it sure is fun to watch them play.” I didn’t like how Malibu talked about the band members like they were old friends. I also felt slightly unnerved by how much her eyes lit up when she was speaking about them. Isla didn’t seem bothered by their behavior though, so I tried not to let it get to me. It’s not like I was really Ethan’s girlfriend.
“Yeah, they’re all so hot,” her friend agreed.
I shifted uneasily. How did Isla not feel awkward listening to this? She seemed more amused than anything.
“Which guy’s your favorite?” she asked the two girls.
“Definitely Ethan,” Malibu said, making my stomach twist. “His voice is so sexy. I would do just about anything to have him whisper things in my ear.”
Isla was smirking as she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. I swear, she was actually enjoying how uncomfortable this was making me.
“Would you now?” she asked, directing the question to the girl.
“Definitely.”
“I’m more into Colin,” her friend said. “The way he plays the guitar makes me wonder what else he can do with his hands.”
Isla’s lips twisted like she’d just tasted something sour. “I’m just going to pretend she’s talking about his knitting skills,” she whispered to me before raising her voice again. “How could neither of you think Dex is the hottest?” She actually sounded disappointed.
“I don’t really dig the tats,” Malibu said.
Isla’s eyes widened like she’d just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world. “What? How can you not love the tats?”
The girls had stopped listening though, as one of them pointed at something behind us. “There’s Lana with our drinks,” Malibu said, nudging her friend before she focused on us again. “Enjoy the concert, girls. It’s going to be great.”
The two girls disappeared into the crowd, and Isla watched them go with a look of disapproval in her eyes. “Those girls clearly have no taste,” she muttered, shaking her head as she stared after them. An amused look entered her eyes as she turned back to me though. “You should have seen your face.”
“What was wrong with my face?”
“Only that you didn’t seem too thrilled by the way they were talking about Ethan…”
“Well, it was pretty weird. They don’t even know him.”
“Oh, it’s totally weird, but you can’t let it get to you. Ethan’s a good guy, so you don’t need to worry about his fans.”
“I’m not worried about his fans,” I quickly replied. “I just didn’t know he had fans.”
Isla lifted one of her brows, clearly unconvinced. “You’ll get used to it. Besides, girls like those two have been throwing themselves at Ethan for ages, and he hasn’t gone for any of them.”
I went completely still. “They throw themselves at him?”
“Oh yeah.”
It took me several long moments to try to process the information. Ethan had been pretty up front about the fact he hadn’t had a lot of experience with girls. I thought it was because he hadn’t had the opportunity, but apparently, I was wrong. Why would he reject the advances of girls like Malibu Barbie? I couldn’t understand it.
“Why hasn’t he pursued any of these girls?” I asked.
Her lips curved in a sly smile. “I guess he’s only ever had eyes for you.”
I gave an uneasy laugh. “Yeah, I guess.”
It appeared we’d done a really good job of convincing Isla of our cover story. She’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. There was no way she could know about Ethan’s mystery dream girl if she believed he’d had a longtime crush on me. He’d been pretty cagey about revealing the girl to me, so it was hardly surprising if he hadn’t told his friends. I hadn’t even admitted to Madi that I’d been crushing on Owen all these years.
Thinking about Ethan’s crush, it suddenly made sense as to why he wasn’t interested in anyone else. He liked her so much these girls didn’t even register on his radar. It was actually really sweet.
I wished that I could say the same about Owen and that he only had eyes for me. Given how he acted around the girls at school, it was still quite clear he was keeping his options open. I was counting on this fake relationship with Ethan to change that though. Hopefully, by the time we were done with it, I would be the only girl Owen could see.
As I considered Ethan’s brother, my gaze started drifting around the room in search of him. I would have expected he’d be here by now. There still wasn’t any sign of him, but it wasn’t all that surprising. We were completely surrounded by people now, and it was almost impossible to see past them. I could barely see the bar through the crowd, let alone pick out one guy in the sea of fans.
“You looking for someone?” Isla asked.
I quickly shook my head. “Just checking it all out. Do you think it will be much longer till they go on?”
An excited glint entered Isla’s eyes as I turned to her. “Nope, the guys are coming out now!’
Isla wasn’t the only one who had noticed, and cheers started spreading through the crowd. I looked up just in time to see Ethan, Colin, and Dex take their positions on stage. Ethan and Colin were at the front with guitars strapped over their shoulders while Dex took his place behind the drum kit at the back.
The three of them were grinning as they took their places, and it was easy to get caught up in the excitement of the crowd as we waited for them to start. Ethan’s eyes scanned over all the people gathered before him, and when he caught sight of me, his smile grew even wider and he winked.
Something about his wink made my heart smile. He looked so confident onstage, and I couldn’t seem to reconcile this version of Ethan with the one I saw at school every day. This wasn’t the Ethan who shied away from attention or who avoided crowds at school. There was something so magnetic about him, and I found it impossible to pull my gaze away.
/> As Ethan stepped up to the microphone, Colin started playing his guitar. I recognized the opening beats of the song “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons almost immediately. People cheered as Colin played, but when Dex joined in on the drums and Ethan started singing the opening verse, a roar of sound burst from the crowd.
I felt hot and cold all at once. Shivers covered my body, and I was unable to look away. I felt Ethan’s voice pulsing through my blood like it was a part of me, and the room full of people surrounding us seemed to disappear. I could do nothing but stand there and listen. The band wasn’t just good, they were brilliant, and I could totally see why Malibu Barbie thought Ethan’s voice was sexy. The way he seemed to caress every word made me wish I were one of his lyrics. Listening to him now, I had no idea how I hadn’t noticed it before.
Just like the song they were singing, it felt like the air around us had turned radioactive, and their music was the only thing pumping breathable oxygen into the room. When the song came to an end, I finally felt like I could exhale once more, and reality seemed to hit me all at once.
The screams of the crowd around us pierced my ears, and Isla was jumping up and down at my side, pumping a fist in the air. She grinned when she noticed my shocked face.
“They’re good, huh?”
“Uh, yeah!” Good didn’t even begin to describe what I’d just listened to.
The boys started their next song, launching into a rock cover of “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran. I’d never even considered the song could be played in such a way, but I swear it was better than the original. They played song after song, each one their own take on different popular music. They had such a distinctive sound and they made every piece their own.
As I relaxed into the concert, I began to dance to the music with Isla. I sang along to all the songs and laughed as Isla blew kisses to Dex whenever he looked our way. I was having one of the best nights I’d had in a long time, and I didn’t want it to end.
Isla nudged me as we caught our breaths at the end of one of their numbers. “It’s going to be the last song next,” she said, making my face drop.
“Already?”
She nodded, her face almost as disappointed as mine. “I’m sure Ethan will give you an encore in his room if you ask him nicely though.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes at her. The scary thing was, I didn’t totally hate the idea.
Isla got her phone out and started recording the boys. She’d been filming on and off all night, so I figured it was something she did at all their gigs. I wanted to ask her to send copies of the footage through to me because I desperately needed to hear the band’s versions of the songs they’d played tonight all over again.
I fixed my attention back on the stage as Ethan finished talking quietly with Colin and Dex. The two boys gave him a nod before Ethan approached the microphone once more.
“Thank you, guys, for being such a great audience tonight,” he said, causing the room to erupt in another round of cheers. “I have a special song I’d like to finish with.” His eyes darted in my direction, and for the first time that evening, he looked slightly nervous.
“See, there’s this girl who I’m going to prom with.” The crowd all awwed. “But I never got to ask her properly. So, Hayley Lawson, here’s me asking…”
He started strumming his fingers across the strings of his guitar and unbidden tears leapt to my eyes as I immediately recognized “Love Story” by Taylor Swift.
“He’s playing Taylor Swift for me?” I wasn’t even sure who I was asking, only that I couldn’t believe he was playing one of my all-time favorite songs. When he started singing the lyrics, I thought I might pass out. He’d changed them so the song was from a guy’s perspective, and his deep voice made the song completely different from the original.
The other guys in the band joined him after the first verse, and the whole room started dancing. They’d turned the track into a rock ballad, and I loved their version even more than I thought was possible. I danced and sang along with everyone else, and when the song ended, I felt like nothing could top this moment.
Ethan jumped off the stage and came into the audience. He pushed his way through the crowd and stopped in front me. There was a slight sheen of sweat across his forehead, and it glistened against his skin, giving him a disheveled but sexy look. The confidence he had shown onstage seemed to waver as he gave me an anxious smile.
“So, what do you say?” he asked. “Will you go to prom with me?”
I grinned and jumped toward him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Obviously, yes!”
The uncertainty in his smile disappeared as he stared into my eyes. Ethan really had a great smile. It was the kind you couldn’t help but return. Not that I needed any help now; I was already beaming at him just fine on my own.
“Kiss her already!” someone shouted. I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Isla, but as I looked her way, I could see her phone was currently trained on us as she recorded, and she gave me a cheeky shrug.
“We don’t have to,” Ethan murmured.
But I kind of felt like we should. The audience was watching, and Isla would guess something was up with our relationship if we didn’t kiss after all this. So, without another moment of hesitation, I turned and stretched up on my toes so I could brush my lips against his. I’d intended the kiss to be a quick peck, just for Isla’s sake, but something stirred within me as I felt Ethan’s lips against mine. His breath was warm, and his lips were sweet. His homely scent wrapped itself around me, and I found myself craving more than just a simple kiss.
My lips seemed to take on a mind of their own as the kiss deepened. His hard chest pressed against me as his arms wrapped around my waist. I could taste a hint of salty sweat on his lips, and it felt like the pulsing beat of his music was still thrumming through my blood. Every fiber of my being was under Ethan’s spell except for a small voice in my brain that told me I shouldn’t want this. I couldn’t for the life of me remember why though.
I drew back slightly to take a breath. I felt torn between stepping away like I knew I should and closing the distance between us again. My body was desperate for more, but my brain was a complete mess. This wasn’t the Beck brother I was supposed to want to kiss, and I couldn’t seem to make sense of what I was feeling.
I was frozen just a breath away from Ethan, and I slowly looked up into his eyes. He was staring back at me with the same kind of intensity that I could feel deep in my gut. I wasn’t sure why he was looking at me that way. Maybe he was annoyed I’d kissed him, or perhaps, he was like me and felt conflicted about whether he’d liked it.
I didn’t get a chance to figure him out, because several girls interrupted our moment, begging Ethan for a picture with them. I quickly stepped back and looked away. I was far too confused by what had just happened and by all the things I was feeling.
Isla came bounding over to my side. “Did you love it? Tell me you loved it!”
It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t talking about the earth-shattering kiss I’d just experienced with Ethan. “Oh, the promposal?” I felt like slapping a hand across my head. Of course, she was talking about the promposal. “I loved it. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect invitation to prom.”
“It was pretty incredible,” she gushed.
I smiled and nodded as she talked, but my mind was still a million miles away and entirely focused on the kiss. Isla kept the conversation going as we walked through the crowd toward the exit though I couldn’t recall a single thing she said.
It was only as I distanced myself from Ethan that I remembered Owen was supposed to be here tonight. Once the music had started, I hadn’t thought of Ethan’s brother once. It all came rushing back to me though, and I realized Ethan must have only kissed me to make Owen jealous. It was definitely something I should have been thinking about before we’d kissed.
What was harder to stomach was the knowledge that while Ethan’s promposal had been the most amazing
thing anyone had ever done for me he had only performed it to sell the lie we had started.
I needed to remember everything that had just happened was fake. Ethan was in love with some other girl, and tonight was all just a part of the plan. The only problem was that Ethan was so believable I was having a hard time convincing my heart we were just pretending.
14
Ethan
Tonight was turning out to be the best night of my life. Not only had the band played better than ever before, but Hayley loved the song I performed for her. She was still beaming from ear to ear as I drove her home, and it made my chest swell with happiness to know I’d put that smile on her face.
“How on Earth did you know to play Taylor Swift?” she gushed.
I smiled. “I can’t tell you all my secrets.” Not that it was a huge mystery. Her room was just across the fence from mine, and she didn’t exactly keep her the volume low when she was playing music.
“And the way you gave it a rock feel was so cool. I don’t know how you did that.”
“And I don’t know how you do backflips.”
She scoffed. “Backflips are easy. What you did out there tonight was special. Not everyone can learn to do that. You know that, right?”
There was so much sincerity in her voice that my cheeks started to warm. I’d been given plenty of compliments about my music before, but none of them meant more to me than Hayley’s.
“It’s just strumming a few different chords together,” I said.
“Few chords, my ass,” she muttered under her breath. “And how is it that no one at school knows how amazing you guys are?”
I shrugged. “It’s not something I exactly advertise at school.”
She frowned a little in response. “Don’t you want people to know how amazing you are?”
I shook my head and smiled. “All I want is for the people I care about to enjoy what I do.”
A gentle smile pulled at her lips. I wanted to tell Hayley she was one of those people. I wanted to tell her how much this night had meant, that the kiss we had shared was one of the highlights of my life. But, I couldn’t say any of that. I couldn’t tell her the truth when she still liked my brother.
The Wrong Prom Date Page 13
