“It was.”
The only time Beth wanted to watch ‘Sweeney Todd’ was when she was really mad. Like when Brenna cut all the hair off her Barbie dolls or Beth didn’t get the lead in a play.
“Let me take a quick shower and then I’m all yours,” Parker replied.
“I’ll make the popcorn,” Beth said following Parker into his house.
He grinned, watching her walk to the kitchen, because for a minute it felt like they were Parker and Beth again.
Beth
Beth was as familiar with Parker’s house as she was with her own. She made a bowl of popcorn and grabbed two cans of orange soda before heading up to Parker’s bedroom. She could hear the shower running so she set the snacks down on his desk and turned Parker’s television on. She made herself comfortable on his bed while she scrolled through the movie menu and queued up ‘Sweeney Todd’.
When she finally had everything set up she lounged back against Parker’s pillows. From that angle the full length mirror gave Beth a glimpse of his bathroom. The door was open a crack and she could see his silhouette through the steamy glass of the shower. Beth knew she should look away, but her curiosity got the better of her. She’d never seen Parker naked. Well, maybe when they were babies and took baths together, but that didn’t count.
The shower squeaked off and Parker emerged with a white towel slung low on his hips. Beth couldn’t look away as beads of water trailed down his torso. She’d never seen him like this. When had Parker become so hot? He had the sleek runner’s body—all lean muscles and sharp angles. A sudden heat wave of lust crashed over Beth. She swallowed hard. Jared looked much different than Parker. Jared’s muscles were big and bulky. At times his strength frightened Beth. But Parker’s muscles were refined and beautiful. There was nothing frightening about him. Parker was so unlike Jared . . . Jared! As in her boyfriend!
Guilt flushed Beth and she shifted on the bed so she couldn’t see Parker in the mirror anymore. She shouldn’t be comparing Parker and Jared. She shouldn’t even have been looking at Parker. He wasn’t interested. And even if he was, it didn’t matter. Beth had a boyfriend. A boyfriend she was furious at.
Parker padded barefoot from the bathroom and plopped down on the bed. He was dressed in jogging pants and a soft t-shirt. He smelled like fresh rain and soap. Why did boys have to smell so good right out of a shower? It was like a secret weapon.
Beth briefly wondered if Parker knew how he sometimes made her heart beat faster as she let him settle next to her on the bed. He’d brought over the popcorn and sodas. Beth took a sip of hers and then placed it on the windowsill next to the bed, prepared to block out all thoughts of boys and focus on ‘Sweeney Todd: the demon barber of Fleet Street’.
Parker
“So,” Parker asked after the movie was over. “‘Sweeney Todd’? Did you guys break up?”
“No. I don’t think so. But Jared’s definitely not going to the wedding with me.”
“He’s an idiot.”
Beth laughed. “He really is.”
“His loss,” Parker said nudging her with his shoulder.
“Yeah, well it still feels like mine. I’m gonna have to go to another family wedding without a date and have to listen to everyone ask me why I don’t have a boyfriend and why I’m not more like my perfect sisters.”
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am. I tried everything. Jared is not budging on the wedding. He actually told me it’s not his fault my sister screwed up and he’s not changing his plans! He was pretty clear.”
“Again, he’s an idiot. But I meant you won’t have to go to the wedding alone because I’ll be your date.”
“Parker, that’s seriously so incredibly sweet but I can’t make you do that.”
“You’re not making me do anything. I want to go.”
“But you’ll miss Aspen.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been to Aspen before. It’s not that great. Plus, the idea of going without you isn’t really appealing.”
“Really?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m not really into partying with Jared and the lacrosse team. And Caroline is . . . well, Caroline. I was only going to Aspen because you were.”
Beth laughed. “True. But are you sure? You know what my sisters’ weddings are like.”
“And what kind of friend would I be if I let you suffer a Bennett wedding on your own? Besides I was sorta hoping to collect all six.”
“This will be number five for you,” Beth replied.
“Yep, only one left.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry, you’ll be at my wedding.”
Parker’s heart seized. He’d never thought about it before, but the idea of being at Beth’s wedding as anything other than the groom was enough to kill him. This was a terrible idea. He’d just decided he needed to distance himself from Beth and here he was volunteering to spend a wedding weekend with her.
But he did know what Bennett weddings were like. Beth’s sisters treated her like their servant and spent the whole time ordering her around. He really couldn’t let her go through that alone. They were always nicer to her when Parker was around. And if he went with her he could at least make sure she had some fun.
He’d been to her family’s place in Georgia a bunch of times. It was beautiful and right on the beach. “It’s at Bellemora, right?” Parker asked.
Beth sighed heavily. “Yeah.”
Parker loved it there. It was completely different than Boston. Plus, some of his favorite memories were from Bellemora. “Remember when we buried Brenna in the sand when she fell asleep on the beach?”
“Oh my God, yes! We left her feet out and they got so burnt she couldn’t walk.”
Parker snorted. “I’ll never forget her crawling after us screaming bloody murder.”
“She put gum in my hair for that,” Beth replied. “That was the worst hair cut of my life.”
“I got it worse,” Parker objected. “She shaved one of my eyebrows off!”
“How is that worse? You’re a boy.”
“Yeah, a boy who had to draw his eyebrow back on with sharpie every day for a month.”
Beth fell back against the pillows laughing. “Okay, maybe you got it worse.”
Parker lounged against the pillows too. He gazed down at Beth. The patch of sunlight she lay in gave her flawless skin a dewy glow. His chest tightened as he watched her smile. It was killing him. Having her next to him, in his bed, was all he’d ever wanted. But it would never be as more than friends. Crippling fear had always held Parker back from telling her the truth. But as he looked down at Beth’s smiling face all he wanted to do was lean in and kiss her. Instead, Parker grabbed the remote and turned another movie on, hoping it would drown out the pounding of his heart.
Beth
“So you’ll really go to the wedding with me?” Beth asked after their movie marathon was over.
“Of course.”
She gave him a hug. “Thank you, Park. You’re the best.”
“I know,” he said squeezing her back.
She looked up at him. “It’s gonna be awful isn’t it?”
“It’s Brenna, of course it is.”
Beth giggled and kissed him on the cheek before walking back to her house. She felt lighter after spending the afternoon watching movies with Parker. He always had that effect on her. And it gave her hope that maybe if she had Parker by her side spring break wouldn’t be so terrible.
14
Jared
Jared tried to clear his head as he changed after lacrosse practice. He’d pushed himself extra hard in the weight room, wishing he could punish himself hard enough to make all his problems go away. He wasn’t used to dealing with so many conflicting emotions. He hadn’t expected to have a girlfriend his senior year. He planned to play the field like he always did, but Beth had changed that. She was different than any girl he’d ever met and something about her made him never want to let go. Life was just better wh
en he was with Beth. But it seemed Caroline was determined to put and end to that.
Truthfully, Caroline scared the shit out of Jared. He didn’t trust himself around her and was partly convinced he kept Beth around just as a reason to stay away from Caroline. She just had that look about her. It’s like the saying goes: the hotter a girl, the crazier. Jared should’ve listened to his gut, but unfortunately his teenaged hormones had a bad habit of overriding his rational thoughts.
Caroline was one of those girls who oozed sex appeal. Half of her parts were probably plastic but that kind of thing had never bothered Jared. Caroline looked like a super model and knew it. She flaunted her figure and got off on teasing guys. And Jared was no exception. He liked Beth, he really did. Probably more than he’d liked any other girl before. But he was still vulnerable to Caroline’s charms. Especially since he hadn’t gotten past first base with Beth. The girl was giving him blue balls on a daily basis.
And then there was Caroline, ready and willing to give Jared everything he wanted. It didn’t help that she was Stanton’s ‘it’ girl and all the guys on the team noticed how she flirted with Jared. They were always on him to dump Beth the prude and go out with sex-crazed Caroline.
Jared hated all the pressure he was under. It was coming from all sides—date the right girl, keep the right secrets, get the right scholarship, be a good boyfriend, be a good son . . . It was too much. In all the chaos Jared had lost sight of himself. But he needed to figure out what he wanted and fast.
As if on queue, Jared’s phone vibrated. He looked down and saw a text from Caroline. He deleted it without reading it. He was in no mood for more of her bullshit. Slamming his locker, Jared threw his lacrosse bag over his shoulder and started to head out of the locker room.
“You coming over tonight?” Sullivan asked from across the room.
“What’s tonight?”
“Beer and video games,” Sullivan replied. “Maybe your girlfriend can order us more pizza?”
“Which one?” Brady called.
Another of Jared’s teammates high-fived Brady and Jared’s mood soured.
“Ignore them,” Sullivan said. “So you coming or what?”
“Nah, not tonight, Sully,” Jared replied. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to his rich teammates bitch about their first-world problems. And with the mood he was in, Jared was apt to come to blows with the next person that said the wrong thing about Beth or Caroline.
“Collins, come in here for a minute.”
Jared looked up to see his coach waving him into his office. Now what?
“What’s that about?” Sullivan asked.
Jared shrugged and walked into the office, feeling the eyes of his teammates follow him.
“Shut the door, son.”
Jared’s heart was pounding. “Something wrong, Coach?”
“Just the opposite actually. I’ve got some good news for you.”
Adrenaline spiked through Jared’s body like a gunshot. “Syracuse?”
His coach grinned and slid a piece of paper across his desk. “The offer came in a few minutes ago. Full ride.”
“Are you serious?”
“Congratulations, son.”
Jared sat down as he tried to absorb his coach’s words. He couldn’t believe it was really happening—Syracuse. This was a dream come true. Jared didn’t have the grades or the funds to get into the college of his choice, so he’d been putting all his efforts into sports, hoping for a scholarship. Syracuse had one of the top lacrosse teams in the nation. And they wanted him!
He stared at the letter of intent, still unable to believe his luck. Just like that all his worries washed away. He was going to his dream school and everything else would fall into place. For the first time he could see a future and it was bright because it contained everything he loved—lacrosse and a great girl.
Beth was staying in Boston for college. Syracuse was only a few hours away. They could still see each other easily on weekends and breaks. Jared couldn’t wait to tell her the great news. And this was great news, because even Caroline couldn’t ruin things now.
“What do I do next, Coach?”
“There’s not much to do. It states here that the SEI scholarship fund will cover all your fees and Syracuse has already approved your application. All that’s left is for you to accept their offer.”
“How do I do that?”
Jared’s coach looked at his watch. “We can fill out the forms tomorrow, but I’m happy to call over to the Syracuse coach now and give him a verbal if you want to make things official.”
Jared let himself grin as he nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. Let’s make it official.”
A few hours later Jared found himself celebrating at Sullivan’s. His coach had made the official announcement to Jared’s teammates as soon as he got off the phone with Syracuse and Jared hadn’t been able to stop himself from getting wrapped up in the excitement. Sullivan insisted on throwing an immediate party to celebrate Jared’s scholarship news.
Jared had called and texted Beth repeatedly. He hated that she probably wasn’t answering because of the way he’d spoken to her at school. But he knew the second she heard his good news she’d forgive him. Beth was awesome like that. Nothing was going to keep them apart now. Syracuse had changed everything. Caroline could go screw herself. Jared was confident in his relationship with Beth. He’d made up his mind the minute he got the scholarship—he was gonna tell Beth the truth. She’d forgive him, he was sure of it. Then Caroline would be a non-issue. She’d be out of their lives in a few months when they graduated anyway, and then he and Beth could start fresh. Things were finally lining up.
Jared chugged the remaining beer in his plastic cup and dialed Beth’s number again. It went straight to voicemail. “Beth, please call me back. I have the best news. It’s gonna make things so much better for us. I’m sorry about today, okay? Please call me back, babe. I have something to celebrate and I really can’t do it without you. Call me.”
“Call me, I love you,” Brady teased coming up behind Jared with a fresh beer. “Get off the phone and join your party, Collins!”
“Our boy is going to ‘Cuse!” Sullivan shouted holding up his red plastic cup.
“‘Cuse! ‘Cuse! ‘Cuse!” The chant echoed around the room and Jared couldn’t stay mad. Today was quite possibly the best day of his life. All his hard work had finally paid off. He’d achieved his goal and nothing could take that away.
Beth
“I should call him back,” Beth said staring at her buzzing phone.
Caroline shrugged. “No one’s stopping you.”
Caroline had wanted an update on Beth and Jared’s spring break status, so Beth met her at Starbucks for a caffeine fix after her movie marathon with Parker.
Beth filled Caroline in on her and Jared’s latest fight, which only prompted an unsympathetic, I told you so look, from Caroline. After that, they hadn’t gotten much talking in because Beth’s phone had been blowing up with texts and calls from Jared for the past hour and it was getting harder to ignore.
Beth wanted to call him back, but she was still mad. She groaned, reading through Jared’s cryptic messages again. “What do you think his big news is?” she asked.
Caroline sipped her latte. “I heard he got a scholarship offer today.”
Beth’s head snapped up. “What? How do you know that?”
“You know me, I keep my finger on the pulse . . .”
“Car! Oh my God! He must be so excited. I’m calling him back.”
“Better yet, we could go surprise him. He’s at Sully’s.”
“Okay, who are you? And how do you know what’s happening at all times?”
Caroline winked. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
Beth laughed, slinging her purse over her shoulder. “Alright, Miss Soprano, lead the way.”
When Caroline and Beth walked into the basement of Sullivan’s house, the party was in full swing. Sullivan’s
place was massive, but he always crammed everyone into his basement for parties. Beth assumed it was because his parents didn’t want the rest of their house trashed by their son’s rowdy lacrosse friends. And considering it seemed like the entire lacrosse team was there, that was probably a good move.
About thirty boys in all manner of lacrosse gear crowded the dark room. There were even a few cheerleaders and groupie freshman girls at the party. Everyone was milling about the basement yelling over the loud music, smoking and playing drinking games.
“There wasn’t a game today, was there?” Beth asked taking in the familiar scene.
“Nope. I’m guessing this is all for your man and his big news.”
“It must be some scholarship,” Beth replied under her breath.
She searched the smoky room for Jared but Sullivan spotted her first. “Bennett! It’s about time you got here, girl.”
“Hey, Sully. Where’s Jared?”
“He’s around here somewhere. Did you bring me any pizza?” Sullivan asked with a toothy grin.
“Sorry, not this time.”
“Order your own pizza,” Caroline growled shoving past Sullivan and swiping a red plastic cup from the bar. She pumped a beer from the keg and passed the cup to Beth before getting herself one.
Returning to Beth’s side, Caroline linked arms and said, “Shall we find the man of the moment?”
Beth clinked her plastic cup against Caroline’s and took a big swig of the foamy beer before nodding.
As they meandered through the party, Beth felt the alcohol dulling the earlier frostiness she’d felt toward Jared. She was never good at staying mad at people. And if Jared really had gotten a scholarship she was truly happy for him. She knew how hard he worked. The poor guy was always exhausted from training. Maybe this would take some of the stress off of him.
A thought tickled the back of her mind. Maybe all that stress was causing his bad mood lately? A flicker of hope ignited in her heart. Maybe Jared would change his mind about the wedding now?
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