Cherry (7 page)

She climbed into the front seat of his SUV, flashing him her trademarked Mona Lisa smile.

“
You gonna tell me what that smile means?”

Even if Alex had wanted to tell him—which she didn't—she honestly
couldn't
, because she rarely knew what it meant herself. It was the kind of smile that says yes as much as it says no—even though the truth was that smiles didn't actually say anything at all.

It was the kind of smile that had gotten Alex into ­trouble before, and probably would again.

“Whatever it means,” Oliver said after a moment, “it's driving me crazy.”

The look on Oliver's face was driving Alex crazy too, but she didn't tell him that.

She didn't have to. She was certain he already knew.

LAYLA
felt like Vanessa was doing it on purpose.

And by “it” she meant
everything
.

Vanessa Martin was the most popular/unpopular girl in the sophomore class. Opinions were evenly drawn between gender lines. The boys all loved her low cut tank tops and her push-up bras and her super short shorts. They loved her flirty laugh and the way she was always sucking on something, be it a lollipop or a strand of her hair. At the same time, the girls generally hated all the things the boys loved about her.

The part that annoyed Layla the most was that everything about Vanessa felt so calculated. It wasn't
just
that she knew what she was doing; she also seemed to know the kind of reaction it would elicit. Case in point: She had been sucking on the cap of her pen since the student council meeting started almost forty minutes ago.

Not just sucking, but
sucking
.

And it didn't
look like she was going to let up anytime soon.

Layla didn't blame Vanessa for
wanting
a reaction; she just wished she would own up to it a little more. If you're in a meeting sucking on a pen cap for forty minutes, you're going to give all the student council boys hard-ons and you're going to piss off all the girls. Don't act all shocked when your guy “friends” want to hook up and your girl “friends” don't actually like you.

“Does anybody have any new business?” Logan asked from the front of the classroom.

“Oh, his
voice
,” Vanessa whispered to Layla as if it were part of some inside joke between them. It wasn't. “Don't you, like,
die
every time he talks to you?”

No. She didn't, like, die.

Somehow, Layla managed a fake smile in Vanessa's direction, but her beady, calculated eyes were already locked back on Logan. Layla could practically see her mentally undressing him. There was no new business, so Logan wrapped up the meeting, telling everyone to have a good week and that he'd see them next Thursday.

“Sucks there's so much time between meetings, huh?” Vanessa whispered to Layla again. Layla couldn't help but notice her use of the word “suck.” How appropriate . . .

A few minutes later, Layla and Logan walked toward the senior parking lot, hand in hand. Layla couldn't stop stewing about Vanessa. “I just don't like her . . .”

“Yes, it's very Captain Obvious of you—”

“But it's like she has no idea. She thinks we're best
friends. And she is completely, shamelessly in love with you.”

“Lay, she flirts with
everyone
—”

“So then you admit she's flirting with you?” Layla teased.

“I think I've always admitted that—”

“Oh no. You usually try to say she's just being nice.”

“She
is
being nice—”

“‘Nice' is not even sort of a strong enough word. It feels like all she wants in life is just to get inside your pants—”

“Whatever. Everything in my pants is already entirely occupied by you.” Logan flashed a smile and that ­dimple and then pulled Layla in close, pressing his waist up against hers.

“Oh, hi,” Layla said, teasing him—and his hard-on. “You sure that's for me, though? Not just left over from Vanessa's extended pen-sucking exhibition?”

“Pen sucking? I hadn't noticed,” Logan tried to say with a straight face, but Layla knew he'd noticed. All the boys always did. There was no point in trying to deny it. “Hey, so is it annoying or still sort of cute to remind you that I have a condom in my glove compartment?”

“It was never cute.”

“A little bit cute? No?”

“Nope.” Layla let the dust settle for a moment before telling Logan that she wanted to have sex for the first time on Valentine's Day.

“All right,” he said with a nod. It looked like he was doing the mental math in his head. It was twenty-nine days
away, just over four weeks. Layla had obviously already counted. “That'll be cool. Losing the V-cards on V-day.”

“A little less cool when you make it sound all corny like that.”

“The
day
is corny—there's not much I can do about that.”

“Actually, I think there's a lot you can do . . .”

“Oh. Is this your way of telling me that you want a whole production?”

“Not, like, a
production . . .
”

“But a scavenger hunt or something like that?”

Layla smiled. Yes, something
exactly
like that.

Logan pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers. “For a second I thought you were going to do your best Vanessa impression,” she said, laughing.

“Oh, you mean like this?” Logan playfully slipped Layla's pointer finger into his mouth and sucked hard. She yanked her hand back.

“Ew, Logan. Slobber.”

“You wanna try me?” Logan held out his hand, wiggling his fingers.

“No thank you . . .”

“Fine. Whatever. I'm sure I could get Vanessa to do it,” Logan said as he finally pulled his car out of the parking lot.

He was joking.

And Layla knew he was joking.

But something about the way he said it, or maybe something about the fullness of his smile
as
he said it or maybe just something about the twinkle in his eye as the words
came out of his mouth . . . whatever it was,
something
about the moment didn't sit right with Layla.

She simply couldn't shake it.

  *  *  *  

ZOE
couldn't quite reach the tallest leaves.

She was standing on her toes on the highest rung of the ladder, trying to paint the top of the wooden trees, but so far she was failing. She could feel the ladder wobbling beneath her.

“Please don't fall!” Austin shouted from the back of the theater.

Zoe was startled by the sound of his voice, and it made her sway on her heels. She had to crouch down on the top step to steady herself. She didn't realize anyone else was around, but apparently Austin had been watching from the tech booth.

“Sorry for the scare,” he said. “I'd just be super sad and embarrassed for you if you fell. But then I'd also have to laugh at you.”

“I would also be sad and embarrassed too,” Zoe said, already laughing. She realized she probably looked pretty ridiculous up there, covered in green paint. This year's spring musical was
Into the Woods
, and, as the stage manager, a big part of Zoe's job was to make sure that the woods on the stage looked like actual woods. So far this involved a lot of brown and green paint and was only turning out to be a mildly successful endeavor.

“You need a hand?” Austin asked, walking toward the stage.

“
Yes. And longer legs and arms,” Zoe said, instantly feeling lame about it.

“What?” Austin asked before realizing it was a bad joke, “Oh, ha, right, yes,” he added quickly. Austin was a nice guy like that. He held the ladder as Zoe climbed down and even offered Zoe his hand as she jumped off the bottom step. Zoe's hand was sweaty and covered in paint, but she reached for Austin's anyway. She wanted to know what his fingers felt like.

“You greened me,” he said, looking at his hand after Zoe had let go.

“Oh no. Here.” Zoe held out the bottom of her already paint-covered tank top so he could wipe off his hand on it. Austin looked at Zoe for an extra beat, catching her eyes as if to confirm that she wouldn't mind. Really, she wouldn't. “It's all good. I'm a mess already.”

“You're not at all,” Austin said sincerely as he wiped his hand.

Then, Austin shifted his weight in his shoes, seemingly nervous. Zoe wasn't exactly sure why he was nervous, but she was nervous too, so it sort of made sense.

Austin ran his hand over his short hair and then looked down at his shifting feet. Zoe followed his gaze, down his body, and it suddenly occurred to her that she'd never really noticed his body before. She'd noticed his dark skin and his deep brown eyes and the shape of his hands and maybe even his neck and the curve of his ears, which were slightly larger than average and maybe even a little bit pointed in an adorable sort of way, but she'd never really noticed
his body. Maybe it was because he was usually sitting in the tech booth designing lighting cues. Or maybe it was because he and Zoe hadn't actually spent that much time together. Yes, they'd been in the same place, at rehearsal, for hours and hours, but they weren't really
together
.

Not like this, anyway.

Not this close.

Even though they weren't even touching, Zoe could feel him and his presence and his body and the way it was right there, taking up all the space next to hers.

“You have some, um, some more green,” Austin managed to say, getting bashful as he pointed in the general vicinity of Zoe's chest.

Zoe looked down.

Yep.

There was a big glob of green on her chest, right between her boobs.

Not only had Austin
noticed
her boobs, but he'd basically just
told
her that he noticed—and that made Zoe smile. And then blush, too. She hoped her face was only a
little
red and didn't look like a full-on fire engine, which is what it felt like. All the red and green was probably making her look like a giant Christmas elf. She wiped the paint off her chest as slickly as she could, which wasn't very.

After some mildly awkward silence, Austin asked Zoe if she liked The Other Team. “It's this band,” he explained. “My buddy's the drummer. They play at house parties sometimes.”

“Oh yeah,” Zoe said, pretending like maybe she had
heard of them. She didn't go to all that many house parties, but when she did, they certainly weren't cool enough to have live bands.

“Yeah. They're good,” Austin continued, “and they have a show coming up at the Roxy this Saturday. A bunch of the tech guys are gonna go, so if you want to come too, that would be . . .”

“Cool,” Zoe said, completing Austin's sentence for him.

“Cool,” Austin agreed. And then they just stood there on the empty stage, grinning at each other until Austin finally regained his ability to speak. “Um . . . ,” he started timidly, “can you do me a favor and stand in my spotlight for a minute?”

“Oh sure, but I bet you say that to all the girls,” Zoe said, trying to maybe flirt with him. In her head, it had sounded like something a pretty actress would say in a movie. In reality, Austin just looked pretty confused, and the whole exchange made Zoe feel self-conscious. “Where do you need me?” she asked, getting things back on track.

Austin pointed to a mark in the center of the stage and then scampered back to the light booth. He turned on the spotlight and worked to focus it. Now it was Austin's turn to make Zoe nervous. It was mostly the spotlight's fault. At least all she had to do was stand still. “Got it!” he said after what seemed like an eternity. “Looks perfect!”

“Thanks,” Zoe said as a new feeling of excitement washed over her.

It was the kind of feeling that made her want to break into song.

She wasn't
really
going to start singing, mostly because she couldn't carry a tune to save her life, but she felt like a real life version of the characters in the musicals she loved so much. The kind of a character who lived in a magical, musical world where it was normal and acceptable and maybe even
encouraged
to break out into song at any given moment.

At this moment, Zoe could hear a whole orchestra in her head; the instruments were playing the opening notes from the song “I Know Things Now,” which was Zoe's favorite song from
Into the Woods
and might also be her favorite Sondheim song of all time, which was a very big deal considering how many incredible Sondheim songs existed in the universe. “I Know Things Now” is the song Little Red Riding Hood sings about her first encounter with the wolf. At first Little Red describes the meeting as being exciting, but then she clarifies that it's actually both exciting
and
scary, which was exactly how Zoe felt at this very moment.

Excited and scared.

She was both at the same time.

Austin and his spotlight and his voice and his smile and the way his body felt next to hers—and the way
her
body felt next to his—was the most thrilling
and
terrifying thing that had happened to Zoe in a very long time.

Quite possibly, ever.

EMMA
had been tossing and turning for what felt like forever.

She rolled over and glanced at her digital alarm clock.

12:02 a.m.

It was already tomorrow, and she was still awake . . .

Clearly
something
was bothering her.

She'd been in an especially bad mood for the past few weeks or maybe even the past few
months
. Basically since the very beginning of the school year. She was pretty confident that it all had something to do with the calendar and the unwavering finality of G-day, and the way the future simply wouldn't stop approaching the present, but she didn't know what to do about it.