Deceptive Cadence (11 page)

I shrugged.

“What happened to you?” Dad asked Harper.

“They were beating up on Cadence and I just kinda snapped,” she answered, avoiding eye contact.

“You stood up for your sister?”

She nodded.

He wrapped his arms around her. “Harper, I’m so proud of you.”

Harper flinched, surprised, but wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled into his shoulder. I smiled. That was definitely a drastic improvement than the last timeline. Even after she’d moved beyond her wilder years, she and Dad never became close, and would have
never
embraced.

Her eyes lifted and she looked at me. She blushed and mouthed,
Shut up
.

I nodded.

She saw James and an evil grin spread across her face. “Dad, he’s the reason the fight started.”

Dad had never moved faster. James scampered away as Dad hollered all kinds of profanity at him and chased him around the room. Harper laughed evilly as Mum burst into the room and yelled, “David!”

Dad spun to her. “Ooh, Harmony, I’m going to rip him to shreds!”

“You’re so over the top! Leave the boy alone.”

Dad pointed at James accusingly. “It’s his fault our daughters look like punching bags!”

I slapped my forehead, utterly mortified.

Harper cackled and almost collapsed onto the floor. Mum glared at her. She forced her laughing to stop, but kept a smirk across her face.

“David, come with me.”

Dad puffed up his chest and glared at James.

“
Now
.”

Dad watched James with narrow eyes as he followed Mum out. Geri slipped in once they’d gone, staring apprehensively at Harper, who had begun to laugh again.

She shuffled up beside me and pulled her curls back out of her face. “All the girls are in the principal’s and the vice principal’s offices. It looks like Carla and Becca will be suspended and the other girls are on probation.” She glanced at Harper and leaned closer to whisper, “Including Harper.”

I looked across at her as she sank onto a chair, tears of laughter streaming down her face. I shrugged. Geri gazed at me for a moment, then pulled one of her notebooks out of her bag and handed it to me with a pen. I scrawled down,
I don’t think she cares.

Geri smirked. “How are you feeling?”

I wrote,
Fine, considering . . .

She nodded. “I know. Everything has been kinda crazy lately, huh?”

I nodded.

James shuffled up beside me and grabbed my hand. “I think I’ll go before your dad gets back.”

I sighed and wrote,
I’m sorry. He’s overprotective, that’s all.

He nodded and smiled. “No kidding.” He kissed my forehead and slipped out.

Geri grinned at me.

I glared at her.

She shrugged, and slipped her book back into her bag.

NINE

For the next few days, my mouth felt sore and puffy. A few of my brackets broke off and my top wire snapped. Thankfully, I remained on track to have them removed over the Christmas/summer break.

James didn’t approach me for almost two weeks, but tailed me everywhere. I wasn’t sure if he did it out of guilt or he was afraid to come near me after Dad tried to pull him limb from limb. Either way, I felt discouraged, like maybe he would decide I wasn’t worth the hassle.

Our science teacher sent Geri and me to the library one Thursday afternoon. I’d spent all of lunch watching James from afar, trying to will him to look over at me. But he never did.

“Don’t worry,” Geri said. “Your dad’s pretty scary. He’s probably just afraid to come near you right now.”

I huffed, wanting to distract myself. “It’s so hot.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, it’s been worse.”

I giggled as she pretended to wipe sweat from her forehead. We passed by a group of painters working on one of the buildings and hurried up the stairs to the library. Geri grabbed an armful of books and the librarian sent her back while she loaded me up.

On my way back, I passed the painters again and noticed the youngest painter staring at me. He looked to be eighteen, and fixated on me so much that he’d stopped painting. I hid my face behind the books.

I looked around as I approached a staircase, and glanced into a classroom window. Inside I saw a tenth grade class, and I scanned for James. To my delight, he sat in the back, looking very bored.

The boy next to him nudged him and whispered. James looked up at me. I flushed and hid my face behind the books, but knocked off the top two. Grunting, I set the pile down. A hand grasped one of the books. I looked up to see the painter smiling at me. “Hi.”

“Ah . . . hey.” I remembered in the last timeline returning to class without dropping the books, and Geri had gushed about one of the painters stopping her and asking about me. To have him actually talking to me made me uncomfortable.

He rested the book on top of the pile and lifted them for me. “I’m Blake.”

“Uh . . . hi. Thanks for helping me.” I tried to take the books from him.

“Aren’t you going to give me your name?”

“Uh . . .” I tried to tug the books away. “I’m jail bait, aren’t I?”

He shrugged. “You’re cute.”

“Can I have the books please?”

“Once you give me your name.”

The window burst open, making me start.

“Hey! Give her the books!” James bellowed.

“Who are you?”

“I’m her boyfriend, moron!” James leaped out the window.

I jumped in front of him as he lunged at Blake. “James!”

“Give her the books,” James snarled.

“Fine. Geez, settle down.” Blake stretched out the books for me. James snatched them from his hands and placed them in mine. Blake shuffled off, back to his work.

James turned to me. “Cadence, are you―?”

“Mr. Gordon, stop ignoring me and get back in here,” his teacher bellowed.

“Yeah, one second,” he yelled back.

“Thank you,” I gazed at him through my lashes. “But I don’t wanna get you into trouble.”

He shrugged. “I’m always in trouble.” He grabbed the windowsill.

“James?”

He paused and looked at me.

“Meet me after class?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Right here?”

I nodded.

“Okay.” He jumped back in through the window, causing the teacher to yell at him all over again. I grinned, but felt a twinge of guilt for doing so.

I returned to class, still with a stupid grin across my face, and handed out the books. When I took my seat, Geri stared at me with a raised eyebrow. “Okay, kid. Explain yourself.”

I shrugged.

“Uh ah, no! You don’t get to do this to me!”

I met her gaze. “I saw James.”

“
And
?”

“He’s going to meet me after class.”

She shrieked and bounced around, drawing everyone’s attention. I grabbed her arms.

“Shh!” I hissed with a grin.

“Are you gonna kiss him?” Her cheeks flushed.

“No!”

“You so are.”

I grinned sheepishly. “Well, maybe.”

She shrieked again and ran around in a circle.

“Stop it!” I laughed.

“Girls!” our teacher said, scolding us.

Geri froze and bit her lip, but her grin never disappeared.

After class, as everyone rushed to the bus bays, I slipped away in the other direction to meet James. He stood waiting for me as I reached the stairs. Careful not to make a sound, I stared at him, admiring him.

He sensed my movement and looked down at me. I smiled and my cheeks warmed, which made him grin.

“Hello, beautiful.”

I giggled as I reached the top step. “Why do you call me that?”

“Because that’s what you are.”

I dropped my gaze.

“So, you wanted to see me?”

I nodded. “I wanted to know why you’re avoiding me.”

He let out a long breath. I looked up at him and he examined my face. His hand reached up and he ran his thumb over my cheek. “I thought maybe your dad told you to stay away from me.”

I shook my head. “He’s been too focused on getting those girls disciplined.”

His gaze fell to my lips. “And I thought maybe you blamed me for what happened.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

His free hand lifted and he grasped my waist. “So, you’re not mad at me?”

I smiled up at him as our eyes met. “No.”

He exhaled. “Cadence, that’s such a relief.”

I wrapped my arms around him, sliding my arms between his body and his bag. “You called yourself my boyfriend.”

He grasped the back of my neck. “I did.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I wanna be.”

I smiled and stretched up to kiss him.

“James!”

James jumped and looked over my head. “Melanie?”

“Her? Seriously?” Melanie rushed over beside us and glared at me. “You
know
what she and her stupid friend did to me.”

I turned to her, confused. “What did I―?”

“It’s your fault everyone hates me!” She pressed her hands against her hips. “Or don’t you remember back in seventh grade when you told everyone I was a boy?”

I gasped, suddenly remembering Geri and me honestly thinking she was a boy for about a month. “Melanie, we didn’t―”

“Shut up, Cadence!”

“Cadence?” James looked at me with his brow furrowed. “Did you really do that?”

I pulled away from him. “It was an accident. We didn’t intentionally―”

“See?” She turned to him.

He ran his hand through his hair. “Cadence?”

“She wore the boys’ uniform, and was so tiny and had that short haircut, we honestly thought she was. When we found out she was a girl, we stopped and felt really bad about it.”

“You felt bad about it?” she said sarcastically. “That didn’t stop everyone teasing me about it all year and making me the grade joke.”

James kept looking from me to her. He obviously had no idea what to think, and was torn between his loyalty to his sister and his feelings for me. I dropped my gaze and started creeping away from them. “I’m really sorry, Melanie,
really
.”

I turned to rush away, but James caught my arm.

“Cadence.” He pulled me under his arm. “Melanie, I know enough about Cadence to know she wouldn’t intentionally do something like that. I’m sorry she hurt you, and I really hope you can forgive her.”

Melanie turned red. “Seriously, James? You’re going to let her ‘I’m so sweet’ façade trick you?”

“It’s not a façade, Melanie―”

She rolled her eyes. “I thought you’d be smart enough to see that she’s a great big
fake
!”

She spun on her heel and marched away.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s going to be a huge fight when I get home.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Maybe I should go. I don’t want to . . .”

He pulled me around into his arms. I held my breath as our noses touched. “You wanna finish that thought you were having earlier?”

I giggled as butterflies filled my belly. I pressed against him and softly brushed my lips against his.

He shuddered as I pulled away. “Don’t tease me like that.”

“Like what?”

He grasped the back of my head and pulled me in for a long, deep kiss.

I ended up missing my bus.

James stood waiting for me as the bus pulled up. As I stepped off, he shoved his hands in his pockets, grinning from ear to ear. “Hello, beautiful.”

I flushed as all the girls around me “
awed
” in unison.

He walked up beside me and took my hand. “So, am I your boyfriend now?”

I took a sharp breath. After I’d finally arrived home the day before, I’d spent the evening flicking through photos of Austin, trying to force my feelings for him to surface. I still felt a glimmer of pain for Melody, but nothing remained for Austin. I wished that I could
feel
them again, and not just
know
I had them. The problem was, I felt them for James instead.

“I don’t know,” I answered, avoiding looking at him.

He let out a long sigh. “Really?”

I wove my fingers between his. “I’m sorry, I’m just unsure about a couple of things.”

“Like what?”

I gnawed on my tongue
. Like that I remember being married with a child, but can’t feel that love anymore because I’d been stuck as a teenager for too long
. “Just stuff.”

“It’s your dad, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“I get it. You’re his little girl. Harper’s a huge brat, so he doesn’t want you turning out like her.” He lifted my hand and kissed it. “But I’m not going to do anything to ruin you.”

My heart fluttered. “James―”

“You know, I’ve kinda picked up that this isn’t going to lead to sex, so he doesn’t need to worry about that, and neither do you.”

I pulled my hand free. “Excuse me?”

“I mean, it would be nice, but I’m fine with not going there. I’d just be happy to be with you.”

I had to admit, I wasn’t listening to anything he said. My brain caught on the word
sex
. “You just wanna have sex with me? Is that all this is about?”

“No, I just said that―”

I marched away.

“Cadence!” He rushed after me. “Cadence―”

“Get away from me, you perv!”

He swore. “No! You totally misunderstood what I’m saying.”

“You haven’t changed at all, have you? It’s all just a thing to get into my pants!”

“Are you kidding me? This . . .
you
have been way too hard to get to be a quick shag!”

I swung around to slap him but he caught my wrist. “Cadence, this is ridiculous. What’s really going on?”

I pulled my hand free as tears burned in my eyes. “Nothing.”

“Geri told me you’ve mentioned liking some other guy called Austin.”

I gasped and leaped back from him. It felt like a slap in the face. I couldn’t work out if I was betraying Austin or not, especially because I couldn’t feel that love anymore.

“Cadence, tell me what’s going on.”

My chin quivered as I fought back my tears. “No, James. I need to work this out myself.”

He followed me as I tried to walk away. “How long will it take you?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well, I’ll wait as long as I need to. You’re worth it to me.”