Deceptive Cadence (6 page)

Completely thrown off guard, Geri nodded. “Yeah, that’s how I show I care.”

Melanie sunk back beside me. “My brother wants to know your name.”

“You know my name.”

She huffed. “He told me to come over here and talk to you or he’d steal all my CDs.”

I scowled. “Tell him bullies don’t interest me.”

She shrugged. “That’s a good enough answer.”

She climbed to her feet and walked around the corner.

“She’s so weird,” Geri muttered.

“She actually didn’t seem that bad.”

Geri’s eyes widened with horror. "That comment stays between you and me."

I had the overwhelming urge to say,
“Don’t be so immature, she has feelings too,”
but I held my tongue. High school was a game; say the wrong thing at the wrong time, and lose in the most humiliating and cruel kind of way.

Geri stood as her mum pulled up. “Will you be okay? We can stay until you parents show up.”

I shook my head. “There’s plenty of teachers around. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. See ya.” She waved as she climbed into the car.

I rested my head back against the wall and shut my eyes. I had to be up early in the morning, so I wished my parents would hurry up. Someone approached, then sat beside me. I opened my eyes as Justin settled in where Geri had vacated. I did a quick double take and remembered we hooked up at this disco last time.

That night had gone very differently. I arrived in the same way, meeting my girlfriends soon after, and we danced. Tyler and Mitch
had
joined us momentarily, and thinking back on it, Mitch
did
hit on me. They fought for the following two weeks and I’d never known why, but now I did. How had I never noticed that before?

Geri and I did go out to get drinks and sit, and then Justin moved in on me. Our conversation at that table took a different turn. After he’d asked if I was ready to move on, we engrossed ourselves in a deep conversation. I couldn’t remember what we talked about, but we soon sat alone. He ran his hand down my back, telling me that he’d liked me for a while and wanted to see where things could go. I blushed, giggled, and dashed away in search of Geri.

When I found her, I told her about Justin and she teased me like she always did. Then she saw him enter the hall and told me to dance sexy to get his attention. So, I did. He came right over, but before he joined us, James Gordon had pretended to spank me. I didn’t know who he was then, though. I was stunned I hadn’t remembered that.

Justin tailed me like a lost puppy for the rest of the night, and sat with Geri and me while we waited for our parents. Then, once she was picked up, he’d . . .

I looked at Justin.

He grinned. “Did you have fun tonight?”

“Yeah,” I said breathlessly. I could see he wanted to kiss me; his gaze kept falling on my lips.

“You know, you look really hot.”

Ah yes, a teenage boy’s attempt at flattery. They never say beautiful, which in reality is all a girl really wants to hear. “Thanks.”

He shuffled closer and I leaned away. “You know, I’ve liked you for a while―”

I raised my hand. “Let me just stop you there.”

He stared at me, confused.

I sighed. “Look, here’s the thing. I like you, but just as a friend. If we hook up, we’ll have this huge drama-filled breakup because we’re both so hotheaded, and we’ll throw around terrible things about each other and cause a huge rift between our friends. I really don’t wanna do that.”

His eyes darkened. “You don’t know that. How can you even say that?”

I gnawed on my lip. I wasn’t handling the situation well. “Look at what happened with Tyler. He hates me now, and he’s fighting with Mitch because of me.”

“He is?” Justin sat up.

“Yeah, but it only started tonight.” I glanced around uncomfortably. “Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m not ready for a new relationship.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Cadence, I don’t like being messed with.”

“I’m not messing with you!” I grasped his shoulder. “Please don’t be angry at me. I don’t want to fight with you. You’re a good friend and I enjoy hanging out with you, but I don’t feel ready to turn it into a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.”

He stood, dejection showing on his face. “All right, Cadence. I get it.” He rushed away.

I sighed. At least it wasn’t as bad as when we’d been together. What a loud and public breakup that had been! This way, neither of us had invested anything into each other emotionally, and he could walk away with his dignity still intact.

Laughter from farther down the building drew my attention. Robbie and his cronies hung around a car. I pulled my knees up to my chin, uncomfortable with them acting like idiots so close to me and being potentially dangerous. I glanced across, nervous that if I didn’t watch the car, it would back out and hit me. I scanned the group of boys and noticed James staring right back at me.

My cheeks warmed and I climbed to my feet, wishing he would just forget my moment of humiliation and leave me alone. I walked around the corner of the building so I could still see the parking lot, but he couldn’t see me.

Dad pulled up not long after that. I trotted over to the car, and once I climbed in, I looked across and saw James staring again. I dropped my gaze as I buckled the seat belt.

“Did you have fun?” Dad asked.

I smiled at him, loving how simple our relationship was before I’d grown up.

“Yeah.” The whole ride home I told him about my night.

CHAPTER FIVE

“Justin is pissed,” Geri said quietly as we moved down the hallway toward our lab. “He was convinced you’d go out with him.”

I bit my tongue, knowing that in another time, I had. “I tried to be nice about it.”

“That’s not what he’s saying . . .” She watched several eighth graders pass us by, then she lowered her voice even further. “He’s saying you said you thought you were too good for him, and you pretty much think you’re the hottest thing alive.”

“What?”

We slipped into the classroom. Justin’s friends’ stares followed me as I walked to my seat.

“Skank,” one said.

Geri glared at them as we took our seats. The class began, and after a few minutes, we collected our supplies for the experiment.

“I’ll go,” Geri whispered. “You set up.”

I nodded and hurried over to our workstation. As soon as I arrived, one of Justin’s friends leaned over. “Think you’re hot stuff, huh?”

I bit my lip. This hadn’t happened before. How should I deal with it? I felt like I was losing my adult reasonability and my mind grew hazy.

“Can’t say anything?”

Two more boys joined in and leaned over on either side of him.

“Leave me alone,” I whispered.

They “
ooed
” at me, and the first one grabbed my wrist. “You’re not as hot as you think. Justin could do much better than you anyway.”

I tried to pull away, but he yanked me back. I yelped, making the other boys laugh.

Geri appeared at my side. “Get lost, losers!”

“Shove it, Geri.”

They pushed her away from me and pulled me closer, stretching me out across the workstation.

Brian broke in. “Hey, leave her alone!”

Again they “
ooed
” and one said, “Do you think you stand a chance or something?”

“No, but you’re being bullies. I doubt she was as mean as Justin says. We all know she’s not like that.”

“Do we?” the one holding me sneered.

Something hit him, hard, and he let go. I looked across to see Robbie Cluff and James Gordon standing by the open window. James raised his arm and threw something at the boys.

Robbie laughed. “Hit him again, Jimmy.”

The boys scampered away as a book flew at them. Geri and Brian grabbed me and tugged me behind the workstation as several more classroom items soared across the room.

“Robbie! James!” our teacher’s voice bellowed across the room.

We peeked over the desk as the teacher rushed to the window. Robbie and James hurried away. Our teacher slammed the window and glanced around. “Did anyone get hurt?”

The whole class shook their heads.

“Good. I’ll be back. I need to find out where those boys are supposed to be.”

He slipped out of the room.

I climbed onto my stool as Geri grabbed my shoulder. “Cay, they were out of line.”

Brian grabbed my forearm. “Did they hurt you?”

“No.” I pulled away. “Just leave me alone.”

“I got it, Bri,” Geri said gently.

Brian went back to his desk. Geri climbed onto the stool beside me and lit the Bunsen. “Wow. That was dramatic.”

I huffed. “It’s not supposed to happen like this. I didn’t date him so I could avoid all this drama. I thought by making better choices, these bad things wouldn’t happen.”

“Huh?” Geri gazed at me with a confused expression on her face.

“Nothing. I’m just thinking out loud.”

She flicked my hair back over my shoulder. “Did you get hit?”

“No. Why?”

“’Cause you’re talkin’ like a crazy person.”

I shoved her shoulder and chuckled.

Melanie’s head popped up from behind the workstation and we jumped. She glanced between us and waved a book. “It’s mine. He stole it this morning.”

She dashed away.

“Man, she’s so weird,” Geri whispered.

I scowled, but didn’t say anything. “Let’s do this experiment and forget all this stuff.”

A few moments later, I noticed movement by the window. I glanced up to see James motioning to Melanie. I looked over at her as she shook her head. It seemed surprising people didn’t know they were siblings. They looked remarkably similar with the same chestnut brown hair and gray-blue eyes. They could almost pull off being twins.

They also looked just as shabby and dirty as one another. I wondered if their house had the water cut off. James always wore a stupid black beanie with his long scruffy hair sticking out under it, and it seemed they shared their school uniforms.

His gaze shot to me and I glanced away. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him stand by the window before I dared to look over again. He stared at me with a ridiculous smirk, then waved and blew me a kiss. I rolled my eyes and tried to focus on my work. After a few moments he walked away, but Melanie appeared in front of us.

Geri reacted first. “Um . . . do you need something?”

She stared at me. “My brother wants you to thank him.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What for?”

“For chasing those morons off you.”

Geri chuckled. “Wow, they must be morons if she says they are.”

Melanie scowled, but returned her attention to me. “He’s been bugging me about you, all last night and this morning. He told me I need to make friends with you.”

Geri laughed loudly. “Yeah, not going to happen.”

“Geri,” I whispered. “Don’t be mean.”

Melanie snorted. “Whatever. You guys are stupid anyway.”

“Hey!” Geri moved to stand as Melanie rushed away, but I caught her arm.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like her opinion matters to anyone.”

“Hmm.” Geri sunk back onto her stool. “Let’s just forget about all of it and get this done.”

I tried to keep a low profile for the next few weeks. It seemed to work, too, and soon all the vicious rumors died out. I kept myself going by staring at Austin and Melody’s picture every night, just thinking about them. He wasn’t into sports like me, but instead preferred gaming, reading, and when his stepdad took him to Rottness Island―just off the coast from Perth―he went diving and snorkeling in his spare time. He didn’t change when we married, either. I found comfort in his consistency and stability.

The winter holidays drew near, and things seemed to quiet down for me. I loved that I had managed to remove most of the drama from my life. Ninth grade suddenly seemed fun, whereas before, it had been one drama after another.

We were wrapping up our history classes so we could change to geography the next semester. My notebook lay open in front of me, but the teacher rambled all kinds of incoherent nonsense. I was glad it really wasn’t just me being lazy the first time.

Brian sat next to me and nudged me. I glanced at him, and he handed me a note under the table. I opened it and read,
I’m so bored.

I smiled, watching the teacher as I rested it over my notebook to write,
Ditto. I have no idea what she’s saying.

He smirked and slipped the note into his pocket. He leaned closer to whisper, “Whatcha doin’ for the holidays?”

I shrugged. “Not much. Eating, sleeping, watching TV late into the night.”

“So, I’m thinking of going ice-skating sometime. Do you wanna join?”

I loved ice-skating. I had gone many times with large groups of my friends, and I definitely didn’t want to miss out on that. “Sure. When?”

He pulled the note back out and wrote down the details. “Do you need a ride?”

“No, my mum can probably drop me off.”

“Cool.”

“Does Geri know yet?”

He hesitated. “No . . .”

“Do you want me to tell her or do you wanna do it?”

“You can, I guess.”

I grinned excitedly. “I love ice-skating.”

Harper stepped out of her room just as I did. She scowled and folded her arms. “Geez, Cadence, it’s not even ten.”

I looked at her in her black pajama pants and tank top. “I’m going ice-skating. I guess you have no plans today.”

She scoffed. “I wish. Mum and Dad have me under house arrest until the end of the holidays.”

“I’m sorry.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t need your pity, kid.”

I pursed my lips, my frustration rising. “You know, I’m just trying to be nice. We won’t always be this close to each other. In fact, one day we could live clear across the country from each other. So I’m trying to make the most of my time with you, but you’re so pissed off at the world that you don’t even care. I’m your
sister
, Harper. I hate seeing you so sullen all the time. I just wish you would remember how much fun we used to have together and stop being so mean and shutting me out.”

Her eyes narrowed. Her hand slowly reached out and touched my hair hanging over my shoulder. I held my breath, hoping just maybe I had made some ground with her, but then she gave my hair a sharp tug.

“Ouch!”

“I hate you, you stupid loser! Stop trying to be my friend to win brownie points with Mum and Dad.”

I pushed her off and rushed down the hallway toward the front door. I paused when I reached the living room and looked back. She was awful! How could I live with her until she finally grew up?

Geri’s mum came to pick me up. On the way, Geri and I chatted excitedly about what we’d done so far and how the holidays always seemed to go too fast.

We hurried into the rink and rented our skates. As we made our way to the sitting area, we scanned the crowd.

“Are we early?” Geri asked.

“I guess so. I can’t see anyone from school.”

“There’s Brian and Sean.” She nodded across the ice. Her eyes widened and her jaw fell. “Cadence, I think this is supposed to be a date!”

“What?” I looked across at Brian and his best friend Sean. “No way!”

It was too early for Brian to be making moves on me. We didn’t get together until the fourth term. But then again, I had been dating Justin at this point before . . .

“Hey, Cadence.” Brian grinned as he slid up against the wall.

I grasped Geri’s hand. “Hey, Brian. Hey, Sean.”

Sean seemed edgy. He definitely didn’t want to be here, but he nodded and muttered, “Hey.”

My hand tightened around Geri’s as we headed toward the gate. The boys left us briefly, and I whispered, “Don’t leave me for one moment.”

She scoffed. “I’ll do my best, but I’m fairly certain Sean’s here so Brian can have some alone time with you.”

I clenched her hand.

“Ouch! Cadence!” She tugged her hand free.

“Sorry.”

We skated onto the ice and Brian came up behind me. “Wanna race?”

His hand pressed against the small of my back. I half-turned to face him. “Not yet. I gotta get my feet first.”

His hand shifted to my elbow. “Do you need some help?”

“No. Geri and I will just be a few minutes. You and Sean go do your thing.”