Fake Boyfriend - Kate Brian (2 page)

Shawn glanced around and seemed to realize there was no way out of this. He looked at the ground, his dark hair falling over his face, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Iz ... I'm with Tricia now."

"With her? With her?" Isabelle blurted. "1For how long?"

"About a month," Tricia said smugly, sliding her arm around Shawn's waist and snuggling into his side.

"The last--was Isabelle buckled slightly, as if she'd been kicked in the knees. All the air went right out of Vivi's lungs. She stepped over and put her arm around Izzy. Her friend started convulsing, tears streaming down her face.

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"Iz, please . . . ,was Shawn said, extricating himself from Tricia's grasp. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I--was

Vivi glared up at Shawn. "Walk away. Right now," she said through her teeth.

Shawn snorted a laugh. "Y can't tell me what to do."

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"I think we just did," Curtis said, stepping up between Shawn and the girls and getting right in Shawn's face.

Shawn had four inches and approximately twenty pounds on Curtis, but he was showing no fear. Shawn raised his hands and backed off. Coward. Vivi knew he welcomed the excuse to bail, not to have to deal. Just like all the other times he'd broken up with Izzy--via note, e-mail, text, a message on her voice mail. It was always in the most cowardly way possible. And yet, Isabelle always took him back. Every time. No matter what.

Well, maybe that was all about to change. Izzy couldn't forgive him this time. This time he'd actually cheated on her. And half the school had witnessed it.

"Isabelle, are you okay?" Lane asked as Shawn and Tricia headed for his vintage Vette, parked down the street.

"He's been cheating on me for a month!" Isabelle blurted, hugging Lane and clinging to her light blue sweater. "A month! How is that even possible?"

"I know, Iz. I'm sorry," Lane said, stroking her hair.

Vivi glanced around at the freshmen and sophomores, who were still looking on quietly, eavesdropping as hard as they could. Vivi glared around at the onlookers and gently pulled Izzy away and back toward the street.

"And with Tricia Blank!" Isabelle ranted. "She's a ... a ..."

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Skank? Cheesebomb? Easy McSlutty? Vivi thought.

"... sophomore!" Isabelle wailed.

Lane frowned sympathetically. "We know, Iz."

"It's gonna be okay." Vivi put her hand on her friend's back. Her heart felt sick. Worse than it had when Jeffrey had dumped her last night. This was Isabelle. Her best friend since grade school. Izzy's heartache had more of an effect on Vivi than her own did. "Come on. Let's get out of here," Vivi said.

"I'll go get our stuff and meet up with you guys," Curtis said, jogging over to Lonnie's.

"We'll go back to my house and ... I don't know... come up with a revenge plan," Vivi said comfortingly. "Between us we should definitely be able to whip up a voodoo doll," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Isabelle choked a laugh and nodded through a fresh wave of tears. "Okay." Vivi had a feeling the girl would agree to anything right then.

"Don't worry, Iz," Lane said as they headed down the street toward the municipal parking lot and Vivi's car. "Everything's gonna be okay."

"Y eah, it is, because if the voodoo doll doesn't work, I'm going to go over there and kick his ass. Believe me," Vivi said, determined. "That idiot has broken your heart for the last time."

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* * * * two * * * *

Pick up tray with both hands. Place change on tray. Do not drop change. Do n... drop ...

Lane managed to transfer the coins and bills from her sweaty palm onto the side of her plastic lunch tray without overturning the whole thing. She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled in triumph at the cafeteria worker. The woman looked like she was about to phone the school shrink.

Lane managed an apologetic smile and stepped aside.

"And then, out of nowhere, my dad's like, 'If you don't get all As and B's on your final report card, you're not going to camp1'" Curtis babbled to her as he stepped up to the register. "I mean, how wrong is that? I'm a head counselor this year."

As always, he was totally oblivious of Lane's extreme stress--all of which was caused by him. Lane pretty much lived not to do anything embarrassing in front of Curtis. As long as she didn't, she figured that one day her fantasy of

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him waking up and realizing she was his one true love might actually come true. She knew it was a thin thread of logic, but she had to cling to something.

"Don't you think?" Curtis asked.

"What? Oh yeah," Lane replied, not really knowing what she was agreeing to.

"So then I'm, like, I am so totally screwed. I mean, there's no way I can pull a B in Calc. Lazinsky sucks, giving us that much homework," Curtis continued. He paid for his lunch, pocketed the change, and picked up his tray with one hand. He clearly had no problem. "We're graduating in a month. Is he some kind of sadist?"

"Y could just not do it," Lane suggested.

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"Were you not listening to me? I have to get a B or no camp this summer. I have to do it," Curtis told her as they started down the center aisle of the cafeteria. Lane glanced at him from the corner of her eye and smiled. As silly as it was, she loved the way he looked in this light. The gold flecks in his brown eyes seemed brighter, and the sun brought out the red highlights in his floppy brown hair. What she wouldn't give to be able to paint him in the middle of the cafeteria. It would totally be her masterpiece. The best thing she'd done all year, hands down. If only she could get him to ...

"So will you?"

Lane stopped walking abruptly, and her soda almost slid off the edge of her tray. Luckily, Curtis caught it in time.

"Whoops. That was close," he said with a grin. There was the tiniest little chip in his front tooth from a skateboarding accident he'd had earlier that year. He always touched his

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tongue to it when he was concentrating really hard. It was totally adorable.

"Will I what?" Lane asked, balancing the tray against her hip. She nervously pulled her hair over her shoulder.

"Help me. With Calc. After school," Curtis said in a voice that made it perfectly clear he'd said all of it already.

Lane had planned on spending her afternoon in the art studio finishing up her senior project. She'd been looking forward to it, actually. She had even created a new playlist on her iPod for inspiration. But Curtis was looking at her with big, puppy dog eyes, and she could never turn down that face.

"Sure. Want to meet up in the library after eighth?" she said, tugging at her hair again.

Curtis grinned. "What would I do without you?"

I don't know. But right now you should kiss me, she thought. Then she blushed and turned around, heading for their prime cafeteria spot.

They always sat in the same place, right next to the glass doors to the courtyard, which were always open on a beautiful spring day like this one, letting in the warm sweet-smelling air. Lane's knees were quaking a bit after her space-out, and she couldn't have been more relieved when she slid safely into a chair. Unfortunately, the vibe at the table was not a happy one. Isabelle was slumped in her seat as she had been all week, listlessly toying with her fork, while Vivi eyed her sadly. This had to stop. Lane had never seen her friend so depressed for so many days in a row. Usually, she and Shawn would have kissed and made up by now--not that Lane wanted that to

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happen. She just wished she could figure out some other way to cheer Isabelle up.

"Hi, guys!" Lane said brightly.

"Hey." Isabelle's voice was barely a whisper.

"What's up?" Curtis asked, shaking his chocolate milk. He looked around at the girls hopefully, as he'd been doing all week long. Lane knew he was just waiting for them all to snap out of it already. Curtis was a good friend to them, but he knew nothing about the required female mourning period after the end of an intense relationship.

"Nothing," Isabelle replied in another near whisper, staring listlessly out the window.

Curtis sighed, shrugged, and grabbed a fry. Lane saw him look at Isabelle out of the corner of his eye, and she knew he was trying to think of a way to cheer her up. Which only made her love him more.

The door to the cafeteria opened, and Lane and Vivi both looked up automatically, as anyone facing the door did when there was a latecomer. It was Tricia Blank, and she was wearing a very familiar black sweater. Lane's face prickled with heat, and she looked over at Vivi. Instantly she knew Vivi recognized it, too. They had, after all, spent an hour in the hot, crowded, Christmastime mall helping Isabelle pick it out. And another half an hour helping her select the perfect manly wrapping paper for it.

"Oh, I don't believe this ..." Vivi snarled through gritted teeth.

"What?" Isabelle asked, turning around. Lane wouldn't have thought it possible, but Izzy's skin actually grew

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sallower before her eyes. "Wait. Is that the--?was

"The sweater you bought Shawn for Christmas?" Vivi fumed, shaking her head.

Isabelle looked over at Shawn's table, where he sat with the rest of his friends--kids who thought that wearing offensive T-shirts and keeping packs of cigarettes in the back pockets of their jeans made them anarchists. Shawn instantly locked eyes with Isabelle, as if he had Izzy radar, then glanced over at Tricia, who was busy smiling and chatting with some of her girlfriends near the wall. He was out of his chair like a shot and walked right over to Isabelle's side.

"Belle," he said, his blue eyes pained.

"Y gave her my sweater?" Isabelle said, her voice thick.

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"No. I swear. She must have taken it out of my dresser," Shawn said pleadingly. As if he cared about Isabelle's feelings. As if he had any conscience at all.

"She was in your room?" Isabelle half whimpered.

Shawn pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and looked around at the others. "Belle, can we please just talk for a second?"

"Don't call me Belle," Isabelle said sadly.

"Fine. I'm sorry. Y ou're right. Can we j... please?"

"Fine," Isabelle said, standing.

She and Shawn walked to the other end of the table near the open doors.

"Unbelievable," Vivi said, shaking her head so furiously that her messy blond bun tumbled into a ponytail. "I can't believe she's actually talking to him."

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She got up quietly and walked around the table, headed for the vending machines near the wall--about three feet from where Izzy and Shawn were now standing.

"Vivi!" Lane hissed.

Vivi turned around and shot her a wide-eyed look, telling her to shut up. Lane deflated and turned back to her food. It wasn't like she was going to argue. Vivi was going to do what Vivi wanted to do anyway.

Over at the vending machines, Vivi made a good show of it, pulling some change out of her pocket and pretending like she was totally baffled by the myriad candy choices. Meanwhile, Shawn and Izzy just kept talking, too engrossed in their conversation to notice the eavesdropper. Finally Vivi aggressively punched in a number, grabbed her Twix bar, and stormed back to the table. She yanked out her chair and dropped into it with a huff.

"Okay, that guy should be a politician," Vivi said. "He is all slime."

"Why? What's going on?" Curtis asked, finally buying into the soap opera.

"First of all, he said he still cares about her and always will," Vivi grumbled. "And that he'd never give the sweater she gave him to another girl."

"Well, that's good, right?" Curtis asked before chugging his milk.

Vivi rolled her eyes. "Then he told her that she should move on. That he thinks she's too good for him and she can do better," she whispered furiously.

Lane snorted. "Well, he's got that right."

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:

JHK-LIKE

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"Y eah, but to him it's a total joke. He knew she was going to disagree, which of course she totally did. I don't understand why you're so hard on yourself. I love you. Y know that1'" she said, doing a perfect imitation of Isabelle's voice. "He's totally keeping her hanging. I swear I could just--was She curled

ou her hands into fists and grunted in frustration.

"Okay, okay. Calm down," Lane said, putting her hand over Vivi's.

"She can't take him back," Vivi said, shaking her head. "She can't be second to Tricia Skank-Ho Blank. We need to stage an intervention. Threaten her with something."

Lane rolled an empty straw wrapper in her fingers and laughed. "Like what?"

"I don't know . . . maybe we should tell her we won't be friends with her anymore! Freeze her out," Vivi announced. "Tough love, like in that DVD we watched in health class sophomore year."

"Urn ... Isabelle's not a crack addict," Lane pointed out. "No. But she is a Shawn addict," Vivi shot back.

Lane's heart dropped. Vivi couldn't be serious. At least, Lane hoped she wasn't. Because usually, when Vivi came up with a plan, she stuck to it. And she made everyone around her stick to it as well.

"We can't do that," Curtis said, crumpling up the empty milk container. "It's way too mean. And besides, none of us could actually go through with it."

Vivi's face dropped and she slumped. "Y ou're right. But we have to do something to make her realize she doesn't need

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this jerk," Vivi said, glancing over at them. Lane saw Isabelle nod at something Shawn was saying, and the very sight made her tense.

Lane shook her head. "Isabelle is way too good for him. If she goes back to him, it'll be a total disaster."

Curtis nodded, his mouth full.

"Good. At least we all see it," Vivi said, setting her jaw in a determined way. She pulled her sneaker-clad feet up on the chair and rested her chin on her knees. "Now we just have to come up with a way to make her see it."

***

"Do you really think empowerment-movie night is going to help?" Lane asked, sifting through the pile of DVD's Vivi had rented.

"It's just a preliminary plan. Until I come up with the real one," Vivi said, setting a huge bowl of popcorn down on the table in her basement.