Fall: A Seaside Novel (The Seaside Series) (22 page)

“Thanks.” His voice cracked.

“Anytime.”

He took a swallow of water then spit it out onto the counter. “Wait, what?”

I looked at my hands.

“You care about her? As in you care about her like a five-year-old cares for his goldfish?”

I scowled.

“Holy hell…” Demetri sat on the barstool. “I thought when you said you liked her you meant you had a little crush or obsession because you hadn’t been with anyone in a while. I didn’t think you were…”

“Don’t say it,” I warned.

“Fine.” He grinned. “I’ll just think it.”

“Ass. Why are you even here?”

“Seven days off tour, man. We wanted to check out the condo, plus our next stop is in Portland, so it works out.”

“Thanks for the text.”

“Thanks for the naked surprise.”

“Touché.”

“Hey, guys?” Alyssa called from the back room. “Can you order us pizza?”

“Sure,” we answered in unison, both glaring at one another.

“I’m not a whore,” I said, feeling the need to clear the air.

Demetri snorted. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ten more minutes.” He shook his head. “I was a whore once. I know how it works. You tell yourself you won’t go too far, you tell yourself you’ll stop, and then, you wake up at five a.m. damning yourself to Hell. You really like her? Prove it. Don’t sleep with her.”

A bucket of cold water would have done less damage to my already pounding blood.

“But—”

“Take it or leave it. She’s Alyssa’s cousin, soon to be my cousin by marriage. You want her, that’s fine. Prove you’re man enough not to do what you’ve been doing for the past five years.”

“I’m not a monk,” I grumbled.

“Be a monk.” He winked. “For her.”

“Fine.”

Demetri burst out laughing. “I can’t wait to call Alec. He’s supposed to meet us down here, but they got a later flight for tomorrow.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

Demetri reached across the counter and punched me in the arm. “Surprise, bitch.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Priscilla

Pretty sure my face was still as red as a tomato as I sat on the bed and waited for Alyssa to start in on me.

But instead of yelling, she shut the door, turned, and burst out laughing. “Demetri owes me fifty bucks!”

“Huh?”

“I bet him fifty bucks that Jaymeson wouldn’t be able to keep his paws to himself. Demetri, poor soul, took the bet.” She jumped onto the bed. “I win.”

“Hmm.” I licked my lips. “Does that mean you aren’t going to yell at me?”

Alyssa shrugged. Her long dark hair cascaded over her shoulder. “You’re eighteen, you can make your own choices, and by the looks of it, you were doing just fine. Jaymeson may have a bad track record, but… I know first hand that whores make the best husbands.”

“Huh?”

Smirking, Alyssa grabbed my hands. “Demetri used to be the same way, now look at him. He’s drinking water and acting like a forty-year-old dad. Once men like that fall — they fall hard. It’s like a blind bat trying to fly around with weights around its legs.” She played with a piece of her hair. “The bat falls, but falls into a bowl full of fruit and lives the rest of his days fat and happy.”

“Your examples need work.”

She shrugged. “I’ve been hanging out with Demetri too much, blame him.”

I looked around the room, feeling immediately guilty that I had been caught red-handed in their new condo on their new couch. “Lyss, I’m sorry, I know it’s your condo and—”

“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “Who cares? Oh and
P.S
., that shirt looks way better on you, you should keep it.”

“I’ll leave as soon as I can.”

“No, you won’t.” She yawned. “You’ll stay. Plus, I think our friend Jaymeson likes having you next door. Just, no sneaking out. Your parents would kill me.”

“We don’t have to sneak out.” I looked at a spot on the wall and swallowed. “Because he’s kind of been staying here.”

“On the couch?”

I shook my head.

“In the spare bedroom?”

I shook my head again.

“In your bed?”

I gave a slight nod.

“Well damn, maybe Demetri was right to be worried.”

“Nothing happens. We sleep.”

“You have Jamie Jaymeson in your bed, alone, and… you
sleep
?”

Yeah, I had to give it to her, it sounded insane.

“Yup.”

“Self control, thy name is Jaymeson.” Her head shook slightly. “Words I thought I’d never utter.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out and noted my dad’s number flashing. Probably not the right time to talk to him.

I hit ignore.

“Parents?” Alyssa guessed.

“Yeah.”

“How’s the house?”

“Getting fixed.” I sighed heavily. “I have no idea who’s behind it, but everything’s been taken care of.”

“Good.” Alyssa wrapped an arm around my shoulders, “Your family deserves a break. I know it’s been a rough year financially.”

“Yeah.” It had been hell but I didn’t want to say that out loud. She’d just feel sorry for me.

“Should we join the guys?”

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I opened the door. Both guys shirtless, wrestling on the floor, yelling obscenities.

Alyssa simply walked over them and went to the fridge. “Water?”

“Sure!”

“Tap out! Tap out!” Demetri shouted.

“Bloody hell, leave my balls out of this!”

“Wanna watch a movie?” Lyss tossed the water to me. “Or you wanna watch them kill each other?”

I took a seat.

She nodded. “Good call.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Jaymeson

Watching a movie with Demetri and Alyssa was like going on a chaperoned date. Demetri even sat between us, like the ass he was.

Priscilla laughed it off.

I elbowed him in the ribs then stretched my arms up and around him so that he’d get uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, it was Demetri we were talking about, so he took it a step further and laid his head on my shoulder then his damn hands inched up my chest.

I cursed and threw him off of me.

Damn him.

Maybe that was why I was currently risking my life.

They’d sent me home at ten, as if I had a curfew at twenty-three years old.

My bed was cold.

And without Pris it felt uncomfortable.

I even tried sleeping on the left and putting a pillow on the right so it would face me. I was half tempted to draw a face on it —but once that thought appeared, I realized I was in too deep — and desperate.

I threw another rock.

Then another.

Finally she opened her window and looked out. I waved from my balcony.

“What are you doing?” she shrieked.

“Sneaking in!” I yelled back.

“Did you suddenly learn how to fly?”

“No.” Grunting, I placed the board between the balconies.

“You’re insane!” She shouted in a hoarse whisper.

“If I die—”

“—Jaymeson! Get off the board!”

“Love…” I smiled. “I do all my own stunts. Watch me work.”

“I can’t look.” She covered her eyes, while I safely walked across the board and jumped onto her balcony.

“Safe and sound,” I muttered proudly as the sound of the board crashing onto the rocky ledge invaded my ears.
Whoops.

Pris looked through her fingers and swore. I loved it.

“Open the door.”

“What if they catch me?”

“Are you ten?” I smirked. “Just don’t make any sounds or turn on any lights. Come let me in.”

“Fine.” She shut her window.

Within minutes she was unlocking the sliding glass door and dragging me silently through the house to the guest room. It was kind of a rush — sneaking in.

When we made it to her room, she slowly closed the door and locked it.

“Oh wow, you planning on doing something naughty? Locking the door.” I shook my head in disapproval. “My, my, what a little hussy I’ve created.”

Her response was to smack me in the chest. “You could have killed yourself!”

Waving her off, I went and sat on the bed. “I was fine.”

“Right. And the board you used broke into a million pieces on the rocky cliff.”

I winced.

“That’s what I thought.” She sat next to me. “So, was it worth it?”

I tilted my head, my eyes scanning her white tank top and short black shorts. “Hell yeah, it was worth it.”

Grumbling, she crawled into bed and went to turn off the light.

“Wait.” I cleared my throat and pulled out the script Peter had sent me. I’d rolled it up and put it in my back pocket so I had to smooth out the pages before I handed them to her. “I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

“What?” She sat up.

“Run lines with me?”

“For?”

“Remember that movie I told you about? The book-to-movie series, the next
Twilight
, blah, blah.” I waved in the air.

She clapped her hands and grabbed the stack of paper. “Is this it?”

“Yeah, I kind of have to audition for it.”

She dropped the script. “You? They’re making the great Jamie Jaymeson audition?”

“Right?” I threw both hands into the air and ran them through my hair.

Smirking, she jumped out of bed. “I was kidding. Humility doesn’t look so bad on you.”

“Thanks.” I glared.

“So.” She cleared her throat. “What scene are we doing?”

Suddenly nervous, I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Um, it’s the first kiss scene.”

Her cheeks stained red. “Oh.”

“You’re the one I want to do it with.”

“Oh,” she repeated, her cheeks getting redder.

“Please?”

“Well…” Her hands shook slightly. “Since you said please.”

Irritated that she was making me feel nervous and it was my job to act, I tried to focus on something other than the fact that doing this scene with her wouldn’t be acting. At least not for me.

“Just read the lines. I have mine memorized already.” My voice cracked. “Oh, and I have to film it — hold on.” I set up my new iPhone, you know, the one Pris had yet to throw onto the ground, and used the little stand so that it caught our movements in the corner of the room. Luckily, I knew how I was with phones so I always kept an extra.

“What page?” She cleared her throat.

“Seven.”

“I’m Harley?”

“Yup.”

“Okay, don’t laugh because I’m pretty sure I’m going to suck really bad.”

“Impossible,” I muttered under my breath. She was brilliant.

“Start whenever.”

I looked at the camera and counted down three, two, one.

“Zach, you shouldn’t be here. My parents will—”

“Who cares?” I gripped her wrists. “Let them find me. I don’t care. Not anymore.”

“I care,” Pris said gently. “About you.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“Is that it then?” Her voice took on a softer tone, one I hadn’t heard her use before. “You don’t want me to care about you?”

“No.” My body shook violently. “You should let me leave. You should hate me. You should despise everything that I represent.”

“Is that what you want?”

I released her hands and paced in front of her, my body wild with pent up frustration, as if I was really living the scene. As if I was really Zach, stuck with wanting a girl I knew I had no future with. I couldn’t give her anything. I was scum, poor. I was the town joke.

“Hate me!” I shook her shoulders. “Please, I can’t take it, Harley, I—”

Voice cracking, I touched my forehead to hers.

“I don’t want to hate you,” Pris whispered. Damn, but I believed her — I believed the entire reality of the scene.

“What if I beg you to hate me?”

“I’d be lying to you, to us.”

“Harley…” I cupped her face. “We can’t go back from this. There’s no returning to what we were. My body won’t allow it, my heart wouldn’t survive it.”

“Then don’t.” She gripped my face between her hands. “Don’t leave. Don’t make this about what others think. Keep it about us. What do you feel?” She moved her hands to my chest. “Here. What do you feel here?”

My body trembled. “Afraid.”

“Zach.” Her voice cracked. “Isn’t that what love is?”

My eyes opened. “What are you saying?”

“I love you.” So much honesty came from those three simple words.

“I’m unlovable.”

“Impossible,” she whispered.

“What if I told you I loved you too?”

“Do you?” Her head tilted.

I nodded, and then fell to my knees, pressing my face against her stomach. “I do. God help me, but I do. I love you so much. I love you so much I can’t breathe. It’s wrecking me from the inside out — you have everything. Harley, I would be satisfied with just a look from you. A nod, a hand shake, I would be satisfied with anything. But, right now. I have to kiss you.”

She tilted my chin with her finger. “Then kiss me.”

“I have to love you.”

“Then love me.”

“I want to marry you.”

Her breathe hitched as her eyes dilated. “Then ask.”

I couldn’t catch my breath. In an instant, I was on my feet, kissing her, tasting her, touching her everywhere.

The script dropped to the ground.

And it was just us.

Not Harley and Zach.

But Jaymeson and Priscilla.

I ended the kiss and pulled back.

She was a better actress than most girls I’d worked with — it was raw, believable. I was still shaking from the encounter.

Because while she acted…

I lived.

I existed.

I wasn’t playing Zach. I was playing Jaymeson — for the first time in my life, I didn’t have to pretend to be someone or something. I was being me. I was the one on the floor begging. I was the one confessing my love.

And I was the one willing to take whatever crumbs she dropped off her table.

“That was fun.” Priscilla cleared her throat and looked away while I went and pressed stop on the recording. I sent it to Peter immediately.

If that didn’t get me the job…

I didn’t want it.

“Are you staying?” Pris’s hand touched my back.