Fallen Crest High (12 page)

He grimaced and stood up. "The
Kades
are some talented sons of bitches,
that's
all I'm saying. Your dad would've made them better than they are, they might be more respectful too. All they are is rich a-holes right now."

"Sam, Adam." Becky waved us over to the food table. "We need to grab our food first before my little brothers and all their friends get out here. They're like bugs; their saliva will be crawling all over the food."

And after we sat at a far table with our plates; eight boys who looked like they were in seventh grade burst through the back door. They swarmed around the table. Becky was right. As the afternoon passed, the guys never left the food for long. They were different heights, but all were skinny except for one that looked on the pudgy side. When Becky got up and got us some more beverages, her brothers and their friends took over the pool too.

She sighed as she popped open a beer. "There goes my tanning today.
Little rodents."

Adam laughed and stole the water she had nabbed. "Come off it. You love your brothers and you know it. You dote on Jake and Greg."

She scowled. "I'm going to make their lives hell. JAKE!"

A boy popped his head out of the water. "What?"

"If you don't get your little friends out of the pool, I'm going to tell mom and dad what's under your
tv
."

He froze and his eyes got wide.

Then Adam laughed and stood up. "Don't worry about her, Jake. She won't do that to you. Come on, Becks." He tugged her from the table. "Let's you and me take Sam to the movies."

A pink flush came over her cheeks, but she pretended to pull against his hold on her. "I wanted to tan today, Adam."

He laughed again and swatted her butt. "Go get cute. We can make a matinee and it'll be my treat."

I watched as she tried not to make it look like she was hurrying inside. Then I frowned when he sat back down. "You're not being nice again."

His eyebrows lifted slightly. "I thought I was being really nice."

"You're not and you know it. What's your game?"

He let out a deep breath and glanced at his lap. A moment later he peeked over and I followed his gaze. Two older men were in a heated conversation. Their hands were in the air and each had a can of beer. "I don't feel like being here. My dad just got here."

"Which one?"

"The tall guy.
He got here from a meeting ten minutes ago."

From the way he said that and how he was scowling at him, I figured Adam knew something I couldn't discern. His dad was handsome. He was an older version of Adam and he was dressed in custom fitted shorts with a white shirt. He could've been a model for a summer GQ edition.

Becky's dad was the opposite. His white wife beater had stains from the grill and his beer belly hung over his board shorts. He had a slight worshipful look on his face as he debated something with Adam's dad.

"Did he really have a meeting?"

Adam's mother had grown silent next to Laura where they sat underneath a patio umbrella.

He sighed. "What do you think?"

Understanding dawned. "This is why I've kept quiet about my situation."

"Yeah, well, that's not going to happen to me. He'll never leave her."

I heard the bitterness and asked, "You want him to?"

"I want her to."

I fell quiet. I didn't know what to say.

Then Adam surprised me when he tapped my arm gently. "My mom works for James
Kade
, you know. She's the assistant to his junior assistant."

I shot him a dark look. "So?"

He shrugged.
"So nothing.
She talks about how nice he is to her."

Relief flooded me and my shoulders sagged forward. Then I gave him a wicked grin. "Oh, so are you saying you could be stepbrothers with Mason and Logan
Kade
."

He grinned.
"Yeah, right.
Wouldn't that be a joke?"

I didn't know what else to say and Adam fell into a quiet slump. We were both like that, dazing off into our thoughts when Becky rushed outside. She had changed into khaki shorts and a loose top. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail and she had a small amount of make-up on. Her eyelashes were black and long. I'd never seen her dressed how she was, even when we went to the party.

She looked nice and I cast a look at Adam underneath my eyelids. Did he think so? But he stood up and shot forward to his car. Her shoulders dropped an inch and the corners of her mouth turned down, but then she flashed me a bright smile.

"Do I look okay?" She touched the ends of her hair and patted them into place. They already were, but she kept pressing them down.

"You look good." And I meant it.

She cast me a furtive glance. "Not like you. You look great, like always."

I frowned.

"How was your date?" She put the chirpy note back in her voice and fell in line beside me as we followed where Adam had gone to his car. He waited for us, not within hearing distance.

I hesitated. Now I wasn't being the nice friend.

"Come on." She nudged me with her shoulder. "I really want to know."

"Becky." I grabbed her arm and held her back. "You like him."

Her mouth twisted, but she gave me a smile after. "It doesn't matter. He doesn't like me, not like that."

"He could."

"No, he couldn't. He practically drools any time you enter a room. He's always had a thing for you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Even before last year, he was interested. You were dating Jeff, though, so he asked Ashley out."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, duh."
She rolled her eyes, but frowned when she saw that I was biting my lip. "You didn't know?
Really?"

I shook my head. "I didn't know that Jess had been sleeping with Jeff for two years. How was I supposed to know this?"

"Oh. Well." Her shoulders lifted and dropped in a dramatic way. "You got your chance now."

Except I didn't and I didn't want it. Then I remembered last night when Mason touched me, how his fingers lingered on my thigh. I shivered as the same desire swept through me again.

Not good. None of this was good.

"Are you two coming or what?" Adam called us over.

"Yeah!"
Becky shouted back and dragged me after with a forced excited look in her eyes. She tried to sit in the back, but I made her sit in the front.

As we went to the theatre I slumped in the back of the car and was quiet on the drive over. Both tried to pull me into the conversation, but admitted defeat when we got closer to the mall. I listened to them talking when we got our tickets and took our seats.

Their conversation wasn't forced. There was no taunting, strained silences, or fakeness. They sounded like two friends who'd known each other all their lives and then I realized that they
had
known each other all their lives. They were neighbors. Their parents were friends.

I made the decision then that I'd try to be the friend for Becky that she seemed to be for everyone else.

I sighed. If only I knew how.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"We get out of practice early tonight. Your
da
—David's got something, I guess." Adam dropped a shoulder against the locker beside mine when I arrived the next morning to school. He folded his arms and his backpack's straps cut into the muscles on his arms and chest.

That annoyed me for some reason and I opened my locker to stuff the bag lunch
Mousteff
had shoved at me that morning. He had muttered, like he always did, but this time I was certain I'd heard a few curse words. And I was certain they were directed at me, well, me or my mother.
Then I relaxed as I considered that. He was probably pissed about my mom again. That made more sense.

Adam had been watching me with an odd look. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I bit out. I forced myself to relax. Sometimes being mean right off the bat wasn't good. And Adam had started to be one of the two people still there for me after my debacle with Jeff/Lydia/Jessica.

And speaking of, as I turned to Adam, I saw my two ex best friends at Jill
Flatten's
locker across the hall. All three of them were watching me with frowns on their faces. When they saw me, Jill giggled and leaned closer to the two. She whispered something and both of them started laughing.

Jeff stopped beside them, saw me, saw the exchange, and kept going.

Adam chuckled. "I think he's finally learning."

I rolled my eyes and started towards my first class. When Adam walked with me, I asked, "So what about you getting out of practice early?"

"I was thinking we could try that dinner again."

I saw Becky at her locker ahead. She dropped her bag. Books and papers fell out of it and she knelt beside and lurched to grab everything before people kicked her things away. A few laughed and did what she tried to prevent, but one other girl helped her gather her stuff.

I sighed. "I can't."

"Why not?"
Then he saw where I'd been watching. He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. "Becky and I are never going to date. We had a heart to heart last night after the movies."

"You did?"

"Yeah."
He nodded. His eyes skirted over my face, scanning me constantly as if he were looking for something. "She's really okay with you and me…" He hesitated. "Getting to know one another?"

I smirked. "And do I get a say in this?"

"Well, yeah, of course." But his cheeks got red, just a bit, and he scratched the back of his head. "So do you want to have dinner tonight? I was thinking you could even eat the food this time."

I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, sure."
I waited a beat. "Can I bring Becky?"

He froze and I moved ahead, laughing. Then he called after me, "You're not funny."

I shook my head and kept laughing. I was funny enough.

I had Lydia in my first two periods and she kept giving me weird looks. Jessica was in my third and fourth period. She refused to look at me. Then at lunch, when Becky dropped across from me and Adam went to sit with his football team, Jill joined their table along with Lydia and Jessica.

Becky looked over her shoulder and her eyes got wide. "I can't believe them."

"What?" I was cautious as I opened my bag lunch. Then I relaxed. Inside were an orange, a bag of chips, and a peanut butter sandwich. I gave her my chips, tossed the sandwich in the trash, and started to peel the orange.

"Jill Flatten. She's all over Jeff at the table. And I can't believe she's friends with
your
friends."

"They're not my friends."

"They were," she retorted and sent them a glare. Lydia had looked, but ducked her head down. "It's like Jill Flatten wants your life."

I sat back and fought off a yawn.

"Aren't you bothered at all by her?"

I shrugged.
"Truthfully, no.
It's
sorta
the last thing on my mind these days."

She gave me an incredulous look. "What else is going on in your life?"

If only she knew… I lifted
an
careless shoulder. "Jill Flatten does not bother me." Mason and Logan on the other hand… My mother… I shuddered. My whole life had fallen apart. Finding one good friend like Becky erased all the other friend drama.

"She bothers me." She peeked over her shoulder at them.

I looked this time too and saw all three of them had been staring at us. Lydia squeaked and looked at her food. Jessica's head whipped away and Jill only narrowed her eyes, but she held my gaze.

I narrowed mine back and stood.

Becky gasped, "What are you doing?"

I was tempted to shrug her off. I didn't know, but something propelled me across the lunch room. I stopped before their table and heard a lot of conversations hush. The football team sat at the 'popular' table, but most of the really popular girls sat at the other end where Adam was with the
other varsity starters. Jill, Lydia, and Jessica sat at the far end where Jeff was, along with the other second string guys. Jeff was third string, actually.

Becky bumped into my elbow, and then apologized under her breath. She was panting from her hurry.

"Sam!" Adam called over and waved at us.

I ignored him.

Becky took my arm and hissed in my ear, "We can sit by him."

I shrugged her off and glanced up. I didn't know what made me look, but my fake father had entered the lunch room. He was dressed in his coach's apparel, a professional looking running suit with Fallen Crest Academy printed on his left shoulder underneath our school's crest.