Heartbreaker Hanson (2 page)

CHAPTER 3

Okay,
I’ll just start by saying Off-Limits Drew kissed me. (!!!) It was at the end of
last school year, and okay, it was a spontaneous mistake on his part. But for
ME, it was like something out of a dream.

However,
all last year had been like that for me. Sort of. Because last year something
had changed between Drew and me. A special friendship had grown that wasn’t
there before, and I cherished it with all my heart. In all the years I’d known
Drew I don’t really think he even thought of me as a friend, not really. I was
just Nick’s twin sister. But last year we ended up in a lot of the same classes,
and we started studying together. At first we would just get together before a
big test, but as time went on we got together quite often and we’d end up
talking until the wee hours of the night. But he had a girlfriend (my friend,
Laurie), so we were strictly just friends.

Drew’s
kissing me had been a spontaneous mistake, definitely … but it was one he most
assuredly would not have made before last year, when he finally noticed me.

…
Okay, the kiss. (Ohhh the kiss!!!) Well, I don’t know if it could
technically
even be considered a
kiss—not technically. But our lips had definitely touched, so—even
though I pulled away from him—still, it was a kiss. To me.

How
it went was this—it was the end of the school year and Drew and I were
coming home from a math team meet. We sat together on the bus, and at first we
were having all sorts of fun just chatting together and joking around, but
well, it was a three-hour bus ride, and it was late at night, so eventually
(even though I was sitting next to the boy of my dreams) still, I drifted off
to sleep.

…
but then I woke—
kissing
Drew.

I
lurched away from him, shocked.

Silently,
he stared into my eyes, tracing his lips. He seemed shocked too. Shocked at
what he had done with his lips.

“I’m
sorry,” he murmured, sounding tortured. “It’s just you were snuggled up with me
all cute—and then—and then you said my name and—”

The
bus stopped. He didn’t finish what he was saying, because right then we pulled
up to the school. Laurie jumped onto the bus excitedly, telling us how proud
she was of us, since our math team won.

“Thanks,”
I murmured to her as she smiled all happily, handing me congratulatory cookies
she’d baked herself—for Drew and me.

I
quickly scurried away from the kissing couple, scrambling off the bus.

I
couldn’t breathe.

Immediately
I decided I’d take that nanny job for the summer in California after all.
‘Cause there was no way I would be able to be around those two now—not ever
again. Not since I’d felt Drew’s lips on mine.

That
kiss—holy smokes! It changed everything.
Everything!

I
couldn’t just be Drew’s “buddy” anymore … and I couldn’t be Laurie’s love
counselor anymore either. (Which I hated being anyway—for obvious
reasons.)

So
off to California I flew.

CHAPTER 4

The
entire summer I was
so
grateful to be
away from Drew. I kept hoping that during my time apart from him I could get
over the euphoria I felt waking to find his glorious lips on mine.

Unfortunately
though that didn’t end up being the case. Not even close.

Still,
I didn’t text him all summer. Thankfully (though at the same
time—painfully) he didn’t text me either. Except once. It was the day
after the kiss. He wrote:
“You left the bus so fast. But the kiss …
Brooke, I wanted to apologize for it. I mean you’re Laurie’s friend—and
my friend, and I was out of line.”

Yeah.

Like
I said, I didn’t write him back. All summer.

I
knew he didn’t really mean anything by the kiss. But just the same, all summer
I had dreamily thought about it—about waking up with his warm soft lips
on mine.

It
was like something out of my dreams.

In
case you haven’t figured it out, I’m in love with Drew. Like I said, I’d loved
him since the third grade. I would have started my idolism of him even earlier
but I spent the first three years of school in rapture with Rider Hanson who
asked me to “Skip to My Lou” with him my very first day of school. Even when
Rider finally dumped me cold, my devotion to him sadly secretly went on. In
fact, it’s possible that if Rider hadn’t moved away in the third grade I would
still be secretly scribbling poems of love and heartbreak about him, and
fervently saying my prayers every night that he would somehow love me again.
However, Rider
did
move away, and my
longing heart turned to Drew.

And
stayed there.

Don’t
get me wrong, I’ve had other crushes. Small ones. Sometimes. But my heart’s
longing devotion to Drew never wavered … it just sometimes got sort of
sidetracked for a while. A little. I was always grateful when it did.
Especially
when Drew became Laurie’s
boyfriend two years ago. Then I tried desperately not to like Drew anymore. But,
well, my heart doesn’t really listen to me. (If it did, I wouldn’t have been so
in love with Rider for so long.)

My
heart is kind of stupid.

And
it became
extremely
stupid after that
kiss.

So,
I avoided Drew like the flippin’ plague after it.

But,
you know, school has started again.

So
avoiding him has become extremely difficult. For one thing, there’s the glaring
fact—he’s my friend’s boyfriend.

For
another, Drew is once again in a lot of my classes. So, though I kept my
distance from him all week—still, his eyes stayed on me. All week.

We
haven’t talked about the kiss.

Or
anything else.

I
basically run from him whenever I see him coming. Literally, actually.

But
face it, I can’t run from his stare.

Because
he’s in almost every single one of my classes.

CHAPTER 5

Laurie
called me Monday night as I was trying to do my homework. She was calling about
Drew (her boyfriend), of course. Because she
always
calls me about Drew. Ever since they got together.

I
should maybe mention that besides the strange phenomenon with the male
population’s eyeballs this school year, something weird also seemed to be going
on with “the couple” (aka: Laurie and Drew). Something had changed between
them. (Duh.) (I mean, he
kissed
me.) But
besides that perplexing random mistake, something else was also going on with him
too.

On
the surface the couple seemed to be getting along better than they had at the
end of last year. I mean, I didn’t see an argument break out between them the entire
week, which was—wow! Well, for Laurie. (She’s a drama queen.) But there
was definitely a noticeable distance between them. Although they still ate
lunch together, I noticed Laurie spent a large portion of her time with us, “the
group,” while Drew spent most of his time with his friends from the football
team—I mean, during lunch and everything.

Drew
didn’t seem to be cross with Laurie or anything, but definitely aloof—detached-like.
Which was so different than he used to be with her. He used to like, worship
her. It was interesting to observe. Both were, actually—the before
and
the drastic change. It was like
night and day. Laurie (understandably) seemed to be massively hurt and
bewildered by the huge change in Drew, but she never mentioned anything about
it to the group, and I didn’t bring it up. Usually Laurie came whispering to me
about all her problems with Drew. So, I felt relieved that she had found
someone else to confide in. But then, like I said, Monday when she called “just
to gab” I soon discovered she hadn’t confided in anyone else, but had been
bottling all her confusion in and feeling miserable.

“Drew
doesn’t love me anymore,” she whimpered out of nowhere in the middle of her
phone call to me.

My
eyelids squeezed shut.

“Um,
what makes you say that?” I asked, putting down my pencil, though I’d been
trying to erase a huge foul up that I’d made somewhere in my calculus problem.

“Because
it’s true. I know it’s true,” she cried.

I
buried my head in my hands.

Like
I said, Laurie
always
called me and
cried when she was having problems with Drew. I guess she figured that since I
helped get them together it was my duty to help keep them together. I didn’t
really mind listening and helping, not that I was ever much help. It’s just
that sometimes I got kind of frustrated with her. ‘Cause face it: she was the
only problem in their relationship. Drew really honestly loved her (
adored
her even) and did his best to
please her. She was the one that would always get mad about really stupid,
insanely petty things and break up with him. Then she would always call me,
crying that he didn’t love her anymore.

It
made me roll my eyes.

And
not be too terribly sympathetic.

Well,
usually.

However,
tonight I quit my erasing to listen to her. Since, yeah, I had noticed a big
change in their relationship in just this past week, so I knew this time her
problems weren’t all in her head. (Come on, the dude
kissed
me!!) Obviously something was up with him. Duh, right? But,
keep in mind, the kiss was just an accident. He’d probably just meant it as a
joke or something … though it hadn’t felt like a joke. Not to
me
. (But I was in love with the guy, so
keep that in mind, too.) My perspective was not, you know, super sane.

I
thumped my head on my desk, wishing for the hundredth-thousandth time Laurie
had someone else that she shared her Drew-woes with. But no. I was her
designated Drew-discusser. Joy. (Not.)

All
summer long Laurie had texted me complaining that Drew was acting “strange.” Not
mean, just distant; avoiding spending any time alone with her. She said he
hardly ever called her anymore, and that when she called him he seemed
distracted.

“Do
you think he’s seeing someone else?” I asked hesitantly. I didn’t really think
he was. Not at all, really. Drew wasn’t that type of guy. I knew he wouldn’t
technically
cheat on his girlfriend (the
kiss did NOT count) (it
didn’t
)—but
something had definitely changed inside him this year. That was beyond clear.

Laurie
made this little sob noise. “I don’t know,” she cried. “I don’t think so … but
maybe he is. I just don’t
know
what’s
going on with him anymore.”

Then
she did what I was afraid she was going to: She begged me to come over to her
house to talk about Drew with her.

“Have
dinner with me and my mom,” she coaxed. (Her mom loves me, by the way) (just
sayin’). She quickly went on to say the part I dreaded—that afterwards
we’d have a “serious discussion” about her and Drew.

I
grimaced and thumped my forehead on my desk some more.

I
did
not
want to go. I had tons of
homework—which was scary for so early in the school year, and I had a chemistry
test to study for.

But
mostly I didn’t want to go because I was beyond nauseous to talk with her about
Drew. She always turned to me for advice about him, like I knew anything at all
about relationships (I didn’t). Yet she looked to me as though I was a
relationship counselor. That used to be fine, before Drew kissed me. (Um, I
mentioned that right?—Drew’s tantalizing kiss?) Anyway, before that
awkward/heart-stopping incident, I had no problems trying to help Laurie sort
out her problems with Drew.

But
now I dreaded seeing them together, and more than that I dreaded the idea of
having to listen to Laurie dissect their love life. I loved Drew. I really,
truly, honestly loved him. I didn’t want to have to listen to his girlfriend
complain about him anymore. It just really sucked that his girlfriend was one
of the very few friends I had left. (My very best friend in the world, Rachel,
died in a car accident at the end of sophomore year.) (Guess maybe I should
mention that; just to explain why Laurie and I are closer friends than we used
to be—or closer than a rational person would expect, since I don’t really
like Laurie all that much.) (Only, it’s hard to make new friends when you’re
grieving, and sometimes you just take what you can get and try to survive … and
hope things will get better.) (But until Rachel died, Laurie and I were mostly
just friends because our moms were super close.)

 
Anyway, after a lot of coaxing and
begging from Laurie, I agreed to come over to her house on the condition that
she’d let me go home early.

“Right,
okay,” she promised. But her promises really don’t count for that much, as
she’s mega rich and gorgeous and used to getting her way.

“I
promise
,” she said.

“Okay,”
I sighed in defeat. “But I really mean it, Laurie—early!”

But
I knew it wouldn’t happen unless her house burned down.

Nick,
my brother, gave me a ride to Laurie’s house, dropping me off on his way to
work. I worried that might be a problem because it meant I’d have to get a ride
home from Laurie instead of having someone pick me up at a set time, and like I
said, Laurie has a way of delaying a person when she wants to, and I really,
really,
reall
y didn’t want to be at
her house long. Or at all.

I
figured if I got desperate I could just walk home, but I hoped I wouldn’t have
to resort to that. Her house is within walking distance, but it’s quite a
long
distance. The Ashtons live in the
ritzy section of our neighborhood called The Manors. Their fancy house is up on
a hill that overlooks my portion of the neighborhood, which is a nice enough neighborhood,
pretty much, just not as impressive as The Manors. Not by a long shot.

Laurie
greeted me at the door before I knocked. She’s gorgeous. She reminds me of
Alice. You know, the one from Wonder Land. She has long silky blond hair, and
big blue eyes. She’s beautiful.

Laurie’s
mom stood beside her in the doorway. She’s gorgeous too.

Gorgeous
people, in a gorgeous house. Fitting, right? But it’s also kind of intimidating
to me, even though I’ve been here tons of times. I’m talking
tons
.

“Brooke!
Look at you!” Mrs. Ashton greeted me with a warm hug. “Laurie told me what a
beauty you turned into over the summer while you were away, but I wasn’t
prepared for this! You look gorgeous! Like a model!”

I
smiled, loving Laurie’s mom. “Thanks.”

Um,
I mentioned I went away for the summer, right? Well, I did. After Drew (mistakenly)
kissed me, I knew I couldn’t stay in town all summer, ‘cause I’d just agonize,
yet dream about, and re-live that glorious moment over and over all summer long
in my mushy, confused, dazed brain. So, I went away. Though, of course, I still
re-lived that moment in my dreams every single night. But I did it in
California instead conveniently, awkwardly located near Drew—and his, you
know, girlfriend.

For
the entire summer I was a nanny for a rich lady that my rich aunt is friends
with. The lady had cute two-year old twins, and a pool … and, as it turned out,
a desperate need to “glamorize” frumpy me.

She
sent me to her beauty specialists. I let her, since it was on her dime … and
also, California made me feel
extra
frumpy. Well, until I got glamorized. Then I felt … beautiful. It was pretty
cool, actually. So was all the boys’ stares when I came back to school. Sort
of. Well, actually, to be honest, it was a curious cross between super cool,
and freakishly weird.

Especially
when the stare came from Off-Limits Drew.

His
heated stare when he first saw me made a heated tingling sensation explode
through me, yet I had quickly ducked into the school’s bathroom, since the last
time I’d seen him had been our near-kiss. So when he finally saw me again that first
day at school—after the whole, entire summer of me hiding in California
from him—I found out I
still
wasn’t ready to see him.

However,
when he first saw me that morning across the crowded school hallway, his lips
had parted slightly and he’d stopped whatever he was saying to Laurie in
mid-sentence, his eyes sparking like the Fourth of July as he stared at me—hungrily.
But he’d been with Laurie—just exactly as I tried all summer to prepare
myself for him to be—with Laurie. Kissing Laurie.

Though
Laurie had told me that they broke up over and over again all summer, still the
first day back to school, they were together again—just as I knew they
would be. And as I’d tried to prepare myself for them to be.

However,
Drew’s eyes lighting up, and his lips parting when he saw me—I
hadn’t
been prepared for that. At all.
So, I hid in the bathroom, trying to catch my breath.

…
and then I avoided him all week like the plague, though I felt his eyes on me
all week like a longing man dying of hunger.

So,
Monday night it majorly sucked that he showed up at Laurie’s house not long
after I got there.

Eeek!