Heartbreaker Hanson (7 page)

CHAPTER 13

All
this week I avoided both Drew and Laurie. I continued letting Ethan pull me to
the band room for lunch so I didn’t have to eat in the cafeteria—where I
used to have to endure the couple either fighting or kissing. Now I just had to
fight off Ethan’s attempts to get me alone with him. Thank goodness the band
room was always full of friends—just not the ones Laurie would approve
of. She’s a social snob. I’m
so
not.

Avoiding
Off-Limits Drew in classes was harder, as I’d always feel his eyes on me, but I
didn’t sit near him and I’d race out the classroom door as soon as the bell
rang.

As
for Laurie—she called a few times during the week, but I’d just text her
back. Short answers. Really short. Like, one word replies.

I
thought my avoidance strategy was working out fairly well—until Friday
morning. Then I groaned. ‘Cause they were both standing at my locker waiting
for me when I got to school.

Seeing
them, I froze. My stomach seriously knotted at the sight of them—there at
my locker, obviously wanting to talk to me. Groan.

“Cute
couple, huh?”

The
unexpected voice was sardonic—and Rider’s. (aka: Heartbreaker Hanson’s)
(or Kindergarten Boyfriend) (Or Total Wad) (your choice).

Rider
grinned, “You don’t look too happy that they’re at your locker. In fact, you
look like you might even rather talk to
me
than them.”

“Fairly
astute observation,” I murmured dryly … though he was right. Well, pretty much.
However, I told
him
, “Only, I’d
rather even talk to them than you.”

He
put his hand over his heart. “Ouch.”

He
was only playfully teasing. Playing. I mean, that’s what players do, right?
They play, play, play. And he was a serious player, otherwise he wouldn’t be
able to break so many hearts. Grrr!

“You
know, you can stay here talking to me and they’ll go away,” Rider suggested,
seeming to somehow get my situation. What the—??

I
cut my gaze back to the couple. I thought about simply turning and running the other
direction. Seriously, I was willing to bypass my needed books not to have to
endure being with them. Only they were watching me. And they knew I saw them.

So,
busted.

I
mumbled to Rider, “No, they’ll just come over here, and Laurie will try setting
you up on a date with me.”

Rider
grinned, “Then let her come.”

I
rolled my eyes. “I’d rather eat worms.”

“Ouch,”
I heard Rider say as I wobbled away from him, preparing to meet my doom.

Slowly
I slogged through the crowded hallway to the disturbingly gorgeous couple,
since really I had no other choice. Though I thought about running the other
direction anyway—only I needed my history project from my locker. So,
smart move on their part, I guess.

Anyway,
I slogged over to them and tried not to grimace, and in fact attempted to smile
(sort of) in greeting when I got to them. “What’s up?”

“That’s
what I want to know,” Laurie said. “It seems like you’re avoiding me.”

I
noticed that Drew was hanging back, and I realized that Laurie had dragged him
along with her to find out what was going on with me, but that he was
uncomfortable about getting involved with any dispute between Laurie and me. (Or,
you know, he just felt guilty that he’d tried kissing me.) (Very possible.)

Laurie
gave me a confrontational eyeful. “It seems like you’re avoiding me.” She fully
called me out, “Are you?”

“Um,
of course not,” I lied, fumbling with my lock combination, carful to avoid
looking her in the eye. “I’ve just been really busy.”
(Avoiding your gorgeous, staring boyfriend.)

“Well,
you’re coming to my party tonight, right?” she asked, as if of course I was.
Which would be a normal assumption, of course. But the thing is, I was
seriously thinking about calling her up around an hour before her party and
feigning a terrible headache—which just talking to her in front of Drew
was giving me anyway. So it wouldn’t really be a lie. At all. I mean, I totally
knew I couldn’t handle seeing her and Drew together all night; even though I
had lived with it just fine for the past two years. But now everything had
changed. Big time.

“You
can bring Ethan,” she added with a sly smile.

My
heart jolted.

I
looked at her confused. “Ethan?”

“Yeah,”
she smirked with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Don’t try to deny it. He’s
what’s been keeping you so busy these days, right? I see you two together all
the time.” Her eyes flickered with satisfaction. “He’s cute, and on the soccer
team—not your normal band-geek. So I approve.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“What’s been going on with you two?”

“Nothing,”
I stammered out, sort of horrified realizing I’d given her the wrong idea.

Ethan
was just around me quite a bit at school these days, because I let him be
around—because otherwise I’d be alone, basically. I couldn’t hang out
with my normal group of friends because that would mean hanging around with
Laurie and Drew. So I accepted Ethan’s lunch escorting and let him walk me to
my classes and stuff, without realizing what it would look like to other
people.

I
bit my lip, suddenly even more concerned about Ethan than before. Was I
unintentionally leading him on? Suddenly, I had the sinking feeling that I was.

Yikes!
Now I felt this terrible cloud of doom hovering over me. ‘Cause it seemed
unavoidable—I had a horrible, overwhelming burden ahead of me: I was
going to have to explain my complicated feelings to Ethan, and I didn’t wanna.
That was so
not
a conversation I would
relish. Just the thought of it made me cringe.

“Brooke,
don’t be shy,” Laurie smiled smugly. “He’s cute. I like him a lot better than
that loser Tony you used to date.”

“You
didn’t even know Tony,” I pointed out without much feeling. She had always
looked down her nose at mine and Tony’s relationship, the short time we had
one. She thought he was a loser just because he wasn’t popular, or involved in
any sports, and didn’t drive a fancy car. She could not understand the concept
of liking a boy simply because he was nice and fun to be with.

“Well,
whatever,” Laurie’s mood was too high to debate such a trifle matter—Tony.
(Who I had really, really liked, by the way.) She lifted her eyebrows, “You’re
coming tonight, right?”

After
a moment’s hesitation, I reluctantly nodded. “Of course I am. It’s your birthday,
isn’t it?”

“Good
girl!” She smiled happily and squeezed my arm. “See you tonight!”

She
sashayed away, hand in hand with Drew.

I
squeezed my eyes shut, then turned back to my locker, trying to get the image
of them holding hands and snuggling out of my tortured brain, all the while
wondering if I’d still be able to call Laurie with a sickness plea.

Then
I noticed Rider—my
kindergarten
boyfriend—watching me with an inquisitive smirk on his face.

I
quickly looked away from him, searching through my locker—for nothing.
Just frantically doing it because I could still feel his eyes on me from across
the crowded hallway, and for some reason it had my heart pounding wild. Maybe
because he looked so … hot. And interested. So I searched and
searched—for nothing. But then—only moments later I heard him
whisper huskily in my ear, “If you don’t like being with them, don’t be with
them.”

I
turned back to him and tried to act unruffled—poised, even. And like I
didn’t have a clue who he was talking about. I lifted an eyebrow, “Who?”

“The
quarterback you have a crush on—and his girlfriend that is supposedly
your friend.”

Whoa.

How
did he
know
that stuff?

I
gulped.

The
dude knew me—somehow.

I
mean, somehow Laurie—my “friend”—thought I was crushing on Ethan,
but this guy—this total heartbreaker that stomped on girls’ hearts
without even noticing—somehow he noticed this—me. My life.

My
lips parted slightly. Then I gushed out (inanely), “Just stay out of my life,
Heartbreaker.”

Rider
raised his eyebrows. Then he choked on a little laugh, “Heartbreaker?!”

I
was ready to growl out something nasty. Just because he had me so flustered …
and also because he hurt me so bad—yeeears ago. And hadn’t talked to me
since. Well, until I got rid of my glasses and grieving “frump.” Suddenly, now
he bothered to walk clear across the hallway and shock my world.

Yeah,
it pissed me off—especially because it had my heart pounding so hard. I
mean, what the—??

I
opened my mouth to say something else as equally stupid as my “heartbreaker”
comment no doubt, but just then Ethan (Band-boy) was at my elbow.

“Can
I walk you to class, Brooke?” he offered with a teasing smile, like he knew he
could—because he thought I had a “thing” for him too.

Apparently
everyone thought that—except Rider. Apparently.

‘Cause
Rider just stared into my eyes and smirked slightly—like he knew the
whole, entire complicated truth.

Then
he murmured around a small grin, “Who exactly is the heartbreaker?”

CHAPTER 14

In
the end I caved about going to Laurie’s birthday party. I decided it would be
easier to leave the party early claiming a splitting headache, than ditch the
whole thing altogether. I mean, it was her
birthday
,
and she was my friend. Well, pretty much.

My
brother gave me and some of his friends a ride to the party. He had gone over
earlier to set up for his band. When we got to Laurie’s the party was already
going strong. I found some of my semi-friends and started talking with them,
avoiding the birthday girl as long as possible.

“You
made it!” Laurie snuck up on me from behind.

Drew,
always the devoted boyfriend, stood beside her. They made the most beautiful
couple—Laurie and Drew—and I decided I hated them both very much.
Yes, a headache was not going to be hard to claim.

“Why
were you guys so late?” Laurie sulked.

Drew’s
eyes sparked. He looked beyond interested to hear my answer, but said nothing.

‘Are you still thinking about me a lot?’
I wanted to ask him, right here in front
of Laurie, while she was holding his hand and looking so complacent.

But
I just shrugged, answering Laurie’s question. Because I’m not really a witch. I
just fantasize about it sometimes.

I
answered with a shrug, “Nick had some things he had to do.”

Actually,
Nick didn’t like Laurie. She got on his nerves, the way she would pout when she
didn’t get her way. He made fun of her a lot. In fact, he only agreed to play
at the party as a favor to Drew, and he was going to be leaving early to close
for some other party. We came late simply because Nick didn’t want to come
earlier.

I
quickly changed the subject. “You look hot, Birthday Girl.” I gave her a tight hug.

She
really did look beautiful, not that she didn’t always. She just looked
especially radiant tonight.
Drew must
have given her quite a present before the party
, I decided dryly. Though I
knew probably it was just that he’d given her his undivided attention all day.
I noticed that from afar, and wondered if that was his actual present to
her—his devoted attention, like he used to always give her, not just on her
birthday, but always. It had been a while since he did that though, so I could
see why it would make her so happy and relieved to get it now. (Sad, right?)

“You
look good too.” Laurie smiled enthusiastically, “Did you bring Ethan?”

Drew’s
eyes sparked with interest again.

Heat
shot through me.

“Uh,
no. I um, didn’t get a chance,” I hedged/lied. Then I dodged, “Excuse me, I’m
going to go see if your mom needs any help in the kitchen.”

Not
going to lie, I had actually thought about inviting Ethan to the party. It had
been pathetically tempting to do it—so I wouldn’t have to be single the
whole night while I endured watching the pair together, kiss and snuggle and
dreamily stare into each other’s eyes. (Ouch!) But in the end I decided against
inviting Ethan, since I just wanted him at the party just to have someone to
pal around with, but I was afraid now that he was getting the wrong idea about
us, and might take the invitation the wrong way. I was already afraid I’d
caused a problem about that, and squirmed feeling I needed to be carful not to
lead him on in any way—at least not any more than I may have already … which
Rider
had indicated I was
doing—Rider with his smirk, and knowing gleam in his eyes. Rider that had
made my heart pound with his astute and astonishing awareness of me and my
life.

I
quickly shook my head, trying to shake away all thoughts of Rider. The dude was
a player, and very bad for my heart.

But
then again, so was Drew.

So,
I spent most of the night in the kitchen—hiding/helping—but every
once in a while Laurie would drag me out to the party to mingle. There was this
guy—Wade—from my math class. He conveniently became my Ethan for
the night. Sort of. He kind of followed me around, chatting the whole night. I
didn’t mind. At all. Was eternally grateful, actually.

“Who’s
that guy glued to you tonight?” my friend Kim asked me. “He’s really cute.”

I
smiled. Kim is boy crazy, though too shy to actually
talk
to a boy. But she talks
about
them a lot.

“His
name is Wade,” I said.

Conveniently,
Wade came smiling up to me at that moment offering me a soda. So I played cupid
and said, “Hey Wade, this is Kim’s favorite song, go dance with her.”

I’m
not usually so bossy. But with some boys you can be—Wade’s one of those
boys. Wags his tail to please you.

I
really hoped Kim and him would hit it off—though I’d sorely miss my
companion for the night, that’s for sure.

But
after the dance, Wade was back on my heels, so I let him be, since Kim had
moved on to drool over some baseball player.

“I’ll
get that for you,” Wade said as I tried to grab a discarded root beer bottle
that someone had placed in the hanging lap over the kitchen table.

He
smiled playfully once he got it. “We could play spin the bottle,” he grinned,
raising his eyebrows.

I
laughed—hoping he was kidding.

For
the rest of the night, Wade helped me as I did kitchen duty. I just assigned
myself to it because I felt uncomfortable all night whenever I left the kitchen.
Mostly on account of Kenny Hatchet. He would never take his eyes off me while I
was in his view. At least that’s what it seemed like to me, but of course I
could have been overreacting. It’s just the guy gave me the creeps. Not that he
was super ugly, because he wasn’t. He had big, pretty eyes. But he wore his
hair long and it was always flopping in his eyes, and he was always staring. Okay,
I guess it was only that he stared that bothered me, but it bothered me a lot.
I didn’t know the guy personally, he had never spoke a word to me, which was
weird in itself, since he had been spending a lot of time at our house practicing
with the band—well, until I told Nick not to let him in.

Kenny
was a good drummer though. I had to admit, he added a lot to the band. He broke
out in a solo and I was amazed just how good he actually was. I noticed a lot
of girls flirting with him after that. He could have had his pick of what girl
to take home from the party if he could just drag his persistent eyes away from
me.

Not
that I could claim innocence to staring. While Drew and Laurie were across the
room in each other’s arms, kind of slow dancing, kind of just swaying to the
music while they talked, Drew’s eyes flickered my way, then stayed. His
eyebrows rose.

I
flushed and quickly looked away. I didn’t even notice/realize that I had been staring
until Drew pointed it out with his raised eyebrows.

I
quickly diverted my gaze, pretty much despising myself for being so pathetically
attracted to Drew, for having been fantasizing what it would be like if it were
me in his arms with my head resting on his chest. I yearned for him to hold me like
he was holding Laurie, and have his hot breath whisper in my ear, and have him
kiss me softly as we swayed to the music and pretended no one else was in the
room.

 
I liked things better back in the olden
days when I could stare at him as much as I wanted and he never even noticed. Now
he stared back. It hurt every fiber inside me to see his beautiful blue eyes
gaze at me while he romantically held Laurie in his arms. My heart shriveled.

I
darted out of the room quickly, just leaving Wade standing there confused. Dashed
back into the kitchen—my hiding place.

I
wanted to leave the party and never have to see the two of them together again—not
ever. It hurt too much now that Drew had kissed me, and said that he thinks
about me.

“Hey,
can you help me with this?” Kim said as she tried pulling a chest of ice out of
the garage and into the kitchen where now I stood alone—again in a
trance. Only this time not staring at Drew, just off into space, thinking I
might die of heartache.

“Sure,”
I mumbled grateful for the task to keep my mind diverted from my woe-is-me
pathetic-ness.

“Here,”
Wade said as he came back into the kitchen and found Kim and me struggling with
the chest. “Let me get that for you,” he said with a smile.

Wade
was no slouch himself I realized as he lifted the chest and brought it to where
Kim instructed. I wished I could let go of my stupid, pathetic passion for
Drew, and like a nice unattached boy like Wade.

But
as Wade smiled at me and asked me if I wanted to dance to the slow song that Nick’s
band had just started to play, I agreed with an aching heart. I knew as long as
Drew dangled his attention in my face, my heart could go out to no other boy.

Still,
I danced with Wade. Because he asked me. And he was nice. And I wished so bad I
could like him.