Persuaded (2 page)

One blue glass bead. One green glass bead. One silver spacer bead. One . . .

“Thank you, Greg—Gregory.”

He looked up then, but he still didn’t meet my eyes.

I tried again. “You didn’t have to, but thank you anyway. It was very nice of you.”
And more than I deserve.

He raised his head quickly as if my words shocked him, and his eyes finally met mine. My heart stopped. His deep, chocolate brown eyes set against blond hair and perfect features were as striking as I remembered. And extremely good-looking.
Dang, he’s hot!
I thought despite myself.

His eyes held mine far longer than my foolish heart could handle, yet I didn’t want to look away. I couldn’t. I’d waited too long to see his incredible eyes again. Selfishly, I absorbed every moment he gave. There was so much I wanted to say—so much I’m sure he wouldn’t want to hear—but I let it be. I remained silent and allowed the moment of our first real meeting in three years to overwhelm me. I lived in the moment, something I was chided for doing back then. Something I vowed I would never make the mistake of
not
doing again. No matter what, I would never let someone persuade me to disobey my heart.

Gregory didn’t smile. He didn’t frown. He just searched my eyes and said, “You’re welcome.”

His deep baritone voice jarred me—he sounded older. If I wasn’t frozen before, I was now.
He spoke to me. He actually spoke to me!

I could tell he was very surprised, too. He must’ve broken some vow to himself in that moment—probably a vow to never speak to me again.

Within seconds, he was standing. He was going to leave, and there was nothing I could do to keep him next to me, nothing I could say. But I’d given that chance up long ago. He wasn’t, nor would he ever be, mine.

His tall form towered over me, and I watched as he adjusted his jacket. And then he was gone, his eyes never once wavering from the hallway, where the beautiful girl waited for him.

In silence, I collected the last pieces of the borrowed necklace I’d been so eager to wear, the necklace that had always looked so pretty on my stepsister. Then I fled the party. I had to get away before anyone saw me freak out.

In the privacy of my car, I allowed the full force of the pain and bitterness of the last three years to wash over me.
How can I be foolish enough to love someone who has hated me for so long? And why did he come back? Why did he choose now—of all times—to disrupt my life? And why does he have to be so good-looking, too? I would’ve gladly taken him back, no matter what he looked like, but for him to be so gorgeous is torture.

No one recognized or remembered him but me. Why would they? He was more muscular than he’d been at fifteen. His hair was now cut shorter and swept off his face, and his dark, rectangle-framed glasses were gone. I missed his glasses. He also introduced himself as Gregory instead of Greg.

The new, improved Gregory was cheerfully welcomed into my so-called friends’ circle. Their eagerness to stake a claim at so fine a specimen reminded me of vultures circling their prey. The same girls that had gossiped about the awkward Greg and secretly mocked him, now gladly turned to Gregory with open arms.

It was rumored that his father had become very successful after leaving Farmington, New Mexico, and that Gregory’s family was now worth millions. They were
millionaires,
while my family, who used to spend our winters in Hawaii and our summers in Alaska, now had to learn to economize. Thanks to the economy and the recession, our investments and businesses were deteriorating, and our finances were nearly depleted.

My dad didn’t think I knew, but I had overheard him and my stepmom countless times, discussing the great burden of debt that seemed to swallow us whole. Just last week, they’d announced we were going to move. My stepmom made up some pretense of having a difficult time keeping up such a large house, but I knew we didn’t have a choice. At least my parents were being smart about it. We’d all be better off with a smaller home that fit within our new budget.

But why did Gregory’s family have to buy our house, of all houses? That was the final blow. The home hadn’t even been on the market when the realtor called to arrange a showing while I was at school on Thursday.
Thank goodness I was at school!
My dad had mentioned that a tall, nice-looking guy had come to the showing with his parents. I probably would have fainted had I seen Gregory, and I’m sure I would’ve thought I was hallucinating or something. How many times in the last three years had I wished I could see him? But to have my wish granted this way—to see him in my house because his parents were buying it—I couldn’t bear it. To have him sleeping in one of the bedrooms, or hanging out in the living room, or putting his feet up with a good book in the study . . . it was just too much.

“Amanda!”

I let out an involuntary shriek at the sound of my name and someone pounding on the passenger window of my car, which was still parked in front of Kylie’s house. I hadn’t driven away. I’d promised to help her clean up, and I still planned to. I rolled down the window to hear her better.

“I thought you’d gone! What are you doing out here, anyway?”

I quickly put the warm beads, still clutched in my hand, into the drawer beneath my stereo
.
“I—uh, I was just—”

“Oh, never mind,” she interrupted. “You’re coming in to help, aren’t you?”

“Yes, of course.” I hurriedly opened the car door and stepped out.

Kylie was still complaining. “Everyone else has gone already, you weirdo! What a funny thing to do. Only you would sit alone in your car at night, in the dark, when there was a party going on!”

Great, she’s in a mood.
I followed her silently up the steps of her house and took the large black trash bag she handed me.

“Well, here. Since you like being in the dark anyway, I assume you won’t mind cleaning up out here first.” She looked at me and then shook her head before opening the front door and waltzing in. “I’ll be inside. Hurry up, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumbled to an already-shut door. With another sigh, I surveyed the damage from our friends. I guess it could’ve been worse—it was mostly cans and wrappers everywhere. Kylie had thought it would be fun to have a piñata at the party. It was fun. But by the looks of it, most of the candy wrappers ended up outside. Relieved that I didn’t have to give Gregory another thought, I started to clean up. In no time at all, I was back in the house and collecting trash in there, too.

Kylie’s parents had one rule when it came to throwing a party at their house—if Kylie threw a party, she had to clean it up. That meant she wasn’t allowed to leave any of it for the cleaning lady who came by Monday through Saturday. I don’t think Kylie had ever thrown a party where I wasn’t there beforehand to help set up, and still there after to help clean up.

“So, you lucky girl, tell me all about it.”

“What?” I turned around. Kylie was wearing an apron and looked positively gorgeous in it, like a model for one of those Pillsbury commercials on TV. “Tell you all about what?” I stared at her.

“Hello? About Gregory Wentworth. Do you think I’m blind?”

Does she know?
I decided to stall a bit. “Blind?” My heart began to race.

Kylie rolled her eyes. “Come on. The hottest guy here tonight totally comes to your rescue and you can’t even say anything about it?”

Oh!
“Uh, yeah. He’s really nice.”

“Nice? You mean nice-looking, right?”

“That too.”

“Amanda! You were closer to him than anyone else at the party tonight. I want details, girl! Weren’t you just totally freaking out? Did he say anything to you?”

“No, nothing really.”

“Ugh! Only you would totally waste an opportunity like that. No offense, but seriously, girl, if he had helped me with my necklace, he would’ve had my phone number by the time he stood up. I don’t care who he came with!”

I smiled weakly. Her words hurt more than I think she’d intended them to.

“Did he say who that girl was?” Kylie asked. “I heard from someone that she was from Bloomfield.”

“No, he didn’t say anything.” I leaned over and tossed a soda can into the trash bag.

“Well, I’ll just have to find out who she is.”

I glanced up just as Kylie flipped her hair and folded her arms. The look on her face spoke volumes.

“Are you going to break them up or something?” I asked worriedly.

“First let’s see if they’re going out. I don’t want to do something drastic if I don’t have to.”

I lowered my eyes for a few seconds before smiling bravely. “So, do you think he’ll go for you? Do you think he likes you?”

“If he doesn’t, yet, I promise you, he will.”

I nodded my head.
She’s right. I mean, what guy could resist Kylie Russell? What guy would
want
to?

“Can you believe it? Gregory’s a multimillionaire! And he’s moving here, of all places.” She laughed. “To think I thought this summer was going to be boring!”

I attempted a chuckle.
This summer? This summer will most likely prove to be painful. Horrible. Awkward. But it won’t be boring.

Two: Reverse and Rewind

A week later, juggling my job as a peewee cheerleading coach, volunteering at the local library, and packing up, the summer still hadn’t proved to be any easier. In fact, I was busier than I’d ever been before. Friday afternoon, during an unexpected day off, I was trying to remember to pack my room, but instead I’d found myself thinking of Greg—I mean, Gregory—more than I should. It was the first real time I’d had a minute to focus on him at all, which wasn’t good.

In particular, most of my thoughts revolved and swirled around three and a half years ago. No matter how hard I told myself to think about something else, the day I had broken Greg’s heart wouldn’t leave me alone. I was haunted repeatedly by his lopsided grin when he had approached me at school—I was surrounded by my friends—and asked if he could talk to me for a few minutes.

“She can’t talk to you right now,” Kylie had sneered at him. “She has cheerleading practice, duh.”

“Oh, okay. Hey, I’ll come by after school then.” Greg nodded in my direction as I closed my locker in disbelief. “There’s something I’ve gotta say and I can’t . . . I was hoping—that is, there’s just something I have to tell you. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I would be really happy if you’d—I mean, I think we’d make—You know what? I’ll see ya later and tell you then. It’s not like two hours is going to make much of a difference anyway.”

Oh my gosh! He’s gonna ask me to go with him! I know it. Eek!
“Okay, promise?”

“Yeah, I promise. I’ll be there.” Greg smiled.

“Come on, Amanda. We have to go
now!”

Helpless, I had glanced back and saw the slightly confused look on Greg’s face when the other cheerleaders rudely dragged me away from him—the one guy I had seriously been crushing on the whole school year. So what if he wasn’t the typical high school jock my friends had been trying to throw at me for months? He made me laugh, and that right there was worth a thousand other guys.

If only I had hung onto that thought— if only I had reminded myself repeatedly to stay firm—I may have never landed in such a mess.
But I didn’t remember how happy Greg made me feel, and I didn’t stay firm. It was hard to, especially with the combined efforts of the cheerleading squad—my friends—all of them determined to make me see reason.

“No, Amanda. You may think that you like him, but believe me, Greg What’s-His-Name is a nobody and he’s going nowhere. Seriously, why stop at the bottom when you could have the top?”

“Besides, he could totally ruin your chances to get Scott Mathews, who—hello!—has only been gawking at you for weeks now. If you get Scott, your future is set. His parents will even secure you a cheerleading scholarship for college, remember?”

“Yeah, and uh, honestly, none of us want to hang out with Greg anyway. So what are you trying to say—you’d rather have him than us?”