Raw Deal (Beauty for Ashes: Book One) (9 page)

Monica’s eyes were shining. “Really? It’s that easy?”

“Yes and no.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“They’ll ask you to walk. They’ll want to see you in a swimsuit. They don’t like people showing up with makeup on, and they turn away perfectly eligible people all time.” I dug out a few empty shopping bags for Monica to pack up her clothes.

She looked at her watch. “We’ll talk about this later, and you can tell me who I’ll have to bribe and who I’ll need to sleep with to make it.” She gave me a bright smile and a tight hug. “When I become a model, I’ll book us into a Caribbean spa and all treatments will be on me.”

“Why can’t you do that now?”

Monica stuck out her bottom lip. “Well, I was going to do it for my eighteenth, but it’s so expensive. I’d have to forgo my
Beauty Internacionale
subscription for three months.”

“I was joking.” I knew better than to ever try to come between Monica and her beauty consultancy. What I didn’t point out to her was that they weren’t making her beautiful. She was already beautiful anyway.

Chapter 8

The week leading up to the Christmas dance was unbelievable. Everyone was excited, and I really couldn’t understand why. The way I saw it, the dance was at a venue that we attended every day: school. And the dance was with people we saw every day: our fellow school colleagues. There was nothing that out of the ordinary about it.

Jace back in school, and he was in every economics class all week. And in each class, Michelle Carey was all over him like a rash. I still didn’t get my notes back, and he didn’t so much as say hi. But it was cool.

On Thursday afternoon, he came into the library while I was trying to work out why I’d scored so low in McGee’s last assignment. He looked at my paper and saw my 36%, but to his credit, he didn’t even look slightly horrified.

“Have you got a date for Saturday?” he asked.

I thought about Monica. In a situation like this, she would flirt.
“What’s it to you, mister?”
I could hear her saying. I could only manage one word. “Yeah.”

“Who is it?”

Again, one word. “Carl.”

Jace frowned a little. “Which Carl?”

“Carl Layton.” Two words! I grinned.

“Oh. Well, I haven’t forgotten about your notes. I’ll copy them this weekend and give them back next week.”

“Okay.”

He left the library, and I rubbed my temples. I couldn’t wait till this dance was over. It was so stressful. I buried my head back into economics. I hated it. It didn’t seem that hard, so what was I doing wrong?

I thought about Carl. He hadn’t called me since he’d asked me to be his date. Were we still on or not? I had his number, but no way was I going to call. I didn’t even really want to go with him. I’d actually rather go alone. Ultimately, I’d rather stay home and eat straw.

Luckily, Carl called me that night. He wanted to check if I wanted a Limo. I reminded him that I was meeting him there.

On Friday morning, he was waiting for me by my locker with a box of chocolates. “Thanks for being my date,” he said, holding out the box.

Just then, the basketball team emerged from the men’s locker room down the hall and headed up our way to go outside for training. Jace looked over with a frown.

“Thanks, Carl,” I took the chocolates and put them in my locker.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” he said. “I still can’t believe you said yes though. I didn’t think you would.” He high-fived Craig as he walked past and nodded at Jace.

“Really? Why?”

“I don’t know. I had to just act all cocksure of myself, but inside I was sure you were going to cut me dead.”

“Me? Cut you dead?”

“Yeah, you give off this untouchable vibe that’s kinda scary.”

That cracked me up. “Untouchable?”

“Yeah.”

He walked me to my next class, and I found that he was pretty easy to talk to. I wasn’t on edge like I was when I spoke to Jace. Maybe he’d be an okay date after all.

Chapter 9

Jace Washington did to the eyes what fudge ice cream with chocolate sauce did to the tongue. He was on his cell phone in the parking lot when I arrived at school for the dance. I contemplated waiting in the car until he went back inside, but he knew I was in there because he’d just watched me drive in. I stepped out of my car and cut across the gravel parking lot toward the school. I discovered that gravel and heels don’t go well together. Jace smiled as I walked past. I smiled back through clenched teeth, sure that I looked real silly tottering on my heels trying not to trip.

I was wearing a black Chloé dress that had gold chains draped across my bare back. I was freezing, and as always after a fashion show, my feet hurt like mad.

Monica descended on me the minute I stepped into the school hall. “Lexi!” she yelled. “Wow, you look really nice. Why are you so late?”

“I had a fashion show, remember.”

Her eyes became wide saucers. “Oh, yeah. Wow! Did you just get off the runway?”

I patted my hair. “You know this!” I looked around the hall. So this was it, the eagerly anticipated Christmas dance. “Is this party any good, or should I just go home now?”

“Not a chance,” Monica linked my arm. “I’m still coming to your fashion show on Wednesday, right?”

“Sure. It’s a party clothes collection, so you should like it.”

“Hey, Lexi! You finally made it,” Carl said, appearing by my side. “I was beginning to think I’d been stood up.”

I smiled at him, glad that he was still taller than me despite my shoes. “No, I usually keep my word.”

“Catch you later, Lexi,” Monica said, excusing herself. She walked away before I could stop her, her hair bouncing behind her like a L’Oreal ad.

Carl’s arm circled my shoulders. “Girl, I knew you were hot,” he said into my hair, “but tonight, you’re knocking me out.”

I wondered why guys said things like that. What did they expect you to say in return? I brushed it off with a joke. “Yeah, that was kinda the idea.”

Carl smiled and looked at me expectantly.

“What?”

“This is the part where you return the compliment?”

I removed his arm from my shoulder and looked at him with a deliberately bored expression. “Oh, yeah, nice suit, I guess.”

He gave me a playful shove, but he was that much bigger than me that I almost fell over. “Sorry, Lexi!” he apologized, helping to steady me.

“Is that how you get a girl’s attention? Knock her over?”

“Yeah, actually. Is it working?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out.”

Carl laughed, taking my hand. “Let’s get you a drink.” He led me to the punch table and got us a shooter each. It was sickly sweet, and one sip almost made me puke.

Monica and Liam were also at the punch table. I smiled at Liam. “Hi.”

“Hey, Miss England.” He gulped down his punch. “You look nice.”

“Thanks.”

“Your accent’s actually changed a bit, you know?”

“People keep saying that. I don’t think it has.”

Carl put his arm around my shoulders again. “Yeah, doesn’t she talk all funny and sexy?”

Monica narrowed her eyes. “She’s doing it on purpose. I think I’ll go to Paris for three weeks and come back all French.
Comment sa va
?”

I looked around the hall and noticed Jace not too far away from us in a black suit with a couple of black-suited buddies, and Michelle Carey hanging on to his arm.

“So, are you back for good?” Liam asked me.

“Yeah.”

“Have you applied for college?”

“Lexi doesn’t need college; she’s going to be a supermodel—” Monica stopped abruptly, and I could tell she hadn’t meant to spill the beans.

“Actually, I have applied for college.”

“Do you want to be a supermodel?” Carl asked.

“No, I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

I stole another quick glance at Jace, he was looking over at our little group. Great, he’d caught me looking.

The DJ announced that he was going to play three back-to-back slow jams, and the four of us made our way to the dance floor. The lights dimmed, and spotlights swept over the hall as we all swayed. At the end of the first song, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I pulled away from Carl slightly.

Carl’s grip tightened on me as I looked up at Jace. He smiled. It was an arrogant, challenging kind of smile. I wasn’t sure if it was meant for me or for Carl. “I want the last slow jam,” he said, looking at Carl.

Carl shrugged and looked at me.

“Um, okay,” I said.

Jace walked away, but true to his word, he was back when the DJ started the third slow jam. Carl let me go grudgingly, and I let Jace take my hand. He didn’t say anything while we danced, so I didn’t either.

“Why were you late tonight?” Jace asked when the music stopped. The DJ brought in a club dance song, and the atmosphere was broken.

“I had to go somewhere.” I wondered where little miss Barbie was.

“Anything going on with you and Carl?” he asked, with a little grin.

“Like what?”

“Are you together?”

I wasn’t sure what he was asking. Did he mean together tonight or the dating kind of together? “Together as in?”

Jace thought I was trying to be funny. He laughed. “Together as in did he ask you to be his girlfriend? Did you say yes?”

“Oh.” I shook my head. “No, he just asked me to be his date tonight.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Do you have an ex-boyfriend back in England missing you?”

“No.”

“I don’t believe you,” Jace said. “You look the type to have ten boyfriends back there missing you.”

As much as I would have liked Jace to think that I was so hot I left a trail of broken hearts behind me everywhere I went, it just wasn’t true. “What do you mean by ‘the type?’ I’m not any ‘type’.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just saying you’re a nice girl, and I think it’s too good to be true that you’re not with anybody.”

I laughed because I didn’t know what to say. This conversation was getting weird. I wasn’t sure if he was for real or if it was just a prank that he’d laugh about with his friends in the guys’ locker room on Monday.

“Jacey darling, there you are,” Michelle Carey trilled as she approached us, smiling brightly. She prodded Jace’s chest and raised an eyebrow. “Hey, keep it up with the working out. Anyway, I’ve been looking for you. I had to dance
‘All Night Long’
with Matt, and he didn’t even say a word to me while we danced. Can you imagine anything more awkward?”

Soon we were surrounded by the Kingston High elite. I looked around for Monica. Liam was talking to Lewis and Craig, but Monica wasn’t with him.

I decided to go to the bathroom. I left the hall and headed toward the art department and got the shock of my life when I opened the double doors to the hallway. There were Monica and Hayden on the floor doing goodness knows what, right there in the corridor. Hayden jumped up when I opened the door, and Monica scrambled to her feet with some difficulty, given the shoes she was wearing.

I should have just turned and walked away, but I was so surprised that I just stood there staring. Hayden looked relieved that it was just me. He cleared his throat. “Later, Monica,” he said and walked out.

“Lexi, I know you won’t say anything—” Monica began.

I held up my hand. “None of my business. I just need the bathroom.” I walked off toward the bathroom, and Monica followed me in.

She covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe it, Lexi. You must think I’m a ho.”

I entered a stall and locked the door. “Not really. I just feel sorry for Liam. If he’d walked in on you guys, it would probably have really hurt him.”

“I know.”

“So are you getting with Hayden then? Are you going to dump Liam?”

“I don’t know,” Monica wailed.

When I came out of the stall, her hands were still over her face. “Hayden is driving me crazy.”

We walked back to the hall, and Liam came over immediately. He wrapped his arms around Monica. Carl and Craig came over, then Hayden and Lewis joined us.

As we talked, I just couldn’t stand Hayden’s arrogance. He was acting all cocky and was even trying to flirt with Monica in front of Liam. Monica couldn’t look either of them in the eyes, and she wasn’t being her usual flirtatious self. I decided to bail her out. I grabbed her hand. “Wanna dance?”

Hayden winked at us. “Yeah, go dance. And make it good.”

“I don’t want to dance,” Monica said, as we walked toward the dance floor.

“Okay.” We stood by a drink stand. I asked for two Cokes. I handed one to Monica.

“Lexi, I’m confused. I really like Liam.” Monica sipped her Coke. “It’s not diet.”

“One non-diet Coke won’t hurt.”