Summer's Desire (34 page)

I go up on my toes and raise my mouth as
close as I can to Seth's ear. "What's with the flash drive?"

He gives me an amused look. "You
don't miss anything, do you?"

"Well?"

His lips twitch at my unhidden
curiosity. "It's insurance."

"What kind of insurance?"

He becomes thoughtful. "I don't
want to talk about it. Please let it go."

I glance at him probingly and see that
he's completely serious. Hmm.

Well, if it were anything that concerned
me, he would have told me (probably). And I suppose the fair thing to do is for
me to respect his privacy. In some things, at least.

So... "Okay," I agree, a bit
grudgingly nevertheless.

We've just reached my classroom.

He smiles. "I have a free period
next, so I'll do weight training with Coach. But that usually lasts longer than
a normal period, more like 60 minutes, so I can't walk you to lunch. Is it all right
if I come look for you straight in the cafeteria?"

"It's fine, Seth."

He kisses me gently, then waits until
I've entered the classroom.

Afterward I look back over my shoulder
to see him one last time, but he's already disappeared in the crowd.

* * *

After Algebra 2, I'm walking alone in
the direction of the cafeteria, and I realize just how much being accompanied
by Seth earlier had protected me from the worst scrutiny and gossip.

More girls are giving me openly
disgusted looks, and more boys are leering at me. I also catch various snippets
of conversation. Unlike when I was with Seth earlier, the kids don't bother to
keep their voices down anymore.

The girls are probably the worst:

"Who
is
she? I don't think
she's even a student he—"

"...just some stinky stalker."

"...totally looks like a prostitute,
with those puffy lips and overblown chest." Seriously? I'm just a C cup,
not Triple D. Jeez, these girls are mean!

"...gotta have some real dirty
tricks, like a super-slut or something. I mean, why else would Seth Le—"

"—ver been like this with any other
girl."

"He's never screwed any good girls.
Which says it all about this whor—"

"...out of nowhere and gave it up
to Seth after like one second. Like, right there in his car, at the side of the
ro—"

It goes on and on.

I do stumble across one interesting
snippet as well: "—ssica. The bitch finally got what she deserved. Annie
said she heard her bawling in the ba—"

But before I hear more, the student
traffic forces me to turn the corner.

As for the boys, they're plenty bad too:

"Ooh, sweet pocket Venus! Great
legs, sweet ass, ooh sizzling booty..."

"I'd tap that!"

"Whatcha say, babe, wanna try on a
real man? Heard you like it rough and dirt—"

"Shut up, man!... Lewis' girl. Do
you want to lose your ba—"

The cafeteria door slams after me with a
bang.

Red-cheeked, I make a beeline for
Marcie's table and drop down into my usual seat. All the other students in the
room have turned almost in unison toward my table—jeez, is this a cartoon
segment or what? Everyone is staring at me.

My table companions, with the exception of
Marcie, are also looking at me like they don't know me. Really, this is like
out of a really awful movie!

Will closes his gaping mouth and unglues
his tongue. "Girl, you look hot today!"

"Will!" Marcie reproofs him in
mock-outrage.

"What? She's hot. I noticed before
that she's very pretty, but her getups were kind of distracting. But now, dressed
like that and with her hair like that, she looks scorching hot."

Dana grins widely. "Definitely an
upgrade, Summer! Seriously, I'm proud of you. And your old clothes?"

"All slashed," I tell her
darkly.

She nods happily. "Perfect. Personally,
I would've burned them, but your way's good too."

Robbie clears his throat. He seems both
embarrassed and upset. "So, are you like... with Seth Lewis now?" He
blushes engine-red.

The others wait expectantly for my
answer.

"We're together as of this
weekend," I tell them and watch their expressions go slack with amazement.

"Wow!" That's Will.

Robbie asks suspiciously, "Together
how
?"

Huh? Ah, he wants to know if I'm simply
his latest fling. Heavens! Is that what they're all thinking? Except for
Marcie, that is, to whom I've already talked before lunch. She looks very
unruffled now.

I clarify for the others: "We're
together as in he's my boyfriend." Again, I feel a tingle of satisfaction
at being able to claim him like this. The others fall quiet once more, seeming
astonished, probably trying to process my news.

I become aware, out of the dozens of
stares trained on me, of the intent glances I'm getting from the popular table.
The cheerleaders are all present... except for Jessica. Interesting. The jocks
are all there as well, except for Seth.

Oh, and Josh is also absent, thank mercy!
Word is that he'll be missing school for a few more days on account of some
family emergency. Yeah, right. I hope he's still lying in a hospital bed somewhere,
in excruciating pain, the awful scumbag!

While gazing at the populars though, I
realize that not just a few but in fact
all
of them keep glancing... at
me. Almost as if they're talking about me right now. The little hairs at my
nape rise in warning.

Marcie notices the direction of my gaze.
"Yep, that's a real reversal all right, from uh... the natural order of
things, I guess. I mean, usually it's us here staring at the popular table. But
now, oh my gosh: the whole popular table is staring at us. I mean, at you,
really."

I swallow the knot in my throat.
"They're probably just wondering what the situation with me and Seth
really is. I don't think anyone's had a chance to really speak with him yet;
he's always been with me between classes. Plus, there seem to be some wild
rumors circulating about us," I add in major understatement.

Dana shakes her head. "No, Summer,
most everyone sitting at the popular table was in Senior Homeroom today with
Seth. That's why they're so goggle-eyed with you, definitely. I heard that Seth
announced this morning that you were his girl and basically threatened to cut
off the head of anyone who even thinks of messing with you. And coming from
Seth Lewis—yeah, that's a seriously
scary threat."

"He did that?" I whisper, wide-eyed.

Dana nods, cocking her head at me in a
searching manner as if she's trying to figure me out. Or more likely, trying to
figure out what it is that Seth sees in me.

"But wait a minute!" I draw my
eyebrows together. "If Seth announced our relationship this morning, why
did you guys ask me if I was together with him? Didn't you already know?"

"All this Seth-and-Summer stuff is
still very fresh gossip," says Dana. "And there's so many insane
stories flying around that it's impossible to separate truth from fiction
yet."

"Anyways," Robbie comments bleakly,
"even if Lewis had said that, there was always the chance that he was
delusional."

Marcie, Dana, and Will all give him
incredulous looks. So do I. He glowers back at us, defiant.

Dana frowns slightly. "Seriously,
Summer, people don't really know what to think yet, especially if they haven't actually
seen you with Seth. Even if they have... I mean, Seth has a big rep with girls,
so most everyone would just..." She shrugs.

"They'd just think you're Seth's
current flavor of the week, pretty much," says Marcie helpfully.

"Still, he's been acting way out of
character with you."—Dana again.

"Like him telling everyone that
he's in a relationship," Marcie points out. "For the first time in flipping
forever."

"And like him driving you to
school, and holding your hand, and carrying your books," Will adds
helpfully.

Wow, word really does travel with
supersonic speed around here! But then again, that seems to hold true for all
high schools I've seen—and I've seen more than my share.

"He's my boyfriend," I say defensively,
"and boyfriends do those kinds of things, don't they? Besides, Seth's
always been very protective of me."

The others stare at me, arrested. I bite
my lip, chagrined at my revealing outburst.

Dana is the first to say what seems to
be on everyone's mind: "First of all, yeah, good boyfriends do that kind
of stuff maybe, but Seth's never been anyone's boyfriend before, so obviously
no one had a clue how he'd act in this situation. Second—holy crap, Summer,
what do you mean, Seth's
always
been protective of you?! Didn't the two
of you just meet? You've just arrived in town like a minute ago, for Christ's
sake!"

I don't see any reason to hide this part
of my history. "I also used to live in Rockford five years ago," I
admit quietly.

Robbie furrows his brow. "So how
come nobody's recognized you from going to middle school together or something?"

"It was a long time ago, it was a
big school, and I always kept to myself. I didn't have a lot of close friends
in school." Or
any
kind of friends, to be completely accurate.

I never made friends easily. But then
again, neither did I put much (or any) effort into it. After what I had gone
through, I wasn't willing to open up to people. I still aren't, if truth be
told. Plus, I had Seth, who was all I ever needed.

Still, Seth was very popular and I was
always with him (even if did used to blend into the shadows), so there should
be at least a few kids our age who recognize me. Except, I've changed more than
a bit in terms of height and body shape and even hair color. People who knew me
five years ago would have to look very carefully to be able to put two and two
together regarding who I am. And until last Friday, with my invisibility cloak
on (also known as my former "uniform"), I didn't call that kind of
scrutiny upon myself.

"So you and Seth know each other
from before?" asks Will.

"Yes."

Marcie's face takes on a faraway
expression. "Wow, that's so romantic! You and infamous playboy Seth Lewis
were childhood sweethearts."

I frown. "Not really. Rather, we
were good"—
best—
"friends who grew up together, and we cared a
lot about each other."
We've always loved each other.
"Then I
was sent to a foster family far away from here, and Seth and I lost
contact."
Jessica broke us up, the bloody bitch, and may she rot in
hell for it!

"Until you came back to town,"
says Will, putting the rest of the puzzle together.

"And you two finally became a
couple after all this time!" Dana gushes, with no trace of her trademark
irony. "How sweet!"

Marcie nods. "That really
is
awesome and sweet, and it makes me feel so much better. If you and Seth have a
history together, then maybe he isn't playing you now."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Robbie
says darkly. He seems to be the most skeptical about my and Seth's
relationship.

I hold his gaze. "Seth won't play
me."

"Oh, my gosh!" Marcie bursts
out. "You know there was that rumor on the gossip grapevine that Seth
hasn't been with
any
girl for, oh... pretty much the last two weeks or
so?" She looks me straight in the eye. "What a coincidence, right, that
your first day at R.-High just happened to be exactly two weeks ago." She
raises a challenging eyebrow.

The others are regarding me with
speculative expressions.

I keep my expression neutral despite the
joyful bubble of warmth encasing my heart. I had already made this connection after
Seth told me that he only wanted me. That he loved me. I truly, deeply want to
believe him that he was a player before only because he couldn't have me. And
now that I'm his, I truly, deeply hope that I can be enough for him.

Robbie turns to scowl at Marcie. "For
freak's sake, you can't really be thinking that a player like Lewis could've
been faithful to Summer since he saw her again—two freaking weeks before she
even became his girlfriend."

"Stop right there!" shrieks Dana
suddenly. "I just remembered... O. M. G. I totally can't believe
this!!" Red spots of color are riding high on her cheekbones, and her eyes
are glittering like Christmas lights.

We've all gone quiet and are staring at
her, waiting for the bomb she's obviously preparing to drop on us.

Chapter 25

"What is it?" Will asks her.

Dana turns to me with a feverish
expression. "You know how, before talking to you, I thought the story
about Seth publicly announcing you were his girlfriend was a total con?"