The Heartbreakers (5 page)

Rule 1:
You must not email or IM The Ex ever again. Take his name off your email list.

Rule 16
: Do not call The Ex's parents to tell his mom or dad why you broke up, hoping the mom or dad will help you through the breakup, because they can't and they won't.

Kelly lay on her queen-sized bed curled into a ball. She clutched her stuffed koala bear, Mr. Jenkins, in her hands, his matted white hair pressing into her face. Will had given it to her last August when they officially met for the first time.

They'd gone to school together for years, but they talked for the first time when Kelly started volunteering at the animal shelter. Her second day there, a dog came in who'd either been lost or abandoned. He died later that day from being malnourished. Kelly remembered locking herself in the shelter's bathroom and crying. She loved animals, and it was hard to see one so unhappy and emaciated.

When she came out of the bathroom, Will was there with Mr. Jenkins in his hands. The shelter had a whole closet
full of stuffed animals that they gave away when people adopted an animal. While Will obviously hadn't gone to much trouble to acquire Mr. Jenkins, it was the thought that counted.

He'd handed over the stuffed koala and said, “I remember the first time I saw a dog die. It was so hard.”

Kelly had cast her eyes to the floor and said, “But I bet you didn't lock yourself in the bathroom and cry.”

“Actually…” He shrugged and said, “I threw up, which made me want to cry.” He nodded at the koala. “I commemorated the dog's life with one of the stuffed animals. I still have it at home. His name is Bear.”

Kelly had laughed, trying to picture a stuffed animal sitting on Will's bed. She'd had no idea he was so sweet. She knew about Will Daniels, of course, since they'd gone to the same school. A lot of people thought he was too preppy. Kelly had been guilty of thinking the same thing. But after that day at the shelter, she realized there was a lot more to him.

That same night he'd taken her out to dinner. And a few weeks later, she was practically in love with him. It helped that he was incredibly smart, which Kelly thought was super sexy. And just watching him interact with the animals put a huge smile on her face.

She smiled now, too, as she took a big whiff of Mr. Jenkins. He smelled like her Karmala perfume—Will's favorite—and the smile morphed into a sob.

God, this sucked.

She rolled over onto her back and stared at the sunbeams shining across her white ceiling. She just wished there was something she could do to make Will commit to her and only her. Why couldn't he just be her boyfriend? Was there
something wrong with her? Was it because she wasn't smart enough? Pretty enough? Skinny enough?

She felt that she'd done everything she could to be the right girl for him. She was supportive of everything, all the extracurricular activities he did. She didn't call him constantly asking where he was and what he was doing (which she knew drove him nuts because his brother, Ben, had told her so when she'd asked for some pointers).

She'd done everything she thought she could to be the perfect girl for Will and still he hadn't asked her to be his official girlfriend.

And then he left her at the stupid art gallery!

Like, seriously, what did she have to do?

She wasn't the type to become just another girl in the harem. So how did she get that role in Will's life? Blind pursuit. She didn't want to believe he was seeing other girls. She didn't want to believe he
wanted
to see other girls.

Sighing, she rolled off the bed, intent on scavenging for some kind of chocolate in the kitchen when she heard the familiar ding of a new email sound from her computer speakers.

She jumped in the computer chair and shook the mouse to bring the screen out of hibernation. The screen lit up, and a picture of her and Will from Christmas stared back at her. Her little sister, Monica, had taken it, and Kelly had made it her computer's wallpaper. Will's arm was around her shoulders and she was smiling happily. Her eyes were lit by the flash and looked as though they were twinkling.

Will had always been more affectionate when there were fewer people around. That night it'd just been Kelly's family. Will had held her hand practically the whole night. She'd
thought for sure they were headed toward a serious relationship, which was exactly why she started thinking about losing the big
V
to him and planning the Valentine's Day surprise.

Thinking about the upcoming holiday made Kelly's chest heavy. She did not want to be alone on the holiday of love. That would totally suck.

She double-clicked on the Internet Explorer icon and waited for a window to open. She signed into her email account, excitement and hope making her bite her lip.

I hope it's Will, emailing to apologize, she thought.

She clicked on her one new message and saw Will's name in her inbox. Yes! Quickly, she opened it and took in one long breath to settle herself.

Hey, Kelly,

Where did you go last night? I thought you were coming to Bershetti's with us. Just wanted to make sure you were all right.

—W

That was the Will she loved. The one that sent her emails wondering how she was. Last night must have been some huge misunderstanding. She checked her Instant Messenger to see if he'd signed in there, too. The smiley face next to his name was dark. She hit
REPLY
on the email and typed in a quick message, hoping to catch him online.

I thought you left me at the gallery on purpose! I wasn't sure what was going on, so I just went home.

Should she write more? Maybe tell him how much she wanted him to be exclusive with her?

Will, I have to tell you something that's been on my mind lately.

No, no, no. She deleted the last sentence and started over.

Will, I really think we need to talk about our relationship.

No, that was too serious! Maybe she should be honest with him. And if she was going to be honest, it would be better to do it through email because she wouldn't be subjected to laughing or grunting or eye rolls if he thought what she wrote was ridiculous.

Without editing or rereading, she typed in exactly what she was thinking.

And I was upset because of the whole Valentine's Day thing with Brittany and thought you were leaving me behind at the gallery to spend time with her. Were you? What's going on with you guys?

Kelly clicked
SEND
. She jumped out of the computer chair and flung her arms in the air, silently saying Yes! She got it out and there was no taking it back now. She grabbed Mr. Jenkins from her bed and sat back down in front of the computer, minimizing Internet Explorer so she could look at the picture on her desktop again.

Will was so darn cute. He had chestnut-brown hair that was always neatly combed. His face was clean-shaven. He had perfect skin, too, better than hers. She was always breaking out.

The email ding sang again and Kelly opened Internet Explorer, refreshing her inbox. She clicked on Will's new email.

I waited around for you and when you didn't show up, I thought you left ahead of us. I'm sorry. You know I'd never leave you on purpose like that.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was true. When they'd gone to Will's extended family's Christmas party at the Marriott, he'd never left her side because she'd told him she was nervous and slightly intimidated. Both his parents were top attorneys in Birch Falls, and his grandfather had been the flippin' mayor! Will had promised to make her as comfortable as he could, and he'd kept that promise.

If he'd invited her to the art show, he would never have left her without saying something. She realized this now, all too late.

She read the rest of the email.

Brittany and I are friends like you and I are friends. You know I hate to get in a serious relationship right now. I have too much to focus on with school and extracurricular activities, etc.

I'm sorry if you're upset about Valentine's Day, but I can't break the agreement. That would be unfair
to Brittany. We'll hang out later that weekend. I promise. Call me later.

Will

He just wanted to be friends. The word ran through Kelly's head like an annoying little cricket chirp. Didn't he know that she'd give him space to work on homework and all the extra things he did after school? They'd been hanging out for months now. That proved he had the time for a girlfriend. She was practically his girlfriend already! They were always together.

Will wanted all the perks of a girlfriend without any of the commitment.

Kelly closed Internet Explorer and dropped her head onto the desk. What could she do to get Will to commit to her and only her? Maybe if she got Mrs. Daniels on her side, she'd have an easier chance of getting Will on her side. It was worth a shot.

Kelly picked up her cell and dialed Will's home number. As the line rang, she sat down on her bed and crossed her legs in front of her. She watched out the window as snowflakes blew in a whirlwind. The sun had just set so the sky was a washed-out indigo. It reminded her of last winter when she, her brother, Todd, and Drew all went hiking at Birch Falls Park. Halfway through the two-mile trail, it started snowing and blowing. It was practically a blizzard and Kelly hadn't dressed for a flippin' blizzard. Drew ended up giving her his coat. He was such a great guy like that. Todd probably would have left her out there in the half-darkness to freeze.

“Hello?” Mrs. Daniels answered the phone, snapping Kelly out of her reverie.

“Oh, Mrs. Daniels…”

In the background, Kelly could hear Will's younger brother, Samuel, screaming about a stuffed toy. His nanny shushed him, and soon after, music played, tinny and tinkly, as if it were a music box.

Kelly switched the phone to her other ear. “Uh…is Will there?” She figured it was a good idea to pretend like she'd called for Will and not his mother. She wanted to be sly about this.

“No, he just left. He's covering an extra shift at the animal shelter.”

Kelly wished she were working, too. The urge to see Will hatched butterflies in her stomach. Somehow it seemed like everything would be fine if she could just see him.

“Oh.” Feeling a bit bold, she said, “I thought for sure he'd be with Brittany.”

“Brittany?” The confusion in Mrs. Daniels' tone said she hadn't yet met Brittany.

“Yeah. She's this girl Will's been seeing.”

A long pause. Kelly began to wonder if Mrs. Daniels had hung up. But then she took in a breath and said, “What's this Brittany like?”

“Well…she's…” Super-skinny, cultured, smart, classy. All the things Mrs. Daniels wanted in Will's girlfriend, which Kelly knew because he'd told her. Well, maybe not the skinny part.

There was one thing that Kelly could use against Brittany. “I think she's a smoker.”

“Ewww,” Mrs. Daniels said.

Score!

“And Will is, like, two-timing us,” Kelly blurted. “He's seeing me and Brittany at the same time.”

Samuel started screaming again. Chopin, their Maltese dog, barked as the doorbell rang. “Michelle, will you get that?” Mrs. Daniels said, then pulled her attention back to Kelly. “You knew Will was never exclusive, Kelly. For now it's best if he focuses on school.”

Kelly winced. That was not what she wanted to hear. Kelly had thought the “focus on school” stuff had come from Mr. Daniels, but apparently Mrs. Daniels was in on it, too.

Why had Kelly said anything in the first place? What had she been thinking?

Well, she'd been looking for a sympathetic ear, obviously hoping Mrs. Daniels would say she'd talk some sense into Will.

Ha! Yeah, right. Kelly should have known better.

As a matter of fact, wasn't that one of the rules? That she wasn't supposed to talk to The Ex's parents about the breakup? Or whatever it was that was going on between her and Will?

Great. Just great. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and already she'd broken a rule.

Way to go, Kel.

“I have to go,” Mrs. Daniels said. “Michelle!” she yelled away from the phone. “Grab Samuel, please, before he makes a mess.”

The line went silent.

Kelly pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. Mrs. Daniels had just hung up on her!

Wonderful. Her day was going from bad to worse and there was only one thing that would take the crap quota up a few notches.

Chocolate cake.

But chocolate cake was like six hundred calories or something.

I don't care, she thought. It sounds so good.

God, what was she going to do when Valentine's Day came around next month? All the stores would overflow with chocolate candy hearts painfully reminding her that she was single. And what better way to deal with the pain of a broken heart than to eat those stupid chocolate hearts?

Ugh!

Kelly headed out of her bedroom but froze in the hallway when she heard a chorus of male voices coming from the kitchen.

She'd forgotten tonight was Todd's night to host the Saturday poker game.

She looked down to survey her appearance. She was still in her frog-print pajama pants and a stained white tank top. She just hadn't had the energy to shower yet, and she couldn't let all of Todd's friends see her like this!

She hurried back to her room and rifled through her closet. She threw on her gray American Eagle slub hoodie and a pink skirt. She checked her reflection in the mirror on the back of her bedroom door.

There, now. Her outfit was better than pajamas, but still inconspicuous enough to look like she'd been lounging in it all day and hadn't thrown it on just to impress. She ran her hand over her messy ponytail. Thankfully, it wasn't greasy yet and the pony would do.