A Girl Like Gracie (8 page)

“
Gracie, this isn’t just anybody’s
wedding. It’s Charles Pennington. And you’re going as Noah
Pennington’s date. You have to look good,” she says, getting in the
driver’s seat of her car. I climb in the passenger seat.

“
Date? Who said anything about a date?
I’m going with him as a favor. We’re friends,” I say.

“
Friends or not, you’re going with him
to the wedding as a date,” she says. “I won’t have my stepdaughter
looking bad.”

“
Okay,” I say, sitting back against
the seat.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long
day.

Friends.

That afternoon, when Noah comes to
pick me up, I am exhausted from my day with Claire. I feel like I
tried on hundreds of dresses and shoes. But I do look pretty. At
least
I
think I look pretty,
which is all that matters.

I told Noah to text me when he was on his
way over, but instead, his arrival is told to me when Fredrick
knocks on my door that afternoon.

“
Your date is here, Miss James,” he
says.

“
Why does everybody keep calling him
my date? He’s not my date,” I say.

Fredrick just chuckles and walks away.

“
And don’t call me Miss James. It’s
Gracie,” I yell after him.

Wait.

Did he just say Noah is here?

I grab my heels and purse off the bed and
take off running down the hallway. The absolute last thing I need
is for Alfie to find out that I’m going with Noah to his dad’s
wedding. Then Alfie will think it’s a date and everything will be a
big mess.

When I get close to the balcony, I slow down
to a walk. I don’t want Noah to see me running and think I’m
excited to see him or something. I’m just going with him today as a
favor.

And it’s definitely not a date.

As I get to the top of the staircase, I look
down and see Noah standing in the foyer. He’s wearing a very nice
black suit, a white shirt and a black tie. He looks good… really
good. His hair is fixed like it was the first time I met him, and I
like it like that. Somehow, standing there, he looks more mature
than he does when I see him at school. He looks up at me, and my
stomach tightens in a weird way.

I’m nervous?

Ugh, why am I nervous?

It’s probably because everybody keeps
calling this a date. It’s not. I just need to stop letting people’s
words get to me.

I make my way down the staircase, hoping
that I don’t trip.

I carefully count each step to the bottom.
There are thirty three steps. I like odd numbers, so the fact that
there is thirty three is comforting for some strange reason.

“
Hey,” I say to Noah once I reach the
bottom.

“
Wow,” he says. “You look
beautiful.”

I look down at my bare feet against the
marble floor and push a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Thanks.” I
look up at him again and see that he has a huge smile on his face.
“What?”

“
Just thinking that you look so
beautiful my dad might try to dump his bride and date you instead,”
Noah says.

I roll my eyes.

“
I’m serious. Don’t be offended if my
dad hits on you.”

“
Are you being sarcastic? Because
American humor is different than Korean humor,” I say.

“
I am being serious,” he says, then
holds out his arm for me. “Are you ready to go?”

“
Yeah,” I say, looping my arm through
his. I really just want to get out of here before Alfie catches us
here together. That would be a disaster.

As we walk towards the front door, it opens
up and I watch Alfie and Jace step inside. I try to scoot away from
Noah, because I’m pretty sure if Alfie sees us touch it’ll be that
much worse, but Noah tightens his grip so I can’t get away.

This boy really has a death wish.

“
What are you doing?” Alfie asks
Noah.

I cringe at the harshness of his voice.

“
Don’t be mad. I’m going to his dad’s
wedding with him,” I say. “Noah asked me to go so he didn’t have to
go alone.”

Noah remains quiet beside me.

Alfie’s shoulders drop a bit. “Okay.”

He starts to walk around us and up the
stairs.

“
Okay? You’re just saying okay?” I
ask.

“
Yeah,” Alfie says, turning towards
me.

“
You made such a big deal out of him
talking to me. And now I tell you I’m going to be spending the
entire afternoon and a lot of the evening with the guy and you just
say okay?” I ask.

“
Yep,” he says, without another
explanation, then him and Jace walk up the stairs.

I turn to Noah with my mouth open wide.

“
If I had known he would be this cool,
I wouldn’t have made such a big deal out of hiding it,” I
say.

“
Oh, so you’re actually
not
ashamed of me?” he
asks.

I smack his arm playfully. “Shut up.”

He just grins. “Does that mean if I asked
you to hang out with me agin, you’d say yes?”

“
I suppose so,” I say. “We’re friends,
right?”

He nods his head vigorously. “Friends.”

“
Okay, then. We’ll hang out, because
that is what friends do,” I say, then walk towards the front door.
When I get there, I look back and see that Noah is still standing
in the same spot with a huge smile on his face. “Are you
coming?”

He turns to look at me, his smile
never faltering. “Sure thing,
Friend
.”

“
You’re so weird,” I say, when we walk
out the door.

Noah opens the passenger side car door for
me and I get in. My phone goes off, so I pull it out of my purse
and read the text while Noah walks to get in the driver’s side.

Alfie:
Today
is going to be hard for Noah. Be kind to him.

Me:
I’m
always nice to him.

I put my phone back away, wondering how
today will be hard for Noah. If this is his dad’s fifth wife, I
think he’d be used to the weddings by now.

But then again, I remember how hard it was
to be at my dad’s wedding. Not just because my dad was marrying
somebody that wasn’t my mom, but because I knew after that day that
I’d be living in a different country than my brother. It was
hard.

Alfie is right. I should be extra nice to
Noah today, even if he does get on my nerves.

Noah gets in the car and starts it.

“
Is your
appa
really going to hit on me?” I
asks.

“
Ah…
Appa
… my dad, right?” he asks.

“
Yeah.”

“
Oh,” he says. “Umm I just wouldn’t be
surprised if my dad did hit on you. Try not to take
offense.”

“
I won’t,” I say. “To be honest, I’m
not so good at telling if a guy is flirting with me. I was friends
with a guy in Korea for three years and before I left for America,
he confessed. I had no idea that he even liked me.”

“
He confessed?” Noah asks, as he
drives towards the gates to get out of my house.

“
In Korea, when a guy likes you, he
confesses. Like, he will do something really romantic, like take
you for coffee on top of a sky scraper, or he will write a sweet
note and give you a gift,” I explain. “It’s really sweet and
special. Also, it is a way for a couple to have a definite start
date to their relationship.”

“
What did the guy do for you?” he
asks.

“
He got me my favorite coffee and put
it on my desk the last day I was at school,” I say. “He wrote me a
note.”

“
Do you still have it?” Noah
asks.

I pull the folded up note out of my purse.
It’s too sweet to throw away, even if I don’t return the
feelings.

Noah snatches the note out of my hand, but I
don’t put up a fight. The note is written in Hangul. He unfolds it
and looks at the paper. “I can’t read this,” he says, really
sounding disappointed.

I take the paper back and fold it up,
putting it in my purse.

“
What did you say to the boy?” he
asks. “After he confessed, or whatever.”

“
I told him that I was leaving for
America in two days,” I say.

“
What would you have said if you
weren’t leaving for America?”

“
I don’t know,” I answer. “I had never
thought about him in any way besides a friend. I guess at that
moment, I was thankful I was coming to America just so I wouldn’t
break his heart.”

“
You’re a nice girl,” he says, his
voice sounding off.

“
Do you not like nice girls?” I
ask.

“
Not usually,” he answers.

“
Then I am a good friend to have,” I
say. “Maybe I’ll help you pick out a nice girl to date, then maybe
you won’t want to dump them after dating a few weeks.”

“
You already want to start controlling
my life,” he says, laughing. “Gracie, don’t ever change. You’re
kind of awesome.”

“
Thanks. I think.”

“
So, if a guy wanted to date you, what
should I tell him to do?” Noah asks.

“
First, tell the guy to get to know
me, because I would never date somebody who wasn’t my friend
first,” I say.

“
Okay. What next?”

“
I would want to do it the Korean way.
I would want a romantic confession,” I say. “One that I could tell
all my friends back in Korea about. Also, make sure the guy is okay
with couple clothing. I know it’s not a thing in America, but in
Seoul I always saw these cute couples walking around in matching
shirts and colors. It was so cute. I want that.”

“
Gracie, you’re killing me here,” he
says.

“
What? You don’t like couple
clothing?” I ask.

“
No.”

“
Well good thing I’m not dating you,”
I say.

He laughs. “You are going to make some
guy very happy.
If
the
couples clothing doesn’t scare him off.”

“
Americans,” I say, feigning a
sarcastic tone.

“
Koreans,” he says back.

We both laugh.

I think Noah is going to be a good
friend.

You have to keep her.

An hour later, Noah and I walk into a
beautiful church. The church is really old and looks like something
that you’d see in a history book. The ceilings are tall, tall
enough that there could be three or four stories, but it just goes
straight up. On the ceiling there is beautiful art work and there
are stained glass windows towards the top of the walls. There are
huge banisters and archways at each side, and there are two rows of
pews. I don’t have much time to look, because as soon as we walk
inside, Noah and I are escorted towards the front, where we are
seated on the grooms side.

“
This is awesome,” I tell
Noah.

“
He’s had a wedding here already,” he
says, shrugging.

“
Noah, who is your friend?” a guy
asks.

“
This is Gracie James,” Noah
answers.

“
James… like, Travis James?” he
asks.

“
He’s my dad,” I say.

“
Nice,” the guy says, giving Noah a
thumbs up.

Noah rolls his eyes at the guy. “Gracie,
this is my brother in law, Caleb Rivers.”

“
Hey,” I say, bowing towards the
guy.

Ugh… why do I forget I don’t have to bow in
America. Thankfully, the guy doesn’t comment.

“
Where is Vanessa?” Noah
asks.

“
She went to go check on the bride to
be,” Caleb says. “Seems like a waste of time considering this time
next year he’ll be divorced again, but there is no telling my wife
what to do.”

“
Trust me, I know,” Noah says. “I
lived with her longer than you.”

A few seconds later, a brunette girl that
looks just like Noah comes and sits down by Caleb. She has the same
emerald green eyes, the same color of hair, and the same facial
structure. You can tell she’s older, but she could be his twin.
Unlike Alfie and me, they actually look like siblings.

“
Who are you?” the girl, Vanessa,
asks.

Noah answers for me. “This is my friend,
Gracie James. She’s Alfie’s sister.”

“
Huh,” she says, looking at me.
“You’re pretty. Definitely my brother’s type. But you know he’ll
dump you soon, right? Don’t get too attached. He’s just like our
father.”

“
Hey!” Noah says. “I am nothing like
him. And I’m not dumping her.”

“
We’re not dating,” I tell her.
“Besides, my brother already warned me. He’s forbidden me to date
Noah, not that I was tempted to anyway.”

Vanessa laughs. “I like her. Noah, you have
to keep her.”

“
I’m trying, but you’re kind of
ruining my game here,” Noah says.

She just smiles. “If your big sister is
ruining your game, then you’re not playing it right.”

“
What game are we talking about?” I
ask. “I confused.”

Vanessa looks at me, then at Noah.