Burning Down the House (10 page)

I couldn’t believe I was spying on him like this.
It was wrong. It was pathetic. I should leave.

Then I saw
him. Emerging from the shower, he stood in front of the bathroom sink with a towel over his head, using both hands to rub the excess dampness from his hair. And that was the
only
part of him that was covered up. I saw it all, and nothing in the world could have persuaded me to tear my eyes away from the spectacular view. The detonation of a block of TNT in the background wouldn’t have been enough to distract me.

He was more
exquisite than I’d ever imagined. An earthbound Adonis. He was chiseled perfection.

I don’t know how long it was before I
suddenly became aware that his arms had grown still and the towel on his head was no longer moving. And when I reluctantly pulled my eyes upward I realized to my horror that he could see my reflection in the mirror above the sink. He was watching me…watching him.

For the second time
that week, I saw him smile.

With my h
eart pounding wildly against my chest, I scurried down the hallway and into my room like a cat with its tail on fire. I couldn’t believe the supreme idiocy of what I’d just done. Caught in the act of leering at his naked body - how was I ever going to live this down? Now he probably thought I was some kind of sex-starved degenerate. And at this point, I wasn’t so sure it was an entirely inaccurate assumption. A peeping Thomasina, very classy - what the hell was I thinking?

It was a good thing the next day was Sunday because I didn’t get much sleep that night. Every time I closed my eyes I saw him.
All
of him. And the sandman couldn’t find his way to me through that image. He was probably enamored by the sight, too.

When I finally did sleep, I had the most beautiful dreams.

I hid out in my room for as long as possible the next day, trying to delay the inevitable moment when I’d have to face him. It wasn’t an event I was looking forward to. Rob was such an anomaly, it was impossible to predict how he was going to react. Maybe he wasn’t the wisecracking type, but let’s face it, this was a golden opportunity that would be hard for
anyone
to pass up. All I could do was keep my fingers crossed that he’d take the high road and not decide to completely humiliate me.

The
enticing aroma of sizzling bacon finally lured me into the kitchen. I expected to see Dad standing over the stove, but to my surprise he was seated at the table with the Sunday paper. Rob was the one cooking breakfast, even though it was close to noon. He must have slept in as well.

“Look who’s up,” Dad
cheerfully announced. “Have a good sleep?”

“
Mm-hm. I guess I was tired. Peyton wore me out last night.”

He chuckled. “You were a handful at that age too,
just so you know.”

“I didn’t mean she was bad, just…
bouncing off the walls. She wanted to play hide and seek the whole time.” I reached in the pantry for a box of Honey Smacks, then emptied some into a bowl.

“
Bacon and eggs?” Rob offered, glancing sidelong at me. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary in his expression, I let myself relax.

“No, thanks.
I don’t really like eggs.” Opening the fridge, I retrieved the milk and poured some over my cereal before sitting down at the table with my father. “What’s new in the world today?”

“
Nothing particularly riveting.” He refolded the paper and laid it on the table. “Rachel and I are going hiking this afternoon at Rocky Gap. Anyone want to join us?”

Rachel
’s just one of the women he occasionally dates. Ever since the divorce, my dad hasn’t been very big on commitment. He seems to prefer unlimited freedom. As long as he’s happy, it doesn’t bother me. “I don’t think so. Three’s a crowd. Anyway, I should try and get some studying done. I put it off yesterday.”

Rob
sat down with his plateful of bacon, eggs and toast. “I’m going over to Doug’s later.”

“Suit yourselves.”
Dad stood up and shuffled away, stretching lazily. “Well, I better go get ready. Told Rachel I’d pick her up at one.”

Alone in the kitchen with
Rob, I tried to avoid looking at him. But it’s really not that easy to sit across the table from someone and not make eye contact, so eventually I inadvertently glanced up at him. I was flustered to find that he was staring directly at me while crunching on his bacon. He wasn’t smiling, but there was a distinct suggestion of mild amusement in his eyes.

“Get a good look, perv?” he asked softly.

I could feel the heat rush to my face. Great. He wasn’t going to let this slide after all.

“It’s not like there was all that much there to look at,” I retaliated. Talk about a monumental lie. There was plenty
to see. And I do mean
plenty
.

Pushing his plate aside, he crossed both arms on the table and leaned forward on them. For a
while he didn’t say anything, just continued to watch me until I felt ready to search for a rock to crawl under.

“What?” I finally snapped, unnerved.

“So.”

“So, what?”

“Did you like what you saw?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was definitely a whole new side of him I’d never seen before. Well, if you didn’t count the one from last night. Instead of attempting to come up with a
clever retort I just sat there with my mute mouth partway open. Because there was simply no safe way to answer that question.

“
What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” He was almost whispering now, and I found it impossible to pull my eyes away from his hypnotic gaze. Still, I said nothing.

His mouth twisted into a triumphant smirk.
“All right then. Have it your way. We’ll just keep this our little secret. But I think there’s one thing you should keep in mind.”

“Yeah?”
I finally managed to reply.

“Turnabout’s fair play.”
He stood up and walked over to the sink with his empty plate. “Remember that.”

Th
e cryptic threat served to jolt me out of my trance. “What do you mean by that?”

“
Think about it.” He rinsed off the plate and stuck it in the dishwasher, then turned to leave.

“Wait a minute! What
did you
mean
by that?”

I got no
response. And maybe it was as much as I deserved. I knew one thing though. From that moment forward, I was going to make it a point to mind my own business.

6

I forgot about
Rob’s warning as the weeks slowly blended into a predictable pattern of classes, homework and extracurricular activities. Our theatre class had voted on a December production of
The Crucible
but we were promptly overruled by Mr. Clarke, who insisted on
Romeo and Juliet
instead. Ugh, how very original. Having landed the demanding role of Juliet opposite Riley Murphy’s Romeo, I had pages and pages of Shakespearean dialogue to begin memorizing.

Dana
dragged me to the first game of the season, and we watched as the Hillcrest Hornets effortlessly slaughtered the opposing team. We also watched Slutty Staci bouncing her D-cups up and down the sidelines. I had to admit, she
was
the most energetic cheerleader out there. It was a wonder she didn’t give herself a black eye with those knockers though.

Soon
after that I came down with a head cold that lingered for about a week, so I had a valid excuse to skip the next game. Dad had that weekend off though, and he and Trudy (another name from his little black book) went to see Rob play. We won that one, too.

Mom called once in a while, but mostly we
just emailed back and forth. Home from her honeymoon in Europe, she seemed to be adjusting to my absence admirably well. Of course, most of that was probably due to Stanley’s presence. No doubt they were enjoying their time alone together.

As for the situation at home, it was
a little surreal. Rob seemed to go out of his way to avoid me. I know it sounds like a cheesy cliché, but we really were like two ships passing in the night. Each was aware of the other, but there was no contact, no communication. We spoke only when necessary. I won’t say I didn’t make a few conversational attempts, but he was totally unreceptive and after a while I gave up. For whatever reason, he appeared to want nothing to do with me.

It crossed my mind that the peeping tom incident might have had something to do with it, but I wasn’t convinced.
He didn’t seem embarrassed by it. Still, I never told anyone about that, not even Dana. I held the secret close to me, a delicious memory that I pulled out and revisited every night after I crawled into bed. It was a pleasant vision to fall asleep with. To share it with anyone would have tarnished it somehow.

And the days melted one into the other,
average and uneventful, until quite suddenly things took an unexpected turn.

It was after school
on a Thursday, while Dana and I were working on the parade float, that Riley Murphy approached me about homecoming.

My fingers and clothes were stained with
blue and gold spray paint and I still had physics homework to look forward to, so I was trying to persuade Dana to call it a day. Unfortunately for me, she was a nominee on the ballot for homecoming queen and wanted to be as involved as possible in order to improve her odds. And of course, being the dutiful best friend, I wanted to help her out in any way I could. Even if it meant spending my afternoon spray painting a ginormous papier-mâché hornet.

“Looking good!”
Riley gave his approval as he appeared around the corner of the flatbed trailer. He looked up at me and laughed. “You have blue paint on the end of your nose.”

I rubbed it, but I don’t think it came off.
“You guys done with practice already?”

“
Uh-huh. I was just about to head home.” He leaned against the edge of the trailer. “How come I didn’t see your name on the ballot?”

“Me? What, are you kidding?” I walked to the edge and sat down with my legs dangling over the side.

“Here, let me help you.” He reached up and I used his shoulders to balance on as I hopped down. “Were you planning on going to the homecoming dance?”

“Hadn’t thought much about it,” I admitted. There was so much other stuff going on, a lame school dance wasn’t exactly top priority.
His hands were still around my waist and I backed up a step to extricate myself from his hold.

“Well…would you like to?
You know, with me?”

Caught
off guard by his question, I stumbled for an answer. What was he asking
me
for? Surely he’d rather take one of the members of the court. He was the star quarterback, after all. “Oh. Um…homecoming. That’s next weekend, right?”

He laughed good
-naturedly at my hedging. Of course I knew when it was - I’d have to be living with my head buried in the sand not to. “Yes, it’s next weekend. So how about it? Sorry, I know it’s kinda last minute.”

Well, why not? It
could be fun. “Okay, sure. Yeah. I’d love to go.”

“Awesome!
Why don’t you give me your number and I’ll call you later so we can work out the details.”

“All right.” I
rattled it off to him and watched as he added it to his contacts list. From the corner of my eye I saw Dana on the float, grinning down at me.

“So you need a ride home or anything?”
Riley looked up from his phone.

“Oh…no, thanks. I’ve got
my car.”

“Okay.
Well…I will give you a call later then.”

“All right.
Talk to you later.”

With a wave, he turned and
walked away. Dana jumped down from the trailer, pausing to wipe her hands on her jeans. “What was that about?”

I shrugged
, still bemused. “He just asked me if I wanted to go to the homecoming dance with him.”

She looked surprised by this news.
“He did? Oh, you suck! I’m jealous.”

“
Well, what are you going to do about halftime coronation? You still don’t have an escort. Time’s running out, you know.”

“I know, I just…” She gave a frustrated sigh. “I wanted to ask
Trent, but I know he’s probably escorting Staci. I can’t even think of anyone else I’d want to do it.”

“What about
Doug? He’s nice.”

“
Meh. I guess.”

“
You know what your problem is? You’re too picky.”

“I’m not picky. I’m just…selective.”

That was an understatement. I knew she’d already declined two invitations to the dance. I knew why too, even if she wouldn’t admit it. She was still holding out hope that Trent would come to his senses.

“Big difference.” I fished in my pocket for my keys. “I’m gonna go on home, okay? I still have homework to do.”

“Okay. I think I’ll stick around a little longer.”

“See you tomorrow then.”
Twirling the keychain around my finger, I headed for the parking lot while thinking about homecoming. The dance was supposed to be semiformal, so I’d need to look for a dress this weekend. I could probably get Dana to help me pick something out. She had a good eye for fashion. I’d seen her coronation gown - it was a gorgeous royal blue with lots of sparkly sequins. It was going to look stunning on her.

I couldn’t believe it when I drove up and saw
Trent’s truck parked in our driveway. Talk about providence - this was almost too good to be true! I’d already come to the decision that if Dana wasn’t going to put herself out there, then I’d just have to do it for her. Now seemed like the perfect opportunity.

“Hey, sex kitten!”
Trent greeted me as soon as I walked in. I noticed he had a bottle of Blue Moon in one hand. As a matter of fact, they all did. When the cat’s away… “We were just about to order some pizza. What you want, baby? I’m buying.”

Actually, p
izza did sound good. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll eat whatever you order.” I ignored Rob’s almost imperceptible frown. I didn’t care if he didn’t want me hanging out with them - I had a mission.

“You have something on your nose,”
Doug informed me.

“I know - it’s paint.” I rubbed my nose self
-consciously. Okay, the stupid paint had to go. Leaving the three boys to call in their order, I went in the bathroom to scrub my face. Luckily the stuff washed off with soap. After changing into lounge pants and a t-shirt, I rejoined them.

“Come sit with
us, sweet thing.” Trent patted the spot beside him and I settled on the sofa between him and Doug, pulling my legs up to cross them. Rob was in the recliner, sprawled out in his favorite position with one leg thrown over the side, channel-surfing. Damn, but he looked cute.

“Wait, turn it back - was that
the Playboy channel?” Doug perked up, his interest captured by a brief flash of nudity.

“No
. We don’t get the Playboy channel, dipshit.”

“Turn it back, man!”

Rob changed the channel with a sigh. “It’s
Black Swan
.”

Trent
grabbed the end of one of my socks and shook my foot playfully. “Is that what you girls get up to in ballet class?”

“
Yep. That’s exactly what we do.” I kept a straight face, playing along.

“Well
, hell - slap some tights on me then! Where do I sign up?”

“We
could
use someone to play Herr Drosselmeyer.”

“H
arry who?”

“
It’s a part in
The Nutcracker
,” I clarified.

“
Sorry, I’m not about anything that involves the cracking of nuts.” He placed a hand over his crotch to illustrate his point. “You actually have dudes in your class?”

“Not in my class, no. There’s a
few younger boys in the intermediate class. We’re getting a couple of dance majors from Temple University to fill in for the advanced roles.” That was certainly something to look forward to. As Snow Queen, I’d be partnered with one of them for the pas de deux with the Snow King. They were supposed to start practicing with us in two months, after Thanksgiving break.

“I’ll put on a tutu and come dance with you,”
Doug offered, standing up to clumsily twirl his husky body with arms curved over his head, beer still in one hand. We all cracked up at the sight - even Rob, if you can believe that.

“I think you need a few more lessons. No offense,” I giggled.

“Your loss.” He gave a regal bow before taking his seat. “I’ve actually been told I’m very light on my feet.”

“Light in your head is more like it,”
Trent snorted.

I tilted my head to look over at him. “Hey…let me ask you something.”

“Okay.”

“Why do you go out with
Staci?” Might as well cut straight to the chase here.

“I don’t go out with
Staci.”

“I heard you did.”

“You heard wrong then.”

“So you’re not together?”

“Hell to the no. Why you askin’?”

“She didn’t ask you to be her
escort? For the homecoming coronation?”

“No.
Why? Someone say I was her escort?”

I shook my head. “
Would you like to be? I mean, not for her but for someone else.”

“Who?” He gave me a suspicious look.

“How about Dana?”