Complete Nothing (21 page)

“And now, please join the Lake Carmody marching band as they play our national anthem,” the PA announcer said, suddenly somber.

The trumpet began its tune, and everyone sang at a whisper, like they always do at these things. I scanned the team in front of us and found Peter instantly, the
MARROTT
spelled out in big white letters across his back. His hair stuck out over his ears from removing his helmet for the anthem, and the back of his neck looked red, as if he’d already been working out for an hour. My heart pounded as my eyes flicked from him to Keegan, and I wondered what he was thinking. Was he angry at me for last night? Angry at Keegan? Probably not. Knowing him, he was probably 100 percent focused on the game. He’d think about me and Keegan later. If he even bothered.

And then I had the most horrible thought. Maybe True’s plan
wasn’t working. Maybe what had happened last night hadn’t made him jealous, but irrevocably angry. Maybe he was never going to speak to me again.

Right then, Peter turned around and scanned the bleachers. My breath caught with anticipation, hardly daring to hope that he was looking for me, hardly daring to think of anything . . . and then he found me. And he stared. He stared right at me for the whole rest of the song.

“He totally still likes you,” Lauren said as soon as the anthem ended and everyone began to cheer. “Or likes you again. He re-likes you.”

“Guess that True girl isn’t as crazytown as she seems,” Mia added.

“Maybe not,” I replied, my heart slamming around inside my chest like an out-of-control wrecking ball. “See? Peter and I will be back together in no time,” I said, looking Lauren in the eye.

She arched one eyebrow and I looked away, feeling nervous and hot, guilty and confused, as Keegan and a couple of his teammates walked to the center of the field to shake hands with Peter and some of his teammates before the coin toss. Sometimes having a best friend who knew me as well as she did was not entirely cool.

I was supposed to be watching the game, but I was watching Claudia. It didn’t seem like she was rooting for Keegan, but it was hard to tell. I mean, she was sitting with the Lake Carmody fans, wearing her booster ribbon, so even if that asshole was the new love of her life, it would have been awkward for her to cheer for him. But still. Every time our defense came up with a big play, she cheered, and they were playing awesome. It was almost halftime and we were up 24–10. They hadn’t killed the guy yet, but then the game was only half over.

She was so pretty, Claudia. Sitting there with the sun on her face, her skin practically glowing. Hands down she was the prettiest girl I knew.

“Go, Peter!”

My eyes flicked to the track around the field. Josie was waving her pom-poms with the other JV cheerleaders, who were flanking varsity since it was a big game. I shot her a look through my helmet like,
WTF?
I wasn’t even on the field.

“Blitz!” someone shouted in my ear.

I whipped around to watch the action. Traylor had dropped
back with the ball, and his offensive line had crumbled. Dunnellon and Moskowitz came at him from either side, and there wasn’t a single soul to stop them. Traylor dropped back even farther, trying to scramble away.

“Get him! Get him!” I shouted.

He searched desperately for an open receiver, but there was no one. The dude was about to get nailed. I saw his eyes widen. Saw him try for one last bob-and-weave, and then Gavin and Josh sandwiched him. Everyone in the stands gasped as he went down under five hundred pounds of linebacker. The fans on their side of the field went silent. The fans on our side of the field went nuts. I turned around and looked at Claudia. She was cheering and jumping up and down with Lauren and Mia, clutching her hands.

That was pretty much all I needed to see. And what I felt inside was all I needed to feel. It was like my heart had swelled up to fill my entire body. There was apparently nothing in the world like watching the girl you liked cheer over the guy you thought she
might
like getting flattened.

Right then and there I decided. I was going to win this game, and then I was going to find Claudia and ask her out again. She didn’t belong with Keegan Traylor. She belonged with me. By the end of the day, everything would be back to normal.

“And now, your Lake Carmody High School marching band!”

There was a smattering of applause across the depleted crowd in the bleachers. The band had formed the letters
M
and
J
out on the field, and now launched into a barely recognizable version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Fortunately, I was hardly paying attention. I couldn’t stop thinking about Orion.

Orion, who had run over the other team’s defense throughout the first half, leaping and spinning and slamming through guys twice his size. Orion, who had never looked hotter than when he’d pulled off his helmet on the sidelines and dumped a cup of water over his head. Orion, who I swear had almost kissed me before the game. He’d been thinking about it. I was sure of it.

I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth. That was it. After the game I was going to find him and ask him out on a proper date. Why not? What did I have to lose? I’d already been forced to give him up once. If he said no, I could handle it.

Maybe.

But he wouldn’t say no. He was my soul mate. He couldn’t say no.

“So, you’re friends with Lauren, and Lauren is friends with that girl Mia Ross . . . right?”

I glanced at Wallace, who had materialized as if from nowhere. He was standing next to my bench, wearing an LCHS T-shirt over a white thermal, trying to act casual. Instead he looked kind of like the Tin Man in need of a good oiling. His right hand leaned into the bleacher’s railing, the arm perfectly straight, his legs crossed at the ankle, and he was tilting sideways. Definitely trying too hard.

Out on the field, the marching band moved through their formation changes as they stumbled their way into their next Michael Jackson song, “Black or White.” I narrowed my eyes as the drum major moonwalked across the pockmarked field.

“Why? Do you like Mia Ross?”

“She’s the fourth-shortest girl in the sophomore class,” he said, dead seriously.

“And that appeals to you?”

He looked across the bleachers, where Mia sat gossiping with some friends. She had a pretty face. Light-blue eyes, soft features, and a melodious laugh.

“She’s like an elfin princess,” Wallace said with a sigh.

I grinned. This was perfect. If I could hook Wallace up with his elfin princess, and Claudia and Peter could get their act together, then Orion and I could be out of here before next weekend.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I assured him.

“Hey, True. Can we talk?”

I turned to squint up at Lauren, whose curls were framed by the sun. “Actually, we were just going to come find you,” I said. “What do you think of introducing Wallace to Mia?”

Lauren eyed Wallace, who stood up straight, shoulders back like an Elizabethan-era butler awaiting his lady’s inspection.

“Later,” Lauren pronounced, shoving her hands into the pockets of her denim jacket. “Right now I need to tell you about how your brilliant plan is backfiring.”

She cast a glance over her shoulder at Claudia, who was standing near the Snack Shack with Casey, watching something on a phone screen. Instantly my shoulders went tense. My plan could not be backfiring. I’d kept an eye on Peter Marrott throughout the first half, and he’d spent a good 80 percent of his time on the sidelines blatantly longing for Claudia. My plan was as good as gold.

“Wallace, will you excuse me for a second?” I asked.

“Sure.”

As Lauren and I walked down the bleachers, he pulled out his own phone and fired up a game of Angry Birds. If he wanted to meet Mia Ross so badly, why didn’t he just go over there and introduce himself? If only I had my golden arrows. That coupling would be done and done.

I wondered if I could conjure them. Not that I would have ever tried. If I started shooting people in the heart with magical arrows, Zeus would definitely notice. Not to mention everyone in a ten-mile radius and their camera phones.

“What’s going on?” I asked Lauren as I leaned against the guardrail at the bottom of the steps. A group of rowdy guys in football T-shirts jostled by, looking us up and down.

“Put your tongues back in your mouths, frosh,” Lauren griped at them. She rolled her eyes, then sighed. “Look. I know my best friend pretty well, and I’m, like, ninety-nine percent sure that she’s falling for Keegan Traylor.”

My heart dropped, seeing my grand plans for couple number two go up in smoke. Keegan the cocky player was not worthy of Claudia’s love, and I could tell just by looking at him that he wasn’t the type to get serious in high school. Lauren was right. This was not good.

“No. She wouldn’t,” I said. “She knows that Keegan isn’t for her. She knows he’s just a means to an end.”

“I’m not so sure. You should see the way her face lights up when she talks about him. He’s going to break her heart. That boy is a player with no conscience, who plows through girls like he’s harvesting them for grain.”

We were both silent for a second, pondering whether that metaphor made any sense. I shook my head.

“Well . . . maybe it won’t end badly. Maybe he’ll fall in love with her,” I suggested hopefully. “There’s a first time for everything.”

“Not for this guy,” Lauren said, shaking her head glumly. “Last year, my sister’s best friend, Felicity, went out with him, and he told her he loved her, then hooked up with her other best friend before dumping her because she wasn’t, quote, ‘Keegan Traylor material.’ ”

Okay. Even I knew there was no reforming a person like that. “Well why didn’t you say any of this when I set her up with him?”

“Because! She was supposed to be using the asshole. I didn’t expect her to
like
him! She’s usually too smart to fall for a guy like that.”

We both turned and looked at Claudia. She scanned the far sideline, as if she was waiting with bated breath for Keegan to appear once more. She looked so hopeful and guarded at the same time. So open and so timid. And just like that, I realized what was happening. I’d been too intent on helping her to see it before, but now it was crystal clear.

Claudia was rebounding. Maybe on a normal day she’d be able to see through a too-perfect boy like Keegan Traylor, but Wednesday hadn’t been a normal day. It had been the day after the love of her life had dumped her. Clearly she would have fallen for the first non-troll who happened to look her way.

And I’d set her up with a troll in prince’s clothing.

Standing outside the visiting team’s locker room after the game, I checked my reflection with my phone. Ugh. So pale. Too many freckles. And what was I thinking with the braid? Was I trying to look like I’d stepped out of the pages of
Little House on the Prairie
? I quickly reached back and untied it, fluffing my hair over my shoulders. It fanned out in silky auburn waves.

Huh. Pretty. But there was so much of it. Now I looked like I was trying to be sexy at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. Too much. I shoved my phone into my bag and shakily pulled my hair back into a ponytail. The band was just snapping into place when Keegan emerged from the back door and I smiled, trying not to appear as self-conscious as I felt.

But how could I not? Because look at him, and then look at me. I could already sense people watching us curiously. Skeptically. But I’d been Peter Marrott’s girlfriend for over a year. Was it that much of a stretch that Keegan Traylor could be interested in me?

“Hey,” Keegan said with that ridiculous knee-melting smile. I looked at his lips, and suddenly it was last night and I was experiencing his kiss again. His lips, his hands, his tongue . . .

“Claudia?” he said.

“Oh, sorry. Hi!” I replied brightly. “How’s it going?” Then I remembered his team had lost, and my smile faltered.

He stopped a couple of feet in front of me. “You came.”

Wait. Didn’t he remember we’d made a plan? Or maybe he’d only made a plan to be polite. Crap. Did he even want me here?

“Um, yeah. Of course I came,” I said, trying to think of a way to cover. “I go to school here, remember?”

I made a lame gesture at my booster ribbon and glanced around for Peter, wondering briefly what he’d think if he saw Keegan and me together right now. Whether he’d care.

“I know. But you came to see me,” Keegan said, his smile widening. “I wasn’t sure if you would. You know, fraternizing with the enemy and stuff.”

I smirked and tried to relax. Tried to focus. “I don’t take football that seriously. No offense.”

“None taken.” He shrugged.

“Sorry about the loss.”

A couple of his teammates came out behind him, and he lifted a hand as they shouted their “See ya laters!”

“Their defense was on fire today and my offensive line basically crumbled,” he said casually, holding the strap on his duffel bag with both hands. “What’re you gonna do? You win some, you lose some. It’s a cliché for a reason.”

And he laughed.

Really? That was it? Whenever Peter had lost a game last year, he’d walked out of the locker room angry, stormed to my car, and brooded the entire way home. Then he’d spent the rest of the day in stony silence, occasionally blurting out something else he should have done differently or some bonehead move he’d made that could
have changed the whole game. This was a whole new world. And maybe, just possibly, a better one.

Or was it bad that Keegan wasn’t taking any responsibility for the loss? Somehow I had a feeling that was what a quarterback and captain was supposed to do.

Then Keegan took a step closer to me, so close our toes were almost touching. My pulse went low and quick, making it hard to breathe.

“Besides, how can I be depressed about some game when I have you here to cheer me up?” he said.