Deceptive Cadence (5 page)

Mum chuckled despite her tears.

“You’re a good mum. Don’t let her rebellious streak make you think otherwise.”

She drew back and clasped my face, gazing lovingly into my eyes. “Thank you, Cadence. When I look at you, I can believe I’m not a complete failure as a mother.”

I squeezed her tightly. “Never even think it.”

I let go and leaned over to grab my bag.

“Cadence?”

I lifted my bag onto my shoulder and looked at her.

“Were you planning on going to the school disco?”

I nodded. “But if you don’t want me to―”

“No! I just thought you haven’t bought yourself new clothes lately. It might be nice if you and I go to pick out a new outfit.”

I hesitated. Before, I would have told her to just give me the money and I’d do it myself, but this time I sensed more behind her asking me. She wanted to spend time with me, to know she still had one of her daughters.

“Yeah, Mum. That’d be great.”

Her whole face lit up. “Do you want to go this Saturday?”

“After netball?”

“Yeah.”

“Sounds good.”

“We’ll get something really nice for you.”

“Thanks, Mum.” I turned and walked to my room.

Saturday morning. I awoke early, ready to go. I packed a change of clothes in my netball bag and met Mum to eat breakfast with her. Mum was more than surprised, but delighted, by my eagerness.

After my game, we walked around the mall scanning different clothing stores, but in no rush. I enjoyed spending time with her after several years of living on opposite sides of the continent.

She seemed happy too. She picked out things which were so ugly I almost gagged with disgust, but I smiled and shook my head politely instead. I didn’t want to ruin her fun.

Finally, I found the perfect outfit. I struggled to find something fashionable for the time, as my fashion sense was still eleven years in the future, but I found some cute jeans and a dark blue striped satin blouse.

As we paid, Mum rested her arm around my shoulders. “I had fun with you today.”

“Me too, Mum. It feels like forever since we’ve done something like this.”

She beamed and pointed at the rack of jewelry. “Why don’t you pick out something nice to wear with this?”

“Really?”

She nodded.

I rushed over and picked a gold necklace with matching earrings.

On the way home, I said, “Thanks, Mum. You really spoiled me today.”

She smiled at me warmly. “You deserve it. You’ve been wonderful lately. You’ve been helpful and cheery, you’ve been nice to your brother, and you’ve even tried to be nice to your sister. I really appreciate that.”

I grinned. Things were already looking up. My relationship with my mum had improved, and my good choices were paying off. If things kept going the way they were, there was no way anything could stop me from saving Austin and Melody.

CHAPTER FOUR

As I prepared to leave for the disco, Harper unleashed her fury on me. She stole my towel while I took a shower, trashed my room, and hid my makeup; she even tried to cut up my new clothes. Mum prevented her from destroying my shirt―she was about to put a pair of scissors to it―and Dad took her into her room for a sound scolding while I hurried to dress.

After I found my makeup and was ready to go, Harper popped her head out from her room and hollered, “Yeah, Mummy and Daddy’s favorite better have fun tonight! I hate you, Cadence!”

Dad drove me to school. On the way, he cleared his throat and said, “Cadence, you look very pretty tonight.”

I smiled up at him. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Don’t let any boys touch you.”

I bit back a laugh. “Okay, Dad.”

He glanced at me. “I mean it. It may be against the law to buy a gun, but I’m sure I could find one somewhere.”

I couldn’t help giggling.

He smiled at me proudly. “You’re a good girl, Cadence, and I trust you. You have fun tonight, okay?”

“I will. Thanks, Dad.”

We pulled into the front parking lot of the school. As I unbuckled, I paused to look at my dad. I’d always loved him. When he shed a tear at my wedding, and said how much he loved Austin in his toast, my love for him felt like it would explode out of my chest.

I leaned across and kissed his cheek. “I love you, Dad.”

He blinked, shocked, but smiled. “I love you too, sweetheart.”

I climbed out of the car with a goofy grin.

I lined up and presented my ticket at the door of the school hall. They wrapped a band around my wrist and I entered, making my way through the small crowd into the center of the hall. I smiled as my friends rushed toward me. School discos may have been the cheesiest events on the school calendar, but I had loved them the first time around, and I still did the second time.

“Hey, come on, let’s get this party started!” Geri beamed.

I took her hand. “Let’s do it!”

We found an open space and our group filled it as we jumped and danced around together. I had an absolute blast, although the amount of male attention I received surprised me. I didn’t remember guys being so interested in me before, or maybe I hadn’t noticed because I was so naive.

Tyler’s best friend Mitch came up right beside me and grabbed my hand.

“Hey, how ya doin’ tonight?” he yelled into my ear.

“I’m doing great!” I grinned, pulling my hand free.

“Ya look like ya are too!” His eyes did a quick dash down and up my body.
That was weird.

I stepped back from him, but kept smiling. “Thanks! I love dancing.”

Tyler came up beside him. Mitch turned his attention away from me, knowing if he continued hitting on me it would break the best friend code of conduct. I backed away, breathing a sigh of relief.

My friends and I decided to take a break and buy drinks. We stopped at the school canteen and each bought a soda before retreating to a nearby picnic table. We gossiped about who hooked up, who showed up drunk, and who would get dumped because they cheated. A group of our guy friends showed up. We made room for them, and somehow I found myself sandwiched between Brian and Justin.

“Hey,” Brian said in my ear. “If there’s a slow dance, we should dance.”

“Ah . . .” I stared ahead at Geri. She raised her eyebrows. “Maybe, but they don’t usually play slow dances.”

“Sometime tonight you and me will have to jam out or something.”

Jam out? I thought that term died in the nineties. “Sure.”

I tried to engross myself in the group conversation when Justin, who sat on my right, said, “Cadence?”

I turned to him and saw an odd look in his eyes. We were in the same main class in seventh grade, and been friends ever since. Over the last few months he’d shot up and filled out, so he stood a good head taller than me. He was probably one of the better-looking guys in the grade, with strawberry blond hair, pale blue eyes, and a splattering of freckles across his nose.

“Yeah?”

“How are you doing since the breakup?”

I shrugged. “I’m fine. It’s been a few weeks so, you know, I’m over it.”

He grinned and leaned closer. “Ready to move on, huh?”

The way he looked at me made things awkward. I looked across at Geri. “Hey, I love this song! Let’s go dance!”

She jumped to her feet. “Let’s do it!”

We ran into the school hall and made our way to the back corner. She squeezed my hand and laughed. “Wow, Miss Popularity! I must say, if the guys weren’t such dorks I’d totally be jealous.”

“Shut up!” I laughed.

“Maybe, since you’re apparently in heat, you could work your magic and pick us up some real guys.”

“I didn’t know there were any at our school!”

She burst out laughing. “You have a point. But let’s just see where your raging hormones take us!”

“You’re so weird.”

“That’s why you love me.”

We shuffled up the wall and attached ourselves to the edge of the crowd. I started to dance when Geri laughed. “You should be all sexy and raunchy!”

“What?” I couldn’t help laughing.

“Go on! Like this.” She raised her arms up and ran them down her body as she slowly moved her hips.

I laughed. “You look ridiculous!”

“I look hot! Shut up! It’s what all the celebrities are doing. When was the last time you watched a Britney video?”

I pulled a disgusted face at her. “I’m not doing that.”

“Come on, Cay! Do it for me! Please, please, please?”

I sighed. "Only if you give me five bucks."

“Done!” She pulled a five-dollar bill out of her pocket. “But, I’ll only give it to you after you do it for thirty seconds.”

“Thirty seconds?”

“You heard me.”

“Fine.” I faced her in an attempt to look inconspicuous. I moved my hips with as much sexiness as I could muster.

She watched me, grinning mischievously. Her gaze suddenly lifted over my shoulder and she giggled. “Cay, stop!”

Turning, I saw a guy from the grade above us pull back and smirk at me. Behind him, his friends burst out laughing.

I grabbed Geri’s arm and blushed. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

“Hey, where you goin’?” he called after me. “We just barely got started!”

His friends roared as Geri and I hurried away.

“What was he doing?” I hissed at her as we retreated to the back corner.

She giggled as she answered, “He pretended to spank you.”

“Oh my gosh!”

Her giggling intensified. “Hey, at least he was hot, right?”

“That was James Gordon, Melanie’s brother!”

“Melanie, as in crazy Melanie in our science and PE classes?”

“Yeah!”

“How do you even know that?”

I paused, and hurried to cover myself. “I just heard it around.”

Geri shrugged. “Well, he may be hot, but he’s in that group of pervs and potheads who hang out with Robbie Cluff.”

I turned to see them all sitting along the wall, watching the girls pass by. “Gross.”

I remembered that. I also remembered how they’d all turned out―on drugs and throwing their lives down the toilet. The last thing I’d heard of Robbie was that he’d ended up in jail.

We hurried away to find the rest of our friends. We joined the main group and again I found myself overloaded with male attention. I wondered if it had happened before, and racked my brain trying to recall.

After several songs of being tugged, pulled, and yelled at, I grabbed Geri’s hand again and we rushed out. We hurried toward the bathrooms and burst inside. We startled a group of girls from the grade above us who gave us filthy looks. Geri and I rushed into a cubicle each to pretend to pee. One muttered, “Let’s go somewhere else,” before they all skulked out, banging the door behind them.

Geri opened her door and whispered, “Cay, come out.”

I slipped out, relieved to find us alone. “I hate those girls.”

“Yeah, me too. They’re total dogs.”

“They’re all gonna end up pregnant and on drugs.” I snapped my mouth shut.

Geri laughed. “Most likely. That blonde one, Carla, totally sleeps with Robbie all the time.”

“Yeah, that will do it,” I muttered, remembering she dropped out in the eleventh grade because she fell pregnant with his kid.

“Anyway, what’s up with you tonight?” Geri grinned. “I’m not kidding when I say the guys are all over you!”

“I know. It’s so weird!”

“I’ve always said you’re a hottie.”

“I’m so not.” My cheeks rushed with heat. “Not compared to you anyway.”

“I am pretty smoking.” She flipped her brown hair over her shoulder. Then, she burst into giggles. “Justin totally wants to hook up with you!”

My eyes widened. Was it really that disco? Justin had been my second boyfriend before, but I hadn’t realized getting together with him had been so close to breaking up with Tyler.

“Oh my gosh, Cadence! You get all the luck. Tyler, Justin, Brian . . . who will be next?”

That
was weird. She just listed my first three boyfriends in order and I hadn’t even dated most of them yet! “I don’t want to hook up with Justin.”

“Are you crazy? He’s like one of the hottest guys in the grade!”

“Then he should go date one of the popular girls.”

Geri scowled. “Hmm, I hate those girls.”

“Everyone does, that’s why they’re popular.”

She burst out laughing. “I love you, Cadence! But seriously, you should date Justin.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t wanna date anyone for a while―”

She slapped my shoulder. “You’re still harping on about that! Who
is
this loser you’re into?”

I bit my lip, not wanting to lie to her. “You don’t know him. He doesn’t go to this school.”

“Well, give me a name then!”

I took a deep breath. She couldn’t look Austin up because there was no Facebook, Twitter, or any other popular social network, so even if she did look him up online, she wouldn’t find much, if anything. “His name is Austin.”

“Austin?”

“Austin.”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Okay, kid, I’ll believe ya. Where did you meet him?”

“He’s my mum’s cousin’s son’s friend,” I lied.

“Wow, that’s a doozy.”

“What?”

“Okay, if you don’t wanna tell me, that’s fine, but I still think you should consider Justin. Come on, we’ll go sit outside for a bit to give you a break.” She grasped my hand and pulled me toward the door.

“Geri?”

“Yeah?”

“You know you’re my best friend, right?”

She giggled. “Of course!”

I smiled, hoping I wouldn’t screw things up between us this time around.

We burst out of the bathroom. James Gordon leaned against the opposite wall of the corridor, startling us. His eyes were barely visible from under his matted mop of hair pressed over his face by a black beanie. He looked up at us and grinned. “Hey, we never finished our little dance.”

I grunted, disgusted, as Geri and I dashed away. We found a quiet corner and sat together. She rested her head against my shoulder and I stroked her hair. I had missed her for so long. I spent so many years wishing I could take back whatever I had done, that having her right beside me again felt like a miracle.

A teacher announced the last three songs were about to play. Geri’s head shot up and she looked into my eyes. “Come on, let’s dance.”

She jumped to her feet and offered me her hand.

“You know,” I said as I took it. “You still owe me five bucks.”

She grinned and pulled me up. “I sure do. I was hoping you’d forget.”

She shoved the note down my shirt. I plucked it out and scowled at her. She laughed and we dashed back inside.

We rejoined our group and I cautiously kept myself among the girls. Geri stayed by my side the whole time as we danced around together. I did all I could to ignore the boys. When the end finally came and the lights turned on, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Geri and I walked out to the parking lot with the other girls, all singing and laughing together. Most of our friends’ parents already arrived, so they left us right away. Geri and I sunk onto the asphalt by the wall to wait.

“I had fun tonight,” she said.

I looked at her. “Me too.”

“The best part was you making a total idiot of yourself.”

I punched her arm as we laughed.

Melanie startled us by sitting beside me. I stared at her, surprised she was even there.

“Hey, smelly Melly,” Geri said teasingly. “What are you doing here?”

She turned beet red, and moved to stand.

I caught her arm. “She’s just teasing, Melanie. Aren’t you, Geri?” I glared across at Geri.