Gossamer (5 page)

“I guess that’s good then. Since you are free you can come to my house as a little pre-birthday celebration. My parents are out of town, and I’m having a get together. So, now you have plans,
and
I’m a part of them.” He winked.

I couldn’t hide the giggle that managed to escape. “That could be fun,” I said and gave him a playful smile. “I’ll see what Lexie thinks.”

Now he rolled his eyes. “You know you
can
do stuff without her.”

“I know, but what fun would that be?”

Bryce spent the next several minutes convincing me his house would be fun with or without Lexie. I think he knew as well as I did, Lexie and Dylan could easily be broken up again by then, and if that happened she wouldn’t go, which meant neither would I.

While picking at my lunch, I listened as he attempted his best persuasive argument. Just then, I noticed Cerise walk by. I followed her short bouncing skirt as she and her entourage made their way to a table.

The emotions she triggered surprised me. I wasn’t generally a mean person, but I seriously saw red watching her sashay by. Even worse was when I realized where she headed. She walked right to the table where Grant and Conor sat. When had they arrived? I’d been so wrapped up in my conversation with Bryce I never noticed them enter.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Cerise sat down next to Grant. Her groupies followed suit, taking seats around the table. I watched him, gauging his reaction. He smiled at her, said something, then his gaze flicked in my direction as if he knew I’d been there the whole time. It almost seemed like he checked to see if I saw him talking with her, but I didn’t know what it meant. Did he want me to get the hint that he was unavailable? Or maybe associating with the town slut made him uncomfortable?

As much as I liked that idea, sadly, I knew it was probably far from the truth. Or worse yet, maybe he just wondered why the creepy stalker-girl kept staring at him.

I quickly looked away and back at Bryce who still rambled. I smiled, pretending to have heard everything he just said. My face warmed with embarrassment. How did Grant, without fail, catch me staring at him? It’s like he sensed it every time. That or I just did it so frequently he was bound to catch me.

After a few moments, I couldn’t resist the urge to glance back. I figured enough time had passed and stealing a quick peek was safe. I looked at Grant and found him watching me, when suddenly Bryce decided to lean over and whisper, “You look exceptionally hot today.”

I blushed with his out-of-the-blue compliment, then blushed even more knowing Grant had seen me blush. I’m such an idiot.

His gaze went to Bryce, then back to me. With a thoughtful expression, he stared at me for a second, while–like a moron–I sat there as red as a tomato. With my shoulder, I nudged Bryce, jokingly pushing him away from me, hopefully clearing up any confusion we were together, just in case Grant actually cared.

“Geez, I’ll go to your party. Quit trying to win me over with gratuitous compliments,” I said, attempting to laugh the whole thing off.

I kept my head down, staring at the table, wishing my flushed cheeks would quit exposing my embarrassment. Under the cover of my lashes, I shifted my gaze to Bryce as he stood. He glanced in Grant’s direction, then back at me.

“They aren’t gratuitous, Kylie.” He grabbed his tray with a bit more force than necessary. I cringed. “And enough with the word of the day calendars. Damn.” He stalked off. “See you later,” he called back, the playful humor gone from his voice.

Biting my lower lip, I watched as he disappeared. I hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings, but maybe Lexie was right. This was too complicated. I looked back at Grant who, I realized, had seen my whole little drama unfold. He studied me a moment longer, then shifted his gaze to Cerise, who tried way too hard to get his attention. My gaze moved between Bryce and Grant who, with a smile on his face, listened to whatever Cerise said, then dropped to my food. It looked about exciting as my love life. Disgusted, I shoved my tray away.

* * * *

After my horrendous lunch, I stood by my locker staring blankly into it.

“Hey.” Lexie walked up behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You okay?” Turning to my friend, I inexplicably wanted to cry. “Come on.” After shutting my locker, she took my hand. Pulling me along the hallway, we ducked out a side door.

“Where are we going?” I asked, not that it mattered at this point.

“Retail therapy.” Giving a quick peek around, she motioned for me to follow. “I saw what happened at lunch today. Bryce totally overreacted.” She smiled, her eyes full of sympathy. We rounded a corner heading to her parked car which, thankfully, sat in the front row today.

“The security guard is never going to let us out,” I said, not actually caring if we got caught or not.

She smiled coyly. “Oh, I think he will.”

We hopped into her car and the engine roared to life. We made our way to the exit, stopping at the security station. Lexie put on her most dazzling smile. “Hey Mike.” She fluttered her lashes at the security guard who appeared only a few years older than us, and apparently named Mike. Leave it to her to know something like that.

“Do you think you could do me a huge favor?” She tugged innocently at her honey-blond ponytail. “I really need to get Kylie home.” He scratched his head and opened his mouth about ready to question her. “She has a wicked case of the cramps.”

Oh God. I groaned in embarrassment, which Mike clearly took as a sign of my agony. His facial expression distorted with a mix of sympathy, disgust and awkwardness. Lexie’s comment was a little TMI for the guy.

Closing my eyes, I leaned my head back. Really, this day couldn’t get worse. I didn’t even care at this point what Mike thought about my womanly issues.

“Well, she does look pretty bad,” I heard him say and groaned again.
Really? I look that bad, huh? Keep it coming.
This day sucked.

“I owe you one, Mike.” Lexie’s flirty voice sounded appreciative. The car lurched forward leaving poor Mike without any opportunity to actually give us permission to go off campus.

Opening my eyes, I looked at Lexie.

“Wow, you did awesome, Kylie. You did great looking and sounding all sick–it totally helped and seemed believable.”

“I wasn’t acting! I was embarrassed.”

Lexie exploded with laughter. “I’m just shitting with you, Kylie. I could totally tell you were mortified back there, but hey, it got us off of campus, right?” She smiled, patting me on the knee. “Come on, cheer up. We are going to have fun. Screw Bryce, screw Cerise and screw Gr–err wait, you probably actually want to do that…well, forget Grant.”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed. She smiled, clearly happy she had gotten me out of my funk. “You’re so crazy, Lex...and yes, that’s why I love you.”

“You’re very welcome.” She nodded curtly. “Now let’s go max out my parents’ credit cards, I mean
affection
for me.”

“You’re terrible.” I gave her a sly smile. “So, whatcha’ gonna buy me?” I asked playfully.

Speaking in a haughty voice, which sounded strikingly similar to her mother’s, she answered, “Anything you want, my dear, anything at all.”

* * * *

Our first stop on our little shopping spree was a tiny downtown boutique. The store was small, but the bill was huge. Lexie convinced me to buy, or rather let her buy me, three new tops, a killer pair of jeans, a dress, two bracelets and a pair of earrings, which actually didn’t seem like much compared to everything she bought.

Then we headed a few doors down to get an iced coffee. She paid for our over-priced, but delicious, macchiatos and dragged me to a shoe store. Okay, she didn’t actually drag me–I loved shoe shopping.

There she bought me an adorable pair of wedge heels, some fun, flirty strappy sandals and some cute black ballet flats. As for Lexie, well, she pretty much bought everything she could find in her size.

Once in her shiny black car, I inspected her back seat brimming with bags and boxes and smiled at her. “Your parents are going to kill you.”

“Kylie, sweetie, that would take them actually paying any attention to me and we know they don’t have time for any of that silly nonsense.” I gave her a sympathetic smile. “It’s fine. Honestly, they won’t care what I spent. It pales in comparison to my mother’s shopping bill. Anyway, you deserve something nice. You’re an awesome friend, and I hated seeing you so sad today. I, unlike my parents, do know money doesn’t buy happiness, but I hope it at least took your mind off things for a few hours.”

“You’re the best, Lexie. You’re parents are missing out.” I smiled at her, but still felt a pang of sympathy. She never showed it, but I often wondered if it hurt her more than she let on.

She shrugged. “Their loss.”

Chapter 4

The rest of the school week, unfortunately, did not get much better. My shopping spree with Lexie took my mind off of things temporarily, but returning to school the next day was like a slap in the face.

Bryce went out of his way to avoid me, which, surprisingly, made me sad. I wasn’t sure if guilt weighed me down, but I hated him not speaking to me. I never suspected he actually liked me, but if he did, then I had really sent the wrong signals and that made me feel like a tease. On the other hand, I wondered if maybe I just missed him.

I never really thought I liked him romantically, but as much as our little argument affected me, I couldn’t help but question my feelings for him. He didn’t ignite that spark in me that Grant did, but he was cute and nice. He was funny and considerate; all the things a good boyfriend should be, but of course I wouldn’t be giving this a second thought if it weren’t for the fact Grant and Cerise were getting awfully chummy.

Not only did they sit together at lunch, I would see him walking with her in the halls and hanging around together in the parking lot before leaving school. It killed me to watch. How stupid could someone be? I never should have let myself get my hopes up. It was bad enough having a crush on a guy like Grant, but why did I even think he would be interested in someone like me? I talked to him one time,
one time
, and I’m hearing wedding bells. I was so lame, it was ridiculous.

Lexie tried keeping my spirits up, but now that she and Dylan were back together, I saw less of her. Which I understood. If I had a boyfriend, I would want to spend as much time with him as possible, so it came full circle to Bryce. Did I like him? Could I like him? Now that I was pretty sure he liked me, it sort of opened my eyes to the possibilities. He was good friends with Dylan, who was very convenient, and maybe spending time with him would help me get over my stupid Grant crush.

“So what do you think?” Lexie whispered, leaning toward my desk. “Want to come with me?”

I snapped out of my internal monologue and gave her a questioning look.

“The party. At Bryce’s.”

“Oh, I forgot about that.”

“Kylie, that’s all we were talking about at lunch today. How could you miss it?” She teased but did seem surprised.

“Sorry, guess I was in my own world.” I gave her a weak smile. “Does he even want me there?”

“Of course he does. Are you kidding me? You are probably the only person he wants there.”

“He’s not even talking to me, how could he want me at his house?”

“I think he wants to talk you, but things just got awkward. He feels bad about overreacting at lunch and now just doesn’t know how to approach you. He thinks you’re mad at him.”

“He told you that?” My eyes widened. Why would I be mad at him?

“No, but Dylan did. You should come with me to the party. It will break the ice. Obviously, if you come to his house you aren’t mad, and he will have a reason to talk to you. Also, you will have fun.” She smiled hopefully.

I stared at the clock on the wall. We had five minutes until the final bell. I couldn’t wait to get out of here, even more, I couldn’t wait for this week to end. “If you’re sure it’s okay, then yeah, I’ll go.”

She let out a happy squeal.

“Alexis,” Mrs. Carter, who had been busy grading papers, lifted her head. “This is quiet, self-study time.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Carter, I just got excited. I finally figured out this problem I’d been working on. You know that whole, mass times acceleration equals force thing just baffled me, but thankfully, since I have such an awesome physics teacher,” she smiled at Mrs. Carter, “it all makes sense now.”

A wide grin stretched Mrs. Carter’s mouth. “Uh huh, I see. Well, I’m glad you have found yourself enlightened by my teaching abilities.” She glanced up at the clock. “We only have a few minutes until the bell now anyway, why doesn’t everyone just pack up and we’ll call it an early day.”

That earned her a few hoots and hollers.

“Hope you all have a fun,
and safe
, weekend. I will see you Monday.”

Mrs. Carter was everyone’s favorite teacher. She was young, pretty and childless, so she devoted a lot of time to her students. After gathering our things, we filed into the empty Brentwood hallway. Mrs. Carter sat on the edge of her desk smiling and saying her goodbyes.

When we stepped into the hallway, Lexie grabbed my arm and rushed me to my locker. She fidgeted with giddy excitement. “You have to wear that new red shirt. Ooh, or better yet, the lavender dress. It would look killer with those wedges. I’m so excited. We are going to have so much fun.” She bounced in her joy. “It’s been way too long since our last good party.” I nodded timidly in agreement. “I promise you will have fun, and I guarantee you Bryce really wants you there.”