How to Seduce a Band Geek (25 page)

I roll my eyes because they think they’re doing me this huge favor, but really, this is money we could have used to pay the stupid water bill or something that’s two months late.

Sierra leans over to Levi, her brown hair brushing his shoulder as she whispers something in his ear. He flicks his eyes to hers, she gives him a stern look, and he mouths, “I won’t let you.” And she mouths back, “You can’t stop me.” Then grabs her purse.

They have this bizarre silent argument, trying to make it look like they aren’t fighting every time they look at me. But duh, I’m not an airhead.

I blow out a breath, dipping my straw in and out of my drink. Was this supposed to be fun? I need my best friend to get here right now. Adam’s the only one who makes being with my brother and his girlfriend bearable.

Levi and Sierra turn their silent fight into a whispered fight, but they’re both laughing through it. I’m trying to ignore them because I know more neck nuzzling is on its way.

“So, what’d I miss?”

A rush of warm relief floods my body, and I whip from the booth, grasping Adam’s wrist in an airtight lock.

“Save me, please!” I lower my voice and lean closer as Adam quirks a smile and fixes the glasses on his nose. “Those two do not know how to behave around other people.”

Adam laughs, prying my death grip from his wrist. He gives Sierra a pointed look, and her hands fly up, her eyes wide like she’s the most innocent person in the world. She’s good at the puppy dog shit. “I swear, we’ve been pretty darn good.
She’s
overreacting.” Her eyes move to mine, going from innocence to bitchery in a flash. I actually like when she gets nasty. I want to pat her on the back for having some spitfire, instead of letting people walk all over her.

“Come on, guys.” Adam gives Sierra a look like he knows she’s totally full of crap, and he’s on my side. “It’s her birthday. Maybe we should sit between you.”

“Hell no.” I lean over and grab my jacket off the seat. “I’ll be much happier if we ditch them, and they’ll be happier too. I guarantee it.”

Sierra looks like she’s about to argue, but Levi tugs her into his side. He smiles and waves his hand at us. “Get out of here, but be home by eleven.”

“Yes, master.” I bump Adam as I pass him so he knows to follow me. He’s my ride after all. But I do feel sort of bad for being a major sourpuss, so I turn around and walk backwards toward the exit. “Thank you for the attempt, though! Love you, I promise.”

Levi waves me off, and his attention abruptly turns to his girlfriend, and they make my birthday dinner into a dinner date.

It’s not that I don’t love my brother. I even get along with Sierra pretty well, but when they’re together they’re just… ugh. Sometimes I want to create a cheesiness level for them, and when it gets too high they’re lips are wired shut. Even silent-arguing over who pays the bill, they were looking at each other all lovey like.

I know for a fact Levi’s got a surprise for her graduation, too. It’s a few months away, and I think it’s incredibly fast, but they’ve been together for two years, I guess Sierra moving out of her place and into somewhere that’s not with him wouldn’t make sense to them.

I’m not excited for Levi to move out. I know I’m pretty darn lucky he’s stayed at home as long as he has, but what the hell are we going to do? Now that I’m old enough I can apply for jobs, but this time of year sucks major. I’ll look more in May for summer gigs. But even with that…how will I ever help as much as he has?

Adam sticks his key in his rusty Geo, the door making the loudest
craaaaank!
known to man. I giggle every time he opens it. Which is funny, because I rarely
giggle
.

“Okay,” he says, leaning against the door frame as I get in, “now that I’ve saved you, where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere that’s free.” I kick my feet up on the dash and play with my toe ring. “But I do want to blow out a candle at some point.”

All my wishes come true, because I keep them practical. Two years ago I wished for my tiny A-cups to become B’s. Not my
most
practical wish, but it worked. In fact, too well, since they ballooned to C’s so fast last year my wish was for them to halt their expansion.

This year, I think I’ll keep it simple, but not very practical. There are so many things I want, but I try to separate my wants from my needs. But my needs probably won’t ever come true.

Adam scratches the back of his neck before bringing his hand back down on the door frame. “Free, huh? Does gas count?”

I shake my head. But I’m not sure how far his Geo can make it before we’re stranded on the side of the road.

“Okay.” He grins and nods to my hands. “Watch your fingers.”

Another loud
craaaaank!
and I stifle my giggles as he sits in the driver’s seat. Adam adjusts his rearview mirror, fixes his glasses, and hands me his iPod he’s plugged into this ancient machine since the radio doesn’t work.

Pushing myself farther down in the seat, I flick through to find “Brea’s Playlist” and hit shuffle. Then I crank the window down and let the cool night air whip my hair around my face and stick to my lip-gloss. He doesn’t know it, but this is so much better than a big birthday party or even going out to eat with my family and friends. I just want to close my eyes and remind myself that my life doesn’t totally suck one-hundred percent of the time. Adam’s a good person to share that with me.

***

“Crap!”

I jolt from my seat, wiping the small amount of drool that escaped my lips as I dozed in Adam’s car. A
clank clank clank
echoes from the engine, and he pulls into a Target parking lot and shuts off the Geo.

“What’s going on?” My voice cracks, and I rub my eyes free of gook. What time is it?

“It’s nothing…I don’t think. Just need some oil.”

I raise an eyebrow and sit up in the seat. He tosses his keys up in the air and catches them. “Come on. I’ll get you a birthday present while I’m at it.”

He thinks he’s getting me something, but he’s not. I’ve told him all month to not buy a single thing for me and he keeps giving me that look like I’m trying to trick him or something. But I’m not. I don’t play those games. I say whatever the hell I want whenever the hell I want and I mean it. Most of the time.

The door noise makes me laugh my way out of my sleepy haze, and Adam shrugs his hands into his jean pockets as we walk. Sometimes I wonder why he wants to hang out with someone like me. I’m two years younger than him and I’m kind of a pain in the ass. Though, when we hang out, I guess I’m less assy.

“I still have to blow out a candle,” I say as we weave through the auto section.

Adam nods, furrowing his brow as he looks for the right kind of oil for the Geo. He’s got to get rid of that crap car and upgrade, but like me, he doesn’t exactly have the cash for that. He will though. Adam’s a boy genius. He’s already got colleges throwing scholarships at his brains, all he has to do is pick one, and he’s set. But I don’t like to think about it. I already feel like I’ll be left behind enough as it is with Levi leaving. Knowing Adam could be moving across the country forms a large lump in my gut that makes me feel like I’ve got cramps to the max.

“Don’t worry, Brea,” he says, taking an oil tub from the middle shelf, “I’ve got you covered on the candle situation.”

“Damn straight.”

“Now…a present…”

“No.” I push a finger into his chest. “You’re not getting me a gift. I told you I don’t want anything and I mean it.” Because I do. Any gift will just make me think of how better spent the money could’ve been.

“Well, I need to put your candle in something. And I don’t have a lighter.”

“I don’t want a cake.”

He sighs, shaking his head. His glasses slide a tiny bit down his nose. “Always difficult.” His elbow bumps mine as we make our way to the party section. “Will you let me do this for you? I know you don’t care about turning sixteen, but come on, Brea. You want to blow a candle out, I’m not going to hold it and let wax drip on my hand while you think of something to wish for.”

I laugh, picturing him doing that because I think he actually would if I keep putting up a fight. “Fine, but I still don’t want cake. Get more creative than that. And cheaper.”

“She compromises!” He fist pumps the air. “It’s a miracle!”

“Shut up!” I give a good hook into his shoulder.

“Ouch, damn woman.” He drops his arm. “I know I look like I’m made of muscle, but looks are deceiving.”

I laugh again, and it feels really good. I try not to let my mind wander to how he’s leaving at the end of the year, and I’m not sure who will make me laugh when he does.

He reaches out for one of those really elaborate candles, and I almost smack his hand because there are perfectly good ninety-nine cent ones, but I’m going to let him this time. Just this once, because this will probably be the last one we spend together, I’ll let him do whatever the hell he wants to do for my birthday.

His arms are too full by the time we check out, and I wrinkle my nose at every beep the register makes as the items slide across. Adam leans over to my ear, his voice going low so the cashier doesn’t catch it. “Will you stop worrying about it? I’m not spending my life savings on candles and a lighter.”

“You don’t have to do this for me, though.” Especially since his car is practically dead in the parking lot.

He shakes his head and slides his VISA through the credit card machine. My stomach loads up with jagged rocks. What if he needs three bucks tomorrow, and too bad, he spent it on me instead? I’ve been there. Three dollars stood between Mom over drafting the account or bouncing a check. Three. Dollars.

Adam collects the bags, thanks the cashier—because he’s always polite to everybody, even though the cashier said nothing to him while scanning his items—and he waggles his eyebrows at me as we get back to his piece o’crap car.

“What are you going to wish for?”

“You know I’m not going to tell you.”

“Okay…then tell me a whole bunch of stuff you want to wish for, then I won’t know which one.”

He leans in his window, tossing the bags on the seat and pops the hood. He works the cap off the oil and raises an eyebrow to me.

I set my butt on the edge of the car, watching him work. “I wish for a lot of things. I wish for a car. A bigger bank account for my mom. A piece of Reese’s pie from Marie Calendars.”

He chuckles at that one while working under the hood. I smile at him before gazing to the dark asphalt. “I kind of want an impossible wish to come true,” I admit, because I know I can tell him and he won’t give me shit about it.

“Like what?”

I shrug, even though I know exactly what. “I want to turn eighteen this year, not sixteen. That would be a good one. So I could get out of here like you guys.”

He pulls his dipstick out, running it along a rag he keeps in the car all the time for this stuff. I pop my gum, stare back at the ground and keep rattling off my impossible wishes.

“I wish Mom would stop floating around temp jobs and find one that sticks, so we can get out of that trailer. I wish I could grow a tree that solves everyone’s problems. I wish I could stop being so cynical and bitchy all the time, maybe I could get my first kiss before I’m twenty-five.”

Adam straightens up so fast he bangs the back of his head on the hood. He rubs it as he gives me this funny look, like maybe I’m blowing smoke up his ass.

“Wait…you’ve never been kissed? Or are you trying to be funny?”

“
That’s
what you took from my list?”

“I thought you had a boyfriend.”

What? “Adam, you’ve known me since I was fourteen. You know I haven’t had a boyfriend.”

“Before that. Sierra said when you guys first met that you’d leave for a couple hours to hang out with your boyfriend.”

Well, that was a flat ass lie. All I wanted was to get away from my house and everyone for as long as possible. It worked. Levi didn’t give me crap about leaving because he thought I was with Sierra and that whole school project thing, and Mom was unbearable when she got back from interviews. I wanted out, so that was my excuse.

Not that I would’ve told anyone that.

“I lied.” I pop my gum again. “I don’t lie to her anymore though.”

“So…you’ve never been kissed.”

“Seriously Adam, it’s not a big surprise. I have like three friends. Four if you count my brother. People don’t talk to me and I don’t talk to them.” I shrug and kick a loose rock across the lot. Adam’s hood creaks like his door as he shuts it, and I can’t help but giggle…
again.

“Is that why you think it’s an impossible wish?” He slides next to me, arm bumping mine as he cleans his hands off.

“If it hasn’t happened before I’m sixteen, doubt it will happen before I’m seventeen.” I roll my head over to look at him and smile. “Maybe eighteen though when I’m forced to socialize with people my own age. And that’s if I find someone to stand me long enough to kiss me.”

“Stop that.” He tosses the oil rag over his shoulder into the open window. He folds his arms, but not before he pushes his glasses back in place. The look he gives me is similar to the one I get from Levi when I’m being a real pain in the butt. “You’re not as bad as you think, you know.”

Only Adam would say that. He finds the good in everybody, I swear. Even me, who has about an ounce of it in my whole body.

“Thanks. I guess.”

“Was that gratitude? See, you’re getting better at it.”

I knock him with my hip, and pick up his wrist to look at his watch. 10:22.

“I’ll be officially sixteen in three minutes. Want to take bets on if I’ll get my wish this upcoming year?”

“Did what you wish last year come true?”

I grab my boobs and give them a nice squeeze, and then wiggle them up and down. “Sure feels like it.” I smirk back up at Adam who has gone Hawaiian Punch red. Just the reaction I wanted.

“So, are you going to wish for a kiss this year?” he mumbles out of his adorable blush.

“No. If it’s not going to happen by the time I’m sixteen, it won’t happen. I said that already.”