Impossible (17 page)

“We know,” Yuki informed me with a grin. “We know
all
about you.”

Kendall shot Yuki this look that I couldn’t quite figure out. Apparently girls could communicate telepathically, because Yuki toned it down a little. “Um, so is it true you’re in a band?”

Considering she’d basically admitted to being my stalker, I was wondering why she was asking when she obviously already knew the answer. Why the hell did they wanna know anyway? “Yeah, why?”

Kendall’s eye lit up like a jack-o-lantern. “That’s so cool. Maybe we can come by and hear you play sometime?”

These girls were seriously starting to freak me out. I looked around uneasily trying to figure out some sort of exit strategy. Where the hell were my friends and why was Ashton taking so long?

“What are you two doing?” someone asked in disbelief from behind Kendall and Yuki.

Relieved at the interruption, I hastily stuffed my drumsticks into my bag and stood up, intending to get away from the girls. My relief didn’t last long when I noticed that Kance was the one who’d spoken. The quarterback, Oliver, was standing beside her with a possessive arm wrapped around her waist.

“Luca, don’t you look
nice
?
” Kance cooed. Her expression was icy even though she was smiling at me. If snakes could smile that’s what it’d look like. That smile was cold and full of malice.

Oliver bristled beside her and shot me a look of pure hatred. I guess he was still holding something against me for standing up to him in front of his Neanderthal friends. Pretty boy needed to get over it already.

I set my mouth in a firm line, choosing to ignore Kance. She wasn’t worth my time and I wasn’t going to waste my breath making small talk with her. I just wanted to get the hell away from these people.

“Did you know Luca’s in a band?” Kendall asked, turning to Kance.

Kance shot me a look of pure revulsion. “Really? Is that why you’re talking to him in public? I thought I made it clear that we don’t associate with people like
them
.”

The way she referred to me made it sou
nd like I was a dung beetle who
attended high school. Once again, relief shot through me when I saw Ashton coming towards us. She wasn’t hard to miss—social outcast or not. Everyone’s eyes were immediately drawn to the leggy blonde.

Ashton had always had that effect on people since we were kids. She’d been the outgoing, talkative one and I’d been the quiet, shy one who’d slink away into the corner. Ash was the one who’d brought me out of my shell.

Kendall pursed her lips and met Kance’s hard stare. Clearly, she wasn’t a girl who liked being told what to do. “I’m just being friendly and socializing outside our group. Isn’t that what Coach told us to do?”

Kance’s glare hardened and she shot Kendall a look of pure loathing. It was obvious she didn’t like being challenged in front of so many people. “I don’t care what Coach said, I’m the captain of this team-“

“Then act like it,” Yuki snapped, jumping to her friend’s defense.

Ashton reached us and slipped an arm around my waist. If she was thrown off by the circle that’d formed around me, it didn’t show on her face. Her brilliant blue eyes searched mine before falling back on her old friends.

Taking her lead, I pressed my lips against the top her head, inhaling the strawberry scent of her hair. We had a show to put on and just like Ash had said, people were starting to notice us in the way that she’d hoped. Oliver’s narrowed eyes darted between the two us. He balled up his fists as if bracing for a fight, his face tense.

Shit. Did he have a thing for Ash?

Kance ignored the other girls now that her mortal enemy, Ashton, was here. The other two were probably small fries that she’d deal with later. She gave Ash that same sickly smile she’d given me minutes earlier. “So, you’re dating Luca now? How
sweet
.”

Ash looked up at me and gave me this smile that made me feel weird things for her. Pushing them aside, I returned it as she glanced back at Kance. “Yeah, it is sweet, isn’t it?” She looked between Oliver and Kance. “Nice to see that you’re dating good,
old
Oliver.”

For a second her words made no sense to me until I saw the look of mixed jealousy and rage on Kance’s face. So, Kance was angry because Ash was dating me because—my eyes darted between Kendall and Yuki as realization dawned on me—I was the new flavor of the month, and Oliver was old and boring now? Kance didn’t like the amount of attention Ash and I were getting and that she was getting none herself, despite dating the quarterback.

Wow. Girls were really messed up.

“It’s good that you found someone of your caliber,” Kance said snidely. “I wouldn’t want for you to be alone. Where do you go for dates? The graveyard, so you can call upon Satan?”

Oliver let out a rumbling laugh and I really wanted to sock him in his pretty boy face. The guy had it coming. One of these days I was gonna give him a piece of my mind.

“No,” Ash said, completely at ease, “I watch him and his band perform. They’re amazing!”

Yuki’s eyes lit. “Oh, wow. I’d love to come see him, I mean, them sometime.”

“Sure, I’ll text you the details.”

Great. Ash had just given the “giggly twins” an open invitation to my house. What the hell was this crap? Didn’t she get that, despite helping her, I had no interest in being friends with any of them? I definitely wasn’t going to entertain them at my house, that’s for sure.

“Yuki, watch what you say next,” Kance warned. “I’m not going to tolerate this from my squad.”

“Oh, shut it, Kance,” Kendall said, and then looked over at me and Ash. “Text me the details too, Ashton. See you guys around.”

“Yeah, see ya, Luca.” Yuki gave me a lingering look before linking her arm through Kendall’s and walking off.

Ashton rested her head on my shoulder, her small hand finding its place on my chest. My stomach did a flip at the touch. I was still getting used to being this close to Ash, holding her, pretending she was mine.

There was murder on Oliver’s face as he watched us. Kance didn’t say anything else, but she didn’t need to. Her expression said it all. She wanted us to die horrible fiery deaths in Hell.

Without a word, Kance grabbed Oliver by the arm and dragged him across the courtyard and back to their spot at the tables.

Once they were out of earshot, Ash turned to me with excited eyes.

Ashton

A warm feeling rushed through me as I watched Kance and Oliver stalk off. I’d noticed the way Oliver was eying me and Luca up. If there was one guy who could make him jealous, it was Luca. They already had it in for each other, and now Oliver had another reason to hate him. It was all a part of my plan to get Oliver to dump Kance and ask me out, and it was definitely working.

Oliver had dated a lot of girls and even though we’d flirted plenty, we’d never gone out or hooked up. I was the one he couldn’t have, and with Kance telling him that she didn’t want him to acknowledge me, he’d want me even more. Forbidden fruit and all.

As for Kance, she didn’t have as much power over everyone as much as she liked to think. Kendall and Yuki were two girls who thought for themselves and it was pretty obvious they thought Luca was a total babe. Which he was. I had eyes and I could see what they saw, but I was only after one guy and that was Oliver.

When I turned to Luca, my excitement faded at the look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

Luca exhaled and glanced off into the distance. “You can’t just invite people to my rehearsals without talking to me about it first. Especially those people.”

I frowned at his tone. “You sound like Kance when you say that.”

He sighed and looked back at me, frustration etched into his features. “I thought things would be different after yesterday. After we talked about Dad. I thought you’d drop this whole wanting to be popular thing.”

“This isn’t a thing, Luca, this is my life.” Why was this so hard for him to understand? I mean, yeah, it was great that we didn’t have that animosity between us anymore. We were friends again, and a part of me had wanted that for a long time, but that still didn’t change things. It didn’t change everything that’d happened since then. “This is important to me. It’s something that I have to do.”

He stuffed his hands into the pocket of his jeans and scuffed the ground with a sneaker. “Who are you trying to impress? That Oliver guy?” There was a hint of bitterness in his voice that surprised me.

“Luca, that’s not your concern. I have my reasons for doing this. You said you’d help me and that’s all you need to worry about.” Okay, I sounded totally mean, but I didn’t want to get into this with him right now. Things were finally going my way and I intended to keep it that way. All Luca had to do was play along and after I got what I wanted, he could go back to his world. Plain and simple.

“Whatever, Ash. You’re such a bitch.” He slung his bag over his shoulder and headed in the direction of the front gate.

Sadness and guilt spiked through me, but I couldn’t let it show. I wanted to chase after him and apologize, but I didn’t want anyone to suspect that we were having problems.

Luca would just have to get over it.

***

Luca avoided me all day.

I’d had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach the whole day, which may or may not have something to do with that. During lunch, he and the guys had disappeared, leaving me alone with Stacey and Elly.

Stacey still hated me, and Elly always looked anywhere else but at me. I decided to change that today, so I headed over to where Elly and Stacey were sitting.

“Hi, guys,” I said.

Stacey ignored me, but Elly managed a weak smile. Okay, fine. I somewhat deserved that.

“Elly, I wanted to say something to you.”

Elly looked up at me with timid eyes and bit down on her lip. “Yes?”

“I just want to apologize for the way I treated you. I shouldn’t have made fun of you or put you down in front of everyone. You deserved to be on that team just as much as the rest of us.”

Her eyes widened, like she didn’t know whether or not to take me seriously. “Oh. Um…okay.”

Stacey sneered. “You’ve got to be joking. You really think you can bully someone and then expect them to forgive you just like that?”

Elly held up a hand to silence Stacey. “No, really. It’s fine. I’m over the whole thing.”

It made me feel guilty that the girl I’d humiliated was willing to forgive me so easily.
She probably just wanted to forget about the whole thing and move on. I had to admit, I’d sort of been worried that she’d start yelling at me. I didn’t deserve anything less.

“Whatever,” Stacey said with a glare. She was still going to hate me no matter what I did
and I really couldn’t blame her
.

Thankfully, Kendall and Yuki came over then and spent most of lunch talking to me about Luca, among various other things. I’d seen Kance glaring at us from across the courtyard, but she hadn’t approached us or said anything.

Score one for me.

Luca had been driving me to school and then back home every day since we’d started this whole façade, but today, as I rounded the corner of the street to where he always parked his car, I saw him driving off as fast as possible.

What a jerk!

Cursing, I whipped out my cell phone so I could ask Mom to come get me. There was no way I was going to brave the chill fall weather during the fifteen minute walk home. I could go and wait inside the administration building until she got here.

As I scrolled through my contacts list, I heard someone call out my name. I glanced over my shoulder lazily and stopped what I was doing, my eyes widening. Oliver was jogging over to me waving his hand.

I stashed my phone in my bag and straightened the dress I was wearing. God, I hoped my hair looked okay. “Hey, Oliver, what’s up?”

Oliver slowed to a stop and looked me up and down in appreciation. I guess my hair was fine after all. Although, I doubted that that was what had caught his attention. It probably ha
d more to do with the purple
dress I had on. Despite the weather, I’d put on my game face and gone all out. The dress was short, cut low at the top, and clung to my thighs. In an attempt to be seaso
nal, I’d donned black leggings and pair of low-heeled boots.

His eyes snapped back to my face. “I…uh...saw Luca drive off. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, he just had to do something.” I plastered a fake smile onto my face and hoped it was convincing.

Oliver flashed me a white smile. “Well, it must be my lucky day. Can I give you a ride home?”

I resisted the temptation to jump into his arms with glee. I was so infatuated with the guy, I would’ve accepted his used chewing gum if he’d offered. Okay, maybe not. That was a bit gross, but still. He didn’t need to ask me twice.

I nodded, trying not to appear too eager. Males enjoyed the chase and if I seemed easy, or desperate, then I might put him off. Then again, Kance was easy and he was with her. I still had plenty to learn about the male species.