The Fake Boyfriend Experiment (8 page)

Enough! “Stop it!” I jumped to my feet. “I’m sick of this!”

“Lily, sit down,” my mom said. “Now.”

But my dad set his hand on her leg and looked at me. “Sick of what, Lil?”

“Piano. Being tortured. Having no friends and no life.” I glared at my mom and Miss Jespersen. “Being told I’m a failure fifty times a lesson. I’m not a loser and I’m sick of you trying to convince me I am!”

“Of course you’re not a loser, or a failure,” my dad said, looking genuinely surprised. “Why would you think that?”

I pointed at Crusty. “Because she tells me that all the time.”

My parents looked at Miss Jespersen and her sweet old lady look vanished. She narrowed her eyes and shot me a hostile look that definitely increased the odds of my parents believing that she was a demon in disguise. I smiled at her. “And Mom backs her up,” I added.

It was my mom’s turn to look shocked. “I love you, Lily! I don’t criticize your piano!”

Seriously? Did she really believe that?

“Lily, I’m merely trying to push you to be the great pianist you can be,” Miss Jespersen said. “I wouldn’t be doing you any favors if I complimented you when—”

I covered my ears and scrunched my eyes closed. “Shut up! Just stop it! I can’t take it anymore!”

“Lily!” My mom looked horrified. “Apologize to Miss Jespersen immediately!”

“No!” I stomped my feet in frustration. Why wouldn’t they listen to me? “I used to be talented, okay? But I’m not anymore. I stink at the piano.” I ran over to the piano and held up a stack of sheet music. “Do you see this? I can’t do it!” I hurled it across the floor, and the papers scattered across the carpet.

My mom sucked in her breath, and I felt like cheering, because that meant she’d actually heard me. “Lily—”

“I’m never going to live up to my potential, even if I practice until my fingers turn into bloody stumps! I can’t take all this pressure, and I’m tired of not being able to have a life! I hate it!” Tears were streaming down my cheeks, but I didn’t care. Let them see what they were doing to me.

My dad narrowed his eyes and looked thoughtful, while my mom went crazy on me, telling me I didn’t appreciate the opportunities I’d been given, and Crusty started talking about getting me counseling to handle the stress of being a child prodigy.

My chest heaving with sobs, I stared at my dad and he looked at me, both of us ignoring my mom and Crusty. My dad didn’t usually get involved in the piano stuff. It was my mom and Miss Jespersen’s deal.

“Do you want to quit the piano?” he asked me quietly.

My mom and Crusty shut up fast when I nodded.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes.” Was he really going to let me do it? Could I really become normal? My throat tightened at the thought of not having any more pressure, of never facing the threat of failure again. Oh, God. Was it really over?

“No,” my mom whispered in horror. “She can’t quit.”

Miss Jespersen said nothing, but she was looking at me with the strangest look on her face, like she’d never seen me before.

“Why haven’t you mentioned this before?” my dad asked.

“I do! I tell Mom all the time.”

We both looked at her, and her face paled. “But this is your dream,” she said. “I’m just trying to support it.”

“No, Mom. It’s
your
dream.”

“Lily!” My mom looked ill. “What are you saying? You love the piano!”

“I used to. I hate it now.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.

“Lily, go upstairs,” my dad said gently. “We need to discuss this.”

Grateful for the reprieve, I nodded and bolted for the door.

* * *

Erin and I spent the next two tortured hours on the phone trying to predict the outcome of the summit meeting in my living room while we waited for my sentencing.

Finally someone knocked on my door. “Lily?” my dad called out. “Are you still up?”

I jerked upright. “They’re here,” I whispered.

“You
have
to call me back as soon as they’re gone,” Erin ordered. “No matter what time. Swear?”

“I swear.” I hung up and shoved the phone under my pillow. “Yes, I’m up.” I hugged my arms to my chest as my mom and dad walked in the room. When I saw there was no piano teacher lurking behind them, I sighed with relief.

“You okay, Lil?” my dad asked.

“Fine.” I eyed them as they sat down on my bed, one on each side of me, like they were trying to block my path to the exit. “What’s up?”

My mom folded her arms over her chest and pursed her lips at my dad. “Hank? You tell her.”

Oh, I knew that look. My mom so wasn’t happy with the decision.
Please let it mean I’m free.

But I could tell by the grim smile my dad gave me that I wasn’t getting my way. “We’ll make a deal with you,” he said.

A deal? That had potential. That was further than I’d ever gotten before. “What kind of deal?”

“You can stop taking lessons with Miss Jespersen.”

My eyes immediately filled up with tears and I felt like a thousand pounds had just fallen off my shoulders. “Really? You promise?”

“Is she really that bad?” My mom sounded so sad that I couldn’t tell her the truth.

So I said nothing. I mean, I wasn’t going to lie either. I had to stop the lies somewhere, right? It was getting difficult to keep track of all the untruths I’d been uttering lately.

“But,” my dad continued. “We all agree your talent is too much to give up on.”

I gritted my teeth and felt all the pressure crush back down on my shoulders.

“We also realize that you’ve lost your passion for music.”

Amen to that.

“Miss Jespersen said she saw the old you when you were playing with her nephew’s band,” my dad said. “She said you were really dynamic when you were playing the keyboard.”

I jerked my gaze to his face. “So?”

“For one month, you can skip your piano lessons and regular practice, as long as you practice with Rafe’s band. Apparently, it’s a bunch of kids from his high school who get together and occasionally do concerts for free. No pressure. Just fun music.”

My mom leaned forward. “Miss Jespersen believes it will help you find your passion again.”

“But...” Sentenced to playing with Mass Attack? That was great news, not punishment. I swear, sometimes parents were completely insane, not that I was complaining. I stopped hugging my knees so tightly and sat cross-legged on the bed. “But they already have a keyboard player.” A very pretty one who was dating their drummer, one of my fake boyfriends.

“Miss Jespersen assures us it won’t be a problem. Rafe’s going to call you tonight with the practice schedule.” My dad tapped my foot with his finger. “If you skip out on the band even once, it’s back to piano with Crusty again. Got it?” My mom cleared her throat meaningfully and my dad grimaced. “I meant, Miss Jespersen. You shouldn’t call her Crusty. It’s disrespectful.”

I grinned, suddenly unable to contain myself. I was going to get to play with Mass Attack! I’d impress Rafe with my amazing keyboard talents, he’d fall in love with me, everyone would think I was cool because I was in a band
and
dating a hot drummer, and my life would be perfect. “I agree to the deal.”

“There’s one more thing,” my dad added.

“Anything!”

He smiled at my energy. “It’s good to see you happy about music again, hon.” He patted my mom’s hand. “Isn’t it?”

She nodded, but her mouth was tight. It was her guilt look, but I wasn’t going to feel bad about it.

“The rest of the deal is that as long as you keep playing with Rafe’s band, we’ll let you postpone the audition to next semester, so you’d start with NESM for the summer term.”

Relief swept over me. “Really?” Summer wouldn’t be so bad. I could study at NESM for part of the day and still have free time for my friends, unlike if I did it during the school year. And I couldn’t go on tour with Crusty if I was at NESM, could I? “That would be awesome.”

My mom sighed. “You really don’t want to go to NESM?”

“I can’t take it, Mom. Not right now.” Just the thought of not having it forced on me in two weeks gave me the hugest sense of relief and freedom.

Mom started to protest, but my dad squeezed her hand. “You said you trust Miss Jespersen, Mary. Let’s give this a try.”

No way! This had been Miss Jespersen’s idea? Having me play with Rafe’s band and postponing the audition? She’d come through for me? Maybe Rafe was right that his aunt wasn’t all bad.
Maybe
. I wasn’t ready to concede at this point, but for her to talk my mom out of daily lessons...wow. She and my dad must have seriously pressured her.

The phone rang suddenly, and my heart nearly jumped out of my body. Was that Rafe calling me? How should I react? Should I be surprised? Should I—

My mom raised her brows at the muffled sound of the phone, then reached under my pillow and pulled it out. “Hello?” She sighed and held the phone out to me. “It’s Rafe.”

My elation whooshed out of me at Rafe’s anger. “It wasn’t my idea at all! I told them I wanted to quit piano and then they came up here and told me that I had to play with your band.”

“I don’t care. Paige is furious at me. You think you’re special because you go to St. Mary’s and have this perfect little life and everyone tells you you’re this child prodigy? Well, forget it. You have no right to screw up my life just so you can have the world adore you.”

“Rafe!” I jumped to my feet, anger boiling inside of me. What was with all these people thinking it was okay to give me grief all the time? I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I was tired of it! “Shut up!”

There was a long silence. “You have no right to tell me to shut up.”

“You have no right to accuse me of any of this! You think I want to hang out with you all day? Forget it! My boyfriend’s going to be completely ticked off, too, so I’m in the same boat!” I wasn’t going to feel bad about that lie. He deserved it. “So back off! I wanted to quit piano, not be stuck practicing with a dumb band!”

There was sharp intake of breath on his end. “My band’s not dumb.”

I relented a little at the shock in his voice. “Well, maybe your band isn’t, but you’re being a jerk.”

“
I’m
a jerk?”

“Yes.” I could practically feel his anger vibrating over the phone line. I stalked across the room and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was all crazy from lying in bed waiting for my parents. My face was red and my eyes were blazing. Wow. I looked sort of like a girl with attitude, not some wimpy piano player. I gripped the back of my white desk as power rippled through me. “You’re accusing me of things I didn’t do, and you’re not even giving me a chance to explain.”

“No explanation needed. Paige and my band were the only two good things in my life and you managed to screw them both up.”

Like there was any chance I was suffering through this for the next month. Just because Rafe was totally hot and a great drummer didn’t mean he was worth my time. “Fine! I’ll go find my parents and tell them I won’t do it!”

“It won’t matter!” Rafe protested. “My aunt has decided this is what needs to be done to save your precious career, and she won’t back off, no matter what you do. Your career in exchange for my life.” The hostility in his tone told me exactly what he thought of that trade.

Suddenly, I stopped, right in the middle of the room, an ugly realization occurring to me. “This is all a test, isn’t it?”

He paused. “What are you talking about?”