The Other Boy (22 page)

After all, they weren’t going to be rude. But Maddy imagined she could hear what Morgan and Kirsten were thinking:
How can we get out of here? What does Maddy see
in this guy? Has she gone out of her mind thinking she can date
him back in the city?
They were right, Maddy thought furiously, rising to stuff her plate into the metal trash can.

She had briefly gone out of her mind. Now, though, she could see the situation more clearly. The sight of the three people sitting at the picnic table—David’s lanky figure in an old T-shirt and worn jeans and the two hip, perfectly groomed girls next to him—made her decision for her. It was over.

Maddy marched back to the table. “Are you all ready to go?” she asked. The others looked up in surprise at her firm tone.

“Sure,” David said, getting up quickly. Everyone rose and tossed their trash away, heading toward the car.

“Your stuff ’s all back at the house, right, Mad?”

Morgan asked, starting the engine.

“Yeah, we have to go back there first,” Maddy said, her eyes on David. He was lounging easily, his arm draped around the back of the seat, looking happy and satisfied after their meal.

Maddy sat stiffly and silently until they pulled up the long gravel drive. She jumped out as soon as Morgan cut the engine. “Wait here for me, girls,” she said. “David will help me get my suitcase inside.” She aimed a signif-icant glance at David, who jumped up.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll just give her a hand … ,” he said.

They slammed the doors and Maddy led him around to the backyard, where she stopped and turned to face him.

She took a deep breath. His forehead was creased with concern. “I guess you’re going to tell me what’s wrong,”

he said.

Now that the moment was here, she just wanted to get it over with. “I’m worried about going home.”

“Huh?”

Why were guys so dense? “I’m worried about you and me,” she said.

He looked confused. “What do you mean? I thought we talked about all that last night.”

“We talked about us for like one minute!” Her voice rose involuntarily. David looked at her carefully.

“Why are you getting angry?”

“I’m not angry!” she said angrily. “I’m just thinking about the future, which you don’t seem concerned about.”

He frowned. “I’m not. What’s there to be concerned about? I’m crazy about you and last night was practically the best night of my life. All the rest of it is just details.”

Maddy fought back tears. “Yeah, well, details can be really important! And if you don’t know that, then I think we have a problem!” In the back of her mind, she realized that what she was saying didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but she couldn’t stop herself. “We’re going back to our old lives. Everything’s going to be different.”

He nodded slowly, his face hardening. “Yeah, I see what you’re talking about now. You’re worried I wouldn’t fit into your rich-kid life in the city—like your friends might wonder if I was some hippie you’d picked up by the side of the road in Napa.”

“No!” Now it was her turn to reach for him. “That’s not what I mean,” she pleaded, snuffling a little. “I’m just confused. These last few weeks have been like some dream and now we have to wake up to our other lives.

Can’t you see that?” She took his long fingers in hers and held on to them. He stared at their entwined hands for a long moment and then leaned down and kissed her fingers.

Then he released her hand and stared into the vine field. “Look,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “I know what I want. I’m not saying it won’t be hard. It
will
be hard, but I don’t care. I want you.” Maddy opened her mouth as if to protest, but he held his hand up.

“But.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“But I’m not the only one here. Last time I looked, I think I was only fifty percent of whatever this is. So, I can’t force anything. If we want different things … I guess we’re going to have to say good-bye.” He looked unbearably sad.

Maddy’s head was spinning. He made it sound so easy—like the choices were crystal clear. But in her mind, everything was muddy. “But I don’t want it to end!” she cried.

“It doesn’t
have
to!” David gazed into her face, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. She stared at the ground and said in a low voice, “You make it sound so easy.”

“Don’t you see that it can be?” he insisted.

“I … I think it’s going to be too hard,” she mumbled. Even as she was saying the words, she could feel how discordantly they jangled with the emotions in her heart. But she steeled herself. Better to end it now than have it trail on miserably for months and then end.

“I have to go,” she whispered, not daring to look at his face. Without waiting for a response, she whirled around and ran back to the front of the house.

Tears almost blinding her, Maddy grabbed her suitcase off the front porch. Morgan and Kirsten turned toward her as she hurried over to the car. “Mads, we were just saying what a hottie that guy is!” Kirsten exclaimed as she opened the passenger door.

“Yeah,” Morgan agreed enthusiastically. “Totally different look than Brian, of course, but really yummy. And sweet, too.” She turned the ignition and “Promiscuous”

blared from the speakers.

Maddy barely heard her friends. All she could think was,
This is it
.
I’m leaving David.
Like she was moving through glue, she shoved her bag into the backseat and climbed in.

“He was so sweet to get all our food. It’s obvious he’s crazy about you, Maddy,” Morgan said over her shoulder as she adjusted the sun visor.

“You guys are perfect together!” Kirsten declared. The words reached Maddy’s ears as if through fog. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Maddy asked, leaning forward.

“I said you guys are perfect together,” Kirsten repeated, rummaging in her handbag.

She might as well have been speaking Swahili. “But we’re totally different! Lunch just proved it. Morgan was right. We should just forget it.” Maddy slumped back against the seat and crossed her arms.

Morgan threw the car into park and turned around.

She turned the music way down. “Wait, what are you talking about, ‘Lunch just proved it’?”

Maddy stared at her incredulously. “Lunch was a disaster,” she said, speaking very slowly and clearly. “It was the most awkward experience ever.”

Morgan wrinkled up her face. “What are you talking about? Lunch wasn’t awkward at all. It was really fun. He clearly knows how to have a good time.”

“But—but you said it would never work out!” Maddy insisted.

“
On the phone!
I’d never even met the guy. Besides, aren’t I allowed to be wrong sometimes?”

“I guess,” Maddy said slowly. Morgan faced front again.

“Don’t worry, Mad,” she said, turning the music back up and putting the car into drive. “Let’s just get started on our road trip! Woo-hoo!” She started to turn around in the driveway.

Suddenly, Maddy shouted, “Stop, Morgan!” She unbuckled her seat belt.

“What?” Morgan yelled back.

“Turn the music down! Stop!”

Morgan stepped on the brakes. “What is it?”

“I have to … I can’t …” Maddy looked around wildly. “Open your sunroof!”

“Are you cracked? What are you talking about?”

“Open your sunroof!”
Morgan stared at her for a second and then buzzed the roof back. Maddy stood up on the seat, stuck her head and shoulders out the window, and looked toward the house. She couldn’t see the yard.

Quickly, she hoisted herself out of the sunroof and onto the top of the car. She stood up carefully, her sundress hem fluttering in the breeze. Now she could see the backyard and the path running through the vines. A dark head was just visible above the grape leaves.

Maddy took a deep breath.
“David!”
she yelled. He didn’t turn around.
“David!”
He saw her and stopped walking. She waved her arms. “Come here!” She could see him pause. It felt like a long time. Then he started walking back up the path toward the house again. She crouched down on the car roof and hopped onto the trunk and then to the ground. Somewhere in the background, she was aware that the music had stopped and that Morgan and Kirsten had gotten partially out of the car and were watching her with avid interest. But she couldn’t think about them right now.

She ran around to the side of the house and collided full-on with David. He caught her and staggered but managed to keep his balance. He held her by the shoulders a little away from him. “What is it?” he asked. “Why were you on the car roof ?”

“I …” Maddy panted a minute, then got her breath.

“I …”
Say it!
“I was wondering … if you wanted to come back with me to San Francisco? With my friends … ?

She faltered a minute under his piercing gaze.

“What are you saying?” His hands gripped her shoulders tighter.

She inhaled. “I’m saying I want you to come back to the city with me—I want us to go back together.” Her voice was clear now and the words felt right.

His face lit up like someone had turned on a switch inside him. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. He grinned and then grabbed her, pulling her to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he kissed her. The sound of Morgan’s horn interrupted them. They broke apart and smiled at each other. Maddy took his hand and they walked together toward the waiting car.

“Oh, no!” Maddy stopped short. “What about all of your stuff? You haven’t packed or told your dad …”

David smiled. “Maddy, I’m a guy. ‘All my stuff ’

barely fills one bag. And my dad was going to drive to the city with me in a few days, anyway. I’ll call him from the road. Now, stop interrupting the spontaneous romance of this moment!” He kissed Maddy softly and squeezed the back of her hand as he pulled her toward her friends.

She opened the door and slid into the backseat again.

This time, David slid in next to her. Two amazed faces peered around the middle of the front seats. “Girls,”

Maddy said, “is it okay if David comes back to the city with us?”

Morgan turned all the way around and looked right at him and then at Maddy. She studied them both for a long time and then grinned. “Definitely,” she said.

Kirsten nodded in agreement.

“Thanks for letting me tag along on your road trip,”

David told them.

“No problem,” Morgan replied. “I’m glad you could come.” Maddy gave her a look of thanks.

“Yeah, me too,” Kirsten seconded. Maddy reached forward and squeezed both of their hands. They squeezed back.

As Morgan sped down the driveway, Maddy settled back into the seat, her thigh pressed against David’s. He draped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her up against him. Outside of the window, the fields and trees flashed past and the road to the city uncurled before them. Maddy relaxed into David’s side, feeling safe and purely happy. She breathed in his fresh, soapy scent and it mixed with the pine-tinted Napa air. She and David fit together—here in this car, under the majesty of a Napa sunset, and in the bustle of city life. If this was what life with David was like in a place she was supposed to hate, Maddy couldn’t wait to see what the city had in store.

HAILEY ABBOTT

grew up in Southern California, where she split her time between creative writing and creative beaching. She is the author of GETTING LOST WITH BOYS, THE SECRETS OF BOYS, THE PERFECT BOY, and WAKING UP TO BOYS, as well as the Summer Boys books and THE BRIDESMAID. Hailey now lives in New York City.

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Books by Hailey Abbott:

Getting Lost with Boys

The Secrets of Boys

The Perfect Boy

Waking Up to Boys

Forbidden Boy

The Other Boy

Summer Boys

Next Summer: A Summer Boys Novel

After Summer: A Summer Boys Novel

Last Summer: A Summer Boys Novel

The Bridesmaid

Typography by Andrea C. Uva

Cover art © 2008 by Veer

Cover design by Jennifer Rozbruch

THE OTHER BOY. Copyright © 2008 by Alloy Entertainment. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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