Unmaking Hunter Kennedy (12 page)

Vere walked forward, her expression guarded.

“Oh, do I have some good ideas now. Promise you’ll let me choose the overall theme of your make-over? No arguments.”

He pocketed his phone and tried to concentrate on anything but how her eyes seemed to sparkle brighter than any eyes he’d ever seen on a girl. “You have a
theme
?” he managed, wondering if he was really going to let this disaster virgin pick his outfits and drive him around?

“Yes. But you’ll have to trust me.” She crossed her arms, waiting.

He didn’t, but he gave her the answer he thought she’d want. Mostly because he hoped it would bring on her smile. “Okay. I trust you.”

It worked. Vere’s smile matched her eyes.

Open, happy and
nothing else
.

Meaning it was cool how she didn’t seem to
want
, or expect, anything out of him at all.

I’ll let Vere Roth drive me straight into hell if she keeps smiling at me like this.

He smiled back. He couldn’t help himself.

It was like her happiness—her irrepressibility—was rubbing off on him. Not like he was going to start skipping around or anything like she seemed to do, but he realized he felt calm around her. At the very least, safe.

That feeling felt different enough to make him hope this whole experience might not crush him. It also made him wonder if he
should
try to trust her. If the possibility of being friends—and nothing else—with someone his own age could be a reality.

He’d give it, give
her
a chance. Maybe.

Plus, he didn’t want to think of how to disguise himself alone. There was no reason to fight any of this. He’d just roll with everything. See what came next. Like Barry said.

One hour at a time.

“Why do we have to go see your dad? Does he own a clothing store?” he asked finally, trying to grasp one shred of the conversation flying over his spinning head.

“Well, like I said...” She stepped forward.

He had to lock his knees so he wouldn’t pull away. Any possibility of him concentrating shredded to bits when he caught some of Vere’s scent.

Flowers or lavender...or sage? Or hell, I have no damn clue.

Smells like friendly-happiness...whatever it is...whatever she is...

Everyone seemed to be talking at once. Hunter breathed in the air around Vere, zoning out on her completely with his relaxed ‘meet-and-greet’ smile secured on his face.

Vere chattered away. Hunter’s eyes had locked onto the curve of her upper lip again. She chewed lightly on it every time she paused in her speech.

She must be worried when she does that.

Is she worried about me?!

His chest tightened at the thought.

She doesn’t even know me...and from what I can tell, no one here is being paid. Could they all really be this nice?

She stopped talking and blinked expectantly, still chewing on that damn lip.

Hunter shot a glance around the room. Everyone seemed to be waiting for him to answer. He crossed his arms and hid his clenched fists under his arms, forcing himself back into the conversation.

“Great, sounds like a good plan.” He blinked, adding in a convincing smile. “I’ll do whatever you recommend.”

When they all just stared at him as though they were surprised by his too jovial response, he concentrated on what he knew he was supposed to do next. Go shopping with Vere, then meet everyone up at the cabin later.

“And thanks, everyone. For helping. Mrs. Roth, I’m really looking forward to seeing this lake cabin and hanging in the mountains. I think I could use a few days of true hiding out. Whatever happens, it’s very kind of you to host me,” he added, using his most polite voice.

They all still just blinked at him, like he’d eaten the family dog or something.

Do these people even have a family dog?

They probably do. A really cute and perfect Golden Retriever or something.

He shrugged helplessly. “What? Let’s get started. Where’s the car?”

That worked. Everyone moved at once.

10: lying to jenna

VERE

Vere headed to her room to gather enough stuff for the long weekend. She dialed Jenna on her cell as she ran up the stairs.

“OMG! What’s the PROJECT?” Jenna yelled as soon as the call connected. She never answered with a simple ‘hello’. “Have you recovered from your day?”

Vere chose to ignore the second question because there was no recovering from this day. Not with Charlie swearing Curtis Wishford had asked about her on the
crush
level! And not with a famous rock star waiting for her downstairs somewhere?

This day had exploded out of all normal reality.

“The project is not an exchange student. Not at all. It’s worse. It’s uh...Nan’s nephew. Moved in with her.”

“Nan has a nephew?”

“He starts school with us Tuesday. I mentioned him to you, I think? Do you remember?” Vere rolled her eyes at herself in the bathroom mirror.

Let the lies begin.

“You did?” Jenna sighed, sounding miffed. “What’s he like?”

Oh, sort of exactly like Hunter Kennedy?!!

Vere bit back a giggle, shoving her toothbrush into her weekend bag and answered, “I don’t know yet. You know how it is. Hard to break the ice at first. Awkward mostly.”

At least some of what she’d said wasn’t a complete lie. Vere’s heart sped up and then clenched. Twisting with guilt.

Best friends tell best friends when famous rock stars moved in next door, don’t they?

GuardeRobe
was one of Jenna’s many rock-band-religions.

She probably followed Hunter Kennedy on Twitter! If Jenna ever found out Vere had kept this information from her, she’d make Charlie’s reaction to Hunter Kennedy seem puny and quiet.

She’d also murder me. Never speak to me again. EVER.

Which would be easy, because I’d be dead from the part where she’d murdered me.

“Did you work on your mom to relent and let me drive up to the cabin? At least for Sunday night?” Jenna whined. “It’s such a long weekend.”

“No. You’re banned. Mom’s convinced that Charlie and I are going to be this guy’s new besties. That’s the project. She wants us to bond with him minus any other
friend
distractions. She says you and I would disappear and ignore him. Probably true.”

“Gah. Bummer. You? Bonding with a guy? Has your mom forgotten exactly who you are? Is the guy hot at least? What’s his name?”

“Dustin. Dustin McHugh.”

“He sounds hot. Scottish last name hot.” Jenna’s tone had turned hopeful.

Vere laughed. “Yeah. About that. You’ll have to see him for yourself. He’s not...your type. And he’s
sure
not my type.” She snorted, not needing to fake the annoyance in her tone, remembering how he’d called her a gnome-stick-tumbleweed. “He’s more of a—”

“He’s ugly. Admit it.”

“Not ugly—just—different. Kind of tall. Seemed nice once we broke through the stiff introductions. Charlie’s not into it though. He and Mom got in a fight about Dustin’s presence screwing up
Charlie’s precious senior year.
”

“Gah. Guy must be hideous if your brother had to battle.”

Vere sidestepped the lies again. “However he looks, I think it will be good for me to try to make friends with him. You know, to have a guy-best-friend."

"Are you serious?"

“Yeah. It might help me get over my problem. And we could use him like some kind of bodyguard. Um...he’d be good for that.”

Jenna sighed, “What would a bodyguard do for us? Battle our invisible boyfriends?”

Vere laughed. “Heck yes. Invisible boyfriends can get really out of hand.”

“Hmm.” Vere could hear the pout in Jenna’s tone. “As if you need friends other than ME. You’re lucky I’m not feeling jealous. I can tell from the sound of your voice that you’re serious about his potential—and that he’s a total, hideous geek whom you will probably never love more than you love me.”

“Hey. That’s not nice. You haven’t even met him.”

“Fine. But I reserve the right to veto this new friend. We have enough problems trying to be cool without you adopting a social charity case into our lives. Your parents and Nan can’t expect us to hang out with him all the time, can they?”

“Yes. They expect us to hang with him. Hopefully he will be half-cool because I’m not going to hurt Nan’s feelings, or his. Nan says he’s here for the year, but Dustin’s hinted it might only be for a few weeks. I’m not sure of his exact deal, but I’ll find out.”

“Ugh. You do that. And tell your mom she sucks for not letting me go,” Jenna whined again.

“I’m sorry.” Vere was surprised how quickly Jenna had bought into the idea of Dustin McHugh the possible freak. Maybe everyone else would do the same.

She yanked a small duffel out of the hall closet, grabbed her swimsuit off the bathroom rack, some other favorite hoodies and shoved the whole pile into the bag. “What will you do without me?”

“I’m going to sit here alone, eating ice-cream, Jello, cookies and stealing my little brother’s stash of Skittles until you come back. Tell your mom that, would you? If I become a diabetic this weekend, it’s her fault.”

Vere planted one last line on Jenna: “Just don’t call everyone, telling them that Dustin McHugh is an ugly loser. Give him a chance. Not everyone can be all...normal...you know?”

“Pffft. NOT making me feel any better about him.”

Vere smiled and went on, “
I’m
trying to have an open mind. The guy takes me way out of my comfort zone though.”

“Oh God. Now, you’re scaring the shit out of me. I’m not hanging out with him. This is not happening to us.”

Vere but her lip to stop a giggle. Jenna had epic gossip-networking skills. This information would send her all over Facebook and into
text-landia
with chatter that would spread quickly.

On the way down the stairs, Vere added, “Remember. It’s what’s
INSIDE
a person that counts.”

“Not in our high school.” Jenna snorted. “Tell Charlie he sucks too, and not to miss me,” she added.

“As always. I’m sure Charlie will be heartbroken to not see you all weekend long,” she said loudly. Her brother was in the back hall getting his football gear together.

“What?” He frowned.

“Jenna says,
‘Hi’
and,
‘Don’t miss her too much’
.”

Charlie raised his upper lip in a disgusted sneer. “Tell that girl they still have a few spots at the special high school for creepers, and that she should go there and stop stalking me.”

“I heard that!” Jenna giggled, completely not offended. “Your brother so wants to date me.”

Charlie paused. “What did she say?”

“Something about how you know you want her.”

Charlie answered with a round of loud, dramatic dry heaving.

Jenna, hearing him, laughed louder. “He’s such an ass. I’m going to die without you, Vere. Text me when you make it back to town.”

“I promise.”

Charlie butted in with a whisper. “Call the freak back later,” he said knowing Jenna would hear.

“Did he call me a FREAK?” Vere held the phone away from her ear so Charlie could hear. “I heard that you EGG-HEAD-UGLY-JOCK!”

He paused to roll his eyes at the phone while shooting Vere a hilarious, co-conspirator eyebrow wiggle. He spoke in a really quiet voice, “Dustin has been in the car, waiting this whole time. If he messes with you, say the word and he’s dead.
K
? I don’t care if he’s famous. I will trash him.”

“Shut up. And shut up!” Vere said, rolling her eyes at Charlie’s endless, overprotective impulses.

“Are you telling me to SHUT UP?” Jenna’s voice squeaked through.

Vere turned back to her phone. “No. Not you. Charlie. Gotta go. Call you when I can. Promise.” She glanced at the waiting Charlie and couldn’t resist. “Oh. And Charlie says,
bye beautiful
.”

She hung up fast before Jenna could hear Charlie yell, “I DID NOT SAY THAT. I said,
BYE FREAK,
that’s what I said!”

11: my new bestie

VERE

Vere made it to the garage and flung her bag into the back of the new, white, VW Bug she and Charlie shared.

Dustin McHugh was there, sitting ramrod straight. As she got in, she noticed the guy was so large that he seemed to fill every extra inch of space inside the car.

“Hope I didn’t take too long.” She smiled. “Can you try to slouch or something? I don’t want anyone to get a good look at you until you’re ready, or fixed, or...”

“
Unmade.
”

“Yeah. Unmade.”

“That’s the official term.”

Her smile wavered at his dark tone. “I’m sure this is going to be all kinds of fun. Why do you look so terrified?”

“Maybe because you appear to be too excited about frosting the cake that marks the end of my life?”

“Oh. Is that what this is? I’m sorry. I just love doing costumes, that’s all. I guess I didn’t think about what it all means to you....”

He blinked, seemingly ignoring what she’d said. But she got the feeling he wanted her to change the subject.

He stared at her hands on the steering wheel as he went on, “Or, maybe I’m simply afraid of you. Are you sure you’re old enough to drive?”

“Ha. Ha. Now slouch.”

Dustin tried to slide down, but his knees bumped into the glove box.

“I think you’re faking that you’re happy to do this.”

“What?” Her cheeks flamed.

“I saw you choke when your mom asked you to shop with me.”