Are You In The House Alone? (plus: Love Me) (6 page)

CHAPTER 30

“No,”
I text Blake
adamantly when I hear his “deal.”

He wants me to go out with a guy
that he says has a ‘crush’ me.

Blake coaxes,
“Come on Brandy, I owe him money
and you owe me a favor.”

“Blake, I’m
not
going to
be pimped out—go ask Mallory for that kind of ‘favor.’”

“No, come on. I’m not going to
‘pimp’ you out, Brandy. One date—just dinner with the guy. That’s it.”

I groan.
“Who’s the guy?”

“I’m not going to say. He’s shy.”

“Well, then maybe he won’t even
want to go on a date with me—I mean if he’s so ‘shy.’”

“He
will—believe me. But I’m not even going to tell him about the date. I’m
just going to tell him I no longer owe him. Just be outside the school gym
tonight.”

CHAPTER 31

While I’m impatiently waiting
outside of the school gym, Garrett comes out.

He raises his eyebrows in surprise
when he sees me.

He tilts his head. “Brandy, hi.
What are you doing here?”

“Ugh!” I groan, for some reason
embarrassed to be caught loitering around the school gym. Or maybe it’s the
reason
I’m here that is so
mortifying. I hedge, “I owe Blake Andrews a favor.”

Garrett’s eyes light up. A slow
smile spreads on his lips. “You owe Blake?”

He chokes a soft laugh. “I’m the
favor. He caught me staring at you the other day.”

His eyebrows go up pointedly, “He
said I’m in love with you.”

My heart explodes.

I quickly press against the wall to
keep from toppling over. But I try to act chill, like I’m not having an
aneurysm and seeing stars.

Instead, I roll my eyes and mutter
dryly, “I’m pretty sure Blake isn’t an authority on love—smut, yes. Love,
no.”

“Not usually,” Garrett agrees.

He smiles, “Blake’s a funny guy.
The dude owes me money. He didn’t tell me you were out here. He just told me
there would be something out here that would make me happy.” His jaw muscles
tick. “He’s right. I’m happy. And I guess the dude’s debt is paid since he got
you to at least not scowl at me for a second.”

Okay, my brain is in a fog.
Actually, it’s floated away, nowhere to be seen. So I’m just kind of
like—!!!!!!!!!!

So, the words that come out of my
mouth aren’t too bright. I murmur inanely, “Blake said the guy I was meeting
here is shy.”

Garrett’s lips twitch. “I
am
shy—when it comes to
you.”

I narrow my eyes. “Look, can you
spare me your swoony lines?

He grins faintly, “I make you
swoon?”

“You make me angry.”

“Look, I
am
shy when it comes to you, Brandy. These feeling I have for you
are weird. Well, weird to me. Totally
new
to me. Remember about that coupon? I had
bought
you that expensive perfume. It was crazy expensive. But I just had to get it
for you because I knew you liked it so much—and wanted it. But then after
I got it, I felt weird about it. I was supposed to
hate
you. That was my plan. Before I even got to your house. Yet I
was buying you perfume and jealous of your boyfriend. It was making me crazy.”

He shakes his head slightly like
he’s trying to shake away the bizarre for him memory.

Finally, he goes on with his
explanation, “So, yeah, I gave you the coupon instead, but I did that because,”
he runs his hands through his hair destructively. “Look, I know I
said
I forgot about a
gift—that’s what I told you. But it was just an excuse—because I
actually
wanted
to give you a
massage.”

‘You
could give me one now
,’ I think all mushy and warm. But I don’t say it out
loud. Of course. Because—well, because there are too many reasons to even
name.

So, ignoring the fact that the
world is spinning and I’m suddenly seeing stars, I growl, “You are such a
player! You say all these sweet, tender heart-melting things, yet you never
even
apologized
about that night.
Geez, Garrett, I could have been
pregnant!”

His brow furrows. “Really? Wait,
not by
me
.”

I glare at him. “I woke in the
bed—naked.”

“Yeah. But that was you, Brandy. I
mean,
you
did that—took off
your clothes. And I couldn’t put them back on you—for obvious reasons. I
mean, if I would have gotten close to you, I would have done the total
opposite
of trying to coax you back into
your clothes. But I couldn’t leave you in the room like that—drunk and
saying the things you were.”

My breath hitches. I jerk my head
up at him. “Wh—what was I saying?”

He grins slightly. “Well, not clean
stuff.”

“But I woke up naked, next to you.”

“No you didn’t. You woke up naked,
yeah. But not next to me. You woke up and I was in the bathroom on my
phone—explaining that I was going to be late getting to work. When I came
out, you were gone.”

He grins slightly. “You thought
we—?”

“Yes!”

He runs a hand over his face,
trying to hide his grin. He groans, “So that’s why you wouldn’t look at me.”

“Yeah. You were a creep.”

“Only, I wasn’t. You get that,
right?”

“Well … now.”

He leans the back of his head
against the wall. “This explains so much.”

He stares up at the ceiling a
second, grinning huge. Then he looks back into my eyes. “We didn’t do it,
Brandy. We didn’t do anything. You’re as virginal as the first day I laid eyes
on you—which was a glorious day for me, despite how I may have acted.”

He grins, and recaps it—like
it’s this puzzle that he was unable to put together, and he’s amazed that it’s
suddenly assembled, and he kind of can’t believe it. “You thought I had sex
with you?
That’s
why you were so cold
to me?—I mean, I thought I was going to freeze to death just walking past
you in the school hallways.”

“Well, you weren’t exactly all warm
and fuzzy to me either.”

His hands go still for a second,
then he runs them nervously through his hair. “Yeah, but that was for a
different reason. You know that now … right? I felt guilty.”

Confused, I tilt my head up at him.
“About what?”

He winces and looks away from me.
His eyes look tortured. Haunted.

Seeing him look like that—so
somber—everything inside me winds tight. “Garrett, what is it? What did
you do?”

He shakes his head slightly. “I
can’t tell you, Brandy. It’s not my place to tell you.”

When I just stare at him, confused,
he draws out a breath and runs his hands through his hair. He says softly,
“Brandy, you frowned every time you saw me. And you’d look away. I figured you
hated me.”

My head pounds. “Why would I hate
you?”

His jaw muscles tick as he stares
at me. It’s like he’s negotiating in his head what to tell me. What comes out
of his mouth isn’t exactly the truth. He hedges guardedly, “I don’t know, I
blindfolded you, and our parents got a divorce.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t your fault.”

He winces. “Actually … it was.”

CHAPTER 32

My stomach clenches. “Garrett,
what
did you do?”

He shakes his head slightly. “I
can’t tell you, Brandy. I mean, it’s not really my place to tell you. And I
don’t want to tell you anyway, because it’s going to make you hate me.”

Anxiety crashes through me. “Why?!
What did you do?”

His eyelids slide shut. “Brandy, I
feel really bad about it. It was a messed up thing to do. I was just … I was so
mad at my dad. And at the time, I swear, I didn’t think about who I was
hurting.”

The muscles in his jaw tick. “Look,
go home, okay? I don’t deserve you, Brandy. I want you—but I don’t
deserve you.”

My lips part slightly, but I don’t
know what to say. He seems tortured. In agony about what he did. With all of my
heart, I want to help him feel better. I do. But I don’t know what he’s done,
and he’s obviously not going to tell me. But since it has him so miserable, I
know it’s really terrible and I’m not really going to want to hear it. I mean,
he said it will make me hate him.

Garrett draws out a ragged breath,
“Brandy, go home okay? Go before I blow my good-guy resolve, because I’m not
really known for being a good guy or for my awesome self-restraint. I’m known
for being a selfish dirt-wad—I think
you
called me that. You were right. So go, okay?”

CHAPTER 33

Totally bewildered, when I get
home, I march upstairs planning to ask my mom what Garrett was talking about.
What did he have to do with the divorce?

But Mom is in the shower—so
she dodged that bullet. For the moment.

As I turn to leave her room, her
cell phone rings. Normally I’d let it go to her voice-mail, of course. But it’s
probably my aunt. Mom’s been talking with her a lot lately, commiserating with
her about their recent divorces. I figure I’ll just let her know Mom is in the
shower.

But when I pick up her phone, I see
her messages from my aunt. She had texted her things like:
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“You
were in a vulnerable place.”

I scroll further down and almost
drop the phone from shock.

Oh
my gosh!!!!

Mom had slept with Garrett!!!

CHAPTER 34

Garrett winces when he sees me
sitting on his doorstep.

I choke out, “You slept with my
mom?”

He does a little groan-thing, like
he was afraid I was going to call him out on that. He nods slightly.

He glares up at the ceiling and
runs a hand over his face. “Look, when I had to move in your house, I was mad
about the situation. Mad about everything. I had this plan before I even showed
up there: I was going to seduce you—the beautiful, stuck-up cheerleader.
Seduce you and crush you—break your heart. But then I met you—and
you weren’t stuck-up. You were the total opposite of stuck-up. You were
innocent and sweet and had absolutely no idea you were beautiful.”

He stares into my eyes, “The most
beautiful thing I ever saw.”

The way he’s looking at
me—and the way he said that, so tender and sweet and sincere—my
heart actually starts to melt.

But it’s crazy!

Totally demented.

I look away, not wanting to be
hypnotized by his tender words and seductive eyes. I need to be strong …
because apparently I’m a total sap. (I mean, come on. He slept with my
mom
!
)

Garrett watches me a moment. Then
squeezes his eyes shut. He cagily goes on, “I had to make a new plan because
there was no way I could go through with the one I had—to seduce you,
then break your heart.” He draws out a painful breath, “So … I did it to my
dad’s new wife instead.”

CHAPTER 35

I stare at Garrett, barely able to
breathe. “You did it just to mess up their lives?”

“Look, they ruined my mom’s life. I
hate my dad for that. My mom was sweet—now she’s broken. He broke her,
and threw her away. I didn’t want him to be able to get away with that. Him
being all happy and her being hurt.”

His voice turns gentle. “Look, I’m
sorry now. I didn’t want you to get hurt or know anything about it. And I
actually like your mom, so I feel bad.”

I close my eyes, shuddering.

I know he’s not talking about
liking her—like
liking
her.

But my mom is gorgeous. Everyone
always thinks we’re sisters. Always. Everyone. They’re always shocked when they
learn she’s my mom. “But you’re so young!” they always gasp, then tease, “Did
you have her when you were
eight?”

Actually, she had me when she was
eighteen. I was a “honeymoon baby.” She and Dad used to always tell me that.
Back when they were in love. And married.

And not insane.

Garrett is staring at me, seeming
to hold his breath, waiting for me to speak. When I don’t, he scrubs a hand
over his face. “
That’s
why I moved
out. And why I tried to stay away from you. I felt bad about what I did. I
mean, it wasn’t nice—messing with your mom like that. I felt guilty.”

“Yeah, well, you should.”

He nods. “Man, Brandy—I do.”

He sounds so sincere my heart aches
a little.

I quickly get up before I start
falling for him again.

“Where are you going?”

“Away.”

To be darkly sardonic—that’s
the only reason—he says total deadpan, “According to Blake you owe me a
date.”

I turn back to him and glare.
“Well, you owe me a lot of things—so we’ll just call us even. Though
we’re not. We’ll never be even … or friends.”

He winces, then nods slightly,
running a hand over his face, like he’s resigned to accepting that. “Okay
Brandy,” he murmurs softly. “Whatever you want.”

What I want??? I want him to have
not slept with my mom.

CHAPTER 36

Monday even before first period,
there is a huge buzz going around school. Blake Andrews has been arrested.
Apparently he was secretly running a website that featured people from our
school having sex at parties. He secretly recorded them without them knowing,
as he would set up a webcam in bedrooms and have them going before the party
started.

The website was shut down
immediately, but apparently tons of people from our school were on it.

Phoenix stops me in the hallway,
“Brandy, can I talk to you for a second?”

He leads me out of the student
traffic, off so we can be alone and not overheard. He looks all sympathetic,
and like he’s finding it hard to say what has to tell me.

It makes my stomach knot. “Phoenix,
what is it?”

He grimaces. “You were on that
website.”

I gape at him, then let out a
breath of relief. He’s wrong.

With a relieved smile, I shake my
head. “I couldn’t be. Trust me, it must have been someone else that looked like
me or something. Phoenix, I haven’t had sex yet.”

He nods, his eyes looking pained.
“I know—anyone, that saw the website knows.”

Oh my gosh! That party!—the
party where I threw myself at Garrett and apparently begged him for
sex—it got video taped????

Anger and embarrassment and
complete humiliation crash through me all at the same time. But there is only
one of those emotions I can do anything about, and she’s walking right this
way.

“Phoenix, I have to go.”

I dart after Mallory and whip her
around to face me. I yell into her stunned face, “You sent me into that room!”

Apparently, she knows exactly what
I’m talking about, since she doesn’t ask for clarification.

She reddens. “Yeah, but I didn’t
know Blake was doing that—recording or whatever. Come on, I wouldn’t do
that to you, Brandy. I just heard it was a good room for hooking up.” She
huffs, “Look, I was doing you a favor.”

“By getting me
drunk
and sending a guy up to take advantage of me?”

She huffs, looking defensive. “No!
It wasn’t a “guy” it was Garrett, who you were all giddy about. And you’d just
been dumped by your gay boyfriend. I wanted you to loosen up and have some fun
for once. And it was
Garrett
, ‘The
Giver.’ You were guaranteed to have fun.”

I storm away from her. “Never talk
to me again!” I shout.

“Brandy!” she calls after me all
impatient-like.

Like I’m being childish.

I hate her so much!!