Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) (23 page)

My phone rang a few more times that day. Most of the calls came from
Dream Guy Material
. At some point, I was so sick of that name that I changed it. So when Chris tried to reach me the next time, my phone read out the warning:
Don’t pick up!

Ethan’s calls also went straight to voice mail. Talking to him just didn’t fit my mood this weekend. The only two people I let into my life were my mom and Gramps. And I talked to Dad on the phone. He was seriously worried. From the sound of it, he doused the phone in spittle when he said, “I should drive to that guy’s house and have a word with him.”

“That won’t be necessary, Dad.” I laughed. “But thanks for offering.”

His voice calmed. “Anything for you, sweetheart.”

Really, anything?
Then come home
, I wanted to beg.
Let’s be a family again. Mom’s so sad because of you.
But of course, that would be the wrong wish to put into words because—for all it’s worth—my dad might do it. And nothing would be different from how it was before. It was hard on everybody, but I was starting to believe that it really was for the best. I still had my dad, after all. And time would heal my mom’s pain…like it would heal my pain over Chris.

That’s what I kept telling myself the entire weekend.

Until I saw Chris again on Monday morning.

I should have been more observant as I walked to science, but seriously, how could I get my head clear when Simone and Allie were stereo-babbling in my ears about the New Year’s Eve party at Ryan’s? Like there was nothing more important than what to wear to that damn pseudo-ball.

“I’m not even sure if I’m going,” I told them, pushing my schoolbag higher up my aching back. Lounging on the sofa for forty-eight hours with tearjerkers on the screen was murder for my spine.

“What?” Nick blurted behind us and startled me. “I was so going to ask you to go with me.”

Slowing in my tracks, I turned around and made a sheepish face. He only suggested it because after Friday’s lunch break he knew how down I was. “Nice try, Nick, but it won’t work.”

“Shame.” He made a sad face, but it brightened quickly enough as a flock of girls passed us by. Nick’s head turned as his gaze followed them. He spun back to me with a smile. “If you really don’t want to go, I’ll ask Jessica Markert. Think she’ll go out with me? She’s coming to all our games.”

I had history with Jessa and Nick knew her from math. She was a nice girl, blond and shy, but she’d broken up with her boyfriend a couple of weeks ago. I seriously doubted she was back to dating anybody yet. Not to ruin my friend’s enthusiasm about it, though, I forced an encouraging smile and held up my hands, crossing my fingers.

Simone grabbed my arms. “Why don’t you want to go? A party will do you a hell of good in your current mood.”

“Yeah, right. Like I need to be at a party where that douche is, too.” Turning around, my mouth dropped open, because said douche had rounded the corner and stood right in front of me, stopping me dead. Thank God, he wore his leather jacket today, the only thing that gave him away.

“Hey, Sue,” he said in a low voice. He seemed to be no less startled than me, although there might have been a little bit of happiness attached to his surprise.

Looking at his cornflower-blue eyes, which held a touch of pleading, a new surge of anger swamped me. There was only one way for me to evade kicking up a stink in the hallway of my high school. I had to get away, and fast.

Voice freezing like an arctic storm, I said, “Excuse me. I have to get to my class.” I brushed past him and headed on, not caring if the girls followed me or not. Science was only two doors ahead. I slipped inside with a bunch of students, hoping for the bell to ring soon so class could distract me.

I didn’t see Chris again all morning, but lunch didn’t appeal to me much either, because Ethan would sit with us again, and there was no evading talking to him. Or maybe I could, if I held my head low and looked at no one.

Sam, Lisa, and I were some of the first students who got to the cafeteria. Our table was empty, except for Sasha Torres and Alex Winter. Not hungry, I headed straight to them instead of lining up in front of the buffet with my friends.

“Hey, guys,” I said and lowered into my usual seat, grabbing one of the water bottles from the middle of the table. Taking a sip, I almost spilled the water on myself when someone pulled out the chair beside me, slumped down, grabbed one leg of my chair, and pulled me around to face him.

Leather jacket. “What the hell, Chris! Are you crazy?”

“We talk. Now.”

“No.”

“Oh, yes.” He planted his legs on either side of me, caging me in. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and fixed me with a stare. “You’re mad at me, all right. Not answering your phone? Fine. But I’m not going until you hear me out.”

“Didn’t you get the message last time? I’m not interested.” I screwed the lid back on top of the bottle and put it on the table.

More guys from the soccer team had come and joined us. Ryan sank into his chair across from me. “Hey, Chris,” he said in an amused voice. “Showing up here? Respect, dude.”

Chris ignored him. His gaze was still on me. “I don’t buy it. You were interested from the very first minute you challenged me. You were interested when we played soccer together. You were interested when I kissed you. And you were interested when I fucking kissed you again. Don’t tell me bullshit and don’t brush me off. This is too—”

“Shut up,” I cut him off sharply and rose to my feet, shoving my chair back. More students filed into the cafeteria. Our table was now full with eleven people, one of them his brother. They all eyed us with growing interest. “I told you why it’s not going to work with us. That you fooled me last week only proves my point.” As Chris stood, too, venom crawled into my voice. “You’re so full of yourself, it’s disgusting! Now let me go.”

“No.” He was no longer trapping me with his legs, but he laid his hands on my hips, holding me in place.

“Don’t touch me!” I hissed, reminding him of one of the last things I spat at him at the end of our miserable date.

Chris didn’t let go.

“You call me full of myself?” he snapped. “Don’t throw stones while in your little glasshouse, Sue. From the start, you tried to keep me away, simply out of principle. Because I wasn’t who you expected to fall in love with. You kept denying your feelings for me, but I have proof of it on my phone. It’s in every damn text you sent back to me!”

My hand shot out and left a red mark on his cheek as his head jerked to the side. He didn’t see that one coming. Frankly, neither did I. On second thought, it was the one thing I’d wanted to do since the moment I’d figured out who had kissed me in that bar.

A collective gasp sounded around us. “Ouch,” Ryan whined.

Grinding his teeth and blinking slowly, Chris turned back to me, the shock in his eyes apparent. “I certainly deserved that one,” he said in a much lower voice than before, “but I also deserve a second chance, don’t you think?”

Really? After spewing all these things in front of my friends? “I think I’m done with you. And I told you so already. Now get the hell out of my way.” I grabbed my backpack and was about to head off, but Chris snagged my wrist and held me close to his side.

“Don’t run away from me now,” he begged quietly.

Turning so we were eye to eye, I lowered my voice too, but there was nothing at all pleading in it. “Let. Go.”

Jerking my hand free, I spun around and stalked out of the cafeteria.

I FORCED A happy face through PE and journalism, but as soon as the final bell released us from school on Monday afternoon, I escaped and was on my way home without another word to anyone. My throat still tight with unshed tears, speaking about Chris with my friends would have hurt on more levels than just emotionally. I didn't want to break down where
he
could see me.

At home, I flung myself into studying for winter finals. With luck, I could keep myself distracted for the next couple of weeks. After that, my sorrow should have eased and winter break could once again be fun. Yep, that was the plan. Only, there was a tear sliding down my cheek…

I dabbed it away.

Halfway through my history assignment, the doorbell rang. Mom was at work and I was alone. Gramps wouldn’t ring the bell, he had a key, so who the heck was disturbing me? Hopefully not the guys again. I really needed a break from everything and discussing whether or not I should go to Hunter’s New Year’s party was the one thing ranking lowest on my list of wishes.

With little hope that it was a salesman who would be easier to get rid of than Sam or Simone, I opened the door. And gaped. What the hell—

For a silent moment, I just stared at the guy outside. Heat and cold zoomed in a twist down my spine. I grabbed my unzipped hoodie and wrapped it tighter around me, leaving my arms crossed. Anger charged through me. My jaw hardened and my eyes narrowed. “Which twin are you?”

“Um…” Hands in his pockets, he bit his lip. His gaze darted uncomfortably from left to right and back as he slowly offered, “Da…gay…one?”

I wanted to grab Ethan by the collar of his blue shirt and shake him because he’d almost made me laugh when I so didn’t want to in front of him. Keeping a leash on my giggle, I snapped, “What do you want?”

“Well, I’d love to play
Mario Kart
with you.” He shrugged sheepishly. “But I believe there’s a huge amount of apologies to be given before that’s going to happen again.”

I stood on the threshold and fixed him with eyes that had turned into glaciers. Ethan sighed. “Why won’t you answer your phone, Susan? It was a lot of bull that happened last week, but for the sake of our friendship, you owe it to me to at least listen.”

“I owe you nothing.” I didn’t even blink when the words flowed out of my mouth like ice water.

“Yes, you do. Now get out of the way and let me in. I have some explaining to do.” As if him ordering me wasn’t shocking enough, he put his arms around my waist and lifted me off the ground, carrying me inside so he could close the door.

“Ethan!” I cried out. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure you don’t slam the door in my face, because that’s what you were thinking about—and don’t even try to deny it.” He shoved me to the kitchen. “Now sit down, or do you want to go upstairs to your room so we’re alone?”

“We
are
alone. My mom’s at work.”

“Good. Now sit.”

At his order, I sighed heavily and dropped to the seat. Ethan slid into the chair across from me. “I understand that I messed this up. Even though—and we should both consider that”—his stern gaze held mine—“I only acted in your and my brother’s best interests.”

Folding my arms over my chest again, I leaned back in the chair. “How is getting played by twins in my best interest?”

“You and Chris are perfect for each other. Well, you’re probably more perfect for him than he is for you, but I’m not stupid, Susan. You like him.”

I lifted my brows, wanting to object.

“Okay…
liked
him,” he corrected. “But that’s not the point. He’s been working a great deal on changing his ways since you walked into his life. That’s weird because I’ve never seen him like this before. And from what I got, he seemed determined to make things work. Heck, he hasn’t been so single-minded about anything or anyone in—no.” Ethan shook his head. “Just
never
.”

A slight flutter got my heart in a tangle of beats when he said all those things about Chris, but the truth was, it justified nothing. “I don’t care what his intentions were for tricking me into dating him. Why did
you
play along? I thought you were my friend.”

“That’s the whole point. I am your friend. It seemed like you needed a little push in the right direction to see what was going on with Chris. He actually begged me on his knees to help him.” A grimace marred Ethan’s face as if the visual with that memory was anything but pleasant. Definitely unusual.

“I said crap the other day about his go-to girls, I know,” he continued. “I didn’t want to make you feel insecure. Sorry. And I think if you gave him another chance, you’d be anything but. That’s all he wanted with that date, anyway. A chance to show you that, if you looked past the things you knew about him, you could still like him.”

“And you say that because he told you to?”

“I’m not talking to him right now, but that’s what he said when he begged me to set up the date with you, yeah.”

A growl forced up my throat. “So that was it? A little
blah blah
and he got you to play along with his stupid plan?”

“He sounded serious to me.” Ethan paused, taking a deep breath. “And he gave me his basketball.”

My chin dropped. “Sorry, what?”

His voice turned small. “It’s signed by Kobe Bryant.”

“And you fancy that guy?” It was the most ridiculous thing I could have blurted out, but my tongue was faster than common sense at times.

“No!” Offended, Ethan frowned at me. “He’s just the Lakers’ most valuable player and his autograph is on the ball…” Glancing out the window for a second, he fumbled for the right words to explain. “It’s like Harry Potter’s signature on a magic wand.”

Okay, I grasped that comparison.

“And it’s your fault anyway that I didn’t own the ball already.”

I pursed my lips. Should I have known what he was talking about?

Rubbing his neck, Ethan leaned forward. “Remember when you ended that game of chess for Chris and me with a checkmate? I think it was the day you called me out on being gay.”

A small nod. It was a couple days after Chris’s basketball game.

“Well, he offered me the ball if I won. Since you made me lose, I didn’t only
not
get the ball, but I also had to truthfully answer him one question. That was the deal.”

“You play chess with weird rules,” I mumbled, though I wondered what that particular question was. “Did he ask you if you were—”

“Gay? No. I already told you what he asked me.”

The memory of that one didn’t come up, so I pulled my brows to a frown and shook my head.

“He wanted to know if I was in love with you,” Ethan refreshed my memory.

“Oh...” If the ball was worth as much as Ethan had said, it made no sense for Chris to offer it to his brother just to find out about him and me. And giving it to Ethan to make him trick me into a date with Chris… This was insane.

Steepling my fingers under my chin, I propped on my elbows and gave him a level look. “So a date with me was more important to Chris than this stupid ball, but you chose the ball over our friendship. Is that right?”

Ethan lowered his gaze and traced the scratches on the metal table surface with his finger. “It kinda makes me an asshole, doesn’t it?”

I just stared, letting him figure the answer out for himself.

He dragged out a breath. “Look, I’ll give him the ball back today. I told you, we aren’t really on speaking terms these days, but since he lost you in the end, I guess it’s unfair to keep the ball.” His eyes moved up until they met mine. “And I’d do anything to make you forgive me.”

Oh boy, that look. How was a girl supposed to stay mad when someone as cute as Ethan batted his lashes? I was tempted to give in, but what good would it do me? Hanging out with the nice twin brother wouldn’t help me much in getting over Chris. “I don’t know…” I said after a long pause. “All this is really crazy and, for now, I’d rather keep a distance from both of you.”

His gaze burned a hole into my skull. If I got a headache from it later, it was totally his fault. “Are you sure…?” he murmured.

“Yes.” Shoving the chair back, I stood, the metal legs scraping on the tiled floor. “This is too much drama for me to handle right now. Not with everything else I have going on in my life.”

Ethan rose, too. He pushed the chair back in and braced himself on the backrest, stalling for time. “I see why you’re mad at me—and at Chris. But you really don’t want to give him another chance? Even if we aren’t talking to each other right now, it’s painful how miserable he is. After all, he was just trying to show you how much you mean to him.”

I told myself I didn’t care. Chris made me feel miserable most of the time, so maybe that was divine justice. “Tell him if he really cares about me, he should stop sending me texts or calling my number. And most of all, he should leave me alone at school. He ruined whatever we could’ve had, and he can’t change that.”

After all, I wasn’t the girl for a playboy. And my first boyfriend didn’t need to be a damn liar, for Christ’s sake. I deserved better than that.

Walking to the door and holding it open for Ethan, I made it clear this conversation was over.

“Okay…” Lips compressed, he crossed the room but stopped in front of me for a moment. “I’m really sorry about what happened. If you ever change your mind about
Mario Kart
, call me.” He walked out and I closed the door behind him.

Returning to the table, I braced my hands on top and stared at the blank wall. Soon, the heaviness in my chest got too much and dragged me down. I hunched forward, leaning on my elbows, and buried my face in my arms. A whiny shriek made it out of my throat. Thank God, no one was home. I was sick of explaining myself to everyone.

*

The weeks until Christmas were strange. They were empty and passed fast. I did what I’d always done around that time of the year: decorated the house with mistletoe and Christmas bells, sprayed some artificial snow onto the windowpanes since we never got any real snow in California, and drank barrels of hot chocolate with whipped cream. In the past, I usually had both my parents to help me pep up the house and watch trashy Christmas movies on the weekends. This year there was only Mom and me. And she wore that sad look all the time.

She and Dad hadn’t seen each other in a while. From what my father told me, they’d agreed to keeping a distance—at least for a few weeks, and if that worked, maybe extend it to a couple months. Phone calls were okay, but no personal contact. It would help them get over the breakup, or so they hoped. Only, Mom didn’t seem to feel relief at that. If anything, not seeing my dad was making things harder for her. For once, I was the lucky one in this family triangle. I could spend time with both whenever I wanted to. No shouting matches attached to that deal.

Dad looked like he’d adjusted to his new single life fairly well and really fast. Occasionally, he asked me how Mom was doing, but he always had a happy smile on his lips when I dropped by his new apartment. On the other hand, he never said if he was going out much or seeing someone else. Maybe his happiness was just a façade? Was he a better actor than my mother?

Honestly, thinking about their breakup and a possible reunion kept me awake many hours of the nights. There was nothing I could do. This wasn’t my fight. Not my problem. But a happy family for Christmas? Well, that was worth a wish.

Considering my misery with the Donovan twins, however, I had little to no hope that someone above would even think to take note of my wishes. Christmas time would be blue this year.

It didn’t help much that Ethan and Chris were obviously following my demand and staying away from me. No texts in days, not one phone call from either of them, and when Chris saw me in the hallways at school, he lowered his head and walked right past me.

Although Ethan stayed with the soccer team at lunch, he’d moved a few chairs down the table so we wouldn’t sit next to each other anymore. That was okay for the first couple of days, but after a week, I really started to miss him.

Boy…if that’s how it felt when my wishes were granted, I’d have to rethink the one for Christmas again.

Thank God for my friends. Apart from Sam and Simone, who made me go present shopping with them every other day, Nick was a wonderful distraction and made me play
FIFA
with him a lot. First I had to force myself to leave my room and have a normal life after Chris and Ethan, but with days passing by and winter break getting closer, things took on that typical end-of-the-year smoothness that always put me in a softer mood.

When the winter finals were done and I’d passed them all with no grade worse than a B minus, I even started to relax. It was Lisa and Ryan who told me on the last day of school that they were glad to see me smiling more again.

Was I really? I hadn’t noticed. Although the biting pain in my chest whenever I thought about Chris—or checked my phone for messages even though I’d told him to stop sending them—had ceased to a dull ache. I tried not to think about him and our first kiss too much, but when I did, no tears stung my eyes anymore. That was some progress, right?