Fake Boyfriend - Kate Brian (23 page)

Vivi released her. "Good point."

The phone rang. And rang. When it picked up, Lane held her breath. "Hi, you've reached the Hunters."

"Dammit!" She closed her phone. "They're not home."

"All right. That's it." Vivi jumped up and grabbed her bag. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Lane asked, scrambling after her.

"To the airport," Vivi said. "We have to stop her."

"We're never gonna get there in time," Lane said, pulling her mom's car keys out of her pocket.

Vivi turned around and snatched the keys out of Lane's hand as she shoved through the door. "In your mom's Jag with me driving? I'll have us there in twenty minutes."

Lane thought about protesting. Her mother would lose it if Lane let Vivi drive her Jag. But it didn't matter. This was an emergency.

***

"Izzy, look, I hate to tell you this on your voice mail, but Brandon isn't real," Lane rambled as she ran at least twenty yards behind Vivi down the concourse at Newark Airport. All around her travelers stopped and stared, and she had this

235

overwhelming sense that at any moment she was going to be tackled by airport security, but she hardly cared. "We made him up. The guy that took you to the prom was named Jonathan. I'm really sorry. We just wanted you to get over Shawn. But you can't get on that plane. He's not even gonna be there when you get there because he's not real! Please, Iz, j... just call me back!"

She skidded to a stop next to Vivi, heaving for breath. Vivi, for her part, was a bit pink in the cheeks but otherwise fine. The perks of being on the track team, Lane supposed. Maybe she should have stuck with soccer past freshman year, because she really felt like she was about to have a coronary.

"What?" she asked Vivi, who looked flat-out helpless as she stared at a television screen full of flight numbers and departure times.

"We don't even know what airline she's on," Vivi said flatly. "We don't know what gate, what flight number. And you can't even get past security without a ticket. What was I thinking?"

"No," Lane said, desperate. "Y can't give up now. We got here, didn't we? And it's ..." She lifted her phone to look at the time. It read 12:02. "No!"

ou Lane wailed.

"What? What's the matter?" Vivi asked.

"It's after twelve!" Lane shouted, lifting the phone to show her. "She's gone! She's gone, Vivi!"

"No. She can't be. Maybe she missed her flight!" Vivi said hopefully. "Or maybe it's delayed!" Her eyes scanned the screen again.

"What? In this weather!?" Lane flung her arm toward the

236

window, which was full of nothing but blue sky. "Face it, Vivi. She's gone. Oh my God. Oh my God! How could I have let you talk me into this!?"

"What!?"

"Don't give me that innocent face!" Lane shouted. "This is all your fault!"

"My fault?" Vivi demanded. "We were both in on this one, Lane."

"Oh, please! Y knew I didn't want to do this! I tried to beg you to drop it a thousand times. But no-o-o! Y

ou ou've gotta be right. Y ou're such a freaking control... freak that you have to make all the decisions in everyone else's lives! Well, look where it's gotten us, Vivi!" Lane shouted, throwing her arms out. "We're in an airport and Isabelle's on a plane to a freaking foreign country!"

"Oh, you are so innocent aren't you?" Vivi countered. "Do I have to remind you that just last night you were all proud of yourself for helping to convince Jonathan to come to the prom after he bailed on me?"

Lane's face stung. She had been rather giddy about that at the time--feeling as though she'd maybe done something right where Vivi had screwed up. But that was then--when Isabelle was happily posing for prom pictures. This was now--when Isabelle was watching a stewardess point out emergency exits.

"That is so not the point," Lane said.

"Well, I think it is!" Vivi shouted. "If you and Marshall hadn't talked Jonathan into showing up, we wouldn't be in this mess right now."

237

"`If I hadn't talked him into showing up!?" Lane exclaimed, incredulous. "Y made me do that! I could have been at a party with Curtis that night asking

ou him to the prom, but instead you begged me to fix your problem and I did! It's always about you!"

Vivi's jaw dropped slightly, and Lane felt an instant pang of guilt as her words hung in the air around them. They had started to draw a bit of a crowd, and a few college guys standing nearby ooohed at her dig.

"Oh, really?" Vivi said, stepping closer to Lane. "Well, you didn't have to go. It's not like I held a gun to your head. Is the word no even in your vocabulary, you pushover?"

"Oooooh," the guys chorused again.

Lane's eyes misted over. Vivi had just hit her where it hurt the most. In front of all these people. At that moment she hated the girl. Hated her more than anything. This was her fault. It was. And no one was going to convince her otherwise.

"That's it. I'm outta here," Lane said, grabbing the keys from Vivi's hands. She turned and started to storm away.

"Where are you going?" Vivi yelled after her. "Y can't leave me here."

ou "Y I can! It's my car!" Lane turned to shout back.

es,

"Lane, you can't be serious," Vivi said.

Lane paused and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine, Vivi. Y want a ride home, you're gonna have to ask me nicely."

ou

Vivi looked around at their audience, the color rising in her cheeks. Clearly she was hating every minute of this.

238

But there was also no other way out. For once, Lane had the power. "Fine, Lane. Can I please have a ride home?"

"Um, let me think about that," Lane said, bringing a thoughtful finger to her chin. "No!"

Then, to the applauding crowd's delight, Lane turned around and stormed toward the automatic sliding doors.

239

239

* * * * twenty-two * * * *

Lane was so pumped up and petrified at the same time, she felt as if she were losing her mind. Before long she found herself driving down her sun- drenched street, having no idea how she'd gotten there. She had taken her mother's car on the highway--to Newark Airport, no less--and she didn't even remember which roads she'd taken or what exits she'd used.

Probably not a good sign. She hoped she hadn't cut anybody off or caused any accidents. That would be really bad.

The thought of unknowingly leaving a string of wrecks behind her somehow struck her as funny as she approached the corner where Curtis's house sat like a beacon in the sun next to her own.

"I made up a guy. I made up a guy for my best friend and hired someone to pretend he was him and now she's on her way to France to be with him, but he's not there. No, he's not! He's not there because he doesn't exist!"

240

Lane pulled into her driveway and gasped a few times, trying to get control of herself.

"And I told off my best friend! The only friend I have left! I told her off just for being herself! What kind of person does that? A crazy person, that's who," she said, tears squeezing out the corner of her eyes. "I am a crazy person who is shouting at herself and crying in her mother's car!"

She choked in a few breaths and yanked a tissue out of the box in the center console. She blew her nose loudly and wiped at her eyes.

"And I asked you to the prom!" she shouted at Curtis's house. "Do you have any idea how hard that was?" she cried. "Do you have any freaking clue?"

Just then, Curtis's garage door slid open and out Curtis came, straddling his dirt bike. He looked happy and carefree and adorable in his black cargo shorts and an old, faded concert tee. So happy and carefree and adorable, it sent Lane's pulse racing. Without thinking, she got out of the car and slammed the door. Curtis almost fell off his bike, he was so startled.

"Wow. Give a guy a little warning," he said, righting himself.

Full of sudden fire, Lane stormed across her yard. "I have to tell you something!" she shouted. Almost screeched.

"Okay." Curtis put his bike down in the driveway. He looked freaked, but Lane didn't care. The words were coming and she was not going to stop them.

"When I asked you to the prom that night, I wanted to go with you," she said, standing right in front of him. "I mean,

241

I really wanted to go with you. Not as friends. Not as some last-minute pity date. I wanted to go with you. In fact, I've wanted to go with you forever. And I know that might freak you out, but it's how I feel. And I'm tired of not saying how I feel!"

She stopped and shoved her hands under her arms, clinging to her sweater as her chest heaved up and down. Curtis stared at her.

"S. How do you feel about that?" Lane said, petrified.

"I feel like an idiot," Curtis said, shrugging slightly.

Lane blinked. "Okay."

"No. Not okay," Curtis said. "Lane, I really wanted to go to the prom with you, too. I almost asked you, like, a hundred times, but I kept chickening out. I thought you would laugh in my face."

"No," Lane said.

"Y es!"

"I thought you were gonna laugh in my face!" Lane said. "And then you told me there was that girl you were interested in..."

"There was a girl I was interested in. Y ou!" Curtis said, throwing his hand out at her. "I only said that to see how you would react and you had no reaction, so I figured . . . you know . . . that you weren't interested. But even then I kept trying to set up, like, situations where I could ask you. Like asking you to pick out a tux with me. I figured that would be the perfect opener, but you said no."

Lane's jaw dropped. "No."

"And then the party. I was going to ask you there...."

242

"No!"

"Y keep saying that," Curtis said with a smirk.

ou

"Well, I don't know what else to say!" Lane blurted. "I thought you were in love with Kim Wolfe or something."

"I only asked her because you bailed on me for the party," Curtis told Lane. "I was going to ask you that night, but when you weren't even home, I just kind of figured you couldn't care less. So I asked the first girl I saw."

"No."

"Y es!"

"So you're not in love with her?" Lane asked, her voice squeaking.

"Not even close," Curtis said with a laugh.

He stepped closer to her. So close, she could count the gold flecks in his eyes. Lane looked at the ground, suddenly shy, but Curtis ducked his head to get back in her line of vision. He was smiling. And before she knew it, his lips touched hers. His hand was on her lower back. His other hand pulled her closer to him. Her heart swooped as she gave in completely. She was kissing Curtis. Curtis was kissing her.

Before she could stop herself, she started to laugh.

"What happened?" Curtis said, his eyes half-closed. "Are you laughing at me?"

"What? No! No. Not at you." Lane was warm and happy and disbelieving. "It's this day. I'm laughing at this day."

"So it wasn't the kiss." Curtis wanted to be sure.

"It wasn't the kiss. I promise. The kiss was good. The kiss was great, actually."

243

Curtis stood up straight, all proud of himself.

"But I have to go," Lane said, backing away. "Can we do this later?"

The self-satisfaction disappeared from Curtis's face. "Are you serious? We wait this long and now you want to wait longer?" "I don't want to, but I have to." Lane bit her lip. "I have to go find Vivi and apologize and then I have to go over to Isabelle's house and tell her parents that I shipped their daughter off to a foreign country."

"Pardon?" Curtis said.

"I'll explain later," Lane said. "Bye!"

Curtis lifted a hand in a confused wave and Lane giggled all the way to Vivi's house.

***

Vivi jogged out of her house with the cash to pay her cabdriver, just as Lane was pulling up along the curb. She was surprised by how relieved she was to see her friend. After Lane's unprecedented freakout in the airport, Vivi had thought there was a good chance she would never see the girl again.

"Thanks for waiting," Vivi told the cabdriver, handing over a good chunk of the money she'd gotten back from Jonathan. Which, she supposed, she actually owed him now. As the cab drove off, Vivi turned to face Lane, who was approaching with a sheepish look on her face.

244

"Y had to take a cab home, huh?" Lane asked, biting her lip.

ou

"Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," Vivi said, pushing her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "Lane, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to call you a pushover."

Lane smiled. "I didn't mean to say you were a control freak--was

"But I am," Vivi said, lifting her shoulders. "We all know I am."

"Y eah, but it was still a mean way to say it," Lane replied.

Suddenly exhausted, Vivi turned around and dropped down on her front lawn, letting out a groan. "This has already been a really long day."

"No kidding," Lane said, sitting next to her.

Vivi took a deep breath and stared down at the patch of grass between her knees. Her face felt hot and her heart was sick with dread. "I really screwed up this time, didn't I?" she said.

"Well, this is the first time one of your schemes has gone intercontinental," Lane joked, squinting one eye against the sun as she looked at Vivi.

Vivi managed to laugh. "I'm really sorry, Lane. For everything. I don't know what I was thinking with this one. I must have been out of my mind."

"Well, don't be too hard on yourself. Somehow in all the insanity I did manage to finally kiss Curtis," Lane said.

Vivi felt like she'd just been spun around like a Tilt-A- Whirl. "Y what]?"

ou

Lane beamed. "I just went over there. I told him I liked him. He told me he liked me. And we kissed."

245

"Shut up]" Vivi said, shoving Lane over with both hands. Lane braced herself with her elbow to the ground and laughed. "I knew it! I knew he liked you back!"

"Appears that way." Lane blushed like crazy.

"How was it?" Vivi demanded, turning to face her.

"Amazing. Perfect. Everything I always wanted," Lane confirmed, her blue eyes shining.