Four Doors Down (9 page)

I look at Ryan, who doesn’t say a word; he just has this smug look on his face. He knows I don’t want him to go, but he’s not about to say he won’t. I look over at Jake.

“Oh, come on. Remember the crush Lizzy had on Ryan when we were kids? It’s only grown,” Jake tells me. “She’ll kill me if I don’t let him come too.”

I can’t help but grin at that. Lizzy might have followed me around everywhere when she was little but she positively hero worshiped Ryan. Typical. Even eight-year-olds have crushes on Ryan. No wonder he has the ego he does.

My phone beeps again.

Charlie: You look really pretty today.

My head snaps up and I spin around, my eyes scanning the crowds trying to see if he’s nearby.

“Becca!” I turn to face Jake again. Irritation is creeping into his voice. “Are you gonna come?”

I start to nod in agreement when my phone beeps a fourth time.

Charlie: By your car.

My head whips around to the student parking lot and I spot him. He’s leaning against my car with his gaze locked on me. Butterflies erupt in my stomach at the mere sight of him. He’s here. At my school. He’s come here to surprise me. I instinctively take a step toward him then remember Jake.

“Sorry,” I tell him. “I’ve got to go. Another time, though.” Then I turn and walk toward Charlie without a backward glance and a huge smile on my face.

“Hey,” he greets me.

“Hey.”

“Good surprise?”

I nod my head eagerly. Best ending to a school day ever. “Great surprise.”

He reaches forward and pulls me by the waist closer to him and drops a quick kiss on my lips. My heart starts beating wildly in my chest. This is what he does to me.

He glances over my shoulder. “Who are those guys?”

I look behind me. Jake, Mason, and Ryan are all looking over at us. God knows why they’re so interested. When Jake and Mason see me looking, they both turn away but Ryan doesn’t. He stares straight back at me.

“The blonde guy is Jake, a friend of mine from way back. The other two are his friends. I don’t talk to them.”

Charlie looks at me and cocks an eyebrow. “Wanna introduce me?”

I shake my head at him. “No. I wanna get out of here.” Flashing a smile, I say, “My parents work late on Tuesdays.”

This captures his attention and a slow smirk spreads across his face. He drops his arm around my shoulders and leads me to the driver’s seat before climbing in next to me. We make it back to my house in record time.

I
go up onto my tiptoes at the end of the hallway and try to spot Sam in the crowd. She’s been out of school sick for the last couple of days, and I know she’s back today, but I had to skip lunch to finish an assignment and I haven’t seen her all day. I see the back of her head at her locker and make my way over to her.

“Sammy Sam,” I sing as I approach her using my nickname for her. She turns around and smiles at me, and I’m about to start blabbering on about my day when I notice who she’s talking to.

Ryan Jackson.

I immediately shut my mouth and glance past him.
Seriously? He’s popping up everywhere lately.

“Hey, Becca,” he says.

I nod in his direction but don’t bother replying. I need to talk to Sam about Charlie and I can hardly do that when he’s standing there.

“I was just giving Sam some notes from Spanish that she missed when she was sick,” he tells me.

“Yeah? She needs to catch up, not get further behind by following your notes,” I reply smartly.

“Becca!” Sam says, a warning in her voice.

Ryan just rolls his eyes at me but doesn’t make any move to leave. We kind of stand there for a few seconds. Nobody says anything.

“Can we help you?” I eventually ask him.

“Just thought I’d enjoy some of your riveting company, McKenzie.”

I roll my eyes. “Wow. The most popular guy at school wants to talk to
me
? I’m
so
honored,” I say sarcastically.

He grins and winks at me. “Glad you’ve finally noticed. Don’t forget star of the football team and just generally the hottest guy in this place. Or so I’ve been told.”

I pull a face and turn to Sam. “I need to talk to you.”

She glances over at Ryan, who rolls his eyes in my direction. “Bye, Sam,” he says, moving away.

“Bye, Ryan. Thanks for the notes,” she calls after him as he heads over to where Jessica Murphy and Bianca Gallagher are waiting to talk to him. She turns back to me. “That was kinda rude,” she tells me, “and he’s definitely not stupid and you know it.” She has a point. Ryan’s actually quite clever. He more than holds his own in most of his classes from what I can tell. Annoyingly, even I have to admit he’s not your classic dumb jock.

“Forget Ryan, I need to talk to you,” I tell her. She nods in agreement and I follow her into the girl’s bathroom where she promptly stops in front of the mirror and starts trying to French braid her hair. She’s gotten really into braiding her hair recently but is totally useless at doing it. It’s funny to watch.

“What do you think of this?” I ask her holding out my phone. It shows a picture of a watch.

She whistles under her breath. “Nice, really nice.” She takes it from me and starts to scroll through the pictures. “It’s really expensive, though.”

“I know, but it’s nice, right?”

“Sure,” she agrees, smiling.

“But is it too much?”

“For what?”

“For Charlie. It’s his birthday in a couple of weeks.”

She blinks at me in surprise. “This is for Charlie?” she asks. I nod. “I thought this was for your dad’s birthday. And, like, your mom would pay for most of it?”

“You think it’s too much then?” I ask, suddenly embarrassed. I know we’ve only been dating for three months, but I want to get him something nice, something he’ll really appreciate.

“No, no.” She pauses. “Well, maybe a bit.”

I sigh in frustration. I know the watch is over the top but I’ve never had to buy a boyfriend a present before, and I’m totally clueless. I might like to pretend I’m all laid back and chilled out, but who am I kidding? I’m crazy about Charlie and want to get him a present that reflects that.

Sam starts again with her braid. “How ‘bout we head to the mall now? We could look for something together, maybe something a bit more low-key.”

I nod in agreement. “Yeah, okay.”

Sam smiles at me. “I’ve never seen you like this before. You really like him, don’t you?”

I shrug and look away, knowing I’m probably blushing like a five-year-old. There’s no point denying it; Sam can see straight through me, anyway.

“But weren’t you worried he was getting distant?” she asks.

I shrug dismissively. Last weekend Sam went to a friend’s with Chris and saw Charlie there. He’d told me he’d had band practice. At the time, I got really paranoid, but after stressing about it for days, he laughed when I finally told him and explained he’d finished early and had assumed I’d already be in bed so hadn’t called me. Simple, really.

“Nah, we’re fine.”

The door to the bathroom swings open and Jessica Murphy walks in with Bianca Gallagher.

I turn back to Sam and watch her as she adds more pieces of her hair to the braid. I start to laugh as hair starts becoming loose. “You’re really not doing that right,” I tell her, taking a swig from my water bottle. She lets out a groan of frustration and drops the hair in her hands.

A throat is cleared next to me and I turn to see Jessica has moved to stand right beside me. Jessica Murphy is pretty much the undisputed queen of our school. She’s Miss Popularity, head cheerleader, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a Victoria’s Secret model body. She looks like she’s just stepped out of a magazine. We’ve attended the same school since we were twelve and I don’t recall us ever having a conversation before.

“Becca, right?” she asks me.

I narrow my eyes at her. We may never have spoken more than two words to each other before, but I know for a fact she knows my name. I mean, we
were
all just at Ryan’s house together. She’s just trying to put me in my place in the social standing of this school.
How pathetic.

“Ryan and I were just talking and I think we’re gonna throw Jake a surprise birthday party,” she starts conversationally.

I nod, not really understanding why she’s telling me this. We both know I won’t be going to the party, even if she were to invite me, which I seriously doubt she will.

“Ryan asked for my help. We’re you know…” she says, leaving the end of the sentence open ended. Is she trying to tell me that her and Ryan are hooking up? God knows why she feels the need to bore me with this information. I try to stifle a yawn. To be honest, I’m amazed her and Ryan haven’t hooked up sooner. They’ve kind of danced around each other for years, moving in the same circles, dating each other’s friends but as far as I know, they’ve never gotten together. I get the impression it’s more her into him than the other way around, but I don’t doubt for a second that she’ll get him, and the truth is they’d probably make a pretty good, all-American couple. The perfect prom king and queen.

“So you’ve been around him a lot more recently,” she continues.

I nearly spit out the water I’ve just taken a swig of. “Excuse me?”

“You just seem friendlier. You were at his house the other day, you were talking to him just now in the hall and you’re always by his locker.”

I narrow my eyes again.
Is she for real?

“Just now I was talking to Sam and he was there. And we’re neighbors. Our parents are friends and they made me go over to his house to pay my respects because you know, his grandma died. And my locker is next to his, so I can’t really help being there every now and again.”

She nods, glancing sideways at Bianca, who is also looking at me. I’m starting to feel slightly ambushed. “I’m just interested, Becca, no need to get defensive. I heard you guys used to be pretty friendly and I know you still speak to Jake.”

“We’re not friendly at all. And so what if I speak to Jake?”

She smiles sweetly. “Nothing’s wrong, Becca. Relax. I just thought I’d let you know that Ryan is into me, just so you know.”

My jaw falls open. Is she actually warning me off him? Have I entered a parallel universe? And it’s kind of pathetic if she has to tell people that he’s into her. If it’s true, shouldn’t it be obvious?

“I have a boyfriend!” I tell her defensively. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

She turns to the mirror and pulls some makeup out of her bag and starts putting lip gloss on. Her eyes find mine in the mirror. “I know. Charlie, right? I hear you guys make a really cute couple.” I can’t begin to imagine how she’d know what sort of a couple Charlie and I are. “You know that color really suits you, Becca,” she continues, smiling sweetly.

I glance down at my plain black t-shirt.
Is she being sarcastic?
I look over at Sam in bewilderment. She shrugs and starts heading toward the door and I follow her. “Bye, Becca,” Jessica calls after me. “We should talk again sometime.”

Sam and I exit the bathroom and start walking down the hallway.

“What just happened?” I ask Sam. “Did she just warn me away from Ryan Jackson?”

Sam shakes her head, equally confused. “I have no idea. That was weird.”

“What’s weird?” Jake asks, appearing next to us.

“Is Ryan hooking up with Jessica Murphy?”

“Nah, she wants to, though. Why?”

“Well, I dunno but I think she just warned me off him in the bathroom.”

Jake actually howls with laughter. It takes him a minute to pull himself together and then turns to Sam. “She did. I think. In a roundabout kinda way,” Sam confirms.

“Wait till I tell Jackson. That’s hilarious!”

“Oh God, don’t feed his ego anymore.”

“He’s not interested in her, Becca. Not at all.”

“Like I care. They deserve each other, if you ask me. Just tell him to keep her away from me.”

We turn, continue walking out the main entrance and down the steps out toward the parking lot. Jake veers off to the side, steering Sam and me toward his friends. Mason and John are talking to Ryan, who in the ten minutes since he was standing with Sam at her locker has managed to find some girl from the grade below and now has her sitting on his knee. Her friends are hovering around them, almost as if they want to talk to them but don’t know what to say. The girl on Ryan’s knee reaches up to wrap her arm around his shoulders.

Seriously? Ryan has some girl draped all over him, yet
I’m
the one Jessica Murphy is snapping at?

Ryan looks up as we approach and his gaze quickly sweeps to me. He moves the girl by the hips off his knee and to the side so that she’s sitting next to him, rather than on him, much to her annoyance. He stands so that he’s level with us as Jake smirks at him, raising his eyebrows as Ryan greets us.

“Uh, Ryan!” The junior girl snaps; he looks at her blankly. “I don’t believe you!” She declares before turning and flouncing off.

“What was that about?” Ryan asks looking genuinely confused as John and Mason snicker at him. I can’t help but laugh. Ryan turns to me. “Something funny, McKenzie?”

“Nah,” I smirk. “Just watching you lose your game.”