Home is Where the Heart Is (Home #1) (13 page)

Isabelle smiled shyly, nodding at each of them.

“How are you feeling, Isabelle?” Giselle asked sincerely.

“I’m doing fine,” Isabelle replied quietly.

“Your face looks sore,” Giselle pressed. “Can we do anything?”

“Pretend I don’t look like a battered wife and instead look just like you guys?” Isabelle joked, secretly praying it was actually the case.

“You would hate that,” Kandi told her earnestly. “You would get zero boy attention then. Hell, I’d take the beating if I could have your body and effect on the guys in this town.”

Kerry smacked Kandi on the arm, her face horrified. “Kandi! What the hell?”

Kandi shrugged off the chiding. “What? It’s true! I have literally pulled out every trick I have to try and get Ben’s attention. I even wore that tiny white bikini to his party and I may as well have been wall paper. All Isabelle had to do was show up.”

Isabelle glared over at Maia. This was all her fault. If she’d just let Isabelle sleep, she wouldn’t be here feeling like a science experiment in front of these impossibly pretty girls.

“I’m just a novelty,” Isabelle said firmly, wanting out of this conversation. “When we start school and they realise I’m just a plain Jane, you’ll all be back in the game.”

Kandi groaned, smacking a hand over her face. “Great, she’s got ugly duckling syndrome too. The hits just keep on coming.”
Isabelle crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them all. “I am nothing special. I’m a regular chick, and you’re all weirding me out with your fascination.”

“You’re not regular,” Maia told her, quickly raising a hand to cut off Isabelle’s reply. “But I didn’t bring you here to argue about how hot you are. I brought you here so we could
all
look hot the first day back at school.”

“There isn’t a uniform?” Isabelle asked.

Kerry grinned at her indulgently. “Oh, you are just too much. No, we just have a colour code - navy and white.”

“And there are no other restrictions?”

Giselle rolled her eyes. “Of course there are.”

“But rules were made to be broken,” Maia said briskly.

Isabelle grinned and it was completely genuine. She couldn’t help it; something about these girls made her feel light, fun and
normal
.

“So, where do we start?” Isabelle asked, feeling her wall slip just a little as she allowed herself to open up to the possibility of fun.

Maia linked her arm through Isabelle’s and began to lead the way.

“Just follow along,” she said with a smile. “You’re in safe hands.”

*

An hour and a half later Isabelle stood happily, admiring herself in front of a floor length mirror.

“Dammit! We’re never going to get guys to move on from you if you dress like
that
every day.”

Kandi, throwing her dramatic jealousy around.

For once Isabelle didn’t try to hide behind her hair or disappear into the wall. She did actually look really good. She was dressed in a navy, high-waisted skirt with a white basic t-shirt cut down into a v neck so that the top swells of her breasts were shown, but only subtly. Her curves were hugged in all the right places but most importantly she felt pretty
and
comfortable.

Maia gave her a wink. “You’re welcome.”

“So Kandi, what’s going on with you and Ben?” Isabelle asked, making an effort to involve herself in the conversations.

Kandi gasped. “Oh-em-gee! It’s totally the worst situation ever - we’ve been best friends
for-e-ver
and because he’s super glued me into the friend zone, he won’t even entertain the thought of more.”

“Well, have you told him how you feel?”

“I gave him a lap dance for his birthday - I’m pretty sure actions speak louder than words.”

“But boys are dumb,” Isabelle pointed out.

“Boys
are
dumb,” Kerry agreed.

“And,” Isabelle added slowly, “
maybe
a lap dance doesn’t communicate volumes about the human heart.”

Kandi sighed dramatically as she dumped her purchases on the counter with a flourish.

“Well, it damn well should. You never know, maybe this will be the year it all changes. What about you Isabelle? Any guy snared your attention yet?”

Maia and Giselle exchanged a knowing look.

“I’m not really into guys at the moment.”

Kandi eyed her incredulously as she paid for her clothes and took the bag from the sales assistant.

“Are you a lesbian or something?”

A burst of laughter exploded out of Isabelle’s lips shocking the girls
and
herself. “No, no, that’s not what I’m saying. I just mean, that I’m not interested in anything except settling in at school and making friends.”
Kandi rolled her eyes and led the way out of the store. “Yeah, we’ll see. Hey Ker, what time is it?”

Kerry checked her bubble gum pink watch. “One sixteen.”

“Ooh the movie is going to start soon, let’s go!”

Isabelle had never had a close circle of female friends before and the teasing, confidence boosting and warm support felt more amazing then she could have imagined. It was also a little draining and she hadn’t been eating properly the last week, so she was famished and a little weak.

“Uh Maia? I think I need to sit down and eat something.”

Maia turned around, a smile still on her face and inspected a now trembling Isabelle.

“Isabelle, you don’t look too good. Want me to head home with you?”

“Maia, we’ll be late for the movie and it’s
Ryan Gosling
,” Kerry said firmly with an apologetic smile to Isabelle.

“We’ll just get food quickly and meet you there, ok?” Maia resolved, moving towards Isabelle.

“No, no,” Isabelle said quickly. “I’m feeling kind of tired anyway, so I think I’ll just get some food and then head home.”

Maia looked horrified. “By yourself? Hell no! I can drool over Ryan another day. We’ll get some lunch and we can have a movie day in together.”

Isabelle gave her and the girls a warm smile. “Today has been awesome. Thank you guys so much.”

Maia raised an eyebrow. “Are you dismissing me?”

The other three girls looked terrified at the thought. Isabelle on the other hand, was starting to think she knew how Maia worked so she just smirked.

“Yep, but don’t worry, you know where I live. I’m sure you’ll find some way of making me pay for this later.”

Maia’s scowl faded into a proud smile. “I knew I liked you. Are you sure you’re going to be OK?”

Isabelle waved her concern away. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.  My Dad can come and pick me up and then I think I’ll spend the afternoon with a good book in the sun.”
Kandi stared at her like she was crazy. “A
book
? Instead of Ryan Gosling? Thank God! Guys, it’s OK. She may have us topped in the killer bod category, but she’s clearly crazy, so we win there.”

Isabelle chuckled, feeling light all over. “My book has sex scenes even hotter than Ryan Gosling.”

She gave the girls a wave and then headed towards the food court, a skip in her step. She smiled at all the people around her, suppressing the urge to sing - she felt so good. Starting fresh wasn’t turning out to be too awful after all.  In fact, if she could keep these girls in her life, she felt confident that by the end of this year she could completely reinvent herself and create enough memories to replace the ones that were clawing away at her.

*

Carbs. Delicious, greasy, zero nutritional value, carbs.

Isabelle grinned into her Big Mac like an idiot. Why did everything so bad, taste so good?

She was going to have to join a gym soon if she kept eating like this, since she certainly
wasn’t as blessed as Maia in the metabolism sense.
People milled around her, chattering away and doing their own thing. Not one person even looked her way or even acknowledged her presence. She was basically invisible to all the people around her and she freaking loved it.

Popping the last chip in her mouth, she held onto her half full coke, dumping the last of her food in the bin. She felt around her pockets for her phone to call for a lift, realising with dread that she’d left it at home to get a break from Tate.

Cursing loud enough to warrant a few looks, she took a sip of her drink and then headed towards the entrance. She kept her head down as she continued to step, only half paying attention to her surroundings as she tried to remember where the hell she lived.

She should have been paying better attention because just metres from the entrance, she found herself colliding with a body, her drink gushing over the both of them.

“Damn!” Isabelle shook off some of the sticky coke, wanting to smack herself for her clumsiness before remembering she was not the only victim of her stupidity.

She looked up into very familiar blue eyes.

“On a mission?” he asked, giving her a sexy half smile.

“I’m the worst,” she babbled, using her napkin to clean up his shirt. “You seriously cannot take me anywhere. You certainly shouldn’t wear any favourite clothes around me.”

Jace took her wrists in his hands, stopping her ineffective dabbing at his top.

“This is my second favourite shirt, so it’s OK.”

She knew she should pull out of his grasp. She should look away from those mesmerising eyes and leave before she made an even bigger idiot out of herself, but she couldn’t.

The gentle pressure on her wrists was so comforting she had an urge to fold herself into the rest of his body then and there - like she was a damn Disney damsel in distress or something.

A giggle escaped her lips. Disney damsel? In
distress
?  She was really losing her mind.

“You OK?” Jace asked.

She pulled out of his grasp then, ignoring the unsettling absence of warmth.

“I’m fine, I get giggly when I’m nervous,” she replied.

He grinned. “Do I make you nervous?”

“I have your jacket,” she practically shouted. “I’ll wash it and give it back.”

He laughed. “So, that’s a yes?”

Isabelle blinked, frozen in mortification.

Once again, Jace came to her rescue. “Do I look concerned?”

Isabelle met his eyes again. He looked confident, amused, impossibly handsome - but definitely not concerned.

“I’ll get it back to you,” she repeated, literally finding nothing else to say.

He shrugged like he could care less if he ever saw the jacket again and gestured to the shopping bags she still carried.

“Spend big today?”

“Maia wanted to do back to school shopping,” she explained.

“I hope it wasn’t too tortuous. Last semester she made me come so she would have someone to hold her bags. I spent
three
hours watching her try on outfits no brother should see his sister wearing.”

Isabelle grinned, knowing full well that Maia would have made Jace go with her purely because she knew he would feel uncomfortable. It was unlikely that she was in short supply of shopping partners.

“She couldn’t have forced Matt to go?” she asked as they both headed for a bench at the front of the shopping centre.

Jace’s features darkened as he no doubt recalled the ordeal. “Apparently she wanted to surprise him.”

“Did you happen to piss her off that week?” she asked lightly.

Jace grimaced. “The thing with my darling sister is that; I manage to piss her off on an hourly basis so I have no idea what I was being punished for that time.”

“I wish I could say I feel your pain - but I’m an only child, so I’ve got no experience in this.”

“She’s your neighbour now; trust me you’ll get plenty of experience. So, where were you headed in such a hurry?”

Isabelle felt heat rush to her traitor cheeks again. “Sorry about that…again. I wasn’t really in a rush. I was just off in my own world, working out the best way to walk home.”

“Walk?” he asked his jaw actually dropping. “Why the hell would you be
walking
?”

“Maia and the girls went to drool over Ryan Gosling, and I wanted to head home. I was meant to call my parents for a lift, but I left my phone at home.”

Jace looked at her quizzically. “You actually left your phone at home? On purpose? Are you even remotely normal?”

Isabelle flinched. No, no she was not. She was an idiotic basket case, getting herself all worked up over a boy she’d just met, and who could be a serial killer for all she knew.

“It wasn’t meant as an insult, Isabelle,” he said, rolling his eyes at her.

She was reminded so fiercely of Tate in that moment that the world began to spin around her.

That was a compliment Isabelle, stop being ridiculous.

The tone was even the same.