The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (15 page)

Ah, okay, so the current status of our relationship was still
complicated
. It didn’t change for the better during any of the next three times I gave it a try. Sunday dragged on, and I got bored as hell.

My brother’s reluctance to talk to me about Susan also stopped me from giving her a call just for distraction. Before continuing with this challenge, which in fact got more and more appealing to me, a few things had to be sorted out. Number one on that list: Ethan’s sexual orientation. He could no longer claim Sue if he wasn’t interested in girls. And I needed to know. As the afternoon carried on, the urgency of it became almost unbearable.

“Come on, E.! Let me in.” Another knock on his door. “We need to talk!”

“Go away. I’m busy.”

Yeah, I totally got that as the music of
CoD
played in his room. “Dammit, Ethan. Stop being an ass.” Turning the door knob, I found it locked, so I rattled it angrily. “Come out now and talk to me. I’m sorry about yesterday, okay? But really… We. Need. To. Talk!”

The music of the game he was playing became five times louder. Great.

Frustrated to the bone, I spun around and sank against the door, banging my head on the wood. Surprisingly, Mom stood in the hallway, scrutinizing me with worried eyes. “What’s wrong with him?”

A sigh zoomed out of my lungs. “Nothing. Fight. He’s an idiot,” I grumbled, then walked back to my room.

My mood thoroughly ruined, I turned on the TV and watched some stupid shows.
The Big Bang Theory
. Could anybody even understand the crap these guys were talking about? Certainly not me.

Sometime after nine in the evening, I finally muted the TV and grabbed my phone instead. Without getting too deep in thought and wondering whether it would hurt my brother or not, I typed a message for Sue.
Fancy another chat after dark? ^^

Not tonight
came back pretty fast.

To say I was disappointed was quite the understatement. But I wouldn’t give up just yet.
Why not? I thought yester-night was nice with you. ;-)

Only a few seconds went by before my phone vibrated in my hand with another reply.
Because you’re trouble of the kind I just don’t want to deal with right now.

Trouble? Well, if she thought talking to me was trouble already, then she better not hear what I actually had in mind for Saturday here in my house. Smiling, I touched the keys on the screen.
Aw, every girl loves a little trouble. And you shouldn’t hate what you haven’t sampled yet. You have no idea what you’re missing out on, sweetness.

Anxious to read her comeback, I stared at my phone until the screen lit up again.
Seriously, you’re like a sample bottle of perfume in a drugstore.

My jaw dropped to my chest. What the hell? Was she for real? And what did that even mean? Mouth still open, I didn’t bother to reply with another text but swiped my thumb over the call button.

As the sound of her picking up drifted down the line, I burst out, “I’m
what
?”

“You know those cheap perfume bottles they put in stores for promotion?” No greeting, but that was okay. After all, I hadn’t given one either. “Every woman walking by sprays a little of that bland scent on her skin and in the end, they all smell alike.”

Okay. Sense please?

“But not me. I’m very selective, Chris,” she continued. “I don’t have to sample everything that’s offered to me for free. And most of all, I don’t like
bland
.” Stunned silent, I could only listen to her rambling, even as she said, “Good night,” and hung up.

She
hung up
on me. Again. What was wrong with this little nerd-cake? Catching my breath, I hit the call button a second time but then disconnected before the first ring. I didn’t want to sit speechless through another lecture of hers. Better to get back to writing.

You think I’m boring? Ouch. That hurt, Miss Miller.

Would she reply? My heart beat against my rib cage…hard. And there came the beep.
I said bland, not boring. There’s a difference. One means you make me fall asleep. The other means each time you open your mouth I want to go on an exploration and delve deeper to find out if there’s more inside that hollow shell.

The only words standing out to me in that message were
open mouth
and
explore
. Ah, sweetness. I chuckled. She ran right into this one…
You want to explore my mouth? Go ahead.

Messages were then exchanged so fast, it almost felt like we were chatting with each other, both sitting on my bed.

Chris, do you ever hear what I actually say?

Of course. Your last text said you wanted to kiss me.
And thinking of kissing her gave me a tingly feeling in my stomach again.

Excuse me, I need to go bang my head on a wall now and get that image out of my mind.
That she wrote to me rather than actually doing what she suggested proved I was right at the beginning. I had her quite where I wanted her.

That’s what they all say…before they beg me to date them… :)
I was laughing quietly as I sent it off. She was so easy to tease.

I’m not going to beg you to take me on a date.

Oh, she wouldn’t have to. Even though she already had…
*cough* I remember a certain someone begging me to cook for her on Saturday *cough*

Her reply took a bit longer this time, and it was short. Must have taken her a great deal of thinking.
You’re delusional.

There, she was mistaken. Thoroughly. Nothing had been this clear in my mind in a long time. Could she say the same about herself? Who was chasing after clouds here—she or I?

Yes, one of us is, definitely. Sleep tight, little Sue,
I typed and sent it off.

A sigh swished out of my lungs when she didn’t answer with good night. In fact, my phone remained silent for the rest of the night. Jeez, it would’ve been so much easier if she already knew the truth about Ethan. If we
all
knew. We could move on and concentrate on more important things then…like how to make Susan Miller kiss me.

For hours on end, I wracked my brain over this, as sleep was once again a stranger in my room that night. In the morning, one sleepy and one swollen eye stared back at me from the mirror. Seriously, lack of sleep didn’t become me.

On the way to the kitchen, Ethan knocked into me, his head dipped as low as mine. From his crumpled look and his shuffling, he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night either. “Hey,” I mumbled. “Can we—”

Shaking his head, he cut me off. “Just leave me alone, would you?”

It didn’t surprise me that I couldn’t catch a ride to school with him either. Mom lent me her car, and once again the wish for my own came up. It was fights like this that made being car-less a pain in the ass.

First thing at school that morning, I ran into Will Davis as he came out of the guys’ restroom. I froze. Hell, his face looked like someone had wiped the floor with it. And that someone would have been
me
. But the marks on his throat—they really looked scary. I swallowed hard. No matter what he’d said to provoke me, stepping out of line like that shouldn’t have happened.

“Dude, you look like shit,” I blurted out, running a hand through my hair.

“Sporting a nice shiner yourself,” he replied curtly. Then his gaze dropped, and his voice followed. “T-Rex said I have to sort this out with you before he lets me come to practice again.” Hands in his pockets, he seemed to be trying to dig a hole in the linoleum floor with his right toe.

“He told me the same,” I confessed.

Will looked up and stared me hard in the eye. “I’m not going to say sorry, Donovan.”

I smirked. “Neither am I,
assbucket
.” When Will held out his fist after a moment, I bumped it with mine. “See you at practice.”

He nodded, half grinning, and headed in the opposite direction. I didn’t get to move one foot, because a familiar-looking redhead stepped in my way the next second.

I couldn’t recall where I’d seen her before, but the tight black top she was wearing, pushing up a chest that actually screamed
stare at me
, clashed a little with my memory of her. “Uh, hi,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck and forcing my gaze back to her face. Was this maybe
Wendy 3
? She looked like a freshman, and I usually didn’t rate those in my list.

“Hey,” she replied with a decent smile that vanished soon enough as she took in my multicolored face. “You’re Chris Donovan, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“My name’s Cassidy. I’m looking for your friend Brady.” She gazed at me with hopeful eyes. “You wouldn’t know where I can find him right now?”

Bang! The hint I needed. She was the girl Brady was flirting with before the game on Saturday. Chuckling, I slung my arm around her shoulders and pulled her along with me. “He’s got English first period. Let’s see if we can find him for you.” My friend would be delighted to find this cute chick roaming the hallways searching for him. “You’ll make his day.”

Cassidy giggled. “You think?”

“Absolutely.”

A couple of steps down the hallway, I spotted Sue walking with the oncoming traffic. Her hard stare bored into me. Jealous of the girl at my side. Yep, she was definitely developing an interest. And I couldn’t say I didn’t like it. Keeping my grin in place, I cooed, “Good morning, sweetness.”

A funny sound drifted from her closed mouth, like teeth gnashing. She refused to greet me, or Cassidy for that matter, and stomped off. Her reaction was quite entertaining. Definitely something we could work with.

Of course, I was going to set the record straight later. Admittedly not
just
for the sake of our challenge, Sue shouldn’t be thinking I was unavailable. Bad enough that she’d once thought Lauren and I were a couple and I’d had to convince her otherwise.

Ugh, that thought brought me right to my next problem. Lauren. She hadn’t texted or called me all weekend. Nor had I contacted her. After being mad at me and still coming to my game Saturday, she had to be furious now. I hadn’t even talked to her afterward.

How had I managed to get into so much girl trouble lately?

Speak of the devil, in front of Brady’s English class, Lauren stood with him and Becks, who had intertwined her fingers with Tyler’s. I stopped dead, my arm finally sliding off Cassidy’s shoulders. “Look, Brady’s over there,” I told her, pointing at the group of my friends, who hadn’t noticed us yet. “Go talk to him.”

At the sight of them all, she gave me a shy look, probably hoping I would change my mind and walk her the rest of the way.

“He’ll be happy to see you,” I assured her with a smile. Then I started off in the direction we’d come, but after a single step, I glanced back at her once more. “Oh, and don’t mind the black-haired one. She’s not his girlfriend.” At my wink, Cassidy relaxed and started toward her obvious crush.

I, on the other hand, beat it to history, stalling for time before I had to confront Lauren in fourth period.

I WAS LATE to Spanish. “
¡Lo siento, Señora Sanchez!
” I mumbled an apology as I slid into my seat, silently taking my books out of my backpack. My teacher didn’t mind, but Lauren obviously did. From her narrowed eyes, she didn’t buy that coach Swanson had held me up after gym. Or maybe that was just a shock reaction to my black eye. Who could tell with that girl? Whatever. My being late bought me another hour before she’d confront me about Saturday and the game…and not finding her after it.

The lesson sped by much too fast, and Lauren still caught me unprepared when she blocked my exit to lunch.

“Nice,” she said, arms folded over her chest as she leaned in the doorway, nodding at my eye.

“Uh, yeah… I got in a fight over the weekend.” Kids shoved past me, and I stepped aside, but Lauren didn’t. In her books, they obviously didn’t need more than one foot space to squeeze through.

“I heard about that. Becky told me. The only thing she didn’t know was why. Tyler didn’t tell her.” She cocked her head, nailing me with a reproachful stare. “And none of the other guys would spill either.”

Lips pressed together, I briefly arched my brows, not answering her unspoken question. She wouldn’t get shit out of me.

After a thirty-second staring battle, she slid away from the door, moving back into the classroom. Her backside against the wall, she waited until the room was empty and told Mrs. Sanchez goodbye as the teacher left for her next class.

“Chris, what’s wrong with you lately?” Lauren demanded then, her voice a notch lower than before. “What’s changed?”

“What do you mean? Everything’s still the same.” Because her eyes were not a good place to look when pulling off this total lie, I stared at her slim legs plastered with tight white jeans.

“No, it’s not.” She wrapped her fingers around the strap of my backpack where it hung over my right shoulder. Suddenly I found her nearness extremely suffocating, like all the air had vanished from the room. “Something’s off. You getting into detention when you haven’t been at all this year. Then last week, you canceled tutoring for the first time. Picking fights—”

“
One
fight,” I corrected her sharply, making the mistake of looking at her face again. Huge dark eyes searched mine. Immediately, my voice turned a note softer, though still sullen. “I already sorted it out with Will this morning, so you don’t have to worry about
that
.”

“I’m not worrying.” Her hand slipped away from the strap, and she crossed her arms over her chest, appearing suspicious once more. “I’m wondering…”

My gaze sweeping over the room, I shrugged it off. “Maybe it’s just the stress before Winter finals.”

A silent moment passed. “Yes, maybe.” Clearly, she didn’t believe me. But she sighed and appeared to let it go. “We have a Spanish test Friday. If you want to study, let me know.”

Deep down, I knew she was hoping I’d suggest meeting after school today, before basketball practice, like we’d done so many times over the past weeks. But I couldn’t. After all, I was grounded and pretty sure Mom wouldn’t let me go out, even to study with a friend. Not that I was going to ask her.

Clearing my throat, I adjusted my backpack on my shoulder and produced a tight-lipped smile. “I’ll call you about that, promise.” When she gave a reluctant nod, I ducked out of the classroom and hurried to the cafeteria.

Lowering my butt into the chair next to Rebecca with my food tray in front of me, I shoved a handful of fries in my mouth.

T-Rex leaned around his girlfriend. “Why so late, man? Got held up?”

“Yep. Lauren,” I answered, searching my tray for the packet of ketchup I’d grabbed at the counter. It was hiding under the burger plate. I ripped it open and squeezed the sauce over my fries. Then I cast Becks a quick look. “She felt the need to talk about things
changing
.”

Rebecca held my gaze, lips tight, eyebrows arched. She suppressed a grin and shrugged innocently. “Well, you know, maybe it’s time?” Stealing a French fry from my tray, she bit off the top.

I answered her amused grin with a cynical smirk. “And maybe it’s not.”

Or maybe it was, just not in the way she was hoping for. My gaze wandered between the rows of tables right to the soccer corner. Sue was nibbling on a sandwich. She didn’t see me, only having eyes for Ethan. Of course.

Grunting in irritation, I finished my meal. Since I’d come late, break was over much too fast, and I hadn’t even gotten to my damn dessert yet. It was time to head to my next class. Grabbing the dark red apple from my plate, I rose with the others and walked toward the cafeteria exit, rubbing the fruit on my sleeve. Casting one last glance at the soccer table as I bit into the apple and—damn! The piece lodged in my throat.

Susan was still sitting there with my brother…alone. The rest of the soccer thugs were gone, and the two of them were staring at each other like they had a crapload to say. Things like,
Be my girlfriend
?
I love you
?
Or maybe, hopefully,
I’m gay
?

On the other hand, what if Ethan had realized over the weekend that he was totally into her after all? In spite of Sue warming up to me, she was clearly still waiting for
him
to come around. Had she finally gotten what she wanted? What the hell was Ethan saying to her? I didn’t want to continue chasing Sue if she was my brother’s girl now. Heck, I
couldn’t
! But at the same time, I simply couldn’t stop staring at her.

The uncertainty was killing me. Shivers rolled down my spine. Only when Becks crashed into me from behind did I realize I’d stopped dead in the doorway.

“Chris?” she asked, her gaze switching back and forth between me and Susan. When she had my attention, she lifted her eyebrows. “Coming?”

Teeth clenched, I nodded and tossed the apple in the trash on the way out, having lost my appetite.

The final two periods of the day were hell. Constantly, my thoughts returned to Ethan and Sue in the cafeteria. The devil only knew how long they’d been sitting there—
alone
. What was so important that they needed to discuss it without the others? This annoying restlessness wore a hole in my chest.

Twice during biology, I fished my phone out under the desk and typed a message for Sue. But instead of sending it, I deleted it each time and finally put my cell away. She wasn’t the one I needed to talk to about this. Ethan was the one I wanted. We’d started something on Saturday, and this afternoon we would finish it. No escape. I was going talk to him, and he was going to listen. And in the end, he would give me a damn answer.

Now I just needed to figure out how to start this conversation and stop him from running. Or keeping his door locked once again.

“Hey, man, guess what?” Brady tore me out of my musing with a bump against my shoulder on the way to English. He didn’t give me time to answer. “I’ve got a date tonight.”

“Cool. Who is she?”

He grinned. “Cass.”

“Hm?”

At my lost look, Brady made a face, as if that name should ring a bell. “The chick you sent to me this morning. Red hair, hot body. How could you forget her? She’s one cute thing.”

“Ah, Cassidy.” I rolled my eyes at myself and chuckled. “Yeah, she seems kinda sweet.”

He shook his head, clearly deeming me a lost cause. “What’s happening on the dating-the-nerd front? Did the girl from detention give in to you yet?”

I sucked on my teeth and then let out a long breath. “Not yet, no. I’m still working on it.”

Brady laughed. “What’s the problem, dude?”

“My brother. She likes him, and I have yet to figure out if he’s into her too. I’m not going to interfere if he is.”

“Right.” Thoughtfully, Brady stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “That would actually suck.” Then his expression changed to a grim smirk. “Figure it out fast, because I bet twenty on you kissing her before next week.”

I laughed out loud. “You bet money on me?”

“Yeah. Tyler said you’d have her smitten by the middle of this week. North and Olsen think you’re never gonna get that girl.”

I dropped my schoolbag on my seat in English class, turned around, and folded my arms over my chest, leaning against the corner of the desk. “You guys have a few screws loose, you know that, right?”

“Yep, I told North and Olsen they did.” Brady chuckled, totally twisting my words. Then he smacked me on the shoulder. “This weekend, dude. Don’t let me down.”

Heck, I wouldn’t—if it was in my hands. I wouldn’t even disappoint T-Rex. But from where I stood at the moment, things didn’t look so bright. One more reason to make my brother cough up the truth.

After school, I sat on my bed, staring at the wall. Ethan had come home at the same time, but he’d disappeared into his room. Balling my hands into fists in frustration, I got up and started pacing the room. Was he gay or not? It was the only thing that decided whether I was going to continue chasing Susan Miller. And after that crazy Saturday, I really wanted to do that.

From the shelf on the wall, I grabbed my original NBA-regulation basketball. It held the autograph of Kobe Bryant, and it was my most sacred treasure. He’d signed the ball for me after a game when I was fifteen. No one in this family, and not even my best friends, were allowed to touch it—ever.

Grinding my teeth, I slammed the ball against the wall and caught it again.

An angry grunt pushed out of my lungs. Ethan had given me the runaround long enough. Time to sort this out once and for all. And I had just the idea to make him talk.

I stomped out of my room and right into Ethan’s without a flipping knock. He could hide and tell his excuses to someone else; I was done with that shit.

“What the f—”

“Shut up,” I cut him off and tossed him the ball, hard. From his place on the bed, he dropped the Wii controller on his lap and caught the basketball with both hands. “Do you want it?”

“Want what?” he asked, eyes slitting with suspicion.

“The ball,” I snapped. “Do you want it or not?”

Ethan studied the black signature on the orange surface for a long moment. His brows smoothed out, but he didn’t look at me. “I’m guessing it doesn’t come free?”

Of course not, silly brother.
Face hard, I gritted out, “We play for it. If you win, it’s yours. If I win, I keep it and you have to answer a question.”

His head jerked up. “
Which
questions?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just one. No excuses, no back doors, no running. You answer plain and simple.”

Ethan swallowed. He was practically salivating. It was clear how much he wanted this ball. Kobe Bryant was his greatest idol. He’d envied me ever since the day I got it. I couldn’t remember when he’d last made a bid for it, but it had been as high as two hundred and fifty dollars. But no price would do this ball justice as far as I was concerned.

With some reluctance, he rose from his bed, not letting go of the grand prize. “What game do you have in mind?”

“Not Wii,” was all I said, because that was something I could never win.

“And not basketball.” Right, he didn’t want to take a risk, either.

We both glared at each other, until Ethan’s gaze slowly wandered to the side. I tracked it and spotted the chessboard on the shelf he was focusing on.

After considering the idea for a couple of seconds, I walked to the corner, picked the game off the shelf, and strode out of his room. “Chess it is,” I snarled on the way out.

Ethan followed me to the living room, where we silently set up the game on the coffee table. When all the glass figures were lined up and ready to ride into battle, my brother moved one frosty pawn. I mirrored the move with my clear one. Ethan couldn’t have picked a better game—this was the only thing in the world that we both sucked at equally. A fair chance for both of us.

Let fate decide.

One by one, Ethan robbed my pieces, and I took some of his in return. Soon, there were only a handful of pawns, both our kings, my queen and a rook, and two of his knights left on the board. How was one supposed to win with so few pieces?

My chances waned even more when he took my last pawn with his king. Dammit. I had to do something, and fast, or my plan was going to be shot to hell. After an endless time of thinking, I moved my queen closer to his king, then leaned my chin in my hand, and stared at the board, waiting for his next move.

The doorbell rang at that moment. With a new spark in his eyes, Ethan shouted, “It’s open!”

“Are you expecting someone?” I demanded.

The next instant, a familiar voice called out, “Ethan?” That cleared up the situation.

I lifted one brow. “You invited Sue over?”

Ethan nodded and yelled, “In the living room!”

Normally, I would have greeted the girl with a smile, but at the moment I was too tense to even glance at her. Looking away from the board would have given Ethan a chance to cheat, and that couldn’t happen. I needed that free question.