The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (23 page)

I burst out laughing. “You suck, Andrews!”

“Maybe.” He shrugged and chuckled. “But I got to know Susan quite a bit from hanging out with Hunter and the guys. She’s pretty decent. From what I can tell, she wouldn’t stoop to throw away her principles for a meaningless winter fling.”

“Meaningless, huh?” Lips pressed together, I expelled a sigh through my nose. Maybe he was right. After all, the kiss couldn’t have meant much to Sue if she couldn’t wait even a day to jump my brother.

My silence obviously made Justin suspicious. “You okay, man?”

Dragging my gaze away from the floor, I looked him straight in the eye and swallowed the lump in my throat. “Sure. See you in gym.” Heading into class, I felt his gaze follow me for a couple of seconds before he disappeared from the doorway.

Great.
If this was the kind of conversations that awaited me today, it was going to be a long morning. The only light at the end of tunnel was the fat B plus scribbled with a red pen on my Spanish test, which Mrs. Sanchez returned in fourth period. I would have proudly shown it to Lauren. Only, she wasn’t there. Her seat was empty, and I hadn’t seen her this morning, either. For some strange reason, she was the only person I really wanted to talk to today. Perhaps because she was a girl…or because she would be one of the very few people who hadn’t bet money
on
or
against
me in this goddamned challenge.

Rebecca informed me at lunch that Lauren had the flu and would probably be out of school all week. “But I’ll tell her you asked about her. She’d like to hear that.”

“Yeah, sure…go ahead,” I agreed absently, my gaze fixed on the soccer table, where Susan joked around with my brother.

“And when she’s feeling better, you can tell her how much you missed her and how deeply in love with her you are.”

“Mm-hm,” I answered, not really paying attention. Ethan was having pizza for lunch today, and he held the piece out for Susan to take a fricking bite. When she did, he pulled it away quickly, so she bit into the air. Laughing, she smacked him on the shoulder.

“Can I borrow your phone for a moment?” Becky asked next to me, and someone snickered along with her. “I’d like to send Lauren a text asking her if she wants to be your girlfriend.”

“It’s in my backpack, side pocket.” The giggles got louder around me, but I had no time to see what was amusing them so much. Instead, I narrowed my eyes, focusing on Susan’s mouth. Maybe I could figure out what she was saying to Ethan by lip-reading.

A smirking Becky popped up right in front of me, startling me out of my observations. “Jesus Christ!” I blurted out.

Hands braced on the table, Becks leaned forward until her face was in mine. “Chris, are you listening?”

I frowned at her. “Yes.” Man, what was her problem? “You said she’s ill. Fine. I’ll call her later and ask her how she’s feeling. Now sit down, for Chrissake.”

T-Rex burst out laughing behind his girlfriend at that moment, and Brady smacked his hand on the table, shedding tears. Trevor was just rolling on the floor.

“What the hell—”

“Dude,” Tyler shouted between eruptions of glee, holding his stomach. “You’re hopeless.”

I got it, the joke was on me. Only, I had no flipping idea what was going on. Nor did I care. “
God
…” I rolled my eyes at them all. “Grow up, guys.” Abandoning my soccer-table observations for today, I started to eat my burger. Whatever Susan and Ethan did during lunch, watching them wasn’t worth becoming a running gag to my friends.

Later that afternoon, as I drove to school again for basketball practice, I remembered what Becky had said. Lauren was sick. A good friend would call her and ask how she felt. I retrieved my cell from the console. But a better friend would drive by and check on her personally. Tossing the phone on the passenger seat, I took a right turn at Grover Beach High, zooming past the parking lot, taking the highway out of town.

In front of her house, after parking at the curb, I finally dialed her number.

“Chris?” Surprise rang in her watery voice, and she snuffled as she answered.

“Yep. Becks told me you’re ill. Are you home?”

She hesitated a couple of seconds, then huffed, “I have a fever and, in case you didn’t hear it, the sniffles. Where do
you
think I am?”

I rolled my eyes at her cynicism. “Okay, Miss Grumpypants, then come and get the door.”

“
What?
” she screeched.

Climbing out of the car, I slammed the door shut and walked up the front steps to her house. “Come to the door and let me in,” I repeated slowly.

“What—
now
?”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“Because…because…” Some rustling was going on in the room she was in. What the hell was she doing?

“Because why, Lauren?”

“Well, because I’m in bed.” A clicking sound like someone drawing the curtains drifted through the line. “Oh my God, you’re really here!”

Had she checked for my car in front of the house? Because she wouldn’t be able to see me standing outside the door from the window in her room. But she would hear the doorbell ring. “Come on, Parker. Open the door. I’ve seen you in bed before. No big deal.”

“I wasn’t sick when you saw me in bed. Now go away. Please.”

What?
I laughed and rang the doorbell again. “No way. I’ll keep ringing until you open up. I can do this for hours, so get your sick ass out of bed and—”

The door cracked open. Almost like in a haunted house, nobody invited me in. There was only the dark gap waiting for me. I tucked the phone into my pocket and pushed the door open. Leaning around it, I glimpsed Lauren flitting back to her room at the end of the hallway. Were those flannel pajamas she was wearing?

I shut the front door and followed her, knocking on her door before I entered, even though she’d left it open for me. Sitting on her bed, wrapped in her comforter, Lauren eyed me warily. Her messy hair was raked to the top of her head and fastened with a clip. And yep, those PJs were flannel. Dark green, with tiny dinosaurs all over them. I bit down a smirk. “Sexy, Parker.”

“I said I’m ill, idiot.”

Ah, charming, that little virus vessel.

“Why did you come?” she growled. “Didn’t you say you were grounded?”

A thick smell of cough syrup hung in the air, and all kinds of meds were piled up on her nightstand. Ugh, better take caution while in this room. I pulled the collar of my sweatshirt up to cover my mouth and nose, so as not to breathe in the airborne germs, and took a seat on her desk chair, wheeling as far away from her bed as possible. “Officially, I’m playing basketball right now.”

Her glassy eyes grew wide. “You ditched practice?” I nodded. “To come here?”

“Mm-hm.”

“For God’s sake,
why
?”

Folding my arms over my chest, I held her hard gaze. “Because you’re my friend, and friends do that when someone’s ill.”

“I get that.” Lauren tilted her head. “And now tell me why you really came.”

Lowering my gaze to the parquet floor, I expelled a long breath. “Well, first, I wanted to apologize for...” For blowing her off the other day? No, too direct. I cleared my throat. “For being a little distant lately.”

“Distant?”

Carefully, I looked up at her face. “Well, unavailable.”

“Unavailable…”

“Would you stop repeating everything I say, for heaven’s sake?”

Lips sealed, Lauren gaped at me.

“So, what I’m trying to say is, I really liked our arrangement, but something has come up.”

“Some
one
,” she corrected with a reproachful edge to her voice.

“Yes…some
one
.” I inhaled deeply, but then I remembered the viruses in the room and decided it would be best to just adopt a shallow breathing technique, even through my improvised sweatshirt-surgical mask. “Her name’s Sue.”

Lauren sniffed. Her gaze escaped to somewhere outside the window. “I know.”

Of course she did. And she knew all about the challenge, too. Now I just couldn’t stop myself from asking the question that had been bugging me all day. “Did you bet money on me?”

Startled, she glanced back at me. “What? No.”

I hesitated a beat and then asked, “Did you bet money
against
me?”

“
No
!” Her eyebrows furrowed to a line. “Stop being stupid.”

“It’s just, a lot of people—”

“I know that, from Becky and the others,” she cut me short, her voice turning more nasally than before, like her nose was filling up pretty quickly. “But you should know me well enough, Chris. I wouldn’t do that.”

I gave a small, appreciative nod.

From the box on her nightstand, she pulled a tissue and blew her nose. Wow, quite the trumpet.

After she tossed the used tissue in the trash can next to the bed, she wrapped the blanket tighter around her again. “So, how’s the challenge going for you?” she asked, but she didn’t look like she was really interested in the answer. In fact, with her lips pressed tight and her gaze focused on my crossed ankles instead of my face, she looked like she’d rather avoid the entire topic.

“It’s over.”

That made her look up. “You got what you wanted?”

Staring at her for a long time, I wondered what the right answer to this question was. In the end, there was only one thing to say honestly. “No.” Sue wasn’t my girlfriend; I hadn’t gotten what I wanted. But that wouldn’t come past my lips. Instead, I shrugged it off. “She’s just not interested.”

Scrutinizing me with her glazed dark eyes, Lauren cocked her head. “But our tutoring arrangement is still off.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Well, there are no Spanish tests for a while,” I mumbled, swaying back and forth in the swivel chair.

Lauren’s gaze sharpened. “That’s not what I meant.”

Avoiding her stare, I confirmed, “Yes, the arrangement’s off.” I couldn’t see myself with another girl at the moment, no matter if Sue was with my brother now or not. For me, it was either her or no one. Dammit, what had this girl done to me in the past couple of weeks?

Rubbing the back of my neck, I threw Lauren a wary look. “Are you angry?”

She hesitated a long moment. Then she gave me a small smile and slowly shook her head. “No. But I’m glad you finally had the guts to end it.” Her smile grew a fraction wider. “It means I can accept Wesley’s hundredth invitation to a date now.”

Scandalized, I grabbed the collar of my sweatshirt and pulled it down, straightening in the chair. “The guy with the elephant ears?”

Her cheeks flushed a little as she nodded. “He’s cute, and he’s been asking me for a date since the beginning of the semester.”

“Really? Then why didn’t you go out with him?”

A soft, bashful laugh escaped her. “You’re an idiot, you wouldn’t understand.”

I couldn’t deny the idiot part, but I had a feeling her reasons had a lot to do with me. That was bullshit, though. “We never said we wouldn’t see other people.”

“No, we didn’t,” she confirmed.

My voice lowered. “But you weren’t seeing anyone else, were you?”

“No…I wasn’t.”

And I was a dipshit. Dragging my hands down my face, I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” She smiled again, but then her face scrunched up and she sneezed. Three times in a row. During the last sneeze, half of her hair got loose and spilled down one side of her face, the black strands matted and stringy.

Lauren must have noticed my quiet inspection, because she looked away from me, embarrassed, while she wiped her nose again. “It’s not washed. I told you I didn’t want to see you.”

What a stupid reason. “Parker, I’ve seen you at your best. It doesn’t change anything to see you at your worst.” Then a smirk escaped me, and I cast her a teasing frown. “But maybe you should keep Wes away from this place until you feel better.”

She bit down a grin. The next instant, though, she tipped to the side and leaned against the wall, grimacing like a headache or something was coming on. That was my cue. “I’ve been keeping you up long enough. Get some rest.”

Lauren nodded, looking wan, and said in a nasally voice, “See you at school next week.”

Rising from the chair, I pushed it back into its place and headed for the door. Before I left, I turned around once more. “Did Wesley ever hear you blow your nose?”

She made a puzzled face. “No…?”

“Good. Don’t let him,” I teased her with a wink.

She stuck her tongue out at me, and when she grabbed the tissue box from her nightstand and aimed, I quickly closed the door.

After the visit and good conversation with Lauren, I felt a little happier than I had all day. Since basketball practice was over by now, I had no excuse to stay out any longer, and drove straight home. I parked in front of the house, tossed Mom the keys as I walked inside, and headed for my room. In the hallway, I ran into Ethan. He smiled at me and said, “Hey.”