The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (5 page)

“You’ve got a visitor,” I told him and left Susan to her fate. Oh, this was going to be a priceless show. Fits of laughter rocked me as I retreated, and Susan slammed the door shut behind me.

Back in my room, I turned up the music so the two of them could listen with me as I picked up my Spanish textbook once more. It was hard to say how long I’d been engrossed in studying, but at some point my stomach started to rebel with hunger.

In the kitchen, along with the emergency numbers, was also the menu of Lou’s Pizza Oven and a twenty-dollar bill from Mom. Before I made the call to order, I went to ask Ethan what he wanted. Outside his room, I halted. It was quiet in there; Sue had probably gone home by now. I gave a quick knock on the door before I walked inside. “Hey, E.T., I’m going to order pizza—” My heart skipped a beat, and I stopped dead in the middle of the room.

Sue was trapped underneath Ethan, on his bed, her leg angled, their faces inches apart. He was about to kiss her. Fricking
kiss
Susan Miller!

“You’re shitting me!” Damn, it was too late to censor my words. The scene had obviously knocked all sense out of me. My throat went bone-dry, and all I could do was stare at them, open-mouthed.

Both pale from shock, they scrambled up. Whatever had been going on in this room, I’d effectively ruined it.

When my gaze met Susan’s and I saw the fiery reproach in her eyes, I felt a slight sting in my chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were still here,” I apologized in a voice that sounded strangely raspy to me. To save them and myself a last bit of dignity, I spun on the spot and strode back to the kitchen without another word.

“Pizza sounds good,” Ethan’s voice followed me. Probably his attempt to rescue an irremediable situation.

Gah!
I rubbed my hands over my face, shaking away the vision of them lying on his bed. Now I had a pretty good idea of how embarrassing it must have been for Mom to walk in on Lauren and me a couple of months ago.

While I dialed Lou’s number, leaning against the island, somebody stormed past the kitchen and made me look up. It was Susan dashing to the front door, Ethan close on her heels, whining, “Look, if it’s because of what—”

“No, it’s not,” she cut him off.

Had they started fighting in the ten seconds since I’d left them alone? I refused to walk into the hall to witness it, but I could do nothing about the fact that their conversation carried clearly back into the kitchen.

“Mom needs the car,” Sue explained, “and I’ve got about three minutes to make it back home.”

Ah, considering that new bit of information, she should actually be happy that I’d interrupted them. Otherwise, she might have gotten in trouble with her mother.

When Ethan’s hesitant “oh” drifted to me, however, I felt really sorry for him.

“Hey, it was nice. We should totally do that again,” Susan suggested, but next she got caught in a light stutter. “I mean—I—”

Okay, that was it. Now I just had to poke my head into the hall and watch what was happening. Her back to the front door, Susan spotted me over Ethan’s shoulder, but other than a disapproving frown marring her forehead, she decided to ignore me and said to him, “Ah, heck, I guess I’ll see you.” She turned around and opened the door, but Ethan didn’t let her slip out just yet. He held her back by her wrist. Good boy. I would have done the same. Was he going to kiss her goodbye?

No, he didn’t. Instead, he told her with a hopeful edge to his voice, “It was nice, Susan. Come over again tomorrow? Or let’s go have that soda we talked about.”

It was a shame I couldn’t see Sue’s reaction, because she stood hidden behind the open front door as she told Ethan, “Okay. Call me after school.” Then she leaned around the door and fixed me with a scowl. “Give him my number, dickhead!”

Swallowing, I nodded, and she was gone.

As Ethan trudged back through the hallway, I stepped out of the kitchen and blocked his way. “Hey, man, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, right.” He rolled his eyes. A moment later, he shrugged it off, though. “Maybe next time wait until I invite you in.”

“I thought she’d left already,” I rushed to explain. “It was so quiet in your room.”

Now he laughed. “Guess why!”

Shit, I was such an idiot. With a grimace, I groaned, “Not gonna happen again, I promise.”

Ethan slapped me on the shoulder and grinned as he passed me. “No worries. I suppose there will be other chances.”

To kiss her? Two hours ago, he’d assured me he wasn’t interested in that girl.
Just friends
—those had been his words. What in the world had changed his mind in there? Then again, there had been a lot of popcorn on his bed when I’d stormed in on them, and his mouth hadn’t yet been on hers. What if I’d read it all wrong?

I spun around and blurted, “Did you kiss her?”

My brother’s answer was deadpan. “Now wouldn’t you like to know?”

I DIDN’T GET any more information out of Ethan while we ate pizza in the living room that evening, and as much as it disappointed me, I felt even worse for Mom. The moment she got home from seeing her client, she burst into my room, about to explode with curiosity.

She closed the door, pressed her back against it, let out a long, girly breath that she was much too old for, and demanded, “Tell me everything!”

Playing dumb, I left her drowning in her personal torture a second longer. “Umm…about what? How my Spanish is going…or how the pizza we had while you were gone was?”

“I’m warning you, buddy,” she threatened with a finger pointed in my direction as she suppressed a laugh. “Don’t make me ground you for the rest of the month. You know I’m talking about Ethan’s female visitor.”

“Why don’t you go ask him yourself?”

“Because
you
always tell me not to push him. Now spill, buddy, or I’m going to wash your favorite shirt with my pink socks next time. What do you know?”

This woman knew no limits. I cracked a smile. “Don’t run off to buy a dress for a wedding just yet. Ethan said they’re only friends. But if you ask me, they were close to making out in his room.”

Mom crossed to my bed and sat down on the edge. I turned in my swivel chair to face her. “Close to?” she asked, pulling my pillow into her lap and hugging it.

“Yeah.” I scratched my head with a pen. “I kinda walked in on them and stopped whatever was going on, though.”

Instantly, Mom stiffened, and her brows shot upward. “You did what?”

“I didn’t know it was the wrong moment,” I defended myself as the pillow barreled straight for my face. Catching it, I threw it back at her. “Believe me, I really wish I hadn’t.”

With a deep sigh, Mom put my pillow back in place, stood up, and walked to the door. With a mocking glance back at me, she snarled, “I really
should
ground you for that, you know. For an entire year. With no basketball ever again.”

“It was a flipping mistake, Mom.” Biting back a chuckle, I swiveled back to my computer and finished my email to Dad. I hadn’t written him in a while, and since I was the only one in this family who still kept in touch with him, I thought it was okay to give him an update on Ethan’s dating life. He would like to hear about Sue.

*

“So…” I began, as Ethan drove us to school the next morning. “Are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?”

An annoying smirk tugged at his mouth. And like I expected, he didn't respond.

My dear brother enjoyed tormenting me by holding back the information I tried to squeeze out of him a little too much. Did I deserve that for being such a nice
older
brother? Because, yes, twenty minutes of a head start in life made all the difference.

“Know what?” Ethan finally said as he parked in front of school. “I’ll tell you whether I kissed Susan if you give me your autographed Lakers ball.

My basketball signed by Kobe Bryant? “Dream on, E.T.” Laughing, I climbed out of his car, slammed the door shut, and headed into the building. It was my holy treasure. I wouldn’t give that ball away for anything in the world.

However, Ethan’s stubbornness left me no choice but to come up with another strategy. Two mornings in a row, I’d met Susan Miller in the same section of the school this week. Odds were she had first period close to my history class. With watchful eyes, I walked down the corridor, hoping to glimpse a girl with a honey-blond ponytail and glasses. But damn, she didn’t show up.

Tyler and Rebecca caught up with me before I reached history, giving me an excuse to hover outside class a little longer. “So, are you and Lauren going out again today?” Rebecca asked as I kept sweeping the hallway with my gaze.

“She’s coming to my place later,” I told her absently. I didn’t know if this counted as going out in Becky’s book, but from the grin on her face, it made her happy enough. A moment later, I mirrored that grin, yet for a totally different reason. “I need to talk to someone. See you guys later.” I darted away, following the red backpack that zigzagged through the crowd.

Within a few seconds, I caught up with Susan Miller, matched her stride, and casually put my arm around her shoulders. “Hey, Sue.”

She looked at me, and the first thing I noticed, apart from her surprised smile, was how perfectly she fit under my arm. She was a little smaller than Lauren, which made walking with her like this just…comfortable.

Unfortunately, her delighted face crunched as fast as it had come, and her back went stiff. “And you are…?” she demanded with a wary edge to her voice.

I rolled my eyes. “Chris.” When would she finally be able to tell us apart? It wasn’t that hard, really. I was the charismatic ladykiller, and Ethan was the…ah, whatever.

“What do you want, Chris?” Sue snarled. She made every effort not to touch my hand more than necessary as she lifted it off her shoulder with only two fingers and dropped it behind her back.

Seriously, this girl had the charm of an enemy tank.

Suppressing an irritated groan, I slid in front of her, making her stop, and leaned against the row of lockers to my left. Little Miss Sunshine wouldn’t get away from me so fast. “I’m curious,” I said with a smirk and cocked my head. “Did you and Ethan kiss yesterday?”

Obviously shocked by my bluntness, Sue opened and closed her mouth twice before any sound came out. “Keep your drool in, Spike,” she snapped eventually. “What happens between your brother and me isn’t any of your business.”

That meant:
No fricking kiss
! “I knew it,” I blurted, laughing out loud now. If they’d really been making out, she’d be eager to brag about it, especially in front of me, if only to make me leave her alone. Ethan had been serious when he’d told me he didn’t intend to mack on her all evening. “He didn’t have the guts.”

That elated comment must have stabbed Little Miss Sunshine’s feelings, because she just stared at me with frank annoyance. Then she strode off, smacking her shoulder against mine, which certainly hurt her more than me.

I turned around and shouted after her in my sweetest voice, “Have a nice day, little Sue.” Her retort was her middle finger high up in the air, which I deemed as enough attention to assume she was starting to take a shine to me.

With a broad smile on my face, I went to history, and the grin didn’t vanish until the end of third period. Only when Lauren sank more gracefully than anyone into the chair next to mine before Spanish and scrutinized me with curious eyes did I realize I wasn’t behaving quite like myself this morning.

“Why are you grinning? Can’t wait for your extra lesson later?” she asked with a knowing look.

I cleared my throat. “Always looking forward to seeing you, Parker.”

Lauren gave me her
You want in my pants?
smirk and slowly traced the bold letters on the textbook in front of her with her pen. “I hope you’ve been a good boy and studied your grammar.”

Oh, I’d been a good boy, and studied really hard. “My brain is so full of Spanish crap, I was dreaming of it last night.”

“Full of crap? Yeah. Spanish? I doubt it.” She giggled, then we both fell silent with the rest of the class as Mrs. Sanchez entered the room and greeted us with her ever so cheerful, “
¡Buenos días!
”

After class, I headed off to the cafeteria for lunch while Lauren went to gym for one more period before her lunch break. At the buffet, I met Cody Giles and Tyler, and immediately we started hollering and plotting how we were going to kick some Clearwater High ass when they came for the game on Saturday.

Sitting down in my usual spot at the basketball table, my glance swept the room for another try at catching Susan Miller with the geek squad. Again, there was no ponytail among those kids. Well, actually there were several, but not the one I kept an eye out for. Eating the apple first, the only item on my food tray that wasn’t dripping with fat and mayo, I leaned back, stacking my feet on the empty seat beside me. It was reserved for Rebecca, but she hadn’t shown up yet.

“Where’s your much prettier half?” I mocked Tyler, tossing one of the French fries next to the burger on my plate, hitting him right on the forehead. He was lucky the thing wasn’t dipped in ketchup. His answer didn’t register, however, because my gaze caught on a girl standing near the seated crowd around my brother. Nervously, Susan Miller twirled a strand of her ponytail around her finger and gave him a small smile.

As she wiggled her fingers at him and headed off, I expected her to walk to the food counter and get something to eat, but she sauntered empty-handed across the cafeteria to the table farthest away from ours. The one also known as the soccer table. What in the world was she doing there?

“Ow!” I winced when something stung my left eye and tore my attention away from Susan taking a seat. The grape that rebounded from my face hopped away on the floor. I rubbed my sore eye, considering fishing the pickle out from my burger and starting a food fight with Tyler for catching me off guard. But one of the lunchroom monitors had just walked past our table, saving T-Rex from a pickle attack. My clean record of no detention in my senior year couldn’t be ruined with something as stupid as gooey food hitting the wrong person.

Taking a bite of my burger instead and stuffing a handful of fries into my mouth, I listened to my friends with only half an ear. Ninety percent of my attention was nailed on the soccer table. The Bay Sharks had never interested me much, so it was probably normal that I’d never noticed the bunch of girls sitting with Ryan and his team. Of course, I assumed they were team members’ girlfriends, but how did Little Miss Sunshine fit in with the gang?

A brief conversation she was having with Alex Winter made everyone at that table burst out laughing. The sound drifted to us from the other side of the room. Sue turned a horrible shade of pink. Okay, it wasn’t really horrible but quite sweet for a girl. She busied herself peeling a kiwi and chopped it into bite-sized pieces.

I wondered what they found so funny.

And then I wondered why I actually
wondered
…

That girl was on my mind way too much these days, and no one but Ethan was to blame for it. I couldn’t even enjoy my burger without sneaking peeks at her every so often. This wasn’t just weird, it was annoying, especially when another grape hit me in the face.

“Dude, are you listening?” Tyler asked, the next grape at the ready.

Opening the top of my burger and fishing out the pickle slice, I answered his tilted eyebrows with a smirk and countered, “Try it, and you’ll have this splattered on your forehead.”

Tyler’s hands lifted in surrender. “White flag, man!” He popped the grape into his mouth with a big grin. A truce was fine with me, as long as no more fruit nailed me in the eye.

After lunch, as everyone started off in different directions, I caught up with Ryan and walked with him to biology. Curiosity was a curse that I couldn’t seem to shake off today. “What’s the deal with Miss Snappy and Rude sitting at your table? Thought she’d be friendly with the volcano-builders.”

“Miller? She’s cool.” Ryan glanced at me sideways. “Why? Are you interested in her?”

“No. She’s hanging out with my brother, and that’s just a little strange, considering we’re talking about”—I shrugged and frowned at him—“
Ethan
.” Ryan was the most discreet person I knew and one of the few people who also knew about my brother’s supposed preferences. When the rumors had almost made it outside the basketball team and Ethan quit playing, I talked to Ryan quite often. One of his cousins was gay, too, so he could talk a lot about it with me.

“Give Ethan a chance. I think they’d make a fine match.” Hunter chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. “While you, my friend, don’t seem to be healthy company for the book lover.”

I lifted both eyebrows. “Sorry, what?”

“For the first time in—I believe her entire life—she’s been put in detention.”

Thinking that news over, I walked through the door into biology, but then stopped when Hunter didn’t follow. “Where’re you going?”

With a grin, he explained, “Done with school for the day. Got some class president stuff to do.”

A meeting? Oh, the lucky dude. Now that he mentioned it, I remembered that this was also the reason for Rebecca not joining us at lunch. She was his VP, and Tyler had said something about that before he nearly blinded me with a grape. Before Ryan could head off, I shouted after him, “What got Miss Snappy in detention?”

He laughed, cutting me a quick glance over his shoulder as he walked away. “As if you don't know.”

Heck, should I? Dumbfounded, I stood on the threshold to biology until the bell rang half a minute later and Mr. Murphy shoved me into the room as he came around the corner. The stout man, who always wore a white lab coat with big white buttons on it, pushed his glasses up his nose and coughed.

“Have something better in mind than listening to my lesson, Mr. Donovan?” he asked in a voice that broke on every other word, sounding like he was stuck in a pubescent voice change for the rest of his life. Everybody liked the teacher, who had the face of a koala, mostly because we couldn’t do bad enough at any of his tests for him to give us a grade worse than a C, ever.