At First Sight (9 page)

“True,” Riley said with a laugh. “Guys, this is Lauren. She's a fellow Beast fan I met on Facebook. We ran into each other at the show. Lauren, these are my friends—you already met Marcus, and that's Rachel.” He gestured to the girl who'd spoken, a stylishly dressed redhead with a pointy chin and an intelligent face. “Over there is Jake, that's Haley, and, um …” He stopped as he glanced at the last of the girls, a petite
blonde with her hair pulled back into a perky ponytail. She was wearing a pink spaghetti-strap tank that barely contained a truly impressive set of knockers.

“Nice to meet you, Lauren,” Rachel said, while the others added hi's of their own.

All except for Marcus. He'd just jumped out of his chair and rushed over to the nameless blonde's chair, looking excited. “Dude,” he said to Riley, reaching down and squeezing the girl's bare shoulders. “Surprise!”

“Uh, what?” Riley looked confused and a little wary.

Marcus laughed. “Don't look so suspicious, bro. It's good news. See, I finally tracked down the one and only Planetarium Girl for you! Voilà!” He stepped back with a sort of bow, gesturing dramatically to the girl in front of him.

She giggled. “Hi, Riley,” she said with a cute little tilt of her head. “Nice to see you again. I didn't get a good look at you there in the planetarium, but I'm glad to see that you're just as cute as I thought.”

Riley looked startled for a second, but he recovered quickly. “Oh, wow,” he said. “Hi there. What's your name?”

“I'm Chelsea,” the girl said. “But you
can call me Planetarium Girl if you want. Or you can call me The One. Just as long as you call me.” She giggled again.

Geez. This girl had more lame pickup lines than Britt. I was guessing she got away with it because, like Britt, she was super hot. The rest of her body was just as amazing as her boobs, topped off by a pretty round-cheeked face with big blue eyes.

“Um, nice to meet you, Chelsea.” Suddenly seeming to remember I was there, Riley shot me a look. “Guess I can finish the intros now. Chelsea, this is my new music buddy, Lauren.”

“Hi,” Chelsea said, though it was hard to tell if she was actually talking to me or not, since she never took her eyes off Riley.

I was glad that he was looking at her again now, since I suspected my own face might be giving away my reaction to the latest introduction. “My new music buddy,” huh? Wow, romantic. Not.

“So am I the coolest or what?” Marcus demanded as he dropped back into his own seat. He grinned around the table, his gaze finally settling on me. “Not sure if you know about my man's recent heartbreak, Lauren. But see, he met this special girl on
our last class trip and he's been desperately searching for her ever since.”

“Yeah, so I heard.” I was surprised at how normal my own words sounded. Did that mean I was getting more comfortable with my own lies? I wasn't sure I liked the thought of that.

“So Riley was so love-struck after meeting his mystery girl that he ran right home and wrote her a song—” Marcus cut himself off, spinning in his chair and leaning across the table to stare at Riley. “Hey, that reminds me. I told Chelsea here you were dying to sing that song for her. So how about it?”

“Not right now, bro.” Riley smiled and shrugged as he glanced at Chelsea. “No offense. I just want to get to know you better before I get into that sort of thing. Hope you don't mind.”

“Not at all.” She reached up to adjust one of her straps, letting her hand linger near her cleavage. “I like a guy who wants to know a girl better before he gets into, you know,
that
sort of thing.”

It was all I could do not to roll my eyes. No wonder he seemed willing to believe this imposter might be Planetarium Girl. She was full of clever lines like the one I'd
somehow managed to spit out without thinking that day in the dark. Only, unlike me, she was actually capable of coming up with them in the light, too.

Meanwhile Marcus was shaking his head. “I told you,” he said to Chelsea. “Dude's a hopeless romantic.”

“I don't mind. When you find that one person you just can't stop thinking about, it's worth the wait.” She reached over and touched Riley on the arm. He looked down at her hand, not seeming to mind seeing it there. Touching him.

I gritted my teeth. This “date”—or whatever it was—which had started out awkward and then turned awesome, had suddenly taken a steep downward dive into awfulness. For a second all I could think of was figuring out a way to extricate myself before I did something crazy, like jump up on the table and pound my chest like King Kong while shouting that
I
was the real Planetarium Girl… .

“So Lauren,” redheaded Rachel said, turning to me as Chelsea continued to flirt shamelessly with Riley. “You're into music, huh? What else do you like besides Maybe There Is a Beast?”

I blinked at her. “Um … ,” I began stupidly. Then my brain kicked back into gear. “I like all kinds of stuff. Rock, alternative, punk—the basics. Although my parents went through a major reggae phase a couple of years ago, and I actually still listen to Bob Marley sometimes.”

“Really?” She laughed. “That's cool. I'm more into metal myself, but I like a lot of punk, too… .”

After that we kept on chatting, with the other girl, Haley, joining in once the topic turned to movies—apparently her favorite topic, since, as she informed me almost immediately, she wanted to be a filmmaker one day. Now and then Marcus and Jake jumped into our conversation as well, though they spent the rest of the time arguing with each other about sports.

But as cool and nice as they all seemed, I only managed to keep about half my attention on Riley's friends. The rest was focused on Chelsea, aka Ms. Fake 'n' Flirty, who was completely monopolizing Riley's attention. Every time I peeked over at them, she seemed to be touching him. Or smiling at him. Or leaning toward him so he could look down her shirt. Not that he
actually did that. At least not while I was looking. But still …

Finally, after everyone had finished their ice cream, Marcus grabbed Haley's arm to check her watch. “Hey, there's a monster movie marathon on TV tonight starting at midnight. Who's up for watching at my house?”

“I'm there,” Jake said. “But only if there's some of your mom's awesome butterscotch cookies.”

Rachel laughed. “When have we ever gone to Marcus's and his mom
didn't
have those cookies waiting for us?” she said. “Anyway, I'm in too, but I can't stay too late. I have gymnastics in the morning.”

“So it's a plan?” Marcus glanced around at the rest of us.

I seemed to be included in the invitation, but I hesitated before answering. It felt kind of weird to be heading off to hang at the house of someone I'd only met like an hour ago, even though Marcus and the rest of them all seemed totally normal and non-serial-killerish. Besides, I wanted to make sure Riley was going before I committed to anything.

Riley shrugged. “It's not a Beast concert,
but it beats homework,” he joked. “I'm in.”

“Me too!” Chelsea spoke up immediately. Then she giggled. “That is, if a non—Grove High person is allowed to come?”

“Any Planetarium Girl of Riley's is always welcome,” Marcus replied with a grin. Then, seeming to remember I was there, too, he added, “Any music pals of Riley's too. You coming, Lauren?”

“Thanks, but I think I'd better pass.” I stood up, visions of more annoying flirting dancing through my head. If Chelsea was already all over Riley in public, who knew how she'd be once they were tucked away in somebody's dark basement or wherever. I so didn't need to see that.

“Aw, you sure?” Rachel sounded genuinely disappointed. “You haven't lived till you've tried Marcus's mom's cookies.”

Riley nodded. “She's like a baking genius. Come on, Lauren. It'll be fun.”

I forced a smile. “Maybe next time.”

They walked me back to my car over near the Cave Club. I had no idea where Britt had gone or how she and Todd had gotten home, but I wasn't too worried about it. Britt was nothing if not resourceful.

Riley hung back a little apart from the
others as I fished in my purse for my keys. “It was great getting to know you better,” he told me quietly.

“Yeah, me too.” I glanced up at him. He was looking back at me, his face sort of serious. For a second we just stayed there like that, looking at each other. Ping. Ping. P—

“Come on, Riley!” Chelsea raced over, ponytail and various other portions of her anatomy bouncing. “I can't wait to get to Marcus's house. I love monster movies—just promise you'll protect me if I get too scared!” Giggle, giggle, head tilt.

That was enough for me. Enough games, enough wondering what Riley was thinking about me, and
definitely
enough Fake Planetarium Girl.

“Night, everyone,” I called out quickly. Then I jumped in my car, slammed the door shut, and gunned it out of the parking space without a backward glance.

Hi L!
Last night was fun, right? I'm still humming that “Crash” song the Beast debuted at the show. Btw, my friends all thought you were great. 2 bad you couldn't come to M's after ice cream. You fit right in like 1 of us. Glad we met up!
R.

I rested my chin on one hand, staring at the Facebook message from Riley. It was Saturday morning. I'd woken up from a dream about eating ice cream in Brazil and immediately started wondering how things had gone last night after I left. And
the message left me wondering more than ever.

There was one way to find out what I wanted to know. I could answer the message and take it from there.

Hi Riley,
The Beast is always great. Meeting your friends was great, too. They're all really cool. Marcus kinda reminds me of my friend Britt — always trying 2 set peeps up w/each other, ha ha.
L.

There. I sat back from the keyboard. That should do it.

I only had to wait about thirty seconds before his answer came:

Marcus is a freak. He's always got something up his sleeve. That's what makes him so much fun, lol.

Hmm. He still wasn't mentioning Faker Girl. I skimmed the brief message again, trying to interpret what that meant. Was it
a good sign? Or did it not mean anything at all?

Maybe it was time to stop with the games and just come out with it. I typed fast so I wouldn't chicken out.

So that Chelsea seemed nice. She really seemed to like u a lot. Think she's really
P. Girl?

I hit send, then immediately regretted it. What was I doing? By asking that question I'd all but told him
I
wasn't Planetarium Girl. Which wasn't, you know, technically true or anything. So much for not playing games… .

Once again, he wrote back quickly.

Chelsea seems cool & all. But I'm not sure she's really PG like she says. I remember PG being taller, for 1 thing …

My fingers seemed to have a mind of their own. Before I knew it, I'd typed a quick response.

So what did u tell her?

This time the answer took a little longer to arrive.

I told her she was cool but I wasn't sure it was gonna work … I hate having 2 do stuff like that!!! Esp. b/c like you said, she seemed into me … Maybe I shouldn't be so quick 2 blow her off. But I really wanna give the whole PG thing a chance before I give up on it, u know? Not 2 sound corny or whatev, but it was like a special moment, and I don't want 2 just go out w/someone else and forget about it … Do I sound like a total dweeb???? haha, sorry 4 rambling on you …

I felt relief wash over me as I read what he'd written. So flirty floozy Chelsea was out of the picture already. Good.

Still, I couldn't help feeling kind of annoyed, too. If there really had been all those sparks between us that day at the planetarium, why couldn't Riley now see that
I
was the one he was searching for? I felt those same sparks every time I saw him. Why didn't he?

But I did my best to swallow back those feelings as I typed another response.

Ur not a dweeb. I think it's sweet. Why settle for less than what u want?

He wrote back again within seconds.

Thx, I needed 2 hear that. Marcus thinks I'm nutz to pass up a girl like that just b/c she's not “The 1,” lol.

Yeah. I bet he did. Marcus seemed like the type not to miss any opportunity for a little romance … or whatever. I hadn't been kidding when I'd said he reminded me of Britt.

Just then the doorbell rang. Stepping over to glance out my window, I saw Britt on the front step. I paused on my way out of the room just long enough to send one last message:

Gtg, my bff is here. TTYL.

Then I ran downstairs to let Britt in. Meow Tse Tung was marching back and
forth in front of the door, meowing insistently. Even though he lives the life of a pampered prince in our house, he's always up for adventure and is constantly doing his best to make a break for it. It's become pretty much automatic for all of us to grab him before we open the front door.

“Sorry, you're not going exploring today, Chairman,” I said, scooping him up in one arm. Ignoring his yowls of protest, I swung open the door.

Britt knows all about Meow's fugitive tendencies too. She darted in and slammed the door behind her.

“Curses, your escape has been foiled again, little man,” she said, tickling Meow under the chin.

He yowled once more, then started purring. I dumped him gently onto a chair. When I stood up, Britt was staring at me.

“So?” she demanded. “I'm dying of suspense here. All your text said was that you hung out with Riley for a while after I left. I want details, girl. Details!”