Blindsided (2 page)

Get a grip! She’s just a girl. You’ve seen pretty girls before.

“So, Jesse,” Andrew said, “is there anything special you want to do while you’re here?”

I shook my head. “No sir, being away from L.A is enough. I mean, of course, I want to visit the sights of London but I’d be just as happy to spend the time doing simple things like watching movies and not busting my butt at the gym four times a week.”

“We should all laze around and watch some films this afternoon,” Georgia said. “It’s too wet to do anything outside, and we haven’t had a family day for ages.”

I suddenly felt horribly out of place, and Janet must have noticed. “You’re part of the family too while you’re here.”

“Thanks.”

“What kind of films do you like?” Georgia asked, bouncing slightly in her seat. “Wait, let me guess! I bet you’re an action kind of guy.”

I was pretty sure she checked out my muscles.
Please don’t have a crush on me. That would be awkward.

“I like action, but I prefer comedy,” I said.

“Izzy likes comedy too, don’t you?”

Isabelle nodded, giving me a shy smile, and I decided this would be the moment I actually had something to say that she might want to answer.

“Do you have any favourites?”

“I really like silly films
. Scary Movie
is a good one. I know it’s quite old, but it makes me laugh. How about you?”

“I like older movies too, like
American Pie
.”

“I haven’t seen that one. Maybe we should rent it.”

My eyes widened in horror. Did I really recommend a teen movie that shows a guy having sex with an apple pie? It’s fine to watch with friends, but with the parents of the girl you’re hot for, that is a sure fire way to get thrown out with the word ‘pervert’ taped to your head.

Isabelle gave me a subtle wink, relieving me of my panic and increasing my liking of her.
Not quite as innocent as she looks.
That sideways smile made my pulse quicken.

“If you want to rent it, we can,” Janet said, and Hunter choked on his piece of pizza.

“I don’t think it’s really your kind of thing, Aunt Janet,” he said.

“Definitely not,” Georgia added. “Let’s just stick to
The Lion King
.”

The rest of lunch passed without incident, and even though I was aware there were conversations going on around me, Isabelle had deafened me somehow. I tried hard to keep my focus on everything else because I didn’t want them to think I was rude and ungrateful, but she was so freaking gorgeous.

Girls were so not the reason I’d wanted a vacation. Since meeting Isabelle, I’d changed my mind.

Chapter Two – Georgia’s Sister

Isabelle

Tuning out the sound of Mr. Swift talking about the way writers use and adapt language, I closed my eyes and a picture of
him
filled my mind.

When my parents had told Georgia and me that our cousin, Hunter, and his friend were coming to stay for a few weeks, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hunter and I wished he lived much nearer than he does, but having someone new in my house made me nervous. Generally speaking, I don’t like new people. It takes me a long time to warm up to them, and most of the time, they don’t wait around long enough for me to do so. Four weeks is usually the minimum amount of time it takes me to get used to people, so having a boy staying for that exact duration sounded awful.

I met Jesse for the first time when I was twelve, and I thought he was a bit of a dork. He had long, skinny legs and twiggy arms. His hair was a blond mess, and he spent all his time playing football with Hunter, and mostly ignoring me and Georgia.

When I saw him on Saturday morning, in my living room, hair ruffled from him falling asleep on the sofa, my mouth felt like it was filled with sawdust, and I could barely choke out a ‘hello.’

He’d got kind of … gorgeous over the years. He’d grown into his gangly arms and legs, and developed muscles, and the kind of chiselled jaw you think only exists in romance novels, not in the real world.

Right away, his looks put him way out of my league, but when you threw in the fact he was on his way to being a football legend in America, he was obviously a guy who wouldn’t look twice at plain old Isabelle Mills. He tried really hard to make conversation with me, I guess because he felt sorry for me. I appreciated his efforts, and I think I may have even flirted with him a little over lunch before reminding myself I definitely wasn’t going to get his attention. Boys were Georgia’s area of expertise. She already had a boyfriend, Elliott, but that didn’t stop the other guys at college from checking her out. She was just so confident, whereas I preferred to sit in the background. The last thing I needed was some prat like Leon Baxter following me around. Lucky for me, he definitely preferred Georgia, though honestly, I wouldn’t have wished him on anyone. I hated the way he stared at her, making disgusting innuendos. He was the kind of guy who gave all the rest a bad name.

“Isabelle?”

I jumped at the sound of Mr. Swift saying my name, and the rest of the class started laughing. I could feel their eyes on me. I tried to subtly wipe my chin, just in case I’d accidentally been drooling on the desk while in my trance, and Georgia giggled beside me.

“Sorry, sir,” I said, wishing I could crawl under the desk and hide.

“Welcome back,” he said, smiling. “Are you ready to join in the discussion now?”

I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

When class ended, Georgia linked her arm through mine, and as we all bundled out the door, she said, “Are you okay? It’s not like you to doze off during English Lit!”

“I wasn’t asleep,” I told her, as we walked along the corridor, headed for the cafeteria, “I was thinking.”

“I bet I can guess what about!” she teased.

“Urgh. Sometimes being a twin is rubbish.”

Ever since we were kids, Georgia and I could read each other’s minds. It might not have been a twin power necessarily because we’d always been really close. But sometimes we could read each other so well, it scared me.

“Oh, this has nothing to do with our mind-reading skills!” she laughed. “It has everything to do with the fact that you look like a human traffic light every time you see Jesse!”

“I always blush around new people,” I pointed out.

“Yes, but you don’t normally lose your appetite and walk around like a zombie.”

Whenever Jesse was nearby, I had trouble finishing my meals because my stomach sloshed around so much. I needed to tackle that, firstly because I didn’t want him to think I had some kind of eating disorder, and secondly because I was starving.

“Come on, Izzy, admit it. You’ve got a thing for Jesse!”

“Drop it,” I told her. “It’s not even worth thinking about.”

“Oh. Is that why you zoned out in class? Because he’s not worth thinking about?”

“I didn’t say
he
isn’t worth thinking about. I said the situation isn’t worth thinking about. So he’s fit. Big deal. Lots of guys are.”

“Yes. But he is the only one in our house, and is obviously into you too.”

She always did this. Made me think someone liked me, only for me to discover they were talking to me to get closer to her, or being nice because I looked lonely.

“Don’t. I’ve had enough of being disappointed. One day, I’ll meet someone who likes me for me, and then I’ll get excited. I don’t think Jesse is going to be that person though, so just drop it.”

Disappointment washed over me after I spelled it out so blatantly, but even if by some chance he did like me, he’d be going back to L.A in less than a month anyway.

We walked the rest of the way to the canteen in silence, and I regretted being so snappy. Georgia only wanted me to be as happy with someone as she was with Elliott. She didn’t seem to realise that trying to make it happen with anyone who so much as looked in my direction just made it harder. Every disappointment set me back a bit more, and I needed her to let me be. To find my own way.

After ordering two gigantic ham salad baguettes – that’s how hungry I was – and a hot chocolate, Georgia and I sat down at our usual table where her friends, Emma and Mischa, were waiting for us. Well, waiting for Georgia. I was waiting for my own bestie, Willow, to show up.

“Good afternoon,” Emma greeted us as we sat down, “You took your sweet ass time getting here!”

“Sorry,” Georgia said, “Swift had a lot to say today. What’s the rush anyway? It’s lunch, we have two hours until Psychology.”

Mischa pulled a magazine from her bag, flipping through the pages until she landed in the fashion section, then laid it on the table.

“What do you think about this for the end of term party?” she asked, pointing to a bold, half-black, half-yellow mini dress.

“I assume you mean for you,” Georgia said, “Because even for me, it’s a little wild.”

“Of course me!” Mischa laughed. “I think I’d look hot in that.”

“Or freeze your tits off,” Emma pointed out.

“I won’t be freezing anything off, because once Toby sees me in the dress, he’ll be the first to offer to warm me up!”

Mischa never failed to get any guy she wanted. Ever. Toby Fitzgerald from her art class was her newest target, although I wasn’t sure if he knew yet.

The end of term Christmas party was the biggest event on the college calendar. It was being held at Mischa’s, another Notting Hill resident, and because her parents were always away on business trips, nobody could stop her from throwing a massive celebration. Of course, not everyone from college had an invitation. Mainly her closest friends from her classes, and boys she and her friends wanted to hook up with. It was the first time she’d hosted a house party and she hadn’t stopped talking about it since September.

“I haven’t even thought about an outfit yet,” Georgia said, “We need to go shopping!”

Mischa’s face lit up at the idea. “Oh wait! Aren’t there two sexy boys staying with you at the moment? You should invite them!”

“Shopping?”

“No! To the party!”             

“Slow down, Man Eater,” Emma chuckled. “You’ve already got your eye on Toby, you don’t need any other boys to chase after.”

Mischa flipped her long, red hair over her shoulder. “Darling, it never hurts to have a back-up plan.”

Georgia cast a sideways glance at me, and this time she must have really read my mind. The last thing I needed was for Little Miss Back-Up Plan to get her claws into Jesse. Even if I had no chance with him, I didn’t want
her
getting with him. Plus, he seemed really sweet.

Mischa would eat him alive.

“I don’t know,” Georgia said, “They’ll probably have better things to do than come to a college party with us.”

“Let me come round to yours later, I’ll convince them. You know men can’t resist my charms.”

She puffed out her chest, and Emma giggled at her friend’s confidence. I would have almost admired her if she didn’t come across as being so … slutty.

“Hi girls!”

Willow’s enthusiastic tone brightened my mood. She believed that wearing anything less than three different colours was a sign of depression, and as she waltzed over to us in a long purple and pink floral skirt and white blouse with pink and yellow polka dots, it was obvious she was in a sunny mood, in spite of the cold weather.

Mischa rolled her eyes, but shuffled over to make room for Willow and her tray laden with mushroom soup and bread rolls.

“What are we talking about?” she asked, tearing off a piece of bread and spearing it into the bowl of soup.

“Mischa’s party,” Georgia said. “And what Mischa plans on wearing.”

She pushed the magazine towards Willow, pointing to the dress.

“Ooh, hot stuff,” she said. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“None of your business,” Mischa said, sliding the magazine across the table, then tucking it back into her bag. “Actually, I suppose I can tell you, it’s not like you’re any competition for me.”

Mischa’s rudeness towards Willow was something we were all accustomed to, and while she was perfectly capable of standing up for herself, she usually let the comments glide over her.

I wished I could do the same.

Willow was actually quite pretty in a hippy kind of way. She had wavy blonde hair that flowed down to the middle of her back. Like me, she never really did well with boys, mainly because most of them branded her as weird because of her dress sense. We’d had countless conversations about why being attractive had to be all about looks, make-up and clothing, and decided we were worth more than getting tarted up in uncomfortable clothes for the opposite sex.

I hoped I sounded convincing, because I was pretty sure that tarting myself up might be the only way a guy would see me as more than “one of the twins,” or “Georgia’s sister.”

As usual, lunch was pretty tense once Mischa let out her inner bitch. When Willow finished eating, we left the others and went to the library where it was quiet, and infinitely more friendly.

On the way home, I was still pretty subdued. The ten minute bus ride with Georgia and Mischa seemed to drag on forever, as Mischa continued to witter about the party. I hoped beyond hope that she’d go back to her own house once we stepped off the bus, but she insisted on coming to ours to meet the “sexy footballer” and our “cute cousin.”

Mum and Dad weren’t home when we got in. Dad would be at work until late, and Mum had arranged to meet an old friend in the city. From the hallway, I heard the familiar sound of Super Mario coming from the living room. I couldn’t help smiling. Georgia and I bought Super Mario All Stars for our Nintendo Wii, just to see what video games were like before awesome graphics. It turned out to be one of our favourite games, and to hear Jesse and Hunter playing it amused me.

“Hunter, if you don’t pass this level now, I swear to God I’m making you play as the Princess next time!”

“Oh like you were doing any better!”

Mischa rolled her eyes. “I hope they’re not as dorky as they sound. I didn’t drag my arse over here to meet boys with bad breath and geek glasses.”

She was so shallow.

Georgia gave me an apologetic smile, and I knew she really meant it. Mischa was hard to argue with, so most of the time, nobody even tried.

Instead of witnessing her pawing at Jesse and Hunter, I headed straight upstairs to the sanctuary of my room and threw myself down on my bed, trying to tell myself that Mischa getting with Jesse wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. After all, he was on holiday and free to do whatever – or whoever – he pleased.

Even so, I shuddered at the thought.

Pull yourself together. You cannot spend the next month hiding in your bedroom to avoid him. Get over it.

That was certainly something I had a lot of practice in.