Candid (True Images Series) (21 page)

“Wow. I guess I expected you to be upset or something.”

“Nah.
It’s pretty awesome that Jordan got so worried I’d beat her that she set up a fight to knock me out.”

“So you think it was Jordan too?”

“Of course it was. Why would that Brandi girl give up Homecoming just to fight me? We don’t even know each other. Alyssa actually seems to hate me for some reason, but I don’t remember ever doing anything to her so Jordan must have egged her on. I don’t mind. It was kind of nice getting back at her for all the times she came after me at the game last night.”

I was relieved that she was reacting like this. “So we can count on you still supporting Katie tomorrow?”

“For sure.
Though I’ll have to do it from home.
I can text with the best of them though.”

“Great.” I looked at Parker. “I’ve got to get to work. You’re ready to get my blog post up for me though, right?”

“I’ll get on it as soon as I get home.”

“I think we need to go with plan B.”

Parker stared at me unbelievingly.
“Seriously?”

“Jordan’s playing dirty. All we’re going to do is expose the truth.”

“Maybe, but you’d better warn Lee or he’ll freak out.”

“He’ll freak out regardless. I’d rather he freaked after he couldn’t talk me out of it.”

Chapter 14

I wasn’t sure how Lee spent his Thursday nights when he wasn’t at my house hanging out, but I was pretty sure he had other things to do besides checking my photo blog. He wasn’t coming over tonight because I had a later shift than usual, so I figured I had until the next morning at least before he got furious with me.

Mom picked me up from work and dropped me off at home, saying she had some errands to run. More like she had a date with Mr. Greeley.
Whatever.
At least she wouldn’t be around to figure out how totally stressed out I was.

I was fairly confident of victory tomorrow, but I was also certain that crap was going to hit the fan.

Maybe a very long, very hot bath would help me relax.

A few minutes later, I was thoroughly enjoying my hot soak. My mind was just sinking into that happy place where it wasn’t thinking about anything at all when the doorbell rang.
Who in the world?

Maybe it was just some kid selling candy bars or something. I had just decided they would go away when it rang again, and again, and again.

I dragged myself out of the tub, toweled off and hurried into some clothes. I was still damp, and clumsy in my haste, so my foot got stuck halfway down the leg of my sweats. I lost my balance, fell over, and banged my elbow against the vanity on my way down. As I struggled, the doorbell kept ringing.

I was so annoyed by this point that I forgot to be cautious and check to see who it was before opening the door. Luckily it was Lee.

But he looked steaming mad, so I really wished it had been a kid selling candy after all.

His eyebrows were drawn down in a deep furrow over his nose, his jaw was tense, and there was an angry vibe coming off him that felt potent.

“Were you trying to wear out the doorbell?” I asked, rubbing my elbow.

“Well, what took you so long to answer? Are you avoiding me? And why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I was taking a bath,” I said. “Why would I be avoiding you?”

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t expect me to be happy when I saw your blog post tonight.”

“Honestly, no, but I was hoping you wouldn’t see it tonight.”

“Why wouldn’t I see it? I check it every day.”

“You do? I didn’t know that.”

“Look, can I come in? I feel stupid standing here in the doorway.”

“Well, my mom isn’t here right now.”

“Good. I wouldn’t be able to say half the things I want to say if she was.” Then he put an arm around my waist and pulled me with him as he came inside. After shutting the door behind us, he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Sienna, you can’t put that picture up.”

“I can and I did.”

“Well, yeah, I know you did. But explain how that was a good idea.”

“Lee, I told you I’d use it if I needed to. Jordan had Cecilia beat up after school today.”

He paused.
“Really?
Wow.” I thought I had proven my point until he asked, “So, you wanted to give her a good reason to have you beat up too?”

“No, of course not.
It just made me so mad that she would pull something like that. I mean, she’s like some kind of mob boss or something, calling out hits on people.”

“Exactly, Sienna.
And now you’re going to be her number one target. She’s going to come after you with a vengeance and I don’t think you’re ready for it. What scares me most is that Caleb will too, and I can’t be around every minute to protect you.” His voice sounded choked off for a second and then he said, “You’ve got to take it down, Sienna. Maybe not many people have seen it yet.”

“But, Lee…”

“Look, I’m asking you, please. Let’s minimize the damage. I don’t want to have to worry about you every time we’re apart.”

It was kind of hard to deny Lee anything he really set his mind to, and it wasn’t like I was looking forward to a life of fear.
“Fine.
If it will make you feel better.”

“Immensely.”

I went over to my laptop on the kitchen counter and sat down to work. Lee watched from behind me, his hand resting on the back of my bar stool, as I pulled up my blog. I checked and saw that I’d gotten about a hundred hits since I’d checked it before school that morning. It seemed like a lot, but not nearly as many as I would get in the coming hours.

The title of the post said, “Who Would You Choose?” and there was a beautiful picture of a sweet and clean cut Katie Edwards next to the picture of Jordan and Caleb making out in the dim, yellow light of the theater hallway. This picture was condemning in so many ways - and would probably hurt Tyson when he found out about Jordan’s two timing - but I wanted people to know who she really was.

On the other hand, I really couldn’t put Lee through this anymore.

So, I edited the page to just have Katie’s picture and changed the title to, “Crown a Real Queen, Vote for Katie.” I viewed the final post and asked Lee, “There.
How’s that?”

“Much better.
I just hope nobody took a screen shot of the old post. You sure got a lot of hits already. You couldn’t have had the post up for long. Didn’t you just get off work a little while ago?”

“Yeah.
Um, I had Parker put it up for me after school.”

“Oh, you did, huh? And I guess he didn’t have any problem helping you to endanger your life.”

“I didn’t
endanger my life
. I just may have made it really scary and uncomfortable for a while. It’ll blow over.”

“You do realize that Jordan isn’t going to just get over not being Homecoming Queen, don’t you?”

“So I should just let her have it?”

“I didn’t say that.” Lee paused and took a few steps as he rubbed his hand across his forehead. “Man, when I first met you, I thought you were just a quiet and kind of spacey girl who was a little obsessed with photography. I didn’t know you were really a fearless social vigilante, determined to set things right no matter the cost to you. I’m not sure which side of you I like better, but I know which side scares the heck out of me.”

“I’m not fearless,” I whispered as I shut my laptop.

I looked up at Lee, and he brushed some damp strands of hair out of my face. It wasn’t till then that I remembered I’d just thrown it up into a huge messy knot on top of my head before I got into the bath, not caring that pieces of it immediately began to fall out. Combined with my old ragged t-shirt and sweats, and I realized how awful I must look.

But he wasn’t looking at me like I looked awful.

From his expression, I could tell that he was exerting a tremendous amount of willpower to not kiss me. I was wishing he wasn’t quite so strong when the front door opened and my mom came in.

Then I was really, really glad he had more will power than me. From the look on my mom’s face, I was in enough trouble as it was.

“Sienna Marie Whitfield, what is going on?”

“Nothing.”

“What is Lee doing here while I’m gone? I don’t appreciate you sneaking him over as soon as my back is turned.”

“I didn’t do that. I didn’t even ask him to come over.”

“She really didn’t, Ms. Whitfield. And I had no idea you were gone till I got here.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re in my kitchen.”

“Something important came up that we had to take care of. I was about to leave.”

“What was so important you had to come into my house without permission?”

She glanced between the two of us, waiting for an answer. Since we both knew I would really get it if she knew I’d posted that picture of Jordan and Caleb, we didn’t have a clue what to say. Our hesitation was our undoing.

“That’s what I thought. I’m afraid there will be consequences for this Sienna. You’re grounded for a month, to start with. As for you Lee, I was just beginning to trust you. I’m disappointed in both of you.”

Lee faced her squarely, grave and sincere. “I just want you to know, Ms. Whitfield, that we did absolutely nothing but talk and work on her blog post. If you’d been right here watching us, you wouldn’t have seen anything that bothered you.”

“But I
wasn’t
here, and just the way you two
look
at each other bothers me. Maybe you aren’t dating, but you are still getting way too involved with each other. She’s only seventeen.”

“I’ll be eighteen next month, Mom.” I wasn’t surprised that she was mad, but it just wasn’t right that we were in trouble when we’d tried so hard to do be good. “Besides, you of all people know feelings aren’t something you can control. Yes, we care about each other, but we aren’t sneaking around to see each other. Can you say the same?”

“Sienna, you know my past is exactly why we have these rules. I’ve never made a secret of that.”

“I’m not talking about your past. I’m talking about how you’ve been dating Mr. Greeley for I don’t even know how long, and you’ve never had the guts to tell me about it.

All the color drained out of my mom’s face as she stared at me, speechless.

After a terrible moment of silence, Lee said, “Well, I think I’d better get going.”

My mom never made any sign that she’d heard him and her eyes never wavered from mine. When the door clicked shut behind Lee, she finally spoke. “How long have you known?”

“For over a month or so.”

“How did you find out?”

“Jordan Rubio.” I told her bitterly. “Imagine how I liked finding out from her.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“No, Mom, the question is why didn’t
you
say anything? I should have heard it from you. How long would you have kept it a secret from me if I hadn’t said something tonight?”

She sighed and went to put down her purse and coat. I felt kind of bad because she looked really upset, but at least we were finally going to talk about it.

When she looked at me again, she said, “I just didn’t want you to get hurt if it didn’t work out, and I didn’t want things to be awkward for you at school.”

“I could have handled that a lot easier than knowing you’ve been lying to me all this time and finding out from a girl who hates my guts. Then you actually get mad at me for having feelings for someone and talking to him when you aren’t around. At least I’ve never lied to you about him.”

“I was just trying to keep you from getting hurt, but you’re right, I should have been honest with you. Alex has wanted me to tell you all along. But you have to understand that the difference between what I’ve done and what you’ve done is that I’m an adult and you aren’t. You still live under my roof, and you have to follow my rules.”

“I’ve been trying. We messed up a little tonight, but only because he was really worried about me. Go ahead and punish me for breaking your rules. I don’t care about missing the Homecoming dance or hanging out with my friends or doing anything but sitting around here by myself for a month. But if I’m going to get punished for breaking your stupid rules, next time I’m going to make sure I enjoy myself first.”

I stormed to my room and slammed the door. Maybe it was childish of me, but there were so many emotions raging through me that they had to find an outlet. I paced around my room for a while, trying to control my tears so I could breathe normally again. Then I collapsed on my bed and lay there, worn out and depressed.

A little while later, I heard a buzz from my phone somewhere in my backpack that meant I’d gotten a text message. I jumped up to get it and was glad to see it was Lee.

Still alive?

Yes.

Cool. I’m glad she didn’t take your phone.

She still might. Sorry I can’t go to the dance w/u.

NP
-  Sorry
I got you in trouble.

Yeah, next time kiss me so it’s worth it.

I wanted to.

I know.
CU.

Bye…KOTL

Not the same.

Agreed.

*****

I had to go to school with mom the next day. I wouldn’t get to ride with Lee again for the foreseeable future. Going with my mom meant that I got to school about thirty minutes early. I didn’t want to hang out anywhere I might run into Jordan or Caleb just in case word of my first post had gotten around, so I headed to the yearbook room.

I had gone there before school pretty often before Lee had started giving me a ride to school, so I didn’t think anything of it until I realized Mr. Greeley was looking at me weird.

Then I realized that Mom must have told him what happened last night.

“Mind if I work on some stuff for a few minutes?” I asked awkwardly.

“Of course not.
Uh, Sienna, I just want you to know that I always wanted to tell you about your mom and me.”

“I know. She told me.”