Circle of Lies (Red Ridge Pack) (11 page)

I decided on a fitted t-shirt, jeans, and Converse as I was getting ready. Then, with just a touch of makeup and a messy ponytail I was out the door. I was going for understated. I didn’t want Aiden to think I’d gotten all dolled up for him. I was supposed to not want him. Supposed to not care.

My damn brain just needed to inform my pathetic heart of that fact.

*****

I noticed him right away as I walked into school. He stood on the stairs at the main entrance, completely surrounded by a mob of eligible and even a few supposedly not-so-eligible girls. The scene made me want to throw up. How could I even be on his radar when half the junior and senior classes were vying for his attention?

I pretended not to see him, walking right past like I had somewhere to go. I didn’t, of course, but thankfully the library was always open.

Just as I got the door open I heard, “Teagan, wait up!” Aiden’s voice was unmistakable, smooth like silk but with the slightest bit of a Texas twang. Door in hand, I turned to see him hurrying my way.

“How’d you manage to escape the paparazzi?” I asked, then immediately wished I hadn’t. It only proved that I’d noticed, and where I had been meant to sound playful, my delivery was way bitchy.

Aiden stood there, only a few feet away, and he looked down at his feet. I glanced down as well to see if I was missing anything. No, nothing. What was he doing? What did he want from me?

His eyes rose to meet mine, and I instantly turned to mush—but I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing it. Trying desperately to appear as if he had no effect, I shrewdly asked, “So, what’s up? You chase me down for a reason?”

Unintentional hostility oozed from my words, and again I regretted it. I wanted desperately to know what he wanted, but now he looked like I’d kicked his puppy. His gaze returned to the floor then flashed off down the hallway.

“Never mind. Maybe I’ll catch you later.”

Nicely done, Rhodes. Run him off.
Why had I been such a bitch?

He turned to walk away, and I couldn’t help myself. My hand reached out to lightly grab his arm. “Hey, sorry. It’s been a bad morning. I didn’t mean to be rude,” I said.

He didn’t respond. With a small defeated smile, he turned and walked away.

Had I really just hurt his feelings? Aiden Wright was that fragile? Now I felt even worse. I wanted to scream, “I’m protecting myself from the inevitable. If I let you into my life, I’ll end up gluing the pieces of heart back together until I’m thirty.” I couldn’t have been more certain of anything in my life. Still, the next time Aiden talked to me—if there was a next time—I wasn’t going to screw things up. I was going to be bubbly and sweet. Well, maybe not bubbly, but I’d at least try my best not to be a total jerk.

I went inside the library and tried to work, but Aiden’s expression haunted me. He’d actually wanted to talk to me instead of all the girls who seemed to follow him everywhere, and I’d totally given him the cold shoulder. What the hell was wrong with me?

Because I’d forgotten, my logical side reminded me:
He’s not the one for you. He’ll break your heart. He’ll stomp on it, dance on the pieces then run off with some awful bitch like Becca. He’s one of the Beautiful People. Remember who they are. Remember where they live. Remember how your mom ran off on your dad. How she ran off on you, too.

At the same time, I couldn’t stop my stupid heart from making excuses:
How can you be sure Aiden’s like that? You don’t even know him. Maybe he’s not like those others, maybe his heart is good and kind and beautiful like the rest of him. How will you ever know if you don’t give him a chance?

I felt as if I needed an exorcism. Were my brain and my heart actually arguing? This couldn’t be normal.

Teagan, it’s completely normal!

Seriously? I so needed to clear my head.

I left the library and hurried to the restroom. Safely locked inside a stall, I stood and tried to reconcile my stupid feelings for this stupid guy I hardly knew, a guy who, for all I knew, didn’t even like me the way I half wanted him to. I had run him off every time we were together. I supposed I had to find out how he felt or I’d drive myself insane. There just didn’t seem to be any way around that.

How was I going to make it through the day, though? I couldn’t even think straight.

The first period bell rang just as I slid into my seat, and I was getting out my class notes when Alli leaned over and whispered, “Hey, is everything okay? I saw you run off this morning. What did Aiden want?”

Great. Now I had Alli reminding me what an ass-tard I was. I flipped through my spiral and responded, “Nothing really.”

“Nothing?
Really?
”

I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t tell her the truth: Oh, I don’t know what he wanted because I was a total bitch and he took off without telling me. I’m getting really good at avoiding him, though, don’t ya think?

Alli just sat there waiting for me to say something. I silently cussed Ms. Wallace for choosing now to let the class sit and talk while she finished checking her email, put down my spiral and admitted, “Well…I’m not sure what he wanted. He didn’t really say.”

“What do you mean?” She obviously wasn’t letting this go.

“Really, I don’t know. He just caught up with me, and I asked him what he wanted, then he just said never mind.”

Alli stared. I couldn’t read her. Finally, I said, “What?”

“Teagan, just give the poor guy a chance.”

I could barely wrap my brain around the fact that he even wanted a chance, which was what his sister’s words seemed to confirm beyond all doubt, but before I could ask her to elaborate our teacher decided to start class.

Lovely. Perfect timing. School’s always like that.

*****

After what seemed like an eternity and a half, the last bell of the day rang. I gathered my things and headed to my locker, and lo and behold Aiden Wright was standing there waiting for me. After the way I’d acted, it really seemed crazy that he was being so persistent.

I pasted a smile on my face, steeling myself to walk right up to him and be friendly.
Yes,
friendly, Teagan,
I told myself.
I know it seems a foreign concept for you lately, but you can do this. Don’t
run him off again
.

As I approached, he smiled that perfect crooked smile and said, “Hi again.”

“Hi,” I replied. Lame. So lame. But how was I supposed to not melt like ice cream on a hot summer day around this guy? It was either that or bite off his head, and I’d sworn not to bite off his head this time.

He moved aside so that I could open my locker, and I welcomed the distraction of swapping out books. Then he leaned forward , and I was suddenly overwhelmed by his closeness. Trying not to swoon, I continued messing around in my locker and hoped he would speak before me and my stupid mouth blurted something I’d surely regret.

Shifting from foot to foot, he finally spoke. “So…I was thinking that maybe—”

Out of nowhere, Becca appeared at his side. “Hey, baby, I’ve been looking for you all over. Thought I could drive you home.”

Aiden froze. Unable to control myself, I rolled my eyes and went back to fumbling inside my locker, even though there was nothing else that I needed. I wanted to see how he would handle this—assuming I could handle the way my heart was pounding. I wanted to take Becca and throw her out a window.

Before anything happened, Sean ambled our way. He stopped next to me, opposite of Aiden and Becca, and said, “Hey, Teagan. You busy this afternoon? Think you could help me study?”

Becca and Aiden were standing only inches away, and it was clear Sean was snubbing them. Great. He’d chosen that moment to start a war between the brave and the beautiful.

“Come on, Aiden. Let’s get out of here,” Becca said.

Sean asked again: “Well? Are you busy, Teagan?”

Holy Mother of God, this was awkward. I looked to Aiden, trying to gauge what he was thinking. Was I busy or not? I sure wanted to be.

Aiden turned to Becca. “Maybe another time. I was just about to see if Teagan wanted to hang out.”

Becca shrugged and strolled away, and her face was purposefully blank. She was making it clear that she hadn’t just got shot down, in case anyone was looking. A few people were.

Sean was still standing there. He lightly touched my arm and said, “Well…?”

Shit, shit, shit.
Was I really going to go hang out with Aiden? Was I really going to put myself in that position, being alone with him, letting him make me all melty inside, when I didn’t know what his ultimate intentions were? Been there, done that. I turned and said, “Maybe some other time. But, thanks.”

My words sounded exactly like the ones he had used on Becca. Looking completely defeated Aiden echoed, “Sure. Some other time.”

He turned and walked away without looking back.

23.

Aiden

“If they don’t get a move on, we’re going to be late,” my dad complained as he plopped down next to me on the couch.

“Be patient, old man,” I said. “Not everyone here is as naturally good-looking as we are. They have to get ready.”

I leaned back and put my feet up on the coffee table. Things weren’t tense between
us
for some reason. I didn’t know exactly why. My mom wasn’t alone in lying to me for all those years, but I knew that more than anything Dad wished he really
was
my biological father. I guess the pain in his eyes somehow made me less angry with him.

He didn’t seem to heed my advice about my mom and sister, though. “All right, ladies,” he called. “I’m going to warm up the car. Please be ready in the next five minutes.”

A short time later he was saying, “Remind me why we’re going to watch a musical starring that mean girl who left my baby at a pizza parlor penniless, phoneless, and twenty miles from home.” We were on the way to the high school.

“Paul, we talked about this,” my mom replied. “We have to try to get along and fit in now, and if one of the pack kids is in a play, that means we go and support them.”

“Whatever,” Dad muttered.

Even I had to admit Shari wasn’t all bad. She’d been hanging with the wrong girl. She hadn’t stood a chance going against someone like Kendall, and she had redeemed herself when Alli was kidnapped. If she hadn’t shown us that text from Dylan, we would have never found my sister in time.

We pulled into the high school parking lot right behind the Walkers. Marcus, Noel, Cade. Awesome. Them and us, one big happy-ass family. Alli and Cade immediately took off together, so I was left walking in with my parents toward the auditorium. All four of them.

It was hard to believe, but I’d begun to appreciate the frigid weather here a little more. It calmed my nerves, actually, made that slight itchy feeling I’d been getting under my skin lately ease a bit, but I wanted to get away from the uncomfortable situation of walking with the two sets of parents so I faked that I was freezing and walked quicker into the school.

I knew Teagan was there the second I entered the lobby. I could sense her like I had radar—or really, I could smell her. After a quick, awkward smile to some waving girls, I set off to find the source of that delicious scent.

It didn’t take long. She stood by the stage door with that guy friend of hers, Sean. When she smiled up at him, I felt this panic, this rage deep inside my gut, but I swallowed it down and listened instead. They weren’t acting all lovey-dovey or anything, so hopefully that was a good sign that there wasn’t anything romantic going on. Then I heard her tell him to break a leg.

Oh, he was in the show. Good. That meant he wouldn’t be sitting with her during the performance. I definitely didn’t need anyone else getting in the way of my asking her out. I’d had a hard enough time already.

As soon as he walked off, disappearing through the stage doors, I knew it was time to make my move. I forced myself to forget her refusal of the ride home from school and focused on nothing but her person: the shine of that long blonde hair, the curve of those hips in those jeans—

I was completely blindsided by my sister and Cade. They got to her just before I did, and at that moment I wanted to rip every single hair from Alli’s head and shove them down Cade’s throat. What was she doing? This was my chance!

“Teagan, come on. You’re sitting with us. Right, Aiden?” my sister said, glancing over her shoulder at me.

Oh.

Alli took Teagan by the arm and led her into the auditorium. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. She was pushing pretty hard for us to get together. I supposed I should thank her.

I caught up just as the lights dimmed. Shari had several rows of seats reserved, many of which were already filled, but thanks be to God we passed all of them and went down a little closer to the stage. There were three seats open, but we needed four now that we were with Teagan. It looked like Becca was saving a seat down at the other end of the row for me, but that was never going to happen.

Cade—being Cade, and the pack’s original next-in-line alpha—acted. He just asked the people sitting there to move down. The giggling girls gladly scooted over, and suddenly the problem was solved. It made me both grateful and nervous. Now I had about an hour and a half to woo Teagan. If I could just figure out how.

The show started. I tried paying attention, but to be honest I’m not a fan of musicals and the intoxicating scent of Teagan didn’t help. It seemed to pour off of her.

“Sean, right?” I leant in close and whispered into Teagan’s ear when he came onstage, and as a small gasp escaped her perfectly shaped mouth I hoped it was me, not Sean, causing that reaction. Whatever caused it, the reaction was sexy as hell and made my pulse quicken.

Teagan nodded and gave me a small smile.

“He’s good,” I said, trying to act as if her mere proximity wasn’t killing me.

This time, Teagan replied. “The best. He plans on moving to New York after he graduates.”

The
best
? Her praise of Sean cut into me, but I figured it’d be best to wait until he finished his big first scene to ask if they were more than friends. This killed me to do, but I managed.