Covet (17 page)

She ignored my plea while gathering up her things. “Sorry, champ, but I’d better head home before my mom gets worried. She knew I was stopping by here, but it’s later than she probably expected.”

Mom had left the door propped open. I could hear the determined, steady clacking of her heels returning down the hall.

“Bethany, please!” I held out the bowl of creamed corn. “At least toss it in the trash for me or something.”

Biting the corner of her lip for a few seconds, she finally grabbed the bowl and dumped it in the trash under the sink. She was just putting the bowl back on the tray for me when Mom reentered the room.

“There you go, all salted and peppered as requested,” she said with a bright smile.

“Oh, men can be such babies when they’re sick or injured, can’t they?” Mom agreed with a smile.

“Well, I’d better go now. See you tomorrow?” Bethany said to me.

I nodded, shoving the gelatinous gravy around on top of my turkey while Mom moved to prop up the pillows behind my back.

“Thank you for coming, dear,” Mom murmured to Bethany before returning to her pointless attempts to make me more comfortable.

At the door, behind Mom’s back Bethany mouthed, “McDonald’s?” while using a pointer finger to draw imaginary golden arches in the air. I nodded frantically.

Mom made me lean forward so she could stuff an extra pillow behind me. I craned my head around her and mouthed, “Big Mac!”

Bethany shot two thumbs up then ducked out.

* * *

By the time Bethany returned the next day, I couldn’t tell if I was happier to see her or the McD’s bag she pulled out of her duffel.

“Oh man, you’re an angel,” I mumbled around the biggest mouthful of Big Mac I could manage.

She laughed as lettuce dripped onto my hospital gown.

I scarfed down the food and promised to pay her back as soon as my jailors returned my wallet. She hid the empty trash inside her duffel bag, and then we tackled the day’s homework.

When Mom showed up later for a visit, she frowned and sniffed the air. “Is that…takeout I smell?”

Smiling, Bethany put a demure hand up in front of her mouth. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Mrs. Coleman. That was me. I just burped.”

I covered up a snort of laughter by pretending to sneeze.

“Oh here, dear.” Mom reached for the box of tissues on the bedside table. “Don’t hold in your sneezes like that. It’ll inflame your sinuses.”

Mom held a tissue in front of my face. When I stared at it, she gave the tissue a shake. “Blow.”

“Mother,” I muttered through clenched teeth, feeling my face heat up.

“I should go.” Bethany gasped, her face turning red as she no doubt choked on the urge to laugh. “See you tomorrow, Tristan.”

I was still blowing my nose for my mommy as Bethany ducked out the room, leaving a trail of giggles echoing down the hall.

* * *

Over the next few days, the routine repeated, thankfully without any repeated nightmarish demonstrations of my mother’s overprotective style of parenting. Bethany’s visits quickly became the highlight of the day, mostly because of the food she smuggled in, but also because she was nice. I’d never really had a chance to talk with her before; at Charmers practice when she would come over, I had always kept the chats short so we wouldn’t make Savannah jealous. And in school we were always in a hurry to get to our next class.

Other than the occasional teasing about my being a momma’s boy, Bethany actually had a great sense of humor. She also wasn’t afraid to boss me around when I tried to slack off during the tutoring sessions and watch TV instead.

On Friday Emily finally got over being ticked off and stopped by to bug me. Bethany was still there when my sister arrived. Other than a quick flash of raised eyebrows, Emily was nice enough not to make a big deal about Bethany’s visit. At least at first.

“So, sis, you going to bring me here next week for my physical therapy sessions? The doctors said I’ll have two or three a week, maybe an hour or so each. We could probably schedule them in the afternoons if you want.” School would have half days all next week, with two final exams each day. I would be released from the hospital on Saturday so I could get rested up in time to attend them.

“No can do,” Emily said while making a point to bite into a quarter-pounder with extra cheese. Her obvious attempt to torture me wasn’t working, though; I’d already inhaled a custom triple-decker from Dairy Queen an hour earlier courtesy of Bethany.

“Why can’t you give me a ride?” It wasn’t like she would be sleeping in all week. She had to take final exams, too, and pass them, in order to graduate. And since it would be weeks before I could drive myself again, I would already be hitching a ride with Emily to school every morning.

“Because after the exams, I have to stay for cheerleading practice with the varsity Maidens. And then after that, I’ll have to drive to Tyler to the University of Texas campus to practice with the college squad.”

“Now I know you’re lying,” I grumbled. “It’s the end of the school year. What can you possibly need to practice for now?”

“Lots of stuff,” she snapped back. “The UT cheer squad competes at cheer camp every summer, so we have to start getting ready for it as soon as possible. And since it’s a coed team and I have zero experience doing coed stunting, trust me when I say I need all the practice I can get with them. And I’m still working with the Maidens squad this month because I have to train my replacement for next year’s team captain. The Maidens voted in Sally Parker.”

I snorted. “Well, there goes our varsity cheer squad for next year.”

Even Bethany giggled at that, though she tried to cover it with her hand.

Emily sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. The Maidens went for sweet and stupid instead of diabolical genius. I can’t really blame them, though. It was either her or Vanessa Faulkner. Nobody else wanted it.”

I shuddered. “Good choice.” Vanessa was so mean she would run everyone off the team in no time if they’d chosen her for captain.

Clearing her throat to hide another giggle, Bethany rose and picked up her things. “I’d better be going. Good luck next week.”

“Thanks,” Emily and I both replied.

“Hey, thanks for all the tutoring and the…well, you know,” I finished lamely, not wanting to mention the takeout and give Emily any more additional blackmail to use against me with our parents.

Emily’s eyebrows rose again at that.

“Sure!” Bethany said. She started out the door then stopped and turned back. “Hey, I could give you a ride to your physical therapy sessions next week. If you can get them set up after lunch, we could grab a bite to eat then head straight from school to here.”

“Okay, but this time the grub’s on me,” I said. “Otherwise the deal’s off.”

“You drive a hard bargain. See you Monday after school.” With a wave, Bethany turned and headed down the hall toward the elevators.

Emily cleared her throat loudly.

“What?”

“She seems really nice.”

“Yeah, she’s not too bad.”

Emily threw a balled-up napkin at me. Bored, I used a little power to make it stop midair then reverse direction and zoom back at her. Laughing, she mimicked me, holding up a hand to halt the napkin.

“I think she likes you.” She flicked her wrist and the napkin headed my way again.

I caught it without touching it, bouncing it in the air a few times with my energy. Shrugging in response to her comment, I made a thumping motion at the napkin and it flew through the air to circle around Emily’s head.

Ducking, she froze the napkin ball between her hands. “So unless you actually like her back, you might want to be careful.”

We pretended the napkin was a basketball for a while, dribbling it off the ceiling, the walls, the TV screen, trying to outdo each other’s crazy bank shots.

“Why can’t she just be a friend?” I suggested.

“A girl who’s just your friend? I didn’t think you knew how to do that.”

“Maybe I should learn. Lots of guys have female buddies, right?”

“Mmm.” She caught the napkin as it veered off the bathroom door, deftly sending it sliding across the top of the window blinds. “Well, I guess you could always try it and see how it turns out.”

“Wow, knock me over with your faith there, sis.” I frowned and grabbed the napkin. Pretending it was the tip of an invisible sparkler now, I tried drawing shapes in the air with it.

Emily stole it back. “I just think you’re going to have a tough time keeping it at just a friend thing with her.” She made the napkin draw the shape of a giant heart.

“What if I’m upfront with her? Tell her right from the start that I’m not looking for a girlfriend.” Not unless it was Savannah. “Then she won’t expect anything beyond friendship.”

She sighed. “Good luck with that.”

The door opened and Mom came barging in like the head of a small SWAT team on the offense. “What are you two
doing?
I could feel the power use from the parking lot!”

Emily dropped her hand and the napkin hit the floor and rolled out of sight under the rocking chair. “Nothing. Just talking.”

“Yep. Just talking.” I put on a big smile.

Mom glared at both of us then sighed. “I’m going to see about some DVDs or something to keep you two out of trouble. While I’m gone, be good!” Muttering about packing her wild heathen children off to stay with their cousins in Ireland for the summer, she swept out again.

“She doesn’t really mean that, does she?” I asked with a frown. “She remembers she agreed to let me play football again, and that I’ve got physical therapy and then football training starts up right after that, right?”

Emily snickered. “You better hope she does.”

The napkin hit my temple out of nowhere, and the game was back on.

* * *

I meant to have the “only friends” talk with Bethany the following week. I even opened my mouth, the words right there ready to be said, when we stopped by Taco Bell for lunch Monday after the day’s final exams.

But then she hopped up to get us sauce, mild for her, medium for me, and when she returned she brought a stack of napkins.

“In case you decide to drool again,” she joked, plopping the napkins on the table between us.

And in the middle of teasing her back, I forgot about having the talk with her.

Savannah looked ready to cry on Friday when I awkwardly hopped and lurched up the steps into Mr. Smythe’s portable building for the history exam. I’d finally started to get the hang of this whole crutch walking business, though my good arm’s armpit was killing me. The leg cast was heavy, so it took some effort to get it positioned under my desk after I sat down beside her. By the time I was all tucked in and ready to talk, Mr. Smythe was passing out the exams and telling everyone not to say a word or we would get automatic Fs for cheating.

Afterward, Savannah took advantage of how slow my injuries made me and shot out of class like a bolt.

So much for one last talk before the summer break.

CHAPTER 12

SAVANNAH

The summer break couldn’t come fast enough.

All I wanted to do was hole up in my room and escape the constant bombardment of everyone else’s emotions slamming me every time I left home. I’d thought the ability had calmed down. But lately my own emotions had been a nonstop roller-coaster ride, making it harder to control sensing others’. Thankfully, I was about to get several blissful weeks of solitude. As usual, my friends’ parents had filled up their summer with family babysitting for Michelle, candy-striping and volunteering at a nursing home for Carrie, and church camp and helping bale hay out on her uncle’s farm for Anne. Even the Charmers wouldn’t need me for a couple of months. The team would be going off to dance team camp for a week, then the officers would be at leadership camp, then we’d have all of July off and wouldn’t meet back up until the team’s annual boot camp week and slumber party in August just before school started again.

All I had to get through was the junior summer party that first Saturday after school let out for summer break.

But what should have been a simple lake party turned out to be way tougher than I’d expected. I’d braced myself for the onslaught of emotions that hit me when I entered Bethany’s family lake house and dropped off two bottles of Sprite, my contribution to the food table. But then I headed downstairs and out onto the private pier just in time to hear Bethany telling everyone that she was dating Tristan now.

Tristan was already dating again? He’d just gotten out of the hospital! How could you go on dates wearing two casts and covered in staples and stitches?

For a few seconds, I couldn’t even move from the doorway, the slapping of the waves of water against the pier doing nothing to soothe me or cover up Bethany’s voice as she chattered on about how she was driving him to his physical therapy sessions three times a week and home from school every day in between, and where they’d eaten lunch together, and how bravely he was fighting through the physical therapy to recover as fast as he could for football training season.

If I’d eaten any lunch, I would have lost it all over the pier right then and there.

Tristan was dating Bethany. Not just taking her to a single dance. Actively, continuously dating her.

A few heads turned my way, and someone nudged Bethany’s shoulder. She looked up, saw me standing there, blushed, and stopped talking.

Feeling too many eyes on me, I pasted on a smile, waved hello to everyone then went to sit at the edge of the pier with the two girls who had been managers with me this year until they’d re-auditioned and made the team for next year. I pretended to listen to them, though I actually had no clue what they were talking about.

Bethany resumed recounting all her recent dates with Tristan, this time in a whisper. But of course my stupid vamp hearing had no trouble picking up every word.

I’d thought I knew Tristan, but lately I couldn’t figure him out. Even before the wreck, Tristan’s decision to take Bethany to the dance had confused me. First he’d promised to find a way for us to be together and even asked my dad to turn him. A week later he was taking someone else to the dance. At the dance, I’d thought I heard him telling me to have faith in us, that we’d find a solution. I’d helped his sister save his life. And then, right after he got out of the hospital, he was back to dating someone else again. To make me jealous? As a decoy to make his parents think he was moving on?