Forbidden Boy (2 page)

Julianne motioned to her nearly full can of PBR. “I’m all set.” Chloe nudged her and tilted her head toward a keg about fifteen feet away. A guy, probably Chloe’s age, was dangling above it, upside down, supported by his friends.

“That’s Michael,” Chloe announced, like she was showing off a prize pig at a state fair. Julianne followed Chloe’s meaningful stare in the direction of the airborne hottie without making any sort of connection.

“Who’s Michael?” Chloe widened her eyes and arched her eyebrows as though Julianne had just asked her where babies came from. “Oh, right.” The pieces snapped together in Julianne’s mind. “The stress-reliever.

Gotcha.”

Michael flipped down off the keg and charged toward Chloe and Julianne, one arm outstretched, calling out,

“Chloe! My favorite lab partner!” as he approached.

Michael was tall and tan. His chest muscles were clearly outlined under the two coordinating J.Crew polo shirts he had layered one atop the other—both collars standing pertly at attention. His blond hair was messy, sticking up in post-keg-stand chaos, and his brown eyes were like dishes of melting chocolate. Well-worn khaki cargo pants hung off of his massive quadriceps. He looked just like all the rest of Chloe’s frat friends—definitely hot, but a little too aware of his hotness to be Julianne’s type.

“Michael, this is my sister, Julianne.” Chloe beamed once he was standing at her side. “Jules, this is Michael.

He was in my physics section last semester. I never would have made it through without him.”

Michael grinned and rolled his eyes. “Your sister is full of it. She practically wrote the textbook. She put the rest of us premed dorks to shame.” Chloe flipped her hand at him dismissively. Julianne knew that Chloe could run circles around anyone in a math or science class. Or graph circles around them. Whatever it was that physicists actually did.

“Her modesty is only part of her charm.” Julianne laughed, teasing her sister. “Nice to meet you.” She extended her hand toward Michael for a handshake and was surprised when he pulled her into a hug. “Chloe’s told me a lot about that class,” Jules said, recovering her compo-sure.

“Really?” Michael asked incredulously.

“Nope. Actually, not at all. Unless—wait … did the TA have a faux-hawk and a fantastic butt?”

“I’m more of a bowl-cut guy myself, so I didn’t really notice. Sorry ’bout that.” He chuckled at his own joke.

While he spoke, Julianne glanced behind him. A pack of identical frat boys, all clad in the same polo shirts, khaki pants, and rumpled hairstyles as Michael, were approaching quickly from the bonfire.

“Dude, where’d you go?” One of the guys clapped a beefy hand onto Michael’s back.

“Yeah, dude, you disappeared,” another one echoed, punching him in the shoulder. Julianne caught Chloe’s eye, and the sisters stifled a giggle.

Michael gestured toward Julianne and Chloe. “Guys, this is Chloe, my lab partner from last semester, and this is her sister, Julianne.”

Julianne said hello and smiled, but walked away as quickly as her round-toed slip-ons would allow in the sand.

“What’s wrong?” Chloe asked, following her. “Didn’t you like Michael? He’s such a sweet guy. And check out his arms.”

“No, he was fine,” Julianne answered, taking a lap around the kegs. “He was cute—just like every single guy you know is cute—but he wasn’t really my type. Besides, I want to try to catch up with some more people from school before they start leaving. You know, try to make plans before we all start working. But he
was
really cute.

And I think he may have been interested in talking about more than lab with you.”

Chloe’s eyes sparkled. “Really? You think? But I was really hoping that you guys might, you know, hit it off tonight.”

Julianne, detecting the sparkle of interest in Chloe’s voice, grinned at her sister. “Go for it. You should definitely go for it,” she encouraged. “Besides, you always tell me that you have excellent taste …”

Chloe giggled but didn’t have a chance to answer. As she opened her mouth to speak, a skinny brown-haired guy came hurtling across the beach—propelled by the force of someone’s sloppy keg-stand dismount—and tumbled directly into her, knocking her down with him.

The brown-haired guy panted, “Good to know that gravity’s still working.” He turned to Chloe. “Are you okay?” Chloe nodded, clearly a little dazed, and dusted the sand off of her denim skirt. He shifted his gaze to Julianne and smiled. “How about you? I didn’t take you out, too, did I?”

“Nope. Still standing. Are
you
okay?” She smiled at him, pulled her hair out of its bun, and let the curls spill down her back.

The reflection from the bonfire lit his face and his dark eyes shimmered. Julianne felt a flash of jealousy.

There was a part of her that really wished that this skinny, possibly-concussed stranger had managed to land right smack on top of
her
instead of her sister.

The brown-haired guy’s mouth was pasted into a perfect half smile. She felt like she was in the middle of every single musical where the dancing stops and the star is suddenly backlit by one huge glowing spotlight.

“Yeah, fine. Who knows? Maybe this is the start of a promising career in roller derby?” He had one of those wry, almost winking, smiles. He was tall, skinny without being gawky, but definitely a little bit awkward in a really endearing way. Julianne wanted to tousle his hair or make sure he drank enough milk. His eyes were huge—

dark and fluid.

“Hey, Crash,” she joked. “Do you have a name?”

He blushed. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. First I plow over your friend, then I’m flat-out rude. I’m Remi.”

“Remi, huh? Cool name.” Julianne held her hand out to him. “Julianne. And you just met my sister, Chloe. She looks different upright, though.” She gestured to Chloe, who was fixing her hair and talking to unfortunate-keg-stand guy and Michael, who had rushed over to make sure she was okay. Remi saluted in Chloe’s direction.

“Way to make an entrance!” Chloe called back in their direction.

Remi looked sheepishly at Julianne and smiled. She felt time start slipping into cinematic slow motion again and grasped for some sort of normal human social question to ask next. “Do you, um, live around here?” she stammered.

“Seattle, actually.” Over his shoulder, the waves were crashing against the beach.

“Oh.” Julianne felt her throat closing. She’d known this guy for maybe thirty seconds, but the thought of him not being in LA this summer made her queasy.

“Yeah, I’m in school up there. But I’m around for the summer. My parents just moved here.” Julianne felt herself relax instantly. “Are you from the area?” he asked.

Julianne thought she detected hopefulness in his voice.

“Unfortunately.” Julianne laughed and rolled her eyes in the direction of a group of girls, each doing a variation on the same Malibu Barbie impression, struggling to form a human pyramid a few feet away. “No, actually I love it here. Just don’t judge all of us by the Pussycat Dolls over there.”

“Maybe you could show me around sometime? Save me the effort of having to get to know the place better all by myself before I get the wrong idea?” Remi paused.

“I mean, if you don’t have too much going on this summer.”

“Sure. I can do the tour with my eyes closed. No human pyramid, though.” They laughed, and Julianne felt her entire body filling with warmth. She knew she was beaming like an idiot. At least she wasn’t the only one. She’d never felt this comfortable talking to someone before, and yet so awkward at the same time.

Somehow, talking to Remi was like breathing. She wasn’t sure she would know how to stop. She was pretty sure that she didn’t want to. Remi and Julianne made eye contact again, grinning at each other like fools. Faces illuminated by the moonlight and the distant bonfire, they stared at each other until it felt like time had completely stopped.

Suddenly, Julianne felt a hand on her back and whipped around. “Sorry to break up the party,” Chloe said, rubbing her temples, “but I have a headache and need to go home. Jules, can you drive?”

“Oh God, was it—” Remi started, but Chloe cut him off.

“No worries,” she assured him. “I’ve taken worse falls than that. Besides, Michael’s buying me dinner tomorrow to make up for it. These frat guys have loyalty down to a science, huh?” Chloe grinned. “Anyway, it was good running into you. Get it? Running into you? Oh God, I actually said that out loud. I need to go home.” Chloe started off down the beach toward the car.

“Okay, well, see you around.” Julianne looked down at the ground. She could barely breathe.

“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you.” Remi’s voice was barely audible, his shoulders sloping downward.

Jules felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, but she tossed her shoulders back, laced her fingers through her belt loops, and straightened her back as she started to walk away. Fifty yards down the beach she heard Remi’s voice.

“Hey, Julianne!” Remi was suddenly right beside her again, breathing heavily after his sprint. “You forgot this.” He tucked a scrap of paper into her hand. “My phone number.” Not smooth—definitely not smooth—

but very cute. “You know, in case your sister needs it for health insurance or whatever. And so you can give me that tour. It’s hard work getting jaded on your own, you know.” He grinned.

“Definitely.” She smiled back. “I wouldn’t want to leave you hanging.”

Remi’s face softened as he stared right into Julianne’s eyes. She felt like he could actually see inside her head—

that somehow, effortlessly, they already understood each other. Softly, he put his hand on the side of her face and Julianne felt like the spot was on fire. Her heart started to race with a mix of giddiness and panic. She had just met this guy, and she was already feeling totally swept away. Was she completely crazy? Swimming inside the feeling, Julianne shut her eyes. She felt their bodies move closer to each other, and then his lips touched hers. Julianne felt like she was floating above the beach—watching the moonlight reflecting off the water, the huge expanse of perfectly flat sand, the couple on the ground kissing. It was as if fireworks were exploding everywhere. She felt like the entire beach had been electrified by their kiss.

“I’m sorry—I’m really, really sorry,” Julianne murmured, breaking out of Remi’s arms. “I have to go. I don’t know where Chloe went, and I don’t know if she’s okay. I need to find her.” Julianne’s throat was dry. It was like the very worst part of every fairy tale. Suddenly she was Cinderella at midnight. “I’ll call you, I promise.” She flashed the scrap of paper with a triumphant smile before taking off down the beach in search of her sister.

Julianne drifted toward the small parking lot where they’d left the car a few hours earlier, calling Chloe’s name over and over. She couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. It had just felt so
meant to be
somehow. A guy she had never seen before had literally fallen right into her lap—okay, well, her sister’s lap, but close enough—at the start of the summer, on the beach she loved.

And he wasn’t just any guy. Julianne couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something special about Remi. As she scanned the tiny parking lot, she made a mental note to give Chloe some “I told you so” points for dragging her out to this party.

Out of the corner of her eye, Julianne saw Chloe sitting on the ground, leaning against the bumper of their car, her head resting next to a faded “Imagine Whirled Peas” bumper sticker that their dad had stuck on.

Julianne crept over and put her hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “Chloe,” she said softly, kneeling next to her sister.

“Sorry I disappeared, I was just … saying goodbye to someone. C’mon, let’s go.”

Chloe opened her eyes, and turned to face Julianne.

“Not so fast, Missy. You were so
not
just giving out casual goodbyes. Look at you—you’re glowing! I can even see it in the dark with major head trauma! Tell me everything.”

Julianne smiled. She couldn’t stop beaming. “I think this will tell you everything you need to know,” she intoned dramatically as she dug her hand into her right pocket to show Remi’s phone number to Chloe. But all she felt was the fabric. She could have sworn it was in there. She reached into her left pocket and came up empty-handed again. Horrified, she thought back to saying goodbye to Remi. Suddenly, she realized that she’d never put the paper in her pocket. She had been holding it when she dashed off. Now, clearly, she wasn’t clutching the little scrap of paper anymore. She must have dropped it on the beach. Julianne felt her heart drop to the sand as she helped Chloe into the passenger seat of the Toyota hybrid they were sharing this summer. She thought she was going to be sick.

How could she be so upset—she’d just met the guy—

at a beach party of all places. Maybe she’d been taken in by the bonfire, the PBR, and the view from the beach.

But even as she tried to rationalize, Julianne knew there was more to it. She knew that if she didn’t find some way to see Remi again, she would be losing out on something really wonderful.

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Jules,” Chloe murmured sleepily. “If he’s your Prince Charming, he’ll find his way back. He has to, actually. I think it’s in the job description.” But Julianne barely heard her.

The sisters drove home in silence. Chloe napped with her head pressed against the cool car window. And Julianne tried to fight back her growing disappointment.

She had just met an amazing guy who she would probably never see again.

This did not bode well for her summer.

Julianne felt the sun streaming in her bedroom window and rolled over, burying her head in a smooshy pillow. She had been having such completely bliss-ful, vivid dreams that she didn’t want to nudge herself back into reality, no matter how glorious the California morning was. She glanced at her alarm clock—it was almost noon. She’d meant to be up at 9:30, but she just hadn’t been able to tear herself out of dream world. She rolled over again, pressing her face directly into the folds of her pillow and breathing in the last lingering remnants of the lavender linen spray that Chloe always spritzed around on laundry days. The new Regina Spektor album was drifting out of her stereo alarm clock, and Julianne allowed herself to drift along with the dreamy melodies until she fully gave into conscious-ness. With one last sleepy sigh, she pushed herself upright and swung her legs off the side of the bed. Julianne stood up and stretched, raising her hands over her head and arching her back, trying to shake the sleep from her joints.