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Authors: Nia Stephens

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“How . . . virtuous,” Justin responded, but Bree suspected that
virtuous
was not exactly what he meant.
“You know, I really ought to be going,” Bree said nervously.
“You haven't touched your drink,” Justin pointed out.
“True.” Bree took a gulp of her scotch and water, then hid a wince. Scotch was more of a sipping drink, but she was desperate to leave. This awkwardness was worse than pre-audition jitters.
“Bree really enjoyed the play last night,” Justin told his brother civilly.
“Really?” Jason's huge smile made Bree's heart flop uncomfortably in her chest. “Thanks! I'm really proud of the cast and crew. They've pulled together better in just a couple of weeks than most people would in six months of rehearsals.”
“I'm sure the direction helps,” Bree said, smiling idiotically, though she tried to hide it behind her drink, even more when she saw that Jason was actually blushing.
“No, it's having a great cast and technical crew,” Jason insisted. “I was really lucky. And, of course, it's a great play. Have you read anything else by the playwright?”
“I don't think so,” Bree said, trying to remember.
“Let me grab something. Hang on.” Jason disappeared back into his room, and Justin slid over a little, which would mean Jason would be even farther from Bree when he got back.
“Aren't you going to call your driver?” Justin asked after thirty seconds of perfect silence.
“Um, right. Good idea.” Bree did just that, then gulped down the rest of her drink. “Sam'll be here in twenty minutes.”
“I'm sorry I didn't show you a better time.” Justin did sound sincerely sorry, though Bree wondered if that was because she was so clearly interested in his brother.
“It was fine. Basketball just isn't my thing,” Bree said, though she avoided saying,
especially when I'm with someone cheering for the wrong team.
“Would a movie premiere be a little closer to your taste? Now there's a smile. You're so beautiful, Bree.”
“Thank you.” Bree couldn't think of anything else to say to that, and she loved premieres. She went to a fair number with her father in LA, but her mother had always hated the red carpet. It made a certain sense: people paid a lot of money to photograph her walking the runway. Ameera didn't see the point in letting the paparazzi take free photos of her on the red carpet.
“Mom and Dad represent both of the leads in
Heart-Shaped Box
, so we've got a couple of tickets.”
Heart-Shaped Box
was the newest biopic of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, which was not exactly the most interesting subject to Bree. But a premiere was a premiere: famous people, fabulous after-parties, and a chance to network. She would love to go—if she could go with Jason. But that was impossible. Of course, if she kept going out with Justin there was a good chance she would see Jason again too. But what kind of girl did that?
The answer was obvious as soon as Jason bounded back into the room, clutching a stack of plays, essays, and short stories that Bree just had to read.
What kind of girl dated a guy just for a chance to see his identical twin? A girl who was crazy in love.
“Crazy is right,” Sutton said an hour later when Bree met her and Kylian at Surrender, a new club in SoHo that wasn't very careful about checking IDs. Kylian's new boyfriend was late, stuck in a stalled subway train somewhere under Manhattan, so Kylian was pacing his anxiety away on the sidewalk. “You can't go out with somebody because you're hot for his brother. That belongs in
A World Apart
, not the real world.”
“So what do you think I should do?” Bree asked, tugging at her hair in frustration. “Kick Justin to the curb and then hang around his dorm, hoping that Jason will walk by?”
“Why not?” Sutton slurped the last of her lemon drop martini noisily for emphasis.
“I don't know,” Kylian said grumpily after a text message from Lucas ordered him back inside the warmth of the club. “Maybe you haven't given Justin enough of a chance.”
“Are you totally cracked out?” Sutton asked. “She's already gone out with him twice.”
“But he's learning. He saw that she didn't dig basketball, so he asked her to a premiere. That means he's paying attention, trying to make you happy. I think that ought to count for something,” Kylian said, giving Bree a stern look. “You let Jake take you out three times, and he's a total rat!”
“I told Justin I'd let him know tomorrow about the premiere, but I don't know what do!” Bree signaled the bartender for another scotch on the rocks. It was her third of the night, and one past her limit, but she didn't really care. Her judgment couldn't get much worse, after all.
“You've got all night. Why don't you sleep on it?” Sutton suggested.
“You just want me to stop drinking and start dancing,” Bree complained.
“I want you to stop whining and start dancing,” Sutton said, pulling Bree from her barstool and to her feet. “Seriously, a few hours of shaking booty, a few hours of sleep, and you'll know exactly what to do.”
“You think?” Bree said doubtfully.
“She's right,” Kylian said, giving Bree a little shove from behind. “Dance now, think later.”
“All right.”
Bree gave in, losing herself to remixed beats from the early eighties. By the time she got to bed it was almost three
AM
and her worries about Justin and Jason didn't keep her from falling fast into an exhausted sleep. She didn't wake up until her mother banged on the door at eleven-thirty, trying to find her black glitter eyeliner.
“I haven't seen it,” Bree lied automatically, and slid deeper under her covers. Before she could fall back to sleep, the answer to the Justin/Jason problem announced itself so clearly it might have been a text message from her dreaming mind to her waking self.
Oh, no,
she groaned silently.
This is going to be hard.
Unfortunately, she also knew that it was the right decision.
 
Soap Opera Love
 
DOES BREE DECIDE TO KEEP GOING OUT WITH JUSTIN, KNOWING THAT JASON IS A BETTER FIT?
DOES BREE DECIDE TO TELL JUSTIN GOODBYE?
So you think Bree should say yes to the premiere with Justin? Read on to see what happens!
Chapter 7
Heart-Shaped Box
“J
esus! Do you put on this much makeup before every date?” Kylian asked, his voice shrieky with horror. There was a reason Sutton was Bree's usual pre-date date. Bree missed Sutton's snarky comments from her usual place on the bed. Kylian insisted on hovering right behind Bree as she applied her third shade of eye shadow, a highlighting gold dust, just under her brows. His scrutiny would make her nervous even if he wasn't squawking at her the entire time, which he was. She missed Sutton, but she was afraid to call her. Sutton had barely spoken to her since she agreed to go to the premiere with Justin. Sutton had skipped their runs all week, and had decided to stay after school to work on her college application essays with the guidance counselor instead of walking home with Bree and Kylian.
Bree was crushed. Sutton hadn't been this mad at her since Bree went to the Rittenhouse freshman formal with Jordan when they were thirteen, and even then Sutton's anger hadn't lasted more than three days.
“I don't know what Sutton's problem is!” Bree said, slamming down the little tin of gold eye shadow. “She doesn't even know Justin! He's not that nice a guy! It's only our third date anyway!”
“It's not about Justin really,” Kylian explained, examining Bree's eyelash curler. “It's that whole lawyer's kid thing. Sutton has a bad case of ethics, and she thinks what you're doing is wrong.”
“So? She's thought lots of things I've done were wrong, but that didn't make her stop talking to me!”
“She thinks this is a whole different kind of wrong. Come on, Bree—you can't say you're all that surprised. Sutton flips out over weird things sometimes.”
“I know,” Bree agreed, taking the eyelash curler away from Kylian. “Remember when Jordan decided to skip his senior prom and go to
Rocky Horror
with us? And she wasn't even his date!”
“Yeah, but she was going to go with Chris Van Allen, so there was a chance she would get to dance with Jordan. So that's different,” Kylian pointed out.
“True. By the way, to answer your earlier question, this
is
a lot more makeup than I usually wear. But this is a movie premiere, not another basketball game.”
“So this date will have to be better than the last.”
Kylian sounded so hopeful, Bree caught his eye in the mirror. “Are you still thinking that things might work out between me and Justin?”
“Stranger things happen,” Kylian said with a shrug.
“Not a chance,” Bree said sadly. “I've got to return all those books to Jason, and this seemed like the easiest way to do it. My number is tucked into one of them. Maybe he'll call me.”
“You really aren't interested in Justin at all? Not even a little bit?” Kylian's voice was getting even higher. Bree did not like where this was going.
“No. When I think about Jason, my heart slides into my throat and I can hardly breathe. But when I think about Justin, nothing.”
“Oh.”
“What do you mean,
oh
?” Bree was still watching him in the mirror. There were two bright spots of color on his pale cheeks. It looked like he was the one applying blush.
“I mean . . . if you really are just using him to get tickets to a movie premiere, and to give your phone number to his brother . . .”
“Come on, say it,” Bree said, massaging her temples.
“Then maybe Sutton's right. Maybe you shouldn't be going on this date tonight.”
“Thanks, Kylian. You're a great wingman. Loads better than Sutton.”
“Sorry, sweetheart, but it's true!” he said, squeezing Bree's shoulders. “It's not right!”
“What do you think I should do? Just walk away from my only connection to the man who was meant for me?”
“Um . . . yeah,” Kylian said. “Exactly.”
“I can't! I can't break my own heart!”
“Actually,
only
you can break your own heart. But what you're doing to Justin is just plain wrong. If you can live with that, fine. Your love life's your own business. But you know how evil this is.” Kylian smacked his forehead. “Now you've got me talking like I'm on a soap opera! This has got to stop.”
“Where are you going?” Bree asked, watching Kylian shuffling into his massive puffy coat. He looked absolutely idiotic, like a midget Michelin man, but he stayed warm all winter.
“I'm meeting Lucas for coffee, then we're going to hear Kelly Link at KGB.” He swooped down to give Bree a kiss on the cheek. “Just for the record, I think you're going to be on Santa's naughty list this year if you keep this up.”
“Who cares? It's not like Santa ever put true love in my stocking.”
“But he did bring you that vintage ballgown you wanted so badly last year, remember?”
Bree groaned. “Of course I remember! It's the most beautiful thing I own!”
“Well, then. Nighty-night, sweetheart.”
“Nighty-night.”
Bree put on her darkest, reddest lipstick and frowned at herself in the mirror. She didn't like it when guys used her; she couldn't like herself if she used guys. It really was as simple as that.
But, it was too late to call Justin and cancel. His limo should be downstairs within the next five minutes, if he was on time. And she had to give him Jason's books anyway. She had devoured them during the week since she had a lot more free time without Sutton hanging around her apartment, distracting her. She decided not to give Jason her number, though. If he could convince his brother to give it to him, great. If Justin wouldn't pass on her number, fine. It was a lot to ask of someone, and, if he really cared, Jason could try to hunt her down.
Bree was slipping into her black silk evening coat, lined with a superfine, superwarm merino, when the night doorman called to let her know that her ride had arrived.
“Thanks, Calvin,” she said, giving herself one last once-over in the full-length mirror. Golden silk stilettos peeked from the bottom of her coat, the same color as her hair. She approved of the packaging, but she was unimpressed with the soul inside.
“Time to get this over with,” she said sternly to her reflection, then she marched resolutely toward the elevator as fast as her high heels would allow.
Justin relaxed in the back of the limousine as if he spent every night in a custom-tailored tuxedo. He gleamed like a polished statue from the top of his freshly shaved scalp to the tips of his night-black shoes. Before he could say anything, even hello, Bree got in and dumped Jason's books in his lap.
“I can't go out with you tonight,” she said in a rush. “I don't think we should see each other anymore. I'm really sorry. Bye.”
Bree flung herself towards the door, but Justin caught her hand.
“Wait! What—”
“I don't want to talk about it, and you wouldn't want me to talk about it. So let's just say goodbye, all right?”
“No, it's not all right! I know we just met, and we barely know each other, but I feel connected to you, Briona! I want to get to know you better!”
“Jason?”
“I knew it was wrong to try to trick you. But I didn't know how you would feel about Justin giving out your number—”
Bree took a closer look at Jason, fully realizing what he'd done for her. “You shaved your head just for tonight?”
He shrugged, a desperate look on his face. “It's just hair. It'll grow back. I wanted to see you!”
Bree knew it would sound melodramatic, like something from
A World Apart
, but she had to say it: “You do see me. From the moment we met, you saw through to the real me.”
Jason smiled, then pulled Bree into his arms. “So you feel it too? It's not just in my head?”
“Yes,” Bree assured him, cuddled to his chest. “But what about your brother? How did you get him to switch with you? I feel so bad!”
Jason laughed. “I bribed him.”
“With what? Basketball tickets?”
“I told him he didn't have to come see any of my plays for the next six months.”
Bree giggled. “Glad to hear I'm so cheap!”
“You're not cheap, Briona. You're very precious. If Justin couldn't see how much there was to you, that's his problem.”
“Well, in that case—” Bree kissed him, first lightly, then fiercely, clinging to him with both of her tiny gloved hands. She had come so close to losing any chance with Jason, she would never take any moment with him for granted, even if things didn't work out for them in the end. But it was hard for Bree to think about the future, good or bad, when she was twined around Jason, locked in a kiss that would melt all the ice in the champagne bucket if they didn't stop. Bree hoped that there was an icemaker hidden somewhere in the limo, because she didn't think she would ever let him go.
 
 
BREE SEEMS HAPPY ENOUGH WITH HER CHOICE. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
turn to page 93
to see what would have happened if she decided to dump Justin, or
turn to page 53
to choose another boy.

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