Landry in Like (18 page)

“So how did you do it?” I asked.

“Well, Grandpa would tell me not to listen to them. His family was a mix of risk takers and what I call ‘play-it-safers.' He had a shot at a career in baseball but gave it up when he got promoted at his stable job that provided a good income. Then he met Grandma and realized settling down with a family and pursuing a baseball career did not go hand-in-hand, so he got married and that was the end of baseball. He didn't want to see me give up on what I wanted either.”

I nodded, surprised to hear that about Grandpa, but I wondered how a business career could be anywhere near as exciting as being a baseball player. Although Mom did seem to get super excited when she closed a big deal or got to be in charge of some major project at work. So maybe Mom's career was like Grandpa's baseball dream… just in a slightly more boring package.

“Does Grandpa regret it?”

She shrugged. “I think it's more a ‘What if?' or maybe an ‘If only' kind of thing where you look back and wonder what would've happened if you took a different road in your life. I think he's happy, but everyone wonders what might have been had they taken a big risk. I'm not going to lie to you. A lot of big risks end up in big failures — a lot of big failures.”

Oh great. How uplifting. She would be the worst motivational coach ever.

“But it's the people who have a lot of big failures and keep going that become the big successes,” she said. “Always remember—”

And here came the lecture.

“—you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes.”

Okay, so every once in a while she made sense. But telling her that would only lead to hearing more lectures.

“I had no idea Grandpa even thought about being a baseball player. I just thought he was super into the sport,” I said.

She nodded. “Yup, he got a call back after a tryout and had scouts coming to see him play.”

Wow, Vladi told me there were already scouts coming to watch him.

“Grandpa said his friends told him it was a pipe dream and would tease him about trying to go pro,” she said.

Sort of like my dad's stupid unsupportive friends that told him medical school would be too difficult and tried to talk him out of it. I asked Mom if she knew about that.

“Oh yeah, and I'll never understand why, but your dad remains friends with some of them. But guy friendships are weird to begin with. They don't see each other for ten years and then just drop in one day and act like that's normal. Women go a month without speaking and think the other person hates them and has moved on and that they're no longer friends,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“So this stuff doesn't change when you're older — at all? This is so depressing.”

“Sorry to disappoint you on that fact.”

“Did your friends at least support your college stuff?” I asked.

She bit her lip. “I didn't stay in touch with a lot of people from high school. The girls in my dorm were more into hanging out with boys and partying, and I was pretty focused at an early age. Plus, then I met your dad and he had a goal, too. He was the encouragement I needed to keep going. A lot of the girls I was friends with weren't as serious about school, and not all that encouraging either. So that's how I ended up getting married younger than I planned. Your dad became my best friend and my support system. Without him I might have given up when things got tough with business school and vice versa with your dad and med school.”

I never knew that was why my parents got married so young.

“So Dad was your best friend?”

“Still is. I know we fight and being apart is hard, but he told me to take the job in Grand Rapids, follow my dream, and we'd figure it out. Yeah, it's not easy, but he has been the one person who has always supported my dreams and been there for me when I had a bad day and told me to keep pushing. He never once told me to just give up and come home,” she said.

It was sweet to hear they have always been each other's biggest supporters. Kind of reminded me a little of Vladi now. My face got warm thinking about the idea of the two of us still being together down the road like my parents were.

“I wasn't lucky enough to have friends like you do. It's sweet they watch your stuff online and text you good luck on your tryouts and stuff,” Mom said.

I never realized my mother didn't have a lot of friends growing up. I thought people went to college and hung out in big groups having fun like they showed on TV.

“Yeah, but not all my friends are like that,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

I shifted. “Well, some people aren't so supportive. They act okay-ish, but they can be weird about it or say stuff kind of sarcastically so you don't know what they're actually saying. Like the words sound nice, but they're said with kind of a weird tone or whatever.”

“Keep in mind when your friends are acting funny about your modeling experiences it might be jealousy. I don't mean over looks, but the fact that you're taking chances and trying new things. It's hard to try something risky where you might fail,” she said.

“Like embarrassing yourself on live TV when you say the wrong thing and bump into some girl and almost knock the microphone stand over on stage?” I said, reminding her of my oh-so-lovely
American Ingénue
TV moment.

“And you didn't die after that, now did you?”

“I wanted to.”

She laughed. “But you showed poise, and that's why those modeling agents were interested in you. So see? It made you a stronger person to face those fears, go through something difficult, and keep going.”

“I could have done without that lesson. Like, maybe, I could have just read, ‘Hang in there' in a fortune cookie fortune and gone on with my life without the humiliation on live TV.”

“Funny,” she said smiling. “But then you wouldn't have had the opportunity for personal growth.”

“Are you hearing the part where it happened on live TV — in front of people?”

She shook her head. “If you want to pursue a big career, you have to be prepared for the big trials along the way.”

“Why does life have to be so hard?”

“Kid, I ask myself that every day.”

Sheesh, being an adult was just about as depressing as being a teen. At least adults could go to bed later and wear whatever they wanted to. There was still that to look forward to. And just like she could hear my thoughts, my mother told me to get my “tush” to bed.

I
missed
the bus the next morning, and Mom had to drive me to school. As she lectured me down the street, I thought about different ways I could tell my other friends about the whole ad thing without having to worry about dealing with drama and jealousy. I almost wanted to keep the whole thing to myself because it was like if you told one or two people, and then it came out that those guys knew, then the others got mad. It stunk that I could be so excited about something and yet want to hide it for fear of all the negative comments people would make to my face or, worse, behind my back.

“Landry, are you listening to me?” Mom's voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Huh? Yeah, maybe. Why?”

She sighed. “I said do
not
miss the bus this afternoon. I have another late meeting.”

I got out of the car and walked down the path thinking about how I'd share my news.

“Landry, I love your shoes,” Peyton said as I walked over to my friends. I noticed Yasmin look over at my feet when she heard Peyton. Then Yasmin frowned. Weird.

“Thanks.”

“So Landry, I heard about your ad thingie,” Yasmin said, walking over with Halle.

Devon raised her eyebrow.

“Oh yeah, um, well, I haven't signed anything yet—”

“That's great. You must be so excited,” Yasmin said, giving me a cold stare. It was creepy. The words coming out of her mouth were so nice, yet her face and tone were so mean.

“I am. It's a small job, but you have to start somewhere,” I said.

“You must think you're so famous with all the stuff you've been getting to do lately, huh?”

I swallowed. How did I answer
that
without looking stuck up?

“No, it's not a big deal at all.”

“And what does your boyfriend think of all of this?” she asked.

“I didn't tell him yet,” I said.

“That's odd. You mean he didn't call you last night?”

“No, we don't talk every night,” I said, but it got me wondering since Vladi had just told me how much he liked talking to me before he went to sleep. So why hadn't he called last night when he said he would?

“That's super weird because I heard about your ad last night when I was at the high school for cheer practice and he was there and heard all about it,” she said. “Ashanti was talking about it and it seems crazy he wouldn't have called you to congratulate you.”

It was then I noticed Halle couldn't look at me. She was staring at her feet, and I had a bad feeling.

“He was probably busy with track or homework and stuff,” I said.

“Yeah, I'm sure that's it,” Yasmin said, raising her eyebrows and giving Halle a look. Then she went to leave.

Devon, Peyton, and I watched them walk away. “You better find out from Ashanti what all went on after practice,” Devon said. “Something's up.”

Ashanti wasn't at her locker and we weren't allowed to text once the school bell rang, so I had to wait until lunch to talk to her. She wasn't at her usual table with Halle and Maggie and she wasn't in line to buy her lunch either. I got my food and then told Devon I had to run to the bathroom where I texted Ashanti and asked where she was. Turns out she wasn't in school today because she got dehydrated at cheer practice and had to leave early.

Ashanti:
I had to leave yesterday and get an I.V. and my parents are so overprotective that they had me stay home today.

I wrote back asking if anything weird had gone on with Yasmin and Vladi or anything.

Ashanti:
I saw the guys warming up by the fence, but I never talked to him. Maybe after I left? Call me when you get home.

I went back to the lunch table and started to eat when I heard my name. Devon spun her head around.

“Did somebody just say something about you?” she asked.

“I thought I heard my name, but maybe not.” My stomach was starting to roll, and it felt like the cafeteria had gotten twenty degrees colder since I walked in.

“It's probably nothing,” Devon said, but even she didn't look convinced.

We got to science and Stuart was throwing this paper ball thing he made around the room. All of a sudden, it landed on my desk.

“Hey, supermodel,” he said as he sat down at our table.

“Um, hey.” I pretended to be doing homework, but I was just writing random words down hoping he'd go away and leave me alone.

“So how's your boyfriend? What's his name again? Vladi?”

This was weird. “Yeah… why?”

“No reason, just wondering how that's going. Have a great day,” he said as he got up.

Have a great day? What? That was such an un-Stuart-like thing to say. Okay, now my stomach was in official panic mode. What was going on and why did people keep randomly bringing up Vladi?

After class, I went to the bathroom and when I came out of the stall, Halle was standing at the sink. She almost jumped when she saw me.

“Hey,” I said as I pumped some liquid soap into my hands.

“Um, hi.” She started to walk away and then stopped. “You didn't hear it from me, but Yasmin told your boyfriend that she heard you were flirting with Kyle.”

“What?” My stomach somersaulted. This could not be happening.

“I don't know what her deal was, but Arianna was right there, too. I mean, you know Yasmin likes Vladi, but whatever. They told him you wrote some note to Kyle and showed him a picture. I dunno. Just please do not tell anyone you heard about it from me, okay?”

She seemed scared as she stood there squeezing her upper arms, and I didn't know what to say.

“What picture?”

“I wasn't a part of it at all. I was just standing there,” she said.

I wanted to say, “But if you didn't stop them from spreading lies, then you were a part of it,” but I couldn't form any words.

I walked back to class feeling like I was going to throw up. In fact, I didn't say a single word in my next two classes. I don't think I even made eye contact with anyone. All I wanted was to get through the day without puking and/or crying and once I was at home, safe in my bedroom, I could sort this all out. I was afraid to tell anyone, even though I knew it was just a matter of time before other people found out. If someone like Ericka had done this, I could just stop talking to her or ask her why, but how did you handle it when the most popular girls at school were against you? It wasn't like I could just avoid them, and how did you stand up to them? Arianna always seemed like she was a nice person… okay, well nice-ish, but Thalia said she had another side to her. I didn't know what to do.

After school, I got on the bus without saying a word. I figured if I told my friends on the bus that people might overhear, and it would turn into something like, “Oh, Landry was talking bad about Yasmin. She's so fake. She's so two-faced, blah, blah, blah.” It would be better to call and tell them in private. However, I didn't get that chance because Ericka had already heard about it and had told them all before I even sat down.

“Oh wow, Landry, what are you going to do?” India asked.

I shrugged.

“Well, you have to call Vladi as soon as you can,” Devon said. “When does he get home?”

“The high school gets out earlier, but he has practice until late. He usually texts me after dinner if he doesn't have too much homework.”

Peyton told me to text him as soon as I could and tell him to call me. Turns out I didn't have to because as soon as I got off the bus and hit the power button on my phone, I had a text from Vladi saying he needed to talk to me.

I let myself in the house and then crawled into my safe, warm little bed before I called him. I had nothing to worry about. I mean, I didn't do anything wrong. It was just the most popular girl in school's words against mine. But he'd believe me, wouldn't he?

“What is going on?” he asked as soon as he picked up.

“I don't know. I heard there's some crazy rumor going around.”

“Rumor? I heard it from three people that you were seen writing some note to Kyle Eiton about him being awesome.”

“That was just some — it was nothing. He was being a weirdo and asking me for my autograph and I knew if I actually signed my name, then he'd be all, ‘She's so stuck up.' So I wrote that as a joke just to get him off my back,” I said.

“So you did
write it then?”

“Yeah, to be funny.”

“Are you sure? Because people are saying you had a crush on him before and that you guys flirt all the time.”

“No, he's just — he flirts with everybody.”

“So he does flirt with you?”

“Well, no, I mean, I don't know, he's…” How did I say I never knew if Kyle was flirting with me for real or trying to make a fool out of me?

“And he has some special pen with your name on it. This girl told me she was super upset when she found it in his backpack.”

“Oh, that was nothing. We just traded pens for… some reason.”

“So a guy wanted a baby blue girly pen with your name on it for the fun of it? Seriously? And she said she isn't speaking to him over that, so I think it's a pretty big deal,” Vladi said.

“I don't know why he wanted the pen. He just said it was a souvenir. Honestly, I think he was making fun of me for being on the talk show, you know, saying he wanted my autograph and the souvenir thing.”

“Okay, but she showed me a picture someone took with their phone of him with his arm around you.”

“It was nothing. I'm telling you the truth. Yasmin is just looking to cause trouble.”

“Why? That makes no sense.”

“Because that's what they do! And Yasmin used to like you. Remember she made it seem like you guys were practically going out?” I said.

“But she's with Kyle now, so why would she do that?”

“A million reasons! To make him jealous because he flirts with everyone under the sun, to get your attention, to make you question me and feel sorry for her and maybe to ask her out, and because she's a mean jerk. And some of these other girls want to get on her good side, so they're like her little minions.”

“That sounds paranoid and weird, Landry.”

He was right. It did, but it was also something I could totally see those girls doing. Boys would never get how mean girls could be sometimes.

“I didn't mean anything by what I wrote,” I said.

“You seemed pretty happy in the picture with his arm around you,” Vladi said. “Did you
ever
like him? Even a little bit?”

I paused because I didn't want to lie, but how did I tell Vladi that while I wasn't flirting with Kyle now, I did have a crush on him in the past? So, yeah, I was smiling in the picture because I was sort of flattered by the attention.

“A long time ago I thought he was sorta cute-ish,” I said. “But that was a long time ago, and nothing's happened since then. Lately, I don't like how he treats my friend Thalia. I would never flirt with some guy who was so rude to my friend.”

“Well, it sure looks like you were flirting in that picture and I—I just — I have to go,” he said.

“No wait, I—I…”

But he had already hung up. I texted him that I was being one-hundred percent honest with him and that I'd never flirt with Kyle or anyone behind his back, but Vladi didn't write back.

I called Peyton hoping she'd assure me that it would all be okay.

“I dunno, Landry. Yasmin's crowd kinda scares me a little. She has been trying to get back at Kyle for going between her and Arianna for a while now.”

“Then why doesn't she do something to him or Arianna?”

“Well, she can't because they're in her crew, but you're not, so you're a perfect target, and Kyle
does
kinda flirt with you. Ever since you went on the
Ingénue
thing, he pays more attention to you and she hates
it. Plus, she has a crush on Vladi so this makes perfect sense, and Maggie's still mad you took Ashanti away from her group.”

“But I didn't do anything wrong. Ashanti's free to be friends with anyone she wants, and I wasn't flirting with Kyle. I used to like the attention from him, but lately he's been a jerk to Thalia. Plus, he weirds me out a little because I never know how to take him.”

“Yeah, Stuart scares me like that, too. They act sweet, but you know there's, like, an ulterior motive or something,” Peyton said. “I think your best bet is to have Ashanti talk to Maggie or Halle and see if she can't get them to tell Vladi it wasn't a big deal.”

“There's no way either Maggie or Halle would go along with that.”

I called Devon next, and she said the only thing she could come up with was having Kyle talk to Vladi about the picture but that was even less likely.

I tried one more time to text Vladi, but he still didn't respond. I fell asleep that night with my phone still in my hand waiting to hear from him.