Please Don't Tell (9 page)

             
I started drifting into la-la land. I let my thoughts roam to Jason, wondering if he would be excited to see me. Wondering if he bought me a present. I bought his weeks ago. Just a bottle of cologne, but still, it was something. Over the last few months we had gone on many dates, and even though I enjoyed being with him, something had always felt off. I couldn’t shake the feeling that my new ‘down the hall neighbor’ might have something to do with it.

             
My thoughts came to a screeching halt when a huge man smelling like he just ate five pounds of salami sat down next to me. Yuck! I turned my head toward Austin who was obviously happy he had the window seat as I felt the man nudge his way into a more comfortable position next to me. My brother smiled, turning his attention to the outside of the plane when I noticed the man had wriggled out of his shoes. Double yuck! Reaching into my bag, I pulled out a stick of gum and my iPod. My eyes closed as I’d let the music blast into my ears with images of Ethan’s hands on my hip as we danced on our vacation. I hadn’t quite felt the same about Ethan since that night and it had started to scare the hell out of me.

             
             
             
             
             
Chapter 9

             
I had been dreading this day since our summer vacation ended. Okay, maybe dreaded was the wrong word. Nervous as hell would be more accurate. I’d been pretty positive that I saw some sort of twinkle in his eyes when he looked at me on that make shift dance floor the last night of our vacation. All in all, it hadn’t been that bad. I had a good time dancing with him. Too good. Now we’d all been expected to welcome him with open arms. My mother insisted we all head over to the airport to pick up Ethan, but I had Valerie as a back-up plan since I still felt like I couldn’t face him.

             
My mom stood in the foyer with her keys dangled in between her fingers. “I can’t believe that you’re not coming. This is big day for Ethan. He’ll need all of us, Sophie, especially you since he doesn’t know anyone here yet.”

             
I shrugged. My new Coach handbag slung over my shoulder, courtesy of dear old Dad who must have been feeling really guilty this Christmas. “Sorry, but I promise I’ll be home for dinner.” There was no way I was ready to see him yet, and I was convinced a few hours of power shopping would fix any skittish feelings that I had.

             
She huffed, “Sophie, I don’t think that’s a good idea to not show full support.”

             
“Mom, I already promised Val. She’s going through some boy troubles, but I promise to be home by dinner. Okay?” I lied. Val had no troubles going on, but I needed my mom to believe it so I could wiggle out of this one. She’d always been a sucker for romance.

             
She grabbed my chin and lifted it. “Fine. Be home by five. Do you understand, Sophie?”

             
I pulled the door open and nodded. “Thanks for understanding. I’ll see you guys later.”

             
My car sat in the driveway covered under a blanket of snow. Once I scraped off the icy mush on the windshield, I jumped inside. Turning the key and hearing the hum drum of the engine purr to life, I pulled away to pick up Val. As my hand cranked up the radio, I realized the sound wasn’t going to be able to drown out the thoughts in my head. I remembered
his face, his smell, his voice.
That stupid sexy scar on his eyebrow. My only hope was that in the past few months he had forgotten everything about me, including me blabbering every teen problem that I’d ever had. But, somehow I doubted it.

             
Val was waiting at her front door dressed in a pink track suit. It was an awful shade that only made her seem paler than usual. I studied her as she jogged down the driveway wishing I’d had the guts to tell her how awful she looked in pink, but I never could muster up the guts.
             
She jumped in the car slamming the door behind her. “Shit, it’s freezing.”

             
“You could try wearing a jacket.”

             
“And ruin the look I’m going for...hell no.”

             
I wasn’t really sure what look she was going for, but who was I to judge? I shrugged. “Fine. Freeze your ass off, girl.” We both laughed.

             
Val turned the radio down. “So today’s the day for hottie British boy, right?”

             
“Yep,” I said, cranking the stereo back up.

             
Her hand reached for the knob, turning it back down. “What time? Can I come over tonight and meet him?”

             
I looked over to the passenger seat, smiling.“Dinner. You could come for dinner. That would be perfect.” Val would be a great distraction for me when I saw Ethan for the first time. She’d probably drool all over him which in turn would keep his attention off of me. Val and her adoration for the opposite gender had been something I’d loved about her. She’d always been so obvious when she liked someone. Me--not so obvious.

             
“Huh? Perfect, what’s that supposed to mean? Oh, never mind. Who cares? I’m so excited to meet this guy.” She laughed, tossing her bag to the backseat of the car and then cranked the radio back up.

             
We spent what seemed like an entire day in the make-up section at Lord and Taylor trying to find the perfect shade of pink lipstick for Val. I had been more of a lip gloss kind of girl. As Val rubbed several shades onto the back of her wrist, I glanced up and noticed some of the holiday decorations had still not been taken down.

             
“Bingo! I found it,” Val cried out.

             
I walked over to the Clarins countertop and eyed her choice. “Finally, can we go now? My mom wanted me home fifteen minutes ago. She’s going to ring my neck, Val. I promised.”

             
“Relax, it only takes five minutes to get home. Let me just buy this,” she said, pulling out the little red gift card and handed it to the woman behind the counter.

             
The sales woman smiled. “Great choice, dear. I’m wearing the exact shade.”

             
My eyes darted to her and I stared at her lips and couldn’t believe Valerie was buying the same color.  It reminded me of the Pepto medicine my mother forced me to take whenever my stomach hurt. No way in hell would I ever borrow this particular shade of lipstick from her.

             
Val nudged me. “Stop staring.”

             
I quickly looked away pretending to look at the glosses and lipliners.

             
After we finally remembered where we parked the car, she pulled the lipstick out from the little white bag, and opened the box. She started to dab on her new purchase and turned to me.“Whatta ya think?” She asked as she smacked her lips together.

             
I turned the key and looked her over. “It’s perfect for you,” I lied, which I hated doing. But this was her signature color. So in a way it was perfect for her. Like some girls had a fragrance, some wore their hair a certain way. Val was obsessed with pink...in all it’s hideously unflattering shades.
Part of me adored the fact that she didn’t care what anyone thought about it.

             
She rubbed her hands together. “Countdown five minutes until hottie.”

             
Cranking up the heat to try to warm up the car, I slowly unzipped my jacket as the heat spread around us and let the heater swirl my hair around. I tried not to think about Ethan, even though it had been near impossible the entire shopping trip. The butterflies fluttered inside my stomach after she mentioned him and never left.

             
“So does Jason know about the hot British invasion yet or are we still keeping it a secret? Because school starts tomorrow and I’m pretty sure he’ll notice someone following you around like a lost puppy dog.”

             
“I told him last night while his hand was conveniently up my shirt.” I really liked Jason and we’d grown somewhat closer, but I hated the feeling that he might only be after one thing with me. It just sat there in the back of my mind. We hadn’t said any ‘I love you’ comments to each other yet and I had the feeling they would never come. At least not from me.

             
“Oh, my God what did he say? Don’t leave out the dirty parts either.”

             
“He’s kinda expecting a dorky English guy like Harry Potter or something.”

             
“But, he’s not dorky, right? I mean, please tell me he’s not a dork that’s gonna be hanging with us the next few months.”

             
“He’s not a dork. He’s...” I sighed. “He’s actually off the charts hot.” I narrowed my eyes and bit down softly on my lip. “I guess I kinda left that part out.”

             
Val threw her hand onto my shoulder, clamping down.“How off the charts are we talking?”

             
“Er...like a cross between Jude Law and David Beckham hot.”

             
She smacked my shoulder causing me to bump into the window. “How could you not tell me? Do I need to do an emergency break up with Matt?” She flipped the visor down, running her fingers through her hair and then pulled out her new lipstick. I watched as she dabbed on more than was necessary.

             
“Stop freaking out. He’s just an ordinary guy.”

             
“Jude and Becks are not ordinary guys. How can you even say that?”

We pulled into my driveway just as the automatic front lights lit up the front of the house.

             
I patted her hand. “Behave yourself.”

             
She rolled her eyes. “Duh, I will,” she paused, then turned to face me. “Oh, my God does he have those arm sleeve tattoos like Becks? I love those.”

             
I shook my head.

             
No he didn’t. Not that it would matter--he didn’t need anything else to make him hotter than he already was. I sat back with my hands gripped around the wheel until the very last minute. Slowly my hand jerked the key out of the ignition, and I took a deep breath. When I stepped out of my car, Val was already walking toward my house.

             
I ran and caught up with her. I didn’t know what I was going to say or do when I saw Ethan, but I knew I needed to come up with something fast.

             
She yanked me up the last step. “Hurry up.” Her hand reached down opening the front door and she pushed it open.

             
The smell coming from the kitchen was something familiar, but also something I couldn’t put my finger on. The laughter and the clanging of pots in the kitchen echoed toward us. I looked over at Valerie who was so excited she couldn’t even stand still. I on the other hand felt like my feet were cemented to the wooden floor.

             
She stood in front of the mirror pinching her cheeks to add some color. “Okay, so when you introduce me say my full name not Val and do not mention Matt.”

             
I laughed at how ridiculous she was behaving. I mean really he was just a guy. At least that was what I had to keep telling myself. Ethan was no one special--a friend of the family even. We slowly walked toward the kitchen. Valerie was busy brushing back her hair with her fingers when he’d finally come into my view. Well, I saw the back of him. His tall physique, his wavy brownish-blond hair, his broad shoulders covered by a navy wool sweater. I eyed him from the top of his head all the way down to his Adidas Sambas. Even just the back view made my knees feel like they’d buckle and give out at any given moment.

             
My mother stood up from the kitchen island with a glass of wine in her hand. “It’s about time. I thought I told you five.” Her eyes flicked behind me. “Oh, hi, Val. I didn’t know you were coming over. Are you staying for dinner?”

             
Ethan stood in front of the stove swirling a wooden spoon in a large frying pan and turned. He placed the dirty spatula down on the counter and eyed the both us up for a brief second.. “Sophie, wow! It’s great to see you,” he said, as he placed the spoon down and came toward me. While Val and my mom chatted, I stared at Ethan. It was so much worse than I’d feared...he looked good, better than good. And he was cooking. I had to admit whatever it was that he was making smelled delicious.

             
My breath hitched when he leaned down and kissed my cheek.“And, who’s this? Let me guess?” His eyes scanned Val from head to toe. “You must be the best friend, Val.” He reached his hand out to hers. “I love that shade of pink on you.”  Ethan smiled and turned to me. “Don’t you agree, Sophie?” And there it was. His first reference to one of my blabbering moments on the island.

             
I quickly nodded. He could not be serious? How could he put me on the spot like that? The rest of Junior year is going to be painful if this continues.

             
“Thanks, call me Valerie.” She reached over patting my shoulder. “Sophie here has told me all about you.” Val said in a suggestive tone which caused me to shoot her a look.

             
Ethan’s head tilted and his eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

             
“Yep.”

             
With his eyes still focused on Val and looking rather amused, he grinned. “She told me all about you, too.” His eyes shifted to me and for a brief second, we stood there just staring at each other. I opened my mouth and closed it again to say something, but I sensed he got the hint that I was not happy. He turned quickly back, grabbing the spatula and stirred. “Well, I hope you two like chicken curry,” he said, changing the subject.

             
My mom walked over and yanked the spoon from his hand. “Ethan insisted. How great is this? He can cook.” I rolled my eyes as she placed her hand on his shoulder. “Go talk to the girls. I’ve got this.”