Second to No One (7 page)

“Drew,” I whined. “I don’t want to go out with Trace.”

“What’s your problem with him?”

“Nothing, I just don’t like him like that.”

“Who cares? By going out with Trace tomorrow night, you’re accomplishing two very important goals. You’re getting your mind off Jess while simultaneously making him jealous. Plus Trace will be happy. Win, win, win.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you think Trace is so wonderful, why don’t
you
go out with him?” The question had been plaguing me for sometime now. I knew she had a thing for him last year, so why was she pushing him at me?

Drew frowned. “Because. By some cosmic mystery of the universe, Trace hasn’t tuned into how awesome I am. But instead of being a jealous friend, I’m trying to help you not miss out on a great guy that is obviously in love with you.”

“Who’s in love with her?”

Both Drew and I turned our heads to the once vacant desk behind us. The new girl—Lauren James—was now its occupant and was leaning forward listening in on our conversation and wanting to know details.

“Um,” I turned back to Drew unsure of how much I should say. What if this girl was a spy or even worse, a gossiping motor mouth that would spread rumors throughout the whole school.

Drew shrugged one shoulder and turned to Lauren. “His name is Trace Weston, and he’s amazing.”

“So it’s a good thing that he likes you,” she said nodding at me. “Right?”

“It should be,” Drew said. “But Gemma’s still hung up on this other guy.”

“Who?” Lauren said, and I couldn’t believe the nerve of this girl.

“No one,” I said before Drew could answer. “I’m not hung up on anyone. I just don’t want to go out with Trace. That’s all.”

Then Drew looked back at Lauren. “Well, I guess that means he’s open game. You want me to introduce you?”

Lauren propped her head on her fist. “Sure, I don’t have anything against going out with amazing guys.”

And that was the moment I started to hate Lauren James.

Not that I had any real reason to. She was beautiful, talented, smart, and yet incredibly unaware of it all. She was down to earth and funny and coincidentally self-conscious, which all made it extremely difficult not to like her. But for some reason, I just couldn’t. Not completely. We were sat around her kitchen table one afternoon after school—as was the case for most afternoons after school during the month of October—eating potato chips and jelly beans and pretending to do homework.

Lauren tapped her pencil against her textbook. “Last night I swear I heard a bear outside the windows of our great room.” Both Drew and I looked at Lauren skeptically. “You don’t have to believe me, but I was just sitting there studying, and I heard something rub against the window.”

Drew bit down on a chip. “I would put money on Roy Fergus stalking you outside your window before I would on a bear.”

“Who’s Roy Fergus?” Lauren asked.

“He’s captain of the hockey team,” I said. “Though he does look a bit like a grizzly now that he hit puberty.”

Drew laughed so suddenly that tiny bits of chip spewed from her teeth.

“I’m serious, you guys,” Lauren said. “Whatever it was growled at me through the window.”

Both Drew and I burst into laughter this time. I wiped at the saliva that had leaked out of my mouth during my fit of laughter. “That still doesn’t rule out Roy Fergus.”

“I have an idea!” Lauren said with bright eyes. “You two should sleep here at my house Friday night.”

“Why?” Drew said, wiping at her eye. “Just because we could each have our own separate bedroom
and
bathroom?” It was true, Lauren’s house was humongous. But she had made it clear the first time we entered it that it wasn’t really her house. Her rich uncle owned the place and used it every other winter to entertain his wife’s side of the family at Christmastime. The house was decorated to the hilt in cabin-like paraphernalia, and the way it was set up higher in the hills just west of Franklin made the possibility of a bear creeping around the yard not all that unlikely.

“No,” Lauren said defensively, “because it’s been forever since I’ve had a slumber party. Besides, my mom is working late that night, and I really don’t want to be alone if Roy Fergus is growling outside my window.”

That Friday night we found ourselves sprawled out on sleeping bags in the middle of Lauren’s great room. I had never been in a house that had a great room, let alone sleep over in one. The massive bookshelves, high ceilings, and oversized windows gave it a horror-movie vibe that made the chances of us being involved in a murderer mystery that night not entirely impossible.

“You’ve been here for a month, Lauren. There’s got to be some guy that has caught your attention.” Drew had been drilling Lauren about who she liked for the past five minutes while I slicked off my third Crab Rangoon. Drew had thought it would be fun to order out Chinese, and I was pretty sure I had eaten myself sick.

“Okay,” Lauren lifted her hands in defeat, “there is one guy that I think is pretty cute.”

“Yes!” Drew hoisted herself up off her stomach and sat up with excitement at the confession. “Wait, let me guess.” She paused for a minute while she considered the options. “Trace?”

Lauren twisted her lips. “Trace is great, but you were right about him liking Gemma. I swear he doesn’t even know there’s a world beyond her.”

Drew raised her eyebrows at me. “See, I told you.”

I held my stomach and groaned as I fell back onto my pillow. “Please, I already feel like I’m going to hurl. Don’t make it worse.”

Drew turned her attention back to Lauren. “Kit Walker?”

“Who?” Lauren searched her memory for the name.

“Okay, it’s obviously not him.” Drew relaxed onto her sleeping bag, “I give up, who is it?”

Lauren’s face turned a deep shade of pink as she licked sweet and sour sauce off of her index finger. “This is so embarrassing. He’s so out of my league.”

I leaned in closer to Lauren. “Out of your league? You’re the new girl in school and you’re gorgeous. No one is out of your league.” And I believed it too. Since her first day here, one would have thought a celebrity had moved into town. Every head turned when she walked by, and I swear I saw a guy wipe drool from his chin after she passed one time.

“Just tell us,” Drew persisted.

Lauren took in a deep breath. “Okay, it’s Jess Tyler.” She turned to me with nervous eyes. “You know him, Gemma. He’s in your photography class.” Lauren tucked a piece of her perfect shiny hair behind one ear then said, “I saw him that day that Drew and I walked you to class. He’s the cute one who sits in the back corner by the window. Do you know which one I’m talking about?”

Both Drew and I were struck dumb, and all we could do was nod and fill our mouths with more food.

Lauren watched us with big, self-conscious eyes, willing us to say something—anything—that would reassure her of her affections for Jess. My Jess.

“Um, yeah,” I finally said while still chewing on some ice. “Jess is great. He’s um…he’s really nice.”

“So you’ve talked to him?” she said thoughtfully. “I thought I saw him say hi to you once in the hall, but I couldn’t tell if it was a first-time thing or what.”

I felt Drew watching me, but I didn’t look at her. “Oh, um, yeah. We, uh…we’ve been neighbors for a long time.”

“He’s your neighbor?” Lauren looked hopeful.

“Yeah, he lives across the street. But I don’t see him that much.” Which was true, it was all true. But why didn’t I tell her the full truth, the truth about our past, the truth about how much I loved him and wanted him and cried over him every night before I went to sleep? Maybe I couldn’t. Not with that perfect hair of hers and that perfect smile and that perfectly famous little town in Iowa. I couldn’t tell her about me and Jess because if I did, then it would be her against me, and if that was the case, I knew I’d lose.

“I just can’t stop thinking about him. He loaned me an eraser one day in the hall when I was trying to hurry and finish an assignment outside of my third period. He was so sweet, and he even asked me the next time I saw him if everything worked out okay with the assignment. That’s got to mean something, right? I mean if a guy doesn’t like you at all, he’s not going to loan you an eraser, let alone remember to ask you about it later.” Lauren was talking fast and without taking a breath so Drew and I could only sit, watching her with our jaws hanging open. But I knew Drew was thinking the exact same thing that I was, and I knew that we were both thinking that there wasn’t a worst person on earth that Lauren could have confessed to liking at that moment, or ever. “He’s smart and cute and his eyes!” Lauren finally took a breath while putting her hands up to her chest. “His eyes are so amazing!”

That’s when the jealousy started. Or continued really, because the first time I laid eyes on her, I was jealous of everything she had that I didn’t. But now that Jess was involved, the rampant, evil feeling began swelling in my chest, and the more she talked about him, the more it grew.

Drew cleared her throat and, in every attempt to sound natural, said, “Yeah, Jess is a really nice guy. But he’s nice to everyone, so don’t jump to any conclusions. I mean,” Drew stole a sideways glance at me, “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Lauren was overcome with a look of disappointment. “So you think he was just being nice? Oh, you’re probably right. I mean, he’s a nice guy. Nice guys loan erasers out without it being that big of a deal.”

I couldn’t explain what I said next. Not at first anyway. But the words just started flowing, and they honestly felt like the right thing to do. For me, for Jess, and even for Lauren. It was best to put us all out of our misery. “No, no. It could have meant something. I mean, the fact that he remembered. Guys don’t remember things. Especially Jess.” Which was the farthest thing from the truth because Jess remembered everything like the time I bet him a Baby Ruth that I could jump farther out into the lake than him, and he jumped farther, and he wouldn’t let that stupid Baby Ruth die for the next four years. But I said it anyway because Lauren was my friend, but I also said it because deep down in that horrible, dark pit in my stomach I wanted her to think that he liked her. I wanted her to try to talk to him and throw herself at him because no guy wants a girl that throws herself at him. Especially not Jess.

What I said brought a glimmer of hope back to Lauren’s eyes because how could she possibly know that what I was saying was horrible and mean and vindictive? “I looked him up in your junior high year book last week when we were at your house, Gemma,” she said. “I know that’s a kind of stalker-ish thing to do, but I couldn’t help it. I want to know everything I can about him, and anyway, he was so little and cute back in ninth grade. But I’m sure he likes someone else. I mean, he’s too cute not to. Do you think he likes someone else?” She was looking at me again, and so was Drew.

“Um…I’m not sure. I think he was dating someone over the summer, but I think it’s over.”

Lauren’s eyes widened. “So he isn’t dating anyone?”

“Not that I know of. You should ask him out.”

“What?” Drew stared at me with fierce eyes. “Why should she ask him out? He’s a guy. He should ask
her
out. And anyway,” she shook her head with frustration, “Jess Tyler might not be the best guy for Lauren to date right now.” Her jaw was tight, and her teeth were clenched. “After all, he has been known to be a bit of a heartbreaker lately.”

“Or I could ask him?” I ignored Drew completely and turned to Lauren. “I could see how he feels about you.” It was just an eraser. A stupid eraser. It didn’t mean anything. Sure, I could play along. For Lauren’s sake. I could pretend that I cared. I could find some way to casually ask Jess if he liked Lauren, and when he said no, I could break it to her gently, and the whole fiasco would be over.

“Really, you’d do that?” Lauren took hold of a fingernail with her teeth. “What if he doesn’t? I would be mortified!”

“Yeah, Gemma,” Drew said between gritted teeth and a look that spelled out a warning. “I really don’t think you want to do that. I think it would be best if you just stayed out of it.” She turned to Lauren. “If we all stayed out of it. What about Kit? He’s a nice guy. I’ll introduce you to him.”