Secondary Characters (3 page)

Unless he’s thinking Amber will.

“You prefer chocolate, right … Nick?” He looks at Nick with one eyebrow raised and that obnoxious grin on his face again.

Nick laughs. “Shut up, jackass.” It relieves the tension, for a moment at least.

I let out a sigh and Amber laughs. We tell the waitress we’re done and get out of there as fast as humanly possible. In the parking lot I’m half-tempted to say my stomach hurts and we had better just head home.

“We’ll see you at the theater,” Lance says too quickly, and the guys jump into their car.

I turn to Amber and stare at her, crossing my arms over my chest and jutting out my hip. I’m trying to give her my best “what the hell where you thinking?” look, but I’m having a hard time not smirking at her. She’s pinching the bridge of her nose, and her mouth is so tight her lips have all but disappeared. Serves her right for dragging me into this.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she says, putting her hand in the air before sliding into her car and slamming the door. I get into the passenger seat and keep my comments to myself.

The guys beat us to the theater and buy tickets to some scary movie. I hate scary movies. When we watch them at slumber parties I’m the one who always ends up with a blanket over her head and her hands over her ears. I would object, but they’ve already bought the tickets. Besides, I don’t want to look like a big, fat chicken.

We find seats in the middle of the theater. I sit down next to Amber, and Nick immediately sits on the other side of her. Lance hesitates for just a moment before sitting down next to me.

The lights go down and the opening music fills the theater, and I can already feel my body tensing up.

Lance leans in real close to me. “If the movie gets too scary,” he starts to whisper but I cut him off. I hate all that macho, caveman,
I’ll protect you
crap.

“I think I’ll be fine,” I say curtly, even though the truth is I’m not really sure of that at all.

“Oh, I know. It’s me I’m worried about,” he says, putting his hand to his chest. “I hate horror movies. They totally freak me out.” His eyes are wide with pretend fright and I smile back in spite of myself.

He glances around the theater like he’s looking for spies, then leans closer, putting his hand next to his mouth, and whispers, “I wanted to bring my teddy, but Nick said it wasn’t very manly.”

A small laugh bursts out of me and I quickly cover my mouth with my hand. The movie’s started so I put my finger to my lips to “shhh” him, but I’m smiling. He winks and then turns back to the screen.

Chapter Four

The theater is dark, but there’s enough light coming from the screen to light up Mabel’s face. She looks amazing. I know Nick is drooling over Amber, but she’s kind of boring-pretty. There’s nothing really unique about her. Mabel, on the other hand, has a warm, earthy sort of beauty to her. Her dark, wide-set eyes are totally gorgeous. With her delicate features and her cute little freckled nose, she kind of looks like a wood nymph.

There is no way in hell anyone could think she looks like Sarah Jessica Parker. Besides, I was just joking anyway, but now she probably thinks I’m a complete jerk. If she didn’t already.

At least Amber will talk to me.

Thank God for that, too, or dinner would really have been silent. It’s hard to believe, but I think Nick is actually doing worse than I am on this date. And that’s pretty damn bad.

I try really hard not to stare at Mabel’s profile during the movie so she doesn’t think I’m a psycho, but it isn’t easy. I love the curves of her face, the slope of her forehead, the way her nose turns up, the pout of her bottom lip.

I’m all tense and my heart is pounding like crazy. I think hers is, too. Unfortunately, I don’t think it has anything to do with me.

She looks totally freaked out. She seemed nervous when the movie first started, but now her eyes are wide and she’s biting her bottom lip. Her teeth dig into it to the point where I’m afraid it might actually start to bleed.

Every time she jumps I flinch a little. All I want to do is put my arm around her and let her bury her head into my chest and close her eyes. But I think putting my arm around her out of the blue might freak her out more than the movie is. So I just sit here like a jackass and do nothing.

Maybie jumps again, her hand flinging up to cover her mouth. She has a great mouth, wide with dark pink lips. Her hand flies back down to her arm rest. She’s gripping it so tight her knuckles are turning white. I resist the urge to pry her hands off the seat and hold them. Instead I try to come up with another idea.

***

The movie is really frickin’ scary and I want to kill the guys for picking a horror. My whole body is one giant ball of nerves. I jump at everything and my heart is pounding so loud I’m sure the whole theater can hear it.

The main girl is about to get axed by some freaky serial killer and I can’t handle it any more. I reach down to grab my purse and get out of there when something touches my other hand. I gasp and jump about three feet into the air.

Lance has put his hand on mine. He leans in close and whispers to me.

“You know they already signed her on for the sequel?” His face is serious, like he’s trying to tell me something important, but I’m too scattered to figure it out. So scattered I don’t even think to pull my hand away from his.

“What?” I try to make sense of whatever the hell he’s talking about while I do my best to recover from him scaring the living crap out of me.

“That actress,” he says, nodding toward the screen. “They’ve already signed her for the sequel. So …” He shakes his head slowly, like he’s waiting for me to say something. “She must make it through this one, right?”

“Yeah. Wow. You’re right.” I feel tension move out of my shoulders and I lean back into my seat again. But I’m still jittery. I keep my eyes off the screen, staring at the space between us. Lance’s hand is still covering mine. He’s still leaned in close and I notice that he smells
really
good.

“Of course, in real life she’d never outrun him in those high heels, but we certainly couldn’t have her up on the big screen in dirty old tennis shoes,” he adds with a wink.

I shake my head. “I don’t know.” I lean even closer to him. “I can run pretty fast in my heels.”

I know I said I hate people who talk during movies, but I am just so thankful for the distraction from the bloodbath that I don’t care. It’s sweet of him to notice that I need it.

“Fast enough to run away from a maniacal ax murderer?” he asks skeptically, his eyebrows raised. His face is just inches from mine and I notice his eyes are all twinkly and blue. I am hyper-aware of his hand on mine. It’s warm, and nice, but it feels like there are giant neon signs pointing to it.
Lance’s hand is on Mabel’s! Everyone behold the awkwardness!
The conversation isn’t awkward, though. It’s actually pretty easy.

“Maybe,” I tell him. “I mean, I would guess wielding that giant ax would have to slow him down some, right?”

“That’s a good point,” he says, rubbing his chin like he’s really thinking about it. “It might throw his balance off.” His smile is seriously adorable. Those dimples, my God! How did I never notice them before? Wait, why am I noticing it now? Maybe it’s just the rush of relief from pulling my mind away from the movie.

I squeeze my eyes shut for a second to try and regain some sense, then look at him again.

Nope, he really is cute.

“I would think so.” I nod knowingly, trying to suppress a smile. Someone a couple rows back shushes us and he makes a face like he’s been caught doing something truly horrendous. I slap my hand over my mouth before I snort out another laugh.

He grins and then turns back to the screen, pulling his hand away. I kind of wish he hadn’t.

I’m still looking at him out of the corner of my eye when Amber elbows me in my side.

“Geez, what?” I turn and whisper to her.

“You two seem to be getting along well,” she says, jabbing her elbow into me a few more times.

I lean away from her as much as I can without falling out of my seat. My arm pushes up against Lance’s. He turns and looks at me for a second. My face heats up and I jump forward again, smiling apologetically at him. He smiles and turns back to the movie. I shake my head, trying to dispel my awkwardness before turning back to Amber.

“It’s … it’s fine. I guess.” I whisper, leaning closer to her.

“Uh-huh. Fine. She stretches out the word and elbows me again.

“Would you stop that?” I hiss, slapping at her arm.

She snickers, but stops abusing me. “Yeah well, at least he’s talking to you. Nick hasn’t said a word to me, although he has tried to grab my hand,” she grumbles. I feel bad for her.

The girl in the movie screams, and Amber spins back toward the screen, forgetting all about me.

When the movie ends (the star escaping just in time, by the way), we file out of the theater. Nick tries to walk with Amber, but she shifts to a power-walk and he finally drops back. Lance and I are walking together, with about a three-foot gap between us. Every few strides he turns and kind of half-smiles at me. When we reach the parking lot we stop for a minute before we have to veer off to our own cars.

“That was fun,” Lance says. His hands are in his pockets and he’s rocking back and forth on his orange and navy tennis shoes. He looks pretty darn cute.

I smile and start to open my mouth to say something, but Amber speaks up first.

“Yeah, a blast,” she says under her breath. “Look, we better get going,” she adds with a nod toward her car.

“Okay, see you on Monday …” Nick says, only it kind of comes out like a question.

“Mm-hmm,” Amber mumbles.

Lance looks like he wants to say something more, but she’s already pulling me away. I wave over my shoulder at him. He waves back and then I turn back toward Amber.

“Geez, I would like my arm to stay attached to my body, you know.” I yank my wrist back.

“I’m sorry. I had to get out of there.” We climb into her car.

She starts it and turns to look at me, disappointment in her blue eyes. “I’m sorry about that,” she says, crinkling her nose. “But the good news is, at least you don’t have to worry about me dragging you along on any more double dates.”

“Yeah,” I say, looking for Lance in the side-view mirror. “Good thing.”

Chapter Five

“What the hell was that? Who were you texting?” I yell at Nick as I slam the car door shut and jam the key into the ignition. The date couldn’t have gone worse. It’s no surprise Amber dragged them away as fast as humanly possible. Damn Nick and his damn cell phone.

“It was my mom.” He’s slumped down in the passenger seat, staring through the windshield.

“What?”

“She was checking in,” he says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You know how she is.”

I do know how she is. Crazy overprotective. I should have known.

“Why didn’t you just say something? You looked like a complete tool!”

“I don’t know. It’s embarrassing.”

I don’t know what to say. I was all ready to chew him out, but now I feel kind of bad for him. To fill the silence I tell him about how it went with Mabel at the movie.

“Why the hell didn’t you just put your arm around her when she was freaking out?” He shakes his head like I’m a complete and utter moron.

“I don’t know. I just kept picturing her smacking me and walking out.”

“You’re an idiot, man. That was your shot.”

He would have had no problem putting his arm around her. He’s better at that sort of thing than I am. I’m good at the joking around stuff, he’s good with the smooth shit. Well, usually.

“Ya know, you weren’t exactly Casanova tonight,” I snap back at him. He doesn’t say anything and I feel like a jerk.

“I guess neither one of us were on our A game, huh?” I finally add as I pull up in front of his house.

“No shit,” Nick says softly before sliding out of the car.

Later that night I’m staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, playing over the evening in my head. The horrible dinner. The movie. Mabel leaning in so close to me our noses almost touched. There is no way I’m going to fall asleep.

I was totally ready to ask Mabel out again before Amber hauled her away.

I realize I could still ask her out, just the two of us, but I know she only went along this time because Amber talked her into it. I think if we hung out some more I’d maybe have a shot, but now? I don’t know. She’ll have the rest of the weekend to remind herself she doesn’t really like me.

If Nick hadn’t been such a freaking loser, we could have planned another double date. I go back and forth between being pissed at him and feeling sorry for him. I know he feels even worse than I do. I have never seen him act so stupid in front of a girl.

He must really like her. Personally, I don’t see it. I mean, Amber’s hot and all, but the truth is she’s kind of boring, too. Mabel is gorgeous and actually fun to hang out with. Not that I’ll get another chance to do that.

I roll over and pull the blanket over my head and groan.
This sucks!
I need some excuse to talk to her.

Then suddenly it hits me. I can help Nick
and
myself.

With a plan in mind, I finally fall asleep.

***

I’m standing at my locker on Monday morning, pulling my books out of my messenger bag, when Lance shows up. I’m a little surprised at just how happy I am to see him. My lips curl into a smile like they have a will of their own, even though I try to play it cool.

“Hey,” he says, leaning against the locker next to mine and lowering his voice. “So, how did you think the date went?”

“Um, well.” So much for playing it cool. My tongue is totally tied.
What the hell is wrong with you? It’s Lance.
My God, get it together!

“Yeah, pretty bad,” he says with a sigh. “Nick is totally crushed.”

Oh,
their
date. Not ours. I have an urge to smack myself. Not for assuming he meant us, but for being so disappointed that he didn’t.

“Poor Nick,” I say sarcastically.