Chapter 13
Mom took Jaden and me out for lunch after her hair appointment, which meant we didn’t get home until five-ish.
When we did, we found Landon and Dad on the couch.
Landon had his eyes shut with his head tipped back onto the couch cushion, while Dad had a hot rod magazine in his hands, reading glasses on his nose.
Upon our shuffle into the living room, only Dad startled. “You’ve been gone a while.”
“That’s the first thing you say?” Mom demanded, fluffing her hair to show it off. Kim had styled the freshly touched up red with a few curls, and they’d relaxed into small waves on the drive home. “What do you think of my hair?”
Dad lowered his glasses, squinting. “Did you cut it?”
In Dad’s defense, the change wasn’t all that noticeable. Still, her shoulders slumped. “Men.” With a sigh, Mom ventured into the living room and peered at Landon’s sleeping figure, lowering her voice. “Napping?”
Dad nodded. “That game last night must’ve worn him out.”
“When did he get home?” He rode separately from us last night. Instead of riding in the backseat of Dad’s SUV, filling the entire cab with his post-football stench, he rode back to Brentwood with the rest of the team on the bus to get his car from the school. I’d gone to bed before he got home.
“He went out this morning, too,” Mom told me, moving toward the kitchen. “A busy little bee, that boy. I’ll make us some sandwiches, and then we can wake him. I’d hate for him to throw his whole sleep schedule off.”
“Where did he go this morning?” I asked, but she’d already moved away.
Dad was the one who shrugged. “He didn’t say, but he came home a little bit ago.”
I eyed his sleeping figure, the steady rise and fall of his chest. They didn’t know what time he got home last night, and he went somewhere this morning.
Those two things alone screamed of the freedom he had, so much more freedom than I had.
I wasn’t even sure why. Because he was older?
Because he was a boy? Because he was the star of the family?
I shifted where I stood in the hallway, rubbing my fingers across the tight band of my skirt. “I’m going to change into lounge clothes,” I told Dad, who gave me a thumbs up and flipped a page in his hot rod magazine.
When I passed by Landon’s open bedroom door, I wavered for only a brief second to peer inside—but then stopped dead when I spotted his phone on his desk.
It was a beacon of shiny blackness. Normally, I wouldn’t have given his phone a second glance.
Sure, he got one that had actual internet access whereas mine didn’t even have the ability to load songs, but it wasn’t like I ever wanted to play any of his apps or surf the web.
Until I remembered what Mom had said.
There’s a post on something called Babble? I’m not sure, but it talked about Landon having a girlfriend.
I gave into the beckoning pull of the small black rectangle, curiosity compelling me forward.
Landon didn’t have a passcode, so it was easy to crack into the device. I only let myself marvel at the touchscreen momentarily before opening the web browser.
It was no secret that whoever designed the Brentwood Babble website deserved a reward.
It was a much better layout than whoever had done the Most Likely To list, because when Morgan had showed me the labels, my eyes cringed.
Babble, though, was sleek and efficient, and I found the blog post I was looking for within seconds.
UPDATE ON DATE NIGHT!
Last night, I posted about how a fancy group of Top Tier all-stars graced their presence at Allen’s Alley, but I’ve got some updates for you.
Let’s start off with a certain Landon Settler and his new girl!
That’s right, I’ve got the confirmation first for you—the quarterback has said so himself that he’s officially off the market.
Which also means he’s the first to remedy his Most Likely To casting!
Most Likely To: Never Get A Girlfriend? Nice try, MLT’s!
Hopefully we get some pics of them together soon—Lacey and Landon = Lacedon! <3
The blog post went on further about the others who’d gone bowling Thursday night, but I stopped reading.
Lacey. So not Madison. I couldn’t believe that Landon got a girlfriend and didn’t tell me.
When had they started dating? In fact, where did he meet her anyway?
Why hadn’t he told any of us? Was that who he was out with last night? What about Madison? Lacey.
Bigger question: why did the name sound familiar?
I closed the browser and set his phone down, but I didn’t retreat from his bedroom right away.
A piece of paper caught my eye, mostly obscured underneath other sheets, but there was enough graphite smudged at the corner that I found myself curious.
Normally, I never snooped on Landon’s drawings.
Normally, he kept them hidden well. Unable to stop myself, I nudged the papers aside, taking a peek.
It wasn’t finished, but the drawing was obviously of a girl.
She had her hair braided into two pigtails, ones that only just barely hung past her shoulders.
She was smiling widely, so wide that her eyes were squinched shut, and the closer I looked, I realized there was a stud in her nose.
She looked familiar, but there was no written indication of who this girl was. Was this his girlfriend?
A part of me wanted to go into the living room, wake him up, and haul him here for answers.
At the very least, I thought about ambushing him the moment he woke up.
But the longer I stood in his room, the more I knew I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t. For whatever reason, Landon was keeping this Lacey—whoever she was—a secret.
In the same way I kept Hudson one. And despite how things went down at the gas station today, I had at least the rest of the month to keep my secret.
Besides, what if this was Landon’s reprieve, his way to get out from underneath our parents’ thumb? I wasn’t going to take it from him, much like I wouldn’t want him taking mine.
So, despite my burning curiosity, I walked out of his bedroom, resigning myself to wait until he brought it up first.
I had a pit in my stomach the entire day Monday, and it started with the fact that when Mrs. Savion pulled into Vista Villas, Hudson wasn’t at the bus stop.
She waited for a moment, but he didn’t magically appear, rushing to climb on.
When she shut the doors and put the bus back into drive, flicking off the loading sign, I had a bad feeling.
However, this time, I had kept my butt in the seat.
Was he sick? Was Paisley sick? Was he skipping? Did this absence count against his “walking on thin ice” threat?
“Lacey,” Morgan murmured, tapping her fingers against her chin. “Do you know a Lacey?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied, taking a bite of one of my apple slices. We’d gotten to the lunch table before Rosie and Hector today, though Jaden sat on my other side, munching noisily on his carrot sticks. “I mean, there are, like, ten at Brentwood, but I don’t know any.”
Jaden lifted his head. “Lacey. Sounds a little familiar, but I don’t know why.”
Weirdly enough, the name sounded familiar to me, too. As much as I wracked my brain about it, I couldn’t remember any girl hanging around Landon enough, let alone a girl named Lacey.
“Too bad we don’t have a yearbook or something.” Morgan narrowed her eyes at me. “You didn’t ask him about it?”
“He’s been tight-lipped about it for some reason. It’s weird.”
Morgan peered around the cafeteria, as if she could pluck the mystery girl from one of the tables. “I’m guessing she’s either a senior or a junior, then. Do you think she goes to this school?”
If Lacey went to a different school—like Jefferson—I was sure Babble would’ve mentioned that.
That would’ve been juicy, the quarterback dating someone from the rival school.
Or, at least, I thought it sounded juicy.
And then again, if she went to a different school, would the article have mentioned her name?
Lacey. Like the readers were supposed to know it.
Stop, Gemma, I told myself, biting down on another apple slice. You promised yourself not to be curious.
Jaden leaned across the table, changing the topic. “Morgan, did Gemma tell you what happened on Saturday?”
“No.” She drew the word out suspiciously, glancing between us. “What didn’t she tell me?”
At first, I had no idea what Jaden could’ve meant. And then— “It was nothing,” I insisted, turning to stare Jaden down with drop-it eyes. “Jaden and I went to the gas station together.”
“And ran into Hudson Bishop,” he interjected, voice hissing out the name as if it were a curse word. “Like, he was all up in Gemma’s space. Oh my gosh, I thought she was a goner. Gemma, your life probably flashed before your eyes.”
So much for not judging anymore, I grumbled in my head.
Morgan looked from him to me again, though this time, her expression was more wary than suspicious. I gave her the meaningful look this time, begging with my eyes. Don’t mention the buddy program, I thought at her, desperate. Please don’t mention it.
She looked down at her lunch tray, stabbing her broccoli salad. “In her space, huh? How so?”
“He was like—” Jaden stopped to display with his hands, bringing his palms nearly touching. “—this close to her face.”
“He was not!” I insisted, smacking him on the arm. “You’re exaggerating. And it wasn’t that big of a deal. So, let’s just…drop it.”
Talking about Hudson had me thinking about him, and thinking about him had me worrying.
It was something that’d been nagging at me all day.
No, not specifically that—his absence had been nagging at me, and the possible repercussions of it.
If there even were any. No matter how hard I tried, though, I couldn’t shake the anxiety each time my thoughts wandered to what would happen after school.
A sudden inspiration hit me then, one that my brain instantly shied away from. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. And yet…
“I thought of something,” I told Jaden and Morgan, grinning. “If Landon’s girlfriend goes to school here, she’s probably sitting with him at lunch.”
Morgan’s eyes widened. “You’re a genius.”
Hector dropped his lunch tray onto the table and sat down on the other side of Morgan, glancing around. “Why is she a genius?”
Because I’m going to kill two birds with one stone.
The distance between the cafeterias wasn’t very far, since the kitchen was between them.
Cafeteria A was more crowded than Cafeteria B, so it took me a few moments to spot Landon.
The Top Tier table was at the center of the room, a straight shot from the doorway.
Landon sat with his face toward me, though his eyes were downcast at his lunch tray.
Narrowing my gaze, I scouted the spots next to him.
Madison sat on his left, with her hair pulled into a ponytail so high that my hairline ached in solidarity. The seat on the other side of him was empty, like he was waiting for someone to fill it.
Dang—so no Lacey.
At that moment, Landon’s eyes lifted and found mine where I loitered in the doorway, recognition causing his eyes to light up. My heart leapt as I tipped my head toward the hallway, hoping the meaning was obvious. Time for phase two.
In about the time it would’ve taken for him to cross the room, Landon came out into the hallway. “What are you doing down here?” he asked.
I didn’t realize how sweaty my palms would get from the impromptu plan. “I just…uh—I came to tell you…something.”
He raised his eyebrows as if to say let’s hear it.
I knew it was a bad idea. It was why my first reaction was to dismiss the idea entirely, to pretend I’d never thought of it in the first place.
But even as I did that, the devil on my shoulder brought it to the forefront of my brain, and that devil seemed to have inhumanly bright blue eyes.
“I’m going to go get ice cream with Morgan after school. ”
“I thought you met with your buddy after school.”
“They were sick today.” I narrowly avoided using the wrong pronoun. “I’ll have her mom drop me off at home, so you don’t have to worry about me.”
He shifted on his feet. “Did you clear it with Mom or Dad?”
“Do I have to clear everything with them?”
That was the wrong thing to say, and I instantly knew it.
It was too defensive, too abrasive. I wasn’t even sure where the words came from anyway, just that when they absorbed into the air, I knew it was a mistake.
Especially when Landon’s auburn eyebrows pulled together.
His confusion spun my thoughts into high gear, stumbling to figure out how to right the wrong.
“Remember how you said you wouldn’t go all rebellious?” Landon asked, folding his arms across his chest in the signature big brother way.
“I’m not allowed to get rebellious because of the list,” I began, holding his stare, “but you’re allowed to go get a girlfriend because of it?”
The words were exactly what I’d been hoping for—they effortlessly defused the ticking bomb. Landon’s cheeks flushed pink the way mine would’ve if the tables had been turned, but he glanced at the cafeteria doors. “Let’s talk about this later.”
“Later,” I agreed, taking a step backward. “Like I said, I’ll have Morgan’s mom drop me off.”
“Be home before Dad or Mom gets home,” he warned, and then his gaze softened as he flicked his head toward the empty hallway. “Go finish your lunch. Have a good rest of your day.”
I wasn’t sure if I’d have a good rest of my day, but I knew one thing for sure—I’d spend the next three hours plotting out something I never should’ve considered in the first place. It was too late, though. I’d made up my mind, and I wouldn’t let myself change it.