Chapter 10
Shay
In the following days, I convinced myself I hadn’t smelled what I thought I had on Dad. Mom and Mima hadn’t said anything about it, and there hadn’t been as much arguing at the house lately, so I didn’t want to bring on drama that didn’t need to exist.
Maybe I was wrong, too. Maybe I’d made a mistake. I hadn’t actually seen him drinking, after all. There wasn’t a bottle sitting on his desk, he wasn’t slurring his words, and he had been coherent when I’d spoken to him. Those were all really good signs.
So instead of focusing on what I had no control over, I focused on what I did: Romeo and Juliet and Landon Harrison.
Each day we rehearsed, Landon’s talent became even more apparent.
It floored me how effortless he made it all look, too, and how dedicated he was.
At first, I thought he would drop out of the show the moment he saw how much work it actually took to bring a performance together, but Landon didn’t shy away from the challenge—he embraced it.
When he wasn’t onstage, he was sitting in the auditorium, combing through the script of the play he’d already nailed down.
He had his lines memorized by week one. By week two, the blocking was completed.
But still, he studied as if there was something he could learn, something he could unlock from his chamber of talent.
Part of me hated how easily it came to him.
A bigger part was secretly turned on by his skills.
I was a girl who appreciated seeing raw talent. Raw talent—like my father’s—always amazed me. It didn’t work that way for me, though. I had to fight tooth and nail for every ounce of skill I had.
No one knew about the hours I stayed up trying to perfect my audition piece.
No one knew how I moved furniture around in my bedroom to re-create the setup of the stage so I could rehearse my blocking and movements.
I stood in front of a mirror and honed facial expressions.
No one knew the number of nights I cried because I felt like I was failing when I was giving it my all and it still wasn’t good enough.
We rehearsed for two hours after school each day of the week, and Landon made sure to always sit close by me.
When he wasn’t near, I could feel his stare on me.
If he wasn’t studying his script, he was examining me—his second-favorite hobby.
He knew he got under my skin, but sometimes, I’d catch him looking at me with such a gentleness in his stare that I almost thought he’d forgotten we were playing a game.
Good.
As long as we were going to be forced to be around each other, I might as well win the bet, too.
I had to remind myself daily that none of the butterflies that found me whenever Landon was around were real. I had pep talks with myself about how the fluttering in my chest was just heartburn. I had to convince myself that anything I felt was just passing hormones.
I knew deep down that I could never fall for Landon.
He wasn’t the kind of guy who would catch the girl.
Especially me.
Me and my sensitive heart.
* * *
“I need ammo, Raine,” I told my friend, barging up to her locker after school.
August had come and passed, we were narrowly through all of September, and I was starting to believe Landon was winning this little push-and-pull between us.
The flirtatious teasing came so easily to him. I needed to strike back nice and hard.
“Ammo? Why, are you going hunting?” Raine joked, tossing her textbooks into her backpack. “I’m pretty sure Hank can lend you some of his camo to blend into the woods.”
“No, I’m serious. I need you to give me some ammunition against Landon. I need information to use against him.”
Raine’s green eyes widened with nerves, and she shook her head. “Oh, no. Hank said I’m not allowed to meddle in other people’s business anymore, ever since I helped my nonna order a vibrator through a television commercial because she said my grandfather wasn’t the stallion he used to be.”
I had no time to deep dive into the topic of Raine’s grandmother having a vibrator, so I stayed on track. “But you owe me.”
“Owe you? For what?”
“Oh, I don’t know—telling a boy where I live and also telling the same boy I was auditioning for the school play and then having said boy also audition and get a part in the show.”
Raine’s eyes lit up like a proud parent. “Gosh, I still can’t believe he got the part. I’m so proud of him!” she exclaimed. “I mean, I know you hate his guts, but it’s no secret Landon is like a little brother to me.”
“He’s older than you, Raine.”
“Yes”—she placed her hand over her heart with a gleam in her eyes—“but his childish ways make him seem so young.”
“Well, seeing as how you helped him out, it means you need to help me out, too.”
She frowned. “I can’t, Shay. Hank would kill me if I got involved again. He gave me the silent treatment for a solid five minutes after I helped Landon, and I don’t know if I can handle that again.”
“Fine.” I moped, crossing my arms. “I guess that’s OK.”
“Don’t do that,” Raine said.
“Don’t do what?”
“Pout. You know I can’t take it, seeing my friends sad.”
“Well, I guess you just like Landon a little more than you like me,” I argued. “Seeing as how you helped him out and not me. I thought we lived by the motto ‘Chicks before dicks,’ but I guess not . . .”
“Ugh.” She groaned, slapping her hand against her forehead. “Fiiine. You twisted my arm. But this doesn’t get back to Hank—or any of the guys. They are worse than us and tell each other everything.”
“You have my word.”
“OK. Landon loves his dog, Ham. Like, loves him. You should take them to a dog park to get on his good side.”
“What? No. I don’t want to know what he loves. I want to know what he hates!”
“Why?”
“So I can annoy him the way he annoys me.”
“Wait, don’t you want him to fall in love with you to win the bet?”
“Yes.”
“And you want to do that by torturing him?”
“Uh-huh.”
Raine raised an eyebrow and shook her head. “I don’t think you understand how love works.”
Maybe she was right. Maybe I didn’t know how love worked, but I did know Landon had entered my world, my space, and was making himself far too comfortable in it.
The theater was supposed to be my safe haven, and he was currently leaving his grimy fingerprints all over it with that annoyingly handsome grin of his.
Plus, he knew I was a lover girl, so he was playing up the sweet factor a lot to get to me.
I knew that same technique wouldn’t work on him.
Therefore, my goal was to annoy him so much that he’d drop out of the bet.
I was going to drive him bonkers by making him not want to deal with me anymore. Then I would win.
“Please, Raine?” I asked.
She released a weighted sigh and groaned. “He’s terrified of reptiles.”
“Reptiles?”
“Yes, reptiles. All kinds. Snakes, lizards, turtles—oh! And bugs! He hates bugs. Once I saw him physically run into a building trying to get away from a fly. Like, bam! Straight into a brick wall. And don’t even get me started on spiders.”
I smirked.
This was perfect.
“Thanks,” I said, patting her on the back. “You’ve done your country good.”
“From here on out, I’m moving to Switzerland. Oh, and just for future warning, if your grandmother asks you for help buying a vibrator from a 1-800 number, don’t do it. It makes holiday dinner conversation very uncomfortable.”
Duly noted.