Secrets (6 page)

She blinked a couple of times, as if that would get rid of the mental picture, which of course it didn’t. It was like she
had some kind of film loop running in her head.

You have a lot more important things to think about,
she reminded herself. She opened her mouth to tell Anthony
about the man she’d caught snooping around the backyard, but he was still babbling.

“All the cheerleaders took pictures of me with the tiger. Cheerleaders wanting pictures of me. How delusional does
that sound?” Anthony asked.

Rae gave the loose thread a tug, making a snag in the upholstery. “Pretty friggin’ delusional,” she answered, her
voice sounding harsh even to her own ears.

“Anyway, I wanted to tell you that one of the guys on the team-McHugh-invited me to a party tomorrow night.

Parents on vacation. It’s supposed to behuge. Probably there will be a ton of people you know there and I-”

“Considering I’ve gone to Sanderson since I was a freshman, yeah,” Rae said, cutting him off. Clearly the only
reason Anthony had come over was to tell her all about how great everything was. If she sat with him all night, he’d
probably never get around to actually asking her a question. She had a lot to figure out. A lot of plans to make. If she
had to do it without Anthony, fine.

“I might be going to the party,” Anthony began again. “And I-”

He’s never shutting up,
Rae thought. “Look, you know what, my throat is kind of starting to hurt,” she told him.

“You should go. I don’t want to contaminate you or anything.”

Anthony slammed the car door shut. What in the hell had he been thinking? Was he insane? Did he think that he
could just stop by Rae’s and ask her to go to the party with him and that would be that?

The girl hadn’t even let him get the question out. She kept interrupting him. Like she knew what he was going to
ask and was trying to stop him from going there.

He let his head slump back against the seat. It wasn’t just the idea that he was trying to ask her outthat had gotten
Rae all freaked out. She’d practically had icicles growing off her when he’d mentioned some of the people he was
getting to know. Like she wanted nothing to do with any of it.

Did she even remember it was her friggin’ idea for him to transfer? Hell, not even just her idea-she arranged the
whole thing. Anthony straightened up and jammed the key in the ignition. He knew one thing for sure-he wasn’t
going to sit parked outside her house like the biggest loser in North America.

He turned over the engine, revving it until it growled, then he pulled out onto the street. About halfway down the
block he spotted a car-if a BMW could be called something as basic as a
car
-pulling into Rae’s driveway.

Anthony slowed to a crawl, eyes on the rearview mirror. The Beemer’s door swung open-and Marcus Salkow
stepped out. Anthony frowned, confused. He watched as Marcus slowly approached Rae’s front door. Marcus was
there to see
Rae?

And the Bluebird finally gets it,
Anthony thought, pressing his foot down on the gas. The old boyfriend Rae had at
Sanderson-it was Marcus Salkow. Which more than explained why she wouldn’t even let him ask her to the party.

When you’re used to a guy in Salkow’s league, you don’t downgrade to a Fascinelli.

The doorbell rang about two minutes after Anthony left. Rae let out a groan.
Oh God, he’s back. He forgot to tell me

that one of the guys gave him the congratulatory butt pat after the game, something I absolutely need to know

tonight.
She stood up and headed to the front door, walking slowly. Maybe he’d take the hint and go away. The
doorbell rang again. Typical Anthony. Rae picked up her pace and grabbed the doorknob, then jerked open the
door. The coat of wax on her fingers protected her from picking up any thoughts. “Wh-” she started to demand.

Then she realized it was Marcus standing on the porch.

He smiled at her, his trademark Salkow smile. It still kind of worked on her. Kind of. “Hey, I know Ishould have
called first, but I thought if I called, you might tell me it wasn’t a good time to come over, and then I wouldn’t be here.

”

Rae snorted, then swung the door open wide. What choice did she have? “Well, since you’re here, you might as
well be here inside.” Marcus headed for the living room as if he still came over almost every day, as if he hadn’t
ditched her and hooked up with Dori Hernandez while Rae was in the hospital. Yeah, he’d broken up with Dori. And
yeah, he’d made it very clear he wanted Rae back. But still.

Marcus flopped down on the couch, legs apart in that guy way. “Make yourself at home,” Rae muttered as she
took a seat in the chair across from him.

“Great game today. Did you see it?” Marcus asked.

“No. I’ve been
sick.
Thanks for asking,” Rae told him.

Marcus gave her the smile again. “You’re cute when you’re grouchy. Seriously, sorry you’re sick. You want me to…

get you something? Um, Kleenex?”

Rae shook her head. “I’m okay. The antibiotics have pretty much kicked in.”

“It was fun at Sliders that time, wasn’t it?” Marcus asked. He went into his Frankenstein voice,the voice he’d kept
using when they’d had lunch at Sliders together. “Frrriennnd.”

“Yeah. It was fun,” Rae answered, her answer coming out sounding more tentative than she meant it to. And why
wouldn’t it? Her feelings about Marcus were all in a jumble. But that day at Sliders had been good. There had been
actual moments when Rae felt like she and Marcus were Rae-and-Marcus again. She smiled at him, not a big Salkow
kind of smile, but a smile. “Fuuunnnn,” she added, doing Frankenstein herself.

“Okay, you admitted it was fun,” Marcus said, leaning forward, his green eyes intense on her face. “And fun is
good. People want to have as much fun as possible. Which means you’re going to say yes when I ask you to go to
the party at McHugh’s with me tomorrow night.”

Rae swallowed, hard. Yeah, he’d been acting friendly, trying to get her back. But this was a serious offer. An
immediate one. She was glad she was sitting in the chair and not on the couch next to him. Even from this distance
the Salkow magnetism was pulling on her. Anthony had some of that going, too. More than some. Maybe more than
Marcus, even. When she was close to him, like in the car, she-

This is not about Anthony,
Rae told herself sharply.
That big poo head.

“You want me to run through that again?” Marcus asked. “I know it’s sort of complicated. See, you admitted you
had fun with me. People want to have as much fun as-”

“I got it the first time,” Rae told him. Then she realized she should have let him keep going. It would have given her
a few more minutes to think.

Did she want to go to the party with Marcus? It would make a statement, that’s for sure. People would assume they
were back together, even if they weren’t. And Marcus, he’d make assumptions, too-that they were getting back
together even if they weren’t officially back together yet.

Rae felt thorny anxiety vines twining through her body. She wasn’t ready for this decision. If Marcus was just
asking her to eat lunch with him again, then it would be a pretty easy yes. But the party was a whole different deal.

I’ve got to say something,
she thought. But she had no idea what it should be. Marcus seemed totally sincere. Still,
just because he’d decided he wanted her back didn’t mean that she wanted to be his girlfriend again. Even though
she was pretty sure that’s how he thought it worked.

“You know what, Marcus?” she asked. “I
am
feeling all right, but by the end of the day, I’m wiped. I can’t see myself
lasting through a party tomorrow night.”

Okay, that should buy her a little time. She needed at least a little time to figure out what she wanted to do with
Marcus.

“Oh.” Marcus leaned back. “Well, you want to hang out for a while tonight? Watch some TV?” He stopped short.

Rae knew he was remembering exactly the same thing she was. “Watch some TV” had been their code for making
out when they were a couple because Rae’s dad wouldn’t allow a TV in the house.

“I actually meant TV TV,” Marcus said. “I forgot-you want to play Monopoly or something?”

This is the equivalent of lunch,
Rae thought.
Not public. Not something that will make Marcus think things have

changed between us.

But it was just too weird. The sofa was probably still warm from Anthony’s butt. It would be kind of like he was still
in the room with her and Marcus.

Marcus and Anthony. Anthony and Marcus. Her head started to hurt just thinking about the two of them.

“I’m pretty tired,” Rae answered.

“Oh,” Marcus said. “Oh.” He stood up. “I should have called first.”

Rae’s throat tightened up. There was a time when Marcus showing up unexpectedly would have totally made her
night. But things had changed. “Yeah, callingprobably would have been better,” she told him. She started to stand
up.

“It’s okay. Sit. You’re tired,” Marcus told her. “I know my way to the door.”

The hurt in his voice almost made Rae want to call him back. Almost.

Anthony stood next to the directory in the main level of the Atlanta Underground mall. He had no friggin’ idea what
store he should go to. His mother had been so excited about Anthony going to his first Sanderson Prep party that
she’d stuffed a wad of money in his hand and insisted he go buy himself “something nice to wear.”

Which was cool of her. Showing up at the party looking normal-Sanderson Prep normal-would be good. Not that
he cared that much. But what was normal? School normal? He couldn’t even quite achieve that with the clothes he
owned.

Anthony took a final look at the directory. Most of the store names meant nothing to him, so he jammed his hands
in his pockets and started walking the mall, peering at window displays without getting too close. How could people
actually shop for fun? When he reached the Gap, he decided to stop being a total wuss and go inside. It was the
Gap. He could handle it. He stepped inside, pullingin a deep breath of that… clean, new smell all the stores in the
mall had.

Okay. Now what? He headed toward a table with a pile of shirts on it. Girls’ shirts. He veered away and started
deeper into the store. A hand grabbed his elbow, gave it a light squeeze. Anthony jerked around and saw Jackie
Kane smiling up at him.
Up
at him. That was nice. Rae was always eyeball to eyeball-unless she was wearing
freakin’ high heels. “Closet shopaholic?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah, right,” Anthony muttered.

“Aw, it’s okay. I’ll be your mama. What are we shopping for?” Jackie answered, her blond hair gleaming under the
store’s lights.

Anthony swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly painfully dry. The way she said she’d be his mama-holy crap. It was
like something out of one of his mental porn sessions. And Anthony was pretty sure that’s what she’d been going
for. Suddenly he realized he hadn’t answered Jackie’s question. “Clothes,” he muttered.

“Goody. My fave,” Jackie answered. She glanced over her shoulder. “Alicia, we have a job to do,” she called to a
girl Anthony thought was one of the pompom girls.

The girl hurried over. “What’s up?”

“Anthony needs clothes-something for McHugh’sparty,” Jackie said, shooting Anthony a knowing smile. “And he,
being a boy, needs help.”

Alicia nodded. “First thing, we have to get you out of here. The Gap’s fine for basics, but there’s nothing here that
really says party.”

Jackie tightened her grip on his arm-she’d never let it go-and Alicia latched onto his other side. Together they
pulled him out of the store. “I’m thinking Him,” she said to Alicia.

“Good place to start,” Alicia agreed. And they were off, towing Anthony between them. “But can we stop at
Bangles for just one sec? I really need to drool over that bracelet a little more.”

“Fine,” Jackie said, rolling her eyes. “But not too long. Our agenda for the rest of the night is Anthony.” They
swung into a jewelry store that felt way too small to Anthony. Like one wrong step and he’d send one of the glass
cases crashing to the floor.

The sales chick took one look at Alicia and pulled a silver bracelet from one of the cases. Alicia let go of Anthony
and rushed over, making little crooning noises at the piece of metal.
She’s like Anna with her cardboard tiara,
he
thought, amused.

Jackie released him, too, and headed over to a display of earrings. Anthony wandered over and watched her try on
a couple of pairs.
Rae would look good in those big hoopy ones,
he thought.

She’d need big ones to show through all that curly hair of hers.

He shook his head. Why was he thinking about Rae? She was the last person he should be thinking about right
now. She’d made it pretty clear she’d be happier if he somehow disappeared from her world.