Backdraft - The Secret Life of Trystan Scott #2 (2 page)

Before he did something stupid and scared her
off, Trystan smiled and released the pass. “I hope you do.”

CHAPTER 2

~MARI~

Did I just say that? Did I actually confess
that I was always looking at Trystan? I was so flustered. Trystan
stood there, his warm skin brushing mine with that playful look in
his eye. He tugged the pass hard and I tugged back. We were nose to
nose by the time he said that. His lips were so close, so perfect.
I sighed inside, wanting to fall into his arms, but I couldn’t. He
was lost in some other girl. If I threw myself at him now, it
wouldn’t end well. I’d be second to whoever stole his heart.

I heard myself say, “I’ll figure it out,” not
knowing what I’d do after that. I just didn’t want to leave. Part
of me wanted to confess why I came back in the first place. Heart
racing, I looked into his vibrant eyes, unable to look away.

Trystan grinned and released the pass. “I
hope you do.”

_____

I replayed the whole thing over again in my
mind as I walked to class in a daze. Trystan Scott was in love. As
if that wasn’t weird enough, he was also Day Jones. I didn’t even
know what to ask him about that, so I didn’t ask anything. I cursed
myself for thinking I could tell Trystan that I was in love with
him. Naivety often blindsided me. I’d listened to that Day Jones
song enough times to know that whoever wrote it was completely and
totally lost to love—even if she didn’t even know he was alive.

A spark of jealousy flamed to life inside of
me. I knew Trystan was alive. Every inch of me knew Trystan was
alive and wanted to know him more. Sighing, I put my books on my
desk and slid into my seat. I’d walked so fast that I’d gotten to
class early. While many students still lingered in the halls,
hardly any were at their seats, yet.

Katie arrived half a beat later. I heard her
voice before I saw her face. She slipped into the seat next to me
asking, “Did you tell him?”

I shook my head, not bothering to look up.
“Couldn’t.”

“Why not?” Katie was pumped, ready to support
me however I needed, but she couldn’t tell what I needed. “You’re
killing me! Tell me.” She shook my arms as she said it and I sat
upright in my seat.

I glanced at the front of the room. The bell
would ring in a second. Mathboy started to hand back papers. When
he passed Katie’s desk, she practically drooled a puddle on the
floor.

“Later. I’ll tell you later.” Just as I
finished saying it, a wadded-up piece of paper nailed me in the
back of the head. Katie and I turned in unison looking for the
source.

Brie Parker. She had that horrible smile on
her face, the one she wore after she did something really bad. I
was in advanced math and Brie wasn’t. Since the school budget
didn’t pass this year or last, there wasn’t an honor’s class.
Instead they combined a class of nerds with the class of burn-outs
who were a year older than us. It had to be hell for the teacher. I
didn’t like it much either. It meant I had to hear about Brie and
Trystan all last year while they dated. Sometimes he had come into
the room and taken her in his arms. Every other girl was jealous,
enviously watching Brie and Trystan. When they broke-up, there was
a lot of chatter about who Trystan would date next. It drove Brie
crazy. Trystan bounced from girl to girl, while Brie snagged the
first thug she could wrap her pointy little fingers around. She
made sure to slobber all over her new boyfriend in front of Trystan
regularly.

I hated her guts before, but after Brie got
me in trouble the other day I hated her even more. I figured out
that I must have done something that pissed her off, but I had no
idea what. Throwing stuff wasn’t the normal backstabbing
Brie-method of humiliation. She was usually more subtle, more
devastating than that. It worried me that she seemed to have chosen
me as her new target. There would be more crap like she pulled the
other day. I’d hoped that Trystan humiliating her would have made
her focus on him. As far as I could tell, she didn’t change
targets. Maybe it was because Trystan was already on her hit
list.

Katie snatched up the paper and hurled it
back at Brie’s face, but Mathboy chose that second to walk in front
of her. The paper wad nailed him in the back. He turned around and
cocked his head, staring straight at Katie.

“Really?” he asked as a brow drifted higher
on his face.

Katie flushed scarlet and she turned around
in her seat. Mathboy picked up the paper-ball and stuffed it into
the crook of his arm and continued to pass back papers. When he
stopped in front of Katie’s desk, he placed another of her tests in
front of her, along with the wadded paper. Brie was sniggering from
the back with her clones. When the hot guy finished passing out the
papers, he left the room to do something else. The teacher walked
to the front of the class and started the lesson.

On the side of the crumpled paper, there was
a blue pen mark that looked like a number. It wasn’t there before.
I poked it with my pencil and glanced at it several times to get
Katie to notice. When she did, she smoothed the piece of paper and
saw Mathboy’s phone number. The day got a lot more interesting
after that.

_____

As Katie and I walked to my locker after
school, she leaned in close to make sure no one could hear her over
the sound of slammed lockers and hallway chatter. The last bell had
rung. There were ten minutes before I was supposed to be at
practice.

“What’s with you?” Katie asked, bumping my
shoulder. “You’ve been out if it since lunch.”

I was out of it. I couldn’t stop thinking
about Trystan, about that guitar in his lap, and the beautiful tone
of his voice when he sang. I’d never heard him sing before. It was
breathtaking and heartbreaking at the same time. Whoever caught his
attention did a good job.

A jolt of jealousy shot through me,
straightening my spine. I glanced at Katie. I couldn’t tell her
what happened. I couldn’t say that Trystan was Day Jones. I
promised I wouldn’t say anything, even if I didn’t understand why.
Revealing that he was Day would have meant financial independence.
He could leave this place and never look back, but Trystan left the
agents’ requests unanswered and kept his identity a secret.

Clearing my throat I said, “Nothing.
Everything. I can’t get him out of my head.” I stared blankly
ahead. I didn’t want to lie to her, but felt I had to. “He doesn’t
feel like that about me, Katie.”

The smile slipped off her face, “How do you
know if you didn’t tell him?” She leaned closer to me, clutching
her books to her chest. Her eyes darted back and forth to make sure
no one else could overhear us.

“Because he told me that he likes someone
else.” That wasn’t a lie. Not totally. His song said he liked
someone very much. He sounded like he was in love with her. I
didn’t understand how he could have written that, and sang that
way, if he didn’t. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I stopped in
front of my locker and took a deep breath before opening it. I
tossed my books in as Katie put a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Mari. But at least you know now.
You can move on. Find someone else.”

I nodded and stared into the open locker like
I was forgetting something. “I know.” And I knew there would never
be anyone else like Trystan. Every time I thought I knew all there
was to know about him, another thing popped up—like Day Jones. It
drew me to him more, making him too irresistible to forget.

CHPATER 3

~TRYSTAN~

Tucker sat in the first row like he always
did, pinching the bridge of his nose as he watched the actors on
stage. Everyone wondered why he taught all the theater classes,
since he appeared to hate it so much. There were rumors that he was
paying his dues, being the youngest English teacher in the school,
but Trystan wasn’t so sure. At times he saw the subtle smile on
Tucker’s face that said he enjoyed it. The man may have been new to
teaching, but it also gave him passion some of the older teachers
were lacking. Tucker didn’t seem to think anyone was a lost cause,
which was probably why he paid attention to Trystan when the rest
of his teachers couldn’t wait to shove him out the door.

Tucker stood and stomped up the steps, his
gut shaking as he went. His voice was strained, “Brie, dear—” he
started and she beamed at him, bating those blue eyes like she
thought he was going to compliment her.

Trystan stood opposite Brie, his arms folded
across his chest and rolled his eyes. Brie shot Trystan a nasty
look when Tucker wasn’t looking. She was still pissed about her
skirt going over her head. Brie’s expiration date on revenge was
never. He’d been waiting, but so far she didn’t seem to be plotting
anything.

As Trystan watched Tucker coach Brie, he
looked away. Everything about her irritated him. When she messed
up, she’d pout and toss her golden hair over her shoulder. Her
bottom lip would slowly push out until it looked like she’d cry. It
kept her from getting the correction she needed.

Trystan couldn’t believe how fake she was and
that he failed to see it sooner. Brie smiled and said something.
Tucker walked her through her lines again. Trystan stared into the
stage wing, peering through the darkness, looking for Mari. Instead
of seeing the girl who stole his heart, he only saw her empty
chair. She was downstairs. They didn’t need her to prompt anymore,
and Tucker had sent her into the prop room to dig something up.

Trystan couldn’t stop thinking about Mari.
She consumed his thoughts to the point that he didn’t hear his own
name.

“Scott!” Tucker bellowed.

While Tucker coached Brie, he’d retreated to
the other side of the stage and slid onto the table. He sat there,
dangling his legs over the side and staring at his feet, while Brie
played dumb. When people thought you were stupid, they didn’t
expect much from you. Trystan knew that trick. It was one of the
reasons he’d been assigned someone to run lines with. No one knew
the other reasons.

Trystan looked up slowly. He’d been so
focused on the memory of Mari listening to his song, the way her
face looked as he sang to her, that he failed to hear Tucker.
Coolly, Trystan lifted his gaze and said, “Yes?”

Tucker folded his arms across his massive
chest and looked at Trystan like he was crazy. Tucker jabbed his
thumb at Brie, “Run through the end of the second act with her.”
When Trystan didn’t move, Tucker added. “Now.” The large man
turned, huffed as he descended the stage stairs, and walked back to
his seat. Clapping his massive hands, he bellowed, “Top of the
second act people.” Those who weren’t supposed to be on stage
cleared the stage, leaving Trystan alone with Brie under the
spotlight.

As Trystan slipped off the table, he saw a
sliver of light cut across the wall backstage. A moment later, Mari
appeared. Her long curls dangled down her back as she rounded the
stage, appearing next to Tucker below. She handed him something too
small to see and went back to her metal chair in the wing.

As Trystan’s gaze followed Mari back to her
seat, Brie stepped closer and whispered with her ruby red lips a
little too close to his face, “You’ll never nail that. Her mom’s on
the school board and her dad’s a doctor. There’s no way they’ll let
their only daughter anywhere near scum like you.”

“Good thing your parent’s didn’t care then,
huh?” Trystan’s gaze cut to Brie.

The snake-like smile that spread across her
face fell as his words hit her. “Fuck you, Trystan.”

“Anytime, Brie.” Trystan smirked, as Brie’s
face contorted into a scowl that resided in evil bitch territory.
Brie folded her arms across her chest and turned away. Venom
radiated off of her. He’d pay for that later. He knew every jab,
every insult he hurled at her would be repaid tenfold, but Trystan
didn’t care. Brie needed to be knocked down a few pegs and he
didn’t mind doing it, not when she kept trying to screw with
him.

Tucker yelled, “From the top. Now,
people.”

They started again. The guy in the lighting
cage changed the lights on the set so there was a single golden
spot on center stage. Its broad beam was soft, spilling light
across the stage like a streetlight on a dark night. Trystan moved
to stage left and started his lines again. He had no trouble with
this part. As the scene went on, they moved closer together.
Romantic tension was rising steadily. Tucker didn’t stop them. Brie
played her part well, but not as well as Mari. Trystan said his
lines with conviction. They were perfectly played, because he
pretended Brie was Mari, the girl he wanted and couldn’t ever have.
It fit perfectly into that scene and made it easier to act opposite
Brie and not puke on her.

They ran through the act perfectly.
Everything was flowing at a steady rate toward the end of the
scene. Trystan’s stomach was pooling with dread. That act ended
with a kiss, a passionate kiss. To make matters more awkward,
Trystan could feel Mari’s eyes on him, watching him get ready to
kiss someone else. He couldn’t think about that now. If he wasn’t
half way convincing, Tucker would have them start over.

With every ounce of charm he had in him,
Trystan pulled Brie close, gently wrapping his fingers around her
waist. Brie let him, and slipped into his arms like she belonged
there. The scent of her perfume filled his head. At one time it had
been attractive, but now the scent repelled him. He breathed
through his mouth, inhaling as little as possible. Brie pressed
against him, letting him feel her curves.

Trystan’s voice was deep and seductive. He
acted as though he were saying the line to Mari, “I’d do this.”
Trystan moved in slowly and pressed his lips to Brie’s. Revulsion
shot through him, but he didn’t stop.

It’s Mari
, he told himself
. Pretend
she’s Mari
. Trystan closed his eyes and splayed his hands
across Brie’s cheeks, kissing her a second longer than he should
have. The students in the wings got wrapped up in the steamy kiss.
Trystan could feel all eyes on him, and for once, he wished they
weren’t. It was the emptiest kiss he’d ever had.