“Dude, chill. It’s an
assignment,
remember? We said we’d do it tonight—they’ll be here,” Heath reminded him. He flipped open his BlackBerry and texted away.
“When did you tell them?” Brandon asked, gripping the railing tighter. His head felt like a helium balloon.
Heath ignored him. “There they are!” he said excitedly. He slapped his palm against the window to catch Sage and Kara’s attention. They turned simultaneously and Brandon felt a rubbery smile spread across his face.
“Hiya, boys.” Kara pushed open the front door and bounded down the few steps to Heath, wearing a pair of cigarette-leg black jeans and a thick black turtleneck. She planted a wet kiss on Heath. “What’s that toothpaste? Budweiser?”
“Cobra, baby,” Heath growled, pulling her back in for another kiss.
“You guys can come in—it’s still visiting, and Pardee’s usually supervising drama club rehearsals on Saturday nights.” Sage stood just inside the door, rubbing her hands on her arms, her black tights peeking out from beneath a royal blue skirt. Brandon wobbled up to her and she wrapped her arms around him, smelling deliciously like hot cocoa and pears. “You brush your teeth too?”
“Yup,” Brandon answered. He aimed a kiss for her mouth but ended up smacking her smooth cheek instead.
The downstairs common room was empty save for some abandoned notebooks, a hot pink fleece, and one houndstooth rain boot. It was similar to the Richardson common room, but, not surprisingly, a lot more feminine. The dark oak trim had been painted white, and the walls were a slate blue instead of a dark forest green, giving the room an airy, Martha Stewart feel. The walls were decorated with ink drawings of sailboats and sketches of wildfiowers, and the polished hardwood floors were covered with ancient-looking navy Oriental rugs.
Heath poked at the cold ashes in the fireplace. “I’m cold, man,” he said when Brandon asked what he was doing.
“The heat never stays in this room.” Kara dropped onto one of the velvety navy sofas and wrapped her arms around her knees. “The flood made it worse. Now it’s wet
and
cold.”
Brandon flopped down on the sofa opposite, and Sage fell next to him naturally, her short wool skirt revealing a good stretch of curvy, toned thigh. If Brandon had been cold before, the warmth of Sage’s body—and his thoughts of Sage’s body—were enough to heat him up. He felt himself smiling uncontrollably.
“Okay.” Heath rubbed his chin as if deep in thought. “Let’s get started.” He pointed the poker in Kara’s direction and grinned devilishly. “Name all the sexual positions you’ve wanted to try but were too afraid to ask.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Sage held her hands up like a referee, her short, neat nails covered in a pale pink polish that made Brandon think of lollipops. “As Mrs. Horniman would say, I don’t think there’s a college essay in there.”
Heath grinned. “Yeah, but I thought the point was to interview each other about various stuff to find out what we should write about in our essays,” he said, feigning innocence.
“I’m not applying to Playboy University,” Kara protested mildly, suppressing a smile.
Heath clapped his hands together in mock prayer. “If
only
there were a Playboy University.”
Brandon let out a loud laugh. He’d been a little afraid that Sage didn’t know what kind of guy Heath was—she’d once said, “He doesn’t seem so bad,” which had chafed Brandon ever since—but a drunken evening with Heath asking obnoxious questions was all it would take for her to realize Heath was not exactly the romantic hero she might think. No matter how touchy-feely—and kind of girly—he was with Kara, he was still Heath Ferro, after all.
“Before you even start talking like that, Heath, I think Kara and I need some of this.” Sage fumbled through her oversize apple red
YSL
bag and pulled out four frosted shot glasses and an elegant flask with a sepia-toned image of cherry trees on it. “You guys got a head start.” She poured two clear shots and handed one over to Kara, who clinked hers against Sage’s. “That’s better,” she said, shaking her butter-blond head as she downed the vodka shot. “Let’s start easy. Favorite band.”
“Radiohead,” Heath and Kara said at the same time. They looked at each other and both said, “Jinx, buy me a Coke.”
“A gram or an ounce?” Heath asked and Kara socked him lightly in the gut before passing her shot glass back to Sage for a refill.
“What about you?” Brandon asked Sage, bumping his knee not so accidentally against her stockinged leg. His wool Ben Sherman trousers felt scratchy against her sleek stockings, and the friction was enough to send his mind reeling with thoughts of tearing off her clothes. Had he always been this horny, or did Sage just bring it out in him? Or maybe it was the combination of Sage and the forties?
“I don’t know… . The Cowboy Junkies, probably,” she admitted.
A moment of silence passed and Heath blurted out a laugh like he’d been holding his breath for an hour. “What? I’ve never heard of them.” Kara shot him a look.
“I like the Cowboy Junkies too,” Brandon lied. He wasn’t even sure he knew any of their songs and hoped that Sage wouldn’t call him on it. He then said that Linkin Park was his favorite band, which wasn’t technically true. But if he admitted out loud that sometimes he actually listened to *NSYNC, and that Madonna was sort of great to work out to, Sage would probably have to dump him on the spot.
“All right, how about favorite guilty pleasure movie?” Brandon asked, leaning back against the sofa and enjoying the feel of his arm pressed against Sage’s. He wished Kara and Heath would disappear and it would be just the two of them, talking about their favorite bands and movies and kissing, then kissing some more… .
“Uh, I don’t believe any pleasures are guilty.” Heath put his hand on Kara’s knee and she batted it away. Everyone else ignored him.
“Sweet Home Alabama,”
Sage cried out as if trying to buzz in first on a game show. She grinned sheepishly at Brandon, who already knew she loved any Reese Witherspoon movie. “It’s a dumb movie, but every time I catch it on TV, I can’t look away.”
“Oh, good one,” Kara agreed, her cheeks flushed from the vodka. “I’d have to say
13 Going on 30.”
“You mean
Big.
” Heath tried again to rest his hand on Kara’s leg. This time she crossed her arms and stared him down until he removed it. “That’s a remake of
Big
with Tom Hanks.”
“I don’t think it’s a remake per se,” Brandon corrected him.
“Dude,” Heath said, “it’s a remake.”
“What’s yours?” Kara goaded Heath, offering him a sip from her newly refreshed shot glass.
“Weekend at Bernie’s,”
he answered automatically, downing the alcohol without making a face. “Though it’s really one of the greatest films ever, and I don’t think I should feel guilty about it.”
“What’s yours?” Kara asked Brandon.
Brandon had to bite his lip to keep from revealing the truth—his favorite movie was
Love, Actually.
But that seemed a little too metrosexual to admit to. Instead, he coughed and said,
“The Fast and the Furious.”
“That’s a boss movie,” Heath said, holding up his hand for Brandon to swat him five. Brandon stuck his fist out and Heath bumped it.
“Think I can get into Bennington with an essay about
Sweet Home Alabama?”
Sage asked playfully. She giggled and nuzzled her face into Brandon’s neck.
“Most embarrassing secret,” Kara said.
The front door opened and a pair of girls in brightly colored puffy jackets stamped upstairs in an orange and red blur. The cold settled in the common room and Sage rubbed her arms for warmth, pressing her leg against Brandon’s.
“I accidentally let my sister’s puppy out when we were kids and it got run over.” Sage stared down at her knees. She covered her mouth with her hand as if she regretted letting the secret out. “Wow, I’ve never admitted that out loud.”
“That’s terrible.” Kara leaned forward, looking like she wanted to give Sage a hug. “What happened?”
“I thought it could go outside and I opened the door for it and it took off. I chased after it but it ran into the road in front of this garbage truck.” Sage’s face had gone pale, and Brandon had no idea what he should do. He put an arm around her shoulder and she eased against him gratefully.
“Ohh!” Heath winced. “Smack.”
“I lied and said the dog got out on its own. I even scratched up the bottom of the kitchen door with a butter knife to make it look like I was telling the truth.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t know,” Brandon said. He imagined Sage as a five-year-old with her sunlight blond hair in long silky ponytails. “That’s an honest mistake.”
“I doubt I’d tell my sister about it even now,” Sage murmured to Brandon. “She loved that dog. She still talks about it like it’s a deceased relative.” She buried her head in his neck again.
“What’s your dark secret?” Heath asked Kara, turning to face her.
“You first.” Kara stuck her tongue out at him.
“Let’s see,” Heath said, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.”There are so, so many.” He furrowed his brow as if he was really trying to pick one, and Brandon shook his head, annoyed. “This one time my friends and I threw a cup of piss on this guy riding a bike,” he said. He smiled sheepishly when no one laughed and added, “It wasn’t
my
idea.”
Brandon watched a look of horror crawl over Kara’s face. He glanced sideways at Sage, who wore a similar look. Kara continued-to stare at Heath while he went on and on about how he and his friends had pulled up next to a guy wearing a Taco Bell uniform and pedaling a ten-speed.
“He was probably on his way home from work,” Kara said, a note of disgust in her voice.
“Who knows.” Heath, his eyes reddened with alcohol, was completely oblivious to Kara’s scowl. “It was pretty funny, though. I mean, it was a Taco Bell cup, if you can believe that.”
“What a coincidence,” Brandon said, surprised at how satisfying it was to see Heath fall in the girls’ estimation.
“Ew, don’t talk about it anymore.” Sage put her hands to her ears.
“What about you, Miss Perfect?” Heath asked Kara.
“I don’t know about Miss Perfect,” Kara said, “but I can’t top that story.” She played with a button on her sleeve.
“C’mon,” Heath egged her on.
“You don’t want to hear it,” Kara told him.
“Sure we do,” Heath said. He looked at Brandon and Sage as if to confirm.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Brandon said, not because he didn’t want to hear Kara’s secret—she did have this totally mysterious aura about her—but because he was in a contrarian groove: whatever Heath said or did, he would do the opposite. It was his new way of life.
“I went on a cabbage soup diet after I left Waverly—which I did, in no small part, because of your teasing.” Kara looked at Heath, who was trying to compute what she was saying. He screwed up his face and scrunched his brow. “I ate cabbage soup for a whole month—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
“My mom tried that once,” Sage spoke up quietly. “She lasted, like, a day.”
“It’s pretty gross,” Kara said, her voice light and joking again. “And it makes you smell like cabbage, too. But it works.”
“I don’t remember teasing you,” Heath whispered to Kara, his eyes pleading. He put his hand over his heart as if swearing the truth.
“You were pretty brutal,” Kara confessed.
“Like how? What’d I say?” Heath asked. His hand dropped to his lap and the tenor in the room changed. Brandon could feel Heath s ship sinking deeper and deeper.
Kara sighed. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I blocked it all out anyway.”
“Well, we’re glad you’re back,” Brandon said diplomatically. He smiled broadly as Heath sat mute, unable to come up with anything to say.
“Me too,” Sage added.
They all looked at Heath, who was at a total loss for words. Finally, Kara shifted her greenish-brown eyes to Brandon. “So, what’s your secret?”
Brandon wanted to stop the words before they left his mouth, but with all the beer he’d had, topped with the shot of vodka, his brain was two steps behind. “I slept with my baby blanket until I was eleven.”
A silence fell and Sage looked at him like he was a kinder-gartner who had dropped his ice cream cone.
Brandon’s heart was pounding, his temples throbbing with nerves and the hangover that was sure to come the next morning. Had he really just admitted his retarded-development baby blanket secret? Couldn’t he have invented something sexier— and more dangerous? It hit him like a ton of bricks that all his hard work and cool-faking had gone down the drain. Sage would never see him the same way again.
“That is so cute,” Sage said suddenly, her words slurring slightly. She squeezed his hand.
Brandon’s eyes widened. Was it possible she was turned on by it? Had he been worried for nothing?
Heath snorted. “Dude, what color was your blankie?” he asked, rubbing his face with his hand in an effort to control his snickers.
“Blue,” Brandon answered, not wanting to back down. “It had the logos of all the baseball teams on one side, and it was blue on the other.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But after a few years, it was just kind of gray.”
“By the way,” Kara spoke up, almost imperceptibly sliding away from Heath, “none of this leaves this room.”
“Right,” Sage agreed.
“Definitely.” Brandon leaned back into the plush blue sofa, feeling suddenly relaxed.
Sage tugged Brandon closer to her. Her breath was warm in his ear, and wisps of her blond hair tickled his nose. “You’ll have to show me your blanket sometime.”
Brandon grinned stupidly, feeling lighter and happier than he had in weeks. Apparently, some secrets were better when shared.
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