The Romeo Club (6 page)

“Well, it was showing. Would you rather I let her walk around looking like a hooker?” He crossed his arms at his chest.

Trey busted up laughing. “Dude, I want to take bets now on how long it’ll take him to get his butt kicked by someone.”

C.C. held up his middle finger. “Really, douchebag? Let’s see how you do.”

Trey pushed his tall frame up from the couch, adjusted his square-framed glasses and walked toward me.

In true Portia fashion, I batted my eyelashes, then tossed my hair over my shoulder. I sat down and pretended I was at my school desk. When he stood over me, I glanced up.

“Hey, Delyla—er, Portia. Have you seen that new romantic comedy Roses for Blue yet?”

“No. I had a beauty pageant last weekend and haven’t gotten to go yet.”

Trey’s lip twitched and I knew he bit back a smile. “Dang—I’ve been wanting to go, but wasn’t sure if it was any good. If you know anyone who’s seen it, let me know. Or maybe if you’re not doing anything Saturday, you’d like to go?”

Blue eyes met mine and I stared at him. My pulse thundered in my ears. I smiled. “I’d love to go.”

“So, it’s a date?”

“Yes.”

C.C. and Kevin clapped. Trey’s ears turned pink as he glanced at them then back at me. “How did I do?”

“Perfect. You kept eye contact, and you didn’t stumble when I told you I hadn’t seen it. You kept the conversation going.” Maybe Trey didn’t need as much help as he thought he did. He had me believing he wanted to take me to see a movie, and I was just the stand-in Portia.

“So we passed our first test?” Kevin said, clutching his notebook. “Well, other than C.C.”

C.C. threw his hands over his head. “Sure, everyone pick on me. You’re just jealous that you didn’t come up with the bra-strap line.”

I snorted. “Anyway, either this weekend or Monday, I want you to try out some sort of exchange with the girl you like. Report back to me at our next meeting to let me know how things went. If you need to talk to me before then, just text or stop in.”

The Nerd Herd grabbed their things and headed out. We were off to a good start, but they definitely needed a lot more work.

***

I’d just sat at my desk to start my homework when my cell went off. Rex.

“Hey,” I said.

“Double-D, what’re you up to?”

I groaned. “I’m hanging out with my Trig book, what about you?”

“Watching the Tigers’ game with my dad.”

“That sounds way more fun.” I propped my foot up on my trashcan and picked at the blue nail polish coming off my nails.

“Listen, I have to ask you something.” His voice turned serious.

“Sure.”

“Were you at the mall today? I know I sound paranoid, but I swear I saw you in Rockies.”

Dang it. I hated to lie, so I went with a half-truth. “Yeah. We had to stop in to grab some things for the science project we’re working on. We’re doing an analysis of scents—you know, like colognes, foods, leather, that sort of thing.”

“You know, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I could help you instead. I’m good at science.”

Son of a b, why wouldn’t he let this go? It’s not like he cared what I did before this, why the sudden change? “Actually, the teacher assigned the Nerd Herd to me.”

“Maybe I can talk to him—”

Not wanting this to go any further, I decided to change the subject. “Hey, so do you want to hang out tomorrow? I have nothing going on. We could meet up and play tennis or take a hike up to the falls.”

He groaned. “You’re not gonna believe this, but my parents are having some stupid luncheon thing I have to go to tomorrow. It’s at the country club.”

“Well maybe later this week then.”

“But, I miss hanging out with you. I wish it was summer again, then we wouldn’t have to worry about school.”

“Me too. But listen, I gotta go.” With that we said goodbye. Now I just needed to figure out how to keep juggling The Romeo Club and Rex. The last thing we needed was for him to figure out that I was training the guys. He’d never let them live it down.

Chapter 8

Oldies music blared from the living room downstairs. My parents’ Sunday afternoon ritual of cards, snacks, and tunes was underway. Or, in other words, annoy the crap out of me time. They’d normally end up kissing at some point over a cribbage board or in between bites of crackers and cheese. Total gross fest, which is why I hid out in my room. As far as they knew, I was boggled down with homework.

I slid my earbuds in, hoping to drown out their laughter and music. With a sigh, I pulled out the information Kenadi had given me about Portia. I jotted down a few tidbits to give to Trey. However, I decided against handing over all the intel at once. The last thing we needed him to do was go hog-wild with the info and ruin things.

Once I wrote the stuff down, I ripped the paper from my notebook, then grabbed the T-shirt I’d bought Trey the other day. With any luck, I’d be able to sneak over to his house without Mom or Dad noticing. I tugged my headphones off and hurried down the hallway.

The hardwood floors creaked beneath my feet, while beams of sunlight filtered in through the windows, reflecting off the framed pictures of me and my brother that lined the entire corridor. It was like the walk of shame. Mom insisted on highlighting the most embarrassing moments of our childhood through puberty. There was a pic of Drake on the kiddie toilet taking his first pee. One of me, screaming my head off during my first bath. Next to that, hung a photo of me and my brother running around naked through the sprinkler, when I was one and he was two.

Needless to say, I’d never shown Rex or any other boy to my bedroom because I didn’t want to bring them down the hall of horrors. Well, I mean the Nerd Herd had seen them, but they didn’t really count.

I made it out of the house and ran across our yard to Trey’s. Clouds drifted across the sky, hiding the sun. The scent of fresh cut grass filled the air. The large, blue, Victorian home sprawled out before me, its turret pointed toward the heavens like an arrow. I stepped onto the wraparound porch, covered with white wicker furniture and hanging flower baskets and walked to the front door. Standing in front of the wooden barrier, I knocked.

Mrs. Garrett opened the door. “Hi, Delyla.”

“Hello. Is Trey around?”

“Yeah, come on in. He’s in his room, you can go on up.” She moved aside letting me in.

My gaze flickered over the flowered wallpaper and stained glass windows. I hurried through the foyer and up the spiral staircase like I had so many other times. When I got to Trey’s door, I barged in.

I gasped. There, standing in the center of his room, was Trey, wearing only a pair of boxers. My eyes roamed over his defined chest, to his muscled arms then back down again.

“Holy, balls—sorry, I mean, I didn’t see your balls, I … ” Heat crept up the back of my neck and over my cheeks. I swallowed hard and turned my head in the other direction. When did he get so ripped? I didn’t remember the sleek muscles last summer when we went swimming at Lake Michigan.

Trey chuckled. “You can look now, I put on my jeans.”

Yeah, but he didn’t mention a shirt. The boy needed to cover up stat, or I might drool on him or something. I sucked in a deep breath trying to rein in my pulse.
Okay, act cool. This is Trey. Not Rex.
“Um, I got you this.”

Without meeting his gaze, I handed him the T-shirt I’d bought for him.

“What’s this for?” He held it up and smiled.

I shrugged. “I saw it in the window at the mall and thought it was cute—then of course I thought of you.”

His eyebrows went up.

“I mean, not like that … ” Good grief. Maybe I ought to just shut my mouth before I said something even worse.

He slid it on over his head. It fit perfectly. “Do you want me to pay you for it?”

“No. It’s a gift. You know—to the new you.” I shoved my hands into my pocket and tugged out the piece of notebook paper. “Oh, and before I forget, I brought over a short list of things Portia likes.”

He took it from me and scanned it. “Dancing, shopping, and designing dresses? Well that’s not going to get me off to a good start. I hate dancing. Definitely not a big fan of shopping, well unless we’re at the video game store. And well, for obvious reasons, I’m not into dresses—unless of course they’re on a chick or something.”

I rolled my eyes. “These are more for you to get a conversation started. You can ask her if she watches the new celebrity dancing show.”

He snorted. “That means I’ll have to watch a few episodes.”

“You’re in luck then. My mom has them recorded.” Along with every other reality TV show on satellite. She was an addict.

“Seriously?” He ran a hand through his hair.

“How bad do you want this?”

Trey sighed and paced in front of his computer. He glanced at his Star Wars posters then back at me. “Somehow, I have a feeling I’m gonna regret this. But fine. Let’s do this.”

He put on a pair of shoes and we headed outside. As we crossed his yard into mine, I noticed Jimbo standing near our front porch. There, on the ground, were my mom’s pink flamingo yard decorations. And well, Jimbo was having a little too much fun with them, if you catch my drift.

“Not again. No—bad dog. Get off those.”

The dog ignored me and kept doing the deed with the poor, plastic birds. They probably wished they had real legs about now so they could run away.

“No,” I shouted again, this time I chased after him, until he rushed back into his own yard.

“Dude, that dog needs a lady friend.”

“Well, you might want to hide Biscuit.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Don’t curse my poodle.”

“Thank God, she’s fixed.” I laughed.

When we got inside, I led Trey into the living room and flipped on the television. “Let me grab some paper so we can take notes on the show.”

“You’re kidding me right?”

“No. You want to be able to carry on intelligent conversations, don’t you? The only way to do that is to study. Think of it as homework.”

“Has anyone ever told you, you’re a nerd?”

“Only you.” Once I got my notebook, we plopped down on the couch and turned on the show. I jotted down info on the people and the songs. But to be honest, I was bored out of my mind. I mean, who actually found this crap interesting?

Trey let out a yawn. “How many episodes do we have to watch?”

“Four.” My eyes glazed over just thinking about it.

We made it through the first three episodes, when Mom poked her head in. “Oh, I didn’t know you two liked this.”

She spun into the room pretending to waltz with some invisible guy or maybe the hot French dancer from the show. Mom sung along with the song, but just then she caught her foot on the edge of the sofa and went flying. She hit the floor with a thud and to my horror, her shirt lifted, giving us a view of her ugly, white, grandma-bra.

Mortified, I leapt to my feet. “Maybe we should watch this another time.” I shoved the notes I took into Trey’s hands and ushered him to the front door. “I’ll see you later.”

Good grief. I swear, I had the most embarrassing family in the world.

Mom hefted herself up. “Guess my dancing skills are a little rusty.”

A little? Try non-existent. I rubbed a hand across my face as if that would take away the vision.

Poor Trey would probably be scarred for the rest of his life—maybe even blind from the flash of bra and old lady skin.

“I hope I didn’t scare Trey off.”

“He had to get home. Lots of homework. And so do I. See you later.” I rushed upstairs before she decided to break dance or something and show me a thong. Gah. The images.

As soon as my door shut behind me, I dialed Kenadi. “Can you please kill me now?”

“Oh God, what happened?” she said.

So I went on to tell her about Mom’s fiasco and my walking in on Trey.

“Needless to say, it’s been an eventful day,” I said.

She giggled. “Sounds like it.”

“I’m sure Trey will avoid our house for the foreseeable future.”

“Speaking of Trey, you spent more time with him than Rex this weekend.”

“Romeo Club duties, nothing more.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” Or at least I hoped so.

Chapter 9

I pushed through the crowds of people as I made my way into school. My ballet flats slid across the scuffed tiles as I adjusted my backpack, which weighed like five tons. With all the homework they handed out in my AP classes, it’d be a miracle if I maintained my 4.0 average. But if I wanted to keep from taking final exams, I had to make sure my grades didn’t fall. This was one of the few school policies I liked. If you got A’s all four marking periods in your classes then you didn’t take the exams.

Wanting to get my science paper handed in early, I headed straight for Mr. Braxon’s room. I came up short when I noticed Rex leaning against his desk. With a groan, I pressed myself against one of the blue lockers.

“Hey, Mr. B,” he said. “I wondered if you might assign me to tutor Delyla Denson instead of C.C., Kevin, and Trey.”

Oh crap. I’m so dead.
This whole lying thing was way over my head—and obviously I wasn’t very good at it.

“Delyla Denson? She doesn’t need a tutor. Her grades are fine,” Mr. Braxon said.

Why the heck is he checking up on me?

Not wanting to get caught eavesdropping, I hurried past the door and down the hall. I needed a new excuse and fast. When I got to my locker, which was located right next to Drake’s, I saw the Nerd Herd hanging out.

“Okay guys, I’m in deep shit here. If Rex asks why we’re hanging out, tell him I joined the Science Club with you guys and I’m helping you with projects.”

“And why should we do that?” C.C. smoothed down one of his new T-shirts.

“It’s either that or I tell him about The Romeo Club. Your choice.”

“We’ll tell him whatever you ask us to,” Kevin said, slugging C.C. in the chest. “Don’t ruin this for us you dick.”

He held his hands up. “I was teasing. Can’t any of you ever take a joke?”

“No,” we all said in unison.