The Trouble with Dating Sue (Grover Beach Team #6) (10 page)

Another wave of anticipation swamped me. I hoped it would finally put me to sleep with some happy dreams, but no such luck. At some point, and it felt like hours later, I started making faces at the ceiling, only because the silence in the darkened room was killing me. Gah! Foosball would have been so much better than this.

*

Sleep-deprived, I trudged through the house with a foggy head and glassy eyes on Friday morning, struggling to get into my routine. A hot shower and coffee so strong it could burn a hole in my stomach helped matters a little, but not much.

“Want a ride?” Ethan asked as he walked past the kitchen, where I lounged, half lying on the table.

I gave him a thumbs-up for a yes.

“Then shake a leg. It’s late.”

A tired grunt left me. After chugging down the rest of my coffee, I put the cup in the sink and rushed to get my stuff for school. Ethan was already waiting in the car, engine humming, by the time I walked out the door.

Head lolling against the window, I caught three minutes of sleep on the ride, but if anything, the short nap put me in a worse condition than before. With my current tunnel vision, I felt like Grover Beach High’s in-house zombie as I shuffled through the hall to first period.

Luckily, the caffeine kicked in over the morning, and the yawns I had to smother during history and trig stopped when we played a hard game of basketball in gym. Done with the second shower of the day, I jogged to Spanish afterward and sank into the seat next to the one already claimed by Lauren. “Hi,” I greeted her with a bright smile.

She said “hey” a little curtly and didn’t even look at me for a full three seconds.

Uh-oh.

My brows knitted together. “Everything okay?”

“Yep. Everything’s fine.”

Shit.
Nothing
was fine. But what had I done? Gaze uncomfortably darting around the room, I cleared my throat. “Are you pissed because I didn’t come down to the shopping center last night?” If she was, I really didn’t see why, but with girls one could never know.

Now Lauren turned her head in my direction as slowly as the velociraptor in Jurassic Park when it scented its prey. It gave me the chills. She inhaled deeply, slanted her head like she was pondering how to answer that, then obviously decided not to answer at all, and just rolled her eyes.

Mrs. Sanchez walking into class as the bell rang cut our not-so-funny conversation short and forced me to retreat. I could only speculate for the entire next hour. Sometimes I sneaked a glance to Lauren’s side, but each time she noticed she expelled an angry snort. She might’ve breathed smoke the next time I looked at her, so halfway through Spanish, I stopped and kept my gaze to my notes in front of me.

When the bell heralded my lunch break and Lauren slipped out of her seat faster than a viper, I dumped my books in my schoolbag and hurried after her. Just outside class, I caught her arm, stopping her in her tracks. She would talk to me now whether she liked it or not. It was Friday, and I had an important basketball game tomorrow that I wanted her to come watch. And on top of that, I didn’t handle parting in anger very well, because I’d had enough of that shit when my parents were still together.

“What is it?” I snarled at her face, clasping her arm harder as she tried to jerk it free. “Tell me what your problem is,
please
, because I really don’t know.”

For an extended moment, she tried to kill me with her stare.

“Please,” I repeated more insistently.

Lauren knew about my issues with arguments, and that was probably the only reason she relented now. Her voice, however, was like a lethal injection. “How did the school project with your brother go?”

I swallowed, hard. “Uh—”

When my grip on her loosened, she finally pulled away and folded her arms over her chest, a muscle jumping in her jaw as she waited for my reply.

“It…umm…went good?”

Her mouth fell open, and her eyes grew wide. Dammit, wrong answer.

Next, she shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Oh, get lost, Chris!” She stormed away, but I was on her heels and stopped her again before she rounded the corner.

Snatching her wrist, I made her face me and blew out a breath when she stopped growling at me. “Okay, so there was no project,” I admitted.

“No shit.”

Hell, what could I say? I had felt bad when I made her leave yesterday. My mouth opened and closed, but words…? Not one came.

At my incompetence, Lauren took over the talking, and there was a lot she had to say. “I heard from Becky what happened in detention yesterday. Tyler told her everything about your intentions to seduce that girl. The one your brother took home yesterday, isn’t she?”

Should I say yes? Should I nod? Heaven help me, I was scared of this girl.

“Chris, you’re not my boyfriend,” she continued then, with the intensity of a harvester riding over me. “You can go out and hookup and do
what
ever with
who
ever you want.”

Okay, good to know. It wouldn’t work any other way with us, anyway. But what exactly did we have to talk about then?

The answer to that came with a reproachful quirk of her eyebrows. “The point is, I don’t like to be lied to. So next time you have something better to do than hang out or study Spanish, for Chrissake, just say so.”

My heart pounded a nervous beat. Lauren was a close friend, but at times like this, I wished I could duck my head and just run. She was unpredictable when she got mad. I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and nodded slowly.

“Fine. See you on Monday,” she snarled, eyes still slits. When she turned away from me for the third time, I didn’t follow her but called her name loud enough for her to catch over the mumbling of kids in the hallway. She stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “The basketball game tomorrow?” I asked. I did want her to come.

After an endless moment of deliberating, she finally grunted, “Maybe.” Then she headed off to her next class, and I went to meet my friends in the cafeteria. My conscience was a bitch that kicked me in the ass the whole way.

THE MOMENT I entered the overcrowded cafeteria and sat down with T-Rex and the others, I glanced at the soccer table, and it made me forget all about Lauren and our conversation three minutes ago.

Dammit. Watching Sue eat another kiwi gave me all kinds of funny quivers in my stomach. For fun, I considered walking over there, snatching a cup of cream on the way, then dipping her kiwi slice in it, and feeding it to her like yesterday. Would she eat it? In front of all her friends?

In front of Ethan, who was actually sitting with them today?

I doubted it, so the walk would be a waste of time. I ate my pizza and kept my attention close to the neighborhood instead of letting it run astray to the soccer gang. If the saying was true and third time was really a charm, my brother would bring Susan home again that evening. Another visit should offer enough opportunities to get a few minutes alone with her then.

But when I came home from basketball practice that afternoon, Ethan was hiding in his room all by his lonesome. It seemed he had other plans for today. Whatever they were, they didn’t involve Susan Miller.

While I was playing with the thought of giving Sue a call myself and inviting her here, my mother slashed that idea when she knocked on my door and called my name.

“’S open,” I answered.

“Peggy Ann delivered the rosebushes this morning,” she informed me, slipping only her head through the door. “Would you mind helping me plant them?”

Rosebushes? For real? I made a face and whined, “Can’t we do it this weekend?”

“They’ll dry out before then. Come on, please? I can’t do it alone.”

“Ask Ethan then…”

“He’s studying for his math test.”

Rolling my eyes, I suppressed a grunt and dragged myself out of the chair, tossing my phone on the bed. Mom backed away when I pointed a finger at her nose. “You know what that means, lady.”

As I squeezed between her and the doorframe, she lifted her brows at me. “Hmm?”

“Allowance raise,” I told her with a smirk.

“Yeah, right.” Mom knocked her elbow playfully into my side. “Dream on, buddy.”

Plans busted
and
no payment? Seriously, the house rules needed an amendment, and fast. Then again, how long could it take to dig a hole and put a stupid bush in? Ten minutes?

Together, we walked into the yard and—
jeez!
There was a trailer loaded with an entire rose jungle in the driveway.

“What the heck are you going to do with
those
?” I wailed.

Her innocent grin came a little too late. She pointed at the twenty-foot line of bleak soil along the wooden fence. Great. If we started now, we could be done by midnight…if we hurried. “Terrific,” I muttered, going to retrieve the shovel.

Saturday morning, I slept in. During the night, an annoying pain had started in my lower back, which was probably a result of all that manual labor in the garden, bending and planting those prickly bushes. Trying to ignore the twinge as the morning sun tickled my face, I turned over, but the ache didn’t go away. Grandpa must’ve felt like that when he woke up every morning—stiff and hurting all over. At least that’s what he looked like when Ethan and I used to spend our holidays at our grandparents’ house up until ninth grade. Getting old? Not something one should look forward to.

It was well past eleven when I finally rolled out of bed and did a serious series of pushups and crunches to get the kink out of my back. A long, warm shower soothed the pain some more. Hungry as hell after the workout, I threw on a white polo shirt and my favorite washed-out jeans, then made myself an awesome breakfast. An omelet with pretty much everything the fridge had to offer and coffee so thick and black it could’ve been the devil’s spit-out soul.

A breakfast like that demanded some relaxing in front of the TV afterward. Zapping through the channels, there was nothing to hold my interest, so I didn’t fight the pull when my eyes started closing.

It might’ve been minutes or hours later when the doorbell yanked me out of my light sleep. “Chris, can you get it?” my mother’s voice drifted into the living room from outside the house. Her face popped up behind the door leading to the backyard. Obviously, she was busy with her rosebushes. Running a hand over my face, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sauntered to the door.

A delighted smile tugged on the edges of my mouth when I saw the girl with a ponytail standing in the sunlight on our doorstep. “Hi, Susan.”

She gave me a once-over, her eyes narrowing the slightest as they returned to my face. Ah, she had no idea. Cocky, I crossed my arms over my chest and tilted my head slightly. “You’re trying to figure out who I am, aren’t you?”

All of a sudden, her gaze lightened. “Nope, I just got the answer. Is Ethan in his room?”

“Yes,” I drawled, wondering what the hell gave me away. Sue didn’t even wait for my answer but pushed me out of the way and headed down the hall, leaving me to close the door like her damn servant.

I rushed after her and grabbed her arm before she reached my brother’s room. “How did you figure it out?”

“Simple.”

Simple?
It shouldn’t be simple, dammit. But then she let me in on her secret by grabbing my massive silver chains and winding them around her finger until they almost cut into my flesh. “Your
I rule
chains gave you away.”

“I rule” chains
? Excuse me? They were the only things my dad had left behind when he moved out. Mom had asked Ethan and me if we wanted them, since she didn’t intend on spending a single dime to mail anything to our father. Ethan had deadpanned, “Are you kidding me?” So I’d worn both ever since.

A mischievous grin on her face now, Sue dropped the necklaces and then flicked me on the forehead.

“Hey, that’s rude,” I blurted with narrowed eyes.

“What? The flick or calling your chains what they are?” The girl had the nerve to flick me again. Oh, God help her, but she shouldn’t have done that twice. Obviously, she needed to be taught another lesson.

“Both,” I said, snatching her hand and twisting her around fast, so her back was pressing against my front. My arms around her in a tight embrace, I growled in her ear, “And if you do that one more time, I’ll give you a hickey the size of Ohio.” Lowering my head, I let my lips brush over the satiny skin of her neck with my next words. “Right here.”

Shit, but this girl smelled good. Like she’d taken a bath in coconut milk.

Sue froze in my arms. As her skin quivered under my mouth, I wanted to make good on my promise this instant.

Gasping, she tried to wrestle free from my hold. “Go away, Chris! You’re disgusting!” Either she was a really weak girl, or she just didn’t want to get away as much as she wanted to make us both believe, because she didn’t seem to be trying very hard.

Her girly resistance coaxed a chuckle from me, but I gave her that and let her go. One arm braced on the wall then, she caught her breath. “Never,” she warned me, “do that again!”

“Why?” Playfully, I waggled my eyebrows at her. “Afraid you might get addicted to it?”

“Yeah, either that”—she all but stuck her finger down her throat to make herself gag and rolled her eyes—“or throw up.”

Seriously? I laughed out loud now. “Every addiction starts with denial, so I’ll let you believe that.” Suddenly it struck me what day it was, and my laugh died abruptly. “Why did you come here, anyway? Are you coming to my basketball game tonight?” I didn’t quite dare to believe that, but why else would Ethan have invited her over?

Sue mirrored my narrowed gaze. “What? No!”

“Then why are you here?”

“Movies? Ethan and I?” She lifted her eyebrows in a way that called me dimwitted. “I told you on the phone, remember?” She started to walk away, but Little Miss Sunshine was mistaken. She couldn’t drop a bomb on my head like that and just run.

Slamming my hand on the wall in front of her face, I cut off her escape. “Wait. That’s today?” I wanted her to suddenly remember that she got the time of their date wrong. But, alas, my luck with this girl was non-existent.

“Yes.”

That one word left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“But you can’t,” I muttered. All right, maybe
she
could, but Ethan couldn’t. Like shit would I let him skip the game. My argument with Sue was over that instant. Instead, I decided to talk to the culprit, the one who’d betrayed me. Stomping down the hallway, I entered Ethan’s room without bothering to knock. “Hey, what’s this crap about you going to the movies tonight?”

My brother, who sat at his desk doing whatever, looked up. “I’m going with Susan.” Confused, he shook his head slightly. “What’s your problem?”

His casual brush-off stung. “My problem is that it’s my last game this year. The big rematch against Clearwater High. You were supposed to come. You promised!” His face was still as blank as a piece of paper. My shoulders dropped as my hope drained. “Mom’s coming, too.”

Something soft touched my arm. My head jerking around, I found Sue’s compassionate eyes on me. “If it means so much to you, we won’t go to the movies tonight. Ethan can go to your game.”

“I can?” I heard Ethan’s stunned voice at the same time I blurted, “He
can
?”

“Yes,” Sue answered with a soft, amused chuckle—something that was definitely rare when I was around. “The movie won’t run away. And if it’s the last game before winter break, you really should go,” she prompted Ethan. “It would kill me if my family didn’t come to my big games.”

Of course. She was a soccer player, she could relate to my feelings. Right then I wanted to hug and kiss her more than anything.

“Okay, but you have to come, too,” Ethan told her.

For a moment, she deliberated the idea. In the end, she shrugged and gave us both a small smile. “Basketball, it is.”

I ignored the urge to grab her and spin her around, but seriously, the smile tearing at my lips right now was nothing I could hold back. Turning a little more in Sue’s direction and less in Ethan’s, I mouthed a genuine, “I owe you.”

The wicked gleam in her eyes spelled trouble; yes, she would collect that favor sometime soon. But I was good with that. Whatever she wanted, she would get it for making my brother come to my game.

Sue walked past me and shut the door in my face, shutting me out of Ethan’s realm once again. For a bit, it nagged at me not knowing what the two of them did inside this well-sealed fort. But soon enough T-Rex called, and we built each other up bragging about how we were going to kick some Clearwater High ass tonight.

My mind chock-f of basketball, I packed my jersey and shoes in a duffle bag. From a drawer, I grabbed my lucky socks, the white ones with the two green loops, and tossed them on top. Spraying some Axe under my shirt, I stuffed the bottle into the bag too, then zipped it closed.

Mom had changed into one of her elegant dresses by the time I came into the kitchen. It might seem awkward to dress so formally for a game where people usually left with hot dog stains on their shirts and maybe some Coke splashes, too. But not in this house. The dark red dress was my mother’s way of showing me what a proud basketball mom she was. One who didn’t doubt for a second that her son’s team would win the game tonight.

“I’m ready to eat steak today,” she stated with a big smile and kissed me on the cheek. That was the whole point of the dress anyway. If my team won, she would be treating Ethan and me to a fantastic meal in a nice restaurant afterward. The alternative was Burger King and my treat, but that wasn’t in the stars tonight. I could feel it in my excitedly bouncing ankles.

I rubbed the spot on my cheek where she’d left a damp, mama-kiss spot. “Are we taking one car tonight, or does Ethan want to drive with Sue?”

“I don’t know. Can you ask them?”

The duffle bag dropped with a thud on the floor. Heading for Ethan’s room, I knocked gently, but with the fun they must’ve been having inside, they didn’t hear. I could even tell through the door that they were playing Wii bowling, what with Sue cheering, “Ssttt….
rike
!”

Certain not to interrupt anything unpredictable this time, I cracked the door open. Sue slammed another virtual ball down the lane and asked my brother, “When does the game start?”

“In forty-five minutes,” I answered, which made them both turn around. “Mom’s ready, and we’re leaving in five. If you two want a ride, you better finish this fast.”

The sound of pins being shot to hell and a ringing chimed from the TV, drawing everyone’s attention for a moment. Obviously, Sue was a pro at Wii bowling. With a happy grin, she spun back to Ethan and me, bouncing on the heels of her feet. “I’m done. We can go,” she declared, hands clasped behind her as she proudly stuck out her chest.

Ethan didn’t share her joy about winning the game. He folded his arms over his chest, and from his grumpy voice, I guessed his face, turned away from me, was none too happy either. “I don’t care how much you complain. Next time it’s
Mario Kart
again.”

“Fine with me.” Susan beamed, shining like a new nickel, no doubt taking this as another invitation to a Wii hookup in her crush’s house. The two of them definitely took the term
virtual dating
to a whole new level.