Ex-Factor (Diamond Girls) (10 page)

Eli: Damn, girl. You looked hot @ lunch. When r you going 2 give in n go out w/ me? E.

The umbrella of civility I’d been sheltering under promptly blew away in the storm that was my temper.

Me: Enough, Eli! U r dating Erin. My friend. Will never go out w/ u. Ever! Be a man, do the right thing, and move on!

I sucked in a deep breath as I pulled my cell from my pocket, careful to mask the irritation flowing through my veins. If I could squash my problem with Eli quietly, it would be better all around. No feelings would be hurt—well, not counting Eli’s—and less garbage would lie on Livvie’s shoulders. My poor cousin already carried the burden of truth regarding my parents—most of the truth, anyway—and I didn’t want to put anything else on her. There wasn’t much I had control over, but this I could fix. I was certain of it.

Teeth secretly chomping down on the inside of my lip, I swiped a finger across the touch screen and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the message was from Erin.

Erin: Running late. Nervous about 2nite. So much 2 tell u! Need ur advice about E. See u in a few!

My heart sank as I slid my phone back into my pocket, and I sat with my elbows on my knees, nervously playing with a strand of hair. She needed my advice on something regarding Eli? Unless her situation involved the swift and forceful removal of him from her life, I wasn’t sure I could be of much help. Erin wore blinders when it came to Eli. Which, honestly, I didn’t understand. Erin was a smart girl. She knew what Eli had been like before they started dating. The tales of his many conquests circled through the gossip channels on a daily basis. I’d been at the school a mere three weeks and I already knew his age, weight, blood type, and condom preferences.

What I needed was a clever and sensitive way to tell my smart friend she was being completely stupid when it came to this boy. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that was.

Livvie tapped me on the leg. “I’m gonna take a walk with J.P. ‘Kay?”

“Okay,” I said with a nod, smiling when I saw their fingers laced together. Excitement radiated from behind her eyes and she looked as though she might burst from happiness. I tilted my head to the side and gave her an enthusiastic wave, quietly ushering her away with my hands. No one deserved to find contentment with a good guy more than my sweet cousin, and I felt genuinely happy for her.

My quiet reprieve lasted all of two minutes, at which point, a blue and white marbled carnation tied with a blue satin ribbon appeared in front of my face.

“Pretty flower for my pretty girl.” Eli moved in from behind me and sat so close our hips touched. The boy had zero respect for personal space.

Ignoring the flower still floating mere inches from my head, I slid over and placed a good foot between us. My jaw ached from clenching, and I rolled my eyes as I stared out onto the field. The JV quarterback from the Jags flailed under a pile of Spartans, the ball now in Grant High’s possession.

The crowd roared.

I seethed.

“Can you not take a hint? I am not your girl.” I turned my head and locked eyes with him. “I’ll never be your girl. You’re dating Erin.”

Eli made a “tsk” sound and shook his head. “We’re not official, Nev. We’re just friends, with…” His face lit up, an obnoxious smirk turning up the corners of his mouth. “Well, you know.”

I wanted to smack the dimple off his smug face. I knew what he was referring to, all right. Except what Eli didn’t know was that Erin had told me everything about their relationship in a moment of excitement after practice last week. My girl was still a virgin, and had yet to give into the carnal urgings he incessantly pressured her about.

I admired Erin’s optimism, and loved that she saw potential and good in everyone. I also knew how boys like Eli operated. I’d allowed someone like him into my life once, and the repercussions were beyond devastating. My stomach rolled. Eli was stringing Erin along, telling her all the right things in the hopes she’d “give it up.” Once he got what he wanted, he’d drop her like a bad habit. Tigers didn’t change their stripes, and neither did man-whoring teenage boys.

I shook my head in disgust. “You don’t deserve Erin, and she doesn’t deserve what you’re doing to her. Do better. Be the decent and worthy guy she sees when she looks at you.”

His expression changed then; his eyebrows knit together as though he were truly taking stock of my words. He mashed his lips, inhaled a deep breath, and shook his head. “I’m not a bad guy, Nev. I’m really not.” He pierced me with a heated stare, his emerald eyes captivating and serious. “I’m just trying to find the right girl. You know, the one.” He swept his hat from his head, and looked out onto the field, his expression pensive.

I waited for him to come at me with a string of excuses or some other load of crap, but he said nothing, just sat quietly.

Eli’s awkward moment of silence ended abruptly. The quiet, introspective guy who’d emerged moments before, vanished as if someone had flipped a switch and snuffed him out. The Eli I’d come to know inched closer until he was almost on top of me, and leaned in, making it nearly impossible to ignore him. His scent was overpowering and I recognized it at once: Ralph Lauren Polo Black. The scent was sexy and woodsy, but when the wearer bathed in it, obnoxious.

I got his appeal, couldn’t deny he was an attractive kid. Dressed in his football jersey, a pair of distressed jeans and expensive-looking Nikes, he oozed sensuality and was a teenage girl’s dream come to life. He wore his blue baseball cap backward, and eyed me with a mixture of playfulness, and pure, unadulterated lust.

Despite the general disgust I felt toward him, it was impossible to break his gaze. It was mesmerizing. He was mesmerizing.

Eyes never leaving mine, he brushed my hair off my shoulder and away from my face. He lifted the carnation and gently trailed the feather soft petals down my cheek and onto my neck. “I like you, Nev. You’re different. You keep me on my toes.”

I made a “humph” sound and batted the flower away. “No. I just don’t fall for your bullshit like every other girl at this school.” I fidgeted in my seat and glanced over my shoulder toward the end of the bleachers. Where were Erin and the girls? When was Livvie coming back?

He laughed then, and nodded his head. “Exactly. You make the chase fun—a challenge.” He dropped his head for a minute, and when he looked back up, all traces of playfulness were gone. His green eyes smoldered, and he gazed at me with hunger and lust. “And when I finally catch you, it’s gonna be a sweet, sweet victory.” He lifted the flower up and brushed it across my lips. “For both of us. I promise.”

Holy hell.
I didn’t even like the guy and part of me was ready to fall for his shtick. Bad Boy was a friggin’ champ at sweet-talking. It wasn’t so much his words—those were kinda cheesy—but more the way he spoke and his expression when he said it. I needed to get away from him.

I was in no danger of giving in, but I also didn’t need to willingly subject myself to his persistent come-ons. He stroked my ego, and dammit if I didn’t enjoy it just a little. The more I allowed him to do it, the more I’d beat myself up over it later. I tortured myself enough over other things; I didn’t need to add teenage angst into the mix.

“There you are!” Tommy Doleman skidded to a halt in front of us and placed his hands on the handrail blocking the stands from the track. “Dude. You need to get your ass into the locker room and get into gear. Coach Black is effing hot right now.”

Eli made a face. “Hot? Why?”

Tommy leaned over the railing and slapped Eli upside the head. “Didn’t you watch the game? JV lost by one fucking point.”

Eli jumped from his seat as though the metal bleacher had burned his precious butt. “Shit,” he muttered beneath his breath with a grimace. He cast me a sidelong glance before he hopped over the railing onto the track. He took off down the bright orangey-brown track, shouting, “Think about what I said, Nev!” over his shoulder.

“Think about what?” Erin asked as she, Claire, and Tayla plopped down onto the bleachers beside me.

Crap.
I was done for. Caught between a rock and a hard place. I wasn’t prepared to tell Erin her pseudo-boyfriend was a womanizing jerk. Not yet anyway. Homecoming was supposed to be fun. I didn’t want to spoil the night for her, or anyone else, and that was sure to happen if I spilled the beans about the situation. I had no choice. I had to lie.

“Oh. It was nothing. He said one of the guys,” I scrunched up my nose, pretending I couldn’t remember the name, “wants me to wear his spare jersey during the game and to the dance. I think he said his name was Jessie.” My stomach dropped and my chest ached. I was a damn, dirty liar and a horrible person.

Erin pursed her lips and shook her head. She looked to Tayla and Claire. “Jessie. Jessie… is there a guy on varsity named Jessie?” They conferred amongst themselves, trying to figure out who the fake guy was that wanted me to wear his jersey.

I smiled and shrugged as they offered up other names, playing the entire thing off like a pro. The homecoming floats slowly made their way around the track, distracting my excited friends from my possible admirer, and I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping the entire subject had been squashed.

Back sore from a hard week at the gym and the zero support provided by the aging bleachers, I stretched my arms high and twisted in my seat to crack my back.

That’s when I saw her. Callie. Seated two rows up, staring at me as though she’d like to flay the skin from my body and fashion a hat from it. Had she seen Eli talking to me? Had she heard our conversation?

She raised a haughty brow and smiled at me as though she were in on a juicy secret.

Crap.
I whirled around just as the junior class’s float rolled by. I stood from my seat along with everyone else, the roar of the crowd taking a back seat to the rapid pulse pounding in my ears. Callie
had witnessed my entire conversation with Eli.

This did not bode well for me at all.

Chapter Nine

Status update:
Dr. Phil ain’t got nuthin on me…

Oddly enough, despite the fact that I trained for years as an elite level gymnast, I wasn’t a fan of most organized sports. Football? Soccer? Baseball? Yeah, so not my thing. But even I, proclaimed hater of testosterone-fueled sporting events, had to admit it had been an exciting game.

Grant High took the win with a score of twenty-four to twenty-one. The Spartans had been down for the first three quarters until Eli, Mr. Football God, ran the winning touchdown before the clock ran out in the fourth. Seniors won the float competition for Spirit Week, a brawl between over-excited students took place near the Spartan Snack Shack, and a highly inebriated couple from the sophomore class had been escorted from school property after they were caught getting jiggy with it beneath the stands.
Time and place, people. Time and place.

Even more astonishing than the game and the exciting post-coital ruckus was seeing Bodie on the field, watching each play alongside the coaches. A surge of relief coursed through me the moment I’d seen him standing on the sidelines, face animated, yelling excitedly when a play went well. I knew he was okay; I’d seen him as I exited the classroom earlier, sitting and talking with the nurse. Still, this new, happier Bodie was a refreshing change from the one I’d grown accustomed to, and a welcome vision to drown out the vulnerable, seizing picture of him I’d been replaying all day.

A gentle breeze wisped through my bangs and sent a chill through me as I followed Erin and the girls toward the gymnasium. The dance had begun midway through the final quarter for those who didn’t wish to watch the game, and the loud bass music blasted clear across the large campus.

Livvie had informed me she planned on spending the latter half of the evening with her new “boo thang” J.P. I squinted and strained my neck trying to find her in the large crowd currently migrating toward the gym, but had zero luck locating her. It didn’t bother me that she’d ditched us for a boy, but I hoped for her sake she had the sense to find me before the night was over. Aunt Trish expected her to come home with me, not her current crush.

I jammed my student ID into my back pocket and followed the girls into the gym, mouth open and mute as I gaped at my surroundings. Grant High’s gymnasium was twice the size of my old school’s, clean, odor free—not including the rank students currently filing in—and currently sported what looked like a billion soft white twinkle lights dangling from the ceiling of the darkened room.

A large screen, much like you’d see at a concert, rode high on the front wall, perfectly showcasing corresponding videos to the songs the DJ played.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Erin shouted into my ear and smiled.

Cool was an understatement. I nodded as I continued staring. I’d never seen anything like it. But, then again, I hailed from a town where pawn shops lined every street corner, and a night on the town for most consisted of dinner at Bubba Joe’s and a lap dance at the nearest topless bar. Indigo Falls, California was about as different from Lincoln Township, Nevada as you could get.

“C’mon,” Erin said, grabbing me by the elbow. “Let’s hit the little girl’s room and freshen up while people are still filing in.”

I pressed my lips together and single-filed it behind her with Claire and Tayla falling in behind me.

The girls’ bathroom was crowded—shocker—but we managed to squeeze in front of a mirror at the far end of the tiled room. Having brought nothing but a set of keys, ten bucks, and my school ID, I stood in silence as my three new friends primped, fluffed, and pouted over their reflections.

I glanced at my own reflection for a brief moment and pursed my lips. My hair had held up fairly well, and the glitter Livvie had slathered beneath my eyes sparkled in the dim fluorescent lighting. I was no beauty queen, but I’d do.