He's With Me (9 page)

whispered. “The soda seemed to really depress you.”

She laughed. “Well, it had such a sad childhood,” she whispered back. “I

feel like we’re taking advantage of it.”

“Nah, just putting it out of its misery,” Jake said with a grin, and then the

previews came on.

As the theatre went totally dark and the movie started. Lexie began to

wonder what to do with her hands. Should she rest them on her knees? Or on the

armrest? Or fold them in front of her? Or cross her arms? Was Jake thinking about

holding her hand? She slid her eyes sideways without moving her head and saw

that Sally and Ian were holding hands. Would Sally notice if she and Jake didn’t?

Should she do something, or wait for Jake to do something, or –

Jake reached over and took her hand, resting it on top of his on the

armrest.

Okay. That answered that question. Of course, he’d been on dates like this

before. He knew the right thing to do. Lexie glanced sideways again and saw that

Ian and Sally were kissing. (!!!) And the movie had barely started! Surely they

wouldn’t expect her and Jake to do that. Would they?

An unfamiliar sensation brushed across her hand, and she nearly jumped

out of her seat. Jake was slowly running his thumb back and forth over her

knuckles. It felt like a secret code vibrating through her skin. Almost as if he were

saying, “Don’t worry, I’m here,” and, “You’re beautiful,” and, “I can’t resist you.”

Why was he doing that? What did it mean? Should she do something, too?

Lexie knew she was being crazy, but her heart was ignoring her brain and

had sped up to a million beats and hour. She could barely concentrate on the

movie. Luckily it was a pretty short one because by the end she didn’t think her

heart could take any more.

“Wasn’t that great?” Sally enthused as the crowd spilled out into the street.

“I knew it would be great. It was so great!”

Lexie wondered how Sally could have enjoyed the movie when she seemed

to have spent so much of it kissing Ian. Then Sally stopped in her tracks, and Ian

had to drag her out of the way of the people behind her.

“Oh,
no
,” Sally moaned. “What is
she
doing here?”

Bree was standing outside the movie theatre, arms folded. She looked long

and slim and elegant, as always, although the angry expression made her much

less pretty.

“Sally!” she hissed.

“Hey, Bree,” Sally said nervously. “Look who we ran into.”

“After all I’ve done for you,” Bree said, her voice as cold as ice. “I made you

popular. I got you a boyfriend. Don’t you know I can take it all away like
that
?”

She snapped her fingers.

Lexie found herself unconsciously leaning into Jake, away from Bree, and he

put one arm around her in a protective way that she liked. Was this an act? Bree

seemed genuinely mad. Maybe Sally really had been keeping it a secret from her.

But then how did Bree know to show up there?

A suspicion struck her. Could Bree have weaseled the information out of

Riley?

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Sally said. “Don’t be a drama queen, Bree. I just

wanted to go to the movies. You’re not the be-all and end-all of my social life.”

“You’ll be lucky to
have
a social life after this,” Bree said. “Ian, come with me.” She turned regally, swinging her hair back from her forehead.

“Please,” Sally scoffed. “He’s my boyfriend.”

“Not if I don’t want him to be,” Bree said. “Come along, Ian.”

Ian hesitated, looking back and forth between them. Sally’s mouth dropped

open. “For real?” she said. “Ian!”

“I can get you Amy Sorrento,” Bree said to him.

“Okay,” Ian said with a shrug. “Maybe she won’t fuss at me like this one

does.”

Jake snorted.

“You kiss like a wet fish, anyways!” Sally called as Ian trailed after Bree.

“Troglodyte!”

Jake and Lexie exchanged uncomfortable glances. Lexie wasn’t sure what

they were supposed to do. Sally wasn’t exactly her friend, but they couldn’t just

walk away from her after that.

“Oh my God,” Sally huffed, blowing strands of hair out of her face. “What a

waste of three months
that
was. I’m sorry, you guys, we totally ruined your date.”

“It’s okay,” Lexie said.
Especially since it’s not even a real date
.

“I guess you guys should go to dinner without me,” Sally said. “I’ll just go

home and start cutting Ian out of my photographs or something.”

“That sounds terrible, Sally,” Lexie said. “You should come with us.”

Besides, she had no idea what she and Jake would talk about for an entire dinner

by themselves. Would they still act like it was a date? As long as Sally was there,

she could keep pretending it really was.

“Yeah,” Jake said halfheartedly.

“Oh, sure,” Sally said. “Third wheel on your one-week anniversary. I’m sure

that’s exactly what you want.”

“We could call Colin,” Lexie said. “I’m sure he’d be happy to come join us.

And then you wouldn’t feel like a third wheel.”

Sally brightened a little. “Really? Wouldn’t that be weird?”

“He won’t mind,” Lexie said. “Right, Jake?”

“Sure,” Jake said. “I guess I can share you this once.” He took her hand and

squeezed it. She wondered what that meant.

Sally loaned Lexie her cell phone, and although he grumbled a bit in his

Colin way about being in the middle of filming, he managed to make it to the

diner in record time. He slid into the booth, next to Sally before they’d even had a

chance to order.

“Hey, Colin,” Sally said. “Sorry to drag you out into the world on a Friday

night. You’ll never believe how I got ditched.”

As she launched into the story of Ian and Bree, Jake leaned sideways and

tapped on the back of Lexie’s hand. She jumped.

“Want to share fries?” he said.

“Sure, okay,” Lexie answered. She thought it was interesting to watch Sally

transform her whole three-month relationship with Ian into a funny story. It was

as if Sally’s life could be a TV show in her own mind – something hilarious that

happen to someone else. The way she described it to Colin, it really did seem very

funny. But Lexie couldn’t imagine doing that herself. When Jake went off to date

someone else, she wouldn’t be able to tell sidesplitting stories about pretending

to be his girlfriend. She would just be sad.

After dinner, they went back to Colin and Lexie’s house and baked cookies,

filming themselves with Colin’s camera, until their mother finally announced that

it was time for Sally and Jake to go home. Lexie realized that she hadn’t been

worrying about how to act on the date for at least a couple of hours. It had been

like any other night when Jake came over, except that Sally was there, too.

And there was one other difference. Lexie walked Sally and Jake to the

door, where Sally’s mom was waiting outside in the car. Sally started down the

porch steps, but Jake hesitated in the doorway.

Oh my God,
Lexie thought.
It’s the end of the date. Don’t real couples kiss at
the end of the date? Will Sally think it’s weird if we don’t? Does it matter, if she’s
not friends with Bree anymore?

Jake looked into her eyes, and Lexie held her breath. On one hand, she

wanted him to. Of course she wanted him to; she’d been wanting Jake to kiss her

for almost three years. But if this was her first kiss... she wanted it to be real. She wanted it to be important to the guy as well as to her. She wanted Jake to kiss her

because he wanted to, not because he was playing a role.

“Um, good night,” she said quickly, stepping forward to hug him good-bye.

Maybe that would let him know that he didn’t have to do anything else.

His arms tightened around her and it seemed for a moment like time

slowed down, and she could have stood there forever, pressed against him. She

breathed in the smell of his hair and felt the warmth of the face right next to hers.

Finally her let go and stepped back, and she did, too, trying to act casual,

like that had been a perfectly ordinary hug.

“Okay. Good night,” he said. He ducked his head, kissed her quickly on the

cheek, and then turned, jumping down the steps. Within moments, he had

vanished into the night.

And that was the end of Lexie’s first date.

Chapter 8

Lexie spent most of Saturday in a hammock in her backyard, reading library books

while Thorn snoozed on her stomach. Colin shut himself in his room and didn’t

come out until dinnertime, and then he wouldn’t tell her what he’d been doing.

Fine then,
Lexie though.
You keep your secrets and I’ll keep mine
.

Sunday morning at breakfast, her dad announced that he wanted them to

wash the car. Colin groaned and smacked his head onto the table.

“Come on, champ,” Mr. Willis said, clapping his son on the shoulder. “It’ll

be fun, right, Lexie? Oh, you guys might want to wear your bathing suits.”

Lexie giggled. Last time they’d been given this shore, she and Colin had

wound up wetter than the car in the end. He hated it, but she thought it was kind

of fun. Especially when it was hot and sunny outside, like it was that day.

Her dad pulled the car out of the garage into the driveway and got buckets

and sponges while Lexie and Colin changed. Lexie put on her flip-flops and clipped

her hair up out of the way with a large silver butterfly clip. When she went

downstairs, her mother looked disappointed.

“I was hoping I’d finally get to see the bikini I bought for you,” Mrs. Willis

said.

“Sorry, Mom,” Lexie said, feeling guilty. “I figured since I’d be getting

messy, this one was better.” She hurried through the screen door before her

mother could argue with her.

Colin was already inside the car, vacuuming between and under the seats.

Lexie changed the pine0scented tree that hung in the front window, and then she

wiped down all the hard surfaces. As soon as Colin was finished, she ran to get the

hose.

“Stand back,” she warned, and he jumped out of the way. Lexie turned on

the hose, and her dog Alanna immediately came running over to throw herself

under the spray.

“Alanna!” Lexie protested, trying to point the hose away. The pug woofed

and chased the water across the driveway, running frantically around the car to

get to it. Lexie started laughing, so she didn’t see the person standing at the

bottom of the driveway until she whirled around and sprayed water all over him.

“Hey!”

“Oops!” Lexie shut off the hose immediately, but it was too late. Riley was

thoroughly drenched. And, as he had been the first time she’d seen him, he was

wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, which weren’t likely to dry fast.

“Oh, no! I’m sorry!” Lexie cried. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Dude, you totally soaked me,” Riley said. He didn’t sound happy.

“Who’s he?” Colin asked. Lexie shoved the hose into his hands.

“Wait here,” she called to Riley. She ran inside, grabbed a towel from the

linen closet, and ran back out. By then Riley had pulled off his dripping shirt and

wringing it out.

“Here,” she said, handing him the towel. “I’m really sorry. What are you

doing here?”

“I thought I’d stop by and say hey,” Riley said, rubbing his hair with the

towel. “I didn’t know your driveway was a water hazard.”

“How’d you know where I live?” she asked.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out,” he said. He kicked off his sneakers, pulled off

his socks, and dried his feet.

“Who’s this?” Colin said again, coming up behind Lexie.

“This is Riley,” Lexie said.
You’d know all about him if you ever bothered to

ask me how tennis camp was going
. “Riley, this is my twin brother, Colin.”

“Twins,” Riley said, nodding thoughtfully. “That’s cool. You don’t see a lot

of girl-boy twins.

Ha!
Lexie thought.
Wrong thing to say!

“Are you kidding?” Colin said. “There are plenty. Alanis Morissette has a

twin brother.”

“Wade,” Lexie supplied. She’d heard all this before.

“Giovanni Ribisi has a twin sister, and so does Kiefer Sutherland.”

“Marissa and Rachel.”

“And Scarlett Johansson has a twin brother.”

“Hunter,” Lexie said. “Aren’t those the best names? Scarlett and Hunter.

Much better than Alanis and Wage.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Riley said, waving his hands. “I yield already! You win. I

guess there are millions. I had no idea.”

Colin looked smug. He liked showing off the stuff he knew.

“Here, if we put your shirt here, it’ll dry faster,” Lexie said. She took Riley’s

shirt from him and draped it over the porch railing, in the sun. He dropped his

socks and sneakers on the step.

“So what are you doing?” he said. “Apart from soaking innocent

bystanders?”

“We’re washing the car,” Lexie said.

“Want to help?” Colin offered.

“Colin!” Lexie said. “I’m
sure
Riley doesn’t want to wash our car with us.”

And she wasn’t sure she wanted him to stick around that long, especially shirtless.

He kept giving her this slanty look and smile, like he thought she had deliberately

gotten him to take his shirt off. As if! Sure, he was cute, but she’d seen him and