My Best Friend's Brother (7 page)

Luke gawked at my neck. I hoped Dad wouldn’t ask about the one on Luke’s.

Luke looked at my father, obviously short of words. “I’m sorry, sir, it won’t happen again. I swear… never…” He crept back, closer to the door.

“Dad, he’s telling the truth,” I lied.

“
You
are grounded for a week! After that, I want you home at eight o’clock every night!” Dad turned his finger to Luke. “And if this happens again,
you
will not be allowed within a hundred yards of my daughter!” Dad looked at me like he barely knew me and motioned toward the stairs with the cordless. “Get in bed!”

I glanced at Luke and hurried upstairs.

Dad talked quietly. I sat at the top of the stairs and struggled to hear for exactly seven minutes. Then Luke said “Good night, sir,” and left.

I got to my feet before Dad could see me and hurried into my bedroom, in tears. How would I manage a full week without him? I knew I couldn’t.

~ ~ ~

My missed phone calls:

6:43 p.m.
It’s me, Lilly. What’s up with this, no one I call ever answers anymore! Just wanted to let you know the beach is great, almost as great as the mall! I wish you could see it. Met a really cute guy from Orlando today, his name’s Jason Steinbeck. I highly doubt I’ll ever see him again, though, because he vanished after he went for a dive—either he really wanted to get away from me or he was eaten by a shark. I’m bothered! In any case, call me! It’s been forever! Need gossip! The number at the hotel is with your dad, I called your house earlier. You seriously have to tell me about that guy you met, you’re killing me!

8:33 p.m.
Adonia and Luke, sitting in a tree… k-i-s-s-i-n-g—!

Sullivan acting nine. I deleted the rest.

10:10 p.m.
Adonia, this is Dad. Your curfew passed ten minutes ago. Call me, young lady. We need to talk.

11:03 p.m.
You know who this is. If you don’t get home right now, you will be grounded until the day you leave for college. Do you understand me? You’ve better study hard to make sure that day comes so you won’t be grounded for the rest of your life! Come home the instant you get this, this is not a joke!

VI

I didn’t wake up until almost noon, when Dad knocked on my door. “Adonia, you have a phone call.”

I put on my bathrobe, opened the door and hurried downstairs.

Dad sat at the kitchen table in a green tee shirt and his striped pajama pants. He was accompanied by his coffee, a pastry, his notebook and laptop. I picked up the black cordless on the counter. “Hello?”

“Oh, good, you’re still alive! What’s up with your cell? I’ve been calling you.” It was Lilly. I listened to her message after midnight, but I couldn’t call her at four a.m. on the east coast.

“Sorry, I’ve been really busy with school and stuff,” I uttered, turning to see if Dad was looking. He sipped some coffee, set the large navy mug on the table and kept typing.

“I wanted to find out about this guy you met. So what’s the deal? What’s he like?”

I eyed Dad again, unsure how to ask if she could call my cell—I didn’t want Dad wondering what the conversation was about or anything. He eyed me the next time he paused for coffee. I turned away.
“Hot?”
I said, like I was talking about the weather.

“You already said that! Looks, please, tell me about the looks.”

I looked over my shoulder again. Dad glanced back at me, his chin resting on his knuckles. He was most definitely listening. Since I was on a cordless, I decided to head upstairs, but as soon as I took a few steps he said, “It’s okay, sweetie, stay down here. You’re not interrupting me, I’m just editing.”

I sighed. “It’s
hot
?” I hinted into the phone.

She was silent for a moment. “Are you grounded? You’re acting weird.”

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Ouch!” She grew quiet for a second. Then she said, “Okay, I’ll ask, you answer. And after that you’ve got to tell me how you got grounded! Hair color?”

My eyes moved toward Dad again. “Yellow.”

“Eye color?”

“Blue.”

“Height?”

I pretended he was right next to me. I guess my head came up to his chin. “Considerable,” I said.

“What got you grounded?”

I didn’t say anything for a minute, but I finally decided it was probably safe to talk about
parts
of that story. “Came home late.”

“How late?” Turns out we were playing twenty questions.

“Midnight.”

“You came home late with
him
?”

“Yeah.”

“After doing
what
?” She giggled. “You haven’t done anything
too
major in my absence, I hope.”

“No.” I cleared my throat and changed the subject. “How’s the beach?”

“Nice. I kinda miss school, though. Plus, my
brother
hasn’t taken my calls since the day I left! What good is a cell phone if you don’t answer it?”

“Maybe he’s busy,” I said. My eyes met Dad’s when I turned around to check on him. “I have to go now,” I mumbled. “Call me
soon
, okay?” And by that I hoped she knew I meant “Call my cell.”

I hung up and turned to Dad. He looked like he just noticed me or something. “Are you ready for breakfast? There’s some bacon still in the frying pan, and more eggs in the fridge.”

I walked out of the kitchen. “I’m not hungry, Dad.”

VII

“I wanna see you after school,” Luke pressed at my locker Monday morning. He towered over me, his math book in one hand, his other above my head, supporting his weight on the locker.

I bit my lip in temptation, but unfortunately had to remind him that, “I’m grounded!”

He sighed. “Then cut creative writing with me.”

I gave him a look, but he had the sweetest puppy eyes I’d ever seen. I’ve never cut class before, and I
couldn’t
start now, my senior year!

“
Please?
” He leaned in and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I want to spend time with you. If you’re afraid we’ll get caught someplace, we’ll just sit and talk in my Jeep, I don’t care.”

I sighed. “Fine. But just this once, okay?”

He inched down and kissed me. “Meet me by my locker before class.” He winked and left.

I watched him walk away. He was too hot to handle.

It was time for home economics. To my surprise, Tom sat quietly in his seat while Jenna tried to conceal running mascara in a mirror—she looked like crap. Oddly enough, the period did not start out with them bothering me.

I reached on the floor for a pen I intentionally dropped. For a brief second, my eyes brushed Jenna’s. Then she looked away and sniffled, wiping her nose with the orange sleeve of her sweater. That’s kind of gross. I turned away.

“Today we will learn some uses for flour,” Ms. Sanderson said as she slapped her pointing stick on the board. “I expect every person in the room to participate by providing me with one example of something that is made with flour.” She stopped, leaned forward to see clearer, and pointed. “Thomas?”

Tom stood up to speak. “You can make bombs with flour.” He sat back down.

Everyone laughed, but Ms. Sanderson was not amused. “This is serious, Mr. Belling.” Then she pulled out a twenty ounce container of flour and began passing it around as a visual aid.
Who needs a visual aid for
flour
?

Ninety
more minutes of this? The day needed to end!

~ ~ ~

Tom didn’t throw a volleyball in my face in gym, and Jake was sluggish, not even interested in soccer.
I
was more enthusiastic than he was—
what
was going on?

Not that I’m complaining…

At lunch, Jake, Tom, and Tristan stared from the next table over. Anna and I glanced back at them. I picked at my lunch. She stuffed her face and studied physics.

As soon as Luke sat down he said something, but I couldn’t hear him over all the noise. He looked at me as if waiting for an answer, but I just shook my head.

“What are they looking at!” He elevated his voice so I could hear him.

“I have no idea! They’ve been acting weird all day!”

“Jenna!” Luke pointed out Jenna three tables down. She sat with a bunch of girls I’d never seen before and a giggly girl who was not old enough to even eat in our cafeteria. She was picking at her mac and cheese. “We’re doing it after third period, right?!” Luke asked.

Anna gaped at me.

I shook my head at her. “Don’t worry, he doesn’t mean that!” I laughed and looked at him. He wore a cute grin. “Sure!” I told him, accidentally catching Jake’s eye. Jake looked like he was disgusted by us or something.

Luke got up, tossed his lunch, and signaled for the doors. I gave Anna a reassuring look, dumped my lunch and followed him. That cafeteria is impossible to eat in—it smells like spoiled milk and soggy pizza, even when that nasty school pizza’s not on the menu.

He was leaning on the yellow lockers when I next saw him, looking absolutely gorgeous. His head was tilted, his hair hung down, his eyes glowed, his teeth sparkled. He wore a silver muscle shirt that complemented his eyes.

“Hey,” he breathed. We looked around the empty hallway, then back at each other. “It’s crazy even trying to think in there,” he uttered.

“I know. It’s strange how sometimes there’s so little noise, and other times it could pop your eardrums.”

He nodded and looked at the floor. When our eyes met again, he smiled.

He is
way
too quiet!
I’d had a bad experience in which a certain horny toad dumped me in the past, and he was quiet before he did it. But Luke just looked sad, like everyone else.

Is misery contagious?

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You’re quiet.”

He rubbed his sneaker on the floor, making those annoying squeaks and little wax marks. “Did you hear about that Halloween party?”

“Yeah…” I suddenly felt woozy.

He took a deep breath. “Wanna go with me?”

“Yeah!”

He nodded and smirked. “What about the prom?”

I laughed, relieved. “Will I go with you?” I mumbled, asking his next question for him.

He grinned. “I don’t know, will you?”

I threw my arms around his neck. He kissed the top of my head. “I will,” I said, never more certain of anything in my entire life.

Hopefully Lilly would call soon. She’s never in her hotel room, so
I
couldn’t call
her
. I had to tell her I’d found him—the one that completes me.
This is sort of big.

I could hardly believe I was looking forward to cutting my favorite class just to be with him! That says a lot!

~ ~ ~

“Hey Beautiful,” Luke breathed at his locker after third period. “Wanna go eat something that’s not cafeteria barf?”

I laughed at his vivid description. “I’d love to!”

“Adonia!” Jake waved at me from a few yards away. “Can we talk next period? I need to ask you something.”

Luke and I exchanged looks. I glanced Jake’s way and said, “Yeah, later.” Once he left and the halls were empty, Luke snuck me out the back entrance.

We crept over to his Jeep, keeping a low profile, watchful for security. He cranked the engine. We whizzed by the stop sign and onto the main road, my heart pounding from start to finish. I’m
such
a goody two-shoes!

I glanced out the rear windshield. I didn’t see school security—we had to be in the clear.

At the McDonald’s drive-thru we ordered Big Macs, large fries to share, strawberry milkshakes and two apple pies. Then he parked, cut the engine, and we started eating.

“Beats school food,” Luke said. “We should come here for lunch.”

I nodded, arranging my lettuce on the hamburger. “I watch what I eat, though.”

Luke laughed. “Oh, you’re not on a
diet
, are you? Diet-obsessed girls are a bit nutty. They eat like, celery for breakfast, a grain of rice for lunch, and drink water for dinner.” He laughed. Then he stopped and looked at me like he expected an answer.

“
No
, I’m not on any nutty diets.”

He nodded. “Burgers aren’t so bad.”

“But they’re fatty…”

He shrugged and swallowed up half his burger. “So are a bunch of other foods. Like ice cream or peanut butter. I’m sure if you make an effort they’re all relatively easy to burn off…” He stopped chewing and looked at me. I giggled and looked away. He swallowed and cleared his throat. “In any case, you’ve got a perfect figure. You don’t need to diet.”

I ate some fries and had a mouthful of shake. “Thanks. You too!”

He grinned, staring out the windshield. His cheeks were getting rosy. He drank most of his milkshake before he started talking again.

I inhaled a few fries. It wasn’t my appetite, it was probably guilt—I was supposed to be in class, turning in my assignment to Mr. Tweezer.

Mr. Tweezer is a cutie, despite his awful last name. His first name is Tim, so people call him Tim the Tweezer. But he really isn’t shaped like a tweezer—he is dark haired, Sicilian, and
built
—he coaches the wrestling team.

I’m not a fan of wrestling, because guys shouldn’t roll around on the floor, ruin their noses and mingle in their own sweat. Plus, did you ever feel a wrestling mat? It’s all sticky and it smells like feet! That is
so
totally gross! I can’t imagine rolling around half-naked on that thing. How can guys stand it?

“Sorry about the other night,” Luke said. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble with your dad.”

I gave him the rest of the fries and sucked on the straw, nearly choking on a huge chunk of strawberry. “My dad’s a bit overprotective.”

He sunk back into his seat. “I guess if I had a daughter I would be too.”

“Do you want kids?” I asked.

“Why, how many do you wanna give me?” He grinned as I laughed. My cheeks flushed. “Don’t know yet, Beautiful.”

“Are you going to college?”

“If I am, I’m not going right out of high school. I’m training for the Olympics, actually.”

And to think I’ve never cared much for the Olympics, either!

“And while I train for the Olympics, I’m going to be a ski instructor. I love skiing. I’m always skiing when I’m not in school or… with you.” He grinned. “That’s my life, now—skis and pretty girls.”