The Fine Art of Pretending (5 page)

She stops at the passenger door, and I step in front to give her a boost. The six-inch lift kit and Super Swamper tires on my F-150 may be necessary for mud riding, but they make it impossible for her to get in by herself. The girl is short. Even with the ridiculous new shoes she’s sporting.

Wrapping my hands around her tiny waist, I lift her up and catch a whiff of the familiar sugar-cookie scent clinging to her skin. She scoots across the leather seat, and I watch her black skirt ride up her toned thigh.

I don’t know where to look. Or how
not
to look. Walking into her room earlier, I literally did one of those stupid double takes you see on TV. I’m used to Aly lounging around in baggy clothes and messy ponytails with her only makeup being ChapStick.
That
Aly I know how to act around. But this one in a short skirt and tight top showing off an impressive rack? This Aly is seriously messing with my head.

I clear my throat and look away from her bare legs. “If you’re aiming for attention, that skirt’s a good first step to getting what you want.”

Her white teeth sink into her bottom lip, and she glances down. “Is it overkill? Too
sexy
?”

The way she says it, and even just hearing the word come out of her mouth, is just too weird. Smiling at her familiar bout of discomfort, I chuckle and say, “Nah, you’re fine.”

I shoot her a wink and close the door, unable to stop myself from laughing as I round the hood. The new clothes threw me, but the overthinking, constantly worrying girl in my truck is definitely the Aly I know.

My amusement dies when I yank open the door and Aly nails me with a glare. “People could find me sexy, y’know. Obviously no one
we
know, but it’s not that outrageous a concept.” Crossing her arms, she sinks lower in her seat, and I cough into my fist to keep from laughing again. She’s so damn cute. The scowl on her face is so out of place that it’s like being annoyed with a grumpy kitten. I like hanging out with Aly for a lot of reasons, but her laid-back attitude is definitely at the top of the list. She’s fun and drama-free. When I’m not accidently offending her, that is.

Revving the engine, I glance over and say, “Aly, of course you can be sexy.”
Exhibit A: those legs
. “That’s not what I meant. I just don’t think of you like that.”

Or at least I didn’t until you wore that skirt
.

She makes a sound that’s a cross between a groan and a sigh and shakes her head. “Exactly, and that’s why I’m doing this.”

I stop with my hand on the shifter.

Seeing the look on my face, Aly throws her head back against the seat. “That came out wrong. It’s not because
you
don’t think of me that way. It’s that
none
of the guys at school do.”

I reverse out of the driveway, hoping she’ll elaborate, and she twists toward me, tucking her legs under herself. “See, once I had my epiphany about the Wall of Shame, I got this idea. You’re probably going to say it’s stupid, but whatever. I’m just tired of being invisible, Brandon. Of guys always seeing me as a friend. This is senior year. My last shot. If I want the male species to finally find me dateable, I have to do something drastic.”

“Drastic?” I ask, waving my hand in her direction. “As in letting Kara turn you into her own life-size Barbie doll?”

Aly playfully bats my arm but nods. “Yeah. I’m calling it Operation Sex Appeal.”

I cough and look over.

Oh, she’s serious. Okay
.

“And you telling me about that chauvinistic ranking system sealed the deal,” she continues. “Guys see me as a
Commitment
. I’m too much work, too serious. For once, I want to see what it’s like to be a
Casual
.”

Aly bites her lip in excitement, and I groan. Yep, she totally missed the point. She was supposed to see that her lack of exes isn’t a bad thing. It boils down to respect. Some guys know she deserves more effort than they are willing to give.

But clearly, my confession in her room only made things worse.

Time for damage control. “So does this mission of yours have an end goal?” I have a feeling that it involves more than just a wardrobe change, and I tighten my grip on the wheel. I can’t help feeling protective of Aly. We practically grew up together. And with a name like Operation Sex Appeal, I can imagine the kind of guys she’ll attract. But Aly’s smart. I’m sure she’s not planning anything
too
crazy to become this other person.

“Well,” she says, scrunching her nose. “Before, it was getting a new look and a new guy by Homecoming. But now, I’m thinking the only way to show I’ve really changed is for that guy to be Justin.”

My foot hits the brake, and I swerve to avoid hitting the curb. Waving a hand at the pissed-off driver behind me, I shake my head and clutch the wheel with both fists. “Aly, you can do a hell of a lot better than Justin.”

Her voice pitches in confusion. “But I thought Justin was your friend.”

“He is.” I take a breath and change lanes. “Which is how I know you can do a lot better.”

For some reason, Aly seems surprised, but I have no idea why. She’s seen the girls Justin usually dates. There’s not a chance in hell she can get involved with him and
not
get her heart broken. And then
I’ll
have to break something on
him
.

No way. I have to get her focused on someone else.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” she says, trying to pull down her skirt. With all her fidgeting, it’s ridden up even higher on her tanned thighs. If she keeps dressing like this, she’ll get more than Justin’s attention. “I realized the clothes aren’t going to be enough. Unless I can get everyone to take my transformation seriously, I’m destined to stay invisible and single for the rest of my life. I have to get people to start seeing me differently…”

Aly’s voice trails off, and her body stills. She tilts her head to stare at me, and from the prickle on my neck, that can’t be a good sign. I catch her eye before looking back out at the road. “What?”

She opens her mouth and closes it. Several times. Then she shakes her head and says, “Nothing. It’s stupid.” After only a few seconds, she continues. “It’s what I said about getting people to see me differently. It reminded me of all those dumb Hollywood movies—you know, where the makeover actually works? But in those movies, it normally takes that one popular guy asking the girl out for the rest of the school to realize how awesome she truly is.”

My eyes cut to her, but she’s staring straight ahead. She leans forward and adjusts the air-conditioning vent, refusing to look back in my direction. “I was just thinking, hypothetically, that if you pretended to hook up with me—just pretended—and helped sell the whole
Casual
thing, that the guys would be more likely to buy it. And then maybe they’ll find me dateable, too.” As soon as the words leave her mouth, she hides her face in her hands. “
God
, that sounds stupid. It was like I could hear how it sounded out loud and, just…Never mind. Forget I said anything. I’m a dork, and it’s stricken from the record, okay?”

Aly squirms in the seat beside me, fidgeting with her fingers, her hair, her skirt, and the neckline of her top. I keep glancing back, hoping she’ll turn toward me so I can see her face, but she’s looking anywhere but in my direction.

I’ve seen the dumb movies she’s talking about, mostly with
her
when it was her turn to pick. They’re dumb because the plots are completely bogus, just like her idea. But I know Aly. She honestly thinks her crazy idea could work. And, though she’ll never admit it now, she was completely serious.

Aly is on a mission, and I know from experience she won’t stop until she gets what she wants. Her fierce determination is what I admire most about her. She’s convinced she wants to be a
Casual
, and nothing I say will change her mind. Hell, I’m the one who put the idea there to begin with. But maybe if I step in and join her in the crazy, it’ll keep wolves like Justin away.

“What, exactly, would the pretending involve?” I ask.

Her head snaps up, and her jaw drops. “Um, I—I guess it wouldn’t be much different than what we do now. We’d just call it something else. Maybe add holding hands in public or something?”

I park in front of Carmela’s and turn off the engine. She’s probably right. Even when I’m going out with someone, I normally see Aly more than the other girl anyway. People always get the wrong idea about us or assume we’re hooking up on the side, so it won’t take much to get them to believe we’re together for real. And with the camping trip starting tomorrow, it’ll be easy to spread it around quickly.

Shit, the camping trip
.

I scrub a hand over my face, picturing a Lauren-sized shadow for four days.

“See, it’s stupid, right?” Aly says, her cheeks pink with a blush. “Forget I said anything.” She yanks off her seatbelt and throws open the door. I put my hand on her arm to stop her.

“Actually I was thinking it might be nice not to worry about girls for a while.”

Her blue eyes flare with hope, and I jump out from my side of the truck. I’m not ready to say yes to her crazy-ass scheme yet, but I’m close. I round the hood, and as I help Aly down, I can practically hear the wheels turning in her head. The door to the restaurant opens, and the familiar sound of the mariachi band wafts outside. One of the guys leaving stops to check Aly out, hungry eyes devouring her legs, and she steps back, stumbles in the new shoes, and latches onto my arm.

There’s no way I can let her do this alone
.

Why can’t she see what I do? She’s a
Commitment
girl, and that’s not a bad thing. I just need to help
her
realize it. I throw the guy a look to back off and pull her back to my truck.

“Look, if you’re serious and you really think this’ll help you get what you want, I’ll do it. We can start telling people tomorrow that we’re hooking up.”

Her mouth opens in shock. I reach out and gently close it.

Aly blinks and shakes her head as if to clear it. “On your word?”

On your word
is an expression Aly started using years ago. She normally uses it whenever she knows something is bothering me and I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve never used it because Aly always tells me exactly what’s on her mind. Even when I’d rather she didn’t.

“On my word,” I promise, stooping down to look her in the eyes. “If this is important to you, then count me in.” I squeeze her hand and tease, “But when this plan of yours works and you have guys crawling all over you, you better not forget about me, all right?”

Aly laughs and jumps up, throwing her arms around my neck. She kisses my cheek, and the scent of sugar cookies fills my head.

“Holy cannoli! Brandon, you’re amazing!” She hops down, wobbles, and beams up at me. “And it won’t be for long, I promise. After people buy it and stop seeing me as a
Commitment
, we’ll just say we’re better off as friends and go back to regularly scheduled programming. Except I’ll be the new confident,
Casual
Aly.” Her smile widens as she waggles her eyebrows. “And I’ll have Justin Carter to prove it.”

My playful smile drops.

Yeah, that’s not happening
.

MONDAY, AUGUST 9TH

7 weeks and 5 days until Homecoming

BRANDON
CYPRESS LAKE CAMPGROUND, 2:00 p.m
.