The Taming (19 page)

“You keep your meat on you, girl,” said Travis. “He’s not dating them, he fell in love with you, with my leading lady, my actress, my future movie star!”

My face burned. I flashed to Evan taking pictures. I gulped down a shot of shame with the frappuccino.

“Hey.” Travis looked at me quizzically. “He buys you stuff nonstop, takes you everywhere, can’t keep his hands off you and is devoted to you. You’ve got that boy wrapped around your little finger.”

Travis kept teasing me about who was “taming” who. Lisa was quiet, but Travis really liked that one. He said I was executing an inversion of the play.

Like I could ever tame Evan.

As we left, Lisa whispered in my ear, “I’m here, Katie. Always. Don’t forget it. Even Travis is here, on your side …” We watched him sing, sway and sashay down the hall to some almost-big Emo hit. “Yup,” she continued, “whether you want him or not, Travis is here for you too. Got it?”

“Jeez, are you blind or jealous or what, Lisa? Love is love, and love is always a good thing!”

“Got it?” Lisa repeated. She blocked the doorway.

“Okay, got it already!” I threw my arm around her and pushed us both through the door.

This friend thing had so many sides and complications to it. If only Evan could have seen how wonderful both Travis and Lisa were. If he had understood that they were my only friends, and how they had got me through the days before he came … then I bet that he’d have changed his mind about them in a heartbeat. And I’d try to explain that to him.

“They’re losers, and they’ll drag you down with them,” Evan said. “Katie, you don’t see it, because you’re so sweet and naive. But I’m telling you, they’re the bottom of the social barrel. Okay, Travis is a pretty good director, and maybe one day he’ll make something of himself that way, but it’s a long shot.” He shrugged. “But Lisa?” He kissed my eyes. “First off, I think she’s queer too.” He caught my look and mistook it. “Which is a who cares and everything, but she’s just a social zero on top of that. It doesn’t matter that she comes from money. She’s blown her social cred at every school she’s been at.”

“No, see, it’s just that she doesn’t care about—”

Evan pulled me up off his sofa, where we’d spent the last two hours running lines. “After the play, maybe over the holidays, I’m going to introduce you to some of my old friends. You’ll see the difference, baby.”

I shivered in anticipation. There was so much there in that one little sentence. First, that he talked about the holidays and that we’d still be together then. Second, that he couldn’t wait to introduce me to all his friends. In one and a half seconds I had visions of us at someone’s ski chalet. There we were on the designer rustic-like sofa and on the floor, laughing with all the other beautiful blond couples having rum toddies in front of a fireplace and talking about the merits of Princeton over Yale. Evan would proudly point out how I was the creative one, destined for greatness because of my theatre school scholarship.

It dawned on me that that was the very first time I had ever stitched a little dream for myself about the future. But now—because, with Evan, anything was possible—now I could dream. My mother would beg forgiveness as I packed for my big weekend away. I’d forgive her for whatever it was because I wouldn’t want the thing hanging over my head as I took skiing lessons. I’d have to buy ski chalet—type sweaters and clear lip gloss. I would love his sophisticated friends and, after an initial slightly shy nervousness on my part, they would love me and find those traits endearing and genuine. I began to understand how Travis and Lisa would not fit into that Ralph Lauren ad. I also decided it wasn’t worth the effort correcting him about Lisa. It didn’t matter, and anyway, maybe he was right.

“Now, how about we do a little something to help us relax?”

I stiffened and he gripped just a little tighter.

“Evan, your parents …”

“Chill, baby.” He glanced at his watch. “Mom is away at something and Dad is in his study, thinking about how to make everyone around him pay.”

“Evan!”

“It’s true, baby. It’s time you grew up a bit. I keep trying to tell you about … about him. You can’t always believe what you see.”

He gripped tighter still. I winced. His fingers shifted and were probably covering old bruises.

“Don’t you want to make me happy, Katie, my Kate?”

I nodded.

“Take off your top.” He took a step back. “Don’t look like that, Kate! How about a little enthusiasm? You know I’d do anything for
you
.”

I lifted my pullover.

“Now …”

My stomach clenched. I heard his father’s footsteps in the study above us.

“Good girl,” Evan whispered. “And if you continue to be a good girl, we’ll go to Josh’s party tomorrow night.”

“Really, Evan?” I jumped into his arms. He had point-blank refused to even consider it until now. Josh was throwing a party for both the cast and some of his basketball buddies in a “two worlds collide” kind of theme. It sounded like the most exciting and glamorous thing in the world to me. Apparently, it sounded lame to Evan.

“Promise?” I asked.

Evan nodded. Just barely, but he did.

“Now …” he said.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

F
inally Friday came, the party was that night. There was no afternoon rehearsal. Travis said he didn’t want to burn us out. I think he was just dead tired. He was always making notes, talking to himself in the halls and compulsively blocking out the stage for scenery and our set pieces. The play was bleeding him dry. It was hard to tell if Travis was pale under all that white makeup, but the boy was pooped. He said he wasn’t even going to go to the party.

“Bull,” said Lisa when I told her in algebra. “I bet he has a fantasy about turning a point guard, and he’s never going to get a better chance than at Josh’s ‘Colliding Worlds.’ ”

I wore a fire-engine-red boat-neck cashmere sweater that Evan had bought for me, with a terrific and tasteful black miniskirt that I’d scored from the Old Navy sales bin—some habits die hard, I guess. I’d also bought a pair of heart-stoppingly gorgeous black, floral-patterned stockings that had cost more than I could have wrapped my imagination around even two months before. But I loved, loved,
loved
them and how they made my legs look. I promised myself that I would always wash them by hand in the sink and dry them on the shower rod. My exquisite $32.50 stockings would never, ever see the inside of a washer or dryer. I would wear them on my graduation from theatre school. I only hoped that I would feel and look half as good then as I did that night.

“Well, well!” Joey whistled.

My heart stopped for a second before I smiled. It was just Joey.

“You look like big bucks, kid.”

That was high praise indeed, and I beamed at him. Right before I stepped out into the hall, I heard Mom call out, “Yeah, you look real nice, sweetie. Have a good time.”

That would have been a great motherly touch, except I knew she’d said that for Joey’s benefit, not for mine.

“Remember, you still got your bakery shift,” she yelled after me.

I had never felt prettier in my entire life. “Note the date and time,” I giggled in an empty elevator, “8:07, November 27!”

I couldn’t stop looking at my legs. I, Katie Rosario, was pretty, and I was going to meet my fabulous boyfriend and go to my first A-List party—well, pretty much my first party, period. I took my terrific legs straight to Evan’s waiting Audi. He growled like a tiger when he saw me. And my heart purred in response.

Josh lived in Forest Heights, not Evan’s snack bracket, but pretty posh all the same. I would have to remember the address for Joey: 4082 Poplar Lane. We didn’t even get to the door before it swung wide open and we were greeted by an exuberantly loaded and freshly “unwired” Josh.

“Here she is, finally! Kate, my darling shrew! The only thing I miss about the whole torturous play is holding you, gorgeous!” And with that Josh smothered me in a monster hug and then dragged me into the party.

“Damn, woman, I swear you get better-looking every time I see you!” Josh waved his arm around and a scattered group of actors and jocks looked over at us. Lisa and Travis were with Danny, grinning at me from the sound system. Brittney had her arms wrapped around Danny. He was smiling like he was six years old and waiting to unwrap his presents on Christmas morning.

“Hey, everybody!” Josh raised a Corona. “Our star is here!
Now
we can party!”

And everybody cheered, everybody looked, everybody
saw
me. The only thing I worried about was how to hang on to that feeling. It was a miracle. How could it be anything but the best night of my life?

Chapter Thirty

I
unballed my fists so I could dig the car keys out of my pocket. I clicked the remote so the doors unlocked and quickly climbed into the car. All I wanted was to get away from there—and away from her. But I was only going to be able to do
one
of those things because
she
sat down in the passenger seat beside me. I gunned the engine, laying a patch and spraying up gravel that pinged noisily against the car at the curb behind me.

Katie glanced back over her shoulder and looked like she was going to say something, but she didn’t. That was the first smart decision she’d made all night. I turned the corner and the tires squealed. I didn’t have time to slow down. I just wanted to get her home and get away before I said anything or did anything that I might—

“Are you angry about something?” Katie asked.

“What makes you think I’m angry?” I questioned through clenched teeth.

“It’s just that … that … you’re not talking.”

“Maybe it’s good that at least one of us is smart enough to keep their mouth shut,” I snapped—although by saying that I obviously wasn’t following my own advice.

“What do you mean?” I could hear the surprise and concern in her voice.

I didn’t answer. I’d just try harder to keep quiet, to stay in control, at least of myself.

“Is it something I said?” she asked.

“Said and did,” I snapped. So much for keeping my mouth closed.

“What did I do? What did I say? What?”

“I’m not blind and I’m not an idiot!”

“But … but … but—”

“You think I couldn’t see how you were acting around those guys?” I demanded. “You think I didn’t notice?”

“Didn’t notice what?” There was a tinge of desperation in her voice.

“I saw you flirting with them!” I snapped. “I saw you throw yourself at Josh.”

“I didn’t! I wasn’t anything with Josh!”

“Just the others?” I demanded.

“I wasn’t flirting with anybody!”

I laughed. “I saw the way you were acting. I heard what you were saying.”

“I was just talking to people at the party. I wasn’t flirting with anybody … honestly! What did I say?”

“I’m not going to repeat it. And it wasn’t just the words, it was the way you were acting! I wasn’t born yesterday. I saw the signs, the way you tilted your head, laughing at what they said even when it wasn’t funny, pushed out your chest, practically draping yourself over Josh!”