The Third Twin (11 page)

“I hate carrying a bag,” she says with an apologetic shrug.

I reach into the tiny purse with the long strap that Ava loaned me and fish out my wallet. “Let me get this,” I say, meeting her peace offering with one of my own.

“Thanks,” she says, shoving the bills back into her pocket.

I hold the bill in my hand like I’ve seen other people do, not so high up that it looks like I’m waving it in the bartender’s face, but high enough so that she can’t miss it.

“They sound good tonight,” Linzey offers tentatively, turning around to put her elbows on the bar and get a better look at the band.

I glance back, keeping one eye on the bartender. “Yeah, they do.” I hesitate. I can’t tell one song from another yet, but Ava said she’d seen Eli’s band a few times. “This is my favorite song.”

Linzey nods in time to the music. “Yeah, Eli really got this one right. I love the line about feeling like you’re holding part of his soul in your hand.”

I smile, because that is my favorite part too. I’ve tried to hold back, give myself a dose of reality whenever I can, but watching him onstage gives me a sense of longing that actually makes my chest ache. Can Alicia have a relationship? Can she have one if I don’t tell Ava? The thought of never seeing Eli again makes me miss him already, but how could I possibly tell him now that I’m really Lexi? He’d never forgive me for lying to him, and besides, he’d never like the real me. I
glance back at the stage. If I want to keep seeing Eli, I have to keep being Alicia.

The bartender finally catches my eye and walks over, rubbing the bar casually with a wet rag. “What can I get you ladies?”

I pull myself up to my full height. Alicia would definitely go for it. “I’ll have a Corona,” I say. I turn to Linzey. “You want one too?”

The bartender shakes her bright red hair and grins. “Nice try.”

“I lost my ID.” I give her what I hope is a sincere smile but am afraid I just look terrified.

“Look, that didn’t work last night, and it’s not going to work tonight.”

“I wasn’t here last night.”

“Don’t give me that crap. I have a memory for faces. You stood right here and tried to give me some story about losing your ID.”

My mind races, trying to remember where Ava said she was last night. Why is she being so secretive all of a sudden? “Fine,” I say with a shrug. “Can’t kill me for trying.”

“So a Coke for you.” The bartender turns to Linzey. “I’m assuming your ID has also mysteriously disappeared?”

“I’ll have a Diet Coke,” she says, not even bothering.

Diet
Coke. Damn. That’s what Alicia would get—I totally forgot. I look at the bartender, but changing my order now would look weird.

Linzey grins at me as the bartender turns to get our drinks. “You had to give it a shot.”

“Yeah.”

“Weird that she thought you were here last night.”

I try to play it off. “It happens sometimes. My sister looks a lot like me.”

“Oh,” she says vaguely. Eli must not have said anything about us being triplets. We watch the band for a few minutes before she speaks again.

“Did you hear that Melissa got them some gigs up in Seattle next week? I’m going to try to drive up with some of the other girls. Are you going?”

My heart sinks as I realize that Eli hasn’t mentioned it at all. Not like I could go, with school and all, but it might be nice to be asked. I’m trying to come up with an intelligent answer, when a dark-haired girl walks up and punches Linzey in the arm. “Where the hell did you run off to? I go to pee, and you vanish.”

Linzey shrugs. “I was thirsty, so sue me.”

The girl glances at me and then turns completely toward Linzey so that I’m staring at the heart tattoo on the back of her left shoulder. I haven’t totally figured her out yet. She seems to have some kind of relationship with Danny the bass player, but I saw him with his arm around another girl backstage, so I’m guessing it’s not exclusive. She leans down and whispers something to Linzey that I can’t hear, and the two of them burst into laughter. The bartender comes back with our drinks, so I slip her some money and push Linzey’s drink toward her on the bar.

The dark-haired girl grabs Linzey’s hand and pulls her back toward the stage, but as she goes, Linzey smiles at me
and raises her glass. “Thanks for the drink. Don’t mind Rebecca. She’s the girl Eli wrote the song about last year, and she’s a little bitter about it.”

Rebecca. So this is the jealous ex that Eli was talking about. As if she can hear me, she turns and glares in my direction, planting herself right in front of Eli and mouthing all the words as he sings, staking her claim. She’s been around a lot longer than I have, and she’s not letting go that easily. I watch Eli sing the last chorus, lifting one arm behind him as he pours all his energy into the song. Rebecca and Linzey are swallowed up by the hands waving in front of the stage.

I glance around the crowded club and feel a sense of satisfaction. Regardless of what Rebecca thinks, Alicia belongs in a place like this. She totally fits in with the makeup and the leather boots and the people who are just out to have a good time.

An hour later, the lights are on and the disgusting reality of a club after closing is revealed. One of the bartenders sweeps the grungy floor as the guys pack up their instruments onstage. Linzey and some other girls are sitting in a clump in one of the fake leather booths, waiting for the guys to be done. I don’t see Rebecca anywhere, and I wonder if she’s actually giving up. Eli’s finished first, jumps down off the stage, and crosses toward where I’m sitting on a barstool trying to stay out of the way.

“Hey!” he says, his eyes still shining with excitement. “I’m glad you came.” He puts his hand on my arm for just a split second, but that’s all it takes. A small group of girls who have been hanging by the back door turn away at this possessive
gesture, and I smile. Eli’s taken, all right. At least for tonight. He reaches behind me for the glass that contains mostly brown-tinted melted ice. “Can I have the rest of this?”

“Of course,” I say, enjoying his assumption that we share glasses now.

Melissa comes over and hands Eli a small white envelope. She’s the band manager and is the only one in the group legally allowed to drink. “Here’s your cut.”

“Thanks,” Eli says, shoving the envelope into his back pocket. He glances at the clock up on the wall above the bar. “Do you have to go home soon?” he asks me.

“No,” I say. No school tomorrow because of spring break—not like Alicia would care. I almost tell him I don’t have to be home at all, but I tuck that information into my back pocket like my own small white envelope, ready to pull it out if I need it later. When Cecilia’s not working, she spends her days and nights at her sister’s house, and her cousin Francesca comes to stay with us if Dad’s gone. Unlike Cecilia, who stays up and waits for us even when she pretends she’s not, Francesca is a deep sleeper, so as long as we’re home by daybreak, it’s fine. Information that is usually only useful for Ava. I smile up at him. “I’ve got time tonight.”

“Excellent,” he says, flashing me a smile.

Melissa’s girlfriend, Amy, walks up and gives her a big kiss on the back of her neck. She’s as tall and blond as Melissa is tiny and dark, but somehow they suit each other perfectly. Melissa turns and kisses her squarely on the mouth, and for a second I’m jealous—of their closeness, of the ease they have together and the permission they have to kiss each other in
public. I can feel Eli standing so close to me, and I wonder if he’ll ever kiss me like that.

“It’s still like a million degrees out there,” Amy complains. “And the AC in the van is broken.”

“Let me go give out the rest of the money and I’ll meet you outside,” Melissa answers.

Everyone drags themselves toward the open back door, where the air is only a few degrees cooler than it is inside. It’s one of those stagnant inland nights with no breeze, and for a moment I wish I could invite everyone back to my house for a midnight pool party. “So, what now?” Amy asks. “Denny’s in Carlsbad? At least it’ll be cooler by the beach.”

“How about WaterRidge?” Linzey tosses out, one hand tucked into Adam’s back pocket.

Amy whirls around. “Oooh, yes! We haven’t done that for ages.” Nods and murmurs go through the group, and it seems like the decision is made.

“I don’t feel like WaterRidge,” Rebecca says, walking up and grabbing Danny’s arm possessively.

“Then don’t come,” Amy says, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Come on. What else are you going to do?” Linzey asks.

Rebecca glares at Eli and me standing so close together. I almost expect him to say something in view of such open hostility, but he doesn’t, just looks at the ground sheepishly.

“Fine,” she finally says. “I’ll go to stupid WaterRidge with you guys.”

“Put your crap in the van and let’s go,” Melissa agrees, and the guys shove the black instrument cases and amps into
the back of the dented white panel van. I keep my eyes on Rebecca as she climbs into Danny’s car.

“What’s WaterRidge?” I ask.

Eli turns to me, his features made sharper by the lights of the passing cars. “You’ve never been to WaterRidge?”

“Nope,” I say. “Never even heard of it.”

“And here I thought you hadn’t had a deprived childhood,” he says. “Don’t worry, you’ll like it.” He grins. “You can run fast, can’t you?”

“Um …,” I say, not sure how to answer that.

“Don’t worry. If there’s trouble, I’ll take care of it.”

I study Eli, who has an expectant look on his face. Everyone else in the group is already in their cars and heading out of the parking lot toward the street. Ordinarily I’d never do something like this—get into a car late at night bound for destinations unknown. Although, this is probably something Ava would do. And definitely something Alicia would do, if only to make sure that Eli isn’t alone with Rebecca.

“Let’s go,” I say, opening the door to Eli’s truck. I suddenly want to be somewhere far away from my real life. With Eli. He smiles and climbs in, and we follow Melissa and Amy out of the parking lot and onto the empty street.

After about fifteen minutes of driving, we turn into some kind of office park—tall cement buildings with hundreds of windows surrounding tiny patches of lawn. I see a large metal sign at the entrance to one of the buildings:
WATERRIDGE
.

Eli glances around at the big empty parking lot and flips his lights off as all the cars park as close to the buildings as we can. Everyone is quiet as they drag themselves out of the cars, the only sounds some muffled laughter and scraping and squeaking as doors open and close. Melissa grabs a boogie board from the back of the van and hands another one to Eli.

I look around at the silent, empty buildings. “What are we doing here?”

Linzey hears me and laughs from outside Adam’s truck. “Ooh. A WaterRidge virgin. Nice.”

Melissa grins. “We’re going swimming.”

I take in the acres of asphalt and dozens of buildings. “Where?”

“There,” Eli says, pointing to a giant fountain that cascades in levels in front of the tallest building. Even though it’s the middle of the night, the water is flowing in chutes down the side, until it ends in a dark pool at the bottom.

“Is it legal?” I ask.

Rebecca’s standing by Danny’s El Dorado, talking quietly with the other guitarist’s girlfriend, and laughs at my words, a short bark that echoes off the tall concrete buildings. “Right. You’re not afraid, are you?”

I look up at the tall fountain, feeling a ball of fear in the pit of my stomach. I fight back my natural reaction. “No.”

Eli grabs my hand and gives a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. Just stick with me and you’ll be fine. It’s all part of the fun.”

Melissa pulls her shirt over her head, steps out of her jeans, and kicks them into a pile by the front tire. A quick glance around tells me that everyone else is doing the same thing. Linzey walks over to me in her bra and underwear like she’s wearing a bikini at the Eighteenth Street beach. “Come on. You don’t want to get your clothes wet. Just leave them by the car so you’ll know where they are in a hurry.”

“Here. I’ll go first,” Eli says, grabbing his shirt and pulling it over his head. I hope my gasp isn’t audible as I take in his taut stomach and smooth skin. I had no idea what he was hiding under there. It’s hard not to reach out and run my hand over his chest. “It’s no big deal,” he says, kicking off his jeans until he’s standing there in a pair of tight boxer briefs,
making exaggerated muscles with his arms. He’s the tiniest bit bowlegged, but his legs are long and muscular. Too late, I realize I’m staring.

“Okay, okay,” I say, taking a deep breath and quickly undoing the buttons on my top. I’m seriously glad when I realize I’m wearing one of Ava’s deep purple lace bras. I feel Eli’s eyes on me, and he shoots me a smile as I pull off the skirt I’m wearing and toss it down next to his jeans. I resist the urge to cross my hands in front of my chest. I just keep telling myself it’s no different from a bathing suit, even if I don’t really believe that.

“Let’s do it,” Amy says, leading the way up the concrete steps.

Eli reaches back and grabs my hand, and I feel my heart race with the possibility in that one casual gesture. I love the feeling of connecting with him, if only for this one crazy night. I feel a sense of possessiveness come over me, and I glance back to make sure Rebecca is watching. She is, her face unreadable.