Winter Untold (Summer Unplugged) (3 page)

“Bayleigh, you are one of my best photographers and if you’re already planning on attending then it won’t be a problem for you to snap a few photos. She nudges my backpack with her toe, alluding to the cell phone incident a month ago. “Be a team player, and I will be one too.”

“Fine,” I say with a sigh. “I’ll be happy to take some pictures.”

As the rest of the class busies themselves with going back to work on the yearbook, I stare at my page layouts and stacks of numbered photographs but I don’t work on anything. My mind is far away, worried about Jace and obsessing over this stupid photography thing. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal. I actually like taking photos for the yearbook—it gets me out of all kinds of school work.

But I have a bad feeling about this.
I had planned the Winter Festival-slash-my birthday as this magical night. The park is always decorated with Christmas lights and sparkly ribbons, and festive music plays from a live band. The air is cool and the food is amazing and I was going to have picked out the most amazing dress that would make Jace stop in his tracks when he saw me. I don’t have the dress yet, but I know I won’t be able to find one that makes my boobs look good while there’s a stupid five pound camera hanging around my neck.

It’s as if all my hope was caught up in this fairytale dream of Jace coming to the festival, and this stupid camera bag just shattered it. It’s fate, telling me to stop daydreaming of romance and realize that my boyfriend is too busy for me.

Maybe I should just wear sweatpants to the stupid Winter Festival.

Chapter 4

Becca is waiting for me after school as usual, but this time the look on her face is freaking priceless.

“Becca, this is Chase,” I say, swinging a lazy hand between both of them. “He just moved in next door to me and he’s giving me a ride home.”

“Oh I see how it is,” she says with a mock sarcasm. “You’re too good to get a ride home with me now, eh?”

“Actually,” Chase interrupts with that stupid attractive smile of his, “You’re welcome to have her. She’s been a bit of a jerk today.”

Becca giggles
and it’s all I can do not to throw up from how much she’s flirting right now. Seriously. I mean she’s batting her eyes at him and everything. “Oh, you’ll have to get used to that,” she says, grabbing his arm for good measure. I mean, God forbid he flies away in the wind. “She’s always a bit moody.”

I guess this sort of behavior is to be expected from her since she and her boyfriend broke up a month ago. Becca pokes at the camera bag slung over my shoulder.
“What are you taking pictures of this time?”

“The Winter Festival,” I say with a sigh.

“That blows. Are we still going dress shopping?”

I nod and start telling her about the camera strap and dress cleavage dilemma as we walk to the parking lot. Chase clears his throat. “You girls worry about the weirdest things.”

My cheeks flush red as I look to my right, having totally forgotten that he was walking with us. “Oh my god, were you listening to our conversation?”

“It’s kind of hard not to,” he says, smiling at Becca. “Besides, we’re all in this together. I need help making sure my camera strap doesn’t cover my cleavage, either.”

“Shut up,” I say. “Wait, what do you mean by camera strap?”

He holds up another camera case with the school’s logo on it. “I’m the other photographer. Guess you’ll get to show me around the festival as well.”

Becca reaches for another slice of pizza while I continue my rant from the safety of my bedroom where freaking Chase can’t overhear us. “He is such a stalker! I hate him.”

Becca rolls her eyes and pulls off the pepperonis. “You do not hate him. God, you’re such a bitch when you miss Jace.”

“I know,” I say with a laugh. “I just really hate this new guy. I don’t need some hot guy moving in next door, trying to be my friend and smiling at me with his stupid perfectly white teeth. I need my boyfriend. Not him.”

Becca’s eyes bulge out of her head. “Wait, do you like Chase?”

“No, of course not.” I swipe all the pepperonis off her plate and eat them. “I only have eyes for Jace. It’s just annoying to be around another hot guy when all I want is my own hot guy.”

“Okay, I can solve this.” Becca holds out her hands like she’s about to present to me the best idea ever. “I am your best friend and I am here to save you from crisis like this. So, in an effort to protect you from dealing with Chase, I will simply date him. That way he’ll be out of your hair.”

“Out of my hair, and into your bed,” I say with a snort. “You are such a kind, thoughtful,
selfless
best friend.”

“What can I say?” she says, placing her hand across her heart. “I am just
that
good of a friend. I will sacrifice my miserable single existence and take that boy to pound town for you.”

I throw a pillow at her
as she erupts into laughter. “Please don’t ever say the words ‘pound town’ again.”

After dinner and a few more grossly inappropriate sex jokes by Becca, I log onto Facebook to see if anyone has posted anything worthwhile. And by anyone, I mean Jace. And by ‘anything worthwhile’, I mean anything at all. If the boy had time to update his Facebook but not text me, I’ll be a little more than sad.

The good news is that Jace hasn’t been online all day. The bad news punches me in the gut.

“Who the hell is this bitch?” The computer monitor warps into weird colors as my finger punches the screen on top of a photo of my boyfriend with some girl at what looks like a rich people party. Jace didn’t upload it, he was tagged in it last night by the girl in the picture. There is no caption. But there doesn’t need to be one. I can see all I need to know in the picture. Her: beautiful and older than me, with her arm around my boyfriend. Him: gorgeous as always, beer bottle in one hand while the other is around her shoulders. He’s smiling and he doesn’t look tired at all.

It feels like all the air has been sucked out of me. Becca lets out a low whistle under her breath as she hovers behind me at my desk. “
I’ll kill her,” she whispers in a true best friend fashion.

I shake my head. “It’s not her fault
. She probably doesn’t know he has a girlfriend.”

Becca’s hand touches my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Bay. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal.
It’s just one photo, it’s not like they’re sucking face or anything.”

I turn off the computer and wipe the tears from my eyes. “I’m sorry but I think I just want to be alone right now.”

She nods and gives me the saddest look. “I’m just a call away, okay?” she says before leaving me to wallow in my sorrows.

Jace texts me an hour later, telling me some crap about how he’s been trying to call but doesn’t get
good cell phone signal where he’s at. He asked me to reply if I got the message and to tell him what time it is so he knows if he gets it late. Well guess what? I don’t reply. I can’t find the energy to say anything.

I know Jace loves me but I feel so inadequate. I’ve always felt that way with him. And then right when I think I get a hold on it—right when I feel like we might be equals—something happens that throws me back into reality where
I remember that he is so out of my league.

Jace goes to parties and takes photos with random girls. I go to small town festivals and take photos for a high school yearbook.

A flash of red dives across my darkened ceiling. I look for it again, but see nothing. It must have been my imagination. Even though my phone lights up in a whitish glow, I glance at it just in case. It still has the same three messages Jace has sent me and nothing more.

The red light appears again, this time in a wavy red circle on my ceiling. I recognize it this time; a laser beam. It enters from my bedroom window and swirls around my room before going dark again.
Unless someone is trying to kill me, I have a pretty good idea as to why a laser is being directed through my second-story window…but I’m too depressed to yell at him right now.

I walk up to my window from the side, pressing myself against the wall so no one who is looking into my window can see me right away. I peak around the side of my open curtains and see the window of the house next door. Just as I suspected, Chase is the owner of the laser.

He sits on his bed facing the window, watching his TV while he absentmindedly swirls around the laser pointer in his hand. I step in front of my window and pull open the glass, crossing my arms over my chest once the window is open.

He notices me immediately. “Hey, you. What’s up? Spying on me?”

I nod. “Yep, you caught me. I totally didn’t get up because you made me.”

“What?” he says with a coy smile. “I did no such thing.”

I roll my eyes and slouch down to sit on my window sill with my side facing him. He cringes. “Don’t do that. You’re going to fall.”

I shrug. “Eh.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Nothing.”

He turns off his TV and walks to his window. We’re about ten feet apart now, separated by the ground between our houses and a bunch of awkward hanging in the air. I don’t know why I’m sitting here talking to him. I don’t even like him. And I don’t really want to talk to anyone right now.

He rests his hands on his own windowsill and leans forward, looking at the ground below. “What’s so bad in your life right now if you’re okay with the idea of falling this far?”

“Yeah, like I’m going to talk about it with
you
.”

He shrugs. “I don’t see anyone else to talk to.”

“Becca was here earlier,” I say, changing the subject to the first thing to come to mind. “I think she has a crush on you.”
Think
is obviously a lie.

“Oh yeah?” he says, but he doesn’t sound as interested as his words imply.

“Well she thinks you’re hot. So, I’d say that’s interested.”

“Hmm.” He rubs his forehead. “I can’t remember what she looks like.”

“Seriously? You saw her earlier today.”

He shrugs. “Do me a favor and tell her I’m not interested in dating anyone. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but…” he scratches the back of his neck. “…Yeah.”

“Will do, weirdo.”

“Why am I a weirdo?”

I don’t have to answer this question because my phone bursts into song in the next moment. Without excusing myself, I dive across my room and find an unknown number on my phone’s screen. “Hello?” I answer, turning around to see if Chase is still watching me.

“Hey there, Gorgeous.”

Chase is still watching, so I give him an apologetic frown and then close my window and curtains. “Hey, Jace.”

“I’m calling from my hotel phone since I can’t get much cell phone signal. What’s up?”

I stare at my nails. “Nothing.”

“What’s wrong?”

Ugh. I hate being asked what’s wrong. Answering the question is never as easy as telling him exactly what’s wrong. I wish it was, but it isn’t. “I don’t know, babe,” I say with a sigh. I called him babe instead of
you freaking bastard
, so I guess I’m already starting to forgive and forget this stupid Facebook photo thing.

“I miss you,” he says. “Vegas isn’t as much fun without you.”

“You’re in
Vegas
?” My hand balls into a fist.

“I didn’t tell you?”

“Of course you didn’t tell me!” My voice gets higher but I can’t help myself.

“Babe—” Jace tries unsuccessfully to stop my ranting, but
I’m on a roll now.

“Why would you bother telling your girlfriend you’re going to freaking Las Vegas? The place where what happens there stays there?
Because I’d never need to know right?”

“I wasn’t keeping it from you,” Jace says but I cut him off before he can keep explaining.

“Well guess what, Jace? What happens there won’t stay there when girls post it to Facebook.”

Chapter 5

Becca speeds through the residential streets from the high school to my house, narrowly missing a dog on the side of the road as she turns onto my street. “Slow the hell down,” I tell her as I grip onto the handle on the roof of the passenger side.

“Can’t,” she says as she slams on the brakes, coming to a stop in front of my house.
“I need all the details, now.”

I roll my eyes and climb out of the car. All day I had moped around the school, trying to recover from my fight with Jace and how freaking horrible it made me feel. I flat out refused to talk to Becca about it during lunch and also during second and fourth period, the two classes we share together. I had told her it was too much to talk about at school and that I needed to be in the safety of my own bedroom when I share it with her just in case I start to cry.

Judging by the warm pools of tears in the corner of my eyes, I probably will cry.

I guess Becca’s desperate need to know all gossip is what made her drive like a NASCAR racer. Although my life was in danger for about ten minutes, at least I didn’t have to ride home with Chase. His incessant friendly chatter this morning really drove me insane.

Mom took Bentley to get a haircut, so we’re all alone for a while. Becca puts her hands on my shoulders and shoves me away from the refrigerator where I want a snack, pushing me through the kitchen and up the stairs to my bedroom. She drops her cell phone on my bed and crosses her arms over her chest.

“We’re home. Talk.”

I stare at the floor and tell her about my talk with Jace last night. I tell her about the stupid Facebook photo that he swore was nothing, and I tell her how insanely jealous and pissed off that stupid photo made me. I tell her about Vegas and his many more business trips to come and how I’m just not the girl to handle it. Once I’ve told her every single detail about last night, and all the subsequent thoughts I’ve had after it, I sit next to her on the bed and pull my knees up to my chest.

“
He wouldn’t let me get off the phone until we had made up and were okay again,” I say, suppressing a sniffle. “So basically, he thinks I’m not mad at him anymore but I am.” I look up at her for the first time since I got in my room. “I’m still mad.”

Becca gives me a sad look and I swallow, blinking away tears until my vision is clear again. The fact that I’m still technically not crying is a freaking miracle. Way to go, Bayleigh. You’re turning into a cold hearted,
take no shit from anyone, bitch.

“You know…” Becca begins, biting her lip while she probably tries to think of something productive to say.
Good luck
, I think. There is nothing productive to say in this situation. I am totally screwed. “I’m not saying you should break up with him,” she says, holding out her hands in surrender. “Because I don’t want you to break up… I like Jace, I swear. I just… I don’t know, Bay. Some relationships aren’t meant to last forever.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She shrugs. “I believe in fate and I think that if you two are supposed to be together then you’ll find a way to make it work. But, you won’t have to
force
it to work, you know? It’ll just happen.”

“Sure feels like forcing it now,” I mumble.

“Maybe you should step back and just see what happens. See if you can be happy with him without forcing it.”

“I
am
happy with him!” More tears threaten to fall but I force them back. “I want Jace, I don’t want anyone else. The problem isn’t Jace. The problem is me. I’m stuck in this stupid town, going to this stupid high school. It’s not Jace’s fault that I can’t go with him to these parties. It’s mine.”

Becca leans her head on my shoulder. “Maybe it’s just not the right time. Maybe one day you’ll run into Jace at one of those parties and you’ll be older and he’ll be older and then it will be the perfect time for you to date each other.”

“I can’t get into those parties without him,” I say. I know she’s trying to have a productive conversation with me but I can’t really pay attention to anything she says because even though she’s using many different words, I only hear four:
Break up with Jace.

“It can work between us, and I want to make it work. I don’t want to give up.”

“How many teenage relationships actually last?” Her eyes look upward. “I can’t think of any of my brother’s friends who married the people they dated in high school. Everyone breaks up and moves on and meets other people. This is your first real relationship so the odds are already stacked against you.”

“I thought you weren’t going to tell me to break up,” I snap, kicking her lightly with my shoe. She laughs. “I’m not, I swear. I’m just trying to give you lots of information that will ease the pain in case you do break up.”

“It doesn’t feel like my first real relationship,” I say, twisting my bracelet around my wrist. “It feels like the only relationship that matters. Jace is my soul mate and I want him forever. I’m still so freaking mad about those photos though.”

“What was his excuse about
that?” She glances toward my computer but I know she’s not bitchy enough to make me look at them now. Then again, if Jace has any kind brain, he would have deleted them after I yelled at him last night.

“He said he goes to these big supercross after parties after the races and that he goes with his boss and the Team Yamaha guys. He said he doesn’t even remember that girl because apparently—” I make air quotes at the next word, “—
tons
of girls come up to him asking for an autograph or picture. I don’t know why he thinks that would make me feel better…tons of girls talking to him every night.. but he said he can’t just tell them no, so he smiles and takes the picture and then moves on.”

Becca shrugs. “That makes sense.
I’d be pissed too. That’s your man and other girls need to keep their skank hands off him.”

“Tell me about it!” My heart twists in pain at the mental image of hot girls lining up to wrap their stupid arms around my boyfriend’s waist to take a photo with him.
If I were more confident, I’d be proud of him for being so popular. But it’s hard to be confident when you’re a high school loser stuck in Lawson, Texas.

Becca leans forward on my bed, turning to face me
. She has a huge grin on her face, meaning she’s already switched topics in her head. “…What is it?” I ask.

“Your new neighbor…” she says with an eyebrow wiggle that makes me want to punch her for being
such a dork. “Have you found out any more about him? Is he single?”

“Oh, he’s single. He’s so single he told me
he doesn’t want to date anyone.”

“What?” she balks with a roll of her eyes. “That’s stupid.”

“It is stupid. He told me not to even bother trying to set him up with someone.”

Her face turns pale. “You didn’t tell him I liked him, did you?”

“Nope,” I lie. Usually guys are happy to hear that Becca has a crush on them. How was I to know that he’d turn her down?  Luckily, he doesn’t seem like the kind of asshole to tell her to her face that he doesn’t want to date her. I’m sure he’ll keep quiet about it so there’s no need for me to hurt her feelings.

Becca shakes her head as if shaking off the bad news about Chase’s permanent single status. “That boy just doesn’t know what he’s missing,” she says with a sinister smile.
“I heard from a little birdy that he’s going to Harvey’s party on Friday night.”

“A little birdy?”

She shrugs. “Maybe it wasn’t a bird, maybe I was following behind him in the hallway and I heard him tell Harvey he’d be there. It seemed like they already knew each other which is weird because Chase just moved here.”

“So, what are you going to show up and seduce him?” I ask.

“Duh.” She punches me in the arm. “And you’re going to be my wingman.”

“I don’t know about that,” I say, thinking of high school parties and how completely lame they are compared to the two motocross parties Jace took me to back in the summer. Once you hang out with famous people, high school parties aren’t any fun anymore. Plus Jace won’t be there so what’s the point?

“Of course you’re going!” Becca says, giving me these big eyes as if she knows something I don’t. “Hello! Party?”

“So? I don’t wanna go.”

“It’s a party, dumbass. This will be your revenge opportunity. I’ll take lots of photos and post them to your Facebook. Maybe get one with you and Chase’s fine ass.  We’ll make Jace jealous.”

I laugh. “You are completely evil. Remember when you used to be the shy quiet one and I was the crazy one? What happened to those days?”

“What can I say? You were a bad influence on me.” She squishes her bra to adjust her boobs as if to prove her point. “And now we’re going to make Jace remember why he chose you in the first place.”