Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Seventeen-year-old Lindsey Taylor has been living a charmed life—always the lead in school plays, possessor of a healthy entourage and a hot boyfriend. But halfway through her junior year, the unthinkable happens. Her boyfriend dumps her. She screws up her audition for the spring play. And to top it all off, her theater teacher wants her to run lines with Trey Berger, a gamer guy who irritates her practically every time he opens his mouth. Lindsey needs to find some better luck and quick.
Trey Berger can barely tolerate Lindsey Taylor. It’s bad enough that their best friends are dating and he has to see Lindsey at group hangouts. Now they have to rehearse together. Berger would rather do just about anything else, even chill with his grandmother, whose dementia has forced her to move in with his family.
But as the semester continues, Berger discovers there’s more to Lindsey than the drama queen persona she puts on for everyone else’s benefit. And the person behind the mask might be someone he cares about. A lot. So what exactly is he going to do about it?
And while Lindsey desperately tries to change her luck and heal from the breakup, she slowly realizes Berger has become her best friend. This video-game-playing boy makes her laugh. And holds her when she cries. Could he possibly become something more?
After surviving her parents' relationship drama when her older sister elopes, Claire Gardner vows not to date during high school. Now, three years later, Claire is thrust into new relationship drama--her two best friends have boyfriends. Which means Claire is spending more and more time alone. And she's more than a little peeved.
Enter Gray Langley. His year-long crush on Claire's friend Lindsey has made him desperate enough to ask Claire for help. Hesitant at first, Claire agrees--anything to get rid of Lindsey's current evil boyfriend. But as Claire and Gray plot together, an attraction develops, and now she must decide if being with Gray is worth the pain that will come from confronting her parents with the reasons for her vow.
EXCERPT
Berger leaned
against the back of the couch and clasped his hands behind his head. A sneaky
gleam entered his light brown eyes. “You know, watching the street won’t make
it get here any faster.”
For some weird
reason, heat rose up my neck and into my cheeks. I frowned at him. “Au contraire. They’ve done studies on
it. When you’re waiting for something, if you watch out for it, it arrives
faster.” Pretty lame joke, but I didn’t want him to have the upper hand.
He grinned.
“That’s only if you’re standing in the middle of the street.” He started to get
up. “Should we try that now?”
“Oh, shut up,”
I said, dropping into the armchair across from him.
He chuckled,
but then his face grew slowly serious. “Why do you think Mrs. Mac wants us to
rehearse together for weeks and not just a few days?”
Because she was
mad at me. “I don’t really know. I mean, she’s supposed to decide on the parts
by Friday, and after that there’ll be regular full-cast rehearsals.”
“Maybe she
thinks I’m too stupid to pick up on your brilliance right away.”
I shook my
head. This topic made me want to pace across the room. “You know how quirky she
is. Sometimes she does stuff that doesn’t make sense to anyone.”
The loud peal
of brakes made me jerk. Through the wood blinds, I could just make out the
white van with its huge purple and orange letters on the side. I jumped up.
Berger waved
his hands up and down. “It’s here, it’s here!”
“Shh,” I said.
What with squealing brakes and Berger’s noise, my mom was sure to saunter into
the room.
“Oh,” he
whispered and then got up. “Is this a secret from Mommy?”
I wanted to
laugh. I also wanted to put my hand on his face and shove him back onto the
couch. “Would you relax?”
“Are you
kidding? This is way too exciting.”
“Come on,
then,” I said, leading the way to the front door. I had to stop the FedEx guy
from ringing our doorbell.
We spilled out
onto the front walk, jostling each other and laughing. Berger was worse than my
brother, Austin. I started to stride forward, but Berger grabbed my elbow.
“Have a little dignity,” he said, laughter still in his voice.
“I would if
you’d just let go.”
“All right.” He
released me.
By this time,
the delivery guy was approaching us slowly, as if we were rabid dogs or
something. I hurried forward and met him before he’d even made it halfway.
“Lindsey Taylor?” he asked.
I smiled. “Yes,
that’s me.”
“Here you go,”
he said, handing me a padded mailer the length of a piece of paper.
My heart thudded
somewhere near my throat. My luck was about to change.
********
With
a weird sensation in my gut, I set the tea on the TV stand and then awkwardly
put both arms around her. She turned her face into my chest and gripped my
flannel shirt in her fists. I held her shaking body tighter, which seemed to
make her cry even harder.
Well,
this was fun. It looked like more comfort equaled more tears. Who knew? And why
hadn’t that unnamed person ever told me? Jerk.
I
had no freaking idea what to do next. Apparently Rose and Claire were right.
Lindsey was in a lot of pain. Should I say something? Pat her on the back? I
went for the easiest thing I could think of. I moved one hand to the back of
her head and just held on. Some kind of citrusy scent floated up from her hair,
and I had to swallow the urge to sneeze.
It
must have been three minutes, but it felt more like three days before she
stopped shaking in my arms. Then she shifted, resting her cheek against my
chest. Her breathing began to slow. She wasn’t falling asleep, was she? But no.
She let go of my shirt and slid her arm around my torso. Holy moly. How long was I expected to stay in this position? I
mean, she was soft and everything, so holding her was nice, but we were only
friends. If this went on much longer, it was bound to get seriously awkward.
I
had to do something. I started running my hand up and down her back. “You
asleep?” I whispered.
“No.”
She lifted her head and yawned.
I
chuckled. “But you were close.”
She
sighed. “Yeah, guess I was.” She straightened and pulled herself out of my
arms.
“It’s
okay.”
Her
green eyes looked huge against her blotchy face. “You’re an amazingly good
person.”
I
tilted my head slowly from one side to the other. “Don’t say that.”
“Why
not?”
“Because
if you think like that, then you probably won’t argue with me. And I’d miss our
fights.”
She
smiled. “I promise to always fight with you.”
“Thank
you.”
“Even
though you’re amazingly good.”
“Shut
up.”
This
time she actually laughed.
I
smiled. Good, no awkwardness. We’d gone back to the way we were before. I
showed her to the restroom, then helped her get her stuff together and walked
her to the car.
She
tossed her purse and books into the front passenger seat and lifted her head as
though she were steeling herself for the drive home. She smiled up at me.
“Thanks, Dragon Boy,” she whispered, and then kissed me on the cheek.
Um,
okay. My face tingled where her lips had touched. I held on to the door while
she climbed in and then waved as she drove off.
Nope,
nothing different at all. Right.
The mother of two grown sons, Patricia B. Tighe lives in West Texas with her husband and two dogs. Her love of the written word caused her to get a journalism degree from Texas A&M University in 1980 and an MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in 2008. When not writing or reading, she can be found walking the dogs or yelling at the TV during an NFL game. She's also a fan of British TV shows. Downton Abbey, anyone?
1 comment:
Thanks for competition!
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