25 Roses (16 page)

I didn’t hear anything else Kaylee said. Everyone knew Alex liked me? And he had for a bazillion years?

Alex liked me?

It couldn’t be true. If it was true, I would have known something by now, wouldn’t I? He’d always thought of me as a friend and only a friend.

“Gotta go,” Kaylee said. “Kurt’s waiting for me. Toodles.”

She spun around in her furry boots and sauntered off, Claire and Shonda trailing after her. I turned back to Ashleigh and pounced.

“What was she talking about?” I asked. Because if something was going on with Alex I needed to know about, Ashleigh would know. She’d spent a lot of time around him lately.

“He has been kind of down in the dumps,” Ashleigh said. “I thought it was because he missed you. I guess it’s because he . . .
missed you
.”

As little sense as that probably made to Sun and Gillianni, it made total sense to me. I looked at the two of them and saw them toss each other a glance before facing me again.

“People kind of knew that,” Gillianni said.

I looked at Sun. People may have known that, but no way did she.

“I knew,” Sun said, probably noticing my confused expression. “That’s why I was so upset when I found out you liked him, too. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him.”

“But . . . I saw the two of you together.” My mind was actually replaying the image of the two of them talking in the hallway. They’d been all huddled together like they were sharing a secret, romantic moment. . . .

Or just a secret.

“We were talking about you,” Sun said. “I asked him if he liked you. He didn’t say anything at first. Then finally he admitted it.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“Just one word,” Sun said. “Yes.”

“You have to go talk to him,” Ashleigh said. “I’ll get some pizza for all of us.”

“One whole pizza for all of us,” Sun announced, smiling broadly.

Weird, but that didn’t seem to bother Ashleigh. I looked back over my shoulder as I was walking away and saw the three of them create a little circle as they started talking.
Maybe there was hope for Ashleigh and Sun’s friendship after all.

As for me, I had to talk to Alex. And I’d never been more terrified in my life.

He was sitting on the front steps of the Sportsplex, in the cold, without a coat. He had to have been freezing, but he didn’t show it. Which told me he was that desperate to get away from me.

I stepped tentatively forward. I wasn’t really worried he was mad at me or anything. I was just a little embarrassed and a
lot
scared. But I walked toward him anyway, my heart seeming to pound harder with each step I took.

“Hi,” I said, mostly so he wouldn’t be scared when I got to him.

I scared him anyway. He spun around, looking up at me with wide eyes. In those few seconds, everything I’d thought I was going to say flew straight out of my brain. I was left standing there, staring at him with my mouth open.

Real cool, Hartley,
that little voice in my head said. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stood up and ran off right at that very second and never spoke to me again.

“Hi,” he said. He turned back around. Before he did, I
could have sworn I saw his face turn light pink, like it did whenever he was embarrassed.

“I’m supposed to talk to you,” I said. “Ashleigh’s saving us some pizza,” I added lamely.

That wasn’t what I was supposed to talk to him about at all. I gulped against the large lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. When had this happened? I used to be able to talk to Alex without any trouble. Now all this silly “romance” stuff was getting in the way.

He had his elbows propped on his thighs and was staring down at the ground. I took a deep breath and somehow found the courage to keep moving forward. I sat down next to him and looked over at him. He didn’t look up.

“Sun likes you,” I said. It was the right thing to do, even if it might make him change his mind about liking me. “She wanted me to help you two get together. I didn’t want to.”

Did I have to say any more than that? I figured that said it all.

“Why?” he asked.

Okay, so I did have to say more. I didn’t have the nerve to say anything else, though. I bit my lip and stared down at the ground. Maybe if I focused on the sidewalk long enough, the words would just fall out or something.

“Because . . . you know,” I said.

That should have been enough. The old Alex would have let it rest at that. But this Alex didn’t let me off that easily.

“No,” he said. “I don’t.”

“I was jealous.” There. I’d said it. He wouldn’t push any further. I took a deep breath and realized I actually felt relieved that it was all out in the open.

“As a friend or as a . . . you know?” he asked. Now he was the one having a hard time getting things out.

“As a ‘you know,’ ” I said. I finally found the guts to look over at him and smile. “I
like
like you, okay? As more than a friend.”

It was probably the hardest thing I’d ever said, but once it was out there I felt much,
much
better. It was this thing that had been hanging in the air between us, but now it was out in the open. Sun had said Alex liked me, too, but I couldn’t know for sure unless I heard him say the words.

He looked up at me and smiled. And then he stood up and held out his hand, waiting for me to put my hand inside it. Hand in hand, we walked into the Sportsplex together.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

To: Mia

From: You Know Who

You can only keep secrets for so long before they all come out.

I’m not sure what I expected when we returned, but I know what I
wasn’t
expecting, and that was exactly what I saw as soon as we walked through the door to the basketball court.

People were everywhere, gathered in groups on the floor as they happily munched on pizzas. The committee had decided to do this picnic-style. I spotted Sun’s arm up in the air as she waved frantically to us, but she was sitting with only Gillianni.

Where was Ashleigh?

I got my answer as I followed Alex across the court.
We wove through the groups of people, and my stomach growled. I realized I was starving.

We were almost to Sun and Gillianni when I spotted Ashleigh. And Kaylee. And Kaylee’s entire entourage. And in the center of all that was Kurt Barnes.

I nearly tripped over my own feet looking over at Kurt’s face. He did not look happy. In fact, my eyes made contact with his, and I noticed his expression seemed to scream one thing.

Help me.

Weird. I would think most boys would love being surrounded by pretty girls, but Kurt looked completely freaked out by it. Probably because of the way they were all talking to him at once. Loudly. I waved to Ashleigh to come with me, but she was staring at Kurt so intently, I guess she didn’t notice.

Sun was beaming up at us when we returned. She had that proud mama look, which made me feel better. I’d been worried she wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore if I was with Alex.

“Ashleigh’s doing her best, but I’m not sure she can beat Kaylee,” Gillianni commented.

We all turned and looked at the silliness taking place just
a few feet away. Sure enough, Kaylee had shoved her way in front of Kurt and was being her usual charming self, while Ashleigh sat off to the side, ignored.

She looked over at us and, all at once, the four of us motioned for her to come over. Why would she want to sit over there being ignored when she could come hang with us?

Nobody seemed to notice as Ashleigh rose to her feet and started toward us. Even more reason for her to leave.

“Forget him,” Sun said as Ashleigh plopped down, looking miserable. “He’s not worth it.”

“I know,” Ashleigh said. “I don’t really like him all that much anymore. He’s kind of dull. I just hate for Kaylee to win.”

“I don’t think she
is
winning,” Sun commented.

We all turned around. Kurt stood up, a slice of pizza in one hand and his bottle of water in the other, and walked away. That left Kaylee staring up at him, her mouth hanging open.

“Fail!” Alex said, loudly enough that it made me nervous. What if Kaylee overheard and marched over here to tell him off? But if she heard, she didn’t respond. She just shrugged and turned back to her friends, who leaned forward to console her.

“Give me a break,” Gillianni said around a mouthful
of pizza. “They act like Kaylee’s the first person to ever be rejected.”

“Not the first person,” I said. “But it’s probably the first time in her life anybody ever said no.”

“He didn’t even do that,” Alex said. “He just got up and walked off. Total burn.”

I turned and looked at Kaylee again. She was totally acting like nothing had happened, but I knew she was embarrassed. I didn’t think anyone was paying attention but us, but she was leaning in toward her friends like she didn’t want anyone to look at her.

“Kurt said no to her,” Ashleigh said.

We all turned to look at her. How would she know that? She’d left before he got up.

“He was telling us he was too busy to go out with anyone,” Ashleigh said. “But Kaylee kept pushing and pushing. He looked like he wanted to run when I was sitting there. That’s why I was glad when you guys waved me over. I was just hanging out because I thought he might like me, but obviously, he likes no one right now. He just didn’t want to be mean to Kaylee when she walked up to him. If he doesn’t want to talk to me, I don’t want to talk to him.”

I nodded. That was a great attitude to have. As I looked over at Sun and Gillianni, I could see them running that through their thoughts. Good. Maybe it would help them, too.

“So I guess Mia’s time as Stanton Middle School’s matchmaker has come to an end,” Ashleigh said dramatically.

“It’s about time,” I said. “That’s a lot of pressure.”

“Speaking of pressure,” Alex said, nodding at something behind me. I turned to see Kaylee bearing down on us. Her gaze was directed at me.

As I braced myself for her to yell at me, I realized she didn’t really look angry. She had that sneer again. The sneer was worse than anger. It scared me.

“So,” she said as she stopped just in front of me. “Looks like your little game didn’t work.”

“What game?” Ashleigh asked, because I didn’t have the nerve to. I didn’t want to hear whatever she was about to say. I didn’t have a good feeling about this.

“That whole rose thing,” Kaylee said. “I’ll bet you think nobody knew, but I figured it out.”

It felt like the entire world around us had gone into slow motion. All I could do was stare up at her, speechless.

“You figured it out,” I repeated.

“You know, Kaylee, nobody asked you,” Gillianni said. She’d risen up on her knees and was staring Kaylee down, a hand on each hip.

“Nobody asked me, you’re right,” Kaylee said. “But they should have asked me. In fact, the rest of you should have put it all together by now.”

“Put what together?” Sun asked. She was on her knees as well. I had my own little team behind me. Of course, Kaylee’s group of friends was even larger.

“The rose thing,” Kaylee said. “All that silly froufrou language.” She looked around and sighed. “Didn’t you think it was weird that they were all signed by a secret admirer?”

“Everyone signs cards as secret admirer,” Ashleigh said. “What’s your point?”

“Fine. I’ll show you.” Kaylee reached into her back pocket and held up a piece of paper. I would know that piece of paper anywhere. It was a copy of one of the lists Ashleigh and I had used to take down notes for cards when we sold Valentine’s Day roses. That list had been given to the office for their records. I didn’t think a student could get a copy of it. I figured Kaylee had found it while in the principal’s office, making announcements.

Without giving any of us a chance to respond, Kaylee
tossed the piece of paper toward us. It landed on the floor in front of Ashleigh.

“I hate to ruin the pizza party by giving your little secret away,” Kaylee said, but it was obvious she was loving every minute of this. She looked at my friends behind me. “Mia bought a bunch of roses to help us win, then put the names of losers on the list. The committee wrote those names on the cards, and those losers got roses when they wouldn’t have normally. This proves all your roses were fake. Read the list if you don’t believe me. It’s all right there at the bottom in the same handwriting. And it’s all the people who shouldn’t have gotten roses.”