Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1) (24 page)

Chapter 29

“It smells like heaven in here,” Lena exclaimed as she sashayed through the front door and into the house.

“Uh, thanks,” I responded, not really knowing what was supposed to be said in response to such a statement. “What are you doing here?” I raised my eyebrows curiously, staring at my redheaded friend as she began to shrug off her trench coat and unwrap her scarf.

Draping her gray wool coat on the wooden rack, Lena turned toward me, a smirk shaping her pink lips. “Boy do I have news for you, Forrester. But first, my tongue is drier that the Gobi desert.” Lena raised her pale hand up to her throat and stuck her tongue out dramatically before turning and making her way down the hallway and into the kitchen.

As soon as we walked into the room, the sound of Christmas music filled my ears. My mom smiled at me and Lena as she backed away from the radio that sat on top of the island. She danced around the kitchen in her apron, singing along to “Santa Baby.” Placed on the counter next to the stove was a cookie sheet, filled with small balls of chocolate chip cookie dough.

“Hey girls!” she called to us in-between her singing.

“Hi, Mrs. F.,” Lena responded. It was as if Lena’s words had encouraged her in some way, because suddenly, Rose Forrester began to exaggerate her dance moves.

To my embarrassment, my mom danced her way over to us, throwing a few embellished hand movements into her routine while rolling her hips to the beat. Lena laughed, only encouraging her further as she swiveled her body around, raising her hands to form peace signs as she moved them past her eyes one at a time. I had the urge to run across the kitchen and yank the radio’s cord from the plug as my mom started to do the tootsie roll; her hands on her knees as she moved her legs in and out.

Next to me Lena was laughing so hard that she had keeled over, gripping her stomach. Her laughter only grew louder as Lilly came running into the room, her eyes wide, and a smile on her face as she began to copy our mother’s awful dance moves.

The two of them were now attempting to moonwalk, transitioning smoothly into the robot, where my mom took that as an opportunity to start doing the cabbage patch. She balled her hands up into fists, swinging her arms out in front of her in a circular motion. As her big finish, my white mother, a woman who I’ve compared to
Wonder Bread
in the past, began to do the running man. She was no longer matching the beat of the song, but with every new dance move her facial expressions became more and more animated; showing just how much fun she was having. Lilly’s pigtails bounced on top of her head as copied my mother’s eccentric movements.

When the song finally ended, Lena had tears dripping from her eyes, her body convulsing with silent laughter.

“Wondering where I learned how to dance like that?” my mom questioned, receiving a nod from Lena as she braced herself on her knees, and an excited
Yes
from Lilly.

My cheeks still burned in embarrassment at how horrible her dance moves had been and I had trouble hiding my shocked expression when she said, “I was captain of my high school’s dance team. We were third best in states.” Dark brown hair that had managed to fall loose from her bun while she danced, framed her pale face, making her look younger than she actually was.

“Wow, I wonder what your competition looked like.”

My mom shook her head, ignoring my insult. “What are you girls up to?”

Lena composed herself, standing up and wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. “I invited myself over for cookies,” she said raising her eyebrow suggestively and licking her lips.

My mom chuckled in response. “Well after I pop them in the oven, and add some finishing touches, feel free to help yourself. This is the only time of the year that the girls are allowed to have any kind of holiday dessert that they want.” She turned her head to look at Lilly and me. “A little trans-fat this time of year won’t kill you guys, huh?”

Lilly answered for both of us as she shook her head furiously.

The song “All I Want For Christmas” came on, stealing away my mom’s attention.

“Mama Forrester should be a comedian,” Lena joked as she went to grab a cup from the dish drying rack. She tucked her unruly hair behind her ears so that she was able to bend slightly to fill the cup up with water from the refrigerator.

“All I want for Christmas, is you, baby,” Lena mumbled, holding the ‘u’ sound in ‘you’ to match the song.

I following Lena’s trail as she left the kitchen and pounded up the staircase to my bedroom. Opening the door, she flipped on the light switch and went to sit down on my bed.

I pushed the door shut behind us and joined Lena where she sat, looking at her curiously. “So what was it that you wanted to tell me?”

Lena raised her pointer finger, telling me to hold on for a moment as she gulped down a mouthful of water. When she finished drinking, she set the glass down on top of my bedside table and bit her lip as she eyed me. It seemed as if she was calculating something in her mind before she said, “My parents are getting a divorce.”

My mouth opened a bit to form a small ‘o’ shape. “What?”

Shrugging, Lena began to play with the frayed spot on her distressed jeans. “It was bound to happen sometime.”

“Man that sucks.” As the words unfolded from my mouth, I realized how insensitive they were. “Everything will be fine though,” I encouraged.

“Oh trust me, Forrester, I’m happier than I am sad. I’ll still get to see both of my parents, and there will be no more arguments. Sounds like literal perfection to me.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

I smiled. “For some reason I thought that you were going to be telling me bad news.”

From the way that Lena’s face shifted, I instantly knew that there was more to the story.

“About that,” she began uneasily. “My mom and dad can’t afford the house without each other’s financial help, even though my dad paid for most of everything anyway. So they’re selling the house. My dad’s going to look for something smaller that’s in the area, and my mom’s decided to move back to California to stay with my grandparents.”

My eyes widened at the thought that Lena could potentially be moving back to California. I had only known her for three months now, but in that short time span we had come to be very close. She was the first real girlfriend that I’d had in years, and now she was possibly moving away.

“Chill, Violet, I’m staying to live with my dad.” She smirked at me, rolling her eyes as if she had been able to read my mind.

“And Ella?”

“She hasn’t decided yet. She doesn’t want mom to be alone, but she’d rather live with dad. She also misses Cali and our grandparents, but it’s not like we won’t be visiting mom every summer. I think she’s going to end up staying here too, but who knows. She’s always been protective of our mom.”

“I hope she stays.” The words surprised even myself as they spilled from my mouth.

“Oh
do
you?”

I paused, thinking for a moment before I nodded my head. “I really do. You’d hate being here without her.”

Lena tilted her head, raising a shapely eyebrow at me. “And?” she prompted.

I sighed. “And she’s not so bad after all. I actually think she’s kind of cool.”

“I thought you did,” Lena joked. “She’s just easily influenced. Hopefully she grows out of that though.”

“She will.”

Leaning forward, Lena laid out across the bed on her stomach, holding her chin in her hands. Her expression changed as she began to speak. “So what are you going to do about Brianna? All we’ve done is change her hair color.”

My lips curved upwards into a small smile. “Yeah but we made her hair flaming red. That’s the worst.”

Lena’s eyes turned to slits. “Nothing is wrong with red hair.”

“Hey, you and I both know that gingers have no souls.”

Trying to hide her laugh, Lena coughed loudly. “Sure they don’t,” she mumbled sarcastically.

“They don’t,” I assured her before returning to our original topic. “We can always give Ella’s idea a shot.”

Lena shook her head. “Ella’s idea is evil. I want Brianna to suffer, but I don’t want to hit her that low.”

“I guess you’re right,” I agreed, swiping my hair off of my face.

“Oh, and Ella got my shoe from Brianna’s house so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Thank God. I was so sure that Brianna was going to find that and trace the footprint or something.” I laughed at my paranoia.

Lena rolled her eyes in response. “No worries there. She’ll never know a thing.” Lena yawned, her mouth open so wide that her hand couldn’t cover it completely. “What’s going to happen with you and Blake?”

I shrugged. I truly didn’t know. I was hoping that we would get back together, but start off slowly. Not jump into anything.”

“So what’s stopping you?”

“Honestly, I don’t know if I’m ready. He
cheated
on me. I don’t think I can overlook that. What if he still likes Ella?” I shook my head, frowning. “It’s just all so complicated.”

“It’s not complicated. You still love him, and there’s no way he could have gotten over you so quickly.”

“Who knows?” I shrugged, laying back on the bed and looking up at the ceiling.

“Do
you
still love
him
?” Lena pressed.

I closed my eyes tight, sighing as I muttered a defeated, “Yes.” Before she had the chance to say anything, I added, “I shouldn’t though. He cheated and lied to me. How is it possible that he’s still the only person I think about day in and day out?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s...” she searched for a word to explain the situation.

“Complicated,” I finished for her.

We drifted off into an easy silence. I opened my eyes, thinking about how happy I had been when Blake and I were dating. I didn’t want to be one of those girls who forgives her boyfriend for everything just because she’s blinded by love. I wanted to be strong, but I realized that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I finally understood why some girls take their boyfriends back so soon after they hurt them. It wasn’t because they were weak, or stupid. It was because they truly loved them, and were willing to give them a second chance to make things right. People make mistakes.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I finally knew what I wanted to do. I was ready to forgive Blake, and give him another chance. I didn’t want to forget the past, but being away from him for nearly a month now made me realize just how much I loved him. He truly is a good guy, and everyone makes mistakes. If anything were to happen again is when he would run out of chances. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Suddenly the bed bounced as Lena hopped up. She smiled knowingly at me as she sashayed over to the light switch, flipping it downwards and enveloping us in darkness. The only light came from a street lamp outside my bedroom window, and my faint night light that was plugged in next to my bedside table.

Before I even had a chance to ask Lena what she was doing, she spoke. “It’s time! Now for the real reason that I came over.” I watched as Lena’s dark figure moved toward the window, as she reached it, the sound of a guitar began to play.

The music floated in through my window, followed by a male’s voice as he began to sing.

“I knew, from the moment that I met you, that you were the one. I couldn’t stop staring. I was hooked at first glance, but I knew that I didn’t have a chance. Dark haired beauty, that’s what you were to me. That’s what you’ll always be.” Blake’s voice beckoned me to the window until I was standing next to Lena. She smiled so hard that I could see her molars as she looked out the window at Blake and then back to me again.

He stood in the grass by the tree in our yard, clutching his dad’s guitar in his arms as he strummed away, singing so eloquently that I couldn’t help it when tears began to well up in my eyes. I didn’t recognize the song, but seeing him standing there, singing outside of my bedroom window, sure did bring a smile to my face.

“It's a shame that I didn't have the pride. I went numb inside, at the thought of approaching you. Unapproachable, dark hair beauty, that’s what you were to me. I was afraid, but who’s to blame, when you’re always on my mind? If I had my way, I'd see you all the time,” Blake’s voice quivered a bit as it rose at the end to hit a high note.

A tear slipped down my cheek as watched him sing. He had obviously been preparing this for a while now, and had even called upon Lena for help.

“I just wanna hold your hand, be your man. Dark haired beauty will you let me in? I’m tired of waiting. You deserve the best, and I know I can give you that if you let me try. Let me show you, what love can do, when it’s oh so right.

I don't want to be with anyone else. You make me take a good look at myself. One look in your eyes, and I can see a better me. Just trust me dark haired beauty, that my love is free. It’s a gift for you from me!” Blake looked up into the window at me, as he went into the chorus again. I knew that the end of the song was coming soon, and I didn’t want to be all the way up in my room when he finished.