Fault Line (2 page)

She signaled me inside and directed me to sit on a bright purple couch that smelled a little like bubble bath. The walls were painted orange and there were giant pillows in all colors thrown around the room. I’d apparently walked inside a bag of Skittles.

“You guys unpacked pretty fast, Mrs. . . . um?”

“Yeah, I hate boxes. And you can call me Ms. Taylor, although I prefer to be called Gayle so I’m not constantly reminded of my ex-husband. Do you go to school with Ani or did she pick up a stray at the 7-Eleven?”

I opened my mouth to say something but was interrupted by a girlie laugh. Annika stood in the doorway; light from the living room windows haloed her, and my breath stopped for a second.

“Mom, I don’t pick up strays. I checked him out. He’s clean. He swims. His dad works in advertising and his mom is a librarian.”

“Really?” Her mom looked at me.

I redirected my attention back to Gayle and nodded. I tapped my feet and slumped into the couch. Tiny beads of sweat formed on my bald head. I hated when so much attention was directed at me. But I was psyched Annika checked me out. Did she ask Kevin?

“Yeah, and he’s up for some big swim scholarship at Iowa,” Annika said, and gave me a wink.

“Good for you, Ben. Best of luck,” Gayle said, and her shoulders lowered a fraction.

What the heck kind of parental small talk was this? It sort of felt like I was on a reality TV dating show and my stats were flashing beneath me. The whole thing might’ve bothered me, but I was too distracted by the way Annika’s hair fell in two braids that rested right above the black bra showing through her white shirt. Black bra. Yeah.

Gayle must have suddenly noticed too. She shook her head. “Is that my shirt?”

Annika shrugged. “Maybe. It was in my laundry pile.”

“You know it’s mine. And you’re supposed to wear a camisole underneath it, not a black bra.”

The right side of Annika’s mouth tilted up. “Huh. Really?”

“Subtle, Ani. You’ve got two minutes to put a sweatshirt on or change into a different shirt. Jesus. Don’t make me play the overprotective mother.”

I stared at the ceiling. Every part of my face felt like it was on fire. Were these two seriously having this conversation in front of me? My mom would go ape shit if she were in the room.

I rubbed my hands on my knees and tried to figure out a way to diffuse the awkwardness. “Ani. Cute nickname.”

“Yeah, unfortunately Beez was already taken as an option so I had to go with the far less clever shortening of my given name.”

“Ani,” Gayle said, and pointed to the door, “the shirt. Now.”

Ani smiled at the two of us and shrugged. I gaped at both of them. Weirdest mother-daughter relationship I’d ever seen. Ani adjusted her braids and stuck her tongue out at us. She flounced out of the room.

Gayle pursed her lips. “Sorry. She’s trying to get a rise out of me. Both of us, I guess. It’s not very often she likes someone enough to invite them over.”

I bit back a grin. So this was what zero to sixty felt like. I’d been right about Ani being direct. And she liked me. I let out a breath of relief. She liked
me.
Thank Christ for that. I wasn’t really interested in hooking up with a girl who was looking for a bunch of riders on her own train.

“You like her too?” Gayle asked.

“Yeah, I mean we just met, but she’s different.”

Gayle laughed. “Yes. And special. And very honest. You’re lucky. Don’t mess it up.”

How was I supposed to respond to that? I nodded and directed my gaze to the painting on the wall behind her. It had a bright blue background and showed a thin girl in front with her mouth open and tears in her eyes. From behind, half a dozen orange, green, and purple arms hugged her.

“Did you make that?”

“No. Ani did after her dad left. She’s a pretty talented artist.”

Ani walked back into the room and my eyes went right to her chest. New shirt. Black, like the bra I no longer could see. Damn. She pulled on a hoodie and zipped it all the way to her chin then pulled the hood strings so we could barely see her face. She looked like one of those Teletubbies.

“Better?” she asked her mom.

“Better,” Gayle said. “But you two aren’t going into your bedroom. Come on. Let’s make Ben something to eat.”

Gayle walked out of the room and Ani came to the couch and pulled me up. She unzipped the hoodie and threw it to the side. She leaned toward me and for one heart-stopping second I thought she might kiss me but instead, she sniffed.

“Chlorine?”

“Yeah, I was in the pool before I came over.”

“Obviously. Next time, take a longer shower. Or put some lotion on. You’re too chemically to kiss.”

My head spun.
Kiss
. She’d asked someone about me. And invited me over. And
liked
me. And was maybe going to kiss me. And . . . whoa.

She took my hand and dragged me into the kitchen, where her mom was cutting up fruit and dropping it into a blender. Annika flopped onto a stool and licked her lips. The lips that almost kissed me. My mouth went dry. Crap. This girl was going to chew me up and spit me out.

Her mom left after the smoothies were made and I shifted too much in my seat.

“So swim team, huh?” Ani asked.

“Yeah. Well, it’s club right now. Official swim team doesn’t start until November, but if you want to stay competitive, you do club.”

“Huh. Sounds like you have everything worked out for you.”

I shrugged. “I guess. And you paint?”

“Yep. Ever since Mom started carting me around to her classes when she couldn’t find a babysitter. Sometimes I make jewelry too.” She fingered the pendant on her necklace. “This one’s mine.”

I leaned forward and tried to keep my eyes on the pendant and not on the way her shirt cut across her collarbone and bunched out in front. “It looks like a tree.”

“Yeah. It’s a tree of life. It’s sort of this symbol to remind me how we’re all connected. How something that one person does can change the outcome for so many people. For good or for bad.”

“That’s deep.”

She snorted. “Sorry. You’ve been in the pool. I don’t mean to tax your brain after all that exercise.”

“Don’t be a smart-ass. I’m not an idiot. I even pass my classes on occasion.”

She patted my head. “Of course you do. Don’t get huffy.” Her hand slid down to the counter between us. I wanted to take it in mine, I wanted her to touch me again, but I choked. This wasn’t how to get a girlfriend. I was supposed to flirt or compliment her or something. But she didn’t seem to be looking for any of that.

The space between us became comfortably silent. She scraped her stool next to mine so her knees were pressed into my thigh.

“Tree of life, huh?” I said, leaning closer to her. Not too much but enough.

“Yep.” She nudged me with her shoulder. “Everyone’s connected.”

3

Although I’d promised myself never to deal with Morgan again, like a wuss I picked Kevin up and headed to her party on Friday night. I hadn’t asked Ani if she was going to be there, but I figured she’d show if most of the school knew about it.

“You smell kind of good,” Kevin said as he hopped into my Jeep. “Big plans for the night?”

I shrugged.

“Are you meeting Ani?” Kevin continued.

“We didn’t set up anything specific.”

“Probably should have, dude. You know the vultures are gonna swarm once they get a load of those legs.”

I whacked him on the shoulder.

“Just saying,” he muttered, and shoved me back.

Morgan’s street was full of cars, and I guessed we had maybe a half hour before someone called the cops. The front door to her house was open and the living room was packed with people dancing to music pouring through mounted speakers. So the rumor about Jack’s band playing was a lie. Figured. All the furniture was pushed against the peach-colored walls, and through the sliding glass door in the back I could see a bunch of guys outside doing beer bongs. I made a beeline for the keg in the kitchen as soon as we walked in, but Morgan must have been looking out for me, because she blocked my path and wrapped her arms around me the second I entered the room.

“Beezus,” she slurred, and raked her fingernails over my head. I shook her off and wiped away her claw marks on my scalp.

“Hey, Morgan.”

“I was hoping you’d come.” She looked at me with slightly drunk and embarrassingly needy eyes. The kitchen was flooded with too much light, showing exactly how much makeup Morgan had caked on before the party.

“Yeah, I’m meeting someone.” Not exactly true, but I hoped it would cut off any further attention from her.

“Really? Who?”

Crap. I hated this, had been dreading it for too long. “Look, Morgan, did you need something?”

She blinked and twisted her long brown hair in her fingers. “I thought maybe we could talk. You know?” She looked at me hopefully. “About us.”

I rubbed my hand over my head. I should have known I wasn’t going to get out of this conversation if I showed up at her party. Stupid-ass Kevin and his promises of a thousand people. Damn good thing I’d practiced my speech in the shower.

“Morgan. Listen. You and I don’t really work together. I mean, you’re nice and all, but we aren’t really a good fit.” For the love of God, let that be enough.

She opened her mouth, but then peered over my shoulder. I turned around to see that Ani was standing a few feet behind me with a smirk on her face and her arms crossed. Her legs seemed even longer in short cutoffs. And her face was beautiful and fresh, even in the shitty fluorescent lights. I turned back to Morgan.

“I gotta go,” I said, and moved away before she could say anything else.

I steered Ani out of the kitchen and pointed toward the front door. She waved me ahead and followed me out of the house. Voices and music from the party carried through the open windows.

“Leaving a trail of broken hearts behind you?” she asked as soon as the door was shut and we’d stepped onto the front sidewalk.

“Oh, Christ, don’t you start on me. Girls can be so dramatic.”

Ani howled. “Oh, Beez, that’s priceless. That poor girl just wants you to talk to her.”

“She’s an ex who screwed around with one of the other guys on the swim team when I was dating her. She was drunk, but still.”

Ani nodded and sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, patting the spot on her right. “Aha. Tricky. Maybe she’s trying to make amends?”

I slid next to her and put my elbows on my knees. “Maybe. Probably. It’s a little late, though. It wasn’t exactly the smoothest breakup.”

“Smooth breakups? Have you had many of those?”

“No. Actually, Morgan was the first girl I ever dated.” Only girl, until Ani, who I wasn’t dating. Maybe.

She slid her hands behind her and leaned back. “She broke your heart?”

“Nah. I mean, I might have said that last year, but really, it was a stupid first crush.”

“First girlfriend. Hmm . . . I’m surprised. Not that I had you pegged as a player, but you’re kind of the whole package. It’s weird no one would’ve grabbed you by now.” I was sort of getting used to the strange honesty of Ani’s conversations but still didn’t have the first clue what I was supposed to say back.

“Uh . . . thanks?”

“You’re welcome.” Ani shifted forward. “So how come you came to her party?”

My face flushed and I looked out into the darkness.

Ani elbowed me. “You were hoping I’d show up, weren’t you? That’s sort of sweet.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“So let’s take a walk,” she said, and pulled me up from the sidewalk. “The cops’ll be here soon anyways, so we might as well hit the streets.”

“Hit the streets? Is that Cali gang talk?”

“Hardly. We lived in a suburb of San Diego. Not exactly gangbanger territory.”

We walked slowly toward the corner. I wanted to take her hand but was too nervous to try it. Sort of stupid considering she talked about kissing me the first day of school, but I didn’t want to screw things up. She bumped into me three times before I realized she was doing it on purpose and finally got up the nerve to grab her hand.

We wandered through the blocks of McMansions surrounding Morgan’s house, talking about school and California and how different things were. Ani told stories about her old friends and laughed in a way I’d never heard a girl do, sort of unself-consciously.

“So my new art teacher said I could use the studio after school if I wanted,” she said as she led us back toward Morgan’s house.

“That’s cool. Have you met a lot of arty people?”

“Some.”

“Yeah? Have you met other people?”

“Sure. Why?”

I shrugged. “Just curious.”

“Oh, Beez, are you worried I’m not making friends?” she teased.

“No. You probably have a hundred friends already and it’s only the first week of school. You’re sort of contagious.”

Ani barked out a laugh. “Contagious? Gross. Do you mean infectious?”

I turned red. I fricking hated when I didn’t get words right and looked stupid. “Yeah. Infectious.”

She squeezed my hand, and the warmth of her made me feel like less of an idiot. She was so completely disarming, like all of the usual stupid crap about liking a girl didn’t apply with her.

“Well, I don’t know about being infectious. But I’ve met a lot of nice people.”

“Like art people?”

Ani raised her eyebrows at me. “Why do you care what kind of people I’m friends with?”

I shrugged. “I don’t care. It’s just, those art types are kind of elitist.”

“Oh. So you’re worried what they’ll think of you? What they’ll say about us?”

I looked down. I didn’t care what they thought of me, but I cared if it threatened the possibility of Ani and me. And I really liked the idea of
us.

Ani tugged on my ear and I met her eyes. “I don’t care what they think. I make my own decisions about people.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding. What the hell was my problem? No girl had ever affected me as quickly as Ani did. Of course, no girl I’d ever known was anything like her.

She laughed and pulled me back toward Morgan’s front door. I could hear a bunch of people chanting Kevin’s name and shook my head at the certainty he was on his second or third beer bong.

“So,” I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets.

Ani bit her lip and smiled. I wanted to kiss her, but something stopped me. It didn’t feel right standing in front of Morgan’s house, knowing I’d have to peel Kevin off the floor in an hour and pray he didn’t puke in my car on the way home.

“Now would be the time you ask me on a date,” Ani prompted. God, this girl ruled.

“Would you like to go on a date tomorrow night?” I asked.

“Yes, Ben, I would very much like to go on a date with you.” She smiled and opened the door into the shouting and cheering of the party. I looked up at the starry sky and closed my eyes as a rush of adrenaline poured over me.