Infamous (23 page)

Sliding into the passenger seat, Brett primly tugged at the hem of her black and white geometric-print miniskirt, but for once, Sebastian didn’t even glance at her legs. Disappointed, she stared straight out the window.

“Your house looks nice,” she offered. She wondered if it had some faux-English motifs inside, or a billiards room, but as she opened her mouth to ask, Sebastian spoke up.

“You can pick the station,” he offered, cautiously pulling out of the driveway. Brett kind of missed the way he usually gunned it.

“That’s okay,” Brett deferred. “It’s your car.”

“Really, it’s cool.” He didn’t even glance at her. “Whatever you want is fine with me.”

Brett fiddled with the radio, plowing through the static to find a station not on a commercial. “So, uh…you ready to go back?” she asked awkwardly as Sebastian pulled onto the freeway.

Sebastian shrugged. “Yeah.” His black Hugo track jacket with white stripes down the sides looked brand-new. Maybe his family gave Thanksgiving presents, or maybe he’d hit up the Mall at Short Hills on Friday, too. “You?”

Brett fiddled with the multi-stranded turquoise necklace around her neck. What was wrong with him? She hated to admit it, but she missed the playful tone of their previous car rides and knew it was her fault. The notion that she owed him an apology for what had happened at Thanksgiving was nagging her. It wasn’t cool to use him as some kind of pawn in a game to annoy the Coopers, and it was even less cool to have a screaming match with her sister about it. But bringing it up again would be so…awkward.

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied, her voice equally casual.

They merged into the heavy traffic, cars loaded down with families headed home after the long weekend break. A sea of red taillights sprawled out in front of them as cars stopped and started again in the traffic jam.

They sat in silence for a while, until Brett couldn’t take it anymore. “Did you have a good time with your family?”

“Sure.” Sebastian nodded, humming along to the radio. He cracked open the window and lit a cigarette. The smell of smoke and Sebastian’s cologne mingled in her nose and she was surprised at how comforting the smell was, reminding her of the last couple of days at home. With the elder Coopers cleared out, her parents and sister had reverted to their normal selves. They’d made a pact to behave in front of Bree’s future in-laws—that’s what they were calling them—without going overboard. Last night, Willy had come over to watch cable, surfing from reality show to reality show while eating giant bowls of Cherry Garcia ice cream. Bree and Brett gave each other manicures while Willy tried to teach Peaches and Princess to play dead. Though the long weekend had begun stress-fully, Brett felt totally revived, ready to head back to the insanity that was Waverly.

But still there was something nagging at her. She hadn’t exactly been thinking about Sebastian all weekend, but his lively presence had left an aura in her house and random thoughts about him—how much the Teacups loved him, how pleased he’d been when he remembered her from the shore from so many summers ago—had popped into her mind. And she hadn’t hated it.

“Look.” Brett shifted in her seat and bit her Dior Addict Red Stockings-glossed lips. “I owe you an apology,” she said stiffly.

Sebastian cocked his head but kept his eyes on the road.

Brett realized how stupid she sounded and dropped into her regular voice. “No really, I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Sebastian asked. He slowed the car to maintain the flow of traffic. The brake lights in front of them fluttered on and off and then remained a solid red. Sebastian stopped the car and they sat, trapped in gridlock. The skyline of New York was visible off in the distance.

“I’m sorry for inviting you to Thanksgiving under false pretenses.” Brett stared down at her freshly painted red nails.

“To embarrass me,” Sebastian added. She could still hear the hurt in his voice.

“Is that what you think? That I wanted to
embarrass
you?” She’d never want to intentionally cause someone pain—and definitely not Sebastian.

He shrugged again. “You clearly didn’t invite me over because you wanted to hang out with me.”

“I’ll admit I had ulterior motives.” She twisted toward him in her seat. It was stupid of her not to realize it sooner, but she’d had a really great time hanging out with Sebastian, completely independent of the Coopers, and it suddenly was really important to her that he understood that. “I wanted to, you know, kind of shock those sticks-in-the-mud.” She looked up at him, chagrined. “But I ended up having a lot of fun with you. Can you just, you know, forgive me?”

Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, I guess,” he said, cracking a half-smile. “It’s not like I didn’t enjoy the look on that old broad’s face when you caught her staring at my hair.”

“She dug it—I know she did,” Brett assured him, laughing. She glanced out the corner of her eye at him and sighed, turning serious again. “I’m not particularly proud of my behavior. It’s just that my sister was—”

Sebastian held out his hand. “Hey, it’s over.” He glanced at her as traffic started to move again. “What’s done is done.”

“Okay,” she said meekly. She stared out the window, wondering if Jenny and Callie were on their way back to Waverly right now. Maybe Jenny would be in when Brett got there, and they could make margaritas. She’d gotten e-mails from her and Callie, filling her in on their crazy breaks, but she couldn’t wait to see them in person.

“I just have one question for you.” Sebastian rubbed his hand across his face, and Brett tensed up, wondering if it had all been a setup to pay her back for her awful behavior. “Did you pack that sexy outfit you were wearing at Thanksgiving?” He arched his eyebrows and smiled.

Brett felt her whole face blush. She had, in fact, gone through her closet and packed some of her old clothes, the kind that would shock people like the Coopers—but there was no way she was giving Sebastian the satisfaction of knowing that.

“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

A commercial on the radio faded and a Springsteen song filtered through the airwaves. Instead of cringing, Brett reached down and turned up the volume, smiling at Sebastian. He grinned back at her and pulled onto the left-hand shoulder, blowing past the stalled traffic as they hurtled toward Waverly’s snow-covered grounds.

Instant Message Inbox

AlanStGirard:
Whoa, is it true you hooked up with the Dunderdorf twins???

BrandonBuchanan:
Dude, how’d you hear that already?

AlanStGirard:
So it’s true?

BrandonBuchanan:
Not really…just one of them.

AlanStGirard:
Oh, man! You rock. What about Sage?

BrandonBuchanan:
Who??

Instant Message Inbox

BennyCunningham:
Just saw Brett climbing out of her little study buddy’s black sports car.

SageFrancis:
Interesting. Were they working on Latin all during break??

BennyCunningham:
And I just saw Tinsley curled up on a couch in Maxwell next to that hot frosh, Julian.

SageFrancis:
Man, was everyone getting busy over break except me?

BennyCunningham:
Now that U mention it, I heard something about Brandon and a Swedish model??

SageFrancis:
Thanks. You’re like the eighth person to tell me.

Instant Message Inbox

EmilyJenkins:
Did you hear Callie and EZ are split for good? He was, like, ready to jump off the Empire State bldg or something.

AlisonQuentin:
Totally insane! I think me and Alan are kaput now, too.

EmilyJenkins:
Oh, no! Need a shoulder to cry on?

AlisonQuentin:
More like a stiff drink. And a serious gossip session. Did you hear Jenny and Tinsley are like BFFs now? Word is they’re set to stir up some major trouble.

EmilyJenkins:
What
happened
over break?

AlisonQuentin:
Um, what didn’t?