Love Songs (Secret Songbook #1) (24 page)

She didn’t know how Harper could stand there and not seize the opportunity. Kaley felt like a million dollars, like someone else had full control over her body and was making her do things she would normally be too shy to do. She didn’t feel invisible, it was strange.

“You’re good.” Cooper looked at Harper, giving her the compliment. She giggled before coming to life.

“You’re good too. Great, even.”

“We get by, we’ve got a long way to go yet.”

Kaley gave Harper a slap on the arm, trying to get her to keep going. “I think you’re perfect already,” she choked out.

“Thanks.”

The three of them stood there awkwardly, the crowd jostling and bumping them from all angles. When it was clear Harper wasn’t going to make her declaration of undying love, Kaley stepped in before it got any worse. “I guess we’ll see you at school.”

“Yeah. And band practice.”

“Band practice, don’t forget,” Harper added.

“I won’t. Thanks for coming.”

Kaley dragged Harper away and Cooper disappeared into the crowd. The moment they were away, the life returned to Harper like some miracle had just occurred.

“Oh my god! I just had a conversation with Cooper Sutton.”

“And you survived.”

Harper grabbed Kaley into a hug, jumping up and down with the excitement of the whole thing. “Cooper Sutton thinks I’m good at playing the violin.
The
Cooper Sutton, can you believe it? He knows who I am.”

“This whole night was worth it then.”

“Do you think he was just pretending? Or do you think he meant it?”

Kaley laughed. “He meant it, how could he not?”

“These things don’t happen to me, I can’t believe it.” Harper couldn’t stand still, she wanted to scream with excitement. Fortunately, in the club she could do that and still not be heard.

They made their way to the exit and waited while Kaley texted her mother for the ride home. They stood inside the doors, just as they had agreed. If Georgie was good enough to let her go, and be their ride, then she was going to be responsible and follow their agreement. She wasn’t going to blow her one shot at being let off the leash.

The entire time they waited for Georgie to arrive, Harper gushed about Cooper. “He’s so hot, it’s like he stepped out of a magazine. I want to touch his hair so badly.”

“I think that might be a bit weird.”

“But it’s so perfect. I want to rough it up.”

“Stalker, much?”

Harper giggled. “There’s nothing wrong with a girl knowing what she wants. It’s destiny anyway, we’re meant to be together.”

“I think every stalker in history says the same thing,” Kaley teased.

“Probably, but my statement is true.”

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop laughing, the adrenalin still coursed through her veins. Her phone vibrated in her hands, telling her Georgie was waiting outside.

They stepped through the doors and saw the car – directly out front just like she had threatened. They got in quickly, before anyone saw.

“Did you girls have fun?” Georgie asked, Kaley noticed she was dressed in her pajamas and cringed. At least it was a free ride home.

“We had an excellent time, Mrs. Thorne,” Harper replied for both of them. “Thank you for the ride.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And for not telling my parents.”

“Who said I wasn’t going to tell your parents?” She checked the rearview mirror to make sure Harper had a look of horror on her face before laughing. “Psych! I’m the cool mom, remember? Just don’t do anything stupid to give me a reason to tell your parents.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Harper vowed seriously.

“When I was a teenager, I got up to so much mischief with my best friend,” Georgie started, giving Kaley a sinking feeling about where she was going. Thankfully, she had known Harper long enough to expect the craziness.

“I don’t think we need to know that, Mom. You’re meant to be a good role model, remember?”

“You’ll like this story, Kaley. Once, my friend Beth and I snuck out of the house to go to a university rave party. We were only fifteen at the time and thought we were so dope.”

Kaley rolled her eyes.

Georgie continued anyway. “We turned up at the party and it was packed full of people we didn’t know. So, we found two boys that were pretty much plastered and got them to dance with us. For the rest of the night, we told people they were our boyfriends and thought we were so grown up.”

“That’s very… interesting,” Harper commented, trying to be polite.

“That’s not the best part of the story. So, as it turns out, the boys were only fifteen too. So we had been telling everyone we were dating two losers that had snuck in too. The four of us ended up puking our guts out on the front lawn of the place and passing out. We woke up in the morning and someone had written on our faces in permanent marker. We had to walk home with the worst hangovers and then try to explain the swear words drawn on our faces. Our parents freaked out. We both got grounded for about a year.”

“Very responsible, Mom.”

“Oh, lighten up, it’s called living.” Georgie laughed at herself. “I made all the mistakes so I can tell you what not to do. You can totally learn from my misspent youth. You know how old Grandma and Grandpa look? That’s because of me.”

Kaley shrugged at Harper, a silent apology for having the most embarrassing and crazy mother in Sandyridge. “I’ll keep that in mind, Mom.”

“And that’s not the worst story I’ve got. But that one will have to be saved for when you’re older. I don’t want to give you any ideas.”

“Wouldn’t want that.”

Harper giggled, it always made her feel better about her own parents. Hers may be strict and unable to take a joke, but at least she knew where her boundaries were. Poor Kaley was living on the precipice.

They pulled up at the Monroe house and let Harper out, parking a discreet distance away so she could sneak in as quietly as possible.

Georgie waited until she had disappeared out of sight before leaving. Despite what her daughter thought, she actually was responsible, she would never let anything hurt them.

By the time they arrived at the Thorne residence, they were both exhausted. The natural high Kaley was riding quickly evaporated as they returned to reality. All her problems were still there, they hadn’t magically solved themselves in the few hours she had been away.

She changed into her pajamas and stood in front of the mirror, brushing her teeth. Her ears still rung with the music from The Ravens. Although, it probably wasn’t the music but the screams of the crowd that was causing her temporary deafness.

They had gone wild for the band, soaking up every minute of it. If they could elicit that kind of reaction when they were still a high school band, she imagined how good they would be in a few years’ time when they had been discovered and had a record deal thrown at them.

They would be unstoppable.

Kaley finished with her teeth and picked up her hairbrush. She imagined it was her microphone, the mirror her audience. She pretended to sing one of her songs, doing all the rock moves she had seen. She strutted in front of the mirror, pretending her audience was in the thousands and they knew all the words to her songs.

The crowd would be going wild for
her
, caught up in the emotions and feelings of her lyrics. They would sway along to the sad, slow ones, and head bang to the fast ones. They would clap along to the beat and she would get them all to sing along with the chorus of their favorites.

She would wear something totally amazing, something expensive a designer would give her for the privilege of being associated with her. She would record the concert and make it into a DVD, with behind the scenes footage just for her followers.

She would be good to her fans, she would treat them like her friends. She would have a fan club, forty million followers on Twitter, and a mansion in every country she wanted.

Then the awards would follow, for her songwriting, for her music clips, for her songs, and albums. She would win at least one of everything.

And then it was back to reality.

She finished the song and remembered she was standing in her bathroom in her pajamas and singing into her hairbrush.

The crowd went away, replaced by the realization it was only a dream and things like that didn’t happen to people like her. She was invisible, people would never see her like that.

She went to bed.

Chapter 27

The morning had not been kind to Kaley. Not only did her alarm clock fail to go off, but she had also received an interrogation from Harvey about the night before.

He wanted to know every detail, apparently he had been worried about them all night. He should have known Mother Barbie would be on the case, considering she had been caught.

By the time she reached school, Kaley felt like she had already lived an entire day. She said goodbye to Harvey and went looking for Eli. He said he would see her before school and she wasn’t going to let him get out of that promise. It seemed like they hadn’t spent any time together lately.

She walked around the school grounds, checking all the places he usually hung out. She saw lots of letterman jackets, but none that belonged to Eli.

The last place she looked was the courtyard outside the cafeteria. As she approached, she stopped in her tracks, ducking out of sight just in time.

She had found Eli and he was talking with Abigail. The two of them were standing too close together for Kaley’s comfort and appeared to be having a confidential discussion.

As she watched from her covert vantage point, Kaley saw Abigail brush Eli’s arm with her hand. It was an intentional show of affection, one that screamed of an intimacy between them.

Kaley knew for sure because Eli had done the same thing to her and it had sent shivers through her body. It wasn’t just a friendly gesture.

Their heads were only inches apart, if either one of them moved the wrong way they could be kissing in an instant.

Kaley’s anger started to rise. How dare Abigail continue to move in on Eli when it was so clear they had broken up? How many times did he have to tell her they were over?

She could have any guy in the school, why couldn’t she move on and find someone else? Only one guy had ever been interested in Kaley, surely she could even do it out of sympathy? As if Abigail had any feelings.

Kaley didn’t want to stand idly by anymore. If Harper was prepared to fight for her man, then she should be too. Before she realized what she was doing, she stepped into the courtyard so Eli could see her. She pretended she had only just stumbled across them.

“Oh, Eli, hi. I was looking for you.”

At least they had the decency to move apart. He took a step back, creating a visible distance between them. Abigail stood her ground, completely ignoring Kaley.

“I’ll see you around, Eli. Thanks for the chat,” Abigail said sweetly before shooting Kaley a look. She strode away, not looking back.

“What was that about?” Kaley asked, not wanting to be the jealous girlfriend but unable to stop herself. She
was
a jealous girlfriend, there was no use denying it.

“Just Abigail,” Eli replied. He looked guilty, he was unable to meet her gaze. Or perhaps it was just her imagination running wild on her, Kaley had no idea.

“You looked pretty cozy.”

“We were just talking.”

“Is everything okay? Should I be worried?”

Eli took a step closer to her. “Everything’s fine. Like I said, it’s just Abigail being Abigail.”

“She doesn’t give up easily, does she?”

“Nope.” He leaned down and kissed Kaley on the lips, a moment that passed by too quickly. “We should probably get to class.”

Kaley nodded in agreement as they started to leave the courtyard. She used to love that part of the school. It was quiet there, serene, and cool in the summertime. Now, all she was going to remember was the way Eli and Abigail had been so close, so intimately talking together.

She wished it didn’t have to be that way.

Classes were a nightmare all day. Kaley was so tired she could barely function and thoughts of Abigail were plaguing her mind.

To make it worse, it seemed like Harvey was angry with her about something. Every time she glanced his way, he would look in the opposite direction. Thank God for Harper, if it wasn’t for her she would have gone crazy.

During lunchtime, Kaley didn’t even bother with the cafeteria, it was still a no go zone for her. Georgie was still trying to get the stains out of her yellow top. Until the memory of that day dissolved into nothing, she wouldn’t be able to be comfortable there.

Instead, she found Harper and they had their sandwiches outside on the ground. It was much better, like an impromptu picnic.

“I saw Cooper this morning,” Harper began, dying to divulge all. “He said ‘thanks for coming last night’. He remembered me, can you believe it?”

“Of course I can believe it, you’re Harper Monroe. How could anyone forget you?”

“Quite easily, apparently.”

“I know what you mean,” Kaley sighed, not intentionally trying to make the conversation about her. She tried to recover. “So what is your plan for the Cooper Sutton take down, stage two?”

“I’m thinking I might talk to him about the dance. Perhaps it might prompt him to ask me to go with him. What do you think?”

“It could work.”

“If it doesn’t, then at least I might find out if he already has a date or something.”

“Good thinking.”

Harper beamed with pride, she had a plan. It was more than Kaley had. She felt sorry for her friend, something didn’t seem right with her. “So have you had any Abigail encounters today?”

“I saw her talking with Eli this morning, they looked… cozy.”

“I’m sure Eli was trying to tell her to leave him alone.”

Kaley wanted to believe that so much. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling she was losing the battle. She was no match for Abigail and she knew it. To Abigail it was like swatting at an annoying fly, not fighting an actual opponent.

“Yeah, probably,” Kaley replied absentmindedly. Perhaps if she thought it enough, everything would be okay.

Georgie was always going on about the power of positive thinking, perhaps there was something to it. Eli had, after all, asked her to go to the movies that night. As tired as she was, she didn’t say no. She would do anything for some alone time with him, time away from any of their distractions.

“Have you seen Harvey this morning?” Harper asked, changing the subject on purpose.

“I walked to school with him and I saw him in English class, but I haven’t seen him since. Why?”

“He seems to be keeping to himself a lot lately, I kind of miss having him around.”

Kaley nodded, completely understanding. She had thought it was just her he seemed annoyed with, perhaps it was the pair of them. “I don’t think he’s happy with me at the moment. I don’t know why.”

“Something’s definitely going on with him.”

“Should we do something?”

Harper shook her head. “He’s a guy, he’ll work it out. Can you imagine Harvey sitting here talking about his feelings? He’d laugh at us both.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I’m Harper Monroe, I’m always right,” Harper laughed, putting her hands on her hips like Wonder Woman.

They finished their lunch in the warmth of the sunshine as it beamed down over Sandyridge High School. If nothing else, it helped to brighten their day just a little.

The afternoon classes were equally as torturous as the morning ones. By the time the final bell rang, Kaley was glad to be getting out of there. She was done with school that day, completely over it.

She put her books in her locker and made her way out to the school gates. She wasn’t supposed to be meeting Harvey that afternoon, but Eli. He was going to take her for something to eat and then catch a movie.

As she approached the school gates, there was no sign of Eli. She sat on the brick fence surrounding the garden and waited. Students flowed out in front of her, everyone keen to get home as quickly as possible.

Yet even after twenty minutes, there was no sign of Eli. Or Abigail for that matter.

Harvey stopped on his way out, noticing her sitting by herself. “Hey, I thought we weren’t walking home together today?”

“We’re not. I’m waiting for Eli, I guess he got caught up somewhere,” Kaley said, not even convincing herself.

Harvey took a seat on the fence beside her. “Yeah, caught up, right. Don’t you get tired of waiting for him all the time?”

“He gets busy. It’s not like it’s
all
the time.”

“Every time we talk, you’re waiting for a text or a call or for him to show up. I don’t understand it,” Harvey said casually, as he stared at the road.

“What’s there to understand? He’s got a lot of responsibility with the football team and school and stuff. It probably just slips his mind.” Kaley shrugged, trying to play it down.

In truth, it cut deep every time he forgot about her. But if she admitted to it, she also had to admit Eli wasn’t exactly the guy she thought he was. And she wasn’t ready to do that, especially not to Harvey, he would make it into a bigger deal than she wanted.

“You just slip his mind?” Harvey laughed. “That’s the problem. You deserve a boyfriend that can’t get you off his mind. He can’t function without thinking about you. One that is consumed by the way you smile, the way your hair smells like strawberries, the way everything is better when you’re around.
That’s
what you deserve.”

Kaley was speechless, she didn’t know what to say to that. Apparently neither did Harvey, he stood. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Good luck with Eli.”

“Yeah, tomorrow.”

She watched him go, his words echoing in her mind. Despite her growing impatience at waiting, she couldn’t help but smile.

She wondered if Eli ever thought about her smile or the way her hair smelled. He probably did, he just didn’t tell her. It would be weird if he blurted it out all the time.

After another thirteen minutes, the figure of Eli emerged from the school. Kaley stood, happy to finally see him. He was alone – another good thing.

“Hey, sorry I’m late. I got busy,” Eli apologized before giving her a kiss.

“No problem, it’s not like I had anything else to do.” Kaley took his hand in hers and tried to really mean it. They were together now and they were going to have a great evening, there was no sense in being annoyed at being left to wait for so long. After all, he did apologize.

Eli drove them downtown and parked near the Sandyridge Cinemas. They chose a café nearby to have something to eat before the movie. It was a funky diner, one Kaley had eaten in many times before.

The walls were plain brick and the tables looked like they were made out of wooden train sleepers. Overall, it had a bohemian feel to it, especially with all the artsy paintings hanging on the walls. They took a seat at the front and ordered.

“So you had a busy day, huh?” Kaley started, determined to prove Harvey wrong about Eli. She was certain he would have been doing something important to leave her waiting at the school gate.

“Yeah, very busy.”

“Doing what?” she asked casually, as if only to make conversation and not part of an interrogation. What she really wanted to know was what was more important than her this afternoon.

“Just the usual stuff, you know,” Eli replied, equally as casual. If she wanted details, it was clear he wasn’t going to give them up easily. She decided to let it rest and be the cool girlfriend, the one that didn’t stress about what their boyfriend did when they weren’t around.

The opposite of Abigail.

“So the dance is only two weeks away now,” Kaley said, changing the subject. “I’m on the lame decorating committee so I’m constantly reminded of it now.”

“I didn’t pick you as a committee girl.”

“I’m not, trust me. Harper signed us up before I could say no.”

“Harper’s intense.” He smiled, nodding as if that would be something she would do.

“Yeah, but her heart’s in the right place. So what color tie are you going to wear? Apparently my dress is supposed to match your tie, so everyone says.”

“Umm, I don’t know. Why don’t you get a dress and I’ll get a tie that matches it?”

Kaley nodded, that would probably be easier than having to find a dress in a particular color. Plus, what about if he chose a horrible color like khaki or brown? “That sounds good. Any preference?”

Eli didn’t seem to be paying attention anymore. He kept looking over her shoulder, his eyes darting between her and whatever was catching his eye. Kaley tried to ignore it.

“Eli, any preference?”

He looked back at her, as if only just realizing she was asking him a question. “Preference for what?”

“A color.”

“Oh, I don’t know. You choose.”

“I guess I’ll let you know then.”

“Yeah, great, thanks.”

They ate in silence, every minute ticking by was more painful than the last. No matter what conversation Kaley tried to get going, she couldn’t help but feel he was giving her only a tiny portion of his attention.

She tried one last time. “What movie are we seeing?”