Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys (14 page)

Evan stared into her eyes. Megan's heart was pounding in her ears. Her palms started to sweat and the back of her neck felt hot. Her face was inches away from Evan McGowan's. He was looking deep into her eyes. She couldn't breathe. Was she imagining it? Was he starting to lean in toward her? Could this be the moment of her first . . .

“Oh, you
have
to be kidding me!”

The door slammed back against the wall and Megan jumped. Hailey stood in the doorway, her legs spread for balance, her tube top riding dangerously low.

Evan looked from Megan to Hailey, his eyes wide. “Hailey, I know what you're thinking—”

“I come up here to talk things out with you and you're alone in the dark with her!?” Hailey shouted. “With
her
?”

“We were just—”

“Megan, don't,” Evan said, causing her entire body to burn with humiliation.

“Wow. I mean, really, wow. You two are unbelievable,” Hailey said, yanking up her tube top so violently she almost knocked herself over. “Have fun with your little kicker girl or whatever you call her.”

“Hailey, wait!”

Evan jumped up and followed her out into the hallway. Megan raced after them and past a line of openly gaping spectators. Hailey stumbled down the stairs and disappeared into the living room just as a mass of people started up the staircase, blocking Evan and Megan's way. Evan shoved through the crowd, but it was too late. Hailey was gone. When Megan reached his side, he was standing in the foyer, struggling for breath.

“Evan—”

“That's it. I can't take this anymore,” Evan said, his eyes wild. “I'm outta here.”

“Evan! Wait!” Megan shouted.

But he stormed out of the house without looking back.

 *  *  *

“No luck?” Aimee asked, pulling a lace-fringed pillow onto her lap so that Megan could sit down on the couch next to her.

“Nope,” Megan said, blowing out a breath as she dropped onto the velvety cushions. She looked up at the big, bright blue fish in the aquarium next to her. He was floating right by her face, making bubbles as his mouth opened and closed. “Finn is nowhere to be found.” Megan frowned and looked at her friend. “You're not mad, are you?”

“Why?” Aimee asked, propping her cheek on the back of the couch. “You didn't do anything, right? It's not your fault Hailey flipped out. And besides, that girl has spent most of her life torturing me. One night of being a little unhappy is not going to kill her.”

“Thanks,” Megan said. She could deal with the rest of the partygoers talking about her, but she really didn't want to lose her new friends.

The news of what had happened upstairs had spread like an oil spill and just like that, Megan had gone from unknown new girl status to “girl everyone is whispering about.” She had looked everywhere for Finn to see if she could get a ride, but apparently he and Kayla had gone off for their private talk. All Megan wanted to do was go home, but she couldn't call the McGowans and ask for a pickup, because Evan would get in deep trouble for abandoning her. Aimee had been drinking and Pearl and Ria had left with some guys to go get food. Megan was stranded.

“Oh. My. God. You guys!”

Jenna zigzagged into the room from the porch and fell down on her knees in front of the couch. Her hair was a wild mess and her cardigan sweater was misbuttoned. Bobby walked in behind her and leaned back against the wall, eyes at half-mast, looking very at peace.

“Jenna? What happened?” Aimee asked.

“Okay, you are
never
going to believe who I just saw getting all naked in the woods!” Jenna said. “Hold on. Hold on. I need to be standing for this.”

She pushed herself up and fell backward into some guys
walking behind her. Megan lunged to grab her, but one of the guys stood her up straight before moving on.

“Who?” Aimee asked.

“Your sister,” Jenna said, pointing at Aimee. “And her boyfriend's
brother
!”

Megan felt a sudden stab of panic and sat forward.

“What?”
Aimee demanded, looking more sober than she had all night.

“Which one?” Megan demanded.

“The ‘gangsta' one,” Jenna said, laughing uncontrollably as she executed some huge air quotes. “Can you believe it?”

“Doug?” Megan said, her entire throat going dry. “Hailey is out there right now having
sex
with
Doug
?”

“Scandal!” Jenna announced, waving her hands.

Megan gaped at Aimee, shocked. How could Doug do this to Evan? How could
Hailey
do this to Evan?

“This night could not possibly get any more messed up,” Aimee said.

“Oh,” Jenna said, holding her stomach. “Uh-oh.”

Then she turned around and promptly vomited into Christian Todd's state-of-the-art aquarium.

“Oh! Nasty!”

“Jenna! Are you okay?” Aimee asked, standing up.

“Omigod,” Jenna said, holding her hand over her mouth. “Omigod, I'm so embarrassed.”

She turned on her heel and, shoving right by her boyfriend, stumbled for the bathroom.

“This is not good,” Megan said, turning away from the
cloudy water. Between Jenna's announcement and her regurgitation, Megan was feeling a little sick herself.

“Tell me about it,” Aimee said, looking after Jenna. “She's supposed to be my ride.”

“I'm talking about Doug and Hailey,” Megan said. She placed her hand on her stomach. “How could they do this?”

“Oh God. Don't tell me you're going to get sick too,” Aimee said, sitting again.

Megan dropped her head back and breathed deeply. “No. I think I'm okay,” she said. “Aside from the mental image of Doug undressing Hailey.”

Aimee paled. “Great. Now
I'm
going to vomit.”

“Aren't you even surprised?” Megan asked.

“Believe me, you live with my sister for sixteen years and almost nothing surprises you anymore,” Aimee said.

Bobby cut through the room and stopped in front of them, his hands in his back pockets. “Uh, is either of you sober enough to drive?” he asked. “Jenna's not doing too good.”

Megan sighed and glanced at her watch, then hung her head in defeat. It was already a quarter to twelve. The first test of her curfew and she was going to fail miserably. This night was definitely done and Megan was more than ready to stick a fork in it.

“I'm good,” she said, shoving herself up, then reaching her hands out to help Aimee. “Let's get the heck out of here.”

 *  *  *

“It's this one, right here,” Jenna directed, pointing at a small cape house that was just like all the others on the street. Megan
brought the little Focus to a stop and put it in park, letting out a sigh. It was twelve on the dot.

“You sure?” Megan asked.

“Sure, I'm sure. It's my house, right?” Jenna replied. Then she narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. “They are all exactly the same, though, aren't they?”

“It's number twenty-two,” Megan said, glancing at the mailbox.

“Yes!” Jenna lifted her arms. “That's it!”

Megan rolled her eyes and got out of the car. Jenna walked around to the driver's side.

“Thank you so much, Megan,” Jenna said, falling against her in a hug. She still smelled vaguely of vomit. “I swear I'm never going to drink again.”

“It's no problem,” Megan said. She held her breath and pushed Jenna away lightly.

“Do you have a ride home?” Jenna was wobbling a little bit like she was trying not to fall.

“I'll figure something out,” Megan said, looking around at the darkened street. “You just go inside. I'll be fine.”

“Okay. Well, thanks again. I'll talk to you later,” Jenna said.

Megan watched her walk unsteadily to the front door and waited for her to get inside. Megan took a deep breath and sat down on the back bumper of the car, pulling her cell phone out of her bag. Finn had helped her program all the McGowans' numbers in on Thursday night, in case of emergency. Who knew they would come in handy this soon?

She scrolled through her address book to Evan's name and hit
the call button. On her drive through town dropping off Aimee, then Bobby, then Jenna, she had already tried him three times and had gotten his voice mail each time. And there it was again.

“Hey, it's Evan. Leave a message and maybe I'll call ya.”
Chuckle. Beep.

Megan groaned and hung up. If she didn't feel so sorry for Evan and if she didn't want to kiss him so badly, she knew she would be ready to kill him by now.

She sighed and scrolled to Finn's name. He was probably already home, observing the curfew like a good boy, mentally reviewing his date with Kayla. She just hoped his parents weren't hovering over him, asking questions.

Finn picked up on the first ring.

“Megan?”

“Hey, I kind of have a problem,” Megan said, squinting at the street sign. “I'm stranded on Stony Brook Road. I drove a bunch of people home and now I have no ride.”

“What happened to Evan?” Finn asked.

“You don't even want to know.” Megan heard a girl's voice in the background. “Is that Kayla? Are you still on your date?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Finn said.

“Oh God. I'm so sorry.”

“Please. Don't worry about it. I'll be right there.”

“I don't want to mess up your night.”

“Ten minutes,” Finn said. “Don't move.”

He was there eight minutes later.

Megan fell into the passenger seat of Mrs. McGowan's Volvo and put her knees up on the dashboard.

“Rough night?”

“You have no idea.”

“Well, it's not over yet,” Finn said, looking at the clock.

“You think they're waiting up for us?” Megan asked.

“It's our first night with a curfew,” Finn said, putting the car into gear. “They're probably recording our arrival times on my dad's PalmPilot.”

Megan sighed and stared out the window. She wondered if Doug was home yet. Even the idea of seeing him made her ill.

“So, did you enjoy your first Baker party?” Finn asked as they approached the McGowan house. Evan's car was already in the driveway.

“It was definitely interesting,” Megan replied. “How was your date?”

The front porch light flicked on just as Finn reached for his seat belt buckle. Megan's stomach dropped.

“Maybe we should save that story for another time,” Finn said as his father's face appeared at the window.

“Yeah,” Megan said, bracing herself for whatever was to come. “I guess we should.”

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Boy Guide

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

Entry Seven

Observation #1:
Boys are capable of being hurt.

Even the ones that seem totally happy and confident and like they pretty much rule the planet.

Observation #2:
When the penis takes over, it TAKES OVER.

Doug slept with Hailey. He SLEPT with HAILEY. I can't even count the number of important and obvious facts that had to be ignored in order for this to happen.

Observation #3:
Boys can be counted on.

Finn totally bailed me out when I got stranded. He even cut his date with Kayla short to do it. Of course, when you look at observation #2, it seems they can't ALWAYS be counted on. So maybe there's a footnote to this one. Boys can be counted on unless they're thinking with their penises. Of course, Finn was on a date, so he probably was in penis-thinking mode. Now I'm confusing myself. Hey, did you ever notice what a funny word
penis
is? Especially when you keep repeating it over and over . . .

Megan sat at the end of the messy breakfast table on Saturday morning, alone and on edge. All around her were used cereal bowls and half-empty orange juice glasses. She finished off her first bowl of Trix and poured herself a second one, then picked up the bowl and headed for her room. Today seemed like a good day for hiding out.

“Good morning, Megan!” Regina said brightly as she walked into the room. “Going somewhere?”

Megan paused, half out of her chair. “Actually, I was just going to bring this back to my room.”

Regina picked up the coffee carafe and paused. “Oh. I hope you're not avoiding me because of what happened last night.”

Megan's face burned as she recalled the scene. She and Finn sitting at this very table. John and Regina's expressions of disappointment. And those words:
You're grounded.
Words that had never been directed at Megan before. The McGowans had appreciated the fact that Megan was late because she had acted as a designated driver, but they had said they couldn't make exceptions to the rule. So Megan and Finn were off TV, video games, and social functions for one week. Luckily, Megan wasn't into TV or video
games and had sworn off social functions for the immediate future. Still, the fact that she had been punished grated on her.
She
had been
punished
. She had never thought it was possible.

“I'm not avoiding you,” Megan said finally.
I'm avoiding everyone else.
“I just have some homework to do.”

“Okay, well, before you get to that, I was hoping we could talk.” Regina walked over to the table with a cup of steaming coffee.

Megan glanced at the doorway, at freedom. She had been so close.

“About what?” Megan asked.

Regina looked at her, her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “You know, you looked really nice last night. You should wear pink more often.”

“Uh . . . thanks,” Megan said.

“Well, anyway, I was thinking that you and I should spend some more time together,” Regina said with a smile. “Just the two of us.”