Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys (7 page)

“Oh. Good.”

Megan checked out his profile. He was smiling in a satisfied way.
Please, Megan. He has Hailey. Beautiful, makeup artist, popular, athletic Hailey,
she told herself.
Get a grip.

Finally they came to a clearing and Megan could see a few cars already parked up ahead. The headlights flashed, illuminating curious faces as Evan parked his Saab. A couple of the guys squinted, then smiled when they saw who was behind the wheel. Hailey jogged away from the crowd, blond hair fanning behind her, and was at Evan's door before he even turned off the engine.

“Hey, baby,” she said, grabbing his face through the open window and planting a quick kiss on his lips.

Megan wanted to smack herself. When Evan had mentioned
his friends, she had pictured a bunch of guys. It had never occurred to her that Hailey would be here.

Hailey looked past Evan at Megan. “Oh. Hey,” she said flatly.

“Hi,” Megan replied. “How's it going?”

“Fine,” Hailey said. “You?”

“Fine,” Megan replied.

Okay, deep breath,
Megan told herself as the dozen or so kids milling around eyed her openly. Megan recognized Tina and another girl from the squad—a pretty, tall Middle Eastern girl with dark curly hair. Evan and Hailey walked around to Megan's side of the car, arms around each other.

“Everyone! This is Megan,” Evan called out. “Megan, this is everyone.”

“Hi, Megan!” they all trilled, like a class full of kindergarteners.

Megan laughed and lifted her hand. “Hi.”

“I'll go get us a couple of beers,” Evan said to Hailey. “You want?” he asked Megan.

“No thanks.”

“Be right back,” Evan said. Then he jogged off toward his friends, leaving Megan and Hailey standing together. Megan felt like she could breathe again. She looked at Hailey out of the corner of her eye.

Maybe Hailey was just threatened this afternoon. After all, you
are
a great soccer player and you
are
a girl who's living with her boyfriend. But you have a lot in common with her. Maybe there's still a chance for you to get along.

“So, Hailey, what was the team's record last year?” she asked.

“We won more than we lost,” Hailey said, pushing her hands into the front pockets of her tight jeans. “Why? Worried the team's not good enough for you?”

Megan stared at her. “No. I'm just making conversation.”

“Well, we made it to counties, but we didn't win the final,” Hailey said. “Of course, Coach thinks that with you around, it'll happen this year.”

“Thanks,” Megan said.

“I said, ‘Coach thinks.'”

At that moment, a plane took off from the runway and skimmed just above their heads, its wheels hanging so low Megan thought it might hit one of the trees behind them. The roar was deafening. Megan could see that Evan and his friends were cheering at the top of their lungs, fists and beer cans raised to the air, but she couldn't hear them. Megan wanted to scream too—at Hailey. In her mind she heard Tracy telling her to stick up for herself. If she could stand up to her parents, she could certainly stand up to this girl. But just the thought made her palms sweat and her heart pound.

I have to do something, though,
Megan thought, trying to pep-talk herself.
She's going to walk all over me if I don't do something.

As soon as the engine noise had faded, Megan turned to Hailey again.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“What?”

“Did I do something? I mean, to offend you?” Megan asked. “All I'm trying to do is settle in at a new school, maybe make some friends, play a little soccer. But you seem to really not like me.”

Megan held her breath, unable to believe that her thoughts had actually come out in a semi-coherent way. For a split second, Hailey's face softened and Megan realized that the girl was really pretty when she didn't have her scowl on. She even looked like she was going to say something semi-human. Then Evan broke away from the crowd with his beers and Hailey saw him coming. She glanced at Evan, then at Megan, and reached out her arm to him.

“Come on, baby,” she said, latching onto his side. “Let's go find someplace a little more private.”

“Cool,” Evan said, handing Megan one of the beers. “Go introduce yourself around, Kicks. The guys are dying to meet you,” he added with a wink.

“Oh . . . kay.”

She watched helplessly as Hailey led Evan away and the group behind her laughed loudly at some unheard joke. Hailey glanced over her shoulder, shooting Megan a triumphant look before she and Evan ducked into the trees.

 *  *  *

“Okay, so what do we got so far? In Boston we got trees, we got water, we got the Red Sox, we got the aquarium, and we got the . . . We got the . . .”

Megan looked at Darnell Wilcox. He had ticked off his list on his fingers and was now staring down at his pinky as if it were going to give him the answer. In the other hand he clutched the neck of a half-empty bottle of Budweiser—from what Megan could tell, his fifth or sixth. Darnell was a handsome guy who, according to his varsity jacket, was captain of
the football team. At the beginning of the night, he had shown himself to be a smart, friendly, funny guy. Now that he was officially drunk, he was still friendly and funny, but the smart thing was out the window.

“History,” Megan said. “You forgot history.”

“Right!” Darnell said, his big brown eyes lighting up as he looked at her. “Now, what kinda history you got in Texas?”

Megan leaned back on the hood of Darnell's old-school Corvette and sighed. “Oh, I don't know, we've got Coronado, the Alamo. . . . We declared independence once,” she said, glancing at him.

Darnell stared at her for a second, his eyes scrunched in confused surprise, as if her sound track had switched over to SAP. “Yeah, well, we got the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, the Boston . . . the Boston . . .”

“Red Sox!” someone shouted, prompting a round of cheers in the darkness.

“Yes! Thank you!” Darnell said, raising his bottle. “The Boston Red Sox . . .”

“You mentioned them already,” Megan said with a yawn.

“Oh, sorry,” Darnell said slurrily. “Am I boring you?”

“No.” Megan shook her head. He was actually quite entertaining. It was just that it was past midnight and the night was getting old.

“Yeah . . . well, I'm boring myself,” Darnell said, lying back next to her.

Together they stared up at the sky as yet another plane whooshed by. Everyone else cheered, but Megan squeezed her
eyes closed and covered her ears against the noise.

“Hey. You guys having fun?”

Megan opened her eyes to find Evan hovering over her. Sweet relief! She hadn't seen him since Hailey had dragged him off two hours ago. Now they could finally get out of here.

“You ready to go?” Megan asked, sliding down off the hood of the car. She glanced at Hailey, noticed a throbbing hickey right near her collarbone, and glanced away. Her heart burned with jealousy. She didn't even want to imagine where else Evan's lips had been. But now, of course, she couldn't help it.

“Already?” Hailey asked, reaching for Evan's hand with both of hers. “I've barely even talked to anybody.”

Yeah? And whose fault is that?
Megan thought.

Evan shot Megan a pleading look and Megan's spirits dropped. Suddenly she felt even more exhausted than she had a second ago.

“You know what? That's fine,” Megan said, grabbing Darnell's hand and pulling him into a seated position. His eyes rolled forward and he attempted to focus. “I'll just have Darnell here drive me home. You're okay to drive, right, Darnell?” she asked, slapping him on the back so hard he slid off the car.

He stumbled a second when his feet hit the ground, but he fished his keys out of the pocket of his varsity jacket. “Toad-al-ly,” he said. “Jus . . . tell me where ya live.”

He aimed the keys for the lock in the door and hit the window.

Megan raised her eyebrows at Evan. Evan looked back,
amused and clearly somewhat impressed. Megan could barely believe it herself. She was actually standing up to him. Who would have thought it was possible?

They both knew she wasn't stupid enough to get into the car with Darnell. It was a bluff. The question was, what would Evan do?

He turned to Hailey. “Maybe we should go.”

Megan's heart fluttered like a victory flag in the wind.

Hailey's face fell, but she recovered quickly. “Fine. I'll go get my bag. You can drop me off.”

“Actually . . . do you think you could maybe drive Darnell home?” Evan asked, pressing his lips together and raising his eyebrows adorably.

They all looked over at Darnell's stooped figure as he used two hands to guide his key toward the lock. He missed again.

“Evan—”

“Hails, you live two houses down from him,” Evan said. “And somebody's gotta do it.”

Hailey looked over her shoulder at the others as another plane took off and drowned out the world. “Okay, you're right,” she said with a sigh. She walked over to Darnell and slung her arm around his broad back. “Wrong side of the car, D.”

“Huh?” Darnell said. “But I'm driving Megan home.”

“Change of plans. You've got me now,” Hailey said. “Come on.”

Megan watched as Hailey gently led Darnell around to the passenger seat. Evan took the keys and opened the door. Together they lowered Darnell's linebacker frame into the car. Then Hailey fished around under the seat and adjusted it so that
Darnell's knees weren't pressed into the dashboard. Unreal. Just when Megan thought the girl was completely evil, she went and acted like a human.

“Okay, see you later,” Hailey said, giving Evan a kiss before she got behind the wheel.

“Drive safe,” Evan replied, coaxing a smile out of his girlfriend.

“Bye, Hailey,” Megan said as Hailey started the car.

Without another word, Hailey peeled out, leaving Megan and Evan in the dust.

“Nice girl,” Megan said under her breath.

Evan looked at her sideways and turned toward his car. “Come on. Let's go home.”

 *  *  *

“So, are your parents going to kill us?” Megan asked, checking her watch. One-fifteen a.m. “'Cuz my parents would definitely kill us.”

“Don't worry. It's under control,” Evan said.

He turned off the headlights as he turned onto the McGowans' quiet street. Parking his car at the very end of the driveway, he cut the engine. The sound of a hundred chirping crickets filled the air. The only light in the house came from the lamp in the front living room window.

“Hey,” Evan whispered. “Did you have fun tonight?”

Megan turned to look at him, her heart responding with a heavy thump. He was leaning across the center console. Leaning so close she could see the stubble coming in on his jawline.

“Your friends are nice.”

“I knew you would like them,” he whispered, looking into
her eyes so intently, she couldn't look away. “Actually I knew they would like you.”

Megan swallowed with difficulty. “You . . . you did?”

“Well, what's not to like?” Evan said with a smile.

Oh God, he was going to kiss her. He was going to kiss her right there in the driveway. And she so,
so
wanted him to. She wanted him to so much she could feel it in every last molecule of her body.

But he has a girlfriend, Megan,
she told herself. Hailey might be a bitch, but she was a girl and a teammate and, although the opportunity had never presented itself before, Megan was not the type of person who stole other people's boyfriends, no matter how hateful those people were.

“Okay, just close . . .”

Megan couldn't move.

“. . . your door very quietly,” Evan whispered.

He turned and got out of the car. Megan deflated.

She slipped out of the car and closed the door. Noiselessly she followed Evan up the driveway and along the side of the house. Aside from the crickets, all Megan could hear was the sound of her own breathing. Every other second she expected a window to open above them or a light to flick on, but everything was still. Evan really seemed to know what he was doing.

He reached the back door and opened the screen door halfway, stopping it with the toe of his suede sneaker. “Lesson one,” he whispered. “If you only open it this far, it doesn't squeak.”

Megan smiled. “Got it.”

He bent down and lifted the welcome mat to reveal a single
key. “Lesson two: Using this key is a lot quieter than pulling out your whole key chain.”

Megan held her breath as Evan unlocked the door. He dropped the key under the mat again and tilted his head, telling Megan to go in ahead of him. For a long moment, Megan paused, staring at the slim space between Evan and the door frame.

She had to turn sideways to get by him. As she slid into the house, her entire body brushed against his. Leg to leg, chest to chest, her cheek tilted just under his nose so that she could feel his hot breath on her face. She expected him to move slightly, to give her more room, but he didn't.

Megan finally stepped free. She couldn't stop grinning as the cool, open air of the kitchen whooshed over her, heightening the tingling warmth all over her skin. Evan turned his back to her as he quietly closed and locked the door. The house was deathly silent.

“Back stairs,” he whispered.

His voice sent shivers all through her body. Megan tiptoed behind him. He stopped at the bottom of the steps to let her go by and her heart pounded with anticipation. She put her foot on the first stair and paused, realizing she needed to say something—that she somehow felt that she might actually be able formulate a sentence. Maybe even say something cool.