Summer of the Geek (10 page)

Dex smiled and waved, but didn’t stop, not even when he passed by Wendy, despite the fact that she propped herself up on her elbows, shook back her long golden blond locks, and gave Dex a dazzling smile. Dex just continued his walk, turning and then turning again, until he was headed in my direction. And then, when he saw me, he did stop.

“Hey,” he said, his voice full of pleasure. “I didn’t know you were going to be here today.”

“Surprise,” I said, grinning back at him. “It’s my day off, so I thought I’d come by to see you in action.”

Dex leaned over and kissed me lightly. I couldn’t help feeling a surge of victory amidst the familiar zing his kisses always set off inside me.
Take that, bikini girls
, I thought.

“Nice butt-pack,” I said.

“Isn’t it, though? I think it makes me look extra-tough,” Dex said, flexing his biceps.

“Definitely,” I said.

Dex glanced behind him, where the brunette lifeguard was watching us from her perch. “I have to go get on the chair. We’re still on for tonight, right?”

I nodded happily. “What do you want to do?”

“My friends are having a cookout over by the beach. Do you want to go?”

“Sure,” I said. Since Dex and I went to different schools, I hadn’t met many of his friends. I felt a fluttering mixture of pleasure that he wanted me to meet them and nervousness over what they would think of me. “Should I bring anything?”

“Just yourself.” Dex smiled. “I’ll pick you up at seven, okay?”

“Great,” I said.

He kissed me again, his lips light against mine in a way that made everything go blurry around the edges. “I’ll see you later.”

Dex turned away and walked over to the chair.

The athletic female lifeguard climbed down, and Dex took her place. He sat with his back erect, his expression unusually serious, as he scanned the swimmers. A group of kids was taking turns cannonballing into the pool, aiming their jumps so that they’d land on one another. Dex blew on his whistle and told them to cut it out.

The female lifeguard turned and walked back around the perimeter of the pool, in the opposite direction Dex had just come from. I guessed that this walk around the pool was required of both the incoming and outgoing lifeguards on each shift change. As she passed by me, the female lifeguard—who had ignored me when I came in—glanced curiously at me. Now that she knew I was Dex’s girlfriend, I clearly rated extra interest. I could also see, out of the corner of my eye, Felicity and Morgan gawking at me. A quick glance in Wendy’s direction let me know she wasn’t staring, but I was sure she’d taken note of how Dex had greeted me.

Smiling to myself, I settled back on the chaise. But as the lingering effects of Dex’s kiss wore off, an entirely unwanted thought popped into my head: If I was this insecure about how girls were throwing themselves at Dex when we lived in the same town, what would it be like if I lived on an entirely different continent?

“I
need your help,” I said to Hannah over the phone.

“What?” she yelled so loudly, I had to hold the phone away from my ear. I could hear music blaring in the background on her end.

“Where are you?”

“A club,” Hannah said.

I glanced at the clock. “But it’s only five. And anyway, I didn’t think you were old enough to get into clubs,” I said.

“Fashion people don’t care about things like that here,” Hannah said, in a tone of bored indifference. “And it’s not like I’m drinking or anything.”

“That’s good,” I said. “I need your help.”

“Okay, but make it quick,” Hannah said.

“I’m going to a party at the beach with Dex this evening, and I have no idea what to wear,” I said.

Hannah’s tone became brisk and businesslike. “Okay, here’s what you need to do. Are you listening?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Go into my room,” Hannah said.

“Okay.” I headed to Hannah’s room, the portable phone tucked under one ear. Her room was very girly—it had lilac-colored walls, a big canopy bed swathed with white tulle, and a vintage vanity table covered in makeup and perfume. “Now what?”

“Go into my closet,” Hannah directed.

I obligingly stepped into her enormous walk-in closet, which was crammed full of clothes, shoes, and handbags.

“Do you see the rack with the dresses on it?” Hannah continued.

“No,” I said, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff she owned. I turned around slowly in place. “Oh, wait, yes. It’s right here.”

“Okay. In the very middle of that rack, there’s a red strapless Juicy Couture sundress. Do you see it?”

I looked for the color red. It took me a few moments, but I finally saw a glimpse of it wedged between a Lilly Pulitzer pink sundress and a long green knit dress.

“Are you still there?” Hannah asked in my ear.

“Yes. I think I found it.” I pulled the hanger with the dress out and looked at the label. “Juicy Couture, right?”

“That’s right. Wear that. It’ll be perfect,” Hannah said.

I looked at the red dress uncertainly. It was definitely cute—strapless with a smocked bodice and a tiered ruffle skirt. I just wasn’t sure if it was the sort of dress a nonfashion girl like me could carry off. I lived in T-shirts and shorts.

“Do you like it?” Hannah asked.

“Isn’t it sort of bare?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just so short. And so strapless.”

“That’s why it’s so perfect.”

“I don’t know,” I said dubiously.

“Trust me,” Hannah said. “You’ll look gorgeous. Look, I have to go.”

“Wait! What shoes should I wear with it?”

Hannah considered this. “Well, if you’re going to be at the beach, you don’t want to wear heels.”

Since I didn’t own any high heels, this wasn’t really a problem.

“You have flip-flops, right?” Hannah said.

“Yeah,” I said. “But they’re not nice. They’re just plain black plastic ones from Target.”

“Those will be fine,” Hannah said confidently. “Once you’re on the beach, you can kick them off and go barefoot.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling a bit better. I still wasn’t sure if I could pull off the dress, but Hannah knew more about these things than I could ever hope to. If she said this was the right thing to wear, I had to trust her judgment.

“I really have to go,” Hannah said. “See you Sunday!”

“Bye. And, Hannah?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks,” I said, meaning it.

“No problem,” Hannah said.

I smiled and turned off the phone. Maybe it wasn’t so terrible having a stepsister after all.

When Dex pulled into the beach parking lot, it felt like the butterflies in my stomach had started to dive-bomb one another. What if Dex’s friends didn’t like me? What if I wasn’t the sort of girl they expected him to date?

There were already a bunch of cars parked in the sandy lot, and as I climbed out of Dex’s car, I could see a knot of people gathered near the barbecues. The beach wasn’t visible—you had to walk up the boardwalk, which rose over a grass-covered dune—but there was a recreational area back by the parking lot, complete with a playground, basketball courts, a volleyball net, and picnic tables.

“Ready to meet everyone?” Dex asked, extending a hand to me. He didn’t seem to have any clue how nervous I was.

I took his hand in mine, and instantly felt better. “Sure,” I said, trying to sound confident.

We walked over toward the group. They had one of the barbecues fired up and were cooking hot dogs over smoking coals.

“Hey, Dex!” a few people called out. “Hey, man!”

Dex bumped fists with a few of the guys—all of whom looked athletic and vaguely familiar—and introduced me, although their names almost instantly slipped from my memory. I guessed some of the guys were on Dex’s lacrosse team, and were vaguely familiar from the few games I’d watched at the end of the school year. They all smiled and said hello to me, and I began to feel my nerves loosen. I even saw a few people I knew, like Hannah’s friends Tiffany and Britt. They were pretty identical twins, who both had their long hair in braids.

And then I saw Avery Tallis.

Avery was a thin-faced girl with narrow brown eyes flecked with gold and a very pointed chin. She wore her dark hair very short, and was already sporting a tan, shown off to great effect in a short lemon yellow sundress.

At one time, Avery had been Hannah’s best friend, and was a semipermanent feature at the beach house. But then Avery stole a cashmere sweater out of Peyton’s closet. Peyton had blamed me at first—naturally—until Hannah found out that Avery was the culprit. Ever since then, Avery hadn’t been over and I’d gotten the definite feeling that her friendship with Hannah had cooled off.

I knew Avery didn’t like me. When we’d first met, and she learned I was a student at Geek High, she had tried to manipulate me into doing her homework for her. I’d refused, of course, and from her annoyed reaction, I’d gotten the definite impression that Avery wasn’t used to people saying no to her. And then there was Dex. Avery had a huge crush on Dex, and after he broke up with Wendy, she’d launched a full-scale campaign to become his next girlfriend. Instead, Dex had started dating me.

Avery was now talking animatedly to Tiff and Brit, her eyes sparkling and her teeth flashing white in her tanned face. I had to admit, she was very striking. She wasn’t as classically beautiful as Wendy Erickson or Hannah, but she was the sort of person who always stood out from the crowd, as though she’d been drawn with bolder strokes than everyone else.

She turned suddenly and met my gaze. Her golden brown eyes narrowed, and the smile left her face. Her gaze moved downward, taking in Dex’s and my linked hands.

Uh-oh
, I thought, with a sense of impending doom.

Avery walked purposely toward us, with a calculating smile on her catlike face. I braced myself.

“Hi, Dex,” Avery said, giving him a huge smile. Her eyes flicked toward me. “Hello, Miranda. It’s strange to see you here. Without Hannah, I mean.”

Step one of the attack: Let me know that I’m the outsider.

As if I needed reminding, I thought.

“She came with me,” Dex said. I looked up at him, and he gave me a quick wink. He knew exactly what Avery was up to. I wasn’t surprised. One of the things I loved about Dex was how perceptive he was about people. It would have been incredibly annoying if he were taken in by Avery’s superficial friendliness.

“Hannah’s still in New York,” I added.

“Isn’t that Hannah’s dress?” Avery asked, her thin dark eyebrows arching up as she looked me over.

Step two: Put me on the defensive.

“She said I could borrow it,” I said, and was then instantly annoyed with myself for feeling like I had to explain. What I was wearing wasn’t any of Avery’s business. She and Hannah weren’t even friends anymore.

“Oh,” Hannah said, as though she didn’t quite believe this. “It looks really”—she paused to look me up and down again—“
different
on you.”

Step three: Make me feel as uncomfortable as possible about my physical appearance.

And the worst of it was, her ploy was working. I was incredibly aware of just how much I didn’t fit with Dex’s crowd. I was the outsider. A stranger. Sure, the guys had all been nice enough to me, although that was probably for Dex’s sake. But I wasn’t at all like the pretty, polished girls his friends dated. Like the girl he used to date, for that matter. The sort of girls who knew how to tweeze their eyebrows, and what conditioner would make their hair shiny, and where to buy trendy clothes. In fact, I felt like a fraud standing there in Hannah’s dress, acting as though I belonged there, when I so very clearly didn’t.

“Avery!” Britt called. “Come back here. We totally need your opinion on whether Tiff should get these shoes.” She waved the glossy magazine the twins had apparently been studying for inspiration.

“Coming,” Avery said. She gave Dex a wide, flirtatious smile. “Cute top, Dex,” she said, plucking at the sleeve of his aqua blue polo shirt. “It really brings out your eyes.”

“Thanks, Avery,” Dex said politely, although I could hear amusement in his voice.

Avery smiled at him, and then, without saying another word to me, she turned and headed back to where her friends were poring over the magazine.

“Something tells me you’re not Avery’s favorite person,” Dex said.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” I muttered, crossing my arms.

Dex glanced down at me, as first surprise and then concern registering in his pale blue eyes. He took my hand and led me a few steps away from the crowd of his friends.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, taking care to keep his voice soft.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head.

“You’re not letting Avery get to you, are you?” Dex asked. “You know what she’s like.”