The Romeo Club (23 page)

Loose curls fell to my shoulders and I used a rhinestone headband to set them off. I glanced in the mirror. Not bad for twenty minute’s notice. When I finished, I grabbed a shawl from Mom’s closet, then headed to the living room, where I found my parents waiting with C.C.

Damn. They’d gotten back in time to take pictures.

“Oh, honey, you look so beautiful.” Mom teared up. “I know you two want to go, but stand in front of the fireplace for a few pictures.”

She ushered us across the living room, where she had C.C. pose with his arm around me.

“You smell nice,” he said.

“Thanks. You too.”

“And, I have to admit, you clean up pretty good too.” He grinned.

“Don’t you dare get any ideas,” I whispered, when I felt his chest press against my back.

Mom snapped several more pictures. “Okay, I better let you two go so you’re not late.”

Dad hugged me. “You’re gorgeous sweetie. Behave tonight. And be careful driving.” He pointed at C.C.

“Yes sir.” C.C. offered me his arm as we stepped outside. In the driveway sat a royal blue Mustang.

“Holy shit, whose car is that?” My eyes widened.

“My dad’s. What? You didn’t think I was gonna take the grocery getter did you?”

I glanced at him. “Actually, yeah.”

Okay, so this wasn’t quite what I’d planned. Junior prom with C.C. Porter. But, I had to admit, I was excited to go. When we approached the car, he got the door for me. He was being such a gentleman, which was totally not C.C. like, at all.

Once we had our seatbelts on, he shifted the car into gear and backed out of the drive. “Listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry about Trey.”

My gaze met his. “You know about us er … I mean him?”

“Yeah, me, Drake, and Kevin all know. I realize things have been kind of tense lately, but if it makes you feel any better, you were his first crush. Well, other than Lady Spirella from his favorite video game.”

My fingers played with the lace on my dress. “Thanks. Not just for saying that, but for you know, bringing me to prom.”

“You’re welcome. See, I can be a decent guy.” He glanced at my chest.

I slapped his arm. “Now, you’re just being obnoxious.”

He laughed. “You know it.”

Soon we pulled into the school parking lot, where we saw a limo dropping off a group of kids. C.C. insisted on parking toward the back of the lot to ensure no one dinged the doors on his dad’s ’Stang.

I held onto his arm as we made our way in. Music blasted from the gym, which had been turned into an underwater wonderland theme. There were shells, sand castles, seahorses and clams decorating everything. Christmas lights were strewn through the gymnasium, along with white, blue, and silver streamers. Silver disco balls hung from the ceiling, reflecting the colorful flashing lights.

We found a table to set our stuff down on, then he led me out onto the dance floor, where we joined several other couples. C.C. rested one hand on my hip, the other closed over one of mine. We swayed back and forth to a slow song.

Over his shoulder, I caught sight of Kenadi, who gave me a big grin and waved.

“Wow, you guys did awesome with the decorations,” I said as we spun around.

“Yeah. I think it turned out pretty nice. Liza and I had fun staying up late to finish it last night.”

“Mind if I cut in.” Rex tapped C.C. on the shoulder. My body tensed.

“No. Go ahead.” He smiled and walked away.

Rex held out his hand and pulled me close to him. My eyes darted to C.C.’s retreating form. He headed toward a table in the back, where Liza stood waiting for him. That sneaky S.O.B. lied to me.
What the heck’s going on?

“You look beautiful tonight.” Rex smiled down at me.

“Thanks,” I said. “S-so why did you cut in? I mean, we haven’t really spoken or anything since—well, since that huge fight in the hall.”

He chuckled. “Because I wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

“Okay.” Great. Did he plan on embarrassing me further? Maybe I should run for the exit now.

We swayed back and forth. My arms wrapped around his neck, his around my waist.

“Here’s the thing. You were right about everything. I’ve been a total douchebag or as you put so nicely an ‘asshole’. I let what everyone else thought rule me.” His eyes twinkled. “I didn’t get to know you. Trust me, I’m sorry for that and for the awful things I said. But, the truth is, you never tried to know me either.”

Startled, I glanced at him. “But you never let me in. I asked you questions all the time.”

“I know—which is what got me thinking. If we were really into each other, why couldn’t we talk about stuff or be honest with one another? You actually did me a favor when you broke up with me.”

I laughed. “I’m not sure if I should be offended by that or take it as a compliment.”

My breath caught in my throat when I noticed Trey over his arm. He looked gorgeous. His tall frame, pressed close to Portia as they danced. My throat thickened. It still hurt to see them together. Not wanting to ruin my entire night, I turned back to Rex.

“Take it as a compliment because it made me realize the girl I should be with was in front of me the whole time. Someone I might not have looked at, if it wasn’t for you.”

“I’m happy for you.” I smiled. “So, do I know the lucky lady?”

“Yeah.” Just then the song ended. “Listen, I think I had one too many cups of punch. I need to head to the little boys’ room. Thanks for the dance, Del.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched him weave through the gyrating couples and disappear.

C.C. came back over. “Okay, so I have a surprise for you.”

“You mean, like the fact that Liza isn’t home sick?”

“That, and well, my uncle got tickets to the Fantasy Con. And I have one for you.”

“Oh. My. God. Are you serious?”

“Yes, now come on. He left them down in his closet. He said they’d be tacked up on his board.”

I clutched tight to his arm. “You are seriously the awesomest guy in the world. If you didn’t have a girlfriend, I’d totally kiss you right now.”

“Well, I did bring you to prom, so that should get me a little somethin’ somethin’.” He winked.

“Forget I said that.” I rolled my eyes.

We went down the hall toward the senior wing. I saw my brother, Kenadi, Kevin, and Rex down there too.

C.C. pulled out a key to the door and opened it. “Okay, in ya go.” He gave me a shove and the door locked behind me.

“What the hell! Hey, let me out.” My fists pounded on the steel barrier. “Hey. Someone. Let me out.” I backed up and bumped into someone else.

“Don’t bother. I’ve tried screaming and pounding on the door,” a male voice said.

“Trey?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll be back in an hour,” C.C. said from the other side.

“When I get out of here I’m gonna kick your ass.” Sometimes, I hated that his uncle was the janitor.

“So how did they lure you in?” Trey said.

“Con tickets?”

He chuckled. “Nerd.”

“Really?” I snorted. “And what did they tell you?”

“Con tickets.”

“Bigger nerd.” I attempted to move and stepped on his foot. “Sorry.”

A moment later, a blue light lit up the closet. Trey had turned on the flashlight on his phone. “We never got a chance to finish our conversation the other day,” he said.

With a sigh, I glanced up at him. Time to be the bigger person. “It’s okay. I mean, I’ve got a few things to say too. First of all, I’m sorry about Portia and almost breaking you up.”

“Actually … ”

“No, don’t interrupt. I need to get this off my chest.” I held up my hand to shush him. “The thing is, I do like you. A lot. And I should’ve seen it sooner. But I know you have a girlfriend, and well, I-I’m okay with that. Like you said, I miss being friends and hanging out. So I hope we can put this behind us, and that you’ll come around again,” I said. “Just, please don’t be mad at me forever. I mean, we can just pick back up where we left off and forget any of it ever happened.”

“But I don’t want to forget.”

My eyes welled up. “So we won’t be friends anymore?” Okay, I guess I deserved that.

“No, what I’m saying is I want to be more than friends.” His hands rested on my bare shoulders. Heat raced through me like sparks igniting. “Where else could I find a girl who loves Dwarves of Iconia as much as me? And where in the world could I ever find another girl who would sabotage my dates so I’d spend time with her learning how to properly date?”

“Wait, I thought you and Portia … ”

“No, after she overheard us in the alcove we talked and realized we didn’t have anything in common. We tried for a few weeks to see if maybe something would spark between us, but it didn’t. In fact, she and Rex are kind of together now.”

My mouth dropped open. “So you’re not mad at me?”

“No. I mean, I
was
really pissed—because I was there, right in front of you all along and you never noticed. Do you know how sucky it is to be invisible to the one person you want most to see you?” He touched my face. “I just needed time to get things sorted. I’m sorry, I avoided you. That I treated you bad. You didn’t deserve it. You don’t know how many times I stood on your porch ready to apologize. Then I’d remember how crappy I treated you and thought there was no way you’d ever forgive me. It was Portia and Drake who finally nudged me and told me to get my head out of my ass before I lose you. Which, by the way I have to say, I think you should tell Carver Foster that you can’t hang out with him this summer.”

“Wait a second, you
were
eavesdropping.”

“Yeah.” He grinned, his breath warm on my face. “I love you, Del, and have since you shoved me out of the tree house in second grade—pretending you were a pirate queen.”

“Oh God, I forgot about that.” I buried my face in my palms.

He moved my fingers so he could see me. “I didn’t. It’s always been you, Delyla Denson.”

“Well, not always there was Portia.”

“I never really liked her.” He gave me a sheepish grin. “I-I was trying to make you jealous.”

“You were trying to make me jealous?”

“I’d tried everything else to get you to notice me, when that didn’t work, I knew I had to go big or go home. So when your brother told us about how you’d helped him with Chloe, I came up with the idea for you to help the rest of us. You were always the one I had in mind to impress, but when I filled out my list, I knew I couldn’t put your name down. So I randomly chose Portia.”

“So the whole Nerd Herd was in on it?”

“We prefer Romeo Club.” He teased. “But no, not at first. They didn’t get involved until after our fight. Drake realized how miserable we both were and put two and two together. He came by my house and asked what was going on. At first, I didn’t want to talk to him, but you know your brother, he has a way of making me spill things. Once he knew the whole story, he talked to C.C. and Kevin about fixing things. Between me, Drake, Portia, Kenadi, and the guys we devised a plan to get you here. You don’t know how worried I was that you wouldn’t show. Not after how many times everyone tried convincing you to go to prom and you said no. But I knew that you had to be here. With me. Or this night wouldn’t be complete. Like I said, it’s always been you, Del.”

He cupped my face in his hands then tilted his head. His mouth captured mine. My pulse sang in my ears, drowning out everything but him. My fingers laced in his hair, pulling him closer. His tongue grazed my teeth and I tasted a hint of cinnamon. His hands slid down my waist, pulling me closer until our bodies melded together. This was the moment, I’d waited my entire life for.

It was perfect.

The door whipped open to reveal the Romeo Club with their dates, plus Kenadi, Mikah, Rex, and Portia.

“We can come back later,” C.C. said, grinning. He started to close the door.

Trey’s arm shot out to keep it open. “Don’t you dare. I have to dance with my girlfriend. I mean, this is prom after all.”

My brow shot up. “Girlfriend? I don’t remember agreeing to that.”

He chuckled. “How about a friendly game of Dwarves of Iconia. If I win, you’re my girl.”

“Well, I guess you’ll be single a long time.”

He tugged me into his arms and kissed me again.

I’d finally found my Romeo. And he was a giant nerd. But I was okay with that. Because in truth, I was one too.

“I thought you two were going to dance?” C.C. said.

“Uh-huh. Just one more minute.” I shoved him away, without taking my eyes off of Trey.

“Make that two.” Trey shut the door.

“You realize you probably just locked us in again, right?” I rested my head against his chest.

“I don’t see what the problem is.” His kissed my nose. “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather be locked in the closet with.

“Me either.” My fingers traced his cheek. “And Trey?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Del.”

For once, I realized that happy endings could happen, if not in the way we first imagined. And it was all because of a little thing called The Romeo Club.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank my daughter Erin, who bugged me until I wrote this story. Between her and my sister Rachel, they made sure I didn’t let this idea slip through the cracks. Then there’s my lovely agent, Jennifer Mishler, who is the champion of my stories. Thank you for letting me chat your ear off and have online Lightsaber battles via Twitter. You’re truly TeamLC’s Yoda! I also don’t know where I’d be without my Romeo, Tim who is ever supportive of my dream to write. I love you. To my kids, Devin, Alyssa, Kris, Barrett, Erin, and Chase who give me lots of great material to write about. To my FAB critique group YAFF (Ya Fiction Fanatics), who are the ones who truly make my stories better. They see the roughest versions of what I write and turn them into something magical. I love you ladies! And I can’t forget to thank my brother Phil, who inspired my ultimate nerd, C.C. Love you bro! Also a heartfelt shout out to Georgia McBride, who read this story over a weekend and loved it enough to offer me a contract for it. Thank you so much for introducing my cast of crazy characters to the world! Finally to Mom and Dad who bought me my first books, which fueled my love for the written word. See, staying up late and reading a book under my covers with a flashlight WAS a good idea.