Will the Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up (11 page)

I took my time getting my stuff together after the final bell rang and Señora Gutierrez dismissed the class. Normally, I would’ve joined the throngs of students escaping the confines of the school for the day, but it wasn’t a normal day.

I knew I had to talk to Dante, but I didn’t know what to expect.

Tim was at the door when I finally left.

“I thought you might have given me the slip,” he said with an easy grin when he spotted me.

“I’m ashamed to say I never considered that,” I said, returning his smile.

“It’s good to see those dimples again,” he said as we headed toward the gym.

I felt warmth rush to my cheeks and was certain my face was pink. I kept my eyes focused on the ground and watched my shoelaces bounce up and down with each step I took.

“Brady’s really worried about you, you know,” Tim said after a few moments of silence.

I nodded. “Promise you won’t tell him this, but a part of me is kind of glad he’s being, you know, overprotective and stuff.”

“I thought he may have been overreacting at first, but when that Dante kid tried to get in my face and tell me to back off?” Tim shook his head.

“Ally said it reminded her of a Chihuahua trying to pick a fight with a Rottweiler.”

He grinned. “That’s awesome,” he said.

“Dante seemed really nice at first,” I said. “All of this is so weird, you know?”

“How did you guys even get together?” Tim asked after a short pause. “I mean, I’ve never even seen you interested in anyone before, and this guy comes in out of nowhere, and look! Bianca has a boyfriend.”

I furrowed my brow as I thought. “I don’t know,” I finally replied with a shrug. “Like, I’ve always thought he was kind of cute.”

“You went out with him because you think he’s cute?”

“I guess. I don’t know. I mean, after I got on the Homecoming court, he was paying all kinds of attention to me, and he told me I was pretty, and, I don’t know.” I glanced at him, feeling sheepish. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“But lots of guys have been interested in you. What made this one so special?”

“Wait,” I said, grabbing his arm as I stopped. “What are you talking about? No one’s ever been interested in me. I mean, before Homecoming, my big claim to fame at this school was that I’m Brady Sullivan’s sister.”

Tim glanced sideways at me. “Do you really believe that?”

“Well, unless my super-stud brother has been scaring off anyone who looks twice at me, yeah.”

He nodded and continued walking. “That’s probably it.”

I stomped my foot with a little huff before I rushed to catch up to him. “Whatevs,” I said, somewhat annoyed. “The point is that Dante told me he liked me.”

“So you went out with him? That’s all it took?”

“Hang on a sec, Tim.” I stopped him again. “Put yourself in my shoes. Dante Schwartz, probably the most sought-after guy in my class, tells you he likes you. What would you do?”

He furrowed his brow as he continued on to the gym. “I will never understand the brain of a teenage girl,” he said.

“What’s there to understand?” I asked, hurrying after him. “Cute boy tells me he likes me? It’s kind of a no-brainer.”

“I like you,” he said matter-of-factly.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Okay, but, see, that doesn’t count.”

“Why not? Because I’m not cute?”

“No, you’re totally cute. It just doesn’t count.”

He stopped and folded his arms across his chest. “Why not?” he repeated.

I groaned. “Because I’m your best friend’s annoying kid sister. You’re supposed to like me!”

Tim looked at me kind of funny, as if I had three heads or something. He opened his mouth to speak a few times but seemed to change his mind each time. We ended up walking the rest of the way in silence.

Dante was leaning against one of the glass entrance doors. I saw him before he saw me, and a part of me wanted to grab Tim’s hand and run away before he realized I was there. Instead, I steeled my nerves and approached him.

“Hi,” he said when he saw me. He seemed a bit melancholy, but he also looked annoyed.

“Hey,” I replied, keeping my voice as even as I could. There was no need for him to know how nervous I was.

He jutted his chin toward Tim, who was leaning against a nearby tree, watching us. “So I see you brought your new boyfriend,” he said, his lip curled in a sneer.

I raised my hands to my temples and sighed. “For crying out loud, Dante. He’s not my boyfriend. For the thousandth time, he’s my brother’s best friend.”

“Yeah? Well, you guys seem awfully cozy.”

I lowered my hands and glared at him. “What do you want, Dante?”

“I want to talk to you.”

“So talk.”

“Here?” he asked, eyeing Tim.

“He can’t hear anything,” I said quickly. “Just hurry up and say what you have to say.”

He shifted a few times before he finally said, “I don’t want it to be over, baby.”

I cringed at the sound of him calling me “baby.” I was so glad this whole thing would be done soon so I wouldn’t have to put up with that anymore.

“It
is
over, Dante,” I said.

“Why? It doesn’t have to be.” He took a step toward me. “I don’t want to lose you.”

I stared at him in disbelief. I’d had every intention of being kind and sympathetic, but he was making it really difficult. One second he was irate and accusing me of hooking up with another guy, and the next moment he was practically groveling. Bipolar much?

I chose to ignore him. “Look, it’s not like we have a ton of stuff in common. And I think you’re really nice and all, but—”

“Stop it, Bianca!” he exploded. “Tell me why!”

Something flashed in his eyes, and I quickly took a step away from him. Tim must have noticed because he wasn’t leaning against the tree anymore. He was watching us with great interest.

I stared at my feet as though they could give me courage to say what I needed to say. “I don’t want to be with someone who tries to control me and scares me into submission,” I said. I looked up at him. “I don’t know who you expect me to be, but I don’t want to be her.”

Dante’s eyes narrowed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means I feel like I’m suffocating,” I told him. “It’s like you want to control who I hang out with and what interests I need to have, and, it’s like, I don’t want that. That’s not me.”

He looked at me curiously. “I don’t get it. You girls all act like you want some big, strong guy to come along and take care of you. That’s what I’m doing!”

“By telling me not to hang out with certain people? I never asked for that.”

“Look, if you want to hang out with your friends, then fine. I’ll let you. But it doesn’t have to be over. We can work this out.”

“You’ll
let
me?” I raged. “Are you listening to yourself? That’s exactly the problem!”

He threw his hands up. “Look, I used the wrong word. Whatever.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to be with you anymore, okay? I’m sorry.” I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.

“It’s not okay.”

“Let her go, man,” Tim said as he walked toward us.

Dante paused for a couple of seconds before he released me, practically throwing me at Tim. I rubbed the spot where he’d gripped me.

Tim saw the finger marks on my skin and swore under his breath. “Let’s go, Bianca,” he said, putting his arm around my shoulders.

“You do whatever they tell you to do, don’t you?” Dante mocked as Tim led me into the gym. “You can’t even think for yourself!”

“Stop it,” I said over my shoulder.

“This isn’t over, Bianca!” he shouted at me.

I shivered and heard Tim crack his knuckles. I grabbed the hand he was resting on my shoulder. “Don’t,” I whispered.

He offered me a small smile before he kissed the top of my head, and I followed him into the gym where I knew my brother was waiting.

****

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching basketball tryouts with Tim and Brady, mainly because I was too scared to go back outside by myself. I would have never admitted it to my brother, but I was afraid Dante was still lurking out there, like the bogeyman Brady used to tease me about when we were kids.

Other than Tim and Brady, Finn was the only person I really knew at tryouts. He seemed to do pretty well; Tim said Finn would probably make varsity this year because he was fast and had made a pretty good percentage of the three-point shots he’d taken last year on the JV team.

Maybe physics and geometry went hand-in-hand with basketball, after all.

“What are you doing here?” Finn said when he spotted me while taking a water break.

I nodded toward Brady. “Big Brother is watching.”

“That’s probably smart,” he said, mopping sweat off his brow with a white towel. “Ally told me you were going to see Dante this afternoon. How did that go?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.” I frowned. “He kind of freaked me out.”

Finn’s head bobbed in understanding. He began to say something, but a shrill whistle interrupted him. “We’ll talk later!” he called before he returned to the court.

“Tim told me what happened,” Brady said about an hour later as we were on our way home.

I saw him glance over at me, but I didn’t say anything. He’d already heard everything from Tim. There was nothing to add.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

I chewed on my lip in silence for a while. Finally, I asked, “Do you think I do whatever people tell me to do?”

“Don’t listen to that guy,” he replied.

“No, Brady. I’m serious. You’ve known me longer than anyone. Do you think I can think for myself?”

He looked sideways at me. “You’re kidding me, right?” I shook my head, and he narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “You’re fifteen,” he said as if that answered everything.

“So?”

“So you make your own decisions when it’s something that’s important enough to you,” he replied. “Like hanging out with your friends or wanting to audition for Drama. Stuff like that.”

“Yeah, but Mom and Dad tell me to do stuff—”

“They tell me to do stuff, too,” he reminded me. “Does that mean I can’t think for myself?”

I shook my head again. This was all so confusing.

“Okay,” Brady said after a few moments. “What did Mom say when Dante showed up for Bond Marathon night? Because I doubt she was thrilled.”

I shrugged. “She just said she trusted me to make good decisions.”

“Did she tell you to stay away from him?” he pressed. “Did she tell you not to go out with him?”

“Not in so many words.”

“Not in any words, knowing Mom, though she probably wanted to tell you exactly what she thought of him. Yet, knowing this, you still went out with him.”

“That’s not exactly an example of me thinking for myself. Mom never told me I couldn’t go out with him. And she and Dad even interrogated him before we went out.”

“Did it look like Mom changed her mind about him?”

“No.”

“So you knew she still disapproved. That’s the same thing.”

“I guess.”

“So then why do you think you do whatever they tell you to do?”

I frowned, unconvinced, and didn’t say anything else the rest of the way home. I barely said anything at the dinner table, and for once, I was thankful that Brady monopolized conversation so I wouldn’t have to speak.

I disappeared into my room not long after I cleared the dishes. I texted Talia and Ally with promises to give them full details tomorrow morning about the Dante Encounter, and then I turned off my phone and attempted to do some homework. My conversations with Tim and Dante kept infiltrating my thoughts, though, making it near-impossible to concentrate.

Tim had been absolutely right: I’d gone out with the first boy who’d said he liked me, just because I thought he was cute. So what if I didn’t know him very well, or that he didn’t know anything about me, or even that we had zero common interests? He had asked, and I’d been so excited to have a boyfriend that I’d accepted.

But did I only do what other people told me to do, like Dante said, too?

“So, wait a minute,” Ally said en route to Homeroom the next day. “You told him he was too controlling and that you were breaking up with him, so then he tells you that you only do what other people tell you to do and that, no, you guys really aren’t finished?”

I nodded. “Basically, yeah.”

“And how does that prove that he’s not controlling?”

“Ugh.” Talia grimaced. “He’s a nightmare.”

“I can think of better things to call him,” Tim said, and I tried not to smile.

Brady had insisted that I keep my security detail, at least until he was satisfied that Dante had gotten the message it was over. I wasn’t entirely convinced Dante was out of my life, either, and I’d been in no mood to argue with my brother that morning, so I’d agreed. Thankfully, Tim had volunteered to walk me to all my classes so their other friends wouldn’t have to babysit me.

I really didn’t mind having Tim around. He was more level-headed than Brady about this whole thing, and he was good at keeping my mind off all the craziness. He also genuinely liked my friends, and his presence really seemed to rankle Dante. So it was like wins all around.

“You guys have your monologue auditions today, right?” Talia asked. “Are you all set?”

“I picked something out of
Brighton Beach Memoirs
,” Ally replied cheerfully. “I was thinking
Death of a Salesman
, but I like Neil Simon so much better.”

“I read
A Doll’s House
over the summer,” I said. “There’s a monologue at the end that I decided to go with.”

“Ibsen,” Tim said with an approving nod.

“You’ve heard of it?” Talia didn’t bother to hide her surprise. “I mean, no offense, but she’s found some crazy plays out there, and you don’t exactly look like the theater type.”

He grinned. “Don’t be too impressed. We had to read that in European lit last year.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad.”

I laughed. “That’s not what Brady said. He called it ‘feminist garbage’ when he gave it to me. I don’t think he could get rid of it fast enough.”

“Typical Brady,” Talia said with a smirk.

“So, not that I like talking about him, though I kind of have to because it’s news,” Ally said as we neared our classroom, “but I’ve already written this post about you and Dante and the breakup and whatever. Can I go on and publish it already? I mean, I’d still need to update it with what happened yesterday, of course, but it’s basically done.”

“I thought we had editorial privileges. Or was that only an eighth-grade thing?”

“Duh,” she replied, rolling her eyes at Talia. “That’s why I’m telling you first! You know, so you can read it for accuracy.” We stopped at the door, and she turned to us. “But don’t try to censor me. I want to paint the whole, horrible story.”

“You left out Halloween, right?” I asked, my eyes wide with alarm.

“Of course she did,” Talia said. “Right?”

“What happened at Halloween?” Tim asked.

“Nothing,” Talia and I replied at the same time. We glanced at each other. Tim eyed us both with suspicion.

The first bell rang, and my friends ducked into the room, leaving me in the hallway with him.

“I’ll see you later,” I mumbled, keeping my eyes downcast.

“Sure,” he said. “And maybe later you can tell me about Halloween?”

I looked up into his expectant face. “Maybe,” I replied noncommittally before I walked into the classroom.

“I don’t know why you would want to edit that out,” Ally said as I sat down in my seat beside her. “He hit you,” she reminded me in a whisper. “That’s something you should tell
everyone!
”

“Because it’s not exactly something to be proud of, Ally,” Talia replied. “Who wants to admit they were stupid enough to stay with someone like that?”

“But that’s kind of the whole reason they broke up!” she insisted.

I shook my head. “No.”

She pouted. “I don’t get it. Why are you protecting him?”

“I’m not,” I promised. “I’d just rather not let everyone else know about it, okay?” I turned to look at her. “Look, you can call him a jealous control freak or something. You can say that he’s got a crazy bad temper that totally scares me. Let people come up with their own conclusions and speculate all they want. But I really don’t want that to be, like, The Slap Heard ‘Round the School, okay?”

“People will ask her more questions, and there’s no need for her to relive the whole thing,” Talia said. “And besides, it’s totally he-said-she-said. He could deny it to everyone, and your credibility would be shot.”

“Fine,” Ally said, taking out her phone and tapping on it. “I’ll update it and let you guys read it for content before it goes live.”

“I don’t even know why this needs to be blogged,” I muttered.

“Totally. There has got to be better gossip out there,” Talia declared. “I mean, Jessica Martinez’s enhancements are way more newsworthy.”

Ally tucked her phone back into her purse. “Ugh. Jessica’s boob job is so last Monday, and I already did a whole story with a poll and everything. Didn’t you guys see it? Like, eighty-seven percent of the people who responded said they don’t look natural.”

I stifled a giggle because I knew Jessica. She was a senior. Brady dated her for a while their sophomore year, but it hadn’t lasted long because, while she was pretty and incredibly sweet, she was also a little vapid. Her newly buxom figure wasn’t hurting her popularity quotient, though, regardless of how unnatural they looked.

“I’m serious, you guys,” Ally continued. “Even Bobby Monahan wrapping his new Corvette around a tree last weekend is old news.” She shrugged. “What can I say? Pre-Thanksgiving is tragically slow for high school gossip.”