Nope. She could have dated every guy in our school and I wouldn’t have cared.
She pretty much did. I mean she skipped over the underclassmen and the losers, but any guy who didn’t have B.O. or a girlfriend had been fair game for the serial monogamist from hell.
“Face it, Jax,” Simone said with a smirk. “You crashed and burned today. Say goodbye to that money and—”
“You think I’m giving up?” I arched my brows in shock. “You seriously think I’d give up all that money and the chance to buy a new amp because Miss Attention Whore didn’t take the bait?” I stretched my legs out. “Think again.”
“Take the bait,” Simone repeated with a shake of her head. “Do you even hear yourself? Who are you and what have you done with the decent gentleman I know is lurking inside there…somewhere.” She wiggled her fingers in my direction with her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Way down deep.”
I leaned forward. “Hey, I am a decent guy. I’m a good guy. I’ve never made promises I don’t keep and I’m totally straight with the girls I’m into.”
“Yeah,” she said in a flat voice. “You were really straightforward with Rose today.” She dropped her voice and leaned toward me with an obnoxious wink. “If Ryan gives you trouble, I can help.” She rolled her eyes. “What was that?”
“I was being nice!” I shouted. “And what thanks did I get for offering to help her if and when Ryan turns his anger on her?” I scoffed at the memory. “She laughed at me.” I stabbed a finger into the bedspread. “Laughed at me. At me! Girls never laugh at me.”
“I laugh at you every day,” Simone said.
“You don’t count.” I was working myself into a righteous anger and it felt good, better than sitting here stewing—not brooding—over the way she’d openly mocked me. “Seriously, though, is that what I get for being nice?”
“No, that’s what you get for being sexist.”
“Sexist?” I crossed my arms again. “Girls like it when guys are protective.”
Simone stared at me for a long moment. “Where are you getting your information these days? Please tell me you’re not still stealing your mom’s Cosmo magazines.”
“No, I stole your copy of Twilight.”
“You shut your hole about Twilight.” She glared at me and I glared right back. “You need to let this go,” Simone said. “You should never have gotten into it with Ryan and you definitely shouldn’t have taken him up on that stupid bet.”
“Why not? Are you going to give me the money for an amp?”
“This isn’t about money, it’s about respect,” she said. Her cheeks were getting all pink which meant she was honestly getting fired up about this.
I smirked. “Are you going to start singing Aretha Franklin to me now?”
She narrowed her eyes. “If you are seriously considering trying to make that girl feel something for you, just so you can win some money—”
“To feel, she’d have to have a heart. She’d need to have emotions,” I shot back. “I think Rose Parson has made it abundantly clear over the past few years that she doesn’t have feelings.”
“Everyone has feelings, you moron.”
“You know what I mean,” I said.
“I really don’t.”
“She’s a flake. A superficial vapid airhead who only cares about being the center of attention everywhere she goes.” I met Simone’s glare evenly because I’d been thinking of little else ever since that awkward encounter earlier today, and I was convinced. “She’s heartless and shallow, and she’s the one who hurts people, not me.” I held my hands up, palms out. “I might be a player, but I’ve never claimed to be anything else. I’ve never made someone think that I cared about them or that they were something special. I’ve never made anyone fall in love with me.”
The silence that fell when I was done seemed louder than my parents’ fighting.
My heart was hammering too hard, and I hated the churning sensation in my gut.
“I still don’t like it,” she said. “Even if she’s as shallow and heartless as you think, I don’t like it.” She shook her head. “I’m not going along with it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need your help.”
As soon as I said it I realized that was…not entirely the truth. Simone, with her theater connection, was my best in to get close to Rose. “When’s your next theater meeting?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”
I waited her out.
“Thursday after school,” she said with a sigh. “Why?”
I grinned. “You need a ride, don’t you?”
She sighed. I had her there and she knew it. Simone hadn’t gotten her license yet, and she needed me as much as I needed her.
If not more.
Granted, I’d typically give her a ride just because she was my friend, but right now…
I didn’t typically date girls. I didn’t typically have to go to extreme measures to talk to them. I typically didn’t have five hundred dollars and a new amp at stake…
So really, nothing about my current situation was typical.
6
Rose
I’d never been more eager for the first theater meeting of the year.
Typically I sort of hated them. It was usually a mix of boring lectures by Mrs. Klein and a whole lot of bickering over which shows we’d perform and how much our budget allotted for each. Mrs. Klein tried to make everyone happy, which was a mistake.
There was no pleasing everyone, especially not this crowd.
“Martin is just saying that because he hates musicals,” Bianca shouted.
Yes, shouted.
The debate was full-on already and we’d barely begun. Everyone turned out for the first meeting, mainly because it was the best and last chance to have a say in what happened. The art kids were here to find out their schedule to work on the sets, the band geeks were huddled in the back waiting on word for when they’d be needed to support the musical.
Or if they’d be needed, if Martin had anything to say about it.
