“Come in! Come in!” I said to Becca, grabbing the handle of her suitcase. “Welcome to our teeny, tiny room!”
“Wow. It is teeny tiny,” Becca said. She turned in a small circle in the center of the three-by-three throw rug, taking it all in. “I can’t believe two of you live in here.”
“Yeah, and with Sun it’s more like three people,” I said.
Becca’s eyes widened slightly. “Why? Is she fat?” She said the word fat under her breath.
“Becca! First of all, who cares if she is? Secondly, I’ve told you about her. She’s just kind of…”
“Nuts?” Becca supplied.
“Exactly!”
We both laughed, and I felt the familiarity settle over me like a warm blanket. My anxiety about Becca’s visit started to melt away. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her until now.
“It’s so good to see you,” I said.
“You, too.” Becca looked me up and down and a little line appeared between her two perfect eyebrows. Definitely freshly waxed. “You look…different.”
“Well, I am wearing your clothes,” I said.
“That’s not it, though,” she said, perching on Sun’s messy bed where she’d be sleeping while Sun was in San Diego. “You’re tan. And toned. And more chill somehow.” She paused, studying me, and then her eyes widened again. “Jenna, you look hot!”
I beamed. “Really?” I said, stepping in front of the mirror.
I could see what she meant. My hair, which I usually wore in a ponytail back home, was down around my shoulders, and my skin shone with a healthy glow. Even without much makeup I looked more Becca-ish than Jenna-ish. Suddenly I felt a lot more confident about my decision to stay here and stick with Nicholas. Maybe there wasn’t such a huge disparity between me and my sister.
“So, I’ve decided I’m going to stay with Nicholas,” I said, turning to face Becca again.
“The hot, hot, hottie? Good choice!” Becca said with a grin.
“Yeah, well, it just makes sense for my ‘get crazy’ summer, I think. He’s older and so cool and so gorgeous,” I said.
“That’s great, Jen. I can’t wait to meet him.” She got up to fluff her hair in the mirror.
“Well, you will. First thing tomorrow. He’s having a bunch of people over all weekend to help paint his house, so I figured we’d pitch in,” I said.
Becca’s face fell. She stared at me through the mirror. “Are you kidding me? I flew five hours to play Trading Spaces?”
Instantly my shoulder muscles tensed. Was she really going to make this difficult? Coming to this decision had already been hard enough. “You love to paint!”
“Yeah, my room,” she said, dropping down onto my bed this time and pushing herself back into the pillows. “Because then I get to live in it. Besides, I didn’t bring any painting clothes. Why didn’t you warn me?”
She had a point there. I blamed the oversight on all the insanity of the past couple of days. Frumpy, comfy clothes were not something Becca would ever waste precious suitcase space on.
“You can wear something of mine,” I told her, earning the most sarcastic, dubious look of all time. “Come on, Becca. It’ll be fun. They’re getting food and beer. It’ll be like one big party.” I sat down near her feet. “Besides, Nicholas has some really cute friends!” I sang.
Becca rolled her eyes but smiled, reaching for the Elle magazine on my desk. “Okay, fine. As long as we get to spend some time on the beach.”
“We will. I promise.”
I grabbed my cell phone and turned it back on, then dialed Nicholas’s number. He picked up on the fifth ring.
“Jenna? What happened?” he asked.
Oh, right. I’d hung up on him. “Oh, uh, dropped call,” I said. It was pretty noisy in the background. Noisy enough that I felt the need to raise my voice. “Anyway, Becca and I are definitely sticking around this weekend, and we’d love to help!”
“Excellent!” he said. There was a crash in the background, but he didn’t seem fazed. “Did you want to come over now? Cuz we could use some more beer…”
“Actually, she just got here, so I think we’re going to lay low tonight,” I said. I decided not to point out that I wasn’t even old enough to buy beer. “But we’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
“Sounds good,” Nicholas said. “Can’t wait to meet her.”
I ignored the twisting in my gut over that statement. “Great! Bye!”
The moment I hung up, the door was flung open, and Sun rushed in, her arms full of shopping bags from Roxy and Swimsuits, Etc., among other places.
“You would not believe the bargains I found today!” she announced. “There was a two-for-one swimsuit sale, and I got these crazy wet sox things in, like, five different colors and did you know that you can get sunblock with glitter in it? I—”
“Sun? This is my sister, Becca,” I interrupted.
Becca lowered the magazine and sat up. “Hi,” she said.
Sun’s eyes went wide and all her bags fell to the floor. “Omigod! You’re here!” she cried, hugging my sister. “Damn! You two do look exactly alike. Nature is so freaky, isn’t it?”
“Uh…sure?” Becca said with a laugh.
“This is great! We are going to have so much fun this weekend!” Sun announced. “You guys are coming to San Diego, right? Kyle and Connor are so stoked for the competition, and I hear there are going to be some totally insane parties on the—”
“Actually, we’re going to stay here,” I said.
Sun’s face dropped. “What? Why?”
“Nicholas,” I replied giddily. “I think he’s getting serious about me.”
“So we’re going to paint his house,” Becca deadpanned.
“Well, that could be fun, too,” Sun said. “Wait until you see this guy, Becca. He is fi-ine!” She touched Becca’s arm like they were old friends. “And his entourage? Forget it. You will totally be hooking up by the end of the weekend.”
“Real-ly?” Becca said, finally perking up.
I smiled as the two of them started chatting. This was going to be a fun weekend. Especially if Becca did hook up with someone. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that Becca’s liking a guy other than Nicholas would make me feel a lot more secure.
The three of us decided to hit Sun’s favorite Indian restaurant for dinner, but first I had a couple of phone calls to make. I was kind of hoping they would notice my anxiety and go out to the student lounge, but Sun had already dumped out her jewelry box and was telling Becca which part of the world each item was from. Unfortunately my cell didn’t work in the hall or lounge, so it was either stay here, go outside—something Becca definitely would tease me about—or ask them to leave. New Jenna might have done that, but just having my sister there was making me feel very Old Jenna. Yep, it was happening already, and in the face of calling Kyle and Sean, I didn’t have the strength to cope with it. So instead I curled up in a corner near my headboard and called Kyle, hoping Sun’s jewelry show was fascinating enough to distract them both.
“Hey, Jenna! Where’d you go?” Kyle answered the phone. He sounded so chipper, it made me want to hang up again.
“Sorry about that. I was getting all these calls at once…”
“That’s okay,” he said. “So, what’s the final decision? Are you in, or are you out?”
I took a deep breath. My free hand was curled up so tightly my nails were digging into my palm. “Out, actually.”
“Oh.” I never knew a vowel could sound so disappointed.
Sun and Becca both looked up at me to see what would happen next. I turned slightly farther away from them, my knees now pressing into the wall.
“I kind of told this friend that I’d help him paint his house this weekend,” I explained. “His landlord’s coming, and the place is a mess….”
“Oh. I see,” Kyle said. “So this is a guy friend.”
I bit my lip. “Kind of.”
“Are you two…?”
“Kind of,” I repeated.
“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “Okay. I get it. That’s cool.” There was a sharp intake of breath and a pause. “I guess it just…wasn’t meant to be.”
I felt nauseated. He sounded really thrown and upset. Who knew I could make a person sound like that? “Well…good luck in the competition,” I said awkwardly. “I really hope you make it.”
He laughed lightly. “Thanks. I’ll…well, bye, I guess.”
“Yeah. Bye, Kyle.”
The line went dead before I had a chance to hang up. I was glad he hadn’t flipped out or anything, but he had sounded so surprised that it almost made me want to change my mind. It was a new experience for me, breaking a guy’s heart.
“You okay?” Becca asked.
I forced a weak smile. “Yeah. Fine. Just give me one more minute, and we’ll go eat.”
Not that I had any appetite. I pushed myself off the bed and quickly dialed Sean, wanting more than ever to get this over with.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Sean. It’s Jenna,” I said.
“Oh, hey! What’s up?” he asked.
“Not much. Listen, I’m not going to make the field trip after all,” I said.
There was a long silence. “Why not?”
“Actually, I’m kind of…”
Just say it! Get it out!
“I’m kind of seeing someone,” I said. “And this weekend I promised I’d help him and his friends paint their house, so—”
“Wait, you’re what?”
“Helping him paint his house,” I said.
“No, no. The first part. You’re seeing someone!?” Sean blurted.
Suddenly I was sweating.
“I’m sorry, it just…happened,” I said.
“It just happened. Before or after we went out?” he asked.
Lie! Lie, lie, lie! But wait a minute, was there a good answer to that question?
“Before…” I squeezed my eyes closed.
“I don’t believe this,” he said. “Were you playing me this entire time?”
“No. I swear it wasn’t like that. Sean, I’m sorry. I really like you. I just…I really liked this other guy, too,” I said, grasping for words. I took a deep breath. “I messed up.”
Sean blew out a sigh. I could practically hear his jaw clenching. “Yeah. I guess you did.”
“I really am sorry.”
“I know. You said that already,” he told me, sounding resigned. “Listen, I think I should go.”
“Okay,” I said, swallowing hard. “See you on Monday, I guess.”
Another sigh. I knew what he was thinking. Lab was gonna be tons of fun now.
“Yeah. I’ll see ya,” he said. Then he hung up.
Slowly I lowered the phone, my hand shaking. “That went well.”
Becca reached out and rubbed my back. “Welcome to the life of a heartbreaker. Better get used to it,” she said.
I smiled wanly. “Can’t wait.”
“I can’t believe people actually get to live here,” Becca said the next morning as we walked to Nicholas’s house. She tipped her face to the sun, and I could see the blue sky and puffy white clouds reflected in her movie-star-huge sunglasses. “I am totally coming to school out here.”
“Watch where you’re going. You’re gonna drop the coffee,” I warned her.
She looked down at the loaded tray in her hands as if she’d forgotten about it. “Thanks, Mom.”
My eyes narrowed. She knew I hated it when she said that. Almost as much as she hated it when I reminded her that she was my little sister. By four minutes, anyway.
“Are you sure that’s really what you want to wear?” I asked her, clutching the bag full of donuts in my sweaty hand.
I had put on a pair of old denim shorts and a well-worn T-shirt for our day of work. Practical but cute. It wasn’t as if I wanted to ruin any of my good stuff with paint splatter. But in Becca’s world, “work clothes” meant a tight white tank top and yellow minishorts.
“This was all I had,” Becca said with a shrug.
Of course, she had turned down my many offers to lend her anything in my closet. We both knew what she was doing—dressing up to meet the boys.
Just because Becca looks adorable does not mean that Nicholas is going to like her better, I pep-talked myself. Get a grip, Jenna. Have some confidence.
“This is it,” I said as we arrived at Nicholas’s front walk. Already the front yard had been cleaned up and mowed, and two of Nicholas’s friends stood on the roof of the front porch, rehanging a shutter. Nicholas himself was doing a little touch-up work on the pillars below, and I could see a couple more guys moving around inside. Rock music blared from a stereo set up in one of the windows.
“Is that him?” Becca asked under her breath, recognizing Nicholas from the candid picture I’d snapped one night with my phone—at her request. “Oh, my God. He’s even hotter in person.”
My grip on the wax bag tightened until the folds were cutting into my palm.
He thinks you’re beautiful, I told myself. He thinks you’re beautiful.
“Let’s go,” I said, stepping in front of her. “Hey, Nicholas!”
Nicholas looked up and did an undeniable double take. He lowered the paintbrush he was holding and stared. There was an adorable streak of white paint on one cheekbone.
“Twins! You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.
Becca giggled, and I felt a chill go down my arms.
“Did I not mention that?” I asked.
Already Paul and his friend Todd had walked out of the house. Meanwhile, the two guys up above, including Red, were hanging precariously over the edge of the roof for a better look. What the hell was it with guys and twins? Paul had such a lascivious look in his eye that I didn’t even have to guess what he was thinking.
“No, you did not,” Nicholas said. He wiped his right hand quickly on the butt of his jeans, then held it out to Becca. “I’m Nicholas.”
“Becca,” she said, tossing her hair back. Her patented flirt opener.
Oh, no, you don’t. No, no, no!
“Pleasure to meet you,” Nicholas said.
He hadn’t even said hello to me yet. Not technically.
“You, too,” Becca replied. She adjusted the tray of coffees she was holding so she could shake hands with him, then rebalanced. “Well, if you guys can stop gaping long enough, I’ve got coffee!” she trilled.
The guys laughed, and a few, at least, had the decency to blush. Then they all followed Becca inside—including Nicholas. Her hips swished back and forth like a Victoria’s Secret model, and all male eyes were trained on them. Overhead I heard the two rooftop boys scrambling to see who could get through the window first. Already I felt myself start to shrink away.
Retreat, a little voice in my mind told me. You are way out of your league here.
But the very thought sparked my indignation. This was my territory. My potential boyfriend, whom I had hooked up with and whispered sweet nothings to. I just had to remember that. And maybe remind him, too.
All of this took about two seconds to register in my mind, so it didn’t seem too much of a nonsequitur when I strode into the living room, lifted the bag of donuts, and sang, “And I’ve got donuts!”
I executed my own hair toss, and within moments, Nicholas, Paul, and the second rooftop boy defected to me. Nicholas finally gave me a kiss on the cheek and thanked me for bringing breakfast. I flushed with pleasure. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Becca gape at me in surprise.
That’s right, I thought. New Jenna has a spotlight of her very own.