The Comeback Part 12

"Just trying to be friendly," I said. I fiddled with my napkin to hide my expression.

"That was your ex, huh?" Tanner said. Maybe he wasn't so dumb after all.

I nodded.

"Seems like a nice guy," he continued.

I took a bite of my pasta and smiled at him. It had been a very successful first date. I could see it in the faces of my cla.s.smates. I was on my way back to the top.

Chapter 17.

I walked into rehearsal on Monday with a renewed sense of confidence. I could face Angie and Connor again with my head held high.

The date with Tanner had gone well, the biggest mouth in school had seen us together, and I detected a thaw in the air. Hannah actually said hi to me in English cla.s.s, and there was no sign of her TEAM VOGEL T-s.h.i.+rt.

Monet was already there and she'd wrangled Ava and Scott into helping with the sets.

Connor and Angie were there, too, but I didn't let their lack of discretion bother me. They could cuddle and kiss all they wanted. Sophie Donnelly was making a comeback.

"Hi, are you ready to work?" I said to Dev, who was helping carry scenery.

He grunted in response and stalked off.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked Monet.

"No idea," she said.

I shrugged. "Nothing can get to me today. You were right. Going out with Tanner was smart."

"He's a nice guy."

I shrugged. "He's certainly good-looking, and that is definitely helping me get back on top."

"I didn't set the two of you up so that you could use him to become popular again."

"So why did you?" I was annoyed. Monet was acting as though I was committing a crime or something. "I've never made a secret of the fact that I like being liked."

"Being popular doesn't necessarily mean you're liked," Monet snapped.

"What are you talking about?" The idea stopped me in my tracks.

"Ask yourself why being popular is so important to you."

Ava came over. "Monet, where should I put this?" She had a painting of a Tuscan villa in her hands.

"Ava, that's gorgeous," I said.

"Thanks," she said. "I painted it from a photo I took when we went on vacation there last summer."

Mr. Fanelli clapped his hands. "All right, places, everyone. And remember, people, you need to be off book. You've had four weeks to memorize your lines. I'm going to start imposing fines on Monday."

Most of the cast groaned, but I smiled smugly. I had a gift for memorization and had both Bianca and Katharina down cold.

"Sophie, Dev, where are you? I'd like to work with the two of you."

"I'll get him." I finally found Dev in the closet where the crew kept the supplies they needed to design the sets. I observed him for a minute as he hoisted cans of paint onto the shelf. The muscles in his arms rippled. Just then, he turned around and caught me staring.

"Fanelli wants us," I said.

"I'll be right there," he said.

I hesitated. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No."

"Because you're acting like you're mad at me about something."

Dev ignored the question. "C'mon, Fanelli is waiting."

"Let him wait. You didn't answer my question."

"Sophie, why do you have to be like this? Just when I think I..." His voice trailed off.

"You what?" I said. b.u.t.terflies were building in my stomach. "What, Dev?"

"Never mind," he said. "I'm not in the mood to stand in line to wors.h.i.+p the great Sophie Donnelly."

"n.o.body asked you to," I snapped.

Monet poked her head into the room. "Mr. Fanelli is asking where you two are," she said. "He's almost at the hissy-fit stage. He's muttering something about spoiled little prima donnas."

"We all know who he's talking about," Dev said, shooting me a glare. He strode off.

"Your brother has a serious case of PMS," I said.

Monet was smiling. "It's good to see that nothing's changed with you two."

As we walked back to rehearsal, I wondered. Something had definitely changed between Dev and me, but what?

Monet caught up with me the next day before cla.s.s. "Hey, you had fun the other night, right?"

"You mean with Tanner? Yes. In fact, I was hoping he'd ask me out again."

"That's great," she replied. "Because both he and Scott have to work on Friday night until closing and they wanted to know if we wanted to do something afterward."

"Why didn't he ask me himself?" I said.

"He's shy," she said.

"Sounds good," I said. And it wasn't like anyone else was beating down my door. I had to have some kind of social life or people would think I had turned into a recluse or something.

But on Friday, I was in the library during free period when Eli Hudson, a big-man-on-campus senior, leaned over to me from the next table. "Hey, Sophie," he said. "My parents are out of town for the weekend. I'm having a party tonight."

It was the break I'd been looking for. I hadn't been invited to an A-list party in weeks and Eli was a genuinely nice guy. Tanner was a dead end. Pretty, but not the sharpest crayon in the box.

But with Eli, there were definite possibilities. Going out with him would be a coup. I was pretty sure he wasn't seeing anyone.

I glanced over at the librarian but she was busy updating her blog or something. I gave him a flirtatious smile. "I'll be there," I said.

His smile was sincere. "Looking forward to it."

I didn't care that our imaginary romance was bound to be short-lived, since he was a senior. In my mind, we were already an item. We'd meet at the party, connect, he'd ask me to Homecoming, we'd date his senior year, and then understandably, he'd break up with me right before he left for college.

I was so busy daydreaming about my future with a guy I barely knew, it completely slipped my mind to tell Monet that my plans had changed.

I spent hours on my hair and the perfect outfit. Eli and Connor didn't exactly run in the same crowd, but they did have mutual friends, so it was possible that he and Angie would show up at the party.

I drove to Eli's house and had to park three blocks away. There were cars everywhere, but I didn't see Connor's.

I took a deep breath and walked up the front steps.

A couple of kids from my history cla.s.s waved to me, and someone handed me a red plastic cup full of some unidentifiable liquid. I discreetly dumped it in a potted plant when no one was looking. Too late, I realized it was a silk plant.

As soon as I entered the living room, my dreams of a romance ended with a sickening crash. Eli was already horizontal on the couch with Madison Elliot. How could I have ever been interested in him? Madison was a freshman, for G.o.d's sake.

I wandered around the house. There were plenty of people I knew, but n.o.body I really wanted to talk to.

"What are you doing here?" Dev's voice said in my ear. "I thought you had a hot date tonight?"

"What?" I said. "Oh, no! Please don't tell Monet. I completely forgot."

"You're asking me to lie to my own sister?"

I looked meaningfully at the beer in his hand. "Tsk-tsk. What would Barbara and Herb think of their eldest son drinking?"

"Now you're going to blackmail me," he said. But he didn't sound that upset. In fact, he made it sound like something deliciously depraved.

Before I could answer, my cell rang and I picked it up without checking the number. I could barely hear over the noise of the party.

"Where are you?" Monet's voice crackled through the line.

"What? I can barely hear you."

"You were supposed to meet us at the art supply store, remember? Tanner's been waiting for you for over an hour."

She'd kill me if she knew where I really was. I pushed the mute b.u.t.ton and headed for the door.

Once I was safely outside, where the noise level was considerably lower, I clicked the b.u.t.ton again. "Monet, I'm so sorry. Please tell him I don't feel well."

"You're never sick," she said suspiciously. "And what's all the noise in the background?"

"The neighbors are having a loud party," I lied. "It's keeping me up and I have a terrible headache." And suddenly, my temples were throbbing. It was stressful to lie to my best friend.

I don't know what came over me to lie. Dev had already seen me. There was no way he wouldn't rat me out to his sister.

But when I went back into the house, he had disappeared. I wondered if he was there with Beth, but I didn't catch sight of them.

I squared my shoulders. I had come to the party in order to find an eligible guy. It obviously wasn't going to be Eli, but there were plenty of other eligible guys, most of them seniors.

In fact, I spotted Chad Laughlin sitting near the keg. He was good-looking and charming, and we'd been in several drama productions together. Unfortunately for him, he had broken his leg skateboarding right before tryouts. He'd do nicely.

"How's the leg?" I sat next to him on a folding chair. I put my hand on his arm, but he moved away to fill a red plastic cup with beer and handed it to me. I hated the taste, but sipped it for courage.

He handed me a Sharpie. "Wanna sign my cast?" he asked.

"I'd love to," I trilled. I was so out of practice with flirting. My mind raced, trying to think of something witty to write. Finally, I decided that blatant was the way to go, so I just signed my name and scribbled "call me" and my phone number.

He peered at the words blearily and then began to chuckle.

"Oh, I'm a joke now? Thanks a lot, Chad. I thought you were a nice guy." I got up, but he caught me by the arm.

"Sophie, I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't laughing at you. I'm laughing because-well, your timing couldn't be worse."

Mollified, I sat back down. "And why is that?"

"I would have loved to go out with you. My dad would have loved you."

I gave him a puzzled look.

"Where were you when I was still in the closet?" he said.

"Closet?"

"I'm gay," he said. "And I just told my parents last week. They didn't take it very well."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said.

He drained his gla.s.s. "Yeah, me, too."

I couldn't bring myself to work up the courage to try again and we spent the next half hour hanging out while I caught him up with what was going on with The Taming of the Shrew.