At First Sight Read online

  My heart sank. If his face had been a text message, it would have said only one thing: OOPS!

  “I’m guessing he already forgot he invited us,” I whispered to Britt.

  Riley said something to Megan, then came toward us. Megan stayed right with him, looking me and Britt over with critical eyes.

  “Hi,” Riley said when he reached us. “I’m glad you guys could make it. Um, this is Megan. Megan, this is Britt, and, um, Lauren. They’re friends of mine.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Megan said. Her voice matched her look—cute and perky. “I can’t wait to meet all of Riley’s friends.”

  Someone near the back of the room shouted Riley’s name. He glanced that way.

  “Sorry, gotta go get ready,” he said, sounding relieved. “Enjoy the show, guys.”

  “Break a leg, baby!” Megan sang out as he rushed off.

  That left her standing with us. Britt was staring at her. Uh-oh.

  “So, Megan,” she said in a casual voice. Too casual. “How’d you and Riley meet?”

  Megan’s giggle bubbled out of her like frothy foam from the cappuccino machine. “Well, first we met at the planetarium, of course,” she said. “But after that I thought I’d never see him again. Then a friend of mine saw his adorable post on Facebook and the rest is history!”

  She gave a cute little toss of her head that looked like a patented move. Britt can spot one of those a mile away, and no wonder. She’s got a bunch of them herself. Her eyes narrowed.

  “Really,” she said, drawing out the r for effect. “So you’re still claiming to be Planetarium Girl, huh?”

  “I’m not claiming anything.” Megan smoothed down the tendrils of hair around her perky little ears. Her earrings were silver dropped hearts that looked like real Gucci. “I am Planetarium Girl. Just ask Riley.”

  “Ooo-kay.” Britt did nothing to hide her skepticism. “Far be it from me to criticize another girl’s methods or whatever. But what are you after? I mean, are you really into Riley or are you just having fun?”

  “What’s it to you?” Dropping her hand from her hair, Megan looked Britt up and down. “Wait, let me guess—you made a play for him yourself, but he shot you down. Sorry, sweetie, guess you’re just not his type.”

  She smiled smugly. Britt looked outraged. “Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed. “I’m not Planetarium Girl, and unlike you, I’m not pathetic and desperate enough to start pretending I am. But if you want to know the truth about this whole Planetarium Girl fiasco, I can—”

  “Hey, I could really use some caffeine!” I said loudly, grabbing her and yanking her off balance. She was so surprised that she stopped yelling for a second. “Come on, Britt,” I said, shooting her a meaningful look. “Let’s go get an espresso or something, okay?”

  For a second I didn’t think it was going to work. She kept glaring at Megan, who continued to look smug. And perky.

  I didn’t give up. This whole evening was turning into a huge disaster as it was. The last thing I wanted to add to it was an embarrassing scene.

  Finally Britt glanced at me, and that seemed to clue her in to how upset I was. She allowed me to drag her off a few yards. I’m not sure Megan even noticed. She’d just reached into her purse for a compact and was checking her makeup.

  I turned away, not wanting to see any more of her. “Come on,” I told Britt in a low voice that I tried really, really hard to keep from shaking. “I think maybe we should just get out of here.”

  “Sure. Come on, I’ll buy you a milkshake or something on the way home. No sense wasting these outfits, right?”

  “Hey, look who’s here!” a familiar voice sang out as we turned toward the door.

  Marcus came bounding into the place. Rachel and a few other friends were right behind him.

  Beside me I heard Britt let out a little gasp. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her do a quick hair check and wet her lips.

  For a second, surprise chased away my misery. I’d almost forgotten about the boy-fight incident at that party. Afterward Britt had told me she’d decided to make out with Marcus because she was tired of Tommo and wanted an easy way to chase him off. But maybe there was more to it than that. Could she really be attracted to him?

  “Actually, maybe we should stay after all,” I told her in a low voice.

  “What? No,” she said, her eyes flickering from Marcus to me and then back again. “Um, I mean, I know you want to leave, so …”

  “It’s okay,” I assured her. “We can stay for a little while if you want to hang out with Marcus.”

  By then he’d reached us, so I couldn’t say anything more. He grabbed me in a bear hug, then turned to Britt and hugged her, too. “Hey,” he told her. “I got that video you sent me. Pretty funny!”

  I shot her a surprised look. She carefully avoided my eye, staying focused on Marcus. “Awesome,” she said. “I figured you might get a kick out of it.”

  It sounded as if Britt and Marcus had stayed in touch since meeting at the party last weekend. So why was this the first I was hearing about it?

  No big shock there, I told myself. I’ve been more than a little self-absorbed this week. She probably did mention it, but I was too busy mooning over Unavailable Boy to pay attention.

  Rachel and Haley came over and said hi. “Glad you came, Lauren,” Rachel told me. “You’ll love the Grovers—they’re really good.”

  “Yeah.” Haley grinned and tossed her friend a look. “And not in that we-have-to-like-it-cause-they’re-our-friends kind of way, either. They’re actually, like, good good.”

  “I can’t wait to hear them.” That was both true and not. On the one hand I’d been dying to see what Riley’s band could do since the first time he’d mentioned he was in one. Somehow, though, I wasn’t really in the mood at the moment… .

  “So did you hear?” Rachel asked me. “Riley found another Planetarium Girl.”

  “Yeah. I heard,” I said.

  Haley grimaced. “I checked her out on Facebook. This one seems even more shallow and annoying than the last one.”

  “Really? I didn’t think that was possible.” Rachel stood on her tiptoes, peering at the crowd near the stage. “Where is she, anyway? Have you seen her, Lauren?”

  “Uh-huh. She’s over there. The dark-haired girl in last year’s Juicy cami.” I pointed to Megan, who was watching Riley tune his bass as if it were the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.

  Rachel grinned, shooting Haley a mischievous look. “Should we go say hi?”

  “Oh, yes. I do so enjoy chatting with Riley’s new little friends.” Haley looked equally amused. “Coming?” she asked me.

  “You guys go ahead. I, uh, want to grab a drink before the show starts.”

  They hurried off toward Megan. I made my way over to the counter and ordered myself an iced coffee. Then I looked around for Britt. She was across the way, leaning back against the wall and smiling up at Marcus, who was doing the one-arm casual lean thing over her.

  Okay. Looked like she was still busy. I could see Rachel and Haley chatting up Megan, who looked bored and a little annoyed. But I hung back, doing my best to find a spot where I could see the stage but Riley couldn’t see me.

  Unfortunately, seeing the stage also meant seeing Megan. I stared moodily at her. It was bad enough that Riley had found someone else. At least if it had been someone cool, like Rachel or Haley or whoever, I maybe could have accepted it and just been happy being his friend.

  But Megan wasn’t cool. She was pretty much the opposite of cool. That made her definitely not good enough for him. So why couldn’t he see that? Was he really so caught up in his silly fantasy about his Planetarium Girl muse that he would hook up with anyone who could convince him that she was her?

  I was still stewing over that when a sudden explosion of bass made the whole place jump, including me. A second later the rest of the band joined in. The show was on.

  Despite everything I found myself nodding along to the m
usic. Riley’s friends had been right. The band was good. They weren’t really that similar in sound to the Beast, which surprised me a little. But maybe it shouldn’t have. It was clear that Riley was open to a lot of things—he’d had to be, living in so many places during his childhood. Why should his musical tastes be any different? Besides, I liked a lot of different music too. Just one more thing the two of us had in common… .

  After a while I hardly even noticed Megan grooving sexily away at the edge of the stage anymore. Okay, that’s a lie. I noticed. But I was trying really hard not to care so much.

  Maybe Riley and I really were meant to be just friends. And maybe that was okay. I should have known better than to fall so hard for him—and for the idea of love at first sight.

  The current song ended. “And now we’ve got something kind of special,” the lead singer said into the microphone. “Riley, come on up here, bro.”

  Riley set down his bass and stepped forward, taking the mic from his bandmate. He looked eager, confident, and a little shy all at the same time.

  “Hey,” he said to the audience. “Thanks for coming out tonight. Hope you all don’t mind, but I wrote a new song recently and I wanted to debut it tonight. Anyone who’s been checking out Facebook lately probably knows the one I mean.”

  There was a scattering of laughter and applause. Someone—I was pretty sure it was Marcus—let out a loud whoop.

  Riley cleared his throat. “Okay, then, here goes. It’s called ‘We Should Stop Meeting Like This.’”

  He glanced back at the rest of the band and counted them off. They started playing, and a moment later Riley started to sing.

  It was a love song, mostly. But it was also all about luck, being in the right place at the right time, and paying attention to fate. Riley’s voice didn’t really have the grit and power of the other singer, but it was full of sincerity and meaning. It was obvious that he really believed in what he was singing.

  I closed my eyes, just letting the raw emotion of the song wash over me. Every time he hit a high note, I felt myself shiver. The song was amazing. Just … amazing.

  It ended with a flourish of cymbals, and I smiled. A tiny homage to MTIAB and “Squid for Breakfast,” perhaps? Opening my eyes, I was just in time to see Riley hurry forward to the edge of the stage.

  Megan was waiting for him there. She tilted her head up as he bent down and kissed her. There was a chorus of “Awww!” from the audience as the happy couple clung together, joined at the lips for a long, lingering moment. Before long someone—again, probably Marcus—shouted, “Get a room!”

  As for me, I didn’t make a peep. All I could do was stand there, my smile frozen on my face as reality came crashing down around me. No matter how much I’d been trying to convince myself that I didn’t care, I still did. That was supposed to be my song, my kiss … my guy. But it wasn’t. He wasn’t. Not really, not anymore.

  And that was so not fair… .

  Eighteen

  “I’m really not in the mood for shopping,” I complained as Britt and I walked into the mall the next day.

  “Really? Wow, I guess there really is a first time for everything.” She gave me a searching look, as if gauging my exact mood by my reaction to the jibe. “Seriously, though. We need to take your mind off things. You always say you’re not the wallowing type, right?”

  I shrugged. She had a point. Maybe shopping would be just the thing to take my mind off my near-miss at love at first sight. Not that I believed in that… .

  It was still hard to accept that things had ended the way they had. But there it was. No doubt about it. The image of Riley and Megan kissing was seared into my retinas; it was all I saw when I closed my eyes.

  The mall was packed, which was no surprise on a Saturday. Gangs of shoppers prowled in and out of stores or wandered down the broad center aisle. Britt and I slipped into this river of humanity, drifting past one brightly colored store display after another.

  Britt checked her watch. “Where do you want to go first?” she asked.

  I shrugged. Normally, I’m all about shopping. I don’t buy that many of my clothes at the mall, preferring to be a little more creative in my fashion stylings. But it’s always fun to look around, keep up on the trends, get ideas for my own designs, and maybe pick up some cool accessories or whatever.

  Today, however, my heart just wasn’t in it. “Wherever you want,” I said. “I’m not really looking for anything.”

  “Mind if we stop at the food court, then?” Britt asked. “I could use a soda.”

  “Sure.”

  We headed up the escalator. Soon we were surrounded by the scents of grease and baking cookies. It was a little early for the lunch rush, so the food court wasn’t very crowded. That made it easy to hear a familiar shout coming from over near the cookie place. Looking that way, I saw Marcus dancing around balancing a straw on his nose. I also saw the usual group of friends watching him and laughing. Including Riley.

  “Oh, look,” Britt said. “It’s Marcus and the gang.”

  I shot her a suspicious look. “Did you know they were going to be here?” I hissed.

  Her return look oozed guilt. “Um, not exactly. Well, Marcus did mention that they were thinking of meeting up here around now… .”

  There was no time to strangle her. Marcus had just dropped his straw, looked around, and spotted us.

  “Check it out!” he cried, sounding as happy as if he’s just discovered a pot of gold right there in front of Cookie and Co. “It’s our favorite pair of Potomac pretties.”

  “Hey, guys,” Rachel called out in her usual friendly way as Britt and I approached. Haley, Jake, one of the video-game-playing girls from the party, and another guy whose name I didn’t remember added their greetings.

  Riley said hi too. At least I assumed he did. I was too busy having a nervous breakdown to know for sure. As soon as we were out of here, I was definitely going to kill Britt. All I had to figure out was how painful to make it and where to hide the body.

  “So Riley,” Britt said in a slightly-too-bright voice. “Where’s your new squeeze? I thought you two were pretty much joined at the hip these days.”

  “You mean Megan?” Riley shrugged. “She’s in DC for the weekend, visiting her sister who goes to GWU.”

  I felt my shoulders, which had gone tense at the sight of him, relax a little. At least I wouldn’t have to watch the happy couple smooching or holding hands today. At least there was that.

  The next few minutes passed in a daze. Somehow I found myself wandering down the mall holding an orange soda. And I don’t even like orange soda. As the others hurried forward toward the music and movies store, Riley fell into step beside me.

  “Hey,” he said, touching me briefly on the arm.

  “Hey.” I tried to ignore the way my arm had suddenly started tingling.

  “So I looked for you after the show last night.” He shot me a sidelong look. “Wanted to hear what you thought of the band. Guess you’d already left, though.”

  “Yeah, I had to get home. But you guys were great. Practically Beastworthy.”

  He grinned. “Thanks. I know that’s a serious compliment coming from you.”

  “Totally.” I smiled back. “Um, so did Megan like the show?”

  Yeah, I couldn’t resist. Same way I can never resist probing with my tongue right after having a tooth pulled, or peeling off a scab, or peeking at the gory scenes in a movie even after I’ve covered my eyes.

  His expression went a little gooey around the edges. “She loved it,” he said. “And listen, Lauren, I want to thank you for listening this whole time, you know? It’s good to have friends who, like, support what you really want.”

  “Um …” I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  Luckily, he wasn’t paying that much attention. “Anyway, get this—Megan and I made plans to meet up at the Air and Space Museum tomorrow at noon. Isn’t that, you know, super-romantic?”

  “Definitely romantic.�
�� It was so difficult to spit out the words that I was astounded by how normal they sounded.

  Not that Riley would have noticed either way. His eyes were a million miles away. Well, probably more like fifteen or twenty miles away, in the city—with Megan.

  “Back to the place where we first met,” he mused. Then he snapped back to the here and now, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out. “That’s when I’m going to show how much it means to me that I found her again by giving her this. Check it out—think she’ll like it?”

  He dangled the item in front of me. I grabbed it for a better look. It was a guitar pick on a thin silver chain.

  “That’s the pick I used at my very first real gig with the Grovers,” he explained shyly. “I kept it as a souvenir or whatever. Kind of dumb, huh? But I thought it might be a nice way to let her know how happy I am that we found each other, you know?”

  I gulped, staring at the pick. It had a couple of nicks in it and looked pretty ordinary overall. But that didn’t matter. I could tell by the way he was talking that it was superspecial to him. That this—the necklace, the meeting at the museum—was going to be his way of letting Megan know that he wanted to take things to the next level in their relationship.

  It was an incredibly touching and romantic plan. Or at least it would have been if that annoying faker Megan weren’t so utterly and completely undeserving of such a sweet, earnest gesture.

  “Sounds cool.” I tried to keep my voice casual and disinterested as I handed back the necklace. Because if I let myself tell him what I really thought, I was pretty sure I was going to burst into tears right there in the middle of the mall.

  He looked a little surprised by my reaction, or nonreaction, or whatever. But he didn’t say a word as he tucked the guitar pick back into his pocket. We just stood there for a moment in silence, neither of us looking at the other, though out of the corner of my eye I could see him hazarding a glance or two my way.

  When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I forced a laugh. It came out sounding fake and kind of mean. “Well, are we just going to stand around here all day, or are we going to shop?”