Kody Keplinger - A Midsummer’s Nightmare

“No.”

Sylvia had to work the day Gwyneth’s Bridal Boutique called to say I needed to come in and try on my bridesmaid dress. Bailey’s had been done for a while; now it was my turn. It was the first time I’d left the house in two weeks. You’d think I would have been getting cabin fever, but this was a trip I wasn’t looking forward to. Especially once I found out Harrison wasn’t working that day—which meant I’d have to deal with Sexy Lexie. If my dress wasn’t enough to make me self-conscious, having Lexie around certainly did the trick.

“Come out, Whit.”

“No.”

“Whit.”

“No.”

Like I said, Sylvia was at work, and Dad had some sort of meeting at the station that afternoon, so Nathan drove me to the fitting.

“I won’t laugh,” he assured me from outside the dressing room. “I promise.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I really don’t have all day,” I heard Lexie say with exasperation. “There are two others coming in for fittings today.”

I gritted my teeth, trying to convince myself that my annoyance with her was due to her pushiness and was completely unrelated to the way she’d been flirting with Nathan since the moment we walked into the store. No, I didn’t like her because she was being bossy—that was the only reason.

I took a deep breath and ran my hands over the dress, smoothing a few tiny wrinkles in the front. There was no mirror behind the curtain, so I could only guess how it looked. The sleeves had already been cut and the hem shortened to knee-length, but nothing could be done to fix the color. I could not believe I would be forced to wear this thing in front of a large crowd in, like, a month and a half.

Maybe I just wouldn’t show up to the wedding. It wasn’t like I’d be missed.

“Whit,” Nathan called again teasingly. “You heard the girl. We don’t have all day. Come out.”

“Fine!” I shouted. “Goddamn it.”

I shoved open the curtain and stepped into the room where Nathan and Lexie waited. Both their gazes fell upon me. I could feel them examining every inch of the dress, of my frame. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see their reactions.

“Let’s see,” Lexie said, stepping up behind me. Her hands moved down the length of the dress, tugging at the straps and pulling at the hem. “Not a bad fit. I think we can take it in just a little at the waist. Otherwise, you’re good.”

I opened my eyes as she stepped away from me.

“Am I done?”

“Mm-hmm,” Lexie said, jotting something down on her tiny little notepad. “We’ll make the alteration and the dress will be done in plenty of time. I’ll go save this in your file now.”

“Great,” I muttered.

Lexie strutted back into the main part of the shop, leaving Nathan and me alone in the back room. I glanced at him, expecting to find his eyes on her back, watching her perfect little figure move away. Instead, he was staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You look—”

“Like a giant stick of bubble gum. Yeah, I know.”

“No,” he said. “That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Really? What, then?”

“I was going to say you look beautiful.”

I snorted, but I could feel my cheeks heating up. “Whatever. In this dress? I doubt it.”

“Seriously,” he said. “Come look.”

He stepped forward and grabbed my hand, pulling me across the room, toward the full-length mirror that hung on the wall. I rolled my eyes as he positioned me in front of it, his hands on my shoulders.

Surprisingly, the dress didn’t look half bad. The shade of pink was still kind of obnoxious, but I managed to pull it off. The little flowers around my torso were actually kind of cute, and the dress suited my figure—the hourglass skirt and sweetheart neckline made me look taller, more refined. Definitely not as hideous as I’d thought.

“See,” Nathan said. The mirror reflected his grin, his face bobbing just over my head. “Beautiful.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. My gaze fell on Nathan’s hands, still curved over my shoulders, then traveled back up to his smiling face. His brown eyes were light and warm. Staring at me as I stared at him. “Beautiful.”

Once I’d changed, Nathan and I headed back toward the doors of the shop. Lexie was waiting for us there. She didn’t even look at me as we approached.

“Nathan,” she said, stepping out from behind the register. “Listen, I know you said you’re starting college at the end of the summer, right? Well, if you ever want to get together, to ask me about college… or, you know, just hang out…” She slipped a piece of paper into his hand. “Give me a call.”

“Whit, wait up,” Nathan said, since I was already halfway out the door. “Thanks, Lexie.” Then he jogged over to me, pushing the door open the rest of the way so I could walk out ahead of him. “In a hurry?” he asked.

“No.”

“Sure seems like it,” he said. “Are you hungry? We can stop somewhere if you want. It’s past lunchtime.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess I could go for a bite to eat.”

“Cool. Hold on just a second.” He left me standing on the sidewalk while he walked over to the closest Dumpster. I watched as he tossed Lexie’s number into the trash. Then he was next to me again, leading the way to the car. “Red Lobster sound good to you? My aunt gave me a gift card for graduation.”

I smiled, half at him and half to myself. “That sounds great.”

“You totally have a thing for him.”

I turned to face Harrison. “What are you talking about?”

It was a hot afternoon in late July. Harrison was off work, and we were swimming in Dad and Sylvia’s pool. Nathan had just climbed out of the water and walked inside, saying something about a game on ESPN Classic.

“You watched him walk away like you were fantasizing about his hot little ass. You like him.”

“How would you know?” I demanded, splashing water in Harrison’s face. “You were watching him, too.”

“Too!” he cried. “I got you! Ha. You just admitted you were watching him. You love him. You so love him.”

“I do not,” I said. “That’s just weird, okay? He’s going to be my stepbrother.”

“I know. It’s all sexy and forbidden—like in Cruel Intentions.”

“Doesn’t someone die at the end of that movie?” I asked. “Not that it matters. I don’t like him that way. We’re just… I don’t know. Lately we’ve hung out more. He’s not so bad, really. So, I guess we’re friends now.”

“Friends with benefits,” Harrison teased.

I tried not to blush or anything dumb like that. Harrison didn’t know about my past with Nathan. I’d never told him about the graduation party or the aloe incident or the almost-hookup in the guest room. I hadn’t breathed a word, and I wasn’t planning to. Because that was all behind me. Harrison could believe what he wanted, but I was done chasing boys. Nathan and I were friends. Just friends. And future stepsiblings. That was all.

“You’re just dreaming,” I told Harrison. “You can’t have him, so you want to live vicariously through me.”

“Damn straight I do.”

“Christ, Harrison, you’re such a loser,” I joked, splashing him again.

He splashed me back, and soon a war erupted in the water around us. And the issue was dropped.

Unfortunately, Bailey wasn’t so easily distracted… or convinced.

“So, what’s going on with you and my brother?” she asked the next day. Her cheerleading tryouts were in a week, and we were out on the front lawn practicing again. I was no expert, but it seemed like she was doing well.

“What do you mean?”

“Something is up with you and Nathan,” she insisted, sitting down on the porch beside me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, handing her a bottle of water. Christ, I just couldn’t catch a break about this.

“I’m not stupid.” She unscrewed the cap and downed a few gulps of water, letting some of the clear liquid drip down her chin. “You’re being nice to him. I thought you hated him.”

“Why would you think that?”

“You guys were just so weird around each other.” She handed the bottle back to me. “It was always, like, tense. You were pissed off—”

“It’s still weird when you say pissed.”

“Now you hang out and run errands together and smile at each other—”

“Your mom made him drive me to the bridal shop,” I said. “That doesn’t count as hanging out.”

“But you watch movies together, too. I told you, I’m not stupid. I can see that something changed. What happened?”

Goddamn, the kid asked way too many questions.

“I don’t know,” I said flatly. “Why does it matter?”

“I’m just curious.”

“Well, you’re wasting time. You should practice.”

“I have practiced.”

“Practice more.”

“Why are you changing the subject?” She raised a little blond eyebrow at me. “You act like you’re hiding something, Whitley.”

“I’m not.”

“Are you sure?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re so annoying,” I said, nudging her arm. “If you want me to hate your brother, I will. Would that make you happy?”

“No, I just—”

“Then practice and let it go.”

She frowned at me. “Fine. But I think you’re hiding something.”

Before I could argue, she skipped across the yard and did two cartwheels in a row. “Go, go, Panthers!” she yelled, finishing with a backflip and a toe touch.

The kid was lucky I couldn’t get angry with her; even when she was being irritating, I still kind of adored her.

It seemed like the only one not questioning my relationship with Nathan was, well, Nathan. He had no issue with our sudden friendship. He invited me to go places with him, obviously aware that my social life was lacking due to my self-imposed isolation.