Текст книги "Forbidden Boy"
Автор книги: Hailey Abbott
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 11 страниц)
It wasn’t until Bill had left that Julianne felt the heat leave her face and noticed the green paint smeared on Remi’s shirt. They exchanged a quick, panicked look and Remi mouthed, “Do you think he knows?” Julianne shrugged and whispered, “Maybe?” The near miss was enough to put them both on edge.
Remi shifted his weight from one foot to the other while Julianne twisted the same piece of hair around her finger over and over again.
“Um, well, okay. ’Bye,” Remi blurted, dashing out of the courtyard.
“Yeah, ’bye,” Julianne replied, but even as he hurried away, she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
163
Chapter Seventeen
!
Julianne couldn’t believe she was finally putting the finishing touches on her mom’s painting. And just in time. After a week of beautiful weather, a patch of clouds was rolling in over the Palisades, bringing an unusual gray with it. Julianne dabbed a few final highlights of gold on the canvas, just to make the beach come that much more alive. Ever since that night she spent out on the beach listening for her mom a few weeks earlier, it was like all the pieces of her painting had suddenly started falling into place. The light was just right, and her colors had become richer, deeper, and more complex, somehow. It was like Hannah Kahn was out there somewhere, telling Jules to take her gifts and run with them, and if Jules just listened closely enough, 164
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she’d know what she was supposed to do. Grinning at her finished painting, Julianne practically hugged herself with delight over her accomplishment. She grabbed the painting off its easel and rushed it inside and up to her bedroom, where it could dry without the threat of sudden raindrops.
When Julianne woke up the next morning, the gray skies were still in full effect, and the gloom wouldn’t dis-sipate. That whole weekend—the weekend of the anniversary of Hannah Kahn’s death—it was unusually dark and drizzly for summertime in LA. Julianne, Chloe, and Dad sat around the living room in equally gray moods. They had watched old family videos and played three consecutive games of Trivial Pursuit (at which Chloe had thoroughly schooled Julianne and her father, three consecutive times), but the prevailing mood in the Kahn household was still listing toward melancholy.
“Who starred in the eponymous show about a news-caster in Minneapolis?” Chloe asked, yawning.
“Oh, even I know this one,” muttered Dad. “Mary Tyler Moore.”
“Chloe, do we really have to go through the additional cards?” Julianne whined. “We already played the game.”
“Do you have any better recreational suggestions?” Chloe countered, probably not meaning to sound quite so snippy. “Shall we do dramatic readings from the latest 165
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Publishers Weekly?” Chloe drawled, holding up a copy of their dad’s magazine. “Or should we watch another movie that we’ve all seen five times? Now that would be fun.”
Julianne looked at her sister and yawned. She curled her feet under her on the oversize couch and flopped back, peeling a split end in her hair. “I could always make popcorn. Or we could play Pictionary.”
“No Pictionary,” her father pleaded. “I’ve already been humiliated on the board game battlefield by one daughter today. I’m not going back for seconds.” Unable to reach consensus, they drifted to separate parts of the house. Dad went into his studio and Chloe clomped upstairs, while Julianne stayed put in the living room.
Julianne kept watch out the window for a break in the unseasonably dreary weather. She had wrapped her painting in butcher paper and hidden it under her bed.
She’d been hoping to give it to Dad and Chloe today, but her grand plan required sunshine. So she remained at her post in the window seat, looking out over the beach with a book in her lap.
At the first hint of sun, Jules jumped at her chance.
“Daaaad! Chloe! Come in here!” She knew her dad was getting things together for a meeting with his editor in New York next week, and Chloe was talking on the phone with one of her sorority sisters, but time was of the essence.
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Julianne dashed upstairs, skipping every other step, and bounded into Chloe’s room, not caring in the slightest if she was interrupting an important phone call.
“Chloe Elise Kahn, you have five minutes to get your butt downstairs and out onto the back deck!” Chloe put her hand over the receiver and looked at Julianne, her hazel eyes questioning and mildly annoyed. “What’s wrong?” she mouthed.
“Nothing’s wrong, but it’s important.” Julianne wheedled.
“Now?” Chloe mouthed. “Really?”
“Really! Now go. Go, go, go! And get Dad on your way out.” Julianne pivoted on her heel and burst toward the hallway.
Before Chloe had a chance to argue, Julianne ran into her room and closed the door behind her. She got down on her hands and knees and wedged herself under her bed, reaching for the wrapped canvas. She finally got her hands around it and gently wiggled it out. Then she walked over to her white wicker bookshelves.
Sharing space with dozens of art books and a complete collection of her dad’s children’s books were a half-dozen framed family photos. Julianne took her favorite down from the shelf. It was beginning to yellow and fold up around the edges with age. It was a shot of Julianne and her mother on the beach by their house, when Julianne was two or three. They had matching 167
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mother/daughter easels. Hannah had started a beautiful beachscape on hers, and Julianne’s easel was smeared with finger-paint—not to mention the paint all over her face, streaked on her bathing suit, and splashed on her little tod-dler bonnet. Her mother looked stunning—she was wearing a floppy hat and oversize sunglasses, with a paintbrush clenched between her teeth—and she was chasing after little Jules, who was about to make a mad dash for the water.
Julianne spent a minute with the photo, looking at herself, looking at her mom, before placing it gently back on the shelf. She picked up her canvas and headed downstairs.
When Julianne stepped outside, the sun was still shining and her father and sister were looking at her like she’d gone completely bonkers.
“Sweetie, are you all right?” her father said, breaking the ice.
Julianne looked back and forth between her father and Chloe. “I’m sorry for being such a drama queen, but I have something for you guys, and it is really important that I show it to you while the sun is still shining, or it just wouldn’t be right.”
She handed the wrapped canvas to her father, who took a seat next to Chloe on the deck. As Dad and Chloe unwrapped the brown paper together, Julianne watched the corners of her father’s mouth curl up in a sad smile. Chloe was grinning from ear to ear.
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“Oh my God! It’s amazing. It’s beyond amazing,” she gushed.
“Mom started this before she got sick and I wanted you guys to have it.” Julianne gestured to the beach beyond the deck. “Now we’ll always have Mom and we’ll always have our beach.”
“Julianne, it’s so different from your other collabora-tions with your mother,” her father observed, sounding pleased that his little girl had grown up to have such artistic range.
Jules nodded. “I guess so. It was really hard for me, actually. But I think it turned out okay.”
“It turned out better than okay,” Chloe gushed. “And like you said, we’ll always have the beach, just as Mom saw it.” Even though an undertone of sadness gripped all three of them, the Kahns shared a warm smile.
Julianne walked over to her father and threw her arms around his shoulders and said, “I’m glad you like it, Dad.”
As the beginnings of tears collected in the corners of Edward Kahn’s eyes, he hugged his daughter back and whispered, “Thank you.”
169
Chapter Eighteen
!
The music at the Fishtail was pumping at earsplitting volume and Julianne felt her body shaking in time with the bass. She and Remi had been out for hours.
It felt so good to just hang out and be a couple without stressing over who might be watching. Even if they tech-nically were the only ones who knew they were out as a couple. After work, they’d headed to happy hour with some of the guys from the crew, at a bar farther down the boardwalk. After happy hour, Mitch and Hunter in tow, they’d stopped by the Mean Bean to pick up Lucy and head over to the Fishtail to meet more friends from school. So many weeks of relative isolation had left Julianne beyond excited to be out on the town with her friends and her amazing new (secret) boyfriend. She 170
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wished Kat were there—she was sure that Kat and Remi would totally hit it off—but then they’d have some time to hang out together when Kat got back from Madrid in a few weeks.
Julianne surveyed the scene at the Fishtail. It was her favorite kind of boardwalk party, high energy and low key at the same time. Hunter, Mitch, and Remi were standing against the boardwalk railing, talking about colleges, while Lucy and Jules were perched on top of a picnic table, watching the scene unfold. Down on the beach there were a few clusters of night swimmers and kids playing volleyball, but most of the action was contained on the boardwalk. The waves were rolling into shore and they could hear the breeze blowing the palm trees. Seagulls were winging their way across the horizon.
“I love summer.” Jules sighed, taking a sip of the piña colada she was sharing with Lucy.
“I know, right?” Lucy agreed. “I just wish it would last longer. I can’t even start thinking about school—I have too much to do before then.”
As they spoke, Justin Timberlake’s voice came thumping out of the speakers. Jules grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled Lucy down from the table. “Don’t think, then!” she shouted over the music. “Just dance!” The girls laughed as they jumped up and down, winding their bodies to the beat. “Way to bring sexy back!” 171
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Julianne laughed at Lucy, who was dropping it all the way down to the floor.
“Um, I don’t think sexy ever left . . .” Lucy joked back, jabbing Julianne with her elbow. “Speaking of which, I’m going to go introduce myself to those guys over there.” She headed off to chat with a group of cute guys Jules vaguely recognized from school, who were shooting pool by the outdoor bar. Looking around the party, Julianne couldn’t help but notice that several other girls were admiring her boyfriend, and she laughed to herself. Then she looked down at her outfit—a Proenza Schouler tank top with a deep V-neck and funky buttons, a swingy skirt, and turquoise open-toed Seychelles slip-ons—and felt pretty hot herself. Her hair was curly, wild, and blowing in the ocean breeze.
Julianne tossed her head back and tried to soak everything in, waiting a long minute before heading down the boardwalk to catch up with Lucy. She glanced behind and caught Remi full-on staring at her. Maybe forced separation could be a little fun.
After a few hours, the party began to wind down, with couples strolling off in pairs and kids riding off on their bikes in every direction. Julianne and Lucy were dancing with some of Lucy’s co-workers from the Mean Bean and a few of the younger guys from the site, when Remi walked over and slid his arm around Jules’s waist.
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“Ready to head out?” he whispered into her curls.
She nodded and looked to her friends, who all looked ready to call it a night. Together, still bobbing their heads to the music, they all headed home.
Mitch and Hunter drifted away from the group first, to go meet up with some of the other guys from the cross-country team for a poker game; then Lucy’s co-workers left one by one. As Lucy, Julianne, and Remi made their way down the beach toward Lucy’s grandparents’ house, Lucy leaned over and tipsily stage-whispered in Julianne’s ear, “So, is this the boyfriend?”
“Huh?” Julianne was confused.
“The guy you were telling me about at the art store,” Lucy clarified louder. “The hottie you’ve had your eye on all summer?”
Julianne blushed, even in the darkness. Even perfectly sober, subtlety had never been Lucy’s strong point. “Yup. He’s the one.”
“You’re right, Jules. He’s cute—really cute!” Lucy giggled. “Oh my gosh, I almost missed my house.” Lucy looked up sheepishly before dashing off for home.
“Good night, you guys! Nice to meet you, Remi,” she practically cooed.
Remi finally slipped his hand into Julianne’s, and they walked the rest of the way down the beach together, stopping to sit down in the sand when they reached the stretch of beach between their two houses. Half an hour 173
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later, Julianne and Remi were lying on their backs, looking up at the stars. The weather had stayed clear all night, despite a threat of rain, and the sky was absolutely the most intense shade of navy blue that Julianne had ever seen. Normally, she would have been trying to figure out exactly how to mix the color of the sky, how to capture it. Tonight, however, she was too distracted by Remi’s hand resting on her stomach. Her entire body felt like it had been hit by lightning. As soon as Remi touched her skin, there wasn’t a single part of her that wasn’t hypercharged and tingling. It was almost as though she needed to either stay perfectly still or risk her entire body bursting into flames.
Remi rolled over and propped his head up on Julianne’s stomach. “What are you thinking, Jules?” He kissed her belly button, and Julianne felt her skin ignite again.
Julianne ran her fingers through Remi’s brown hair, which was getting scruffier by the day. “I’m thinking about the sky. Can you figure out what color that is?” Remi stared up and tried in earnest for a few minutes to figure it out. “Nope. Can’t say I can. But I also don’t think that’s what you were thinking about. Try again?”
Julianne laughed softly and continued playing with his hair. It wasn’t as soft as it looked, but it was surprisingly fluffy. Downy, almost. She thought she would be 174
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perfectly content just weaving her fingers in and out of it all night. She looked down and saw that Remi’s big eyes were staring up at her, filled with a mix of curiosity and expectation. “Are you actually still asking me?” Remi nodded.
“You’re really going to make me say it?” Remi nodded again.
“Okay, fine.” Julianne rolled her eyes. “I was thinking about your hair, okay?”
Even Remi looked a little surprised at this one.
“What?” Julianne challenged. “You have very nice hair; it’s a very interesting texture.” Remi rolled back over and buried his face against Julianne’s stomach. “I love dating an artist,” he mum-bled, laughing. Julianne sat up, like she’d been hit with a sudden inspiration. Jolted by the movement, Remi shot up after her. “Hey!” Julianne squealed. “I have a good idea.”
“What?” he asked gamely.
“How about you come here and kiss me?” She grinned.
“You don’t need to ask me twice.” Remi pulled himself up from the ground with a laugh.
Soon they were rolling over each other in the sand, laughing and kissing the kind of slow, greedy kisses that go on for days. They kissed like they were trying to breathe each other’s air. Julianne felt Remi’s tongue in 175
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her mouth, soft but insistent, like he was determined to find out more, but willing to take all the time in the world to do it. She ran her hands up and down his spine, tracing the muscles of his back. Jules remembered her surprise at seeing him in his towel in the trailer and blushed. Julianne hadn’t been surprised at all by what a great kisser he was—not even the first time they’d kissed at the party—but she was pleasantly surprised that every single time they kissed, it got better and better. Julianne’s tank top had slid up around her rib cage, and Remi bent to kiss her stomach and run his fingers along her sternum. She buried her face in his neck, and was kissing the side of his jawbone. Then she heard something moving farther up the beach.
She nudged Remi and hissed urgently, “Someone’s coming.” Remi’s already-huge eyes grew as big as Frisbees as he catapulted himself at least five feet away from her. “Nice air!” she whispered, grinning up to his standing figure.
Remi pointed to his sweater, which was sitting to Jules’s left. A minute ago, it had been tucked under her head while they looked at the sky. “Toss it somewhere!” Remi whispered, before subtly blowing her a kiss and taking off down the beach as though he were out for a night run. Julianne smoothed down her shirt and hair and tucked her legs under her, staring out at the ocean.
Absentmindedly, she began making piles of sand around 176
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her legs, transferring little bits from one pile to the other and back again.
The footsteps got closer, and Julianne was aching to turn around and see who had busted up her make-out session with Remi, but she was afraid of blowing her cover.
177
Chapter Nineteen
!
When the footsteps were directly behind her, Julianne tossed a casual glance over her shoulder just in time to see Chloe slide down next to her. Chloe’s coffee-colored hair was pulled into a high, tight ponytail, and she was wearing her teal Kappa Delta T-shirt and a pair of light blue seagull-printed pajama pants.
Chloe’s eyes scanned the beach and Julianne thought she saw her sister squint at the sight of the figure that was now a few hundred yards down the beach, moving at a steady jog. But if Chloe saw anyone, she didn’t say anything. She just pulled her legs up to her chest and turned her head toward Julianne.
“Cute outfit,” Chloe said.
“Thanks.” Julianne smiled at her sister.
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“Nice to know that even without my styling you, you can come up with something nice.” Chloe giggled. “So, was the Fishtail hopping?”
“Oh, Chloe, it was ridiculous, totally packed.” Jules leaned in to fill her sister in on that night’s party. “There was an awesome DJ and a ton of cute guys—even some we didn’t already know.” She laughed at the closeness of their town. “I think Lucy got, like, three new phone numbers.” Chloe laughed. “And you? Did you add anything to your little black book?”
“Not so much. I wasn’t really there looking, if you know what I mean,” Julianne answered.
“I have absolutely no idea what you mean. These days, I’m always looking!”
“Well, the Fishtail was an awesome place to look tonight,” Julianne conceded. “Everyone was dancing.
There was so much energy. Some freshman girls followed Mitch and Hunter around all night, just giggling at them. It was hilarious. Every time we turned around, there they were. But they never said a word!”
“Oh man.” Chloe laughed. “Do you remember when that was us? Watching senior guys pass by in the hallway at school and just totally losing it?”
“I know! Mitch even went up and asked them their names, and they just giggled and ran away.” Julianne leaned in closer to her sister, still laughing. “I thought Lucy was going to make them name tags or something.” 179
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“It sounds like it was fun.” Chloe sighed. “Much better than filling out charts all night.”
“You’ll have to come with us next time. It’ll be great!” Julianne promised.
Julianne linked her arm through her sister’s. She couldn’t have been happier to be sitting on the beach with her best friend in the world after a fabulous night, with one glaring exception. She felt gross not telling Chloe about Remi. Right now, they were the two most important people on Earth to her, and she would have loved it if they could somehow get along. She had a feeling they would, if Chloe could forget he was a Moore.
Save for some pilfered Halloween candy when she was eight, Julianne had never hidden anything from her sister before. It made her feel dirty.
Chloe’s voice jolted Julianne out of her reverie. “Let’s talk more about your night!”
“Okay,” Julianne replied enthusiastically. “What haven’t we covered? So, the Fishtail was packed, the music was great, people were dancing. It was really fun.”
“The guys were cute?” Chloe reaffirmed.
“Definitely,” Julianne answered, though her thoughts centered around one cute guy in particular.
“I haven’t been out in for-ever,” Chloe enunciated.
“All I do these days is work. I don’t think I’ve been to a party since Malibu.”
“Yeah . . .” Julianne trailed off noncommittally. She 180
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was realizing that her promise to go out with her sister next time around might not work if she wanted to see Remi, too.
“Can I ask you a question?” Chloe asked thoughtfully. Julianne felt her heart sink. She couldn’t have a heart-to-heart with Chloe right now. Not when there was something so big that she couldn’t share.
“Yup?” Julianne squeaked.
“How would you feel about having a little soiree next week?” Chloe suggested conspiratorially.
“While Dad is in New York?” Jules was hesitant—she already had way too many secrets in her life right now.
“You, my dear, are a mind reader. You know, like a bringing-down-the-house party?” Chloe pressed on, full steam ahead.
“A what?” Julianne had no idea what Chloe meant.
“A bringing-down-the-house party. You know, if the Moores are going to level our house anyway, then we ought to throw it quite the goodbye shindig.” Julianne felt her heart thud to her feet. Her pulse was racing.
“But wouldn’t Dad be pretty pissed off if we get to keep the house after all and there’s nothing left but a post-party pile of stones and beams?” Julianne focused on the mounds of sand she was still transferring from leg to leg.
“Fair enough,” Chloe answered thoughtfully. “I was halfway joking, anyway.”
Julianne rested her head against her sister’s shoulder.
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Her heart was still racing with the stress of being dishonest. “I know,” she said softly.
“So, tell me more about the Fishtail,” Chloe chirped.
“Who was there, who was single?”
“Um, Hunter and Mitch,” Julianne began.
“Yeah, but you run with them. They don’t count.
They’re too sibling-y to make out with. Who else?” Chloe pressed on.
“Oh, I don’t know. Some surfers. Some guys playing pool—Lucy was really into them.” Julianne wished this conversation would just stop, somehow.
“Hmm. Definite potential,” Chloe declared. “Anyone really catch your eye, though? Anyone special?” This was becoming torturous. “No one new.” Julianne answered, choosing her words deliberately so that she wasn’t lying, exactly. She thought she and Chloe had covered all of this already.
“Well, just meeting new guys is half the battle,” Chloe said supportively. “I know it was tough for you to get over McMansion Jr., but I’m really glad you did. It’s good to see you going out and meeting new guys.” Julianne was silent.
“Jules, you know I’m proud of you, right?” Chloe’s words were like salt in a huge cut on her sister’s heart.
“That painting was really amazing, you know,” Chloe said after a moment of silence.
Julianne smiled at her sister. “Thanks.” 182
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“Have you given any thought to applying to schools yet?” Jules could tell that her sister, always the organizer and the achiever, was gearing up for a big Jules-goes-to-college push.
“Sure,” Julianne said. “I mean, you know, some.
Nothing really serious. I’ve been sort of . . . occupied with other things this summer.”
“No, totally. I understand that.” Chloe nodded. “But you should really check out some art schools. You’re incredible—you’ll be beating off recruiters with a stick.”
“Oh yeah. That’s the best way to get a full ride to college, ya know,” Julianne teased. “I’ll definitely bring a stick along to all my campus interviews.” Chloe giggled. “I think that’s what they mean by taking the college application process into your own hands.
Beat them into submission and so on.”
“You never miss a beat, do you Chloe?” Julianne laughed at her own bad joke.
“Oh God, we really are related.” Chloe snorted.
“Please tell me we don’t pun alike. I think we Kahn girls may be genetically not funny.”
“I’m afraid it’s true,” Jules agreed—but she couldn’t help but laugh.
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Chapter Twenty
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A“w yeah!” Randy called as Julianne and Remi walked toward the staircase to the basement, tiles crammed into their tool belts, cement and spreaders in either hand. “If the bathroom’s a rockin’, don’t come a’knockin’.”
“Oh, stop!” Julianne laughed. “Remi and I are just going to lay some tile.”
“Well that’s a shame, darlin’,” Randy replied. As Julianne followed Remi downstairs, she heard Randy chuckling to himself.
Crammed into the tiny auxiliary bathroom in the basement of the eco-house, safely hidden from the tor-rential rains outside, Remi reached for a tile across Julianne’s lap and (maybe not so accidentally) brushed across her thigh.
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Every time he got anywhere near her, Julianne felt like she’d just walked into a really pleasant bug zapper.
Everything flashed blue and electric and she had to double check to make sure that she was still breathing.
She pulled herself together long enough to raise a sly eyebrow and tease, “Excuse me, Mr. Moore. A responsible project manager keeps his hands to himself.” She laughed at her own mock-saucy voice.
Remi shot back a sexy, “Oh yeah?”
“Definitely.” She pulled the zipper of her gray hooded sweatshirt up to her tanned collarbones.
Somewhere around noon, Julianne reached for the cement. As she stretched across the tiny bathroom, trying to wrap her fingers around the handle of the cement bucket and grab the wooden stirrer, the edge of her hoodie got caught on a loose piece of cabinet that hadn’t been installed yet. She lost her balance and went tumbling into the bathtub, the cement from the stirrer splashing across Remi’s new button-down, and one lone drop landing on his nose. The bucket teetered dangerously on the ledge for a moment before mercifully settling back in place.
Cement-splattered, Remi spun around, nearly as surprised to see Julianne sprawled out in the newly installed bathtub as she was to be there. “Hey, lady, you better watch where you’re splashing that stuff!” Remi scolded in mock indignation.
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“Or what?” Julianne shot back. “You’re going to rap my knuckles with your big bad T-square?” She burst into hysterical laughter as Remi tried to put on his best “I mean business” face.
“You know,” she managed to gasp between bouts of laughter, “it would be a lot easier to take you seriously if you didn’t have cement on your nose.” Remi groped around his face, trying to locate and remove the offend-ing cement. “C’mere.” Julianne reached a hand out to Remi and pulled him into the bathtub on top of her.
She licked one finger like a child’s grandmother in a shopping mall and started to scrub the cement off of his nose. Before Julianne could reach in for a second try, Remi caught her with a long kiss.
“I think I missed a spot,” Julianne breathed between kisses, tenderly reaching toward the remaining cement speckled on Remi’s nose.
“I think I can live with that,” Remi murmured back, winding his hand under Julianne’s tangle of curls and letting it rest on the warm nape of her neck. He pulled her face back to his again.
Julianne eased her lips apart, making room for Remi’s mouth on hers. Every time they kissed she only wanted to kiss more, kiss longer, and memorize the feeling of their lips meshing against each other.
Reflexively, she felt her entire body relax and sink into Remi’s. She pressed her palms flat against his strong 186
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back and pulled herself even closer to him. He did the same.
The outline of his cheek and nose pressed under her ear made Julianne positively giddy. She leaned back and slid down along the bathtub’s flat floor, bringing Remi along with her. She felt free and powerful and so ridiculously alive, in a way that nothing other than making art had ever sparked in her before.
“Stop!” Julianne giggled. “Did you hear something?”
“Probably just the guys upstairs making fun of us for a change.” Remi shrugged before kissing her again.
Before long, Julianne and Remi were too focused on making out to hear the bathroom door open.
Julianne heard a sickeningly familiar gasp. She froze under Remi, who took a few seconds to realize she’d stopped kissing him back. Julianne slowly sat up and pulled her hair out of her eyes. She thought she was hallucinating. Standing in front of the bathtub, slack-jawed in horror, her eyes filling with angry tears, was Chloe.
Julianne zipped up her hoodie and leapt out of the bathtub in one motion.
“Chloe?! What are you doing here?” She was pretty sure her heart was beating louder than Randy’s hammer upstairs. This was actually what it felt like the second before the whole world ended. Oh. My. God.
“Well, I’m not making out with my archenemy in a bathtub.” Chloe was oddly matter-of-fact as she said it.
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All of the color had drained from her face and her hazel eyes looked like dull coins. “The living room flooded.
Badly. Dad’s in New York and I need your help. I can’t do it by myself.”
Julianne looked at her robot sister and nodded dumbly. “Sure.” She heard the word hanging in the air before she realized that she had said it.
Chloe looked from Julianne to Remi and back again.
Then she stormed out, her hot pink galoshes squealing through the basement. Julianne began to run after her, then stopped mid-stride and turned to Remi. His eyes widened, and he started to reach a hand out to her. “I can’t see you again,” she heard herself say blankly before chasing Chloe out to the car.
For most of the ride home the sisters sat in tense, awkward silence. Finally, Julianne couldn’t take it anymore.
“Chloe, I’m so, so sor—” but Chloe dismissed her apol-ogy with a wave of her hand, restoring silence to the car.
Julianne had never seen her sister like this before. She was terrified and completely overwhelmed with guilt.
Then it was like someone flipped Chloe’s on switch.
All of the color came rushing back into her face, along with a lot of extra red. She went ballistic.
“I can’t believe you!” she bellowed at Julianne, before rapidly changing her mind and switching tactics. “No, I can’t believe him! ” She ran her hands through her hair like she was on the verge of ripping it out in clumps. She 188
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flailed, and if she hadn’t been piloting a small car down a flooded highway, she probably would have started pacing. “It’s not enough that he knocks me over at the first party of the summer,” she continued. “It’s not enough that he and his yuppie, tacky-ass parents move in and build the largest, ugliest house in the history of the universe. It’s not enough that they’re trying to kick my family out of the home we’ve owned since before I was born to make more room for their McMansion, but now he goes and screws around with my baby sister?! Is he evil? Is that his deal? Is he actually a malicious person who gets his kicks out of harming others?”
