Char, who has just emerged from the dressing room with the yellow dress slung over her arm, gapes at us. “But he’s only a sophomore!”
“Seriously.” Madeline shakes her head at her phone as if Thayer can see her.
“Wait, he asked if you were going as if you hadn’t already been invited?” I sputter.
Madeline nods. “As if he’s the cool one, not me.” Then she points at a bracelet I’ve picked up from the table. “I love that.”
“It’s yours.” I wink at her, and she widens her eyes back, grinning, knowing what I’m going to do. But my mind isn’t really on the five-finger discount. It’s on Thayer 2.0. Who is this guy? Unbidden, the image of his chiseled abs and defined calves floats in my mind. I force myself to push it away.
“He definitely thinks he’s the man since coming back from soccer camp, huh?” I say. “Like he’s the only guy who’s ever played a sport before.”
Madeline rolls her eyes. “Thayer had some kind of crazy transformation while he was away. Suddenly he thinks he’s a sex god or something. Apparently he had a serious girlfriend while he was there. She was super into him, and now she won’t stop calling. He claims she’s stalking him.”
“Please,” Charlotte says as she sashays toward the register. “I’m sure he doesn’t mind being stalked.”
I smile, but I’m not so sure about that myself. Thayer used to be so quiet—at least, that’s what I thought of him. But it’s starting to seem like I had the wrong idea about Thayer all along.
As Charlotte winds around the racks, she plucks up a La Perla bra-and-panties set and adds it to her pile.
“La Perla?” The corners of my mouth twitch. “Planning a hot night with Garrett?”
Charlotte’s cheeks flare a bright pink, but she doesn’t deny it. As the salesclerk rings up the purchase, I slide the bracelet up my sleeve, easy as that. Then I look at Madeline. “So Thayer isn’t into Stalker Girl, then?” I try to sound nonchalant, like I don’t really care.
Madeline leans against the counter. “I don’t know what their deal was this summer, but I definitely don’t think he’s into her anymore,” she says, eyeing me. “Honestly? I think he might have a crush on you, Sutton.”
I feel an unexpected little zing in my stomach. Then I freeze, trying to suppress my reaction. “Aw, how cute,” I say teasingly. “But Sutton Mercer doesn’t do younger guys. Thayer should know that.”
My friends nod and turn away, but my heart is pounding. Yes, I’ve known Thayer liked me before, but suddenly it feels different. Only, am I insane? Thayer might be hot now, but … he’s still Thayer. Madeline’s younger brother. Laurel’s best friend. Quiet. Sensitive. The opposite of me. Thayer’s the guy who’s spent hours at our house on weekends, playing cards—cards!—with Laurel the Lame, the guy who sneaks over late nights to hang out in our backyard shed that we’d made over into a quasi-clubhouse. He’s a kid. Not in my league.
Still, a hazy memory flits through my mind: last summer, Thayer and Laurel passed through the kitchen while I sat at our round oak table, thumbing my iPad. I barely glanced up at them as Laurel opened the refrigerator and pulled out a tall glass pitcher of iced tea. But that didn’t stop her from approaching me brightly. Her ponytail swung like the pendulum of a clock.
“Want some?” she offered, hopeful and perky. I barely mumbled an acknowledgment, ignoring her hurt expression. I felt Thayer watching me, but it just annoyed me back then. When I looked up, his hazel eyes were trained on me, as though he could see what I was thinking and was disappointed.
“What?” I snapped.
His lips twitched, and he turned away silently. I’d glared at him as he and Laurel went outside toward the clubhouse, wondering what that look had been for. Did he think I needed to be nicer or something? Who was he to tell me what to do? And why, most of all, did I care what he thought of me? But the look stuck with me for days. Maybe Thayer had been challenging my authority for a while now.
The sound of the register opening brings me back to Jolie. I shrug, brushing the moment off me like a used towel. The salesclerk hands Charlotte her shopping bag, crisp and sharply edged. Charlotte smiles and we make our way toward the exit. Suddenly, she stops in her tracks, a slow grin spreading across her face.
“You guys, I have the best idea,” she says.
Madeline and I look at her, and she leans in conspiratorially.
“What if we prank Thayer?” Her eyes gleam. “For the Lying Game.”
Madeline’s mouth turns up at the corners, amused. “How?” she asks, waving her hand in an I’m listening gesture.
Charlotte runs her free hand through her auburn waves. “So, Sutton would never go for Thayer in a million years, right?”
“Right,” I say quickly. Maybe too quickly.
“Well, what if we make it seem like she likes him? Sutton pretends that she’s totally into him, and then when he falls on his knees professing undying love—preferably in a highly public place—we all pop out and surprise him, telling him it was a huge joke!” She practically bounces on her heels from excitement.
Madeline bites her lip, contemplating. “It would definitely take him down a few pegs,” she agrees. “Which he deserves, especially after calling us out like that at the pool.” Her eyes light up as she warms to the plan. “I like it. But what about you, Sutton? Do you want to do it? Do you think you could reel Thayer in?”
I arch an eyebrow at her. “Who do you think you’re talking to?” It’s a silly question. Reeling unsuspecting guys in is Lying Game 101. And I’m the best at it. “But, I mean, he is your brother,” I continue, considering. “Are you sure you want to crush him so badly?”
Madeline puts her hands on her narrow hips. “Look, you don’t need to demolish him two hundred percent or anything like that, but … yeah. He has it coming. You saw how cocky he’s gotten lately. And it’s not just annoying me—it’s driving my father crazy, too.”
Her eyes darken, and she turns away. Char and I exchange a look. We all know about Mr. Vega’s temper, which seems to flare up for the stupidest reasons. I wouldn’t want to get on that man’s bad side.
We step through the exit of the shop into the blazing heat of August in Tucson. I raise my arm and offer the salesclerk a wave, bangle falling down my sleeve and dancing on my wrist. She smiles back, preoccupied, her dirty blond hair falling in a shiny curtain over her shoulders.
Feeling triumphant, I turn to the girls. “I’m in,” I decide. “I’m always down for a challenge.”
3
FAIR PLAY
That night, my two friends and I walk the grounds of the annual Pima County Summer Fair on the west side of town. Mosquitoes, plentiful because of this summer’s particularly wet monsoon season, flit around us, and fire-flies flicker. The greasy smell of funnel cake clings to our clothes and makes our mouths water, even though we wouldn’t dare order one. As the pirate-ship ride to our left gets going, the passengers start to scream excitedly. You’d never get me on that thing. My mom always says county fair rides are held together by bubble gum and duct tape and little else.
Charlotte traipses back from the cotton candy booth, a truffula tree of spun pink sugar in her hand. “Oh my God, did you see the guy running the cotton candy stand? I think he had, like, three teeth.”
I give the scrawny-looking guy a wink, and Charlotte practically spurts cotton candy out her nose.