Dare You to Chase the Soccer Player - Lacy Andersen Page 0,2
me after he uttered his name in such a weird way, but I just shrugged. It wasn’t the weirdest name I’d ever heard. Actually, it was kind of cool sounding.
“Thanks. I was getting tired of thinking of you as the mystery boy.”
Disbelief turned into a suppressed grin as he slid off the table and came to take a seat beside me. “So...you’ve been thinking of me?”
I threw my head back and laughed. Zane had some nerve. I liked it.
“Thinking about how you ruined my chance to work on that movie crew.”
He pulled his chin back and grimaced. “Hey! It wasn’t my fault you flattened that waiter and got shrimp sauce on your shirt.”
I gave him a sad smile. “Yeah, well, I guess it doesn’t matter now. I wasn’t even given the chance to charm my way into the makeup crew. All my hopes and dreams, down the drain, because someone wrongfully accused me of being a no-good sneaky reporter.”
“I’m really sorry about that, Lexi.”
One glance at the side of his face, and my heart sank. I’d only been teasing him, trying out my best flirting techniques, but he was staring hard at the floor as if I’d just accused him of capital murder. I’d never seen a guy be so serious. Usually, they were too busy hitting on me or tripping over themselves. I nudged him with my shoulder, smiling when he looked up at me.
“Hey, I haven’t given up yet. There’s a reason my sister calls me the most annoying person in the world. If I can’t charm my way in, plan B is to keep asking until they give up. No worries.”
He pressed his lips together for moment and then sighed. “For the record, I don’t find you annoying.”
“Yet.” I held up a finger. “But you barely know me.”
“Yet.” His lips maintained a serious expression, but I could see the glint of laughter in his eyes.
He searched my face and at once, all the air squeezed from my lungs. I didn’t usually get so nervous around guys. I mean, they were kind of a dime a dozen at my school. All fun to flirt with. Never worth getting serious for. I’d dated more than my fair share of the soon-to-be junior class boys and then parted as friends. Always leave them wanting more, that was my policy. They were as replaceable as the color-of-the-week lipstick tube in my purse.
So why was Zane giving me heart palpitations?
“Well, just remember that I don’t always look like this,” I said, patting my cheeks nervously. My skin had dried, but there was no telling how many of my acne scars were peeking through the washed-up concealer.
“What? You don’t always walk around looking like a butterfly?”
“What? No!” I wrinkled my nose. Shoot! In my anxiety over my foundation, I’d totally forgotten about the face paint job I’d done on myself before the party. Zane probably thought I was the weirdest person alive. “You know what? I’ve got a better idea. Just forget that you saw me today.”
“Why?” Zane pressed his lips together in thought, his gaze still taking in every inch of my face. “You look just as beautiful as the other night when we met.”
Electricity surged through my abdomen. I stared at him, waiting to see a hint of irony or sarcasm in his face, but he was as sincere as ever. I wasn’t sure how to respond. I’d never met a guy like him. This wasn’t flirting. He didn’t have an ulterior motive. That had been a true compliment. For the first time in a long time, blood rushed to my cheeks in embarrassment.
“You’re sweet.”
He shrugged and then pushed off the bench to walk toward the nearest window and stare out it. “No, just brutally honest. My dad says it’s a flaw I got from my mother. He says I need to learn how to bend the truth to my advantage.”
I winced as I watched Zane grimace at the rain. Ouch. My parents went through a rough divorce, but they never said anything that harsh to us kids. I didn’t even know Zane’s dad, but I already didn’t like him.
“Are you a crew member on the movie or something?” I stood up to join him at the window. The storm had begun to let up and the clouds had cleared in the distance. The beginning of a rainbow arched over a patch of bright blue sky. “That’s so cool you get to do stuff like that.”