The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 14

Second Lead Syndrome—the intense desire to see the second male lead end up with the female lead in a drama—was a serious, debilitating disorder that I had been suffering from since I began watching K-dramas over a year ago. I’d been hoping that my self-proclaimed foolproof plan to get Paige Bishop (the female lead) to fall in love with Caleb Nichols (the second lead) would be the cure I needed to get over it once and for all.

But instead of being the cure, my plan was the disease. Because I—the girl who was never meant to be part of the story—had fallen for the second lead myself.

I didn’t know what to do about that, so I decided to do nothing at all. I’d had crushes on lots of boys in my life, and I’d eventually gotten over all of them. My crush on Caleb wouldn’t be any different. Once we stopped hanging out, I’d be all like, “Caleb who?” within mere days.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

“Have you spoken with Caleb since last night?” Natalie asked me the next day. She had come over to my house for a This Love of Ours marathon, but it was so nice out we’d decided to lounge by the pool instead.

“Nope.”

In fact, Caleb and I didn’t speak for the rest of the night after our post-kiss talk. I actively avoided him, and he spent the rest of the party hanging out with Paige.

Since, you know, she was the one he was in love with.

I thought I would hear from him first thing this morning to give me an update. He left the party with Paige, and I was dying to know what happened on their ride home. But my phone had been silent all day. No calls. No texts.

Nothing.

I could feel Natalie’s eyes burning into me. I hadn’t told her about my newly realized feelings for Caleb, but I didn’t have to. Natalie knew me better than anyone else, and she had probably figured out I liked Caleb before I had.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked.

I turned my head and blinked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“The plan,” she replied simply. “The plan to get Caleb to fall out of love with Paige and to fall in love with you.”

“Nat,” I said, annoyed. “There is no plan. I’m not looking to get Caleb to fall in love with me.”

“Why not? Do you want to see him with Paige?”

“Yes, I do.”

She slid her sunglasses down her nose to peer at me. “That makes no sense. Why would you want the boy you like to be with another girl?”

“Because he wants to be with that other girl.” I sighed and closed my eyes. “What I feel for Caleb is just a silly crush. What Caleb feels for Paige is pure, unconditional love.”

Pushing her sunglasses back up, Natalie snorted. “Caleb doesn’t even know what love is. Neither do you and neither does Paige. Given the right circumstances, Caleb could easily fall for another girl and forget all about Paige. If he hasn’t already.”

My eyes flew back open and then narrowed over at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sitting up, Natalie swung her legs off the side of the lounge chair and turned to face me. “It means I’ve seen the way he acts with you—all flirty and playful. And I was there last night. I saw that kiss. Whatever feelings you got from it, he got them too.”

My heart skipped a beat at the thought, but I quickly dismissed the notion that the kiss had meant anything to Caleb. There was no way it could have.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, shaking my head.

“But I do. I’ve watched enough K-dramas to know how this story ends.”

“Oh yeah?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “And how, exactly, do you think this story ends?”

“The second lead gets the girl. Not the one he’s been in love with his whole life but the one who was introduced late in the story. You.”

I cringed. “You mean the consolation prize?”

That was what Natalie and I liked to call the female characters who were sometimes introduced into K-dramas late in the series. The characters usually only existed to soften the blow when the female and male leads ended up together and broke the second lead’s heart. The consolation prize character was usually a fiery, spunky girl who would take an automatic liking to the second lead. She was always a perfect match for him, but because viewers had spent an entire series rooting for him to be with the female lead, nobody ever cared about the other girl.

“You wouldn’t be the consolation prize,” Natalie assured me.

“Then what else would I be?”

She opened her mouth to answer but immediately shut it. There was no good response to that question.

“Look,” I said, “it doesn’t matter anyway, because you’re wrong. Caleb will be with Paige by the end of this story.”

“Oh yeah? You wanna make a bet?”

“No. I want to lie back, close my eyes, soak up some sun, and not think about Caleb for a while. Is that too much to ask?”

Apparently, it was, because as soon as the words were out of my mouth, my phone made a dinging sound, and I glanced down at it to see that Second Lead had sent me a text.

“Is that from him?” Natalie asked.

I nodded as I tapped on it to read the full message.

If ur not busy this afternoon, wanna hang out?

“What does it say?” Natalie craned her neck, trying to glance at the screen.

“He’s asking if I want to hang out this afternoon.”

“Hmm. Interesting.”

“What’s so interesting about that? We’ve been hanging out a lot lately.”

“Yeah, but not the day after you two made out with each other.”

I flushed as the memory of last night’s kiss popped into my head, but I quickly pushed it away. “We didn’t ‘make out’ with each other.”

“Yeah, well, you would have, if we hadn’t stopped you.” Leaning forward, Natalie propped her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in the palms of her hand. “It was so romantic.”

“Would you please cut it out?” I asked, suddenly wishing I had something to throw at her. “He probably wants to tell me about what happened with Paige after they left the party. Maybe she finally admitted to herself and to Caleb that she likes him as more than a friend. Maybe they kissed. Maybe my plan worked, and he and Paige are going to ride off into the sunset together.”

“Or maybe he wants some more lip action from you,” Natalie teased with a sly grin.

I shot her a glare.

“Don’t give me that look,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“Don’t say stupid things,” I shot back.

Natalie’s grin turned into a smirk. “So, are you going to hang out with him or what?”

“Of course not. I’m hanging out with you.”

“Not anymore, you’re not.” She stood from her lounge chair. “I just remembered I have somewhere else I need to be.”

“Oh yeah? Where?”

“Anywhere that’s not here.” Natalie picked up her glass of iced tea and finished it off in one big gulp. “You and I have the rest of the summer to hang out together. Who knows how much longer you have to win the heart of the boy you love?”

I sneered up at her. “I don’t love Caleb.”

“No, but you like him. That’s close enough. And you are dangerously close to losing him.”

With a shake of my head, I sighed. “I can’t lose something that was never mine to begin with. Caleb’s heart has always and will always belong to Paige. Sure, maybe I have a tiny crush on him, but it will end as soon as those two get together and I stop hanging out with him.”

“If you say so,” Natalie said with a shrug. “Either way, I’m outta here. Text him back. Go hang out with him. Call me later.” With a smile and a wave, she turned and went back inside the house.

As soon as she was gone, my phone chirped again.

I was thinking maybe we could go out for ice cream? My treat.

I smiled and texted back: Dairy Dreamer?

Within seconds, Caleb responded with: Of course.

My smile widening, I typed out,I suppose I could take time out of my busy schedule for some free ice cream.

Great! Meet me there in half an hour?Or do u need me to come pick u up?

Nope,I texted back, I have the car today.

OK, cool. See you then!

Without thinking, I typed out It’s a date! but then quickly deleted it because it wasn’t a date. It was most likely going to be a business meeting.

Because I was still working for him. I still had a plan I needed to follow through with.

And I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—let some silly crush get in the way of that.

***

“You really like ice cream, don’t you?” Caleb asked, amused as he eyed the enormous banana split that I’d just set down in front of me.

“Yes,” I said. “Specifically, banana splits.” I shot a judgmental glance at his choice. “Plain vanilla soft serve again? Why are you so boring?”

He put on his best fake-hurt expression. “I’m not boring. Vanilla is one of the most popular ice cream flavors.”

“Exactly. That’s why it’s so boring.”

“Whatever,” Caleb said with a shrug. “I didn’t ask you here to judge my ice cream preferences, you know.”

“No? Then why did you ask me here?”

“Because,” he said, “it felt like a good day for ice cream.”

“You could have asked anyone to meet you here. Why me?”

“Well, if I had known you would give me the third degree about it, I wouldn’t have,” he teased. “But seriously, I wanted to do something nice for you, after all that you’ve done for me. I mean, after putting you through the trauma of kissing me last night, this was the least I could do.”

I willed myself not to blush as I shoveled a heaping spoonful of ice cream and banana into my mouth. “It wasn’t that traumatic.”

“Not that traumatic, huh? Meaning it was still at least a little traumatic?”

I swallowed and shook my head. “I mean, I’ve experienced worse.”

Caleb grinned. “Like Bobby Middleton?”

I cocked my head in curiosity. “You know about that kiss?”

“Yeah. I was at that party.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Now that I thought about it, I could vaguely recall Caleb being there. Possibly even in that same spin-the-bottle circle.

“So, what other traumatic kisses have you had to endure?” he asked.

I took another bite of my ice cream. “That’s it. Just you and Bobby.”

Caleb frowned. “Really? You’ve only ever had two kisses, and neither one of them were real?”

“Now who’s judging?” I grumbled with a full mouth.

“I’m not judging,” Caleb said quickly. “I’m just surprised.”

“Why would you be surprised by that? I’ve never had a boyfriend, so it’s not like I’ve had many opportunities to kiss guys for real.” I paused and—realizing I didn’t care to talk about my lack of experience—changed the subject. “But enough about me. What happened with Paige after you left the party?”

“Nothing happened.”

“Did she still seem affected by the kiss?”

“Not really. I’m starting to think she did leave the circle to get something to drink.”

“That is so not the reason. We all saw her reaction.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. She was perfectly fine on the way home.”

“That’s what she wants you to believe.”

Caleb sat back in his chair. “Okay, so, what’s our next move?”

I was hoping he wouldn’t ask. I was hoping he wouldn’t want to talk about the plan at all. But of course, he did. What else would he want to talk to me about?

“Honestly,” I said finally with a sigh, “I’m not sure there is a next move.”

Caleb stared blankly at me, as though waiting for the punchline. “What do you mean?”

“I mean we’ve kind of exhausted all paths. And last night, we got Paige to a point where she’s on the brink of realization. It’s only a matter of time before she admits to herself that she has feelings for you. But in the meantime, I don’t think there’s anything left for us to do. This is now a hurry-up-and-wait kind of situation.”

“Oh.” Caleb’s face fell. “So, then, what? We call it quits?”

“Not necessarily. I just don’t know where to go from here.”

“Hmm.” Caleb’s expression grew thoughtful as he chewed on his bottom lip. His soft, warm, pillowy bottom lip—

Get a grip, Bria, I scolded myself. Forget about that stupid kiss.

“Maybe you could talk to Paige?” he suggested. “See if she’ll tell you anything?”

My breath hitched in my throat. Caleb didn’t know I’d already spoken to Paige, and she’d told me she only liked him as a friend. No. Worse than that. She told me he was like a brother to her. Granted, that was before she saw me and Caleb kiss. Maybe our conversation would go differently this time. After all, it was easy for her to say she’d be okay with the two of us dating when it was all hypothetical.

“I could do that,” I said with a slow nod. “But Paige and I never hang out. When would I even have the chance to spark up a conversation with her?”

He thought about it for a second. “How about tomorrow? We could go to the beach, and I’ll ask her if she’d like to come with us. I can find an excuse to leave the two of you alone for a while.”

The last thing I felt like doing was hanging out at the beach with Caleb and Paige. Watching the boy that I was crushing on checking out the love of his life in a bikini? No, thank you. But I had a job to do. I’d made promises that I needed to keep.

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Yeah, that could work.”

Caleb’s relieved face broke into a wide grin. “Thank you, Bria.”

“No problem.” I sighed dramatically. “Ah, the things I do for love. Other people’s love, of course.”

Caleb chuckled. “Well, hey, maybe when you’re done helping me, you can concentrate on finding your own male lead.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I lowered my gaze to my banana split. The cherry on top was slowly sliding down the side of the whipped cream mound toward a pool of melted ice cream, hot fudge and strawberry sauce and suddenly I wasn’t hungry anymore.

“You know,” Caleb said, “if this plan of yours actually ends up working, I’m going to owe you a lot more than just ice cream.”

“I accept Venmo,” I weakly quipped with a half-hearted smile.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Caleb said, laughing.

I also accept thank-you kisses, I added silently in my head. But I made sure to keep that thought to myself.

Because kissing Caleb Nichols was something that would never happen again.