The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 15

“Here,” Braden said the next afternoon, thrusting a twenty-dollar bill in my direction as I was grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

I glanced down at it in confusion. “What’s that for?”

“It’s for you to go buy a new bathing suit.”

Rolling my eyes, I shut the refrigerator door and dropped the water bottle into my beach bag. “Give it up, Brady. This bikini is here to stay. Whether you like it or not.” Only the top half was even showing; the bottom half was hidden underneath a pair of jean shorts.

“But that one is too small for you,” he argued. “And not to mention so last season.”

“Oh, suddenly you’re a fashion expert?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I just know there are a lot of cute one-pieces and tankinis that would look great on you. And I wanted to do something nice for you and buy you one.”

I pushed his hand away. “Thanks, but no thanks. A twenty wouldn’t be enough to buy a decent one. Also, the more you don’t want me wearing this bikini, the more I do want to wear it. You know how I can be when someone doesn’t want me to do something.”

“Fine.” Braden’s lips formed a thin line as he stuffed the twenty back into his pocket. “So, I take it you’re going to the beach, and you need the car?”

“Yes, I’m going to the beach, but no, I don’t need the car. Caleb’s picking me up.”

I could sense Braden’s disapproval before I turned my head and saw it on his face. “You’re going to the beach with Caleb?”

“Yes,” I replied. “And Paige.”

“Oh, even better,” he muttered sarcastically.

I sighed with annoyance. “Do you have a problem with me going to the beach with Caleb and Paige?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Why?”

“Hmm, let me think about that for a sec.” He stared up at the ceiling and thoughtfully tapped his chin. “Oh, that’s right. Because you have the hots for Caleb, and because you’re willingly putting yourself in situations that will only lead to heartache.”

I groaned. “Dramatic much? I don’t ‘have the hots’ for Caleb. I have a mild to moderate crush on him—big difference. And as for putting myself into these situations, I made a promise to Caleb that I would help him with Paige. I pretty much forced it on him. I can’t back out now.”

“Yes, you can. And you should.”

“And what reason would I give him for doing that?” I asked. “Just so you know, Caleb, I can’t continue to help you with Paige because you know that kiss we shared the other night? It was awesome, and I want to do it again. And again. And agai—”

“Please stop,” Braden interrupted, looking mildly sickened by that. “Don’t talk about kissing my friends. That’s gross.”

“Believe me, kissing Caleb was anything but gross,” I said, smirking as Braden slapped the palm of his hand to his face.

“I’m serious, Bria,” he said. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Brade,” I said, rubbing his arm, “I appreciate your concern for me, but—”

“Oh, it’s not concern for you,” he said, removing my hand. “It’s concern for me having to deal with you moping around the house for the next couple of months, moaning and crying about how you’ll never find love.”

I smacked his arm as hard as I could. “You’re a jerk.”

“What?” He chuckled as he pulled me into a hug. “You know I’m mostly kidding.”

I half-heartedly returned his hug as the doorbell rang.

“Gotta go. Caleb’s here.” I squirmed to remove myself from Braden’s embrace, but his hold on me tightened. “Braden, let me go.”

“No,” he said simply.

“I’m serious,” I said through clenched teeth. “Let me go, or I’ll—”

“Or you’ll what?”

I didn’t bother to tell him; I just stomped on his foot as hard as I could. With a yelp, he released me and hopped backward.

“Now who’s the jerk?” he mumbled with a scowl.

“Sorry. You should have let me go when I asked.” I grabbed my bag off the counter and sprinted out of the kitchen. “Don’t wait up,” I called to Braden over my shoulder.

When I opened the front door, Caleb was standing on the other side with a huge grin on his face.

“Hi, Bria,” he said brightly.

“Hi, Caleb.” I greeted him with a smile, but it immediately turned into a frown when I took in his appearance. He was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. “You’re not dressed for the beach.”

“Yeah, about that.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “There’s been a change of plans.”

I shot him a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” he began but stopped when his gaze traveled past me into the foyer. I glanced over my shoulder to see Braden standing behind me, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

“Hey, Braden,” Caleb greeted him.

Braden gave him a single nod of acknowledgment. “Hey.”

Caleb, now looking slightly uneasy, returned his attention to me. “Can we talk? Alone?”

“Yeah, sure.” I backed up and opened the door wider, motioning him inside. “We can go up to my bedroom.”

“Leave the door open,” Braden instructed, wagging his finger at us.

I rolled my eyes. “Sure thing, Mom,” I said before leading Caleb up to my room.

I shut the door as soon as we were inside.

“Is Braden mad at me or something?” Caleb asked, dropping down onto the edge of my bed.

“Nah,” I replied, “he’s being a protective brother. You kissed his sister while chasing after another girl. Even though he knows what we’re doing, it’s still a knee-jerk reaction for him to want to punch you.”

Caleb gulped. “He wants to punch me?”

“No, he doesn’t,” I said, giggling. “At least, I don’t think he does. Braden is being obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious.” I joined him on the bed. “Okay, so why the change of plans?”

“Well, here’s the thing.” Caleb paused for a moment. “I don’t think you should talk to Paige after all.”

I blinked at him in confusion. “Why not?”

He inhaled deeply and held his breath for a few seconds before finally letting it back out. “Because I’m going to tell her.”

“Tell her what?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“I’m going to tell her that I’m in love with her.”

I froze, not knowing how to react. Not knowing what to say.

“I can already tell by the look on your face that you think it’s a terrible idea,” he added.

I didthink it was a terrible idea. For more reasons than one. But I couldn’t tell him that. “It’s not that I think it’s terrible—”

“You don’t think I should do it?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just…” I struggled to think of the best way to put it. “It’s risky.”

Caleb nodded. “I know. But sometimes we need to take risks to get what we want in life, right?” He shifted to face me. “In any of the K-dramas you’ve watched, has the second lead ever confessed his feelings to the female lead?”

I opened my mouth to say that of course it had happened at least once, but I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. The female lead was never aware of the second lead’s feelings. Sometimes she would have a hunch that he might like her, but it was never confirmed by the second lead himself.

“Well, no—” I began, but Caleb cut me off before I could finish.

“Maybe that’s the problem.” A smile slowly tugged at his lips. “Maybe they would end differently if the second lead took a risk and told the female lead how he felt. Maybe if he confessed his love to her before the male lead had a chance to, they would get together instead and live happily ever after.”

“That’s not how K-dramas work,” I mumbled.

“That may not be how they work,” Caleb said, “but maybe that’s how real life works. The whole point of your plan was to turn me into the male lead, and you’ve pretty much done that. All that’s left for me now is to tell Paige I’m in love with her. Right?”

“Technically, yes, but—”

“I mean, one of us has to tell the other how we feel,” he continued. “And if I wait for Paige to be the one to do that, I’ll be waiting forever.”

He had a point there. Nodding, I said, “Okay, so, when are you planning on telling her?”

“I was thinking maybe tonight.”

I stared at him, slack-jawed. “Wow. Tonight? That’s soon.”

“I know, but I’m worried Tyler is going to ask Paige out any day now. I need to get to her before he does, or I’ll never stand a chance with her.”

He was probably right. I’d seen the way Paige acted around Tyler. She liked him. If he asked her out, there was no way she would say no. But maybe she liked Caleb, too. It was possible to like two boys at once. And if that were the case, whichever boy got to her first would be the boy who’d get to be with her. So, obviously, I understood Caleb’s sense of urgency.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked. “How are you going to do it?”

“Um, well, I was kinda hoping you could help me with that part.”

My breath caught in my chest. I should have known he would want my help. After all, he thought I was an expert on stuff like this.

Because I’d told him I was.

“Yeah, sure,” I said reluctantly. “Okay.”

Caleb broke out into a grin. “Really?” he said before leaning forward and wrapping his arms around me in a quick hug that I barely had any time to register before he pulled away. “Bria, you’re the best.”

“I am, aren’t I?” I flashed him a smirk, hoping he wouldn’t notice I was blushing.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice softening into a more serious tone. “You are.”

Something about the way he said that made my heart skip a beat, so I quickly pushed off the bed and headed for my dresser to retrieve the whiteboard.

Caleb’s eyes glistened with amusement as his gaze landed on it. “I’m going to miss that whiteboard.”

“Yeah,” I said, swallowing hard. “Me too.”

“Why are you going to miss it?” He chuckled. “It’s still going to be here, waiting to be used on your next project.”

With a weak smile, I said, “True,” even though it wasn’t. I was never doing this again. Not for anyone. I had learned my lesson the hard way that it was never a good idea to meddle in other people’s love lives. Someone was always bound to get hurt.

And just as Braden had predicted from the beginning, that someone was going to be me.

Pushing that thought aside, I popped the cap off the dry erase marker and turned toward the whiteboard for what was most likely the last time.

“Okay,” I said with a heavy sigh, “let’s get started.”

***

The disappointment on Natalie’s face was palpable as she slid her sunglasses down her nose to peer at me.

“What?” I asked innocently, digging my toes into the sand.

Since I was still dressed for the beach, I called Natalie as soon as Caleb left my house and asked if she wanted to go with me. I thought maybe it would help get my mind off everything. And it did—that is, until I was stupid enough to tell her about Caleb’s visit.

“I can’t believe you’re still trying to help Caleb get with Paige.” Natalie shook her head and pushed her sunglasses back up.

“Why can’t you believe that? It’s my job.”

“This isn’t a job, Bria. Do you get a paycheck? Health insurance? No. You don’t.”

I rolled my eyes. “I obviously didn’t mean this was a real job, Nat. I made Caleb a promise to help him. I’d like to keep it.”

“But you like him now,” she pointed out, as if I had forgotten.

“Yeah? So? I can’t let that interfere with my plan. It’s not like it was his fault I developed a crush on him.”

“Well, actually,” Natalie said with a snicker, “it kind of is.”

I made a face at her. “I mean he didn’t intentionally make me fall for him. He has no idea how I feel—and it’s going to stay that way.”

Natalie sighed. “Okay. Fine. So, what’s the big, romantic plan you came up with for tonight?”

With my index finger, I began drawing a heart in the sand. “Nothing fancy,” I replied with a shrug. “He’s starting by taking her to The End Zone for dinner. He’ll pretend they’re going to meet a couple of friends there, but those friends are never going to show up, and it will just be the two of them. I figured that would be a good way to start—you know, make it feel like they’re on a date without it actually being a date.”

Natalie nodded in agreement. “Okay. Solid. And then what?”

I drew a jagged line down the middle of my sand heart. “And then he’s going to bring her into one of the karaoke rooms and sing to her.”

“Again?”

“Yeah. He’s going to sing Can’t Help Falling in Love to her again—only this time, I won’t be there to make her think he’s singing it to me. After the song is over, if she hasn’t figured it all out, he’s going to tell her he loves her.”

“Oh.” Natalie pursed her lips. “Hmm. Well, I have to say, the entire thing seems kind of anti-climactic.”

“I know.” I ran my hand through the sand, erasing the heart. “But he wasn’t looking for anything too elaborate, especially since he wanted to do it tonight. There wouldn’t be a whole lot of time to prepare for anything too spectacular.”

Natalie was silent for a moment as she stared straight ahead at the ocean. “We need to go.”

I shot her a confused look. “Go where?”

“On their date.”

“Nat, are you insane? We’re not going on their date with them. Caleb won’t confess with us standing there staring at them.”

“No, silly,” Natalie said with a giggle, “I’m not saying let’s go on the date with them. I’m saying let’s follow them and observe from afar.”

“You mean spyon them?” I shook my head. “No. We’re not doing that. We’d probably get caught, anyway.”

“Not if they don’t recognize us.” A mischievous grin tugged at Natalie’s lips.

“Are you saying we disguise ourselves?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she said, sounding more and more excited with every word. “You have that black wig—”

“Nope,” I said, “I can’t wear that. Caleb has already seen me in it. I used that to disguise myself during the Bump and Catch, remember? I told you all about Carly Buchanan.”

Natalie pouted. “Oh, right.”

“Not that it matters,” I continued, “because we’re not going to follow them on their date.”

“Oh, come on,” Natalie said, nudging my arm. “You know you want to.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I know you. It’s going to drive you absolutely crazy waiting all night to hear from him, not knowing what’s going on.”

She was right. I desperately wanted to spy on their date. I didn’t want to have to wait until later tonight—or worse, tomorrow—to find out what happened.

And if Paige rejected him, I wanted to be close by to comfort him. And to apologize profusely for encouraging him to go along with my stupid plan to begin with.

Natalie leaned toward me with a smile on her face. “You’re considering it, aren’t you?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I am,” I grumbled against my better judgement.

“Yes!” Natalie exclaimed. She glanced down at her phone. “We still have plenty of time. If we leave now, we can hit up a few stores and pick out a couple of wigs and new outfits.” As she began packing our stuff, she added, “This is gonna be so much fun!”

Maybe it would be fun for her, but not for me. I had a feeling tonight was going to be a success, and Caleb was going to get everything he wanted.

He was going to get the girl.

And I was going to be left with nothing but a broken heart.