The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 6

“Nat, I’m so bored,” I whimpered into my phone the next afternoon. I had just finished doing dishes—my assigned chore of the day—when Natalie called to talk. Naturally, I was thrilled to hear from her because now that my housework was done, I literally had nothing to do for the rest of the day.

“Me too, Bria,” Natalie moaned. “My grandparents woke me up at six o’clock to go bird watching. Bird watching! At six in the morning! And now they’ve left to go antiquing and I’m all alone with nothing to do! I’ve read all the books I brought with me, and I can’t even watch This Love of Ours because…well, you know why.”

I sighed as I left the kitchen and made my way toward the living room. “I know. I’m sorry, Nat. If you’re that bored, though, you can watch the show without me. Just don’t tell me anything about it.”

“I can’t do that. You know how bad I am with spoilers.”

I did know how bad Natalie was with spoilers. She had ruined many movies, TV shows, and books for me—and for countless other people—in the past. She never did it on purpose; it was an uncontrollable condition she had, and I had learned to live with it.

“Really, it’s okay,” I assured her. “I might be able to talk my mom into giving my TV privileges back before you come home, anyway.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Then I guess I’ll have to—”

The sudden sound of the doorbell interrupted me.

“Are you expecting company?” Natalie asked.

“Not that I’m aware of. Hang on.” Lowering the phone from my ear, I made my way to the door to answer it. I froze in surprise as soon as I opened it and saw who was standing on the other side.

Caleb.

“Hi,” he greeted me with a small smile.

Quickly snapping out of my shock, I brought the phone back to my ear. “Hey, Nat? I gotta let you go. I’ll call you later.” I ended the call and flashed Caleb a huge grin. “Caleb! You’re here! I knew you’d change your mind!”

Caleb’s smile slowly faded as he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Oh, um, actually, I’m not here to see you. I’m hanging out with Braden today.”

My shoulders sagged in disappointment as a pair of strong hands suddenly clamped down on them from behind me.

“Did I not tell you I was having friends over this afternoon?” Braden asked.

I shrugged out of his grasp and spun around. “No, you didn’t.”

“Oh. Well, Mom and Dad said I could, and by the way, I’m going to need you to get lost.”

I gaped up at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m having my friends over,” he reiterated. “I don’t want my little sister hanging around and bugging us all day.”

With a glare, I shook my head. “I’m not your little sister, brainiac. We’re twins. We’re the same age.”

Braden chuckled. “But you were born after me and you’re shorter than me, which makes you my ‘little sister’ in every way. Regardless, you need to leave.”

“She doesn’t have to leave,” Caleb said.

I shot him an appreciative smile over my shoulder. “Thanks, Caleb.” Turning back to Braden, I said, “I’ll stay in my room all day. You and your friends won’t even know I’m here.”

“But they’re going to be here all day. Isn’t there anything you’d rather do outside the house? You’ll have the car all to yourself. You could go anywhere you’d like.”

This wasn’t the first time Braden had told me to get lost because he was having friends over. Usually, it was no big deal because I would go over to Natalie’s house. But Natalie wasn’t here right now, so that was out of the question.

“Why are you so embarrassed by me?” I asked, but I was only teasing. I knew the problem wasn’t that Braden was embarrassed by me—after all, I was the female version of him. The problem was that he was determined to keep me away from his friends. Not because he was afraid that I would steal them from him, but because he was afraid one of them might hit on me.

Little did Braden know, he had nothing to worry about. Not only had none of his friends ever hit on me, but no other boy had ever hit on me either. And I couldn’t foresee that changing anytime soon.

“I’m not embarrassed,” he grumbled. “I just think it would be better if you—”

“Yeah, yeah. I know the drill.” I shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’ll leave. Give me a few minutes, okay? You kind of sprung this on me last minute.”

Braden smiled and gave me a pat on the top of my head. “Good girl.”

I gave his shoulder a good shove, but he didn’t even budge.

“C’mon, Caleb,” he said past my shoulder. “The other guys should be here any minute.”

Caleb nodded. “Okay.” As he brushed past me, he mumbled, “See ya,” before following Braden out of the room.

I couldn’t help but feel deflated. I had been hoping he was going to change his mind about me helping him, but no such luck. He really was done with it all.

The doorbell rang again, and I called out to Braden to answer it while I went upstairs to change out of my bum-around-the-house outfit of yoga pants and a tank top. After throwing on a pair of jean shorts, a t-shirt, and my soda-stained Converse, I made my way back downstairs to grab the car keys and to let Braden know I was leaving.

“Hey, Braden, I’m heading out now,” I said as I walked into the kitchen, but quickly realized upon entering that he wasn’t there.

“He’s out back,” Caleb explained. He was sitting alone at the kitchen table like a weirdo.

“Thanks.” I grabbed the car keys off the island. “What are you doing in here all alone?”

“Actually, I was waiting for you to come back down so I could talk to you.” He pushed back his chair and stood from the table. “Look, Bria, I wanted to apologize for yesterday.”

“Apologize for what?”

“For giving up on our plan so easily.”

I perked up. “Wait—did you change your mind?”

Caleb looked guilty as he shook his head. “No, I didn’t change my mind. I just felt bad for quitting so suddenly and walking away like that.”

“Oh.”

“I also wanted to thank you again, for offering to help me,” he continued. “I do appreciate it.”

Apparently not enough to let me keep helping him, though.

“I’ll admit, I’m bummed that you gave up, but I guess I understand where you’re coming from. I can see how my plan would seem silly to you.”

“Not silly,” he said. “Just pointless. Paige is never going to fall for me.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Well, I do,” he lamented. With a shrug, he backed up toward the sliding glass door that led onto the deck. “I’ll see you later.” He gave me a small, pitiful wave before sliding the door open and joining Braden and the other guys out back.

I should have felt discouraged that Caleb hadn’t changed his mind about giving up on our plan, but I didn’t. And that was because, during our brief interaction just now, I could tell he didn’t want to give up. He thought it was his only option.

And now it was my mission to prove to him just how wrong he was.

***

An hour after leaving Braden alone with his friends, I was sitting on a mall bench, killing time on my phone, when I heard my name spoken by a familiar female voice. I blinked up in surprise to see Paige staring down at me with a warm smile on her face.

“Bria?” she said brightly. “Hey!”

“Um, hey,” I reluctantly greeted her. I wasn’t used to talking to Paige. Since we didn’t run in the same circles, we’d never had any reason to talk to each other. So, naturally, I was surprised that she had decided to say hello.

“Are you here alone?” she asked.

“Yeah. Braden kicked me out of the house because he was having friends over.”

Paige giggled. “That’s right—Caleb’s there, isn’t he?”

“Yup.” My gaze slowly traveled to her left and I realized Paige wasn’t alone. Next to her stood Tyler Baldwin, looking hotter and blonder than the last time I saw him.

Paige must have noticed me looking at him with curiosity because she said, “Oh, you two probably haven’t met yet. Bria, this is Tyler Baldwin. He just moved here from California.” She turned to Tyler. “You remember Braden? You met him at the beach the other day? This is Bria, his sister.”

“Twin sister,” I added, even though that information wasn’t important.

Tyler grinned at me. His teeth were sparkly and bright white, a stark contrast against his bronzed skin. “His twin, huh? But you two look nothing alike. You got all the good looks.”

Hmm. Okay. So, he was a charmer. A charmer with a thick Californian accent. No wonder Caleb was so worried about Paige hanging around with him.

I willed myself not to blush as I reached out my hand to him. “Thanks. It’s nice to meet you, Tyler.”

He gave me a firm yet somehow still gentle handshake and said, “The pleasure is all mine, Bria.” He paused. “That’s a beautiful name, by the way. Is it short for something?”

“Brianna,” I replied.

“Brianna.” He let my name linger on the tip of his tongue for a moment before adding, “Even more beautiful.”

Okay. Perhaps Caleb was right. My plan wasn’t going to work. This Tyler guy, though not my type, was serious competition. Not just for Caleb, but for every other guy at our school. Tyler could have any girl he wanted. If he decided he wanted Paige, it was game over for Caleb.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, suddenly feeling shy. “Again.”

“You are most welcome, Brianna,” he said, ending his sentence with a wink.

“I’ve been showing Tyler around town today, since he’s new to the area,” Paige said. If she was bothered by Tyler’s somewhat-flirty interaction with me, she wasn’t showing it. “We were about to grab some lunch in the food court. Would you like to join us?”

It was an unexpected invitation. Paige and I had never hung out before, and it seemed odd that she would ask me to join her and the new guy for lunch. But, since I had plenty of time to kill before it was safe to return home, I nodded.

“Sure. I’d love to.”

“Great!” Paige exclaimed with a smile.

I followed her and Tyler to the food court, where we all decided to get burgers and fries. Tyler ordered a veggie burger instead and I was intrigued.

“Are you a vegetarian?” I asked him after he paid for the order. He was sweet and paid for all three of our meals, even though I insisted on paying for mine.

“Not completely,” he replied as we made our way to an empty table to wait for our food. “I don’t eat red meat or poultry, but I do eat fish. It’s hard to spend almost every day in the ocean and not want to eat what comes out of it.”

Paige giggled as she rested her fingertips lightly on Tyler’s arm. “Tyler was a surfer in California. He even competed and everything.”

“Oh yeah? That’s cool.” I turned to him. “Where did you live in California?”

“Santa Cruz.”

“Wow,” I breathed. “That must have been hard to go from that to, well, this.” I motioned around the modestly sized food court of the only modestly sized mall within a hundred miles.

Tyler shook his head. “No way, this town is rad. The ocean is a short drive away. There’s hardly any traffic. And from what I’ve seen so far, the girls here are gorgeous.” He paused to wink at Paige. “I love it here so far.”

Paige’s face flushed pink. Why wouldn’t she blush? The guy had lived in California; he would know a thing or two about gorgeous girls. And obviously, he thought Paige was gorgeous.

Oh no. Tyler was flirting with Paige. Hard. And she was loving it. I couldn’t let this continue. She was supposed to be falling for Caleb. Her best friend—the second lead. I had to put a stop to this.

I had no idea how I was going to do that, but luckily, I didn’t have to figure it out. The pager we were given after we ordered our food suddenly lit up and vibrated against the table.

“Food’s ready,” Tyler said, jumping up from his chair. “I’ll go grab it. Be right back.”

I watched Paige watch him walk away and had to refrain from frowning. The girl had a crush.

But on the wrong boy.

“Tyler seems nice,” I commented, breaking Paige out of her trance.

“He does,” she agreed.

“And easy on the eyes, too.”

“I know, right?” She smiled bashfully as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and lowered her gaze to the table.

“Does he have a girlfriend back home?” I asked, hoping that he did. Even though they’d be three thousand miles apart in a long-distance relationship, it was doable. They only had one year of high school left and could meet up again to go to the same college. In the meantime, Tyler could remain completely faithful to her, thus leaving Paige available to be with Caleb.

“I don’t know. I haven’t asked, and he hasn’t mentioned one.” She eyed me curiously with a small smile. “Why? Are you interested?”

“What? No. Not at all.” And you shouldn’t be either. “Are you?”

Her smile faded as she shrugged. “Honestly, I haven’t given it any thought.”

She was lying through her teeth, I could tell. She had most definitely given it some thought. How could she not?

“Here we are,” Tyler said, returning to our table. He took the basket containing my mushroom Swiss burger and seasoned fries off the tray and set it down in front of me. He handed Paige hers and then sat back down.

“Thank you so much again for paying for our food,” Paige said to him as she popped a fry into her mouth.

“You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “You’ve been so nice to me since I moved in next door, and I really appreciate you taking the time to show me around.” He glanced between the two of us with a smile. “You know, I was worried before moving here that I’d have a hard time fitting in and making friends, especially with this being my senior year and all, but I’m not worried about that anymore.”

“How could you worry about not fitting in and making friends?” Paige asked, looking genuinely confused. “You’re like one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.”

I averted my attention to my burger. I couldn’t watch this anymore. Paige was flirting with Tyler. Tyler was flirting with Paige. I’d seen this scene in every K-drama I’d ever watched. I knew how the story would end, and Caleb wasn’t going to like it.

I let the two of them converse while I ate my food, involving myself only when directly asked a question by one of them. Otherwise, I spent my time observing them. I paid close attention to what kind of things Tyler said to Paige that made her smile, giggle, or blush. He talked about surfing and life in California, which she thought was “so cool”. He talked about his love of animals, especially his golden retriever named Fetch, which she thought was “so sweet and adorable”. He talked about how he played the drums in a band back home, which she thought was “awesome”. And when Paige complimented him on his wild shirts and his floppy, beach-waved hair, I was suddenly hit with an idea so splendid, I immediately pushed my chair back and stood up from the table.

“Well, I hate to eat and run, but I should probably get going.”

Paige and Tyler turned to look up at me.

“Aw, really?” Paige pouted up at me. “Are you sure you don’t want to be my co-tour guide for the rest of the afternoon?”

“That sounds like a lot of fun, but I just remembered I have to go talk to somebody about something really important.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, disappointed. “Well, thanks for having lunch with us.”

Tyler nodded in agreement. “It was nice to meet you, Bria. Hopefully, I’ll see you around.”

“You probably will,” I assured him. If he became friends with Braden, I’d be seeing him around all the time. Picking up my empty food basket, I smiled at him and added, “Thanks again for lunch.”

“No problem.” Tyler returned my smile with a toothy grin that showed off his perfectly straight, white teeth that sparkled in the overhead lighting of the food court.

He must have had one hell of a dentist in California.

We said our goodbyes and I quickly made my way out of the mall. I hated to leave so abruptly, but I had to get to Caleb before he left my house. I had to tell him about my new idea. My new plan.

Hopefully, I could get him to listen.

***

Caleb’s car, along with a few others, was still parked along the side of the street in front my house when I got back. No big surprise there—I hadn’t been gone all that long. Barging in through the front door, I was immediately greeted with the sound of loud voices coming from the living room. Usually, when Braden had friends over, they played video games for hours and raided our pantry. Sure enough, when I stepped into the living room, he and his friend Troy were sitting on the couch, controllers in hand, playing a football game while the rest of the guys loudly rooted them on.

I was suddenly glad Braden had forced me to leave for the afternoon.

“Hi,” I said from the doorway. Nobody responded—probably because I was using my indoor voice—so, after a few seconds, I decided to walk right over to Caleb directly and drag him out of the room.

He didn’t even notice I was there until I grabbed his arm.

“Hey,” he protested as I started to pull him out of the room.

Without looking away from the TV screen, Braden said, “Bria, what are you doing home? I thought we agreed—”

“Keep playing your game, Braden,” I said to him over my shoulder as Caleb and I exited the room and headed up the stairs.

“Bria,” Caleb began as soon as we stepped into my bedroom. “What—”

“Just listen,” I interrupted. “Look, I know you told me that you were done with my plan and that you weren’t going to change your mind about that, but I’d like you to please reconsider.”

“Nope,” he said firmly. “I’m not going to reconsider.”

“What if I told you that I have a different plan?” I walked over to my closet and pulled out the whiteboard that still had my original plan scrawled all over it. Bringing it over to my dresser, I propped it against the wall and erased everything off it.

“What kind of different plan?” he asked skeptically.

Instead of answering his question, I said, “Guess who I ran into at the mall this afternoon?”

He didn’t even bother taking a guess. “I have no idea. Who?”

“Paige,” I replied. “And Tyler.”

Caleb blinked in surprise. “They were there together?”

“Yeah. She said she was giving him a tour of the town. They asked if I wanted to join them for lunch and I took them up on the offer.”

“Oh.” Caleb shrugged. “So? How does this relate to this ‘different plan’ of yours?”

“Well,” I said, taking a seat on the edge of my bed, “I got to thinking about my original plan, and I realized that I didn’t blame you for wanting to give up on it. It was way too ambitious. Not for beginners. And as I sat in the food court this afternoon with Paige and Tyler, I found myself observing them and how they interacted with each other. I saw what made Paige laugh and blush, and that’s when it hit me: if we want to make her fall in love with you, we need to change you.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed into a slight glare. “Excuse me?”

“I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with you,” I added quickly. “Because there isn’t. I’m saying that Paige is obviously attracted to Tyler. And if you want her to be attracted to you, maybe we should turn you into Tyler.”

He didn’t look convinced. “How would we do that?”

“Easy. We start by changing your appearance.”

“What, to look more like Tyler?”

“Exactly. And then, after that, we work on your personality.”

Caleb looked offended. “Change my appearance? Work on my personality? Gee, Bria, you sure do know how to make a guy feel good about himself.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know your looks and personality are perfectly fine. But Tyler’s looks and personality are what have grabbed Paige’s attention, so if you want her to start paying attention to you the same way she’s paying attention to Tyler, then you need to become Tyler.”

“But I don’t want to become an airheaded surfer dude,” Caleb whined.

“Trust me—Tyler’s not some ‘airheaded surfer dude’. There’s a lot more to him than you think. He’s charming and sweet. He’s a nice guy.”

Caleb snorted. “Well, then, why don’t you date him?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his eyes widened as an invisible light bulb illuminated above his head. “Wait a minute—why don’t you date him? That should be your plan. If you seduced him and got him to be your boyfriend, it would take him off the market and Paige would have no reason to drool over him anymore.”

I gaped up at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I mean, you think he’s hot and nice, so you should date him.”

I shook my head. “Even if I wanted to date him—which I don’t, by the way—it wouldn’t matter because I’m not the one Tyler is interested in. Paige is.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Actually, I do know that. You weren’t at the mall with us today. You didn’t see the way Tyler was flirting with her, or the way he was looking at her. Caleb, if you don’t act fast, you’re going to lose your chance with her. Maybe forever.” I was being a bit melodramatic, but I had to be. Caleb needed to understand how dire the situation was.

Looking defeated, Caleb dropped down onto the bed next to me and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his lap as he stared straight ahead at the wall across the room. “You really think they like each other?”

I nodded solemnly. “I do. And it’s only a matter of time before he asks her out, and she will say yes. Unless, of course, there is another boy she finds herself falling for first.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of Caleb’s mouth. “The second lead?”

“The second lead,” I said, bumping his shoulder with mine.

With a heavy sigh, Caleb turned his head to look at me. “You think we could pull this off?”

“I do. And I promise, if I fail yet again, I’ll be done with this. I’ll stop bothering you about it. In fact, I won’t bother you about anything, and you’ll never have to talk to me again.”

Caleb’s smile finally emerged into a lopsided grin as he returned my shoulder bump. “I like the sound of that.”

“Gee, thanks,” I chuckled.

“I’m kidding, of course,” he said. Pushing up off the edge of the bed, Caleb stood in front of me and crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay. I’ll give you one more shot at this. I’m in.”

My jaw dropped in shock. I hadn’t been expecting him to agree to go along with my new plan so easily. He must have been desperate. “Really?”

“Really.”

Without thinking, I leapt off the bed and threw my arms around him in a quick hug—one that I immediately recognized as being weird. We weren’t close enough friends to be hugging each other. We weren’t even friends at all. Just business partners, mostly.

Clearing my throat, I quickly let him go and backed away before he felt obligated to return the embrace. “You’ve made the right choice,” I said. “You will not regret this. I promise.”

Caleb, suddenly looking uncomfortable, let out a breath as he ran a hand through his hair. “I hope you’re right.”

“I am.”

“Okay, then.” He walked over to my dresser, picked up the freshly erased whiteboard and then handed it to me, along with a purple dry-erase marker. “Let’s see this new plan of yours.”