The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 7

“I don’t like this,” Caleb said to me at Old Navy the next day. He stood tall, staring down at me with an intense look of disdain.

I smirked as I continued rifling through a rack of Hawaiian shirts in search of the perfect one for Caleb to try on. When I said nothing, he continued.

“Why did I agree to go along with this, again?”

“Because you’re hopelessly in love.” I playfully nudged his shoulder. “And you’ll do anything to win the heart of your female lead. Right?” I pulled out a shirt—a dark blue button up with a loud floral and leaf pattern—and held it up to him. “Oh, this is going to look amazing.”

With a groan, he snatched the shirt from my hands and draped it over his arm along with the other two I’d already handed him. “Can I go try these on now? I want to get this over with.”

“Yeah, sure. Go ahead.” I motioned to the line of fitting rooms only a few feet away from us. “But you have to model them for me.”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he mumbled. After flagging down an employee, he disappeared inside one of the rooms to change.

I only had to wait a minute or so before he emerged wearing the last shirt I’d handed him.

“This looks absolutely hideous on me,” he said, glancing down at himself.

“No, it doesn’t,” I disagreed, even though I was mostly lying. The shirt did look hideous, but it would have looked hideous on anyone.

Well, maybe anyone but Tyler.

“I look like I should be singing songs about margaritas or something.”

I covered my mouth to stifle a giggle. “Nonsense. You look great. Although…” I looked him up and down before furrowing my brow. “You shouldn’t button it all the way to the top like that. You look like a dork.”

“That’s what makes me look like a dork?”

“Here,” I said, ignoring him. I reached up and unbuttoned the top two buttons before taking a step back and nodding with approval. “Much better.”

“I refuse to spend money on this,” Caleb said, placing his hands defiantly on his hips.

“Even though Paige would love it?”

“She wouldn’t. Trust me.”

“Have you seen the way she looks at Tyler when he’s wearing his Hawaiian shirts?”

Caleb’s face fell, and I immediately felt like a jerk. But I had to be tough with him. I had to tell it like it was to get him to understand. If he wanted Paige as much as he said he did, he was going to have to do things he didn’t want to do.

Quietly, Caleb turned around and headed back inside the changing room.

“Caleb—” I began, but he shut the door in my face before I could continue. With a sigh, I rested my arm atop the shirt rack and waited for him to come back out and tell me he was done with this whole plan.

Way to go, Bria. You screwed up. Again.

But a few seconds later, when Caleb reopened the fitting room door, he hadn’t changed back into his own clothes like I’d predicted. Instead, he was wearing one of the other shirts I’d picked out for him—this one red and orange; similar to the one Tyler had been wearing at the bonfire.

I broke out into a wide, relieved grin. He was still playing along. “That’s the one,” I said.

He had taken my advice and left the two buttons at the top undone. It looked less dorky on him than the last one he’d tried on. He looked more like Tyler, which was the exact look we were going for.

“You think so?” he asked.

“Definitely,” I replied. “But let me see what it looks like unbuttoned first.”

Caleb’s eyebrows instantly shot up. “You want me strip? In the middle of the store?”

I rolled my eyes. “I said to unbutton it, not take it off. Tyler was wearing his completely unbuttoned the night of the bonfire. I want to compare.”

The slightest shade of pink flashed across his cheeks. “The guy has washboard abs. There’s nothing to compare.”

“Washboard abs are overrated,” I said with a shrug. “And Paige doesn’t seem like the type of girl who goes gaga over muscles, anyway.”

“She’s not,” he agreed. “Well, at least, I don’t think she is.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s not like you don’t have…I mean, it’s not like you’re not…I mean, you look like you’ve worked out once or twice.”

Caleb smirked. “Bria, are you trying to tell me that you think I’m hot?”

I groaned. “Dream on, Nichols. I’m trying to tell you that you’re not that different from Tyler. You need a little tweaking, that’s all.”

“Tweaking?” he echoed with a small amount of fear in his voice.

“Yeah. After today, you’ll basically be Tyler 2.0.”

“Wait. What else do you have planned for me this afternoon?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you?”

“No, you didn’t.”

I purposely didn’t disclose our entire itinerary for the day because if I had, Caleb would have refused to go along with it. I had told him about the shopping and picking out a few new items of clothing, but that was it. The rest was a surprise.

“This was a mistake, wasn’t it?” Caleb asked. But he wasn’t talking to me; he was talking to himself.

“Go change,” I instructed him. “If you can agree to buy this one shirt, which looks great on you, then you can be done trying stuff on, and we’ll move on to the next leg of our journey. How does that sound?”

“Frightening,” he replied. “But fine. I’ll buy this shirt. Only because I want to get this over with, though, not because I like it. Because I don’t. I think it’s ugly.”

I said nothing, just gave him a grin and a thumbs-up as he headed back into the fitting room to change.

A few minutes later, after he purchased the shirt and we left the store, he turned to me and asked, “Okay, what’s next?”

“Oh, you’re going to love this,” I said, even though I knew better. “We’re going to Sun Town Tanning Salon.”

Caleb stopped dead in his tracks. “Come again?”

“Sun Town Tanning Salon. It’s a tanning salon.”

“Yeah, I know what Sun Town Tanning Salon is. It’s in the name. But why are we going there?”

“Because we’re going to get you a tan,” I replied gleefully.

Caleb did not share in my glee. Instead, he scowled and shook his head adamantly. “No, we’re not.”

“You have to do this if you want to be more like Tyler,” I said. “His skin has this warm, California sun glow to it that girls find appealing. Your skin looks like it’s never seen the light of day.”

Caleb’s scowl intensified. “You’re skating on some very thin ice here, Bria. I’m about two seconds away from calling this off again.”

I laughed and gave his arm a playful slap. “Relax. I’m mostly joking. You’re not that pale, but you’re also not tanned. And you definitely need to be tanned.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

“That’s not a good enough reason.”

Placing my hands on my hips, I tapped my foot impatiently against the tiled floor. “Caleb, you agreed to keep an open mind about this.”

“That was before I knew you wanted to take me to a tanning salon.”

“If you don’t want to go to the tanning place, that’s fine,” I said. “But we’re going to put some color on that skin of yours today whether you like it or not. Your other options are either spend the rest of the afternoon soaking in natural sunlight next to my pool, or we go to the drugstore and pick up some self-tanner and hope it doesn’t turn you orange.”

“I vote for the pool,” he said with no hesitation.

“Okay, then,” I said. “But just so you know, Braden’s not going to be there, so you won’t be able to sneak off to play video games when I’m not looking.”

“That’s fine. If I don’t have to spend my afternoon lying in a tanning bed, I’m happy.”

I smiled. “Great. Why don’t we grab some lunch and then head to my house?”

“I’d say that’s the first good plan you’ve had all day.”

I gave his shoulder a swift punch that didn’t even make him flinch. With a smirk, I started walking again. “Let’s go, Nichols,” I said to him over my shoulder. “We still have a long day ahead of us.”

***

On the way home from the mall, we stopped at Caleb’s house to grab his swim shorts, and then drove back to my house to embark on the next part of my plan: sunbathing.

While he changed in the bathroom, I went into my bedroom and threw on my bright pink and white striped bikini from last summer. I thought maybe it would be too small, but it still fit me perfectly—as if no part of me had grown at all in the last year.

How utterly disappointing.

As soon as I was suited up, I opened my bedroom door just as Caleb was emerging from the bathroom directly across the hall.

Immediately, and without my consent, my eyes were drawn to his bare torso. I had never seen Caleb shirtless. He’d been wearing a t-shirt at the beach the other day, and he never did unbutton the Hawaiian shirt earlier. He’d seemed embarrassed about it, but I had no idea why. While, sure, he didn’t have Tyler’s washboard abs, he was modestly toned and still looked pretty darn good without a shirt on.

Realizing my eyes had lingered a bit too long, I cleared my throat and glanced up in time to see he was observing me the way I was observing him.

Braden hated my bikini. He said it was too revealing. I tried telling him that it was no more revealing than any other bikini worn by any other girl, but he held firm to his belief that it was inappropriate for me to wear it outside the house. I knew if he had it his way, I would only ever swim in a t-shirt and jeans. Or a potato sack.

And this was probably the reason why: because boys liked to see girls in bikinis. Even if the boys were in love with other girls, it wouldn’t stop them from looking. Braden didn’t want his friends looking at his twin sister the way Caleb was looking at me right now. Not that he was checking me out or anything. In fact, his gaze seemed less lustful and more surprised. To see me in anything other than one of my usual drab, tomboyish getups was not normal.

He quickly snapped out of it, though, and raised his eyes to meet mine. “Are we ready?” he asked.

“Almost.” I opened the closet next to the bathroom and grabbed a bottle of sunscreen and a couple of towels. “Here,” I said, handing him the sunscreen. “SPF 30. That should work well enough.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, examining the bottle. “Do you really think this is necessary?”

“Absolutely. Without any sort of sunscreen at all, you’ll burn to a crisp.”

“No, not the sunscreen. The tanning in general. Do you really think Paige will care if I’m tanned or not?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. But it can’t hurt. If Paige is physically attracted to Tyler, then making you look like him will increase your chances of making her fall for you. I mean, we already know that she likes your personality, otherwise she wouldn’t be your best friend. Physical appearance is the only other thing we can work on at this point.”

“I guess.” He didn’t sound terribly convinced.

“C’mon,” I said, starting down the hallway. “We’re at peak tanning time.”

He said nothing but nodded reluctantly before following me down the stairs and out the back door. After helping me move the lounge chairs on the deck so they were facing the direction of the sun, we both sat down and started applying our sunscreen.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Caleb muttered, rubbing the lotion into his arm.

“I’m proud of you,” I said, lying back in the chair and slipping a pair of sunglasses onto my face.

Setting down the bottle of sunscreen, Caleb followed my lead and reclined back in his own lounge chair. “How long do we have to do this for?”

“An hour or two.”

He turned his head and cocked an eyebrow at me. “Seriously? We’re going to lie here for an hour or two doing absolutely nothing?”

“Not absolutely nothing,” I said. “We can talk.”

“About what?”

“About anything you want.”

“What if I don’t have anything I want to talk about?”

“Then I guess we’ll be sitting here in silence, doing absolutely nothing.”

Caleb sighed and looked away. “Okay. We can talk. But you pick the topic.”

“Okay.” I chewed lightly on my bottom lip while I tried thinking of a subject we could discuss. I had no idea what kind of things Caleb and I had in common, so I figured maybe now was a good time to find out. “Tell me about yourself.”

Caleb snorted. “Are we on a blind date or something? Bria, I’ve been coming over to your house since sixth grade.”

“Yeah, but to hang out with my brother, not me. We know nothing about each other.”

“Not true,” Caleb said. “I know that you’re seventeen years old, your mother is a therapist, your father is an engineer, and you have light brown hair and blue eyes.”

I rolled my eyes. “Three of those things you know because of Braden, and the other two you know because you have functioning eyeballs. All I know about you, other than your age and what you look like, is that you’re in love with Paige Bishop and you’re mad jealous of Tyler Baldwin.”

“Is that not enough?”

“No, it’s not.” I turned onto my side in the lounge chair so that I was facing him. “What are your interests? Your hobbies? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“My interests are video games. My hobbies are playing video games. And when I grow up, I want to design video games.”

“Wow, okay,” I said. “I’m sensing a theme here.”

“Yeah.” Caleb chuckled. “I’m a bit of a gaming geek.”

“See? I didn’t know that about you. That’s cool that you want to design video games for a living.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad somebody feels that way,” he muttered bitterly.

“Uh-oh. Am I sensing maybe your parents don’t approve?”

Caleb nodded. “Yep. My dad wants me going to business school like he did. When I told him that I wanted to go to school for game design, he nearly blew a gasket, saying that would be a waste of tuition and that it was ‘just a phase’ I’d grow out of anyway.”

“Yikes,” I said with a frown. “I’m sorry.”

“Whatever. It’s not your fault.” He shrugged and turned to face me. “What about you? What are your plans for the future?”

I was hoping he wouldn’t ask because I didn’t have an answer. I was about to start my senior year of high school in a couple of months, and I had no idea what I wanted to go to college for. Or which college I even wanted to go to. If I wanted to go at all.

“I’m undecided,” I replied.

“Really?” he said, and I was pleased to note there was no hint of judgment in his voice. He fell silent for a moment before saying, “You should become a professional matchmaker someday. Start up your own agency and everything.”

I blinked at him in surprise. That sounded amazing. “You think so?”

“Oh, definitely. You’d be great at it. Obviously, it would be something you’d like doing. You seem to enjoy playing matchmaker for me—so much so that you ignore me when I tell you I don’t want you to. I think your unwavering persistence would equal great success.”

I beamed at him. “Why, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a grin.

I returned to lying on my back and stared up at the sky. This was the first real hot day of the summer, and after only a few minutes sitting in the sun, I was already starting to overheat.

Caleb must have been experiencing the same thing because he said suddenly, “Man, a dip in the pool sounds great right about now.”

I nodded in agreement. “It sure does.”

Caleb motioned to the pool. “Shall we?”

“We shall not. There’s no time for swimming. We need to stay focused on sunbathing.”

“If we weren’t planning on swimming, why did you suggest I stop by my house and pick up my bathing suit?”

“Because,” I said.

“Because is not a reasonable answer. In fact, it’s not an answer at all.” He stood up from his lounge chair and began heading in the direction of the pool.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I jumped up to follow him. “Get back in that chair or else,” I demanded.

“Or else what?”

“Or else I’ll tell Paige myself that you’re madly in love with her.”

He narrowed his eyes down at me. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“I don’t know. Jump in the pool and find out.”

It was an empty threat. He knew it. I knew it. There was no way I would ever tell Paige about Caleb’s feelings. And because he was so sure I was bluffing, he turned and took another step closer to the edge of the pool. One more step, and he’d be swimming.

“No!” I protested. I quickly reached out and grabbed his arm, but that was the worst thing I could have done. Instead of stopping him, it allowed him to grab my arm with his free hand and pull me forward and past him—straight into the pool.

I let out a yelp as I hit the water and went under. It wasn’t a big deal or anything, since I was dressed for swimming, but it was still a jerk move.

As soon as I surfaced, Caleb dove into the pool next to me, splashing me with more water in the process.

“Not cool, Caleb,” I grumbled. I slicked my wet hair back, shooting him a glare.

“Aw, c’mon, you have to admit that was funny,” he said as he swam over to me.

“What if I didn’t know how to swim?”

“Then I would’ve saved you,” he said simply. “Mouth-to-mouth and everything.” He followed that with a grin and a wink.

“In your dreams,” I snorted, using both of my hands to splash water at him.

Laughing, Caleb did the same thing back to me before reaching out to grab me. Quickly, I swam out of his reach and headed back for the deep end of the pool. He wasted no time catching up to me, and when he did, he placed his hands on top of my head and pushed me down under the water.

He held me there for a few seconds, during which time I kicked desperately at his legs and tried prying his hands off me. When he finally let me back up, I shoved him away.

“You jerk!” I cried breathlessly. I leapt up and placed my hands on his shoulders to push him down under the water like he had with me, but I wasn’t strong enough. And all my attempt did instead was allow him to tightly wrap his arms around my waist and trap me in his embrace.

“Let me go!” I demanded in between giggles. I squirmed in his grasp, trying to escape, but to no avail. Caleb apparently did workout. Either that, or I needed to start.

“Nope,” he said with a grin before spinning me around and pressing me against the side of the pool.

As our eyes locked, my laughter slowly subsided, and his grin slowly disappeared. He was close. So close I could feel the entirety of his chest against mine. So close I was afraid he’d be able to detect the sudden change of speed of my heart beating in my chest. So close that if he were to lower his head just slightly, or if I were to angle mine up toward his, we’d be—

“Ahem.”

The sudden sound of somebody clearing their throat on the deck startled us both. Caleb immediately removed himself from me as we glanced up to see Braden standing at the edge of the pool, arms crossed tightly over his chest, his lips forming into a straight line as he stared down at us.

“Hey, Braden,” I said casually. I ran my hands through my hair, slicking it back away from my face. “How’s it going?”

He ignored my question. “What’s going on here?”

“We’re swimming,” I replied, even though I knew that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. What was I supposed to say? I had no idea what that was. And since it was probably nothing, I figured it was best to ignore it. “Would you like to join us?”

“No. Thank you.” Braden eyed Caleb suspiciously before returning his gaze to me. “Bria, can I speak to you for a minute, please? Alone?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Caleb spoke up before I could.

“I’m actually going to head out now,” he said, swimming over to the ladder.

“Oh, really?” I asked, disappointed. We hadn’t completed everything on our to-do list yet.

“Yeah. I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day.” He climbed out of the pool and grabbed one of the towels I’d brought out for us. He smiled awkwardly at Braden as he began to dry himself off. “I’m gonna go change before I leave.”

Braden said nothing, just nodded in response.

“Bye, Bria,” Caleb said, giving me a small wave and an even smaller smile as he began to back up toward the sliding glass door. “Thanks for your help today.”

“No problem,” I replied, but he was already letting himself into the house and probably didn’t hear me.

As soon as he was gone, Braden turned back to me with a stern look on his face. “Okay. What was that?”

“What was what?” I asked innocently, climbing out of the pool myself. I brushed past Braden and grabbed the other towel, draping it around my shoulders.

“What was going on just now? In the pool?”

“Duh. Swimming.”

Braden scowled. “That didn’t look like swimming. That looked like a moment.”

“A moment?” I echoed. “Braden, what are you talking about?”

Uncrossing his arms, he planted his hands firmly on his hips and asked, “Is there something going on between you and Caleb? Something romantic?”

“Um, what?” I asked with a sputtering laugh. “There’s nothing romantic going on between me and Caleb. Why would you ask that?”

“Well, gee, I don’t know.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Maybe because it seems like Caleb is always at our house now, but to visit you not me. And maybe because I came home to find the two of you in the pool, looking like you were about to make out or something.” He lowered his eyes and then groaned, covering his face with his hand. “And you’re wearing that damn bikini again.”

I was appalled that he would even suggest there was something—anything—romantic going on between me and Caleb or that it looked like we were about to make out. Because we weren’t. We were having some innocent fun in the pool. That was all. Sure, there might have been a bit of a “moment” there for a second. I could maybe see how it might have looked “romantic” to someone who didn’t know any better, but it was nothing.

“Relax. There’s nothing going on between us,” I assured him. “We’re just friends.”

“Right. Sure.”

“No, I’m serious. There’s literally no way there could be something going on because he’s in love with Paige.”

Whoops. I hadn’t meant to say that part out loud. As far as I knew, I was one of the few people aware of Caleb’s feelings for his best friend—and judging from the surprised look on Braden’s face, he was not.

“What?” he said.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, hoping he hadn’t heard what I said.

But he had. “Caleb is in love with Paige?”

I let out a sigh. “Yes, he is. But do not tell him I told you. In fact, don’t tell anyone at all. The only reason I know is because I figured it out on my own and then forced him to confide in me.”

“Okay…” Braden said slowly. “Well, if Caleb is in love with Paige, then why is he suddenly spending so much time with you?”

“Because I’m helping him.”

“Helping him with what?”

“I’m helping him get the girl.” I dropped down onto one of the lounge chairs and began wringing my hair out with the towel.

“What do you mean?” Braden asked. “How could you possibly help with that?”

I shrugged. “I know a lot about love.”

Braden snorted. “No, you don’t. You’ve never even had a boyfriend.”

I glared up at him. “So what? I’ve done extensive research. I know what it takes to get someone to fall in love with you.”

“What kind of ‘extensive research’ have you done, exactly?”

I was hoping he wouldn’t ask. “I’ve watched a lot of K-dramas.”

Braden nearly doubled over with laughter. “You’ve watched a bunch of sappy romantic dramas and you think that makes you an expert on love? That’s hilarious.”

“You won’t be laughing after Caleb and Paige get together because of me.” I stood back up and tossed my towel at him. “I have a foolproof plan that will make Paige fall madly in love with Caleb. That’s why we’ve suddenly been hanging out together.”

Braden’s amusement slowly disappeared as his expression turned serious. “Okay, well, be careful.”

“Why? Is Caleb a murderer or something?” I quipped with a grin.

But Braden didn’t seem to think that was funny. “You’re spending a lot of time with a guy who’s in love with another girl. I don’t want to see you get hurt. That’s all.”

“Why would I get hurt?” My grin wavered. “I’m not into Caleb, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“If you say so.” He tossed my towel back to me before heading back inside. The corners of my mouth turned down into a frown as I watched him go.

What was wrong with him? How could he possibly think I would ever fall for one of his friends? That was absurd. Ludicrous.

Insane.

Caleb was a cool guy and all, but our relationship was purely transactional. I was helping him get his female lead, and he was helping to cure my boredom for the next week until Natalie returned.

It was a perfect arrangement.

Braden had no idea what he was talking about.