The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 8

When the doorbell rang the next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to open the front door and see Natalie standing on the other side of it.

“Surprise!” she exclaimed, holding her arms out straight as an invitation for me to rush into them and give her a big hug.

That’s exactly what I did. “Nat!” I said, squeezing her tight before pulling back. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming home for a few more days.”

“I wasn’t,” she replied. “But I told my grandparents I was homesick, and they told me I should go home. So, I did! And here I am!”

I let her go and ushered her inside the house. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

“I’m happy to see you, too. I’ve been worried about you. How’ve you been holding up with no TV?”

“I’ve been okay,” I said. “I found other things to occupy my time.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Um…” I still hadn’t told her about my plan to help Caleb get Paige. She had no idea I’d even been hanging out with him. I wasn’t sure when—or if—I should tell her. It was bad enough I’d accidentally told Braden about Caleb’s crush yesterday; I couldn’t willingly tell Natalie. It wasn’t my place. “Just stuff,” I said finally. “Reading books, mostly.”

She seemed to accept my answer as we made our way up to my bedroom.

“So,” I said, changing the subject, “have you watched any more of This Love of Ours?”

“Nope.” Natalie flopped onto my bed. “I told you I wasn’t going to watch it without you. I can wait a few more days. Especially now that we can hang out together again. That will help take our minds off the show.”

“Yeah,” I said hesitantly.

Don’t get me wrong. I was ecstatic that Natalie was back, and I couldn’t wait to spend the rest of the summer hanging out with her. But I wasn’t expecting to see her until next week, so I’d already made plans to hang out with Caleb. I had wanted to fast-track our plan so that he and Paige would get together before Natalie came back, so she would never even need to know about it.

“Are you okay?” she asked, sitting up and giving me a weird look.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Because you seem—” Natalie stopped as her attention was drawn to something over my shoulder. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing.

I spun around to see the whiteboard that was still propped against the wall on top of my dresser. The one with my plan scrawled all over it. The plan I hadn’t told her about yet.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said, rushing over to take it down before she could read anything on it.

“You’re not acting like it’s nothing,” she said suspiciously.

“It is,” I assured her. I grabbed the eraser and quickly began erasing everything on it. It wasn’t like I even needed it anyway; at this point, it was just a prop. I had the entire plan memorized.

Natalie narrowed her eyes. “Did I read something about a makeover? Who’s getting a makeover?”

“Nobody is.”

“But it said—”

To my relief, the doorbell rang again, cutting her off.

“I should go answer that,” I said, bolting out of the room, whiteboard still in hand.

I didn’t even bother to peek through the window to see who was on the other side of the door before opening it. I was surprised to see Caleb standing on the porch but was even more surprised at his appearance.

“Caleb,” I said with a gasp. His face was a shocking shade of red, along with his neck, his arms, and his legs—pretty much every exposed part of him.

“Help me,” he said desperately. He didn’t even wait to be invited in before brushing past me into the foyer.

“What happened?” I asked. I closed the door and turned to gently lift one of his arms to get a closer look. He had one hell of a sunburn, which confused me. We hadn’t spent enough time in the sun to do this amount of damage.

“After I left here yesterday, I figured I would do the sunbathing myself at my house,” he explained. “I thought of how excited you would be if I took the initiative to do it on my own. I thought I’d come over here today looking all tanned like Tyler, and you’d be proud of me. Instead, I forgot to apply another layer of sunscreen, fell asleep on the deck, and woke up looking like a boiled lobster.”

“Oh no,” I said sympathetically. I felt bad for him. I did. I’d suffered through my fair share of sunburns in the past, so I knew exactly how miserable he must have been feeling. However, I also couldn’t help but find the whole thing amusing.

“You think this is funny, don’t you?”

“Huh?” I blinked up at him, only then realizing I had a big grin on my face which I promptly wiped away. “Of course not. There’s nothing funny about sunburns.”

Caleb held out his arms. “Bria, what am I going to do? Not only is this uncomfortable as hell, but I look ridiculous. I can’t compete with Tyler looking like a tomato.”

With a chuckle, I grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs. “Don’t worry, we’ve got a couple bottles of aloe here. I burn easily myself, so I make sure we’re stocked up at the beginning of every summer.” I made my way over to the hallway closet to retrieve one of the bottles and handed it to him. “Apply this a few times a day so your skin stays moisturized. Otherwise, you’re going to start peeling like a snake shedding its skin, which is gross. Oh, and keep it in the refrigerator for some extra relief.”

Caleb smirked. “You sound like an aloe vera saleswoman. I’m sold.”

I smirked back. “How much are you willing to pay me for it?”

“I’ve got five bucks in my wallet,” he said, reaching into his back pocket.

“Nah, it’s okay. This one’s on the house.”

“Thanks, Bria.”

We exchanged a smile as someone behind us said, “Hey, there.”

Whoops. Natalie. I’d already forgotten she was in my bedroom right across the hall.

I spun around to see her standing in my bedroom doorway, curiously eyeing Caleb.

“Hey, Natalie,” Caleb said awkwardly. He turned to look at me. “Sorry, I didn’t know she was here. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Oh, no, you’re fine,” I said. “Natalie just got here. You didn’t interrupt anything.”

“What happened to you?” Natalie asked, motioning to Caleb from head to toe.

“Oh, um, sunburn,” he replied.

“No kidding. It looks painful.”

“It is.”

“That’s why he stopped by. To get some aloe.” I pointed to the bottle in his hand.

“Why didn’t he go to the drug store?” she asked.

“Because…” I glanced up at Caleb for assistance.

“Because it’s free here,” he answered for me, flashing me a grin.

“Wait, so you’re using me?” I asked with mixture of fake shock and hurt.

He thought about it for a second. “Huh. Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Then I’m taking it back.” I snatched the bottle from his hands.

“No. You can’t take back something you already gave away.”

“Uh, I think I can, because I just did.”

Before I could stop him, he grabbed the bottle back from me. I tried reaching for it, but he held it high above his head, so I had no chance of retrieving it.

“Give it back!”

“Nope.”

I hopped up and down trying to get the aloe back, but he placed his other hand on my head and gently pushed me backward until I was an arm’s length away from him.

“Caleb,” I giggled. “Give it back!” I removed his hand from my forehead and charged forward, catching him by surprise as I rammed him against the wall, making him drop the bottle.

As we both scrambled to pick it up from the floor, I lost my footing and stumbled onto my knees, distracting myself just long enough for Caleb to make a grab for it. But as his hand grazed the bottle, I latched onto his wrist and pulled him down onto the floor next to me, causing us both to dissolve into a fit of laughter.

“Oh my God,” Natalie gasped. “Are you two dating?”

Caleb and I froze. “What?” we asked in unison, our laughter subsiding as we pulled ourselves up from the floor.

“I said, are you two dating?” she repeated.

“Of course, not,” I said, straightening my shirt out. “W-why would you even ask that?” I was experiencing a sudden bout of déjà vu. Wasn’t this pretty much the exact conversation I had with Braden yesterday?

“Because you’re flirting with each other,” she said simply.

I could feel my face burning as my jaw dropped. “We’re not flirting with each other, and we’re not dating.”

“Then what’s going on here?” She motioned between me and Caleb. “What is this?”

I glanced up at Caleb who was already looking down at me with an unreadable expression. How was I supposed to answer Natalie’s question without revealing Caleb’s secret?

Instead of answering, I held up a finger to Natalie and said, “Hang on a sec,” before taking hold of Caleb’s arm and dragging him down the hallway to Braden’s bedroom. Once we were inside, I let go of him and shut the door behind us.

“Bria,” he said sternly, “you’ve got to stop grabbing me. It hurts like crazy.” With his fingertips, he gingerly touched the spot on his arm where my hand had been. Whoops. I’d somehow forgotten about his sunburn.

“Sorry,” I whispered before cutting right to the chase. “Can I tell her?”

“Tell her what?” Caleb whispered back, playing dumb.

“About our plan.”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t need the whole world knowing I’m in love with Paige before she even knows.”

“But Natalie is excellent at keeping secrets. She won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

He almost seemed to be considering it before he shook his head once again. “Sorry. No.”

“Now that she’s home, I’m not sure I can keep this from her,” I said. “She’s already suspicious. Would you rather have her believing that we’re dating each other instead of knowing the truth?”

Caleb shrugged. “Hey, you could do a lot worse.”

“And so could you,” I said dryly, “but that’s not the point.” I batted my eyelashes up at him with a pleading look. “Please, Caleb? It would make all of this so much easier.”

Sighing, Caleb closed his eyes briefly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, fine. You can tell her. But she’d better not breathe a word of this to anyone.”

“She won’t,” I assured him. “Thank you.”

He only grunted in response.

I turned to open the door but stopped as soon as my hand was around the doorknob. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention…” I slowly turned back around to face him. “I might’ve kinda told Braden about your crush on Paige yesterday after you left.”

Caleb’s shoulders slouched forward in disappointment. “Bria, really?”

“It was an accident, I swear. Besides, I figured maybe you’d already told him anyway since he’s your friend, and friends usually tell each other about things like that.”

He covered his face with his hands. “How many more people have you blabbed to?”

“Just Braden,” I said. “And soon to be Natalie. But that’s it.”

“This was such a mistake,” he muttered with a sigh.

“No, it wasn’t.” I opened the door. “Now, c’mon, let’s go tell Natalie, and then you can go home and slather yourself with free aloe. How does that sound?”

I didn’t wait for an answer. I led him out of Braden’s room and down to my own room, where Natalie was impatiently waiting for us on my bed.

“Okay,” I said as we stood before her. “Here’s the deal—” I paused and turned to look at Caleb, giving him an opportunity to stop me before telling Natalie, but he wasn’t even paying attention to me. Instead, his head was lowered, and he was staring down at the floor.

I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Caleb, here, is a real-life second lead.”

At first, Natalie didn’t react. But then, as my words began to register in her brain, her mouth slowly formed into an O-shape, and she shot from the bed with a gasp. “Are you serious?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

Taking three steps forward, Natalie stopped only inches away from Caleb. She proceeded to look him up and down. Examining him like I did the moment at the bonfire when I realized what exactly he was.

Leaning backward to put some space between him and his new spectator, Caleb shot me a wild look. “What is it with you girls and second leads? What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal?” Natalie echoed, taking a step back and turning to me. “Bria, have you not explained second leads to this boy yet?”

“No, I have,” I said. “He just doesn’t get it.”

“Obviously not.” She dropped back down onto the edge of my bed. “Okay, so, he’s a second lead. Who’s the female lead?”

I let Caleb answer that question. “Paige Bishop,” he said quietly.

Natalie clutched at the center of her chest. “Aww! Your best friend! That’s like This Love of Ours!”

“Except we’re hoping Caleb’s story ends differently than Lee Kang Dae’s, since obviously Jeong Mi Kyong is going to end up with Kim Jae Sung.”

“True, true.” Natalie paused. “Wait—who’s the male lead in this story?”

“Tyler Baldwin,” Caleb sneered.

Natalie’s face crumpled with confusion. “Tyler who-now?”

“He’s the new guy,” I explained. “He just moved here from California. Moved in right next door to Paige and, well, there seems to be a bit of attraction between them.”

“Oh no!”

“Oh yeah.”

I explained the whole situation to her. I told her the details of my original plan—the things we had accomplished, and the items we had scrapped—and about my new updated plan. When I finished, she stood from the bed once again and declared, “I am so going to help you guys with this.”

“I don’t know,” Caleb said hesitantly. “I think Bria has a pretty good handle on it. I don’t want too many people involved.”

“Natalie is just one person,” I pointed out. “And she would be a great addition to the team. She knows as much about this stuff as I do. With our great minds working together, this plan will be even more foolproof than it already was.”

Natalie draped an arm around my shoulders. “Bria and I are a dream team. You’re lucky to have us on your side. We’ll have Paige falling for you in no time, guaranteed—or your money back.”

“I’m not paying you guys for this.”

“I meant that figuratively, not literally,” Natalie said with a roll of her eyes. “Okay, so, let’s discuss our next move. I think we should try out one of your original discarded ideas.”

“Which one?” I asked.

“Uh, duh, obviously karaoke!”

I should have known she’d want to go with that. Natalie loved singing, even though she was tone deaf and terrible. She knew how bad she was, but she didn’t care. In fact, she seemed to get immense enjoyment out of forcing people to listen to her.

Caleb grimaced. “Not again with the karaoke. I already told Bria at the beginning of all this that I wasn’t going to do it, and I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Karaoke it is, then!” Natalie exclaimed, completely ignoring Caleb’s protest. “I’m thinking maybe Saturday? We can rent a room at The End Zone and invite a few people. Paige, of course, Braden, maybe a couple of his friends, that new Taylor guy—”

“Tyler,” I corrected her.

“Right. Tyler. And, of course, you, me, and Caleb. It’ll be so much fun.” She clapped her hands together in excitement. “And even better, since my cousin works there, she can probably get us a discount on the room and the food. This is going to be great! I’m so glad I came home early!”

Caleb looked mortified by her enthusiasm. Or maybe it was the idea of him having to sing his heart out to Paige that was making him look queasy. Either way, I could feel him slipping away. If I didn’t step in, there was a good chance he would tell me that he was done. Again.

And this time, it would probably be for good.

“You can think about it for a couple of days,” I said to him. “After all, this is your deal. What we do is up to you.”

“Right,” Caleb said with a nod. He glanced down at his watch. “I should probably get heading home now. I want to start this aloe treatment as soon as possible.”

“Okay. I’ll walk you out.”

I told Natalie I would be right back before following Caleb down the stairs.

“I know you hate the idea of karaoke,” I said to him as we reached the front door. “But please, give it some thought. I think it will be fruitful.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because when you’re up there singing a love song—one that perfectly describes your feelings for Paige—and your eyes meet hers, she’s going to get butterflies. Trust me. It won’t fail.”

“And if it does?”

“It won’t, I promise. Cross my heart.” I made a crisscross gesture over the center of my chest. “Come over tomorrow, and I can help you prepare. I’ll have Natalie get a list of available songs from her cousin, and then I’ll help you pick a song and practice.”

“I don’t want to sing,” Caleb insisted.

“I know.”

“But you’re going to make me do it anyway, aren’t you?”

“Yep.” I grinned and opened the door for him. “Go home. Moisturize. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Fine,” he sighed, stepping onto the porch. “See you tomorrow.”

I waved him goodbye and returned to my bedroom.

Natalie was lying on my bed, playing a game on her phone. When she heard me come into the room, she rolled over onto her stomach and said, “Bria, this is going to be so much fun. Why didn’t you tell me you were doing this?”

I shrugged as I placed the whiteboard back onto my dresser. “Because Caleb’s crush on Paige isn’t exactly public knowledge. I didn’t want to betray his trust by telling you.”

She seemed to accept that answer. “I understand.” She paused for a moment, and I thought she had gone back to concentrating on her game, but then she glanced back up at me with a questioning look. “I know Caleb’s in love with Paige and all, but are you sure there’s nothing going on between you two? I mean, that little display I witnessed earlier had some serious flirty undertones to it.”

Groaning, I slapped the palm of my hand to my face. “Ugh, not you, too. Braden has already gone there, and I’m going to tell you the same thing I told him: Caleb and I are friends. There’s nothing going on between us.”

“Okay,” she said.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

She returned her wide and innocent eyes to me. “I didn’t say that.”

“But I know you’re thinking it.”

Natalie grinned. “Careful, Bria. The more you try to deny anything is going on between the two of you, the more I won’t believe it.”

“Fine.” I picked up my pillow and threw it in her face. “Are you hungry?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

“I’m starved.”

“Wanna grab some lunch and then go to the mall?”

She rolled off the bed and was on her feet before I even finished the question. “Hell yeah.”

And just like that, the subject of me and Caleb was forgotten.