The Cure for Second Lead Syndrome by Amanda Abram

CHAPTER 9

“I think he should pick this one.” Braden handed me the song list he’d been looking over and pointed to one in the middle of it.

I leaned over and squinted at the words on the page. “I Wanna Sex You Up,” I read aloud and then frowned. “Are you kidding me? No way. Absolutely not.”

“Why not? That pretty much sums up how he feels about Paige. Right, Caleb?” Braden wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Caleb, who was sitting next to him on our living room couch.

I couldn’t tell if Caleb was blushing or not under his sunburn, but judging from the embarrassed look on his face, he probably was.

“I’m with Bria on this one,” he said. “I’m not singing that to Paige.”

“Thank you,” I said, relieved. I turned back to my own list and continued to browse.

It was Friday night and Caleb had come over to our house to prepare for Saturday’s karaoke party like he said he would. I’d been hoping it would just be the two of us, but as soon as Braden found out Caleb was there to see me and not him, he inserted himself into our project. Probably because he was still under the impression that I had the hots for Caleb, and he wanted to make sure I behaved myself.

At first, I was annoyed. But Caleb seemed to appreciate Braden’s presence. And since I’d spilled the beans to Braden about Caleb’s crush on Paige, there was no reason why he couldn’t lend us a hand.

“So, you think singing to Paige is going to magically make her fall in love with you?” Braden asked.

Caleb shook his head and pointed at me. “That’s what she thinks. Not me.”

“Dude, why are you taking relationship advice from my romantically challenged sister? That seems like a bad idea.”

“You seem like a bad idea,” I muttered to him under my breath.

He ignored me and stayed focused on Caleb. “Why go through all this bother? Just tell Paige you’re in love with her.”

I sighed heavily and set my song list down on my lap. “Because they’re bestfriends.”

“So?”

“So? If he declares his love for her and she doesn’t feel the same way, that could be catastrophic for their friendship. Caleb needs to make sure Paige falls for him before he tells her how he feels. Otherwise, he risks losing her. Forever.”

Braden shook his head and turned back to Caleb. “Are you really willing to put your love life in the hands of someone whose only qualification is watching a lot of TV?”

I shot him a glare. “Excuse me. I’ll have you know that—”

“Hey, kids,” Mom’s voice interrupted behind me before I could finish my rant..

“Hi, Mom,” Braden said.

“Hi, sweetie.” Mom’s gaze fell on Caleb and she smiled. “Oh, hello, Caleb.”

“Hello, Mrs. Copeland,” he said politely.

“Are you staying for dinner tonight?”

Caleb glanced at me and Braden, and we both nodded in approval. We still had a lot to work on before tomorrow. It was probably going to be a late night.

“Yeah, sure,” he said. “If you’re willing to have me.”

Mom’s smile widened. “Of course. We can order some pizza. How does that sound?”

Braden and I gave her a thumbs-up before she disappeared into the kitchen.

“Okay,” I said, “back to what I was about to say—”

“Wait.” Caleb held up his hand to stop me. “Bria, you don’t have to defend yourself. I have total faith that you know what you’re talking about.”

I blinked at him in surprise. “You do? Really?”

“Yeah. At least, you definitely know more than this guy.” He motioned his thumb at Braden.

I smiled. “Thanks, Caleb.”

“Whatever, man.” Braden set his song list down on the coffee table and stood from the couch. “I’m already bored with this. Wanna go play Call of Duty?”

I expected Caleb to at least hesitate, or ask me for permission to leave, but surprisingly, he said, “No, thanks. Bria and I still have work to do.”

“Okay. Suit yourself.” With a disappointed shake of his head, Braden left the room.

When he was gone, I turned to Caleb with a grin.

“What?” he asked with one eyebrow arched.

“You passed up playing video games for this,” I said.

“Yeah, well, this is a little more important than video games.” He returned my grin. “Besides, I haven’t even picked out a song yet.”

“Well, keep looking. You’ll know the right one when you see it.” I moved from the armchair to sit next to him on the couch. “Do you want to look at my list?” I asked, holding it out to him.

“Sure,” he said, taking it.

As he proceeded to glance it over, I asked, “By the way, how’s your sunburn doing?”

It had only been a couple of days, but it looked like it was starting to fade slightly.

“About as well as you’d expect. I took your advice, though, and put the aloe in the fridge. It helped a lot. And I’m putting it on, like, twenty times a day.”

“That’s a lot,” I giggled. “Well, if you run out, we have another bottle you can have.”

“Thanks, but not necessary,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I can buy my own next time.”

“Okay. Cool.” I picked up his discarded list to see if he’d missed any songs that I thought might be a good fit for him. “Has Paige seen you yet?”

Caleb chuckled. “Uh, yeah, actually.”

“And? How did she react?”

“Funny story, actually. At first, she thought it was hilarious and laughed so hard she could barely breathe. But then she felt bad for me and helped me apply the aloe. Which, you know, I didn’t mind at all.” A sly smile tugged at his lips. “When she was putting some on my arm, she happened to look up at me and our eyes met, and it almost kinda felt like we were having a moment or something.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised. “So, my idea that you completely botched actually led to something a little romantic?”

“I wouldn’t say it was romantic,” he said with a shrug. “But it was something. And at this point, I’ll take anything.”

I gave him a small smile. “Well, that’s cool.” I returned my attention to the song list in my hand and read each name carefully.

About halfway down, I found it. The perfect song for him. Sitting forward, I held the sheet of paper victoriously above my head. “This is it!” I exclaimed.

He eyed me curiously. “What is it?”

“The song. I’ve found the song.” I held it in front of him and pointed. “Can’t Help Falling in Love. It’s perfect. It’s short. It’s sweet. It’s to the point. It’s a classic. There are no high notes to worry about. Nothing fancy. I’m telling you: this is the one.”

“Hmm.” Caleb furrowed his brow. “How does it go?”

“Here. I’ll play it for you.” I grabbed my phone off the coffee table and searched for the song. When I found it, I turned up the volume and played it.

It only took the first few lines to make him smile and nod. “Oh, yeah, I know this song. You’re right—this would be perfect.”

“Yeah?” I asked excitedly.

“For sure.”

“Okay, then. Let’s start practicing!”

Caleb’s face fell. “What—you mean right now? In front of you?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.” I pushed off the couch and held out my hand to him. “C’mon. We can practice up in my bedroom so no one else will hear.”

“N-no, I-I can’t,” he stammered.

“Caleb, if you’re too embarrassed to sing the song in front of me, how are you going to sing it in front of a group of your friends? Or in front of Paige?”

“I’ll practice later. At home. I promise.”

Pursing my lips, I crossed my arms over my chest. “You’re going to bail on this, aren’t you? We’re all going to be at The End Zone tomorrow night waiting for you to show up, and you never will.”

“That’s not true,” Caleb insisted. “I want to practice it alone, that’s all.”

I sighed and threw my hands up in defeat. “Okay. Fine. Have it your way.”

Mom poked her head into the living room. “Bria,” she said, “I’m going to have your father pick up the pizza on his way home. What toppings do you kids want?”

“Pepperoni and mushroom,” I replied and was astonished to hear Caleb say the same exact thing at the same time.

“Perfect. You two can share.” Mom smiled before returning to the kitchen.

“You’ve got good taste in pizza toppings,” Caleb remarked as soon as she was gone.

“Thanks. You, too.” I placed my hands on my hips. “Okay, back to the matter at hand. If you’re not going to let me help you prepare for the singing portion of tomorrow night, then let’s figure out what you will let me help you with.”

Caleb slouched back on the couch. “You’re gonna have to figure that out on your own, because I have no idea what else I need help with.”

“Hmm, let’s see.” I tapped my finger against my chin as I looked Caleb over. All that was left to help him with was his appearance—and even then, he didn’t need that much help. Well, except for maybe one thing.

“Stand up,” I instructed him.

“Why?” he asked suspiciously.

“Because I want to try something.”

Reluctantly, Caleb got up from the couch and stood in front of me. “What do you want to try?”

I stared up at him. Specifically, at his hair. Caleb’s hair was nice, but he always wore it pushed back away from his face. Tyler, on the other hand, wore his longer locks loose and flowing. Every time I’d seen him so far, he looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, which I knew a lot of girls found to be sexy. Paige was probably one of those girls.

I lifted my hands toward his head. “May I?” I asked. But instead of waiting for him to answer, I reached up and used my fingers to muss up his hair.

Caleb swatted my hands away. “What are you doing?”

“I want to see what you look like with messy hair.” I took a step back to get a better view.

“And?” he asked.

“It’s a good look for you.”

It really was. When Caleb wore his hair pushed back off his forehead, he looked like a prim and proper pretty boy. However, when his hair was disheveled and falling in his eyes, he looked kinda hot. It made me want to run my fingers through it—

No. Wait. I mean, it would make other girls want to run their fingers through it. Maybe. Probably. But not me. Them.

“You think so?” Caleb asked, taking his phone from his pocket to see for himself.

I was thankful that he was concentrating on himself rather than me because I could feel a sudden wave of heat making its way to my cheeks.

“Huh,” he said, holding the phone away from his face. “You’re right. It’s not a bad look.”

“Told you,” I said. “I think you should wear your hair like that tomorrow night. And as for your wardrobe, I’m thinking you should maybe wear your new shirt.”

“Nope.” Caleb shook his head and put his phone away. “I’m not ready to wear that yet.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on. It looks good on you.”

“Baby steps,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’ll start with the hair. Maybe Sunday I’ll wear the shirt. I don’t want to change drastically overnight. Paige will question that.”

I thought about that for a moment and realized he was probably right. “Okay. Sounds good.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

We exchanged a smile before sitting back down on the couch. I pulled all the pages of the song list back into one pile and handed it Caleb. “Here. As a reward for you going along with my plan, I’m going to allow you to pick a song for me to sing tomorrow.”

“Any song?”

“Any song.”

He stared down at the list with a menacing grin. “Oh, I like this reward.”

I snorted. “I figured you would. Good luck.”

I kicked my feet up on the coffee table and pulled out my phone. I had just unlocked it when I suddenly felt Caleb’s hands on my head, vigorously ruffling my hair.

“Hey!” I protested, leaning away from him. “What was that for?”

Grinning, Caleb held up his phone in front of me and snapped a picture. “I wanted you to know what it feels like to have someone randomly mess up your hair. Plus, I wanted to see if it was a good look for you, too.” He turned the phone around so I could see the picture. I looked like I had just been in a windstorm.

“Delete that,” I demanded, reaching for his phone to do it myself.

But he was too quick. In the blink of an eye, it was back in his pocket. “Sorry, but no.”

With a huff, I moved from the couch to the armchair, where Caleb could no longer reach me.

He chuckled as I began furiously smoothing out my hair. “I thought you looked cute,” he said before returning his attention to the list.

I ignored what he said. It was the only way I could keep from blushing again.