The Facade by Judy Corry
Cambrielle
I gaveElyse a ride to my house in my red Mercedes after school got out. She’d never driven an ATV before and wanted to get the hang of it before everyone else arrived at four.
“We just keep the ATVs in here,” I pointed to one of the buildings off to the north side of the house near the horse stables.
Elyse nodded and followed behind me, our boots crunching on the leaves that had fallen recently from the tall trees above.
I typed in the code to the garage door, and it slowly lifted to reveal the rows of ATVs. There was a side-by-side that my parents mostly drove, and then parked beside that were a dozen four-wheelers that we had for outings like we had planned today.
“Does it matter which one I use?” Elyse asked, her wide eyes telling me she was somewhat surprised at how many options we had in here.
While I’d grown up with everything I’d ever dreamed of as the daughter of the seventh richest man in the U.S., Elyse and Ava’s mom hadn’t made her fortune until very recently. So it was always interesting to see how my world looked from a newcomer’s eyes.
“I’d probably pick one of those.” I pointed to the black four-wheelers closest to us. “They’re automatic and should be less complicated to drive.”
“You have manual four-wheelers?” Elyse furrowed her brow. “Why?”
I chuckled. “Nash and Carter had a dumb rivalry going a couple of years ago where they wanted to prove who was more macho than the other. For some reason, they decided that having to shift gears while driving through the woods meant you were more manly or something.”
“Really?” Elyse asked, the look on her face telling me she, too, thought they were ridiculous.
“I think being the same age has made them extra competitive sometimes,” I said. “Though I think Mack had his parents get him a manual four-wheeler too, so maybe it’s just a guy thing.”
“Boys are weird,” Elyse said.
“Yes, they are.”
“Well,” Elyse said. “I just want to be able to drive this thing without crashing into a tree, so I’ll happily put aside my tough-girl card and drive the wimpy automatic.”
I smiled at my friend. “Smart.”
I walked to the cabinet where we kept all the helmets and pulled out a purple one that should fit Elyse’s head. Then I grabbed my pink one with glittery gold star stickers on it.
Yeah, I’d never met a pink and gold thing I didn’t like.
I helped Elyse with her helmet and showed her the basics of how to drive the ATV, and then we went on a quick ride to the pond. She picked things up quickly, and after riding down the trail that passed the blueberry fields and the greenhouse, I figured we should probably get back to the house so we could be ready for Ben to arrive.
Yes, Ben was coming over.
My heart fluttered just thinking about him coming over and finally noticing me. Sure, I was going to have helmet hair when I saw him, but hopefully he’d remember seeing me in class and know I knew how to brush and curl my hair like regular girls did.
On second thought, maybe I should hurry upstairs and tame my hair real quick so I’d at least look presentable when he first showed up.
Elyse and I were on our way back to the garage when I spotted Mack driving his four-wheeler through the clearing of trees between our houses, wearing his black riding suit with red stripes down the sides.
He only ever wore his riding suit when he planned to splash through a bunch of puddles and splatter everyone around him with mud, so I made a mental note to steer clear of him during our ride today.
I usually didn’t mind getting splashed when I went riding with him and my brothers because splashing them right back was half the fun, but Ben would be here today, and I didn’t want to be caked in mud when I finally spoke to him.
Elyse and I parked our ATVs in front of the garage and were just taking our helmets off when Mack pulled up beside me.
“You guys get started without me?” Mack asked after he removed his black helmet and rested it on his knee.
“We just went around the pond and down to the greenhouse,” I said. “This is Elyse’s first time.”
“And how did it go?” Mack turned to his sister. “Was Cambrielle’s lesson any good? Because if you’re looking for pro tips, you should ask me.”
“I think I’ve got the basic idea of it,” Elyse said, her gaze flitting briefly to Mack before looking back at me.
There was an awkward silence as we all tried to think of something to say.
This would usually be the time when Mack would say something flirty to Elyse, but since that wouldn’t be happening anymore, we all just sat there trying to figure out what to say next.
Man, I really hoped the awkwardness between Mack and Elyse went away before long. Hopefully one of them would find someone new to flirt with so everyone could just move on and forget they’d ever liked each other.
Mack cleared his throat and looked toward the house. “Think everyone else will be here soon?” He glanced at me. “I told Ben four o’clock, so he should be here in a few minutes.”
“Ava was going to text me when she and Carter were on their way,” Elyse said, pulling her phone out of her back pocket. She looked at the screen briefly, and after reading whatever messages were on her lock screen, she nodded. “Yeah, looks like she and Carter finished their tutoring session and should be here any minute.”
“Cool,” Mack said. “I think I’m gonna grab a drink of water before we start.”
I turned to Elyse. “Wanna go inside to wait for everyone?”
Elyse shook her head. “I think I’ll ride a little longer, if that’s okay.”
“Sure.” I climbed off my four-wheeler. “We’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
As Elyse headed off toward the pond trail again, I walked inside with Mack.
I was just about to head up the stairs to comb through my hair real quick when the front doorbell rang.
“That must be Ben,” Mack said as he grabbed a glass from a kitchen cupboard and started filling it with water from the fridge. “Think you’re brave enough to answer the door?”
I looked at the entryway, my heart rate suddenly skyrocketing with the anticipation of coming face to face with my crush without all his other friends to distract him.
We had rain-glass windows on both sides of the double front doors, and through them I could see a blurry figure of what looked very much like Ben’s tall form.
“You going to be okay?” Mack asked after taking a sip from his water. “Because while I did invite him for you, I’m not planning to do much more.”
I sucked in a deep breath, hoping it would calm me. “I can do it.”
So when Regina, our head staff member, went to open the front door, I told her I could get it. But just as I was reaching for the handle, I remembered that I still hadn’t tamed my helmet hair. I rushed to the mirror we had on the wall close by and started combing my fingers through my hair.
The doorbell rang again, and I jumped.
Mack’s footsteps sounded in the hallway. “Are you just going to ignore him?”
I looked back at Mack, and in a quiet voice, I whisper-shouted, “I’m just fixing my hair real quick.”
“You look fine.” Mack leaned a broad shoulder against the wall. “Just open the door.”
But I shook my head and went back to taming my hair.
There was a knock at the door then, like Ben assumed no one was answering because the doorbell was broken.
Why did he have to show up early?
“If you don’t open that door right now, I’ll open it for you and tell Ben the reason why he got stuck standing out there is because we were making out and it got so intense that I couldn’t help but tangle my fingers through your silky hair.”
What?
“You wouldn’t dare.” I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.
“Dare make out with you?” Mack pursed his lips into a pout as if considering the thought. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know. It might be fun.”
And when he waggled his eyebrows flirtatiously, my heart had a momentary lapse in judgement and flipped.
Yes, my heart actually flipped at the thought of kissing my brother’s stupid best friend. But I told it to calm down because kissing Mack was the last thing I should be thinking about.
Especially when my actual crush was standing on my doorstep and probably wondering why no one was answering.
Instead of responding to Mack’s flirtatious comment, I gave my reflection one last glance in the mirror and opened the door.
Standing on the doorstep with the late afternoon sunlight hitting him in just the right way to make him look like he’d just stepped off an action-movie set was Ben.
He wore a long-sleeve, yellow-and-black shirt with a Fox symbol on it, like he was ready to go motorbiking. And suddenly, all the annoyance I’d felt toward Mack a second ago for all his teasing ways disappeared because he’d made this happen.
Mack had gotten Ben to come to my house.
“H-hi,” I managed to say after staring at Ben’s defined jawline for just a moment too long. “C-come in.”
I stepped back to let him in.
“Thanks,” he said, his boots thudding on the marble floor. “Mack said we were going four-wheeling, is that right?”
I nodded, and after loosening my tongue again, I managed to say, “Yes. We’re just waiting for Carter and Ava and a few others now.”
I glanced at where Mack had been standing a moment before, hoping he might help me welcome Ben to my house, but he must have already disappeared back into the kitchen because he was nowhere to be seen.
I cleared my throat. “D-do you want to go out back to pick out your ATV? Elyse is there already and everyone else should be here soon.”
“Elyse is already here?” Ben’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah, she’s just out back.” Was he more excited to see Elyse than me? A jealous pit formed in my stomach before I reminded myself that Elyse would never break the girl code and flirt with my crush.
“Cool.” He pushed his fingers into the pockets of his black pants and followed me through the kitchen where I hoped Mack would be.
But when we walked through the kitchen toward the doors that led to the terrace out back, Mack was still nowhere to be found.
Where did he go?
I knew I’d wanted to talk to Ben and let him know I existed, but I was so not good at hosting people on my own. I liked being around people enough that I wasn’t a complete social disaster most of the time, but I was not the natural extrovert that Nash and Mack were. So I did always appreciate when one of them was there to help take some of the pressure off when I was around people I didn’t know very well.
I mean, sure, I knew all kinds of things about Ben—like how he was from North Carolina and had two older sisters and liked to do motocross when he was home for breaks—because I totally stalked his social media accounts over the summer. But I couldn’t exactly strike up a conversation about any of that since it would give away how much I’d learned about him online.
So instead of making small talk as we walked across the stone terrace and down the steps to the grass below, I stayed awkwardly quiet.
Ben followed me across the freshly cut lawn and soon we were at the garage with the ATVs.
“Do you prefer manual or automatic?” I turned to Ben after raising the garage door again.
“Let’s go with automatic,” Ben said.
“Good choice,” I said. If he’d said manual, I probably would have said the same thing.
I showed him which four-wheeler to use—the big green and black one my dad often took out when he wasn’t using the side-by-side. After giving him a helmet, I looked around the grounds wondering where Mack had disappeared to.
Was he purposely trying to give Ben and me some alone time? Because after the past few minutes of uncomfortable silence, I really wouldn’t mind having Mack or even Nash show up and talk about whatever random subject popped into their minds. At least then I might be able to relax.
I was considering heading back into the house with the excuse that I needed to go to the bathroom when Ben asked, “So, do you guys go riding very often?”
“We go about once a week when the weather is nice,” I said, relieved that he’d broken the ice with a question I could answer.
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah, it’s fun.” I pointed to his racing gear. “What about you? Did you just go out and buy that gear for this, or do you race?”
“Oh this?” He looked down at his shirt and pants, like he’d forgotten what he was wearing. “I’m pretty big into motocross when I’m home.”
“That’s awesome,” I said, pretending like I didn’t already know that about him. “Do you compete?”
“I’ve been in a few races, but nothing too big yet.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” I said.
Even though I knew it from his photos online, I actually didn’t know very much about the sport. I was about to ask him how everything worked when Carter and Ava, holding hands, came around the corner, along with Nash, Scarlett, and Hunter trailing behind them.
Elyse appeared out of the forest at the same time as well.
Oh well, I guess I would just have to ask Ben more about his racing later. It would at least give me a topic to bring up the next time I had a chance to talk to him.
Everyone greeted Ben and welcomed him to the house—everyone aside from my brother Carter, who seemed to tense when he realized my crush and I had been alone.
But Carter recovered from the surprise of seeing me actually talking to a guy quickly enough and started giving a rundown of where we’d be riding today.
As Carter pointed to the trail that went around the golf course and back to the very west end of the property, Mack finally rejoined us.
Where had he disappeared to for so long?
His gaze met mine as Carter asked everyone if they wanted to ride all the way through the secret trail we had that led to the falls. And I didn’t know what it was exactly, but Mack looked like there was something off with him. He usually had an enigmatic energy about him that you couldn’t help but be drawn to—like how he’d acted when he made that comment about telling Ben we’d been making out. But now he was broodier.
Had something happened in the past few minutes to change his mood?
I studied him as everyone agreed that going to the falls sounded fun, and when our eyes met, I mouthed, Everything okay?
He gave a non-committal shrug before looking away.
I furrowed my brow, confused. I started walking over to ask him what was going on, but before I could reach him, he climbed on his ATV and pulled onto the trail directly behind Carter and Ava—who were of course riding the same ATV because they were in the inseparable stage of their relationship.
Why was Mack rushing off?
Had I done something wrong?
I had no idea.
But since he obviously wasn’t going to tell me what was going on right now, I just climbed onto my ATV and managed to claim my spot directly behind Ben who had taken off after Elyse.
I’d just have to figure Mack out later. Right now, I would focus on enjoying this ride and the chance I had to hopefully make a somewhat good impression on Ben despite being tongue-tied earlier.
We passed the golf course and drove into the more heavily wooded part of my family’s thousand-acre property where the land hadn’t been developed yet aside from the dirt trail we were driving on.
As we went over the small bumps in the road here and there, I let myself sink into the present moment and appreciated the view I had of Ben from behind. He was handling the ATV well, his body anticipating all the dips and curves in the trail.
I should probably be embarrassed at how much I was staring at his backside, my gaze running over the shape of his tall, toned body under his fitted gear, but since no one—my brothers included—could see my eyes under my helmet and goggles, I just let myself enjoy the view. Checking out his broad shoulders and narrow waist, I imagined what it would be like to share a four-wheeler with him, the same way Carter and Ava were.
I usually liked riding alone, since driving the four-wheeler was where most of the fun was for me, but I could certainly appreciate the idea of sitting behind Ben and wrapping my arms around his torso for safety. I would scoot up close with my chest against his back, letting the side of my face rest between his shoulder blades.
Yeah, that would be nice. I could just breathe him in and see if being close to him felt as good as my imagination had made it feel during my daydreams. He probably smelled and felt really good.
I sighed, wistfully thinking about living in a reality where that fantasy actually came true.
Would it be totally obvious if I pretended like I ran out of gas and needed him to give me a ride?
Probably.
Ben turned a corner on the road, and I was forced to look at the beautiful, forested scenery around me for a moment. The trees looked like they were on fire from the bright orange and red leaves. There was a place where the road divided, giving the option of taking an offshoot path through the trees that would eventually meet back up with the main trail. I slowed down since I wasn’t quite sure which way everyone had chosen to go and scanned the area to see which way Ben had gone.
I spotted him on the underdeveloped trail a moment later, his ATV leaving a cloud of dirt behind it about fifty feet ahead of me. I was about to head in his direction when out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a figure dressed in a black riding suit with a red stripe down the sides driving his four-wheeler down the side road.
Was Mack trying to race ahead of Carter and Ava? He was going so fast.
The road he was on sloped up into a hill, and for a few short seconds, he was air-bound after taking a jump. My heart stopped as I watched him fly through the air. A sudden surge of panic filled my chest when I saw that just when his four-wheeler was supposed to hit the ground, it hit something on the road that was hidden from my view instead.
And then Mack was flying off his machine.
