Page 3 of It Was Always You

"What do you mean by ‘mainstream?’" My brother pulled his head back as if offended that I could say such a thing about his date.

"I don't know. She's just one of those normal, every-day, vanilla-kind of girls."

Noah raised an eyebrow at me. "You say that like being mainstream is bad."

Of coursehewouldn't understand. He'd dated the most mainstream girl there was all last year. Ashlyn Brooks was the epitome of every guy's fantasy—tall, blonde, blue-eyed, outgoing, and popular. Pretty much everything that I wasn't, with my brown hair that wouldbe considered mousy at best and plain old hazel eyes that needed correcting with my thick black-rimmed glasses.

"I'm just trying to say that if you're into a girl who will fawn all over you and make you feel like a stud for making a touchdown at the football game, then Mercedes is one of those kinds of girls."

"And what guy wouldn't want that? Am I right, bro?" Noah nudged Easton in the shoulder.

"Yeah, well, this is a no-brainer then. Looks like I'm going to the Zac Efron movie tonight." Easton glanced back at me like I was clueless to think a guy would ever want a girl with a different flavor than Mercedes and Ashlyn. "But hey, I can give you a ride. Just promise to keep it quiet in the backseat. I can't have you offending my mainstream girl with your band-geek ways."

"Hey, I'll have you know that being the band geek is exactly why I have this date with Harrison tonight."

Or, a pretend date, at least.

"You make it sound like you're not sure it's really a date." Noah narrowed his eyes as if he could read the lie in my face.

I sat up taller, hoping to appear more confident than I felt. "Just because you don't think I'm pretty and intriguing doesn't mean that other guys feel the same."

Noah's face went from jovial to serious in half a nanosecond. "Hey, I never said that about you."

I rolled my eyes and shrugged, urging the blush to stayaway from my cheeks at his comment. And then, to prove to him that I didn't really care what his opinion of me was, I said, "Well, it's not like it matters, anyway."

Noah shifted forward, his back to me. "Well, I guess we better get going so you two can get ready for your hot dates." He turned the key in the ignition, and I tried not to dissect his last few sentences too much.

There was no way he would ever think of me as anything more than the annoying girl he was stuck spending time with because of our mutual relationship with my brother. So, instead of thinking about all the years I'd spent watching Noah and Easton play in their sports together, all the times he'd looked over me as he went to flirt with another girl who wasn't two years younger than him, and all the times he'd come to my house wearing a tux so he and Easton could pick up their dates to the dances, I crossed my arms and looked out the window.

Noah and I lived in two different worlds. But tonight, everything would change. I was going to meet Harrison at the movie. And if I had my way, Justin Banks and aliens would be the furthest things from his mind.

2

NOAH

"Paul,Brielle, and I are going to dinner at Friendly's tonight. You want to come?" Mom asked when I came down from my bedroom upstairs.

I didn't know why she asked. She knew just as well as I did that hanging out with Paul, my stepdad, was about the last thing I'd want to do. But I resisted the urge to roll my eyes because I knew better than to treat my mom with disrespect. She already had enough of that in her life, and the bruises from last time were just finally beginning to heal. "Not really."

"You sure?" She looked at me over her shoulder as she put a dangly earring in her ear. Paul liked her to dress up when they went out.

"I'll grab something on my way back to Easton's." Nowthat football season was over, I tried to spend as much time at his house as I could.

I didn't realize until a second later that I couldn't hang out with Easton tonight because he'd be on his date. Man, I needed a girlfriend again. I needed something to get me out of here and away from Paul when Easton was busy.

If only Ashlyn was still available and I hadn't completely killed any opportunity I might've had with her. But as much as I hated that Luke had stolen my ex-girlfriend, I knew she was probably a lot happier with him. I'd let my stepdad and the way he treated my mom get to me too much while we were dating, and I learned my lesson too late.

Oh well, that's just the way my life was meant to be.

I looked at the clock on the wall. Paul would be home from work in fifteen minutes. Time to head out again.

I went out the door and climbed into the car my dad bought me out of guilt for replacing me with his new family. Ten minutes later, I went through the slush-covered drive-thru at Wendy's and ate my burger and fries as I drove around absentmindedly.

I was pulling into the parking lot to the movie theater before I realized I'd driven there. Ashlyn's family owned the place, so I'd spent a lot of Friday nights over here last year. Apparently, my conversation with Easton and Lexi today had my subconscious guiding me to the theater.

Since I was already here and had nothing else to do, Iscanned the list of movies on the big sign out front. There was a kid movie, a horror movie, the alien action movie Lexi had talked about, and the latest Zac Efron romantic movie.

Looks like I’ll get to watch Lexi on her "date" with her crush. That should be entertaining.

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