Page 16 of Grudge Puck
“Then yeah—of course! Of course I thought he was cute! Every girl in school had a crush on Beau Bradford. And that was exactly the problem! It all went to his head. Before everyone started pumping his tires about what a great hockey player he was going to be, he was actually a sweet, shy boy, believe it or not. But hell, Beau was only 12 years old when the so-called experts in the hockey world started writing articles that he might be 'the next big thing' in hockey. Suddenly, you couldn't open the local newspaper without seeing his picture or reading about his conquests on the ice. Don't you know that all that hype and fame can turn a young boy into an egomaniac? And it's such a shame, too. He really was a quiet, nice boy before they got to his head.”
Piper's bottom lip jutted out. She saw my point, crystal clear.
“Then, in high school, he basically had a new girlfriend every week. The question on the tip of everyone's tongue was: 'who's Beau Bradford dating now?'Who cares, if you would've asked me. But whoever Beau dated, she became queen of the school … until he dumped her for the next one.”
Piper nodded. “I can imagine.”
“In fact, it got sobad, that all the girls in school formed the 'Beau Bradford Bandwagon'.”
She giggled. “What's that?”
“His so-called fan club. A few popular girls painted 'BBB' on their back-packs with white-out, and the rest was history. Before long, they built a website dedicated to him—a digital shrine, where girls could upload their candid pictures of him looking hot in class, or muscular and tan at the pool, or really sweaty during a work-out, or scoring goals on the ice. But the main draw of the site was the 'Girlfriend' section, where all the girls anonymously pooled their gossip about who Beau was dating and who he might be interested in next.”
Piper's eyes lit up. “So areyouon that website?”
“Are you kidding? No way. I kept to myself. I was too busy focusing on my school work.”
“So, okay, you're not in the Triple B club. What happened next? There has to be a reason why's it so personal between you guys.”
“I dunno. Once he broke out of his shell in middle school, he became this huge jerk. It was almost like he went from being afraid to get in trouble to, well, looking for trouble. And yeah, that's when he started picking on me. He'd call megoody two shoesandlittle miss perfectand roll his eyes whenever I volunteered an answer in class. He made me feel like I should be ashamed because I was a good student, because it wasn'tcool.”
“Oh, you mean, the same way a boy that age always does when he has a crush on a girl?” Piper asked, obviously implying that was the case with Beau and I.
“Not the same, Piper.” I shook my head defiantly. “Plus, he was a total thorn in my side when I decided I wanted to go by Camille instead of Rachel. He refused to call me Camille, just like you saw at the bakery. And since everyone in school followed Beau's lead, I stayed 'Rachel' in everyone's eyes, all throughout high school. That was annoying as hell.”
“Okay, I can see that. Still, it kinda sounds like he had a thing for you.”
I chuckled. “Then why would he always loudly proclaim that I wasn't the sweet, smart, quiet girl everyone thought I was?”
“Whaaat?”
“Yeah. He'd swear up and down that I had this dark side. I didn't get it. It was so random, but it infuriated me.”
“That'sdefinitelyweird.” Piper paused and gave me a stare. “And you're sure you have no idea why he'd say something like that?”
After a long pause, I sighed.
“Okay, I shouldadmit one thing. But Idoubtit's related.”
Piper rubbed her hands together gleefully. “Oh, I bet it is.”
“After the BBB website was started, someone came along and started a site that wasanti-BBB. It was called the Beau Bradford Blandwagon. It was written to be a satire of the fan-club, and poked fun at the cult of celebrity surrounding him. It had jokes about how dumb it was that everyone glorified him, when really, he just happened to be good at shooting a rubber disc into a net. I mean really, so what? Who cares? He wasn't going to solve the world's problems or anything like that. He was good at a sport. The end.”
Piper's knowing eyes narrowed into slits. “Andyou—”
I gave a nod. “And yes, I'm the one who started that site.”
“Camille!” Piper burst out with laughter. “That's such a bitch move!”
“But the site wasanonymous,Piper. There's no way he could've known it was me. Anyone could've written it. And the site was only up for a few months before I deleted it. I doubt anyone even saw it but my small group of friends. So I really doubt that's what this whole thing is about.”
She threw her arms into the air. “Ofcoursethat's what it's about! You injured his pride!”
I covered my mouth and giggled. I was amused, but equally ashamed. “You really think so?”
“Yes!”
But no matter how much I tried to, I couldn't believe it. “He would've said something.”
