Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(7)

The girl clomped down the stairs and then walked up the hill and over to us. Her long dark hair streamed out behind her in the wind, and she had the most unbelievable blue eyes I’d ever seen. She was gorgeous, not that I’d ever admit that out loud. When it came to boosters, Orion could do worse. Maybe he’d even just landed himself the new girlfriend he was obviously looking for. At least he had two more years of high school to be with her. Lucky bastard.

“So? Sign me up,” the girl said, looking directly at Orion. “I’m in.”

Claudia sighed and turned to Orion. “Are you okay with . . . what’s your name again?” she asked the girl.

“True,” she and Orion said at the same time.

Claudia and I locked eyes, both surprised he already knew her name.

“True Olympia,” True said with deep meaning, as if that was supposed to be significant to Orion somehow.

“With True?” Claudia finished.

“Sure.” Orion shrugged.

“Okay. Go see Wallace over there,” Claudia gestured toward the one dude in the group, who scrambled to his feet with his iPad. He was wearing a black T-shirt and checkerboard shorts with a chain connected to the wallet in his pocket and had dark floppy bangs like mine. He lifted one scrawny arm and waved. There was ink up and down his forearm, but it looked like a doodle, not a tattoo. “He keeps the booster lists and attendance and everything.”

“Got it.” True made her way over to Wallace, tripping over a paint can and half crumbling a sign. It seemed like she couldn’t take her eyes off Orion, and she was plowing everything over to do it.

“You ready to go grab dinner?” I asked Claudia. “Me and a couple of the guys are going to Pizza City.”

She checked her watch. “Crap. How’d it get so late?” Dropping to the grass, she shoved her phone and a notebook into her bag, then stood. “Lauren, can you hang out for a while and make sure everything gets put away?”

“No problem, Skipper,” Lauren said, saluting.

Claudia rolled her eyes, but laughed.

“I’ll see you at the Studio.”

“Hey, guys, before you go, can I get a shot of the senior class couple?” Greg asked, wielding his camera.

Claudia and I grinned, both of us loving being called the class couple. Like I said, nothing was too cheesy. “Sure,” I told him.

We turned toward each other and hugged, smiling for the camera. Greg reeled off about half a dozen shots, then gave us a thumbs-up.

“Thanks.” He checked something on the screen and then moved off to photograph the cheerleaders.

“No problem!” I shouted. “Hey, Orion! You coming for pizza?”

His eyebrows rose. “Yeah? Cool.”

“Gavin! Let’s go!” I shouted, raising an arm to wave him down.

He said good-bye to Tara and jogged over to join us. I slipped my arm around Claudia as we made our way down the hill, Orion and Gavin in front of us. There was still an annoying pinch in my chest from my conversation with the guys, but I tried to ignore it.

“I’m so nervous!” Claudia said, raising her tiny shoulders as we walked.

“About what?”

“Tonight’s the night!” She skipped once. So frickin’ cute. “I’m gonna find out if I got the audition!”

She slipped through the opening in the fence ahead of me, and I paused for a second, my heart dropping. The audition. Right. Claudia had sent in an application to this prestigious dance program right outside Princeton for next year. The hope was, she’d get into her dream school and her dream dance program and they’d be within walking distance of each other. Suddenly my chest was heavy with dread. If she got this audition, it would be a sign. Because if she got the audition, she’d get into the dance program. And if she got into the dance program, there was no way she wasn’t going to get into Princeton. After tonight, she could be one step closer to getting everything she wanted. And everything she wanted would take her away from me.





CHAPTER THREE


Claudia


“Can I get you guys anything else?”

The waitress at Pizza City stood at the end of our table, smiling at Peter. She was a girl from school, a junior I was pretty sure, and she was always here. I think her family owned the place, but I wasn’t sure what her name was. What I did know was that she wanted my boyfriend. Of course she did. Everyone wanted my boyfriend. He was Peter “QB-1” Marrott. But this girl was making it totally obvious, with her sly half smile and by the way she was leaning one hand into the faux-wood table, pushing up her boobs by angling her triceps against one of them. Why didn’t she flirt with Gavin? Or Orion? Or Peter’s annoying friend Lester? One of the guys at the table whose girlfriend wasn’t sitting right next to him.

“You can get me something else,” Lester said, leering at her.

Well, okay. I understood why she didn’t flirt with Lester.

She stood up straight and sighed, looking down her nose at him. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

Lester Chen’s skinny face turned purple. “Oh, um, nothing. I was just kidding.”

The girl looked hopefully over at Peter again. I leaned in closer to his side and looked her in the eye. “Thanks. We’re fine.”

Emphasis on the “we’re.” She gave me this look, like she couldn’t believe I was sitting there with him even though we came in here together twice a week, every week. Then she finally, finally walked away, flipping her weirdly orange hair over her shoulder.