Be Mine Read online

  “Yeah,” Leo mumbled.

  Bonnie came running out of the living room. “Uncle Leo! Can we build another snowman tomorrow? Can we?”

  “Sure.”

  “Can you come, Natalie?” Bonnie asked.

  Before she could answer, Tom did for her. “Natalie is going to be busy tomorrow afternoon.”

  That was news to her. “Oh, I am?”

  “Yes, you are,” Tom insisted.

  If there was one thing Natalie hated, it was someone telling her what to do. But she wasn’t about to get into a fight with Tom in front of Leo.

  “Let’s go watch Frosty,” Leo said, taking Bonnie’s hand in his.

  “What are you doing hanging out with that loser?” Tom asked after Leo had disappeared.

  “Leo’s not a loser!”

  “You could have fooled me! He definitely looks like one!”

  “Not everyone can look like they stepped out of the pages of Sports Illustrated,” Natalie snapped.

  “They can if they exercise and don’t eat like a pig.”

  “Lower your voice!”

  “Why? It’s the truth. It’s not my fault if the truth hurts.” Tom raised his voice. “I bet he’s scarfed down that entire bowl of popcorn. Going back for seconds, Barnes?”

  “Why are you being so mean? What did Leo ever do to you?”

  Tom took Natalie by the hand. “Let’s get out of here. We’ve got studying to do.”

  Natalie snatched away her hand. “I can’t. I’m babysitting Bonnie.”

  “Can’t Leo do it? She’s his niece. I’m sure he doesn’t have anything better to do tonight. It’s not like he has much of a social life.”

  Leo came back out into the hallway.

  “Natalie, if you want to leave, you can,” he offered. “I don’t mind watching Bonnie.”

  “Let’s go,” Tom said, tugging on Natalie’s arm. “Where’s your coat?”

  Natalie shook him off. “I can’t leave.”

  “Why not? He said he’d watch the kid.”

  “That kid has a name. Bonnie. And she’s my responsibility until Lisa returns home. She left her with me. Not Leo. Even though he’s her uncle, I can’t just walk out. That would be wrong.”

  Tom huffed.

  Seconds later, headlights filled the driveway.

  “Mommy’s home!” Bonnie squealed, running out of the living room at the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

  “I guess you can go now,” Tom said, walking out of the house. “I’ll see you next door.”

  “Are you going home, Natalie?” Bonnie asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “You’re not going to get to have any popcorn with me and Uncle Leo.” Bonnie’s face became sad. “And you’re not going to watch Frosty with us.”

  “We’ll do it another time,” Leo said, taking Bonnie by the hand and leading her back into the living room. “Right, Natalie?”

  Natalie nodded. “Right. I promise.”

  Leo glanced at her over his shoulder. The look he gave her made her think he didn’t believe her. But she had promised Bonnie and she wouldn’t break her promise.

  After Lisa came inside and paid her for watching Bonnie, Natalie slipped into her coat. From the living room, she could hear Leo talking along with Frosty while Bonnie giggled.

  As she walked out the front door, Natalie suddenly felt sad and found herself wishing she could stay behind. The only place she wanted to be was sitting on the couch with Leo and Bonnie.

  “But I don’t want to see a horror movie!” Jennifer wailed. “I hate horror movies!”

  It was Friday night, and Jennifer and Will were at the movie theater. That day Will had gotten detention for talking in Art class and Jennifer had had to work again, so they hadn’t been able to get together after school. To make up for the lost time, Will had suggested they go to a movie and then hang out afterward.

  Jennifer had come straight to the movie theater from DeVille’s, so she hadn’t had an opportunity to fix herself up. Not that she would have gone to a lot of effort if she’d come straight from home. After all, this wasn’t a date. They were doing research!

  She was wearing the same jeans and emerald green pullover sweater she’d had on all day and her hair was in a ponytail. But before leaving DeVille’s, she had popped into the cosmetics department to add a little lipstick and mascara and give herself a spritz of perfume. That’s what free samples were for, right?

  “How can you hate horror movies?” Will asked.

  Jennifer began counting off on her fingers. “Blood. Guts. Gore. Screaming. Dead bodies. Creepy music. Crazy killers.”

  “Yeah! All the good stuff.”

  Jennifer shuddered. “Horror movies give me nightmares.”

  “Do you sleep with the light on after you’ve seen one?”

  “If you want to know the truth, yes, I do,” Jennifer admitted.

  “Jennifer’s afraid of the Boogeyman!” Will laughed. “Jennifer’s afraid of the Boogeyman!”

  Jennifer swatted him on the arm. “Shut up!” She pointed to the list of movies that were playing. “Why don’t we see a nice romantic comedy? Romancing Rachel is supposed to be good.”

  Will stuck a finger down his throat. “Blech! I hate romantic comedies.”

  “Why? Afraid you might pick up some pointers?”

  “Har. Har.”

  Jennifer checked the movie times. “We have to make a decision. The movies are going to start soon.”

  “Let’s flip a coin,” Will suggested. “Heads we see The Next To Die and tails we see Romancing Rachel. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Jennifer said, thinking that was fair.

  Will reached into his pocket for a quarter. Then he tossed it in the air, caught it, and flipped it on the back of his hand.

  “Yesss!” Will triumphantly exclaimed as he looked to see how the coin had landed. “We’re going to see The Next To Die.”

  “Fine,” Jennifer grumbled. “But here’s a warning. I’m going to be clutching your arm throughout the entire movie.”

  Will stepped up to the ticket window. “Not a problem.”

  “Here’s my money,” Jennifer said, handing him some bills.

  Will waved her money away. “Keep it. It’s my treat.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “But the munchies are on me.”

  At the refreshment stand, there was another round of arguing. “Let’s get nachos,” Will said.

  Jennifer made a face. “Nachos? Who eats nachos at the movies?”

  Will pointed to moviegoers who were heading back to their seats with nachos. “They do.”

  “Nachos aren’t movie food!”

  “Uh, look around. We’re in a movie theater,” Will pointed out. “And it’s food.”

  “But it’s not movie food!” Jennifer repeated.

  “What’s movie food?”

  “Popcorn! It’s been eaten at the movies for decades! Nachos haven’t.”

  “But I like nachos,” Will said.

  “Those aren’t real nachos like you’d get in a Mexican restaurant. The cheese here is made with some sort of artificial gunk.” Jennifer shuddered. “Do you really want to be putting that in your stomach?”

  “And the butter they put on the popcorn is real?” Will skeptically asked.

  “I don’t put butter on my popcorn,” Jennifer shot back.

  “Okay, forget the nachos. We’ll have a bucket of popcorn.”

  “And some licorice,” Jennifer told the girl behind the counter. “Red, please.”

  “Red? I like black.”

  Jennifer made a face. “I hate black licorice.”

  “I hate red licorice.”

  “Let’s get M&M’s instead,” Jennifer said.

  “What kind?” the girl behind the counter asked.

  “Peanut,” Jennifer said.

  “Plain,” Will said.

  Jennifer turned to Will. “How can you not like peanut M&M’s?”

  “I like my chocolate to be pure
.”

  “So you don’t like Snickers bars?”

  “Hate ’em.”

  “What’s it going to be?” the girl asked in a bored voice.

  “We’ll take a box of each,” Jennifer said.

  The girl started ringing up their items. “Anything to drink?”

  “I’ll have a Pepsi,” Will said.

  “We don’t sell Pepsi. Only Coke.”

  “I’ll have a Coke,” Jennifer said.

  “Nothing for me,” Will told the girl.

  “Why won’t you get a Coke?” Jennifer asked. “It’s the same thing.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Now you’re a soda connoisseur?”

  “I can taste the difference,” Will insisted.

  “Whatever,” Jennifer said as she paid the cashier.

  Once they had their order, they headed into the movie theater. Most of the seats were taken, although they were a few empty spots scattered around. Will started walking to the front row.

  “Where are you going?” Jennifer asked.

  “To get our seats.”

  Jennifer shook her head. “I don’t want to sit that close.” She pointed to a row in the back. “Let’s sit there.”

  “But it’s so far away. We’re hardly going to be able to see anything.”

  “Exactly! I don’t need to be that close.”

  “How about in the middle?”

  The lights in the theater were starting to go down and latecomers were starting to grab the few remaining seats. “Fine.”

  They hurried to their seats and Will placed the container of popcorn between their seats. As soon as the movie started, Jennifer closed her eyes. Every horror movie started with a murder and this one was no exception.

  “Tell me when it’s over,” Jennifer whispered.

  “Okay.”

  Jennifer listened to the creepy music build. Then she heard a scream.

  “It’s over,” Will said.

  Jennifer opened her eyes just as a guy wearing a clown mask jumped out from behind a bedroom door, lunging with a chain saw. The girl in the bedroom started to scream as the screen turned blood-red and the opening credits began.

  Jennifer shrieked in fright and smacked Will on the arm. “You creep! You lied to me!”

  Will was laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach. “You should have seen the way you jumped out of your seat! You jumped so high, I thought your head was going to hit the ceiling!”

  “That wasn’t very nice,” Jennifer grumbled.

  Will snickered. “No, but you have to admit it was funny.”

  Jennifer watched most of the movie through squinted eyes. Sometimes she looked away from the screen. More than once, she gripped Will’s arm, burying her face in his shoulder. Finally, the movie ended. But not before the usual twist ending where the supposedly dead killer came back to life so everyone in the movie theater could jump out of their seats one last time.

  “That was awful!” Jennifer exclaimed as they walked out of the theater.

  Will stared at his shirt sleeve. “You were really scared. I think you almost shredded my shirt.”

  “I told you I didn’t like horror movies!”

  “Next time we’ll see what you want.”

  “There’s going to be a next time?” Jennifer asked, wondering what Will meant by his comment.

  “I owe you for that trick I pulled when the movie started.”

  Jennifer tried not to feel let down. What was she expecting? For Will to fall for her and want to take her on a real date? Not that she was interested in him as boyfriend material. This wasn’t one of those romantic comedies where the bickering main characters wound up together by the end of the movie.

  “I have that list you asked for,” Will said, reaching into the inside pocket of his motorcycle jacket. “Want to go over it together?”

  “Sure.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of hungry.”

  “Me too.”

  “Let’s grab a bite at The Burger Hut.”

  Jennifer knew that The Burger Hut was where everyone went after their Friday-night dates. This wasn’t a date, but it couldn’t hurt to be seen there together. Of course, they were going to be surrounded by real couples, which would only remind her that she didn’t have a boyfriend.

  Suddenly, Jennifer was no longer hungry.

  “Are you going to give me the silent treatment the entire night?” Tom asked Natalie as they walked out of the movie theater.

  “Why not? Don’t you think you deserve it?”

  “I said I was sorry for what happened last night.”

  Natalie thought back to the night before. When she’d gotten home, she’d told Tom their study date was off. Then she’d avoided him all day at school. When he showed up that night to take her on their date, she had walked out to his car without a word. He had tried making chitchat during the drive — he’d even tuned the radio to her favorite station — but she hadn’t answered him. Only when they got to the movie theater did he apologize for his behavior the night before. Natalie hadn’t said anything. She’d just taken her ticket from Tom and found herself a seat.

  “You said it but I don’t believe you meant it,” Natalie said as they walked to Tom’s car. “I still can’t understand why you were so horrible to Leo.”

  “I was jealous,” he admitted as he unlocked the car doors.

  “Jealous?”

  “What? I can’t be jealous?” he asked as they got into the car and he turned on the heat. “I hate the idea of you being alone with another guy.”

  Natalie stared at Tom in disbelief. “Did you think I was going to cheat on you?”

  “No! But I’m sure Leo was getting ideas. You’re a knockout, Nat. I’m sure he’s never spent so much time alone with a pretty girl.”

  “Leo wasn’t going to make a move on me!”

  “You don’t know that. I wanted to make sure he knew you were my girlfriend and not to mess with me.”

  Natalie rolled her eyes as she buckled her seat belt. “Spare me the caveman routine!”

  Tom leaned across his seat and gave Natalie a kiss. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me last night. It’ll never happen again,” he promised. “Am I forgiven?”

  His apology did seem more genuine this time. It didn’t feel like he was just saying what she wanted to hear. “Forgiven.”

  “How about we go to The Burger Hut?” he asked as he pulled the car out into the street.

  “Okay.”

  Natalie knew that she should be flattered over Tom’s jealousy. Being jealous meant he had feelings for her, didn’t it?

  Wasn’t that supposed to make her happy?

  But she didn’t feel happy.

  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t forget the look of hurt on Leo’s face.

  Because she could remember feeling that same hurt years ago.

  The Burger Hut was packed. Jennifer and Will gave their names to the hostess, who told them there would be a twenty-minute wait. They had just sat down in the waiting area when Natalie Bauer and Tom Marland walked in.

  “Uh-oh,” Jennifer said, nervously chewing on her lower lip.

  “What?” Will asked.

  “Here come Natalie Bauer and Tom Marland.”

  “So?”

  “Natalie is Claudia’s best friend.”

  Will rubbed his hands together. “Test run! If we can fool her, we can fool the Evil One! Are you ready to be a couple?”

  Jennifer gulped. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  The first person Natalie saw when she walked into The Burger Hut was Jennifer Harris. And she wasn’t alone. She was sitting with a guy who had his arms wrapped around her, whispering in her ear. Natalie took a closer look at him. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was Will Sinclair.

  From the way it looked, Will was Jennifer’s new boyfriend.

  Natalie was glad to see Jennifer hadn’t been lying and she really did have a boyfriend.


  If she hadn’t . . .

  Natalie shuddered.

  She hated to imagine what Claudia would have done.

  “I’m going to give my name to the hostess,” Tom said, unbuttoning his coat.

  As Tom walked away, Natalie went over to Jennifer and Will. “Hey!” she said.

  A startled Jennifer pulled away from Will. “Hi, Natalie.”

  “Been waiting long?”

  “We just got here.”

  Tom came over to join them. “A booth just opened up. The hostess says she can seat us if we can find another two people to sit with us.”

  “Want to join us?” Natalie asked.

  Before Jennifer could answer, Will cut in. “We’d love to!”

  “Are you crazy?” Jennifer hissed under her breath as they followed after Natalie and Tom to their booth.

  “What are you freaking out about? I thought you wanted to see if we could fool her.”

  “All we had to do was say hello and chitchat for a little bit. Now we’re going to be sitting across from them for at least an hour. Maybe longer!”

  Will shrugged. “What can I say, Red? I like living dangerously. Life’s no fun if you’re always playing it safe.”

  “You’re not going to have a life after tonight if we don’t fool them. And for the last time, don’t call me Red!”

  Were they buying it? Jennifer wondered as she ate her cheeseburger. Did they think she and Will were a couple?

  They were sitting opposite Natalie and Tom. Will had pulled her close to him and had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Every so often he would casually move his hand down her arm, rubbing it softly. Other times he would offer her bites from his fork and sips from his milk shake.

  Natalie hadn’t asked them a lot of questions. They had compared notes on the movies they’d seen — Natalie and Tom had seen Romancing Rachel — and talked about their classes. Jennifer felt something was going on between Natalie and Tom. She couldn’t figure out what it was, but she sensed that they were in the middle of a fight. There wasn’t that warmth you usually saw between couples. They were icy and polite to each other.

  “Who do you think is going to be voted Most Romantic Couple?” Tom asked after they had ordered dessert.

  “If you ask Claudia, she thinks it’s going to be her and Chase,” Natalie said.