The Perfect Match Read online

  The Perfect Match

  Bayview High #4

  Melody Summers

  Copyright © 2018 Melody Summers

  melody-summers.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Heads up!”

  I turned just in time to see a couple of boys I didn’t know charge around the corner towards me. One of them lurched to the side and staggered past me into the dining room, but the other collided with me before he realized I was in his way. A wave of lukewarm beer sloshed out of the plastic cup clutched in his hand and splattered across my sweater. The boy stumbled back a step, blinking in confusion until his eyes focused on me and then lit up with drunken speculation.

  I glared back at him while I bit my tongue to hold back several choice words Mom still threatened to wash my mouth out with soap for using. My barely leashed anger must have penetrated the alcoholic fog soaking his brain, because instead of hitting on me he mumbled a hasty apology and took off after his companion.

  With a groan I surveyed the damage to my sweater. While it was dark enough that the spill didn’t show much, I reeked of cheap beer. Yuck! That sure wasn’t going to earn me any points with my parents when I got home.

  It would have been nice if at least one of my friends had been there with me to help fend off guys like that. Dannika was out of town, though, and Delaney and Molly were out with their boyfriends doing couple stuff. They’d invited me to go, but I hadn’t been out with anyone since Jason had stopped texting me after Winter Dance and I was sick of being the odd girl out. So I’d come by myself, which had been a dumb move. I didn’t belong at the party anyway. There were too many kids drinking, too many people making out wherever they could find enough space to lean against a wall. It wasn’t my scene at all, and I didn’t even know the girl throwing the party. But it was the first real party since school had let out for winter break and I’d heard that Seth was going to be there, so I went.

  Seth. I’d been gaga about him for well over a year now, since the first time he’d delivered a pizza to my house. After that I’d saved every penny to order pizza as often as I could, although I never actually talked to him. He'd been a junior then and totally gorgeous, and never gave me a second glance. Which didn’t stop me from looking and then sighing over him after he left.

  A fresh wave of partiers swarmed into the kitchen and I wriggled my way past them to the living room. Why didn’t I just leave? I hadn’t seen Seth, and I didn’t really know anyone at the party at all except Dylan, the guy my best friend Dani had dated before she left him to get back together with her ex. Poor guy. He hadn’t deserved that, but tonight he had some cute little redhead with him so I guessed he hadn't been too shattered by it. Hopefully this girl would work out for him.

  Once I had a little free space I stripped off my wet sweater and tied the sleeves around my waist. The shirt I wore under it would dry faster that way, and it was getting hot with all the people crammed into every room. So why was I staying? It was uncomfortable, and my carefully crafted appearance was now in shambles. Of course that was how I just had to look when I finally ran into Seth about ten seconds later when I slipped back into the kitchen to look for something cool to drink and almost had an instant replay of the beer-spilling incident. Luckily for me Seth wasn’t drunk and managed to stop short before he plowed into me. Not that I would have minded. That boy could spill beer on me anytime.

  “Excuse me,” he said, and then he looked down and his beautiful green eyes lit up in recognition. “Oh, hey, Allison.”

  My face got hot because he’d remembered my name. Of course after delivering all those pizzas he sure ought to. I’d always been too tongue-tied around him to say more than Hi or Thanks to him before, which was weird because I wasn’t shy like that with any other guys. But I’d made up my mind that this time it was going to be different. I was going to talk to him. I screwed up my courage and opened my mouth to recite one of the dozen opening lines I’d practiced in front of my mirror for hours earlier, but I never got out a single syllable.

  “There you are, Seth! For a second I thought you’d run out on me.”

  A tall, willowy blonde appeared as if by magic and plastered herself onto Seth. I couldn’t remember her name, but she was a senior and next to her I looked like something the cat dragged in. Seth slid his free arm around her and bent his mouth to her pouty lips. A rusty knife twisted in my gut as I watched him kiss her. That was supposed to be me! Then her eyes fell on me, giving me a quick look up and down before dismissing me as irrelevant. Somehow that hurt even worse.

  “Come on, baby,” she said, tugging on his arm. “There’s a game of Three Man starting in the pool room.”

  As she pulled him away, Seth spared me a brief, absent glance and smile. I was already forgotten before he got through the door. With a dejected sigh I slumped against the door frame. That was it. That was what I’d come to this party for. I’d been banged into and had beer spilled on me for that. Why had I bothered? I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid. I should have known Seth would end up with some gorgeous girl like that. And not only did he have a fabulous new girlfriend, but she’d snubbed me like I’d crawled out of a gutter or something.

  It shouldn’t have hurt so much. It wasn’t like I really even knew Seth or anything. I saw him at school and he delivered our pizzas sometimes. But my heart didn’t care. It felt like it had been run over by a truck and was all squished and bleeding in the street so that my whole chest ached from it.

  I knew I should have gone home then, but I really didn’t want to be there, either, so I wandered through the house looking for some secluded spot where I could bleed in private. I pushed my way upstairs and past the game room where a crowd had gathered around four people playing party games on Nintendo and found myself in a hallway lined with closed doors. No doubt those were the bedrooms, and while I probably could have hidden out there for a while that would have been rude. Instead I leaned against the wall outside the bathroom and pretended to wait while I nursed my mangled heart.

  The sound of giggling and whispering behind me roused me out of my pity party. When I turned around I saw the redhead who had been with Dylan earlier snuggling up with another guy. Their hands were all over each other, and the boy pushed her against the wall and gave her a long, heated kiss before they fumbled their way into the nearest bedroom and shut the door behind them.

  I shook my head in disbelief. The girl had Dylan, one of the most smoking hot guys in school, and she was messing around with some loser like that? Stupid. I’d been kind of jealous of Dani when she was going out with Dylan. It wasn’t just that he was cute, but he was so sweet and into her that it made you want to go Awwww every time you saw them together. And now this girl was just throwing a guy like that away.

  Poor Dylan. He deserved better. But he was super hot, and there were lots more girls out there. He’d find one who’d treat him right. W
ith a helpless shrug I turned away and went back to feeling sorry for myself.

  But not for long, because a couple of minutes later Dylan showed up.

  “Allison? Hi. Have you seen a redhead, about so high, curly hair?”

  My eyes flickered to the bedroom door before I could help myself. His eyes followed mine and his face hardened, blue eyes turning to ice. Slowly he turned and put his hand on the knob.

  “I really don’t think you want to go in there,” I warned him.

  He just squared his shoulders, gave the knob a vicious twist, and stepped inside. I winced and waited for the fireworks to start.

  “Hey! Occupied, dude!”

  I expected yelling and cursing. Instead there was only silence. After a moment Dylan came out and closed the door behind him. Without a word he left the way he’d come, but his shoulders were slumped and I’d caught the stricken look on his face. Pity for him welled up inside me, even stronger than what I’d been feeling for myself.

  What an awful night. It was time to get out before things got any worse, so I bailed and went to Caroline’s, a twenty-four hour diner by the truck stop. The late night party crowd hadn’t started to show up yet, so the place was almost deserted. It was old and tired, but they had good food and didn’t care if you just sat and drank coffee. I got a booth by a window and ordered coffee and a cinnamon roll.

  Those things were heaven on a plate—the best cinnamon rolls in all of Texas, and just the smell was enough to make me feel a little better. This was more like it. With a contented sigh I sipped on my coffee and played on my phone while nibbling on gooey, sweet goodness.

  I’d been there maybe fifteen minutes when Dylan came in. A waitress seated him at a booth across the room, and he slouched down like half his bones had turned to mush. He didn’t notice me, too wrapped up in his own dark cloud to have room for anything else. I couldn’t really blame him. When I tried to imagine if it had been me walking in on Seth and his girlfriend like that, my mind shied away. He just sat there staring out the window and taking an occasional gulp of coffee, radiating pain so intensely that it twisted my heart to look at him.

  “More coffee?”

  I smiled up at the waitress. “Please. And could you bring me another cinnamon roll?”

  A couple of minutes later she set a fresh roll down in front of me. Taking a deep breath for courage, I scooped it up along with my coffee and marched over to Dylan’s booth.

  “Hey,” I said, sliding the roll in front of him.

  Dylan looked at me as though I had sprouted two more heads. I sat down across from him and nodded at the cinnamon roll.

  “Caroline’s famous cinnamon rolls. They make everything better.” He was still staring at me like I was some kind of crazy person. “Okay, maybe not, but they at least make you remember that life is still worth living. Or something like that.”

  That earned me a tiny snort of laughter, and I relaxed a little.

  “I’m sorry about what happened.”

  He twitched one shoulder in a shrug as he tore off a piece of dough. “You tried to warn me.” When he popped it into his mouth his eyebrows lifted in surprise. “This is pretty good.”

  “I told you. That’s twice tonight. You should start listening to me when I tell you something.”

  His lips quirked up despite his mood. “Noted. So what are you doing here all by yourself?”

  “Hiding out. Scarfing cinnamon rolls to make myself feel better.”

  Dylan gave me a quizzical look which encouraged me to continue. I hesitated for a moment, but why not tell him?

  “I went to that party hoping this guy I like would be there. He was—just with another girl.” Who makes me look like dirt. I didn’t say that part out loud because I didn’t want to sound hopelessly pathetic.

  “Seth?” he asked.

  I hid my face with a groan. “How did you know?”

  “I did hang out with you guys for a while. It was pretty obvious.”

  “I guess so. Anyway, it’s no big deal. Certainly not compared to the evening you had.”

  He frowned. “Elora. Not one of my better decisions. Quinn warned me she wasn’t over her ex. Apparently that’s my thing, now.”

  I pointed at the plate in front of him. “Eat your cinnamon roll. We all do stupid things when we’re on the rebound. It’s just part of the process.”

  A little gleam sparked in his eyes, which were the light blue of a cloudless summer sky. “Really? And what kind of stupid things have you done?”

  “No way,” I replied, shaking my head. “That’s a pay to play question. If you want to hear about my sordid past then you have to buy the cinnamon rolls.”

  That got me another laugh. “Fair enough. So Seth was there with someone?”

  “A tall, thin blonde. Gorgeous, and wrapped around him like an octopus.”

  “Sorry,” he said.

  I sighed and took a bite of my cinnamon roll. “I have no right to complain. Delaney and Dannika have been telling me forever to do something about it, but I never did. I waited too long, and now it’s too late.”

  “You never know.”

  “Please. She looks like one of those Victoria’s Secret models. And I don’t.”

  Dylan tilted his head and looked at me—really looked at me. The appreciation in his eyes left me a little tingly. The guy was hot, after all. I mean, he wasn’t Seth, but he was definitely in the school’s top ten. Okay, top five.

  “You’re not exactly what I’d call plain, Allison.”

  I stared back at him over the rim of my coffee cup. “I brought you that cinnamon roll to make you feel better, not so you’d try to make me feel better. Which isn't working, by the way.”

  “Fine. So now what?”

  “So now nothing. He’s got a girlfriend. My little fantasy is over.”

  “I see.”

  I threw up my hands. “What can I do? It’s not like I can compete with her—even if I’m not plain.”

  He winced as I threw that word back at him. “Don’t give up so easily. I doubt it’s as hopeless as you think. It sounds like this is a new thing, and it may not work out.”

  “You didn’t see her.”

  “No, but I’ve seen you.”

  The way he said it left me flustered and tingling again. Those clear blue eyes of his were murder. No wonder he’d made out so well last year when he’d been hooking up with a new girl every week.

  “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

  His mouth twisted into a grin that moved him firmly into the school’s top three. “Can't blame a guy for trying.”

  The café door crashed open and eight people, all just a few years older than us, swarmed inside. They swaggered up to the counter, talking and laughing loudly like they were the only ones in the place. They’d obviously been drinking, and after a few seconds of waiting on someone to seat them they began yelling for service. Dylan and I shared a disgusted look.

  “I hope I behave better than that when I’m in college,” he murmured.

  “I’m not sure any of them are in college.”

  A waitress hurried up to the counter with a resigned expression on her face. Since the place stayed open all night the staff was used to dealing with this kind of crowd. She took them to an empty section over by where I’d been sitting earlier so they were less likely to bother anyone else.

  “I’m glad I moved.”

  “No kidding.”

  As the waitress left with their drink orders, the noise from their table grew louder. An elderly couple threw them a disgusted look and got up to leave, while hoots and jeers followed them all the way out the door. Dylan and I huddled in his booth and did our best to stay inconspicuous.

  “They’re going to be lucky if they don’t get thrown out,” I said.

  He shrugged. “As long as they pay I doubt that anyone cares.”

  “If they start scaring off the other customers someone will.”

  There weren’t many of those, though, and things quieted
down a little until the waitress returned with their drinks and began to hand them out. One of the girls knocked her glass of tea over so that it sloshed across the table onto two of the guys, who jumped up and burst into a long string of curses and abuse. At this fresh outburst the manager ran over, and even though he spoke in a low voice it was obvious that he was warning them to tone it down. For a few minutes they complied, and Dylan and I went back to our conversation.

  “You going out of town for the holidays?” he asked.

  “Not this year. We trade off with the rest of the family. My aunts and uncles are coming to stay with us this time.”

  He snickered when I rolled my eyes. “That bad, huh?”

  “It’s great if you enjoy having a horde of screaming, hyper little kids rampaging through the house for days.”

  “No wonder you don’t want to go home.”

  “How about you?”

  “We did our traveling over Thanksgiving, so we’re staying home and it’s just the four of us this year. I was hoping to spend a lot of my time off with Elora, but…”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s my own fault. I should have listened to Quinn.”

  The noise across the room soared again, and he frowned. When I turned my head I noticed two of the guys looking our way.

  “They’re checking you out,” Dylan said.

  My skin crawled as I realized it was true. “Ewwww.”

  They might have been kind of cute if they hadn’t been so drunk and obnoxious, but now they were just disgusting. When they saw I’d noticed them they began making comments deliberately loud enough for us to overhear. I blushed as I realized what they were saying, and Dylan straightened in his seat, face taut with anger. I was saved from further embarrassment by the waitress bringing out their food.

  “That’s not what I ordered!” one of the boys complained.

  The waitress continued setting down plates. “Yes, it is. I wrote it down.”

  “I said it’s not what I ordered!” the boy insisted, his voice climbing.

  When she didn’t respond he flipped his plate onto the floor. The rest of the table dissolved into howls of laughter as eggs and sausage spattered across the dingy tile.