The Heartbreakers Read online

  Major project? Sydney wrinkled her nose in confusion. She didn’t have any major projects. And if she did, she certainly wouldn’t have put it off. The new semester at school started Monday. A new semester meant new classes and no major projects.

  She hoped she and Drew had study hall together. They’d specifically asked for the same hour so they could sit with each other. Unless he hooked up with Nicole. In which case he should change his name and move across the country because Sydney would kill him.

  Sighing, she closed Internet Explorer and lolled her head back against the chair. She stared at the ceiling, noting the canopy of cobwebs in the corner. Ever since her mom became an executive at SunBery Vitamins, she’d been practically living in Hartford. Which meant Sydney and her dad had to fend for themselves. Probably those cobwebs would start to grow their own cobwebs before Sydney’s mom either cleaned them herself or hired a housekeeper.

  Sydney would put money on the latter because her mom was barely home enough to sleep in her own bed let alone clean house. And lately, money seemed to be her easy solution.

  The Instant Messenger chimed as someone signed in. Sydney lurched forward. It was just Alexia. She was probably checking on her. Sydney gritted her teeth against the frustration. She right-clicked on Drew’s user name and opened a message box.

  Syd17: where r u???? call me when u get this…we need to talk.

  She closed all the windows on her computer and got up. It was a Saturday morning and she had nowhere to be and no one to be with. That was a first. She hoped Drew would call soon and they could go out to breakfast or something. Well, lunch, now, she thought as she glanced at the clock on her wall.

  As she got up to leave her bedroom, she noticed her copy of The Code on her dresser. Alexia had typed the rules up last night and printed out several copies.

  “Rule number one: You must not email or IM The Ex ever again,” she read. If she was supposed to be following this thing, she just broke the first rule.

  But she and Drew were good at fixing their problems. That’s why they were “The Couple” at Birch Falls High. In high school terms, a two-year relationship was like marriage. They’d probably be voted Most Likely to Grow Old Together for yearbook mock elections. No way had they broken up over some stupid party.

  Now, if only Drew would call her so they could fix this problem.

  Sydney threw The Breakup Code in the trash. It wasn’t like she really needed it.

  Raven heard a soft rapping on her bedroom door. She groaned and opened her eyes, quickly regretting it. It was so bright in her room with the blinds off the windows. When the hell was her dad coming over to hang up the new ones?

  It’d been at least three weeks since he’d taken the blinds down, promising to replace them that weekend. But he’d been so flaky lately, focusing on his latest condo development, she’d probably have to hang them herself. Ever since her parents divorced, her dad had been doing things around the house to fix it up. He just wasn’t very good about finishing them.

  The knocking came again.

  “What?” she croaked, and opened one eye to peek at the door.

  Raven’s little sister, Jordan, came in, shutting the door behind her. She was already dressed in jeans and a pink stretchy shirt. Her black hair was curled into perfect ringlets, which she’d pulled back into a ponytail and topped with a pink headband.

  “What time is it?” Raven asked, flopping back against the pillow and closing her eyes to the attack of the too-cheery sunshine. Had she slept all day? She’d stayed up late going over the events of the night before in her head while listening to My Chemical Romance on her iPod. She should have been obsessing over the breakup and the scene Caleb made, but no matter how hard she tried, her mind kept wandering to Horace.

  And kiss number 2.

  “It’s eleven thirty,” Jordan said. “Mom told me to wake you up.”

  “If Mom told you to throw away your Milo Ventimiglia collection, would you do it?”

  When there was no response, Raven looked over at her sister. Jordan stood at the end of the bed, wringing her fingers.

  “Come here.” Raven waved her sister over and Jordan climbed on top of the grape-colored blanket. “I’d fight Mom off with a broom,” Raven said, “if it meant saving your Milo collection.”

  Jordan laughed. “Thanks.”

  “You still have it hidden?”

  “Yeah, in the back of my closet under an old blanket.”

  Their mother was against anything pop culture—she said it was a waste of time. Teen magazines were out. MTV and The N were blocked by parental controls, and if she had her way, the Internet would be a foreign word to both girls. But when Raven got into middle school, it became apparent that homework could not be done without some Internet. Of course, there were parental controls on that, too.

  So Raven and Jordan hid their forbidden pop culture. Jordan was obsessed with Milo (circa Gilmore Girls, not Heroes). She cut out all his pictures from magazines and put them in a binder. Raven usually bought magazines like Bop and Teen Star for Jordan to devour.

  Raven’s secret stash was usually comprised of Spin and Blender. And stuffed beneath her mattress, like a boy’s porn stash, was a poster of Three Days Grace. That Adam…yum.

  Yawning, Raven pulled herself into an upright position. “Mom save me anything for breakfast?”

  Jordan shook her head. “She didn’t make anything today. I just had granola.”

  “Serious?” Raven’s mother was the poster woman for Mom of the Year. She always made breakfast. Always packed their school lunches. Always had the laundry caught up and put away.

  “When I got up, she was scrapbooking,” Jordan said. “She’s working on a new design for tonight’s class.”

  Well, that explained it. Raven’s mother, while still Mom of the Year, had backed off her mom duties in the last several months since she opened the scrapbooking store/café called Scrappe. Scrapbooking was her life now.

  “Well, I gotta go pack. Cindy’s mom is picking me up at noon,” Jordan said.

  “Are you staying there tonight?”

  Raven got out of bed as Jordan picked up The Breakup Code from the trash. Ignoring the question completely, she turned to Raven and waved the papers in the air. “What’s this?”

  “Something Alexia came up with last night.”

  Jordan fingered a ringlet with her thumb and index finger. “So, you’re supposed to follow this if someone breaks up with you?”

  Raven sighed. “Someone did break up with me.”

  Jordan’s mouth hung slack. “Caleb broke up with you?”

  Raven hated the sound of those words. Like she was somehow damaged goods. “Yes, he broke up with me and no, I don’t want to talk about it.” Talking about it would mean admitting defeat. Raven had told her little sister just a few weeks ago that she thought Caleb was The One. The one that Raven could fall in love with. The one that liked her for more than popularity and a pretty face. The one that would never leave her like her dad left her mom.

  “All right,” Jordan said, “I won’t ask.” She brought the rules closer and read, “Rule number one: You must not email or IM The Ex ever again. Take his name off your email list.” She looked over at Raven. “Did you do that?”

  “No.”

  “Well, why not? It’s the rule, isn’t it?”

  Raven grabbed the papers out of her sister’s hand and threw them back on her desk. “Yes, it’s the rule. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

  Jordan sat in Raven’s desk chair and shook the mouse so the screen woke from sleep mode. She double-clicked on the Instant Messenger icon on the desktop and Raven’s friend list popped up. “There you go.” Jordan stood up. “Time to ax him.”

  Raven hesitated. If she worked really hard at it, she could probably get Caleb to take her back. But did she want him back? Would she want him back because she seriously liked him or because he’d broken up with her and that drove her nuts? Or because she’d failed a re
lationship and wanted another chance to prove she could make it work?

  “Ray?” Jordan raised her brow and cocked her hip out to the side. “Are you going to follow the rules or what?”

  Raven plopped down in the computer chair and scrolled through her friends list. She right-clicked on Caleb’s user name and chose the delete option.

  Are you sure you want to delete “Calball”?

  Raven clicked on YES.

  “See ya later, sucker,” Jordan said, snickering.

  Standing, Raven put her arm around her little sister’s shoulders and led her out of the room. “You’re really starting to sound too much like me, you know?”

  “And what’s so wrong with that?”

  Though Jordan was only fourteen, Raven couldn’t help but see herself in her little sister already. She just hoped Jordan didn’t follow her footsteps where relationships were concerned. Because it was a really lame road to travel.

  SIX

  Rule 1: You must not email or IM The Ex ever again. Take his name off your email list.

  Rule 16: Do not call The Ex’s parents to tell his mom or dad why you broke up, hoping the mom or dad will help you through the breakup, because they can’t and they won’t.

  Kelly lay on her queen-sized bed curled into a ball. She clutched her stuffed koala bear, Mr. Jenkins, in her hands, his matted white hair pressing into her face. Will had given it to her last August when they officially met for the first time.

  They’d gone to school together for years, but they talked for the first time when Kelly started volunteering at the animal shelter. Her second day there, a dog came in who’d either been lost or abandoned. He died later that day from being malnourished. Kelly remembered locking herself in the shelter’s bathroom and crying. She loved animals, and it was hard to see one so unhappy and emaciated.

  When she came out of the bathroom, Will was there with Mr. Jenkins in his hands. The shelter had a whole closet full of stuffed animals that they gave away when people adopted an animal. While Will obviously hadn’t gone to much trouble to acquire Mr. Jenkins, it was the thought that counted.

  He’d handed over the stuffed koala and said, “I remember the first time I saw a dog die. It was so hard.”

  Kelly had cast her eyes to the floor and said, “But I bet you didn’t lock yourself in the bathroom and cry.”

  “Actually…” He shrugged and said, “I threw up, which made me want to cry.” He nodded at the koala. “I commemorated the dog’s life with one of the stuffed animals. I still have it at home. His name is Bear.”

  Kelly had laughed, trying to picture a stuffed animal sitting on Will’s bed. She’d had no idea he was so sweet. She knew about Will Daniels, of course, since they’d gone to the same school. A lot of people thought he was too preppy. Kelly had been guilty of thinking the same thing. But after that day at the shelter, she realized there was a lot more to him.

  That same night he’d taken her out to dinner. And a few weeks later, she was practically in love with him. It helped that he was incredibly smart, which Kelly thought was super sexy. And just watching him interact with the animals put a huge smile on her face.

  She smiled now, too, as she took a big whiff of Mr. Jenkins. He smelled like her Karmala perfume—Will’s favorite—and the smile morphed into a sob.

  God, this sucked.

  She rolled over onto her back and stared at the sunbeams shining across her white ceiling. She just wished there was something she could do to make Will commit to her and only her. Why couldn’t he just be her boyfriend? Was there something wrong with her? Was it because she wasn’t smart enough? Pretty enough? Skinny enough?

  She felt that she’d done everything she could to be the right girl for him. She was supportive of everything, all the extracurricular activities he did. She didn’t call him constantly asking where he was and what he was doing (which she knew drove him nuts because his brother, Ben, had told her so when she’d asked for some pointers).

  She’d done everything she thought she could to be the perfect girl for Will and still he hadn’t asked her to be his official girlfriend.

  And then he left her at the stupid art gallery!

  Like, seriously, what did she have to do?

  She wasn’t the type to become just another girl in the harem. So how did she get that role in Will’s life? Blind pursuit. She didn’t want to believe he was seeing other girls. She didn’t want to believe he wanted to see other girls.

  Sighing, she rolled off the bed, intent on scavenging for some kind of chocolate in the kitchen when she heard the familiar ding of a new email sound from her computer speakers.

  She jumped in the computer chair and shook the mouse to bring the screen out of hibernation. The screen lit up, and a picture of her and Will from Christmas stared back at her. Her little sister, Monica, had taken it, and Kelly had made it her computer’s wallpaper. Will’s arm was around her shoulders and she was smiling happily. Her eyes were lit by the flash and looked as though they were twinkling.

  Will had always been more affectionate when there were fewer people around. That night it’d just been Kelly’s family. Will had held her hand practically the whole night. She’d thought for sure they were headed toward a serious relationship, which was exactly why she started thinking about losing the big V to him and planning the Valentine’s Day surprise.

  Thinking about the upcoming holiday made Kelly’s chest heavy. She did not want to be alone on the holiday of love. That would totally suck.

  She double-clicked on the Internet Explorer icon and waited for a window to open. She signed into her email account, excitement and hope making her bite her lip.

  I hope it’s Will, emailing to apologize, she thought.

  She clicked on her one new message and saw Will’s name in her inbox. Yes! Quickly, she opened it and took in one long breath to settle herself.

  Hey, Kelly,

  Where did you go last night? I thought you were coming to Bershetti’s with us. Just wanted to make sure you were all right.

  —W

  That was the Will she loved. The one that sent her emails wondering how she was. Last night must have been some huge misunderstanding. She checked her Instant Messenger to see if he’d signed in there, too. The smiley face next to his name was dark. She hit REPLY on the email and typed in a quick message, hoping to catch him online.

  I thought you left me at the gallery on purpose! I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I just went home.

  Should she write more? Maybe tell him how much she wanted him to be exclusive with her?

  Will, I have to tell you something that’s been on my mind lately.

  No, no, no. She deleted the last sentence and started over.

  Will, I really think we need to talk about our relationship.

  No, that was too serious! Maybe she should be honest with him. And if she was going to be honest, it would be better to do it through email because she wouldn’t be subjected to laughing or grunting or eye rolls if he thought what she wrote was ridiculous.

  Without editing or rereading, she typed in exactly what she was thinking.

  And I was upset because of the whole Valentine’s Day thing with Brittany and thought you were leaving me behind at the gallery to spend time with her. Were you? What’s going on with you guys?

  Kelly clicked SEND. She jumped out of the computer chair and flung her arms in the air, silently saying Yes! She got it out and there was no taking it back now. She grabbed Mr. Jenkins from her bed and sat back down in front of the computer, minimizing Internet Explorer so she could look at the picture on her desktop again.

  Will was so darn cute. He had chestnut-brown hair that was always neatly combed. His face was clean-shaven. He had perfect skin, too, better than hers. She was always breaking out.

  The email ding sang again and Kelly opened Internet Explorer, refreshing her inbox. She clicked on Will’s new email.

  I waited around for you and when you didn’t show up, I thought you left ah
ead of us. I’m sorry. You know I’d never leave you on purpose like that.

  The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was true. When they’d gone to Will’s extended family’s Christmas party at the Marriott, he’d never left her side because she’d told him she was nervous and slightly intimidated. Both his parents were top attorneys in Birch Falls, and his grandfather had been the flippin’ mayor! Will had promised to make her as comfortable as he could, and he’d kept that promise.

  If he’d invited her to the art show, he would never have left her without saying something. She realized this now, all too late.

  She read the rest of the email.

  Brittany and I are friends like you and I are friends. You know I hate to get in a serious relationship right now. I have too much to focus on with school and extracurricular activities, etc.

  I’m sorry if you’re upset about Valentine’s Day, but I can’t break the agreement. That would be unfair to Brittany. We’ll hang out later that weekend. I promise. Call me later.

  Will

  He just wanted to be friends. The word ran through Kelly’s head like an annoying little cricket chirp. Didn’t he know that she’d give him space to work on homework and all the extra things he did after school? They’d been hanging out for months now. That proved he had the time for a girlfriend. She was practically his girlfriend already! They were always together.

  Will wanted all the perks of a girlfriend without any of the commitment.

  Kelly closed Internet Explorer and dropped her head onto the desk. What could she do to get Will to commit to her and only her? Maybe if she got Mrs. Daniels on her side, she’d have an easier chance of getting Will on her side. It was worth a shot.

  Kelly picked up her cell and dialed Will’s home number. As the line rang, she sat down on her bed and crossed her legs in front of her. She watched out the window as snowflakes blew in a whirlwind. The sun had just set so the sky was a washed-out indigo. It reminded her of last winter when she, her brother, Todd, and Drew all went hiking at Birch Falls Park. Halfway through the two-mile trail, it started snowing and blowing. It was practically a blizzard and Kelly hadn’t dressed for a flippin’ blizzard. Drew ended up giving her his coat. He was such a great guy like that. Todd probably would have left her out there in the half-darkness to freeze.