Chapter 18

I slept better than I had in a long time. It was eleven o’clock when I finally woke up. I also felt about a thousand times better. I think I had cried my cold away. I pulled my dress off and stumbled to the bathroom. I stood in front of the sink and studied my reflection. I looked like a melted clown. I scrubbed the makeup off my face.

I heard the dinging noise of Ella’s phone. I ran back to my room. There was another text from Jake.

 

Told my dad last night about the election and college.

He was not happy. When are you coming?

 

Having just told my own parents about my secret life and future plans, I could perfectly imagine how he was feeling.

 

Will be there soon.

 

I threw on jeans and grabbed a black T-shirt from my closet. I went back to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I pulled all the hairpins out and brushed my hair up into a ponytail.

“Good morning, Madam President.”

I jumped. Ella had startled me. “Hey.”

“Sorry for being so hard on you last night.”

I turned around to face her. “No, I needed that swift kick in the butt. I’m going to see Jake.”

She struggled to hide her smile. “Want me to help you get ready?”

“No. I just want to go as me.” I turned back and put on some mascara and then lip gloss. “How do I look?”

“Gorgeous.”

She was full of it, but I loved her for it. I put the mascara and gloss back in the drawer. “Did Jake seem upset last night about losing the election?”

“Not really. But speaking of the election, I have to confess something.”

For a minute I wondered whether she had stuffed the ballot box. It would certainly explain how I had managed to get elected. But then she said, “One of the reasons I wanted you to win so much was because I knew Jake could never respect a girl who couldn’t beat him at something.”

I felt relieved and impressed again at the lengths my sister was willing to go to for me. “You are nefarious.”

“I know. Okay, I need my phone back. Trent and I have plans today.”

“Of the smooching kind?”

She giggled. “Like you’re one to talk.”

Oh my Buddha, I could have smooching plans today. Stop it¸ I told myself. One thing at a time. I got Ella’s phone for her.

“You’re not going to wear your glasses?”

Out of instinct I reached up to touch my face and was surprised to realize that I wasn’t wearing my favorite accessory. I hadn’t even thought about putting it back on. I hadn’t missed it. I didn’t need it anymore. “No more masks.”

I got the car keys from my father, who had the decency not to ask me what had happened last night, and the British GPS lady helped me drive over to Jake’s house.

It wasn’t actually a house. A house would have fit into one small corner of the castle Jake apparently called home. I am not exaggerating. He had actual turrets on his house, and there was gray stone all over the walls. It had huge windows and the biggest front door I had ever seen in my life. I wondered if he’d ever had a peasants-with-pitchforks problem. It surprised me that the builders had failed to install a moat. I pulled up into the semicircular driveway and parked.

I stood at the enormous door for an embarrassing amount of time before I summoned up the courage to ring the bell.

I heard Jake saying something. I think he was telling me to hold on. I could hear his dog barking in the backyard, but he stopped after a few seconds.

Jake finally opened the door, seeming a little out of breath. He was wearing a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He had on a sweater vest and jeans. It reminded me of something, but he was too pretty for me to think clearly.

“I’m glad you’re here. Come in.”

I stayed put. “Are your parents home?” I was worried that they might blame me for Jake’s plans the way Pearl had blamed him. I wasn’t in the mood to be drawn and quartered.

“My dad took the jet out to Mexico this morning with my mom. He decided he needed a weekend vacation away from me and my ‘poor decisions.’”

I heard music coming from somewhere as I stepped into the foyer. “I know what you’re going through. I told my parents about my manga and college.”

“Oh yeah? How did that go?”

“My mother reacted pretty much how I expected. I don’t think she and I will be talking anytime soon. My father was sort of amazing about it. He knows a guy who knows a guy who used to work for Tokyopop and might be able to use his connections to help me get an internship.”

“So maybe I was right and you should have told him sooner?”

I rolled my eyes while he laughed. “Yes, you were right. I should have.”

Jake’s hands were in his pockets. “Want to go sit down?” I nodded, and he led me into a small formal room with a couch and two chairs. I sat in one chair; he sat across from me.

“Do you need anything to drink?”

“No, I’m fine. Thanks.” What I needed was for him to get on with it before my heart exploded in anticipation. He had said he wanted to talk.

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you last night, but I like your hair that color. It looks nice. Not that I didn’t like it before. I did. I just like it now too.” He sounded very un-Jake-like. He sounded nervous.

“Thanks.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you. I wish I had known it was you.”

Well, that would have defeated the entire purpose. “Why?”

“Because we would have had fun.” His perfect smile nearly blinded me. I looked out the window for a second before looking back at him. Part of me had expected him to be angry. He had every right to be mad. I had basically set out to trick him. I didn’t know exactly what Ella had said to him, but whatever it was, it had worked. If he was willing to forgive and forget, I should be willing to do the same.

“Hey, I have something for you.” He got up and walked out of sight, returning a minute later. He had my phone. Right as he got to me, the phone slipped out of his hands and landed near my feet. I reached forward to get it, but Jake knelt down and picked the phone up. He handed it to me, and the sight of him took my breath away. I thanked him and took it with shaking hands. He wasn’t having me try on a glass slipper, but for some strange reason, I finally understood exactly why Cinderella ran off with the prince after having only known him for one night. Having a hot guy kneeling in front of you was sort of intoxicating.

He got up and returned to his chair. He exhaled loudly while he rubbed his hands over his pants legs. He smiled again. “Okay. I asked you over here because I, uh, wanted to talk to you. So, first off, you know I didn’t write that speech, right?”

I did know it. “Yes.”

He let out a small laugh. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous. I’ve never really done anything like this before. I feel like all I keep doing is trying to explain myself to you. So I’m just going to put all my cards on the table. Good enough?”

So he was nervous. I nodded, not daring to breathe.

“Do you remember when I ran into you coming out of the bathroom at your house?”

Vividly. In Technicolor detail. Of all the things I had expected him to say, that was definitely not it. “Vaguely.”

“You were taking a shower and we ran into each other in the hallway?” He looked a little embarrassed. Oh my Buddha, could he be any cuter? I wanted to melt.

“Anyway, I realized you were this like, hot chick, and it wasn’t cool to lust after you when I was dating your sister.”

“There was lusting?” My voice squeaked.

He had a cocky smirk. “There was definite lusting. Which is why I was a jerk to you. I had to keep you at arm’s length. Especially since I also thought you were dating that Trent guy. It’s not okay to move in on another guy’s girl.”

Jake thought I had been dating Trent? What? Before I had time to process that information, he kept going.

“But then you just, I don’t know, got under my skin. I kept thinking about you, even when I didn’t want to. You are the only girl who didn’t do everything I wanted her to. At first I hated it, but then I kind of liked it.” His eyes were so, so intense. I hung on his every word. “You make me push myself, and you don’t take my BS. You’re smart and funny and pretty and into the same things as me. I really like you.”

I was so flustered and excited I didn’t know what to focus on. He liked me? He thought I was pretty? And smart? And funny? He was attracted to me? He wanted to be with me?

“Come here. I have something else for you.” I only had one phone. What was he talking about? He stood up and held out his hand to me. I put my hand in his and got up. Electricity and warmth sparked between us where we touched. The tingles threatened to consume me.

I would have followed him to the ends of the earth. But he only walked me into another room, where he stood in front of two large sliding wooden doors.

“I wanted to do something to show you that I am all in.”

He slid open the doors. There, in the middle of a long, wooden dining room table big enough to seat twenty, was a round birthday cake with candles. It took me a minute to realize what he had done. He had recreated the scene from the end of Sixteen Candles.

To say I was stunned and overwhelmed and amazed would have been selling the experience short. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. Just get up here with me.”

The music I heard was coming from his iPod. It was a loop of “If You Were Here,” the song playing at the end of the movie. He helped me climb on a chair and then up onto the table. I sat down cross-legged, and he sat across from me with the cake in between us.

I sat there, staring at his beautiful face, touched beyond words by what he had done. He really, really did like me to go through all this effort. I wanted to say something but couldn’t think of anything.

“It was the best I could do on short notice.” He looked boyish, like he hoped he had made me happy.

“Shut up. It’s perfect. I can’t believe you did this for me.” I squeezed his hand, and he held it tightly. “But it’s not my birthday.”

“I know. But I’m doing something here.” He let go of me to pick up a lighter. He started lighting the candles.

He was doing something all right. He was making sure that I would never possibly ever love anyone the way I loved him. This was beyond anything I could have imagined. I couldn’t believe that I had almost missed out on this. I made a silent promise to myself to never let anyone else get inside my head. To keep my own insecurities at bay. To always believe in love and magic.

With all the candles lit, he looked back up at me. “Well?”

I smiled at him. “I’m all in too.”

He grinned back at me. “Make a wish.”

I knew my line.

“It already came true.”

“I’m glad you came over, Tilly.”

I thought he might be teasing me about the name I’d used at the dance the night before. “Oh, that’s just a nickname my family uses for me. Only people who love me get to call me Tilly.”

He reached across the cake to cup the side of my face with his hand. “Then I guess I’ll be calling you Tilly.”

And then, just like in the movie, he leaned across the cake and kissed me. An actual real kiss, and not the weird lip-mashing thing I’d done at a party once.

A curl-your-toes, steal-your-breath, heart-pounding, stomach-dropping, lose-track-of-time, perfect kind of kiss.

* * *

I let go of my List of Grievances given my current circumstances. I made a List of Rights instead.

Right the First: Jake Ryan Kingston was my boyfriend. MY BOYFRIEND!!! Sorry, saying it just never got old. He made me feel beautiful and smart and like I could conquer the entire world. It was amazing. And I got to ride in his car every single day.

Right the Second: Scott declined the office of vice president since Ms. Rathbone banned Mercedes from being on student council given her inappropriate behavior in showing up at the dance. So I got to appoint my own cabinet. Jake, Ella, and Trent joined me and helped me get hearings with the board on the lunch, parking, and uniform issues. Nothing had happened yet, but we were all hopeful. Being president also changed my standing at school. Where I had been mostly invisible before, people I hadn’t spoken to in years came up to tell me that they had voted for me and hoped I could change all the things I wanted to change. It made me more determined to get the board to listen to us.

Right the Third: Ella and I became closer than ever. This was helped by the fact that she finally saw the wisdom of my philosophy of not threatening Carlotta’s job. In addition to spending less time cleaning, she dropped half of her volunteer work and gave up her part-time work. I felt sad that I’d spent so much time being envious of her when all she wanted was to have a relationship with me. I was sorry for the time we’d wasted, but glad that we were in a better spot now. We didn’t double-date or anything, though. That would be way too weird. She also convinced me to add some color to my wardrobe and to give Andre a second chance. I was actually digging the red hair. But not the extensions. I got rid of those.

Right the Fourth: Things with my dad had improved too. Mrs. Putnam, I mean Jennifer, made him spend more time with us. She got him eating right and exercising and leaving his studio. I told him what happened with Pearl, and he was not forcing either one of us to spend any more time Skyping with each other. I think things got better because I finally understood what it meant to be really in love and would never want to take that away from him. Because, as we could all tell, what he had with Jennifer was the real thing. We also came to an understanding about Pearl. He understood that I was better off without her in my life, and I understood that I would not be responsible for my actions if he ever tried to make me talk to her again.

Right the Fifth: Ella had been right about Mercedes wanting Jake. If living well was the best revenge, I had revenged all over Mercedes stupid Bentley. I could see how insane it made her that Jake and I were together, despite all her fake smiles.

Right the Best: Jake’s dad made good on his threat to cut Jake off financially if he didn’t go to Yale. So Jake took the full-ride baseball scholarship to UC Santa Ana. (Although after several weeks his father, despite still wanting him to go to Yale, came around to respecting Jake’s “personal drive.”) I also received my acceptance letter to UC Santa Ana. The head of the art department wrote me a personal note to tell me that he was looking forward to working with me, as he had enjoyed my portfolio. I suspected my father had had something to do with that. But I was going to study what I loved, and for the next four years, I’d be doing it alongside the guy I loved. There are no words to describe what that level of hope and excitement feels like.

Which made me finally understand why they lived happily ever after in those fairy tales. Because there was a lot of happy to be had with a boy who loved you and kissed you like nothing else in the world mattered.