Somewhere in Between Read online

  Somewhere

  In

  Between

  Lynnette Brisia

  Somewhere In Between

  First Edition. December 8, 2015

  Copyright © 2015 Lynnette Brisia

  All rights reserved.

  Written By Lynnette Brisia

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate or encourage piracy if copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase authorized editions

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For all the girls who are going through or have gone through an experience similar to what Gemma does…you’re not alone.

  Much love to my family for all your support : )

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Homecoming is next Saturday.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “That’s barely more than a week away.”

  “And?”

  “And do you know what you’re gonna wear? Who you’re going with? Cause if you don’t have a dress, we can totally go tomorrow to find you one.”

  “Leigh, I already told you I didn’t want to go.”

  With a huff, Leighanna Cage walked up to her friend and step-sister and shook her shoulders as the younger girl sat at her desk. “Gemma, you can’t keep acting like this. I know you didn’t want to move here, it’s too rainy and snowy, and there are real seasons to contend with, heaven forbid. But you’ve got to get over it already. Austin is over. Denver is now. You’re missing so much by moping. I mean did I mention there are actual seasons in this state! Snow on Christmas morning is not something only found on television.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.” Gemma shoved her sister off her and moved to sit on her bed. “You’re here not even five minutes and everyone loves you. Skyview High makes you some honorary queen or some shit. You even got a boyfriend on the first day.”

  Leighanna shook her head, regarding her sister kindly. “What about Elliot? Have you asked him? You guys are best friends, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind hanging out with you.”

  A look of horror crossed Gemma’s face. She couldn’t dare ask Elliot. It would be too humiliating for one, admitting she needed her friend to take pity on her because she wasn’t good enough to be asked, and then if he said no, which he probably would, she wouldn’t be able to handle the rejection. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why?” Leighanna began innocently, but then her face scrunched up as though an unpleasant thought popped into her head. “Is he still hung up on Trisha? I swear that boy needs to pull his head out of his ass. She’s my age, already has a boyfriend, and she doesn’t even know who he is, much less want to. Really, it’s one thing to have a crush; it’s another to let it become this ridiculous.”

  Gemma simply nodded though she felt just as silly. Leighanna was right though, Elliot was being ridiculous about the whole thing. Trisha Scott was two years older, a senior to their lowly sophomore status, had been dating her boyfriend, Jake Lewis, since junior high, and didn’t have the faintest idea who Elliot Wade was. She was head cheerleader to Jake’s star quarterback, and didn’t have time for underclassmen. But one look over the summer at the carnival and Elliot was smitten with her. At least that’s what Gemma figured out pretty quickly after he started talking about how great Trisha looked today, and how kind she seemed and blah, blah, blah. He didn’t know when to quit and it broke Gemma’s heart every time.

  Elliot was the first friend she’d made after moving to Thornton, a suburb of Denver, at the end of freshman year. Well, it was more she was trying to text her old friends back in Austin to stave away the boredom at going over material she figured she’d already covered the year before –she hadn’t - when the teacher caught her, and Elliot, being his charming self, saved her from detention on her first day. He had claimed they were exchanging numbers so that he could help her catch-up, which as it turned out was a good thing, because she had definitely been wrong about knowing the material. After a quick reprimand from their teacher to wait till after class, the matter was let go.

  From then on, she latched herself onto him, following his lead, sticking by his side and in a way, forcing him into being her friend since she wouldn’t go away.

  She didn’t count on falling for him though, and so when he caught a glimpse of Trisha, Gemma knew she would never amount to anything more than friend in Elliot Wade’s eyes.

  “I don’t know what Elliot’s doing,” Gemma finally said quietly. “When he started talking about Trisha being Homecoming Queen and how he wanted to go to see if he could get a dance with her, I tuned him out. Besides, um, Ryan Matthews, uh said it would be cool if we hung out somewhere.” Gemma held her breath at this. She’d always been a terrible liar and hoped Leighanna wouldn’t see it.

  “Ryan Matthews?” Leighanna asked as Gemma released the breath. “Really? Big shot football player asked you to hang out?”

  “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Gemma said dryly.

  “You know what I meant,” her sister retorted. “I just didn’t think you guys hung out at all seeing as you don’t hang out with any other players.”

  Leighanna was obviously struggling to believe, but Gemma had to push forward. She at least knew of Ryan from her gym class, could make the lie somewhat plausible. “Uh, yeah. He said he wasn’t going but that he was meeting some people he knows from Legacy at the movies. Or something.”

  “Isn’t he dating Janey Stanton still?”

  “Oh um, no. They broke up, that’s why he’s not going anymore.” Gemma knew that was true. She was just hoping that he wouldn’t still be going to the dance since he wouldn’t have a date.

  “Oh. Well, just be careful. Ex-girlfriends can be a nightmare.”

  And with that, the conversation was over. Leighanna left Gemma’s room, and Gemma breathed a sigh of relief. She knew her sister was only looking out for her, but she didn’t know how she felt about Elliot. Leighanna didn’t know how much it cut Gemma to hear all about Trisha, Trisha, Trisha. It was best just to lie. It was best just to create a plan so that she didn’t get hurt because if she went to that dance, and saw Elliot drooling over the unreachable, it would crush her.

  LtB

  Elliot sat on the couch, watching his twin sister giggle into the phone every five minutes. Christie had found a boy she liked, and the boy, his friend, Josh Whitmore, liked Christie back. It was enough to make Elliot sick. But he loved his sister and had promised he wouldn’t act crazy over this. Besides, he had more important things to think about. Like how to win Trisha Scott’s heart at the Homecoming dance on Saturday. It was only two days away now, and he had to mentally prepare himself.

  When he thought about her, he could almost swear he got goose bumps. He remembered the first time he saw her, over the summer. He and his best friend, Gemma, were trying to see which turkey leg they wanted when Trisha and her boyfriend, Jake, walked by. He’d noticed her before in school, you couldn’t not notice the head cheerleader, but it was the moment she locked eyes with his, a sweet smile on her face, that he knew she was the woman for him. It didn’t matter that all his friends laughed at him over it. It didn’t matter that she was two years older and graduating at the end of the school year. It didn’t even matter that she had a boyfriend and had been with him for five years.

  Anything could happen.

  So he made it a mission to try and find a way to get her attention. He tried out for the football team, but bein
g that he was more into hockey and soccer, he wasn’t selected. Then he tried joining drama since Trisha, he found out, always wanted to be an actress. But it was at the same time as his music class so he wasn’t able to take it. So he decided he would sweep her off her feet at Homecoming.

  Everyone thought he was being completely ridiculous, even Gemma, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded.

  “Stop drooling, Elliot. You’re gonna flood the house.”

  Breaking out of his thoughts, Elliot glared at his sister. “I’m not drooling.”

  “Right. I can tell by that pathetic look on your face that you’re thinking about Trisha again,” Christie sneered menacingly at him. She couldn’t understand his infatuation, he knew that. “Seriously, when are you going to get a clue? She’s older than you, has a boyfriend, doesn’t even know your name, and there are tons of girls our age that like you.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elliot hissed back. He was tired to being the butt of the joke over this.

  “I don’t? You know how Lisa and Becky are always talking to you? It’s because they like you. And don’t even get me started on Gemma. You have a girl all gaga over you right in front of your face and you can’t pull your head out of your ass for five seconds to see past a pretty face. And a pretty face you don’t even know, for that matter.”

  “What? You’re crazy.” Elliot shook his head vehemently. Gemma didn’t like him. “Gemma doesn’t like me.”

  “Sure she doesn’t. That’s why she is always at your side, always following your lead. That’s why every time you ramble on and on and on about your precious Trisha, she looks like you’ve kicked her right square in the gut and then ripped her heart out and stomped on it.” Christie was on a roll now. And appeared to be holding nothing back. “Maybe if you took a look back at reality, you’d see what everyone else already knows.”

  Elliot watched his sister hurry out of the room, shaking her head at him in disgust. But he knew she wasn’t right. Gemma didn’t like him like that. Yeah they were friends, but that was it. Besides, when he’d asked her about the dance, after telling her his mission to win Trisha, she said Ryan Matthews had asked her to hang out for a couple songs, thinking maybe he liked her. That just solidified it for Elliot. If Gemma liked him, even a little bit like that, he knew he’d be able to tell, and there was no way she’d accept an invite from someone else. He wasn’t dumb.

  He’d show everyone. Trisha Scott would his by the time the dance was over. Then he’d be the one laughing.

  LtB

  The night of the dance, Leighanna had asked Gemma when Ryan was picking her up. She’d lied about her plans, and needed a quick recovery. “Oh, I’m meeting him there so if I want to leave early, I can.”

  Leighanna frowned. “How are you going to get there? Wherever there is?”

  “Fairview. And I’m taking a cab.”

  “And mom and dad are okay with this?” Leighanna asked, disbelief in her voice “You talked to them before they left for Breckenridge?”

  “Of course! You think I’d make plans to call for a taxi without asking permission?” She knew her voice rose a bit as she spoke, but she hoped her sister wouldn’t notice.

  “If you say so. Just be careful.” Leighanna left the room after that, shouting a goodbye before shutting and locking the front door.

  Once she had the house to herself, her parents gone for the night for a function of her father’s, Gemma got dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, wanting to be comfortable during her moping. She grabbed her heavy jacket, being October it was bound to be chilly, and headed outside to wait for the cab to pick her up.

  She didn’t want to be a complete liar, even though her parents thought she was going to the dance, so she decided to go find a bookstore, and see what she could do to kill some time before it was appropriate to come home.

  LtB

  The dance was in full swing. And Elliot was keeping an eye on Trisha. She had just been presented with her crown for Homecoming Queen, to the applause of the entire room since everyone adored her, and was dancing with the King, who of course, was Jake. Elliot wanted to puke at that knowledge, but kept his cool. A guy that got her attention wouldn’t puke in public like that. He’d be cool, confident and mature. He’d be everything Elliot just knew he was. His sister was off “powdering her nose” or something equally ridiculous so he was sitting with Josh, just watching their classmates dance.

  “Where’s Gemma tonight?” Josh asked over the rumble of the music. They’d been silent for some time but Christie was taking forever. “Thought she’d come with you.”

  Elliot shook his head, “No, she said she had plans with someone else.”

  At this, Josh’s eyebrows rose. “Really? I didn’t think Gemma talked to many people other than us. Who does she have the plans with?”

  “Oh, uh Ryan Matthews,” Elliot answered distractedly, watching Jake spin a laughing Trisha. He wanted to hit something. They looked ridiculous together, didn’t make sense in his mind. Why anyone thought they were the “perfect couple” was beyond his understanding. Perhaps they just wanted to be liked and so went along with the ridiculous lie.

  “Gemma knows Ryan?” Josh still looked surprised.

  “Yeah, guess they have gym together or some shit.” The song was close to winding down, some whiny love song that the radio played too much. It was a song his sister didn’t even like, and she was all into pop music.

  “Oh.” A couple seconds passed, Josh watching Elliot watch Trisha and Jake with his jaw clenched. “Did you ask her to come? She could’ve hung out with us.”

  “What? Yeah, I mean I said I was coming tonight to you know,” he motioned toward Trisha, “if that behemoth ever let her go for a moment. She said she was hanging out with Ryan. She’s fine.”

  “You know you are a complete idiot, right?”

  Josh’s voice, hard and focused, caught him off guard, making him jump slightly. “What are you talking about?”

  “Trisha, man. You have no shot. And I’m not trying to be mean. But you are living in some outrageous fantasy that is never going to be a reality.”

  “How the hell would you know?” Elliot asked with a bite to his tone. Out of all the friends that made fun of him, Josh had been the only one to stay silent; he’d always thought that meant Josh believed he had a chance. But now he was saying this bullshit? “Anything is possible.”

  “Absolutely, I agree. But E, listen to me, you don’t know Trisha. At all. In fact, all you do know of her is she’s a senior, a cheerleader, and she’s pretty. Oh, and she smiled at you once at the carnival she was attending with her boyfriend. I’m sure she has smiled at hundreds of people, many who are guys.” Josh just shook his head. “She smiles at people. She’s a nice girl, but that doesn’t mean you have a shot at being with her. Remember how Christie and Leigh are always saying ‘just cause I smile at you doesn’t mean I like you?’ That sound familiar? Besides, knowing those very superficial things about Trisha does not a relationship make, my friend.” He had a look of pity on his face as he said all this. “And, she probably thought you were there with your girlfriend, since you were standing with Gemma, while she was there with her boyfriend.”

  For a moment Elliot was frozen, Josh’s words bouncing around his mind like weighted chains. He let his mind replay the conversations his friend was referring to, remembering how irritated the girls always seemed when some guys just didn’t take the hint. In fact, it wasn’t even that long ago that Leighanna had complained about some guy at the gas station trying to flirt with her. She’d politely smiled a thank you at him when he opened the door for her to enter first. And then when they were standing in line to pay, he’d tried to ask her out. It wasn’t so much that which bothered her. It was the fact that he wouldn’t relent until she told him she hand a boyfriend. A football playing boyfriend.

  Elliot dropped his head in embarrassment. He remembered the girls saying so much more, and in so much clarity. Unfortunately, for his
ego and his feeling of complete rightness in regards to this matter, he also remembered laughing with them about the stupidity of some of the guys who just couldn’t take the hint. It wasn’t so funny anymore. Because now he had become that guy. Elliot now knew Josh hadn’t said anything because he was hoping he’d figure it out on his own. He wasn’t stupid; it shouldn’t have been that hard to realize how pathetic he was being. Since he hadn’t, he needed a good kick to reality. And now that Josh was talking, it made Elliot feel foolish. Like maybe the teasing wasn’t to poke fun, but to wake him up. “You really think those things?”

  “Elliot, do you even know how much you talk about her? Someone you don’t even know?” He thought about it, and felt his face burn, but Josh wasn’t finished. “I mean I get that you think she’s hot, because she definitely is. And I will talk to you about that all day if you want. Without Christie around, of course,” Josh smirked his way but returned to his frown. “But there are other things in this world to talk about too. I mean do you even know how uncomfortable Gemma feels the second you get on your Trisha diatribe? How uncomfortable we all feel? No one wants to be around you then. And don’t even get me started on all the shit you tried to do to get her attention.”

  That was the second time someone had mentioned Gemma. The second time someone had mentioned what his crush was doing to his best friend. It made him wonder just how much of a jackass he really was. “Hey, do you, um, do you think Gemma likes me? As more than a friend, I mean?”

  At this question Josh stared at him blankly. And then, as though a switch was flipped, started laughing, doubling over. “Jesus, fuck, E. You really have been completely blind the past couple months, haven’t you.”

  “What’s so funny?” Christie had returned, though she didn’t look any different. What could possibly take a girl so long to do in the bathroom, that the result looked completely the same? Elliot figured he’d never know, not that he’d ever attempt to ask.

  “Your brother.”

  “Well, yeah. But what about?”

  Still laughing, Josh answered as he stood. “He asked if I thought Gemma liked him.”