The Fake Boyfriend Experiment Read online

  My elation from getting up close and personal with Rafe withered away in the sea of insignificance that suddenly sucked me down. I grabbed my ugly-girl photo off the piano and shoved it under my hip. Suddenly the purple toe nail polish hidden inside my shoes didn’t seem quite so rebellious. It felt a little pathetic, actually.

  Rafe grinned at the girl. It wasn’t the careless smile we’d gotten, but a real smile, one that made his green eyes crinkle. He even had a dimple on his right cheek. “Can you grab two music stands, Angel? I’ve got the rest of the stuff.”

  Angel? As in, that was her name, or as in, that was his cute little pet name for her? I decided maybe I didn’t like her. I hunched over, trying to shrink behind the piano so neither of them would notice my pleated black shorts and my crisp white shirt.

  “Keep it quiet, please, Rafe and Angel.” Crusty tapped the sheet music in front of me. “Ignore them, Lily. Go ahead and play.”

  “You want me to play now?” I gaped at her as Rafe and Angel clanged stands together, making Angel giggle and whisper to Rafe to be quiet. As if I was going to play boring classical music in front of them. They practically radiated attitude, and I was so not going to humiliate myself. I mean, it was bad enough that I was wearing Crusty-approved attire and had a horrific photo of me shoved under my butt. Playing Chopin would be a kiss of death I’d never recover from. “Please let me wait until they leave,” I whispered, begging Miss Jespersen with my eyes. If she had any mercy, she would understand—

  “Lily. Play.” Crusty pinned me with her most evil glare and I realized I was outranked in a major way.

  Oh, God. This was too embarrassing. Please let him suddenly go deaf. I felt my cheeks heat up, and I ducked my head as I started to play. Of course, I couldn’t help peeking over at them, just to make sure they weren’t watching.

  A little part of me died when I saw Rafe look over at me. My fingers stuttered over the keys, and the chords clanged like I’d just killed them. Rafe lifted his eyebrows at me, and heat burned my cheeks.

  My fingers forgot to play, and my hands dropped to my lap as I stared at him.

  Crusty cleared her throat, and a small smile curved Rafe’s lips. “Go ahead, Lily,” he said.

  “You...know me?” Oh, no. Had he seen my photo in the paper today?

  “Miss Jespersen just said your name.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot.” Relief rushed through me and I almost felt dizzy. He hadn’t seen the picture in the Globe. Life could go on another day.

  Rafe readjusted one of the chairs that was resting on his shoulder. “Don’t let us stop you.”

  There was something slightly mocking in his tone, but there was something else, too. Something that made me think that he’d noticed I was a girl. My belly got warm, and goose bumps popped up on my arms as we looked at each other.

  He didn’t look away, and chills bumped down my arms. His eyes were such a deep green, matching some of the colors in his tattoo. Intense, especially the way his dark eyelashes framed the green. I’d been wrong about him. He wasn’t just some arrogant guy. There was something deeper lurking there, something that reached inside me and grabbed hold.

  “Come on, Rafe.” Angel brushed past him, her shoulder intentionally knocking against his, like she wanted me to know that he was hers to touch. “Let’s go.”

  Rafe and I both jumped at the interruption, and he nodded. “Right behind you, Angel.” He gave me a final, speculative look that had my fingers tingling, then he turned and walked out, yanking the door shut behind him with his foot.

  Holy cow.

  Crusty tapped my sheet music. “Play.”

  The warmth vanished from my body, and my life came whooshing back to me like the scent of rotting swamp and overripe bananas. My head started to hurt. Why was it that my life was Crusty, and some girl named Angel got to run around swiping music stands with Rafe? I worked hard, right? Hadn’t I earned the right to have something good happen to me in this building?

  “Now,” Crusty said firmly.

  “Fine.” I was mad now. Mad because Rafe had reminded me of what my life could be like if I wasn’t stuck at the piano with Miss Jespersen. Mad because Angel had the courage to wear neon green nail polish. Mad because I had a vomit-worthy picture of myself shoved under my butt. Mad because Angel and Rafe were laughing with each other while a huge swell of loneliness stalked me. This wasn’t the life I wanted!

  I started to play, smashing my fingers down on the keys. I wanted to break those ivory keys. I wanted to punish them for the fact that my talent with them forced me into this life.

  Crusty sat silent for almost three minutes, then she shook her head and stood up. “I can’t deal with you today. You’re a disaster. I’m leaving.”

  Then she walked out, slamming the door shut behind her.

  I stared at the closed door in shock. She’d never pulled that one on me before. She probably wanted to torture me by making me sit alone for ten minutes, contemplating all the ways that I was a failure and was letting her and my parents down. Then I was probably supposed to start practicing so when she came back I would prove I was worthy.

  I could do that. Or I could live up to my mom’s constant complaints that I don’t always conduct myself in a manner worthy of being a piano prodigy...

  I thought of a black velvet hairbow. I thought of neon green nail polish and brightly colored tattoos.

  I’d been sprung from prison. What was I going to do with the opportunity?

  It took me all of three seconds to grab my music off the piano, shove it in my backpack and climb out the window.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I eased myself into the flowerbed, landing softly on the mulch and a couple of flowers, listening for Crusty coming after me.

  No sound of an incoming psycho music teacher.

  For a moment, I didn’t move. Was I really going to do this? It wasn’t too late to climb back over the window sill and reclaim my post as the girl my parents thought I should be. But as soon as I thought about sitting on that bench again, my stomach turned over and my chest felt like someone had taken a screw driver and jammed it right between my ribs.

  I looked down at my clean white Keds covered in mulch, the bark dust like orange speckles marring the perfectness of the shoes. I sank my fingers into the dirt, closing my eyes as the coolness wrapped around my hand. The sun was warm on my back, and I could hear birds chirping. The farewell to summer.

  My farewell.

  I hadn’t had a summer, but I had the next hour until my mom came to get me. Could I fit a whole summer into an hour? I could try.

  I took a deep breath and stood up. I wasn’t going back. Not right now. Not today.

  Lifting my chin, I slung my backpack over my shoulder, then started walking toward the back of the red brick house that had been converted into a music school seventy years ago. I knew there was a garden in back where some of the singers practiced on nice days. I’d go hang out there until my mom arrived. Granted, it wasn’t the beach or anything, but it would be my space, my world, my choice for at least a few minutes.

  There was no way I was going to wait out front where Crusty would be able to find me. I was taking the rest of the day for myself. I really was. For the next hour, I wasn’t Lily Gardner, floundering pianist. I was Lily Gardner, rebel.

  I grinned. I liked that. Rebel. Me. Hah! But it felt good.

  I walked faster, my heart starting to pump with excitement. I could almost smell the flowers and feel the grass under my feet. I’d take off my shoes when I got there and show the world my toes. Running now, I rounded the corner, then I heard Rafe’s voice.

  I stopped dead, the hair on the back of my neck prickling. The sound was coming from an open window on the first floor. Anticipation whirling through me, I picked my way around the well-manicured bushes beneath the window and hid beneath the sill to listen.

  I could hear Rafe and Angel talking. There were a couple other voices, all guys. They were arguing about something, but I couldn
’t tell what. I let Rafe’s deep voice drift over me and chase all the Crusty-poison out of my system.

  This was better than the garden by myself. With my eyes closed, I could almost pretend I was in there with them, hanging out, as if we were all friends, as if my world included athletic guys with full-arm tattoos. I leaned back against the wall, just starting to get comfortable, when I heard them mention something about a keyboard.

  A keyboard! That was my kind of instrument! I couldn’t resist. I set my backpack on the ground and carefully peeked over the windowsill.

  Rafe was sitting behind a set of drums, Angel had an electric guitar slung over her shoulder and two other guys dressed in jeans and tee shirts had their backs to me. One of the guys was tuning an electric guitar, and the other had a microphone in his hand. An unattended electric keyboard was sitting in the corner.

  Were they like a band or something? I bet they didn’t have to play Bach or Mozart.

  After a couple minutes, I realized they were arguing about whether to start without the missing keyboard player. Rafe was insistent they should wait, and Angel was complaining that Paige was always late and she was tired of it.

  The singer finally told everyone to be quiet and play.

  So cool!

  When they hit the first note, I nearly died. They were playing the new JamieX song! I listened to it on my iPod every night while I was doing homework.

  I sat down in the dirt and leaned against the cool brick, letting the edgy sound of JamieX wash over me. Yeah, it was a little lacking without the keyboard and the lead singer wasn’t exactly in the same class as JamieX, but it was still awesome. Especially in comparison to the classical sheet music in my backpack.

  I closed my eyes and let the beat of Rafe’s drums pound through my body, my chest vibrating as I sang along. I could sit here for hours and almost forget that there was a freaky piano teacher after me and—

  The music stopped, and reality came rushing back.

  “Our music is too keyboard-intensive to do it without Paige.” Angel said. “This is a waste of our time and I’m going home.”

  “No!” I jumped to my feet and threw my backpack through the open window. I heard a crash and then I set my palms on the windowsill and hoisted myself up. “Don’t stop! I’ll play.”

  All of them were staring at me as I fell over the windowsill and did a face plant onto the floor. I immediately hopped up and faced the room. Total silence. Lily the social klutz strikes again.

  Rafe’s cymbal was on the floor, smashed under my backpack. Oops. “Sorry.” I kicked my backpack aside, righted the cymbal and turned toward the group. “So, I’ll play keyboard for you.”

  “Who are you?” the singer asked.

  “Lily Gardner, child prodigy on my good days, hopeless piece of dirt on my bad ones.” Donning the confident attitude that I usually saved for recitals, I strode over to the keyboard and peered at it. “So, um, where’s the on-switch?” I’d played around with keyboards plenty of times when I’d stumbled across an unattended one at recitals or in the music school. I could play it no problem, as long as I didn’t mess with the synthesizer part.

  Rafe hadn’t said a word. He was simply staring at me like I’d sprouted a second head or something. I ignored him. A hot guy is one thing. Depriving me of JamieX trumped everything else.

  “I know you. You were just taking the lesson with Rafe’s aunt,” Angel said. “You play classical and you aren’t even very good.”

  Rafe’s aunt? I shot a surprised look at Rafe. “You’re related to Crusty?” No way was this hot guy related to my piano teacher. It was impossible they shared the same genes.

  The corner of Rafe’s mouth twitched. “You call her Crusty?”

  “Old Crusty is her full name. Crusty for short.” I hesitated, belatedly recalling that I was badmouthing my piano teacher to her nephew. “Um, do you like her? Because if you do, then I was talking about someone else.”

  The singer interrupted, thankfully sparing me further embarrassment. “Can you play?”

  “If someone would turn this thing on for me.” Gah. Did I sound like a dork or what? What loser couldn’t find a power switch?

  “I’m Chris. The band is called Mass Attack.” He walked over and flicked the switch on the far left.

  Duh. It had been right in front of me. “I’m Lily,” I said.

  “Welcome, Lily. I hope you can play.” Chris shot me a friendly grin that immediately relaxed me. He had blond hair that was slightly longer than Rafe’s. It curled over his collar, and looked like he never bothered to brush it. A little finger combing, and he was good. I liked that. I liked the whole vibe of the band, even Angel’s too-short shirt. Every one of them oozed attitude that I didn’t have. Being around them made me feel energized and jazzed.

  “I can play JamieX no problem.” I pressed a few keys, ran through a few scales, then nodded. “I’m good. Let’s go.” I looked and realized the entire room was still staring at me. “What?”

  “Let her play,” Rafe said, his voice all condescending like he was the one in charge of my fate.

  Oh, lucky me. The leader of the pack gave me the thumbs up. Suddenly, he didn’t seem so much like a hot guy. More like the nephew of a nightmare.

  I rolled my eyes and started to play from the sheet music in front of me. What did I expect from him? He was related to Miss Jespersen. Of course he’d be an overbearing, annoying jerk who needed to boss everyone around... Wow, this song was awesome!

  I was halfway through the first page, dancing and doing a butt wiggle when I realized no one else was playing. My fingers stuttered over the keys. “Am I doing it wrong?” I couldn’t take failing twice in the same day. I stepped back from the keyboard, my cheeks suddenly heating up. What had I been thinking, barging in here? I was such an idiot. A little JamieX and I’d lost my mind? “Nevermind. Sorry I bothered you. I’ll just get my stuff and go—”

  “No.” Chris held up his hand, a broad grin on his face. “You’re awesome.”

  Hot warmth flooded through me. “Really?” I could tell he meant it. Wow. When was the last time someone had listened to my piano playing and then looked at me as if I was worth something? This rocked!

  “Oh, yeah. Really good.” Chris turned to the rest of the group. “Let’s go.”

  Rafe grunted, hit his sticks together in the air for a few counts, then started a strong beat with his drums. The other guitarist joined in, followed by Angel. Chris pointed at me.

  I grinned and started playing.

  As soon as Chris started singing, I closed my eyes and let the music wash over me. It pulsed through me as if it were alive, jumping from my heart to my fingers. The music seemed to bounce off the walls and ceiling, filling the room with fire. I’d never felt music like this before! I let my shoulders sway and abandoned the sheet music, letting my fingers fly across the keys.

  Chris’s voice was pretty good, sort of melodic and deep, and the rest of the band was decent too. Except Rafe. Rafe was positively brilliant on the drums, and I let my music follow his. I felt his rhythm shift immediately, as if he’d noticed I’d targeted him, and he wanted to test me. I matched his challenge, and then he shifted again. I went with him, my music chasing his and keeping up easily.

  Rafe and I never looked at each other, but the connection between us kept building and building, becoming more and more intense. It filled the room with such energy that I felt like the walls were going to explode. It was the most amazing feeling I’d ever experienced.

  The song ended, and I added an extra little flourish at the end, complete with a full spin, just like the keyboard player did in the video. I grinned at the band, who were all high fiving each other. “That was great,” Chris said.

  “The best we’ve ever played it,” Angel agreed.

  The other guitar player nodded at me. “Nice job, Lily.”

  I grinned at him. “Sorry I didn’t stay on the music, but—”

  “No,” Angel said. “You did way better than
the music we had.”

  My smile got wider, and I felt like skipping around the room. “Thanks.” I turned to Rafe. “What did you think?”

  He met my gaze, his deep green eyes latching onto my face so intensely that I forgot to breathe. The air seemed to go utterly still, frozen by the connection between us. After a moment, he nodded. “You did great.”

  Goosebumps shot down my arms at the intensity on his face. I could tell that Rafe didn’t say anything nice unless he meant it, and suddenly I felt better than I had in months. Of all the people in the room, Rafe was the one with the true gift of music. I knew that if he said I was good, he meant it in a way the others didn’t. They couldn’t, because they didn’t connect to the music the way Rafe did. A compliment from Rafe about my music meant something. It was real.

  “Lily!”

  The smile dropped from my face and I spun around.

  Miss Jespersen was standing in the doorway, her hand on her hips and her face all scrunched up like she’d been sucking on lemons for the last fifty years.

  The room fell silent, and I knew I was in deep trouble. “Um...”

  Rafe started drumming again, a steady beat that seemed to fill me up, chasing away my fear. His drumming made me feel like he was standing right next to me, covering my back. “I asked Lily to help us out since Paige is late,” he said. “Sorry if I screwed up, Aunt Joyce.”

  I jerked my gaze toward him, stunned by his willingness to face down his aunt in my defense, but he was watching his aunt, not me.

  Miss Jespersen’s face tightened. “Your mother’s looking for you, Lily. If you can drag yourself away, I suggest you let her know that you haven’t been abducted.”