Our Song by Fraiberg Jordanna

Author:Fraiberg, Jordanna [Fraiberg, Jordanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781101604380
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2013-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

“IT’S A LOVELY neighborhood,” Nick said. We had been driving aimlessly for the last twenty minutes and were just coming up on Vista Boulevard. “Must be a nice place to grow up.”

“You can’t be serious.” I threw Nick a sideways glance. And it wasn’t because he used the word “lovely.” With his accent, he could pull off words like that without sounding pompous—or like my mom. It was that judging by the places he gravitated to—sketchy Hollywood streets, Skid Row, burnt-out deserts—Vista Valley hardly seemed like it would rate high on his list of favorite destinations. But then again, I knew he’d already been here before. I just didn’t know why.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he said as we headed down the town’s main drag. “It seems to have everything. Green spaces, well-maintained homes, and even a quaint main street. It’s picture-perfect. Like a postcard.”

“You forgot boring,” I said, gesturing to the whitewashed arches and shops lining the street, all in the same Spanish mission, colonnade style. “And fake.”

“How so?” he asked, looking up. He seemed to really be interested. I still didn’t know where Nick lived except that it was on the west side of the city. I assumed it was someplace fancy based on his car and his accent, his gold watch, and how comfortable he seemed in that crowd at Disney Hall, eating caviar like he had it every day. And then there was the whole boarding school thing. Wasn’t that for rich kids?

“I don’t know. Everyone here’s the same. They all look the same, act the same, and go to the same school. Then they grow up, get married, and start the same cycle all over again. Vista Valley’s like quicksand that traps you and pulls you under.”

We stopped at a crosswalk in front of Maggiano’s to let a group of freshmen girls I recognized from school pass. The girls looked like a younger version of the Ponytail Clones, as if they appeared simply to prove my point. “Nobody ever thinks or talks about the stuff that really matters. They just care about how things look on the surface.”

“But you’re from here so it can’t be all bad.” The way he said it took my breath away. If I weren’t already seated, I was sure my knees would have given out on me. “And you don’t look or act like anyone I’ve ever met.”

You didn’t know me before, I thought, but I held back, careful not to reveal too much of my past. That was one of the reasons I felt so comfortable with him. He didn’t know anything about me except for the limited amount he’d experienced for himself. I could decide who I was as I went along—and he’d accept it.

With the big block letters of the Maggiano’s sign looming so close, my mind flashed to Derek. The more I thought about what happened by the water fountain, the more uneasy I felt. It was something I hadn’t felt in a while, but something I easily recognized: it was the feeling I got whenever there was something wrong with Derek.

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