Kissing the Shy Guy - Stephanie Street Page 0,54

room and sat down beside me on my bed. “It just kind of did.”

“Not buying it, brat.” Unconsciously, I switched to Let it Go. It was still in my head from earlier. I began to hum along, and Laura nudged me with her shoulder.

“Since when do you play that?” she asked, grinning.

I sang a few bars, and she joined me. Laura had a sweet soprano voice.

“Seriously, why are you singing that? Weren’t you just rehearsing with Jenna? I thought you guys were doing West Side Story?”

I nodded, my fingers effortlessly switching to Tonight. “We are. But we had to practice at Jenna’s house today. Her sister was there. She asked if I could play Let it Go, so I showed her I could.” I smiled, thinking about Melly’s eyes sparkling with barely contained glee when I began playing her favorite song.

Laura frowned. “Jenna has a sister?”

“Yep. Melly.” I wondered if Laura knew her. A lot of people at school did.

“Melly?” Laura murmured. “You mean from school? She’s Jenna’s sister? You’ve got to be joking.”

“Nope.” I shifted into one of Breakout’s new songs. We’d been working on it during lunch for the last week. I’d been trying out a few tweaks to play for the guys.

Laura sat back and shook her head. “But Melly’s so sweet!”

I grinned at that. “Yep.”

“So, let me get this straight. You went to Jenna’s house, the Regina George of Lakeview High—”

“Don’t call her that.”

Laura snorted and rolled her eyes. “And sang songs with her sister, Melly, who is,” Laura stumbled for the right words, and I decided to help her out.

“The best.”

Laura gasped out a laugh. “She really is. How is it possible those two are related?”

I brought my fingers to a stop with a little screech on the guitar strings and looked at my sister. “Jenna adores her sister.”

A trait I admired having six sisters myself. Sisters were not always easy to love, and anyone capable of accomplishing the feat had my respect.

“Who wouldn’t? Melly’s great. I just can’t picture Jenna—”

“You know, I never could have pictured you being the girl to break up anybody. Or be the reason someone would back out of a commitment as big as that fancy scholarship Jenna’s trying to win and leave her to face it on her own six weeks before the big day. Jenna has her reasons for being the way she is, but what’s your excuse?”

Laura stared at me, openmouthed. “Adam…”

I got on my feet, glaring at her. “You know what I can’t believe? I can’t believe a sister of mine could be so mean. Josh quit on Jenna because his new girlfriend was jealous.” I pointed my finger at her. “You. You had to have known what that would mean for Jenna. I know you weren't that old back then, but have you forgotten what it was like when Diana tried to win that thing? Why would you do that?”

Laura scrambled to her feet, tears welling up in her eyes. “You don’t know what she’s like. She’s horrible. She keeps us late at practice and yells at everyone. She treated Josh like crap and never paid any attention to him.”

“So, she holds people to high standards, including her boyfriend. That doesn’t sound like a crime to me, Laura.”

Laura set her shoulders. “You’re deliberately misunderstanding me.”

“No, I’m just pointing out that maybe you didn’t have all the facts. And you might reconsider dating a guy who would treat someone he was supposed to love the way Josh treated Jenna. He didn’t have to leave her hanging the way he did. It was a jerk move.” I had no respect for the guy and hated that my sister was hanging around someone like that.

Laura didn’t say anything for a moment, but then she nodded. “Maybe some of that’s true, but you’re blinded. You only see what Jenna wants you to see because she wants something from you.” She gave me a significant look. “And because you’re hot for her.”

I wanted to deny that last part, but I couldn’t because it was true. I was hot for her. But there was so much more to it than that. Not that it was any of Laura’s business. It wasn’t. And so I kept my mouth shut.

“We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this, little sister.”

“Because you aren’t going to give her up?” Laura asked, her face tight. I noticed she said her and not it. She was right to make the distinction because while my decision to