Page 33 of The Heartbreakers
“Yum, this is great, Dad,” I told him through a full mouth. When I swallowed and set down my fork, I turned to Cara. “Possibly for a nosy sister.”
“Ohhh!” she exclaimed and wiggled her eyebrows in excitement.
“It’s your birthday present,” Drew added.
“Is the nosy, yet completely charming sister allowed to open her present?” she asked.
“I suppose so.”
“Yay!” Cara gushed and clapped her hands together. When I pushed the bag across the table to her, Drew scooted away in caution. Cara was about to flip.
Cara pulled out the tour T-shirt first. When she unfolded it, she smiled. “Aww, thanks, guys. I love the Heartbreakers.” I could tell that she was trying to be nice, since she thought we had gotten her a T-shirt that she already had.
“You’re welcome,” I said. “When did you get a hole in the armpit?”
Cara shrugged. “Oh, it’s been there since—” She stopped suddenly and then flipped over the sleeve to see if it really was her own shirt. Frowning, Cara looked back and forth between the two of us. “I don’t get it. You’re giving me my shirt?”
“Your new and improved shirt,” I told her with a smirk.
She looked confused for a moment before something finally clicked in her head. “No way!” she said in disbelief and flipped the shirt over to inspect it. There in black Sharpie were the boys’ names.
“Oh my freaking God!” Cara screamed. “This is amazing. No, this is better than amazing. This is like Christmas on steroids!” She was so excited that she didn’t know what to do with herself. First she squeezed the shirt to her chest before deciding to pull it on over the one that she was already wearing.
“Thank you guys so much,” Cara said, looking at both of us. She acted like she was going to cry. “You totally win best birthday present this year.”
“You haven’t even finished opening it yet,” I pointed out.
“There’s more?” She tore into the rest of the bag, squealing with glee each time she pulled out another one of her signed belongings.
“I don’t remember this one,” Cara said when she unrolled the poster that Xander had given us.
“It’s not out yet,” Drew told her. “Xander said it’s going to be in the next issue ofTigerBeat.”
“He gave this to you?” Cara exclaimed, her eyes practically popping out of her head. “You say that like you know him.”
For a moment, I think Drew forgot that we were talking to Cara, a.k.a. the crazy Heartbreakers stalker. “Well, yeah, we hung out with them Saturday night.”
Cara spent the next few hours interrogating us about the Heartbreakers. After Drew mentioned that we had hung out with the band, my sister made us share every detail about our trip. As a punishment for his slip, I made Drew do the retelling. While he told the story, I let Cara flip through my camera. I had recorded most of the night. There were a few pictures of Oliver cooking, shots from the pool, a video of one of the chicken fights, and of course the pictures I had taken of Oliver at Starbucks.
“So, who has the prettiest eyes?” Cara asked as she watched the chicken-fight video for the tenth time.
Drew raised an eyebrow. “You’re really not asking me that, are you?”
Cara set the camera down before resting her elbows on the table and propping her head up in her hands. “In my opinion it’s JJ,” she said dreamily.
“I don’t know,” Drew said and rolled his eyes. “I was leaning more toward Alec.”
“What do you think, Stella?” Cara asked as she continued to stare off into space. My thoughts went immediately to Oliver, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. After years of trying to convince me that the Heartbreakers were “so hot” there was no way I would admit to Cara that she had been right all along.
Drew smirked at me. “No contest there.” Then he traced a heart in the air with his fingers.
“Shut up!” I hissed and gave him a hefty kick to the shins under the table.
“What the heck, Stella?” he complained and rubbed his sore leg. “That hurt.”
Cara snapped out of her daydream and turned to me. “Huh? What are you guys talking about?”
“Absolutely nothing,” I lied and looked away so she couldn’t see the pink forming on my cheeks.
