"So, you and Penn are back to normal?" I asked as soon as we'd left Liam's house after dinner. We’d spent the day shopping around Malibu with Mrs. Wilder. I tried to keep a close watch on Penn and Becca the entire time, but I couldn’t tell how much they’d worked out the night before. They looked better, but she still seemed to have the upper hand. He'd sidle up behind her while she was looking at clothing and she'd twist out of his hands and flash him a devious wink. It seemed like they were playing a little cat and mouse game.
Becca rolled her eyes. "If by normal you mean completely dysfunctional, then yeah."
I laughed and reached to turn the music down.
"He begged me to go home with him after their game, so I followed in my own car and told him I'd stay for thirty minutes. Obviously, that didn't actually work out too well. He explained everything. Just as you had suggested, his bitch of an ex-girlfriend kissed him, which didn't excuse him entirely, but he swore he was over her. He finally sees her for what she is, and he made it perfectly clear to her that he had moved on."
"At least she wasn’t at the game on Saturday," I mentioned, remembering how confident and smug she'd looked as were leaving the event on Friday.
"Yeah, I listened to him leave a message for their team manager telling him that she was effectively banned from that section from now until forever."
I covered my laugh with my hand. "Damn. He must be serious."
She nodded but kept her attention on the road in front of her. "He asked me to be his girlfriend, to make it official, but I said I needed a bit more time."
That was surprising. I doubt Penn had many girls turn him down.
"He didn't seem too deterred by that today," I joked, recalling all of the attention he'd bathed her in.
She smirked. "I swear I'm not playing games with him. It's just that Friday night was terrible and I can't just forget about all of that within 24 hours. I think it'd do us both some good to slow down and make sure we really want this."
I narrowed my eyes in thought. "So you aren't sure if you want to be with him?"
Her eyes slid over to me quickly. "Oh, I would cut off my right arm to be with him, but he doesn't need to know that."
"Becca! You little tease."
"Oh please! He deserves it. He needs to know what he has."
I laughed and pulled out my phone to check my messages as Becca turned the music back up.
Liam: My mom passed out as soon as you guys left.
Kinsley: She can't hang.
Liam: She wouldn't stop talking about you. She was practically murmuring your name as she fell asleep.
Kinsley: I think I'm leaving you for her. I need a more experienced partner ;) Liam: Turn around, I'll show you how experienced I am.
Kinsley: Becca's driving... no can do...
Liam: She really liked you. Can't imagine why…
Kinsley: It could be because of any number of my talents. Did she hear me whistle? I'm a pretty good whistler.
Liam: I could whistle you into the ground.
Kinsley: What does that even mean? You'd kill me with your whistling?
Liam: You should brush up on your idioms.
Kinsley: Maybe you can teach me? I'll be the student. Do you own a ruler?
Liam: Kinsley...
"Uhh, Kinsley," Becca interrupted my texting session with a scared tone. I glanced up to find that we were pulling onto our street… but it was almost impossible to maneuver toward our house. News vans were parked out front with paparazzi idling next to them.
"What the hell? Are they just waiting outside of our house?" I asked, slipping my phone into my purse and pushing up onto my hands to get a better look. The second the news teams saw Becca's car, they jumped into action. Paparazzi pulled off their lens covers and adjusted the zoom straight onto the windshield.
Becca slowed the car down enough so that she wouldn't hit any of them, but they were getting way too close. Had she been going the speed limit she would have run some of them over.
"Why are they here?" Becca snapped, pulling the car into the driveway. The paparazzi hadn't followed us onto the private property, but I turned around to find them lined up on the edge of the street like a row of vultures.
"Let's just hurry inside and we'll figure it out, okay?" I grabbed my purse and used it to shield my face as I ran for the door. Becca ran next to me and we didn't stop until we were safely inside with the door locked behind us.
"They were calling our names, Kinsley," Becca said with a hollow voice as she leaned back against the door.
"They've been here all day," Emily said. We looked up to find her making her way down the stairs with a few of our teammates in tow.
"Are you serious? They have nothing better to do than camp out front of our house?" I asked, tugging my hand through my hair.
Emily paused on the last stair. Her expression was bleak and her brows were furrowed tightly. "You don't know, do you?" she asked.