He's With Me Read online

  Chapter 1

  Lexie Willis hated bikinis.

  At fifteen, she already had too many curves in too many places, and she

  didn’t like people staring at her. Putting on a bikini made her feel like Janet

  Jackson at the Super Bowl even when she was just standing alone in a Macy’s

  dressing room.

  So why was there a bikini in the box on her bed? The box looked liked a present. It had shiny gold foil wrapping paper and a cheerful bright green bow, as

  if to trick her into thinking, Hey, there’s something fun! And exciting! In here!

  There was even a little card on the top that read: FOR LEXIE! IT’S GOING TO BE A

  GREAT SUMMER! In her mother’s perky, exclamation-point-happy handwriting.

  But inside the box was this wine-red monstrosity. Lexie didn’t even pull it

  out all the way before she realized what it was and stuffed the pieces back in,

  hiding them under the folds of white tissue paper.

  Seriously, Mom? Seriously?

  The other box was even more mysterious. She could tell from its large,

  long, flat shape that it wasn’t a book or an Amazon gift certificate, which was

  disappointing right up front. But she was hoping for a new sundress, perhaps –

  maybe one she could wear over the bikini. And never take off.

  Instead, it was a tennis racket.

  Lexie didn’t play tennis. She had never played tennis in her life.

  This was very ominous.

  Lexie was standing next to herbed, examining the tennis racket, when her

  mother appeared in the doorway.

  “Isn’t it great?” Mrs. Willis said happily. “I made sure your father got the

  best one. Is it light enough for you?”

  “Um,” Lexie said. Her twin brother, Colin, followed Mrs. Willis into the

  room and slouched against the door frame. He didn’t look any happier than she

  was. Maybe he’d gotten some sinister, inappropriate presents, too.

  Lexie’s mom sat down on the bed and pulled the bikini out of the box,

  laying it out flat on the comforter. It wasn’t as bad as Lexie had though – not as

  skimpy as the little white bikinis Bree McKennis always wore, for instance. And it

  was her favourite color. But still. There was no way she was wearing that.

  “Colin, are you as confused as I am?” Lexie asked. “Does Mom think the

  Holy Spirit of Athletic Daughters Everywhere has finally arrived to possess me?”

  Colin shrugged, and Lexie’s mom batted at her with the top of the bikini

  box. “I’m right here, Lexie,” her mom said. “You can ask me these questions you know.” Of course, she didn’t wait for Lexie to ask. “It’s for Summerlodge.”

  “The day camp?” Lexie said. “I thought Colin and I were doing the art

  program at the school. Mom, did you get paintbrushes and tennis rackets mixed

  up?”

  “Turns out the art program was full,” Lexie’s mom said. “So you’re doing

  Tennis for Teens instead. Won’t that be fun? And Summerlodge is close enough

  for you to bike to, so that’ll make it easier on me and your dad, too.”

  “Oh, no,” Lexie said. “Mom, I hate tennis.”

  “You don’t know that you hate tennis, dear,” Mrs. Willis said. “You’ve never

  tried it. And this is what comes of waiting until too late to make your summer

  plans.”

  “Then what’s that for?” Lexie asked, pointing at the bikini. “I hope I don’t

  have to play tennis in that.”

  “There’s a pool at Summerlodge,” Mrs. Willis said”One of the afternoon

  activities, after tennis practice, is swimming, which I thought you would like.

  Don’t you like swimming?”

  I do like swimming, Lexie thought. I’d just prefer to do it fully clothed, thanks very much.

  “Lucky you already know how to play tennis,” she said to Colin. Tennis had

  been one of Colin’s brief obsessions, so he’d taken lessons long enough to be a

  decent player. “At least you’ll definitely look coolr than me with one of these.”

  She tried to flip the racket in one hand and dropped it on the floor.

  Mrs. Willis sighed. “Well, that’s the bad news. Colin’s not going with you.”

  “What?” Lexie was horrified. The whole point of having a twin was that you

  never had to go anywhere by yourself. So you never had to stand around

  awkwardly, feeling like the pigeon in a flock of flamingos, while nobody talked you

  you. You always had someone to stand awkwardly with you. That was the whole point. Cline still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “But why? We were going to do it

  together!”

  “We’ve decided Summerlodge is not what Colin needs right now,” Lexie’s

  mom said.

  “Mom, that’s not fair! Why does he get to stay home and play video games

  while I have to go out and look like an idiot by myself?”

  “It’ll be good for you,” Lexie’s mom said firmly. “And look on the bright

  side: You might actually make some friends besides your brother.” She stood up

  in a “Conversation over” kind of way.

  Lexie used to have a friend besides Colin: Karina Martinez, her best friend

  through all of elementary school. But Karina had moved to China a year before,

  and Lexie hadn’t found anyone else. It was hard to make new friends at her

  school, where she would always be known as “Karina’s quiet friend” or “quirky

  Colin’s twin sister.” And she was sure it wouldn’t be any easier at summer camp

  all on her own.

  “No, I won’t!” Lexie cried. “Oh, Mom, I’ll be the only person I know there!

  No one will talk to me and it’ll be so awful; please don’t make me go without Colin.”

  “You’ll know someone else,” Colin said finally chiming in. “Jake’s going to

  Summerlodge, too.”

  Thump-thump. Lexie felt her heart jump up and bang into her rib cage.

  Okay, that did make a difference.

  Jake Atkinson was Colin’s best friend, although they weren’t very much

  alike. Colin was a quiet guy who got obsessed with funny things like stamp-

  collecting and bird-watching and, lately, filmmaking. Jake, on the other hand, was

  outgoing, adorable, smart and funny, and as far as Lexie could tell, every

  freshman and sophomore girl at Carlisle High wanted to date him.

  But Lexie’s crush on Jake was different from everyone else’s. It was. Those

  other girls liked him the way you like a movie star, but Lexie liked the real him.

  She knew why Jake was friends with Colin. She was there the day they met.

  Back then, Jake was the new guy in town. He showed up for the first day of

  eighth grade and practically made girls swoon all the way down the hall. In Pre-

  Algebra, second period, Mr. Stone split Colin and Lexie up and sat Jake right in

  between them.

  Lexie kept looking over at Colin, thinking of things she wanted to tell him,

  but figuring it was too risky to pass a note through a stranger. The third time she

  looked over, hoping he’d notice that Mr. Stone’s bald spot was shaped exactly like

  a pineapple, she saw him watching Jake’s hands. Jake was folding a piece of

  paper, over and over, and twisting it around. The twins both stared at him until


  suddenly, sitting on Jake’s desk, there was a small origami whale that could fit in

  the palm of your hand.

  With a studious expression, Jake drew eyes and a smiley face on the whale.

  Then he looked up and caught Lexie smiling at it. She looked away quickly,

  embarrassed.

  When she glanced down again, the whale was sitting on the corner of her

  desk, beaming at her.

  After class, as she was gathering her books, Colin leaned over to Jake.

  “Hey,” he said, “that was cool. It’s origami, right? Can you make other stuff

  too?” Lexie knew that Colin must be really interested, because he hardly ever

  talked to strangers. But once he started talking, it was pretty hard to make him

  stop.

  “A few other things,” Jake said. “My dad taught me. I can show you, if you

  want.”

  “Sure!” Colin said. “How about Saturday? You could come over for lunch.”

  “Don’t you want o know my name before inviting me over?” Jake said with

  a cute smile.

  “That dork is Colin,” Lexie said. “My brother, I’m Lexie.”

  “Short for Alexandra,” Colin said. “Like Alexander the Great. Or Alexander

  Helios, son of Cleopatra. Did you know Cleopatra had twins? A boy and girl, like

  us. Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.” Colin’s only lasting obsession was

  with random twin facts. He could list a ton of famous twins.

  “I did not know that. I’m Jake,” the new kid said, shaking Colin’s hand

  solemnly. “Will you be there on Saturday?” he said to Lexie.

  “Probably,” she said. Meaning definitely, if there’s a chance you’ll be there.

  She knew Karina would be more than happy to come over and meet the new guy.

  “Okay. Saturday would be great. Thanks, Colin.”

  The next day, Lexie saw Jake carrying around a library book about

  Cleopatra. He was the only guy she knew who read books for fun. But what he

  read was random nonfiction about things that caught his interest, like the Salem

  witchcraft trials or Aztec mythology or the life of Harry Houdini.

  That was why he got along so well with Colin. Jake could probably have

  ditched them for a more popular crowd if he’d joined a sports team or auditioned

  for theater, but he liked Colin’s strange interests. Whenever Colin found a new

  hobby, Jake read up on it. And then Lexie and Karina hung out with them while

  Colin built a replica of the HMS Bounty from a model shipbuilding kit and Jake told them strange facts about the famous mutiny.

  So she knew the real Jake, just like she knew the real Colin, when nobody

  else did. Lexie thought of her front door as an enchanted mirror, like the looking

  glass Alice climbed through in the book. When she and Jake and Colin walked

  through it, they became their real selves. Here Colin talked as much as he wanted

  to. Here Jake thought she was funny.

  Here she could imagine that maybe one day Jake would look at her and see

  Lexie, girl of his dreams, instead of Lexie, his best friend’s sister.

  She still had the whale. It was hidden in a show box in her room, next to

  other secret Jake things.

  And nobody knew how she felt, not even Colin, who knew every single

  other detail of her life and every thought that ever crossed her mind.

  “Jake?” Lexie said, picking up the tennis racket and trying to flip it again.

  She hoped the nervous shake in her voice would be hidden by the clatter of the

  falling racket. “He’s going to tennis camp?”

  Colin nodded. “He’ll be in the advanced class, of course.”

  “Of course,” Lexie said, losing her hope again. Jake was one of the best

  tennis players in the school. And she was sure to be terrible, which probably

  wasn’t the best way to impress him.

  “Why can’t you come with me?” Lexie said plaintively.

  “Because I said so,” Mrs. Willis interjected. “Remember me? Still in the

  room?”

  “Moooooooooom,” Lexie said, flopping onto her mattress and trying to

  look as woebegone as possible.

  “It’s all decided,” Mrs. Willis said. “Camp starts tomorrow.” She smoothed

  the bikini on the comforter again with a pleased expression. Lexie wished she

  would just take the darn bikini and wear it herself if she was so excited about it. If Lexie had to go swimming – in front of Jake, no less – she would be wearing the

  same simple black one-piece that she’d had for two years.

  The doorbell rang. Be boop bee booop…bee booop beeeeee boooooooop.

  Lexie liked the weird chimes it played. Besides, it was the sound that usually

  meant Jake was there.

  “That’s Jake,” Colin said. “He called and said he has some major problem

  and needs out advice. Although why he’d want to ask a moron liked me is the real

  question.”

  “Oh, Colinn,” Mrs. Willis said. “Don’t talk about yourself like that.”

  “It’s probably another girl crisis,” Lexie said. Jake was always having girl

  crises – either someone wanted to date him, or there was someone he wanted to

  date, or his current girlfriend was acting weird because he wasn’t the 100 percent

  perfect boyfriend that she’d been expecting.

  “I’ll be down in a minute,” Lexie called as Colin thumped down the stairs.

  She sat up and saw that her mom was still hovering.

  “Don’t you want to try it on?” Mrs. Willis said, gesturing at the bathing suit.

  “Um,” Lexie said. With Jake in the house? I’d rather eat lizards. “Maybe

  later.” Like in my next life, when I come back as a ditzy supermodel.

  “All right,” Lexie’s mom said with another sigh, and finally left the room.

  Lexie ran over to the mirror and put on the necklace Jake had given her for

  her birthday the past November. She always wore it around him, for good luck. It

  was just a strand of small red glass beads, but she liked it.

  She brushed her hair – dark brown, down to her shoulder blades, and way

  too fluffy – and scrunched her nose at the reflection. Well. She looked pretty

  much the same as she did every day, so if it hadn’t worked yet, it probably

  wouldn’t now.

  Lexie found Colin and Jake, as usual, in the basement. Colin was playing

  with the zoom on the secondhand video camera he’d borrowed from Dad. Jake

  was still standing by the door, and when Lexie walked in, he threw open his arms

  and went “Lexie!” in this big dramatic excited voice.

  This was their new joke. The week before, Colin had asked them to act out

  a scene for his camera and when Jake started doing everything all over-the-top

  and melodramatic, Lexie had followed along. They thought this was the most

  hilarious thing ever, and they couldn’t get through three lines without falling over

  laughing. Colin didn’t think it as quite so funny.

  “Jake!” she cried now with the same dramatic enthusiasm.

  “Oh, shut up,” said Colin.

  Jake held up his hand and Lexie high-fived him. As he walked back to the

  couch, she curled her fingers over her palm, holding in the warm, tingly feeling his

  hand had left behind.

  “So what’s the new crisis, Jake?” Colin said, setting the camera on the

  coffee table and kneeling to peer through it. He never seemed all that interested

  in Jake’s girl problems, bu
t Lexie thought it made Colin feel better to hear that

  even if you could get a girlfriend, it wasn’t always easy after that. He still hadn’t

  dated anyone, and as far as she knew, he’d never liked anyone, either. At least

  she’d dated Dave Mitchell for a week in seventh grade, if you could call holding

  hands and awkwardly slow-dancing at one party “dating.”

  “It’s the end of the world,” Jake said as Lexie sat down on the other end of

  the couch from him. “I’m totally doomed. Hey Lexie, did you know that Ewan

  McGregor, Brad Pitt, and Will Smith were all offered the role of Neo in The Matrix before Keanu Reeves got it? They turned it down. Isn’t that crazy?”

  “It would have been much funnier with Will Smith,” she said. Some days

  Jake’s eyes were really blue, but today he was wearing a mossy-green T-shirt that

  made them look a cool stormy green colour.

  “Colin, you should make a movie like The Matrix,” Jake said. “Lexie could

  play Trinity.”

  “No problem,” Colin said. “I was wondering what to do with that two

  hundred million dollars just lying around in my bank account.”

  “Oh, but,” Lexie said, snapping her fingers, “I’m afraid my leather catsuit is

  in the laundry. Too bad.”

  “That is too bad,” Jake said earnestly. “I had this whole series of you-in-

  black-leather movies planed. X-men, Catwoman, King Kong… I’d be Naomi Watts

  and you’d be Kong, of course.”

  “Shut up,” Lexie said, flinging a throw pillow at him.

  “What?” he said with a grin. “It’s the grandest love story ever told.”

  Luckily Colin interrupted before Lexie had to respond to that.

  “Hello?” said her brother. “Crisis? Aren’t we here for a reason? You don’t

  sound all that doomed.”

  “I am,” Jake said. “I’m totally doomed.”

  “Why?” Lexie asked. As far as she knew, Jake had been single for a couple

  of months, ever since Amy Sorrento had broken up with him for not calling her

  every single day. So it was probably a girl-he-wanted-to date category of problem.

  “Bree McKennis.” said Jake.

  Lexie’s heart sank. Bree was the classic popular girl – blond, beautiful, and

  blissfully mean. Once she got her hooks into someone, they stayed hooked, even

  after she dumped him. If Jake had fallen for someone like her, Lexie didn’t stand a

  chance. In fact, if Jake had fallen for someone like her, maybe Lexie didn’t know