At one time, I thought being the Duff meant no boy drama. Clearly, I was wrong. How did this happen? How did I, the ugly girl, end up in the middle of a love triangle? I wasn’t a romantic. I didn’t really even want to date. But there I was, torn between two attractive guys that, by all means, I shouldn’t have had a shot with. (Trust me, not as glamorous as it sounds.)
On one side, I had Toby. Smart, cute, funny, polite, sensitive, and practical. Toby was perfect in every conceivable way. I mean, he was a little dorky, but that was what made him so adorable. I liked being with him, and he always put me first. He respected me and never seemed to lose his patience. There was absolutely nothing to complain about with Toby Tucker.
On the other side, there was Wesley. A jerk. An asshole. An arrogant, womanizing rich boy who put sex before everything else. Sure, he was incredibly hot, but he could annoy the hell out of me. He was irritatingly charming, and his cute little grin could really get under my skin. But he had a way of making my heart race and my head spin. I wasn’t afraid to be a bitch around him. I hated to admit it, but Wesley understood me. I felt like myself when I was with him, whereas I was always trying to hide my neuroses around Toby.
God, life had been so much easier when no one noticed me.
The note from Wesley weighed half a ton in my back pocket as I headed out to the student parking lot that afternoon. To say I was confused would have been a massive understatement. I mean, that single sentence left me with a million different questions, but there was one in particular:
Why the hell does Wesley want me?
Seriously. The guy had dozens of girls who would kill to be with him. Why me? Wasn’t he the one who had called me the Duff in the first place? What the fuck?
But when I got home, it just got worse.
On Toby’s suggestion, I’d started reading Wuthering Heights in my spare time. Honestly, the main characters pissed me off so much that it was hard to push through the book. I was considering putting it down for good that day, but a line of dialogue caught my attention.
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees—my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath—a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”
As stupid as it sounds, that little excerpt really got in my head, like a song you hate but can’t stop singing. I tried to read on, but the words kept bouncing around in my brain. I turned back the page and read the lines again and again. I was trying to figure out why they bugged me so much when I was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.
“Thank God,” I muttered, relieved to have a reason to slam the book shut. I jumped off my bed and ran downstairs. “Coming!” I yelled. “Just a second!”
I pulled open the front door, expecting to find Toby, who’d said he might drop by later. But the man on my front porch was a chubby redhead in his fifties. Definitely not my boyfriend. He wore a shabby green uniform and a hat that didn’t quite fit. The name tag on his jacket read JIMMY. He was holding a bouquet of flowers in his right hand and a clipboard was wedged under his arm.
“Are you Miss Bianca Piper?” he asked. “Um… yeah.”
His squinty eyes lighted with a smile. “Sign this, please,” he said, giving me the clipboard and a pen. “Congratulations.”
“Er, thanks,” I said, handing the clipboard back to him.
He passed me the bouquet, which I now saw was full of real red roses, and produced a white envelope from his back pocket. “This is for you, too,” he said. “You’re a lucky girl. It’s not often I get to make a delivery like this to someone your age.” He smiled. “Young love.”
Young love? God, I had to fight the urge to correct him. To give him my long speech about how teenagers don’t fall in love. But he was still talking.
“Your boyfriend must really be a keeper. Not many boys are so thoughtful at that age.”
I stared down at the roses and said, “You’re probably right.” Was Toby still trying to cheer me up? God, he was so nice. Too bad I didn’t deserve all of the kindness.
After thanking the delivery guy, I closed the door. I felt guilty for considering my situation a love triangle. It was just me and Toby, and Wesley danced along the outskirts, far away from us… or that’s how it should have been. That’s how Toby deserved for it to be.
I put the bouquet on the kitchen table and opened the envelope, expecting to find a sappy but perfectly worded letter from my flawless boyfriend. It was
the kind of thing I’d normally scoff at, but I’d let Toby get away with it. He really did have a way with words sometimes. That would help when he became a famous politician.
But the handwriting on the letter was the same as the note in my back pocket. This time, however, there was much more to absorb.
Bianca,
Since you keep running away from me at school, and, if I remember correctly, the sound of my voice causes you to have suicidal thoughts, I decided a letter might be the best way to tell you how I feel. Just hear me out.
I’m not going to deny that you were right. Everything you said the other day was true. But my fear of being alone is not the reason I’m pursuing you. I know how cynical you are, and you’re probably going to come up with some snarky reply when you read this, but the truth is, I’m chasing you because I really think I am falling in love with you.
You are the first girl who has ever seen right through me. You’re the only girl who has ever called me on my bullshit. You put me in my place, but, at the same time, you understand me better than anyone ever has. You are the only person brave enough to criticize me. Maybe the only person who looks close enough to find my faults—and, clearly, you’ve found many.
I called my parents. They’re coming home this weekend to talk to Amy and me. I was afraid to do this at first, but you inspired me. Without you, I never could have done that.
I think about you much more than any self-respecting man would like to admit, and I’m insanely jealous of Tucker—something I never thought I’d say. Moving on after you is impossible. No other girl can keep me on my toes the way you can. No one else makes me WANT to embarrass myself by writing sappy letters like this one.
Only you.
But I know that I’m right, too. I know you’re in love with me, even if you are dating Tucker. You can lie to yourself if you want, but reality is going to catch up with you. I’ll be waiting when it does… whether you like it or not.
Love,
Wesley
p.s.: I know you’re rolling your eyes right now, but I don’t care. Honestly, it’s always been kind of a turn-on.
I stared down at the letter for a long moment, finally understanding what Amy had been thanking me for. Wesley was trying to fix things… because of me.
Because of what I’d said. I’d actually managed to get through that thick skull of his. That was absolutely shocking to me.
It took a second for the other surprises to sink in. Words like love and only leapt off the page at me. It was my first love letter—not that I’d ever wanted one, but still—and it wasn’t even from my boyfriend. The wrong guy had given it to me. The wrong guy wanted me. Wesley was the wrong guy.
Or was he exactly the right guy?
I was so consumed with my thoughts that I jumped when the phone rang, and I scurried across the linoleum in an effort to answer it. “Hello?”
“Hi, Bianca,” Toby said.
My heart sped up and pumped shame through my veins. Wesley’s letter, which I still held, burned the fingers of my right hand, but I managed to sound normal when I said, “Hey, Toby. Are you on your way over?”
“No,” he sighed. “Dad has errands for me to run, so I can’t come by this afternoon. I’m really sorry.”
“That’s okay.” I shouldn’t have felt relieved, but I was. Seeing Toby would have meant hiding the flowers and entering a potential web of lies, and we all know what a shitty liar I am. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks for being so understanding. But I was really looking forward to spending a little time with you. We just don’t get much time together at school.” He paused. “Do you have plans tomorrow night?”
“Nope.”
“Then do you want to go on a date? A band is playing at the Nest, and I thought we could go. Of course your friends can come, too. Would you like that?”
“Sounds great.” See, little lies like that I could pull off. I hated live music, and I despised the Nest, but pretending the opposite would make Toby happy, and Casey would be thrilled to be invited along. So why not? White lies were easy enough, but anything bigger and I was screwed.
“Cool,” Toby said. “I’ll pick you up at eight.” “Okay. Bye, Toby.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Bianca.”
I hung up the phone, but my feet refused to move. The letter still blazed against my skin, and I found myself staring down at the tempting words. Why wasn’t this easier? Why did Wesley have to come along and make me question everything? I felt like I was betraying Toby with every sentence I read. Like I was cheating on him.
But now I knew that every time I kissed Toby, I was hurting Wesley. “Arrrrrgh!” With a scream that exploded in my chest and clawed its way
through my lungs, I wadded the letter into a tight ball and hurled it across the room as hard as I could. It moved through the air slowly before bouncing delicately off the floral wallpaper and landing on the floor.
Finally, with my throat aching, I sank to the floor, buried my face in my hands, and—I admit it—cried. I cried out of frustration and confusion, but mostly for myself, for being caught in such a position, like the selfish little girl I was.
I thought of Cathy Earnshaw, the spoiled, selfish heroine in Wuthering Heights, and I remembered the passage I’d been reading before the doorbell rang. But when the words drifted through my brain, they were slightly different.
“My love for Toby is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees—my love for Wesley resembles the eternal rocks beneath—a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”
My head shook back and forth feverishly. Like, I corrected myself. My like for Wesley is blah, blah, blah. I wiped my eyes and got to my feet, trying to calm my ragged breathing. Then I turned and walked back upstairs.
All of a sudden I wanted to know how the book ended.
