Trained to Be Wanted

Chapter 4

Marlowe didn't sleep much after the cafeteria incident. Not because of what Beckett said. She was used to Beckett saying things. She was used to the way he could make a joke feel like a slap while still smiling. She couldn't sleep because of what happened after. Because Kellan had stood up for her. Because he had called Beckett an asshole in front of the entire school.

Because he had walked out with her.

By seven in the evening, the video was everywhere. Someone had recorded the whole thing from the second Beckett stood up. The caption said "NEW KID vs CAPTAIN OVER CHEER GIRL ?? "

Marlowe sat on her bed with her knees pulled up, watching the comments multiply. "OMG is Kellan into Marlowe?"

"Why would he defend her lol" "Beckett is so much hotter"

She put her phone face down and pressed her hands over her eyes.

"You need to stop reading that," Kellan said from the floor. He was doing push-ups. He had been doing them for twenty minutes. The room smelled faintly of sweat and his laundry detergent. "I'm not reading anything," Marlowe said. "You're lying," Kellan said without stopping. "Your face gets all tight when you lie." "How would you know what my face does? You've known me for two days." "I notice things," he said. He switched to sitting and wiped his forehead with his shirt. "It's a talent. And right now I notice you are spiraling because a bunch of kids with too much time posted a video."

"It's not just a video, Kellan," she said. "You don't understand. Tomorrow everyone is going to think I made you fight with Beckett on purpose." "Let them think whatever they want," Kellan said. "They're going to think it anyway." "That's easy for you to say! You're the new mysterious hockey star! Everyone already likes you!" "Not everyone," Kellan said. "Beckett doesn't like me. Sable doesn't like me. That's like half the school's ego right there." Marlowe threw a pillow at him. He caught it with one hand.

"I'm being serious," she said. "You shouldn't have done that. Now Beckett will make your life hard on the team." Kellan tossed the pillow back onto her bed. "Let him try."

He said it so calmly that Marlowe almost believed him. The next morning, she tried to get to school early to avoid people. She left before Kellan woke up, which was hard because he woke up at five to go running. She thought she was safe. She was wrong. She was putting her books in her locker when she heard Sable's voice behind her. "Well, if it isn't the famous Marlowe Vance." Marlowe didn't turn around. Her shoulders went up to her ears. Sable came closer, with two other cheerleaders flanking her like bodyguards. Chloe and Maya. Both pretty, both mean when Sable was around. "I saw your little performance yesterday," Sable said sweetly. "Very dramatic. Getting the new boy to defend your honor. That was clever."

"I didn't ask him to," Marlowe whispered. "No? Because it sure looked planned. You know, you live together, you walk to lunch together, he carries your tray ... some people might think you're trying to make Beckett jealous." "I am not trying to make anyone jealous." Sable leaned against the locker next to Marlowe's and inspected her nails. "Listen, Marlowe. I'm going to give you some friendly advice, girl to girl. Kellan is not from here. He doesn't know your history. He doesn't know you've been obsessed with my boyfriend since middle school. So if you have any sense left, you'll tell him to stay away from you." "Or what?" Marlowe said before she could stop herself. Her voice was small but it was there.

Sable smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Or I'll have to remind everyone who you really are." She pushed off the locker and walked away, her ponytail swinging.

Marlowe stood there for a long time, her locker still open, her books in her hands. She went through the morning in a fog. In biology she got two questions wrong that she normally would have gotten right. In math the teacher asked if she was okay because she was so quiet.

At lunch, she told herself she wouldn't go to the cafeteria. She would eat in the robotics lab. But Mrs. Chen, the robotics advisor, had locked the lab because she had a dentist appointment. So she had to go to the cafeteria again. She walked in and kept her head down, tray in hands. She didn't look for Kellan. She told herself she didn't care where he sat.

She went to the empty table in the back corner. It was her table. The safe table.

She had just sat down when Beckett appeared. Not Kellan. Beckett.

He had his tray and that easy, popular smile. Behind him, a few hockey guys were watching. "Hey, Vance," he said. "Mind if I sit?" Marlowe stared at him. "What?" "I said, can I sit? I feel bad about yesterday. I think I was a little harsh."

This was new. Beckett never apologized. Ever. People around them were already looking. Sable was at the cheer table, watching with narrowed eyes. "Um," Marlowe said. "Okay?" Beckett sat down across from her. He was close enough that she could smell his cologne. The same cologne she had once thought smelled amazing. "I wanted to say sorry," Beckett said, loud enough for the tables near them to hear. "I was joking around and it went too far. You know how it is. Team pressure." "It's ... it's okay," Marlowe said automatically. Her heart was beating fast. Beckett Cole was sitting at her table. Apologizing to her. Maybe Kellan was wrong. Maybe Beckett could be nice. "I mean it," Beckett said. He leaned forward. "You looked really pretty yesterday, by the way. In the hallway. I noticed." Marlowe felt her cheeks go red. "You ... you did?" "Yeah," Beckett said. His voice dropped lower. "You've changed. I like it. I always thought you were cute, you know. Just a little shy." Marlowe's brain stopped working. For three years she had waited to hear Beckett say something like that. Something that meant he saw her.

"I ... I thought you didn't like me," she whispered. Beckett laughed, soft and charming. "Don't be silly. Why would you think that?" Because you laugh at me every week, Marlowe thought. But she didn't say it. Because right now he was looking at her like she was actually a girl, not a joke. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kellan walk into the cafeteria. He stopped when he saw who was at her table. Beckett saw him too. And his smile got a little wider. "You know," Beckett said, still looking at Marlowe, "I was thinking maybe we could hang out sometime. Just you and me. Get coffee after practice?" Marlowe's mouth fell open. "Are you ... are you asking me out?" "Maybe I am," Beckett said. "Would you like that?" Yes, her heart screamed. Yes, yes, yes. But before she could answer, a voice behind her said, "She's busy." Sable.

She had walked over with her tray, her smile sharp as glass. She put her tray down hard on the table, and juice sloshed over the edge. "Oops," Sable said, not sounding sorry at all. The juice spread across the table and soaked straight into Marlowe's lap. Cold orange liquid all over her light jeans, her shirt, her lap. Marlowe jumped up. "Hey!" "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Sable said loudly, hands over her mouth, but her eyes were laughing. "I'm so clumsy! Beckett, help her!"

Beckett stood up too, holding his hands up. "Whoa. Sable, what the hell?"

"I said it was an accident!" Sable said. She turned to the cafeteria. "It was an accident, right guys?" People were laughing. Not everyone, but enough. Phones were out again. Marlowe stood there, dripping orange juice, her favorite jeans ruined, her shirt sticking to her. "I ... I need to go," she whispered. She grabbed her bag and tried to walk away without crying. She made it three steps before her foot slipped on the juice on the floor and she stumbled.

More laughter.

Then a hand grabbed her arm and steadied her.

Kellan.

He had crossed the cafeteria in five seconds. He wasn't looking at Marlowe. He was looking at Sable. "You did that on purpose," he said. Sable blinked, innocent. "It was an accident. I already said-" "No, you didn't," Kellan said. His voice was low and cold. "You poured it. I watched you tilt the cup." "It's not that deep, bro," Beckett said, stepping between them. "It was just juice." "Then you wear it," Kellan said. Beckett frowned. "What?"

Kellan looked at Beckett, then at Sable. "If it's not that deep, then clean it up. Get napkins. Apologize like you mean it." Sable stared at him, shocked that someone was talking to her like that. "Who do you think you are?" "I'm the guy who's tired of watching you two act like kids," Kellan said. The cafeteria was completely silent now. Even the teachers at the back table were standing up. Marlowe tugged on Kellan's sleeve. "Kellan, stop, please, it's okay, let's just go."

"It's not okay," Kellan said to her, but softer. "Don't say it's okay when it's not."

He took off his hoodie. He was wearing a t-shirt underneath. He handed the hoodie to Marlowe.

"Tie it around your waist," he said.

Marlowe took it with shaking hands. It was warm and smelled like him. She tied it around her waist to cover the stain.

Kellan picked up her bag from the floor. "Come on," he said. He didn't touch her. He just walked, and she followed him out of the cafeteria, past all the staring faces, past Beckett and Sable frozen at the table, past the juice puddle spreading on the floor.

In the hallway outside, Marlowe finally started crying. Quietly, angrily. "I hate her," she said, wiping her eyes. "I hate her so much." "I know," Kellan said. He leaned against the lockers and gave her space.

"Why does she do that? What did I ever do to her?" "Because you're an easy target," Kellan said honestly. "And because Beckett looks at you when you're not looking." Marlowe looked up, surprised. "What? No he doesn't." "He does," Kellan said. "Today at chem. He was watching you the whole time before he came over. That's why she poured the juice. She saw it too."

Marlowe hugged his hoodie tighter around her waist. "Why would Beckett look at me?" she whispered. Kellan looked at her for a long time. His grey eyes were serious. "Maybe because you finally stopped looking at him like he's a god," he said.

Marlowe didn't know what that meant. She didn't have time to ask, because the bell rang and students started pouring out of the cafeteria, staring at them and whispering. Kellan pushed off the lockers. "Let's get you cleaned up. And then you're going to tell me why you like that guy so much."