Page 59 of Lost
He knew the feeling.
“Sometimes it’s not so bad,” she went on. “They do their best to make you feel like a part of the gang, and it tends to work. I wouldn’t keep hanging out with them if it didn’t.”
She wasn’t wrong, he soon found out. When one of the guys started up a game of beach volleyball, the pair of them joined in willingly and Lysander found himself as one with his new team. It was as easy as hanging out with Jack, as simple as being with Eliza Beth, as comfortable as spending time with Kieran. He felt his competitive nature come back minute by minute, and it blended beautifully with those of the others.
Come Monday, he decided, he was going to look into his new school’s track team.
It was time to start getting his life back together.
That was all he had now — a life ahead of him that needed to be lived. And he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to live it. For Dakota’s sake.
“Hey, aren’t you Marina Harmon?”
The game stopped then, with everybody’s attention being drawn to the group of newcomers. Four girls in their mid-teens had been passing by when one of them had taken notice of the game and its players. Lysander’s attention went straight to Marina, determined to see how she dealt with the encounter. He was unsurprised to find her smiling politely at the intrusion, still holding the ball she had been about to serve.
“I am,” she confirmed. “And you must be fans of my brother’s band.”
They were, but apparently that made them fans of her as well. They knew all about her, about her band, and they wasted no time in gushing about how amazingly talented they found the group. Loralie shot a look Lysander’s way and rolled her eyes pointedly, earning a grin from him.
It was a look that faded when he realised one of the newcomers was staring at him.
She had just finished speaking with Stacey and had turned to him right afterwards. She was looking at him now like she knew him from somewhere. He could almost see it in her eyes that she was searching for the right name.
“Lysander,” she said at long last. “Bennett, right? Zack’s son?”
“Maverick,” he corrected her. “Otherwise, yes.” And then, thinking about how Marina was dealing with the situation with nothing but politeness, he added as sincerely as he could, “It’s nice to meet you.”
The reaction he got was not one that he expected.
The girl snorted, gave him the dirtiest look she could muster, and said, “Why don’t you just go back to where you came from? We all know you’re a fraud.”
He stared at the girl. He didn’t know what else he was supposed to do. He wanted to say that he wasn’t a fraud, that he would never sink to such levels, that Zack wasn’t stupid and would never have allowed such a thing to happen — but what did she care? The look on her face said she’d already made up her mind about him, and there would be no changing it.
He decided that the best response would be to walk away.
But he had taken all of two steps before she was in his face, her expression one of anger now.
She growled at him. “Those guys are like family to me — I can’t stand by and watch you hurt them just because you’re looking for money or fame. And I’m not the only one who feels that way. So you can either pack your things and get out of here, or you can stick around and us fans willmakeyou leave.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I might be.”
This angered him more than he expected. How dare she come into his life, accuse him of being a liar, and then threaten to do something about it? How dare she claim thathisfamily was like family to her, when she had probably never even met them?
“Lysander isnota liar.”
This came from Marina, who had come to stand by Lysander’s side without him having noticed. She settled a hand on his shoulder, squeezing the way that Zack might have done, letting him know that she was there — and that he should not lash out at this girl, no matter how tempting it might be.
“Do you really think Zack would have let a fraud into his house so easily?” she went on, raising an eyebrow at the girl. “Trust me, honey, he wouldn’t. Lysander is the real deal, whether you want to believe it or not, and you can tell that to the rest of the fans too. Anybody who wants to say differently can deal with the lawyers, because they’ll be sued for slander. Now get out of here before I change my mind and call the cops on you.”
The girl looked like she would very much have loved to argue, but she knew better than to try. She was joined by her friends once more — all of them looking embarrassed to be seen with her — and then she was on her merry way, continuing down the beach as if she hadn’t just stopped to give him a piece of her mind.
“Sorry about that,” Marina said once they were finally out of earshot. “You don’t usually get a lot of nasty fans, so you won’t have to get used to it. Sucks when it does happen, though.”
Lysander’s mood had been thoroughly killed by the girl. He decided to sit out for the next game, surprised but not ungrateful when Loralie joined him. There was no need to let on about how much the incident bothered him — he didn’t need word of it getting back to Zack.
“You okay?” Loralie asked after he’d let out a long, slow breath. “That can’t have been easy.”
