Thank God for that.
He hoists the enormous hockey bag over his shoulder. “I’ll still run with you on the mornings that you’re not at practice, though. If you want. I need the exercise.”
My eyes skim over his honed body and I struggle to not laugh. “Yeah, that’d be great. I hate running alone,” I lie.
“’Kay. See you tomorrow?”
“Seven a.m.” I feel my body lighten. Emmett isn’t angry with me. All is right in the world.
“And Aria?” He’s walking backward toward the house. He hasn’t called me by my real name in forever. “Thanks. You could have deleted that and ignored it, instead of telling me.”
I shrug. “Cassie deserves better than that.” I hesitate. “And so do you.”
I catch a hint of those dimples with his soft smile. “’Night.”
11
I’m already halfway through my warm-up when Emmett emerges the next morning. I yank one earbud out so I can hear him.
He shudders, rubbing his hands together. “Damn, it’s cold.”
“This is my favorite weather to run in,” I stretch my hamstrings. I was happy to trade in my shorts and T-shirt for my track pants and sweatshirt.
“What are you listening to?” He stops within my personal space, grabbing the dangling earbud and tucking it into his ear.
I shrug. “It’s a mix.”
“Nice.” He drops the bud and moves away to begin his warm-up.
And I acknowledge with perverse pleasure that I can’t wait to stick that back into my ear.
Maybe I am a weirdo.
“How are you doing?” I ask gently.
“Better, after sleeping.” He lifts his arms over his head, showing off a patch of taut skin above his shorts. My mouth instantly dries. “But Cassie’s pissed at me.”
I frown. “I didn’t think she could be pissed at anyone.”
He snorts. “Just me and my parents, I think. I was a bit of an asshole last night. I took her phone and deleted all of Holly’s contact info, and told her she’s not allowed to message Holly anymore. Of course, then she kept pushing to know why exactly, and it’s not like I’m going to tell her. It would crush her if she found out that Holly was only ever friends with her to get to me.” He frowns. “I don’t even know if Cassie would understand. Sometimes I can’t figure out what she actually understands.”
I’ve thought those very same things. “That has to be tough.” But I love that Emmett’s opening up to me about it.
“Yeah. I’m dreading class this morning.” He tucks his earbuds in and brings up his playlist on his phone. “Ready?”
I nod. “Let’s do this.”
The first bell rings as Jen and I walk into social studies.
Despite my best intentions to avoid eye contact, I zero in on Holly right away. She’s sitting at a desk near the back corner of the class, her puffy, tired eyes set on the door. Our gazes meet and hers quickly moves on, dismissing me entirely.
She’s waiting for Emmett.
And when she suddenly sits up taller and bites her lip in hopeful pause, I know he has arrived. He was still at his locker a moment ago. He must have run to catch up.
“Hey, Jen?” He sidles up behind us. “Can I sit with AJ today?”
“Uh …” Jen’s eyebrows arch as they veer to Holly, her face a mixture of reluctance and confusion. I can’t imagine her wanting to spend the next hour sitting beside her childhood bully.
I’m about to say as much when Emmett stops Holly’s friend, Lindsay, who normally sits with a guy I’ve nicknamed Sleepy Steve, because he literally sleeps through first period. Even McNair has given up on trying to keep him awake. “Hey, you mind sitting with Holly today?”
Lindsay shrugs, though her eyes dart curiously to her friend. It seems that Holly hasn’t shared the news of the breakup yet. Maybe she’s still hoping to reverse it before anyone finds out. “Yeah, no problem.” She heads to the back of the class.
Emmett gives Steve a look that might read as “You good with this, man?” Steve merely gives a lazy “I don’t give a shit” shrug. His head will hit the desk soon enough.
Emmett slides into the seat next to me just as the second bell goes and morning announcements come on over the PA. “Thanks for doing this, Jen.”
“No problem.” Her eyes lock on mine, widening with question.
I hold my hands up in surrender, as if I’m an innocent bystander. But I am, I remind myself. I’m the conscientious messenger.
“You’re good with this, right?” Emmett flips open his textbook. He peers at me with those gentle, dark-brown eyes. “If you want to switch back with Jen tomorrow—”
“No.” I shake my head in emphasis. “This is fine.” I smile.
And do my best to ignore the burn of scathing eyes boring into my skull for the next hour.
“Someone recorded her saying crap about his little sister in the bathroom and then sent it to him.”
I stare at Josie, momentarily dumbstruck. It’s the most she’s ever said in one sitting. And it’s about me.
“I heard she accused Mandy Lovatt but they figured out that someone must have been hiding in the stall, listening to them,” Jen adds.
Josie’s delicate face scrunches up. “Creepy.”
I lock my gaze on the homemade zucchini loaf Mom snuck into my lunch, picking it apart slowly as dread blossoms. What if people find out I’m the creepy one?
“I wonder what she said about Cassie.” Jen takes a bite out of her ham sandwich, her curious eyes drifting across the cafeteria to where Holly and Mandy sit.
“Couldn’t have been good because Emmett dumped her ass over it in the parking lot after school yesterday.”
Wow. Josie’s not only talking, she’s swearing too.
I feel Jen’s eyes shifting to me. Will either of them put two and two together and figure out why I was asking about Holly last Friday, after having gone to the bathroom? Will they remember that I was gone for a long time, that I came back pale-faced?
News of Emmett and Holly’s breakup is spreading like flames through dry brush. I started hearing the whispers in math, when Beckett Smith leaned across the row to tell Morris Davenport that “Hartford’s flying solo” again, followed by a fist bump.
By the time I went to swap my books for third period, a tall, raven-haired beauty was hovering at Emmett’s locker, waiting for him to appear. And when he did, the flirtatious smile she was casting his way made me want to vomit.
Josie drags her french fry through her ketchup. “I always knew Holly had a mean streak in her.”
Jen worries her bottom lip. “What’s she going to be like now that she’s done trying to impress Emmett?” Her thoughts are somewhere far off. Probably in her tortured past. It’s a fair question, though. Was playing the part for Emmett the only thing that kept Holly’s ugly side collared?
“We won’t let her come after you like that again,” I say with certainty.
She gives me a small nod and appreciative smile, though I get the impression she doesn’t believe it.
I wriggle my nose against the smell of bleach, wet dog fur, and cat urine as we step into the empty lobby of E.A.S—an old house that’s serving as the Eastmonte Animal Shelter until they can rebuild the one that burnt down two years ago.
“Hello, boys and girls!” Cassie yells.
A wild chorus of howls and piercing barks from beyond a sky-blue door respond, making Cassie laugh.
A short, silver-haired lady emerges moments later. “You love to get them going, don’t you?” Her eyes crinkle with her smile, not at all annoyed.
“Yeah. I can hear Bangles.” Cassie laughs again. “Has Boots had her kittens yet?”
“Not yet. Any day now.”
“Okay.” Cassie nods. “This is my friend, AJ. She came to see the dogs and cats with me.”
“Hi, AJ. I’m Pat.” Pat pauses to straighten an array of pet insurance and adoption pamphlets in a rack on the desk. “You ready for this?”
“I’m not sure,” I confess.