Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 234779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1174(@200wpm)___ 939(@250wpm)___ 783(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 234779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1174(@200wpm)___ 939(@250wpm)___ 783(@300wpm)
The sad part is, she’s not even in Valerie’s main crowd, just someone who wants to be close to her, will do anything to be close to her. And why? Just because she’s popular.
Gross.
I shake it off, unwilling to lend any brain space to someone like that.
The problem is, she’s not the only person like that. As I make my way to my locker, I can feel eyes on me, hear people whispering as I pass. Some don’t even bother whispering.
One girl speaks at regular volume as she stands by her locker and tells her friend, “That’s the slutbag Hunter banged at that party.”
“Her? Why? Who even is she?” asks the other girl, whom I sat next to on the bus on the way to our first grade field trip. She had strawberry blonde hair and a loose tooth. We discussed how much money she would find under her pillow and what she would do with the money once she got it. It’s the only time we ever spoke, but I still know her name is Rachel Witten.
“Who cares?” her friend asks, turning back to her locker to retrieve her books.
I do my best to ignore my sinking stomach and keep walking.
I knew today would be a bad day, so it’s fine. I knew this was coming. It doesn’t matter.
The school day can’t last forever, then I’ll be free again until tomorrow.
When I finally make it to home room, I sink into my seat.
My shoulders are tense and I feel strangely exposed sitting at the front of the class, but at least the only person I’m facing is the teacher.
Class hasn’t started yet, so I pull out my phone and shoot a text to Anderson.
“Hey, so, don’t take this the wrong way, but I just realized since everyone knows some version of what happened at the party Friday night but a lot of people might NOT know we broke up and then got back together… I don’t think we should go public with our relationship yet. Let’s keep a low profile until we see how things unfold.”
It doesn’t take him long to answer, “How low profile are we talking here?”
I’m not sure, but I type back, “I don’t know, but… don’t sit with me at lunch today. Maybe don’t mention it at practice. I’m not saying lie about it, just try to avoid telling anyone we got back together. In a week or two when everything has calmed down, then we can ‘get back together’ and it won’t be such a hot topic, but I think today is too soon. I don’t want you to catch heat, and you will if people find out today.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” he tells me.
“It’s up to you,” I text back. “I think it’s asking for trouble, though.”
“Yeah, but getting back together in secret? What about homecoming?”
“Are we doing that?” I ask.
“I mean… yeah? I thought we would. Everyone else will be there.”
Exactly why I don’t want to go.
I sigh, flicking a glance at my teacher to see if I have time to keep texting. She’s sipping coffee and checking to make sure everyone is here. Class is probably about to start.
I type back fast. “Okay, so maybe that’s how we could get back together. We won’t mention it before then, we’ll just show up at the dance together and people can figure it out.”
“This isn’t about Hunter, right?”
His text instantly raises my alarms.
“You promised you weren’t going to hold onto that,” I remind him.
He starts typing back. I see the little gray bubbles moving on the screen, but I don’t get to see what he says. The teacher stands and moves in front of the board. Everyone starts to quiet down, so I have to put my phone away.
I have a bad feeling about it, though. I had reservations about Anderson’s ability to really get past me hooking up with Hunter to begin with, but two days into our new relationship and he’s already bringing it up?
I can’t help thinking that doesn’t bode well.
Chapter Twenty Five
Riley
When the time finally rolls around for English class, I feel like I’m going to be sick. I’ve never blown off school before, but I almost consider fleeing and going home early today.
I could clean the vase and put it away. I could definitely make sure I took the trash out before Mom got home so there’d be no evidence of the flower delivery this morning.
Of course, if I do that, Sara won’t have anyone to sit with at lunch.
And it’ll be pretty obvious I was just running away from Hunter since I attended the classes I had before the class I have with him.
Also, it’s only a temporary solution. Sure, I’d get out of having to see him today, but I’ll still have to see him tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that…