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Really, she couldn’t blame him. Some days, Taylor could have worn a bathing suit to school and covered more skin. Layne could barely keep from staring herself.
And it wasn’t like Gabriel’s eyes ever drifted right. Even today, when he’d been looking for a pencil. She hadn’t realized he was actually talking to her until his tone had dissolved into spite.
What are you, deaf?
God, she’d wanted to hit him.
She should have.
Then she’d gotten a look at his test. How could someone get every question wrong?
For an instant, she’d felt strangely validated. He’d been a jerk, and he was going to fail that quiz.
Then she’d remembered the A on his test last week.
And she’d put two and two together.
She was tempted to pass him off as just some stupid jock. But his pencil had snapped, twice. He’d been angry. No, frustrated.
No, embarrassed. You had to care to be embarrassed, right?
After looking at Gabriel’s quiz, where he’d clearly tried to work through each problem, she’d felt a flash of pity.
So she’d started fixing.
“You should take an interest in your mom’s stuff more,” said Kara. “She’s going to disown you.”
“Too late,” said Layne.
Kara glanced up. “What?”
“Nothing.” Layne rolled her eyes. “You want to stay for dinner?”
“One day you’re going to wake up and realize you missed your prime years, you know.”
“My prime years?”
Kara waved a gothic nail her way. “This little ensemble isn’t making the boys drool, you know.”
“I can’t exactly flit around in a camisole and low riders.”
Layne gave a pointed look at Kara, who was wearing a hot-pink camisole and jeans that sat so low they were making Layne blush.
“Oh, for god’s sake, why not? Jesus, Layne, save the turtlenecks for your eighties. Come on, I bet your mom has something in her closet you could wear tomorrow.”
Then Kara was through the bedroom door, and Layne was scrambling after her.
She beat her friend to her parents’ bedroom door and held it shut. “Forget it, Kara.”
“Layne, I’m doing you a favor, really. Someone needs to.”
Layne tightened her grip on the door, feeling her heart start to slam against the inside of her rib cage. “I said, forget it.”
“What is your problem?” Kara tried to wrench her hand off the doorknob. “It’s not like you’ve got leprosy or something.
Show that body off!” She grabbed the hem of Layne’s shirt and started to yank.
“Stop!” Layne screeched. The word came out like an assault.
