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What is she supposed to think?
Maybe think about that.
Bubba:I’ll fix it.
Chapter Four
First Cut’s the Worst
Maybe I was just being stubborn, but I refused to be distracted today. Seeing Ian with Patty and Sharon had pissed me off. But I buried that down deep, not wanting to admit it aloud. Bad enough Ian had dated the second bitch.
Yes, I said it. The second bitch.
Ugh. I did not want to be one of those girls who blamed other women for her problems. My mother blamed the rest of the world enough for both of us. Things always happenedtomy mother. She was never responsible for her own issues.
Getting pissed at Sharon—and now by extension, Patty—felt a lot like the same thing. Except Sharon took some delight in my misery. That earned her label for me. Patty had just been rude, but the brush seemed to be all encompassing. It didn’t help that from the moment Archie left me at calc to when Jake showed up like seconds after class let out—had he just ditched the end of his second period?—Ian and I didn’t get to talk. Like at all.
The pop quiz was more of a long test to gauge where we were, and it took nearly the whole hour to work every problem. I worried about Ian when I came across some of the variable formulas. Those were his least favorite, and it took effort to slap my thoughts back on point.
I needed the grades in these classes. My GPA was great, but we only had a short few weeks before class ranks would be announced, and I needed all the lift I could get. That scholarship Marsha secured for me was a gift, but I still had to get into Harvard.
After the bell rang, Ian barely had his mouth open when Jake appeared. With a sigh, he’d said, “I’ll find you later, okay?”
If I thought about it too much, it bugged the hell out of me. Worse, was the text Ian sent when later got there almost at the end of third period.
Ian:Don’t be upset.
Not an auspicious beginning.
Ian:Can’t do lunch today. Coach has me on Homecoming committee helping out as team rep. They are meeting over lunch.
Wow.
Yeah, I tried to not be upset. Wasn’t really working.
Me:I understand. See you later.
No,I so didn’t understand. But he talked to me, so points for that. Coop hovered during lit. Not literally, but he was sticking close, and when Ms. Fajardo called me up for conference—I wasn’t that special she was calling us all up individually for a quiet five minute conference to go over where we were—his stare drilled into me.
Worry radiated off him enough to make me twitchy. Fortunately, Ms. Fajardo had also had a chance to look at my essays. She loved them both and had some terrific feedback. Her quick skim of my journal earned me a single concerned look, but I told her I was okay.
Like I said once, if I said those words enough, maybe I would begin to believe them.
Lunch wasn’t so bad, but it was weird not to be squished in the backseat. Like there was too much room. Archie got shotgun on the way to lunch, and I sat with Coop in the back. The guys tried to make up for the absence, but it was like they were feeling it, too. I kept catching Archie checking his phone.
We made plans for after school, though Archie suggested we bypass our normal diner hangout and head back to his place after for the pool and dinner. We could all celebrate there and just relax. No huge party, just us.
Sounded ideal—except I confessed about the message from my mom. To be honest, I didn’t want to run into his dad either.
“I can handle Edward,” Archie promised me.
“We’ll be there,” Coop volunteered. “We can always go lock ourselves in the media room. Archie’s got that place fortified for the next twenty years on snacks.”
Not really an exaggeration.
“C’mon, baby girl,” Jake said with a nudge. “We haven’t gotten to celebrate something with you, and this is too good to pass up. Blow your mom off, hang out with us, and we’ll have fun.”
No lie. That sounded great.
