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I tried to pull away again, ready to bolt, but Reed locked onto my legs once more. Refusing to let me move, refusing to let me go. The tumbling sensation in my stomach came again, stronger this time. I wanted to lean closer, to put my hand over his mouth once more, to put my lips there. The fierceness of that longing almost made it hard to breathe, especially when Reed Manning looked at me likethat. Like he wasn’t Rachel’s brother, like he wasn’t going to ask some other girl to homecoming, like I wasn’t planning to kiss another boy.
Reed’s fingers on my leg moved slow as they curled around my calf, and my mind went into overdrive imagining how it would’ve felt if the blanket hadn’t been such a cruel barrier
“Oh, you woke up?” Rachel sauntered into the living room like a cool breeze chasing away the summery warmth. This time, when I jerked my legs away, Reed let them go. “I couldn’t believe how fast you fell asleep. It was barely ten minutes into the episode.”
My heart trampled like a racehorse in my chest, but I scrubbed my fingers through my hair, desperate to play it cool. “I’ve been really tired lately.”
Somewhere in the unknown, my cell buzzed again. I pulled up the couch cushion, searching between the cracks, when I found it. It’d fallen between the arm and the sofa structure, and the glowing screen of notifications illuminated its position. Brentwood Babble notifications piled up, filled with exclamation points and caps-lock. “Whoa.”
“What?” Rachel wedged herself into the cushion between Reed and me, tilting her head to see my cell. “Something with Babble?”
“You two and that site,” Reed muttered, swiping the remote to turn up the volume. “I swear.”
“You’re jealous no one talks about you,” Rachel quipped. “Reed Manning is fading into nothingness.”
“Thank God.”
Once my inbox loaded, I nearly dropped my phone at the first submission.
CONNOR WAS CAUGHT HOOKING UP WITH SOMEONE OTHER THAN JADE!
“What!” Rachel screeched, the sound piercing in my ear. On the other side of her, Reed jumped a mile, the remote clattering to the floor so hard that the batteries popped out. “He moved on already? What the heck! I didn’t even get a chance!”
As I scrolled through my inbox, I quickly discovered that the flood of staccato pings were all relating to that topic. Tips and submissions about Connor Bray weren’t anything out of the ordinary—people sometimes even sent things in regarding what energy drink flavor he was trying that day—but this…this was huge.
“Fine, I’ll bite.” Reed sighed, glancing over. “Who moved onto who?”
“Connor was caught in the hookup closet,” I said, scrolling through the paragraphs of misspellings and fangirling. “Apparently, he left and then some girl walked out a few minutes later.”
“Is there a photo?” Rachel pulled my cell from my hand then, scrolling through the submissions. “Darn, no photo. But someone said she had brown hair. You think it could’ve been Kirsten Oldham?”
Reed rolled his eyes. “Do you know how much of Brentwood High has brown hair, Rachel? You have brown hair. Maisie has brown hair. Practically 80% of people at school have brown hair.”
Rachel gave a little sigh as she passed me my phone. “I wish it was me. How come you haven’t put in a good word for me, Reed?”
I scrolled through the submissions quickly, watching as they devolved into “I heard Connor was caught in the closet!” and “Someone told me about Connor!” Which was a bad sign for me. If people were spreading rumors and information outside of Babble, my relevancy?Poof. Gone.
The idea had me scrambling up from the couch. “I have to get on this before it spreads any further.”
“Find out the truth for me, though,” Rachel said as she plopped into her chair, trying to snatch the remote away from Reed. “I’m going to be really sad if someone already beat me into winning Connor Bray over.”
As I started upstairs to grab my backpack, I called to her with absolute certainty, “Not that you’d really want to go toe to toe with Jade Dyer!”
* * *
Brentwood Babble was one thing that stayed consistent when everything in my life was upending in turmoil. The familiar blue and gold color scheme of the dashboard screamed of countless hours of researching how HTML worked and painstaking patience to get everything perfect. There was only the main blog as well as a search bar, and a landing page for returning users to login to submit new tips and comment.
At the top of the page, navy paw prints worked their way across the header, withBabblescripted across them in glittering gold.
With the blog page loaded, I opened up a new thread, cracking my fingers once before setting to work.
Jannor On the Rocks?! Connor Bray already moving on to someone new?
My sources tell me that Connor was allegedly caught in the equipment closet after school today, and he wasn’t alone. Though no one caught a glimpse of his closetmate, his girlfriend, Jade, was at practice when this occurred. What do you think? Is Jannor officially over? Is Connor Bray a cheater? Say it isn’t so!
Let me know in the comments below: who do you think could’ve captured Connor Bray’s attention, and his heart?!
I sat back against my headboard, stretching my toes in front of me. I didn’t usually have so much trouble writing Babble posts, not for the most part. Normally, the lines flowed because I could practically imagine how people would react. But writing this one felt…different. I’d been meticulously working my way through the article, writing and rewriting dozens of times. When I glimpsed out of my bedroom window, I found the sun already dimming in the sky. I’d been at this a while.
