AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hi,” I replied.
“Is that your room?” he asked.
If he wanted to do small talk first, I could do small talk. “Yeah.” I spun the computer around to give him a better view of my bedroom. “I thought I’d be staying in the attic bedroom.” I caught myself just as I was about to mention Liam, and changed my mind. “But this is so much better. I have my own bathroom and a fireplace and everything.”
“Your aunt and uncle’s place sounds great.”
“How’s Vermont?” My stomach had already tied itself into knots, and I could feel my heart racing, but I kept my tone casual.
He shrugged. “Colder than California. But I guess it’s cold there, too, huh?” He pointed at me. I’d forgotten to take off my hat in my rush to talk to him. I tugged it from my head and clutched it in my hands as my cheeks grew warm.
“Yeah. I bought it today. I didn’t realize it would be so cold here.”
“It’s cute.” His eyes sparkled when he grinned at me, and I realized I’d had enough.
“Thanks,” I said. “So, what’s this thing with Jace?”
He leaned back in his chair, scratching at the nape of his neck. “I, uh, just thought we should talk.”
“What happened?” My heart started hammering again.
“Lots of folks were asking about you at Becca’s party last night.” He leaned back in his chair, like this was all no big deal.
“So what did you tell them?” I smiled and played along, even though I desperately wanted him to cut to the chase and get this over with.
He shrugged. “Not much, but then Jace got to talking about what happened to Coach, and…” He shrugged again, but shifted in his seat this time.
“And what?” I asked. Just spit it out, Connor.
He frowned. “I, uh…you know. I mentioned that you’d been working for him.”
“And that’s it?” I leaned toward the screen.
Connor shook his head. “Well, no, but he kinda guessed some stuff from that article he’d read, and he asked about it. I mean, we’ve been friends forever. I’m not gonna lie to him.”
“And what aboutourfriendship? I trusted you. I asked you not to say anything. That means you don’t talk about it with other people. Even your friends.” I gripped the edges of my laptop so hard my fingers started to sweat.
Connor cocked his head to one side. “Come on. It’s cool, Evie. You know Jace. He won’t tell anyone.”
“I don’t know that.” Staying friends with Connor had been a bad idea. But I hadn’t realized until that moment that maybe, just maybe, I’d been staying friends with Connor as some sort of misguided attempt to prevent exactly this from happening. Like, if we stayed friends he’d maintain some sort of loyalty to me. So much for that idea. “Were you two alone when you were talking about this?”
“Well…not exactly.” Connor’s microphone picked up the scratch of stubble against skin as he scrubbed his palm against his chin.
I sighed. “So who else heard?”
“Um…I don’t know. There were a lot of people around. It was pretty loud, though. So maybe only Haley.” He paused and scratched his head. “Did I tell you Haley and I are dating? I wanted to tell you, you know…so you’d hear it from me first.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Did he seriously think our friends wouldn’t have said anything? Or that I cared? “We’ve been broken up for months. You don’t owe me an explanation.” I honestly didn’t care that he was moving on. I did care that he’d confirmed to our friends that I was probably the main reason their beloved prep school coach had been suspended.
“We’re still friends, right?” His question hung in the air while he stared at me with those brown puppy-dog eyes.
“I don’t know, Connor.” I shook my head, forcing the words out that would end this for good. “I don’t think I can trust you. So, no. I don’t think we can be friends.”
“Aw, come on, Evie. It’s no big deal. This whole thing with Coach will blow over. In a few months, no one will even remember what happened.”
“That’s exactly the point. You don’t get it. Your coach is a sexist jerk who doesn’t understand the word ‘no’ just like you don’t seem to understand what ‘private’ means.”
“That’s not fair,” he said. “Why are you being so sensitive about this?”
