Текст книги "This Is So Not Happening"

Автор книги: Kieran Scott

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

“Jake! Stop it!” I shouted, starting across the gym floor.

Blood, I wasn’t sure whose, splurted across the boards.

“Ally, don’t.”

Coach Prescott’s hand was on my shoulder.

“What?” I looked over at her, confused and terrified.

“They’re watching,” Coach said, giving a surreptitious nod toward the stands.

My throat went dry. I didn’t completely understand why it mattered that my college coach and teammates were eyeing me—what that had to do with the fact that my boyfriend was staging an impromptu wrestling meet as a halftime show—but I decided to trust Coach and didn’t move. Seconds later, I completely understood. Two uniformed cops descended on the mess of flailing arms and legs and fists and feet and tore Will and Jake apart. Blood seeped from a gash across the bridge of Jake’s nose. Will’s eye was already turning purple. I glanced up at the Rutgers coach and held my breath. If she’d seen me go over there, she would have drawn so many conclusions. Conclusions about who I was, whom I chose to spend my time with. Right now, Jake looked like a psychotic loser with a violent streak, ready to go postal at any moment. If I’d run to his side, she would have forever associated me with him.

Coach Prescott had just saved my ass.

“Thanks, Coach,” I said, my eyes filling with tears as the police hauled both Jake and Will outside through one of the side doors.

Shannen put her arm around my waist as we turned back toward the huddle.

“Holy shit,” Shannen said under her breath.

“Tell me about it.” I glanced back again. I couldn’t help it. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“Who cares?” Shannen said. “Screw him. This is the biggest game of your life and he pulls that crap? Don’t let it distract you.”

“As much as I don’t appreciate the language, Shannen’s right,” Coach Prescott said. She looked around the circle, meeting everyone’s eyes solemnly. “As far as I’m concerned, that didn’t just happen. Everyone needs to stay focused. We can win this thing if we get them on their heels, but I need everyone’s heads in the game.” She looked me dead in the eye. “Nowhere else.”

The rest of the team turned to look at me, and my fingers curled into fists. In that moment, I hated Jake. I couldn’t help it. Shannen was right. He should have known this was a huge night for me. He should have thought about that for five seconds before making a spectacle of himself and distracting me. But no. It was far more important for him to mess with Will and Chloe yet again. And now I had my teammates doubting me, doubting my focus.

“Are you with us, Ryan?” Coach asked.

“I’m with you, Coach,” I said, clenching my jaw. “Let’s beat these losers.”

The team cheered and clapped, several of them slapping me on the back, and we got down to our game plan. From that moment on, Jake was no longer an issue. He wasn’t even on my radar.

jake

When the doorbell rang that night, I half expected it to be Will, stopping by for round two. I trudged over to the door in my sweats and glanced out. It was Ally, freshly showered after the game. For the first time ever, I just wanted her to go away. Because just seeing her standing there made me feel like an asshole.

I opened the door. A light, freezing drizzle was coming down from the sky.

“Hey,” she said quietly. I’d never seen anyone look at me with that much hurt, pity, and anger.

“Hey.”

I released the door handle and started back across the foyer, turning my back to her. Not wanting to look in her eyes any longer than I had to. Figuring she’d follow.

“I don’t know if I’m coming in.”

I stopped. My heart shriveled. What the hell did that mean? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. I set my jaw, resolving not to let her see me sweat. If she was going to end it, just let her end it.

“What does that mean?” I asked her.

She blinked and shuddered in the cold, pulling her jacket tighter. “Aren’t you even going to ask me if we won?”

“Did you win?” I asked, placing one hand on the doorknob and the other on the far side of the doorjamb, as if I was blocking her way.

“Yeah.” Her voice broke. “I scored the game-winner.”

“That’s great,” I said, my voice sour. “Aren’t you even gonna ask me if I’m okay? Because that jackass almost broke my arm.”

Ally titled her head. “Oh, did he?” she said sarcastically. “I’m so sorry for you. Poor, poor Jake. Almost got hurt in the fight he started.”

“Why are you being such a bitch?” I blurted.

Her jaw dropped, but I kept going. My defenses were up, and I was keeping them there.

“I’m the one who got hauled off by the police tonight,” I said, bringing a hand to my chest. “I’m the one who got suspended for a week. I’m the one who almost had to get stitches thanks to that asshole.”

Ally scoffed and shook her head. “God! Do you even hear yourself? I may be a bitch sometimes, but at least I’m not a big, whining baby.”

She turned around and started to walk away, headed for her mom’s car, which she’d parked near the end of the driveway.

“I’m not a baby!” I shouted after her.

“Whatever, Jake,” she said, lifting a hand but not turning. “I’ll see you around.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

She paused at the driver’s side door. For a long second, she just stared at the window, the icy raindrops sticking to her hair. Then she popped the handle and looked up at me. All of a sudden I remembered what she’d looked like the first day I met her, right here in this driveway on a hot, sunny day. So fearless. So beautiful. So perfect.

“It means I’m done,” she said. “We’re over. I can’t take it anymore.”

“Take what?” I shouted, my voice harsh. I felt like she was yanking my heart out through my mouth. “What can’t you take anymore?”

“You! This! All the negativity and the cruelty and the violence!” she shouted back. “I keep waiting for you to get past it, for you to go back to being you … the sweet, thoughtful, and yeah, maybe sometimes dense, but also cool guy I fell in love with! But clearly that’s not going to happen.”

I clenched my jaw. “Yeah, well, maybe this is me,” I said, even though I knew it wasn’t. Even though I hated me right then almost as much as she did. But it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t stop feeling like this no matter what I did. I’d tried to stop feeling sad and angry every second of every day, but I just couldn’t.

“I hope not, Jake,” Ally said, shaking her head. “That would just be sad.”

Then she got in her car and drove away.

ally

“Welcome to Guys Suck Day!”

Standing in the open doorway at the front of her house, Annie wore a red, satin, strapless dress with a poofy skirt that I couldn’t believe she owned, and a four-strand rhinestone necklace that covered half her chest. Two minutes ago, I’d felt droopy, tired, and heartbroken, wondering what Jake had had planned for us tonight—if he actually had planned anything. Now I was simply stunned. Annie looked me up and down and her grin went south.

“You didn’t dress up!” she whined, closing the door as I stepped inside.

“I thought you were kidding,” I replied. I shook off my coat and hung it on the overloaded hooks near the door, covering up someone else’s leather jacket. I paused. Wait a sec. That jacket looked familiar.

“Surprise!”

Hand over my heart, I faced the kitchen, where Shannen, Faith, and Chloe were all gathered around the table, filling bowls with snacks. Shannen wore a dark green minidress with a black lace overlay, Faith was sporting a floor-length pink gown, and Chloe had donned her silver maternity dress from Christmas. I froze.

“Um, Annie, are you aware that there are three Cresties in your house?” I said under my breath.

“I’m aware. The things I do for my best friend,” Annie said. Then she leaned toward my ear. “I already booked a HazMat team to come delouse the place tomorrow.”

I laughed, but I was touched. Annie had allowed her three most hated enemies into her house just to cheer me up. Either she was the best best friend ever, or I was in a sorrier state than even I thought.

“Ally!” Faith walked over and threw her arms around me. She had on so much perfume that my mouth filled with the sour, flowery taste of it. “Ohhhhh! It sucks to break up right before Valentine’s!”

“Hey!” Annie smacked the back of Faith’s head. Hard. “We don’t say the V-word on Guys Suck Day, remember?”

“Ow! God! Sorry!” Faith said, rubbing her scalp.

“So what do we do on Guys Suck Day?” I asked, joining the others at the table.

Trying to get into the spirit, I took a handful of M&M’s and started to munch on them. But even chocolate couldn’t chase away the gray cloud that had settled all around me ever since I’d driven away from Jake’s house three nights ago. For the last time. My heart clenched every time I thought about it—the look on his face, the effort it took not to turn around. But I knew I was doing the right thing. Jake was no good for me anymore. He wasn’t even good for himself. I just wished I could get my heart to believe it.

“We watch girl-power movies,” Chloe said, fanning out a selection on the table, including Soul Surfer, Bridesmaids, John Tucker Must Die, and Whip It.

“Cool,” I said, nodding.

“Eat tons of junk food and drink tons of wine,” Shannen said, producing a bottle from behind her back.

“And, if we get drunk enough, we call all the boys we hate and tell them to suck it,” Annie said, grabbing the wine and pouring herself a glass.

My stomach turned over at the thought of drunk-dialing Jake and making an ass out of myself. “Let’s not get drunk enough,” I said, taking the bottle and setting it aside.

“Buzz kill,” Annie muttered as she started gathering up some of the bowls of junk food. The rest of us helped and we all headed into the living room.

“Where are your parents, anyway?” I asked.

“Not here,” Annie replied.

“There’s also dancing, apparently,” Chloe said over her shoulder as she sat down on the larger of the two mustard-colored couches. She dropped the movies onto the coffee table and leaned back, arms around her belly. “But after what happened at my birthday I think I’ll sit that part out.”

“Oh, no!” Faith said. “There’s no sitting anything out on Guys Suck Day!”

She walked over to a cabinet on the far wall, opened it, and clicked on the stereo. A pounding dance beat filled the room, and Faith started to dance, kicking aside the throw pillows on the floor to make room. It was odd, watching her act so at-home in Annie’s house. I still couldn’t believe the two of them were actually ever best friends.

“Let’s go, Chloe. On your feet.” Faith took both Chloe’s hands and hauled her off the couch, almost tipping them both over from the effort.

“All right, all right!” Chloe said. She stepped from side to side carefully, and when Faith spun her around, she cracked a smile. “Hello? If I have to dance, you have to dance!” she shouted, pulling me into their circle.

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Annie whipped out her Flip to tape us, and I found myself giggling nervously. As soon as the camera went on, Faith started hamming it up, rolling her shoulder back and kissy-facing the lens. Then Shannen joined us, half dancing, half posing for the camera.

Hmm. Perhaps Annie hadn’t invited them here for me, but so that she could film them doing embarrassing stuff she could use against them later.

“Oh, yeah! Work it, ladies! Work it!” Annie directed, climbing up on the couch to get an aerial view. Chloe and I cracked up laughing, more than happy to fade into the background as Faith and Shannen jockeyed for camera position.

“So where’s Will tonight?” I asked.

“He wanted to do something, but I said cheering you up was more important,” Chloe told me, tucking her brown hair behind her ears.

“Chloe! You didn’t have to do that!” I said.

“Whatever. We’ll go out for dinner tomorrow night,” Chloe said, lifting a shoulder. She reached around me for some chips and almost got her arm knocked off as Shannen attempted a twirl. “My dad says all the restaurants rob you blind on V-day anyway.”

Like Chloe had any sort of problems with money. But I guess Will was conscious of that stuff.

“Make love to the camera, girls. Make love!” Annie wheedled.

“Shannen! Get out of my dance space!” Faith whined, shoving Shannen aside.

“Don’t make me show them your bad side,” Shannen shot back.

Faith squealed and ducked her head as Shannen chased her around the room, Annie in hot and gleeful pursuit.

“This is actually kind of fun,” I commented, stuffing some more M&M’s in my mouth.

“Yeah. I’m not even thinking about all the things I don’t want to be thinking about,” Chloe replied as Shannen jostled her aside, trying to cut Faith off.

“Me neither,” I added.

Then we both just stopped. Because saying we weren’t thinking made us both start thinking.

“Let’s make Annie dance!” I suggested.

“Most definitely,” Chloe agreed.

We turned and grabbed Annie by the wrists, tugging her onto the makeshift dance floor as she screamed in protest. The rest of us made a circle around her, and Annie threw her hands up in surrender, probably experiencing her worst nightmare as the gooey center of a Crestie doughnut. I wrestled the camera away and turned it on her.

“Hey! This was your idea, remember?” I said with a laugh. “Dance, Goth Girl! Dance!”

“Okay, but you guys are so not prepared for the ferocity of my moves,” Annie said. And then she launched into a full-on lawn-sprinkler the likes of which I’ve never seen. Shannen tried to mimic it, badly, and before long all five of us were doubled over laughing, gasping for breath, and best of all, not thinking.

march

I can’t believe Ally and Jake actually broke up.

           What? You’ve been saying all year that they should break up.

I know, but they got this far. Like, why break up now?

Totally. She should’ve at least stuck it out till the prom.

OMG, I know. You don’t just give up the chance to go to the prom with Jake Graydon. I don’t care what he did.

Or who.

ally

“You girls look so beautiful!”

My mother took a step back to admire as Quinn and I stared at our reflections in the wall of mirrors in front of us. I had to say, for bridesmaids’ dresses, these were not half-bad. My mother had chosen basic, black, satin, strapless, tea-length dresses with a slim waist and an A-line skirt. There was no lace, no sequins, no tulle. Quinn looked pretty and slim, and I looked tall and sophisticated. It was a win-win.

“Are you sure you want black?” Quinn asked, turning to the side. “It’s kind of depressing for a wedding.”

“I’m going to brighten them up with some funky jewelry and maybe have you wear jewel-toned shoes,” my mother explained, reaching over to fluff my skirt.

Quinn frowned thoughtfully. “That could work.”

“Of course it’s gonna work,” I said, kind of nastily, I’ll admit. “It’s her wedding day. Anything she says will work.”

My mother shot me an admonishing look as Quinn raised her hands. “Okay, okay. Sor-ree!”

Quinn walked over to a pink velvet chair in the corner, sat down, and pulled out her phone. Probably texting someone about what an ass her soon-to-be stepsister was. Maybe even Hammond. In a disturbing new and somehow incestuous-feeling twist, the two of them were now officially a couple. He’d sent her two dozen red carnations in the Valentine’s Day flower sale fund-raiser, and she’d spent the rest of the day telling everyone who would listen that she now had a senior boyfriend. Last night I’d caught them making out on the couch in the living room and I’d almost lost my dinner.

“Honey?” my mom asked, smoothing my hair. “Are you okay?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” I asked, heading to another pink chair on the opposite side of the huge dressing room. When I dropped down, the skirt poofed up against the armrests like a black cloud. Classical violin music played through the speakers overhead, and the whole room smelled of lilacs and roses. I wondered if the people who worked here ever felt like they were going to OD on romance. “I’m fine, okay? I broke up with him. And it was, like, a month ago already.”

Actually, it had been three weeks and one day. A torturous three weeks and one day. Three weeks and a day of Jake walking past me in the halls without so much as a glance. Of watching him flirt with every underclassman blessed with two X chromosomes. A month of second-guessing myself, of thinking he looked happier without me, of wondering if I had somehow been the problem. So no, I was not okay. But it had been long enough that I felt like I should have been by now, so I kept pretending I was.

“I have an idea,” my mother said, perching on a stool next to the chair. “How about tonight you and I go out to dinner? Just the two of us?”

“Really?” I said, brightening slightly.

“Yeah. You pick the restaurant. Anywhere you want.”

I smiled. I knew she was busy with work and wedding planning and everything, so the offer meant a lot.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Aw, sweetie.” She kissed my temple and gave me a quick squeeze. “Everything’s gonna be okay. You’ll see.”

My phone rang, and the seamstress returned to the dressing room with her clipboard. My mom got up and I grabbed my phone to answer it. Annie’s tongue stuck out at me from the screen.

“Hey,” I said, smoothing my skirt out. “What’s up?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Annie said.

My already-tentative smile died. I sat up straight. “What?”

“The Evites to Jake’s birthday party just went out,” Annie said grimly. “He invited every single person in the entire senior class and half the juniors. I even got one.”

I swallowed hard. “Everyone except me.”

“Everyone except you, Chloe, and Will.”

I drooped back in my chair and stared. I didn’t even know what to feel. For the millionth time in the past month, my vision blurred. I picked at a string sticking out of the cushioned part of the armrest as the store’s soundtrack flipped to the classic wedding march.

“I guess I’m not surprised.”

“He sucks, Ally. I’m going to form a protest. I’ll get every Norm in town to stay home.”

I snorted a laugh. “Like I’d do that to you.”

This party was like a jackpot for Annie. Usually she had to sneak into Crestie parties to do her anthropological research. Now she was actually invited. Besides, keeping the Norms home wouldn’t exactly hurt Jake. All of his close friends were Cresties. In fact, with the way his brain had been working lately, I had to wonder if he’d only invited the Norms to make me, Chloe, and Will feel even more left out.

As the music swelled to its crescendo overhead, I couldn’t help remembering Jake’s birthday last year. When he’d gotten his car and the first thing he’d done was zip right over to the Orchard View Condominiums to see me and we’d driven up to the country club and we’d kissed. For the first time.

“You know you did the right thing breaking up with him, right?” Annie said. “The strong thing.”

“Yeah.” My voice was thick. “I know.”

“Are you okay?” Annie asked.

“Ugh. I wish people would stop asking me that,” I replied, swiping one tear off my bottom lashes. Mercifully, the wedding march had ended, and my mom started motioning to me to wrap it up. “I’m fine. Thanks for letting me know, Annie, but I’ve gotta go. We’re doing final measurements.”

“Cool. Well, have fun.”

“I will,” I said.

I hung up the phone and forced a smile onto my face as my mother and the seamstress approached with their measuring tape and pins. For the next fifteen minutes I was turned and poked and prodded and appraised, the whole time just trying as hard as I could not to burst into tears.

jake

My party was the party that kicked every other party’s ass. As I did a lap around the game room, I actually started to think that every single person I had invited had shown up. At least it seemed like it. There were dozens of people gathered around the pool table, faces I barely recognized hunched over the pinball machines, and the Idiot Twins had drawn a crowd at Ping-Pong, jumping and flailing and hitting backhands like they were on the court at the US Open or something. The music was loud, the beer was flowing, and everyone was having a kick-ass time. I was on top of the world.

I half wished Ally would try to crash, just so she could see how not affected I was by the fact that she’d dumped me.

“I can’t believe your parents actually let you have this thing.”

Shannen strolled over to me and rested her crooked arm on top of my shoulder. She looked fucking hot in the skinniest jeans I’d ever seen, with a wide-necked top falling off her shoulder. And no bra strap. So was she commando under there, or wearing some insane, strapless bra? Did girls know how much the not knowing drove us crazy?

“Yeah, well. Dad’s still psyched I’m not a baby daddy and he has friends in high places, so no one’s gonna be shutting us down.” I turned toward her and put my beer cup on the top of the billiards cabinet. She was standing so close, I could almost see down her shirt and get my answer. When I realized I was looking, I almost gagged. This was Shannen. She used to be my best friend. If I was thinking about getting a peek, then I was definitely seriously drunk. “I’m glad you came,” I said, looking away.

“Me too,” she replied.

Was it just me, or was that her sultry voice?

“Come with me. I need to talk to you.”

She took my fingers lightly and tugged me toward the door. My heart pounded. Whatever this was, it was probably not a good idea. But I couldn’t think of a reason not to go—she had no boyfriend, and I definitely had no girlfriend—so I went. Shannen led me out into the kitchen, past the dozens of bowls of snacks and hundreds of forgotten cups, and over to the foyer. She was heading for the stairs. I glanced down at her ass and instantly felt myself stiffen. This was Shannen. This was not good. This was very not good.

But then she turned around and sat down on the bottom step. I glanced up toward the second floor in confusion.

“Have a seat.” She patted the space next to her. I sat.

“What’re we doing?” I asked.

Shannen looked down at her beer cup, held lightly between her fingertips. “We used to be best friends, right, Jake? We used to tell each other everything?”

Suddenly I didn’t like where this was going. I leaned back, resting my elbows on the steps behind me. The music was dull from in here, and I was already starting to lose my buzz.

“Yeah,” I said.

“So for old times’ sake, I just want you to tell me one thing,” Shannen said. She placed her cup aside and leaned back next to me. “Are you ever going to talk to Chloe again?”

I balked. “That’s what this is about? Shit.”

“I’m serious. I just want to know,” Shannen said. “Because this torture stuff you’ve got going on? It’s not you. And I think if you talk to her, you might stop doing it.”

I felt like my eyes were on fire. “Why does no one seem to get what she did to me was not even close to being in the realm of forgivable?”

“I didn’t ask you to forgive her,” Shannen said simply. “I asked you to hear her out.”

“Why should I?” I demanded.

“She fucked up.” Shannen shrugged. “Everyone fucks up.” She picked up her cup again. “You fucked up last summer and everyone kept right on talking to you. Even Ally.”

The sound of her name squelched the buzz completely. My chest felt hollow, but heavy somehow. “Yeah. And look how long that lasted,” I shot back.

Shannen laughed. “It lasted a long frickin’ time,” she said, her eyes dancing. “She stuck with you even knowing you banged her best friend. She stuck with you even though you were at Chloe’s beck and call for months. And she stuck with you even after you became the loud-mouthed asshole from hell you’ve been for the past two months.”

“Wow. Tell me how you really feel,” I said.

She took a swig of her beer and held it in her mouth for a second before swallowing. “I’m just saying. That girl stayed with you longer than I would have. She stayed with you longer than most people would have. Because she loves you.”

Something was welling up in my throat. I tried to swallow it back, but it wouldn’t go.

“But back to Chloe,” Shannen said. “You should talk to her. You’re going to do it eventually anyway, right? I mean, look. You hated me last summer, but here we are.”

She nudged me with her shoulder and I sat up straight, rubbing my hands together. “Yeah. How did that happen?”

Shannen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure….” She sat up too. “Somewhere in there we just started talking again. But the thing is, you don’t have that kind of time with Chloe. You can’t just let it happen. Five more months and we’re outta here. Everyone’s either gonna go off to college remembering you as a cool guy with awesome friends”—she paused and gestured modestly to herself—“or as the complete and utter prick who tortured a pregnant girl.”

Over in the game room, one of the Idiot Twins whooped over a win and everyone applauded. Meanwhile, I felt the full weight of what Shannen was saying. I felt the clock start ticking on my senior year. On life as I knew it. On any scrap of a chance I had left with Ally. To me the future had always been this kind of hazy blur. Something fictional that the future me would have to deal with, not the me me. But now here I was. Having to deal. Shannen got up, hooked one thumb into the back pocket of her jeans, and tipped her cup in my direction.

“Just something to think about.”

“Says the girl who spent last year torturing Ally Ryan,” I said, trying to get in the last word.

Shannen slowly smiled. “Haven’t you heard, Jake? I’m reformed.”

“Or maybe this is just a prank like everything else, right, Shan?” I said, pulling myself up by the banister. “I go over to apologize to Chloe and she, what, throws a pie in my face?”

Shannen laughed, shaking her head. “First off, pie? That is so beneath me. And secondly? You wait long enough and the real joke will be that she won’t even listen to you.”

Then she turned and walked away to rejoin the party, casually ignoring the fact that she’d just obliterated my night.

jake

Cars were parked at every imaginable angle. On my driveway, in the cul-de-sac, down the street. Half the population of OHH was passed out inside my house, and from what I could tell, the morning traffic jam was going to be worse than the first half hour after a Giants game at the Meadowlands. I squinted in the darkness as I tried to make my way through, but it was like a maze. It took a good five minutes to cross over to Chloe’s yard, a trip that would usually take ten seconds. Five straight minutes of second-guessing myself and almost turning back.

First of all, it was two in the morning.

Second of all, what was I supposed to say?

Third, was I doing this because I wanted to, or because Shannen had basically forced me to?

But no. I had decided this on my own. For the past two hours I had sat in my room, thinking, while everyone else had the time of their life downstairs. That was what Shannen had forced me to do—what I’d been avoiding doing forever. And even though I hadn’t stopped being pissed off, I realized I had been acting like a dick. I knew how hard the pregnancy was for Chloe. I knew because I’d been there. And for the past few weeks I’d mocked her about the things that were worst for her. Her weight, the rumors, the slut thing. Her situation already sucked. She didn’t need me making it worse. I could’ve been the better guy and just let her be, but I didn’t. I took my anger and hurt out on her—the stuff that Ally had said had changed me—and it had only made me feel worse. It wasn’t until I imagined apologizing that the weird pressure I’d been feeling around my heart since September finally went away.

I looked up at Chloe’s house and swayed on my feet. I was very drunk. Was that going to be a good thing or a bad thing? Whatever. There was nothing I could do to change it.

Carefully as possible, I made my way over to the trellis attached to the deck attached to Chloe’s room. I got a grip with my hands and started to climb, but two steps up, the world started spinning around me. I gritted my teeth and tried to keep going, but the toe of my boot slipped on the next step, something gave, I lost my grip, and suddenly I was weightless.

My back slammed into the cold dirt. The trellis crashed down on top of me.

Ow. Mother effing ow.

A light flicked on overhead. My heart stopped. This was where Mr. Appleby came at me with a baseball bat. It was finally going to happen.

But then, suddenly, Chloe was hovering above me, her light brown hair tumbling over her open robe.

“Jake? What the hell are you doing?”

I coughed as I shoved the flimsy trellis aside and struggled to my elbows. “I was coming to talk to you. Here. I’ll climb the other one.”

“Omigod. No. Don’t move.” She glanced over her shoulder toward her room. “Actually … meet me at the front door.”

“Okay.”

The inside of my head felt crooked, like my brain had shifted sideways or something. I shook it, like they do in the movies sometimes, but that just made it worse. Groaning, I shoved myself to my feet, dusted my jeans off, and staggered toward the front door. When I got there, Chloe was standing at the open doorway, her pink, fuzzy robe tied around her big belly.

Huge belly, actually. Ginormous.

“What’re you doing here?” she demanded in a whisper. “Don’t you have guests?”

“Party’s over,” I told her. “I came over to say …” I paused and cleared my throat. “I came over to say …”

Wow. This was harder than I thought. I wanted to say it, so why couldn’t I say it?

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Come inside, it’s freezing out here.”

I swallowed hard, her dad with a baseball bat flashing through my mind again, but I went inside. The marble-floored foyer was a lot warmer than the driveway. She shut the door quietly and hugged herself.

“Okay. What?” she demanded.

I closed my eyes and just did it. “I wanted to say I’m sorry. For everything. I mean, for everything I’ve done or … or said, or whatever, to make you feel … bad about the … the—”

I gestured at her stomach, and her hands moved to cover it.

“Anyway, I’m sorry.” I cleared my throat again. “I do think what you did sucked, but I maybe shouldn’t have been such an asshole about it.”

Chloe let out a small laugh.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“Nothing, it’s just … Nothing. I’m sorry too. I tried to tell you that back in January, but you wouldn’t listen,” she said. “And now it just seems so pointless. I’m gonna have this baby any day now and it’ll all be over.”