Текст книги "He's So Not Worth It"

Автор книги: Kieran Scott

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Before Ally Ryan moved back to Orchard Hill, I never didn’t know what to do. Now it was all the time. It was like I always didn’t know what to do.And it was starting to piss me off.Like, was I supposed to call her, or not call her? She’d told me she didn’t want to see me anymore. Did she mean it? Or was I supposed to, like, go after her? And if that’s what I was supposed to do, did I really want to be that guy? The guy who begged a girl to take him back?The only thing I knew for sure was that every night I did want to be that guy. Lying in my bed, listening to the crickets, thinking about what she was doing, I was like, Fuck it, just call her. Then every morning, I’d wake up and be relieved I hadn’t done it. Because Jake Graydon doesn’t beg for girls. What was I thinking?Then I’d spend all day obsessing about her, and as soon as I was in bed again, the cycle started all over.As I drove over to Hammond Ross’s house the Monday after the shit hit the fan, all I could think about was the cycle. And whether or not I had the balls to break it. It had been about forty-eight hours since my best friend Shannen Moore had shown that video of us finding Ally’s dad at that deli in the city. Forty-eight hours since she’d made me look like some kind of lying, secret-keeping jerk to Ally, then told me she basically did it because she liked me. Yeah, that part I definitely was not ready to deal with. But I was starting to sort of feel like I could maybe talk to Ally.Possibly.“S’up, man?” Hammond loped across his front yard and got into the passenger seat of my Jeep. His blond hair looked longer than it had during the school year, and he was already tan. “Why are we driving to Faith’s again?”“Because we can,” I said.He smirked. Fist bump. “Nice.”Ever since I got the Jeep for my seventeenth birthday I drove wherever I could. I would’ve driven from my door to the mailbox to get the mail if my mother didn’t pounce on it the second it came. I hit the gas and two seconds later we were pulling up in front of Faith’s house. When I swung the car into the driveway, I saw that Chloe Appleby’s white convertible was there too.“Shit,” Hammond said. “Did you know she was coming?”“Faith said it was just us,” I told him.I should’ve known something was up when Faith had called me that afternoon. She’d never called me before unless she was trying to track down someone else. The story was, her mother had all these leftovers from a church thing she’d hosted and she wanted us to come over so they wouldn’t go to waste. Had she invited Chloe, too, or had Chloe just shown up? Hammond made no move to get out of the car, so I didn’t kill the engine.“You talk to Chloe yet?” I asked.“Once,” he said. He reached forward and picked at some invisible speck on my dashboard with his thumbnail. “Long enough for her to officially dump my ass.”There was an odd twist in my chest. “Sorry, man.”“I can’t believe she broke up with me because I kissed some girl two years ago,” he said. He shoved himself back in the seat, his hands limp in his lap.Again, the twist. Hammond hadn’t just kissed some girl. He’d kissed Ally Ryan.Two years ago, I said to myself. Before she even knew you existed. For some reason, it still didn’t make me feel better.“She didn’t even let me explain what happened,” Hammond said. “She could’ve at least heard me out.”That was what I was afraid of, why I really hadn’t called Ally. Because I didn’t want her to just hang up on me. I wanted her to let me explain. And I was scared shitless that she wouldn’t let me. That we were so far gone, she wouldn’t even listen. And if we were that far gone, I didn’t want to know.Which made me a wuss. Which also pissed me off.“Come on, dude. Let’s go in,” I said, turning off the engine. “Get it over with.”Hammond stared at the arced, red front door of Faith’s stone house. “Yeah. Yeah. All right.”We got out and walked inside without knocking. The only door we ever knocked on was Shannen’s, and that was only because she never wanted anyone to come in, so she only ever came out. The lights were on down in the kitchen, and the door to the basement was open. We heard voices from the top of the stairs. Hammond looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, so I figured I should go first. I jogged down the steps and suddenly wished I was, too. Because Chloe wasn’t the only surprise guest. Shannen was there also.“Dudes! Faith got the new Extreme Sports!” Todd Stein stood up from the wraparound couch with an Xbox controller.“Get your asses over here so we can school you,” his twin brother Trevor said.Todd was in brown shorts and an orange T-shirt. Trevor was in orange shorts and a brown T-shirt. Their blond hair stuck out all over, like they’d just woken up, which considering summer had started, was completely possible. Trevor popped a mini quiche into his mouth, then laughed, showing us the mangled bits of food on his tongue. So at least the claim of leftovers was real.“What’s up with them?” I asked, lifting my chin.In the corner by Faith’s prized dollhouse, Faith gestured at Chloe, whose eyes were on the floor, and Shannen, whose eyes were on me.I sat down next to Todd and looked at the TV.“Chick drama,” Todd said, tossing me the third controller. On the screen, two snowboarders raced down a slalom hill.Hammond was still at the bottom of the stairs. Now he made his move, walking slowly across the carpeted room. Todd and Trevor shouted in protest as he blocked their game for a split second, but he didn’t notice or care. When he got to the girls, Faith stopped yammering and, aside from Trevor and Todd’s chewing and the sound effects coming through the surround sound, the place was silent.“Chloe, can I talk to you?”“Does he really need to be here?” Chloe asked Faith. She didn’t even look at Hammond.Faith bit her lip, fiddling with her car keys for some reason. “Come on, Chloe. Can’t you at least just talk to him?”“Fine.” Chloe rolled her eyes and scoffed. She grabbed her bag off the couch and started for the door. “If he’s staying, I’m leaving.”“Chloe, wait,” Faith called.Chloe stopped right in front of the TV and Todd’s boarder hit a tree.“Oh, man! What the hell, Chloe?”I paused the game.“Look, I didn’t come here to be ambushed,” Chloe said, whirling on Faith. “You said it was going to be just the two of us. Then she walks in.” She gestured at Shannen with her bag. “And now Hammond? What are you trying to do?”“I’m trying to keep the group from completely self-destructing! Doesn’t anybody care about that but me?” Faith said, turning her palms out. Her long blond hair hung down around her shoulders and for once in her life, she wasn’t wearing two tons of makeup. Even her outfit was different from usual. Plain brown shorts and a white tank top. No popsicle-colored minidress or too-hip jewelry or ridiculous heels. “If it makes you feel any better, I told the guys it would be just them, and Shannen, too. None of them knew.”“Oh, good. So you’re the only liar in the room,” Chloe said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Oh, wait! Shannen and Hammond already proved they were liars.”“Chloe—,” Shannen began.“No. You don’t even talk to me,” Chloe said, lifting one finger from her bag. “You knew for two years that my boyfriend cheated on me, but you never felt the need to tell me until it fit into one of your stupid anti-Ally plots.”Then she turned on Hammond. “And you . . . you’ve liked her all this time, haven’t you?” Her bottom lip trembled so badly I felt embarrassed. “What was I, just some, like, pseudo-Ally? Someone to hang out with while you pined and prayed for her to come back?”Hammond’s jaw was set as he stared at Chloe. Was that true? Did he still like Ally?“That’s not how it is,” he said. “You know it’s not.”He tried to take her hand, but she snatched it away.“I don’t know anything, obviously,” she said. Then she took in a breath. “Thanks a lot, Faith. I didn’t have enough public humiliation this week. I really appreciate it.”She stormed up the stairs and a few seconds later the front door slammed.Faith looked like she was about to cry.“I think I’m gonna walk home,” Hammond said.I started to get up from the couch. “I’ll take you.”“Guys, come on,” Faith said. Pleaded, really. “I still have the food, and I really—”But Hammond was already gone. I stood up straight. The idea of staying here with Shannen, who I had nothing to say to, and a tearful Faith was not happening.“I’d better go,” I said. “Sorry Faith.”And I was out. On my way to the door, I heard Todd ask if it was okay if they kept playing.Outside, Hammond was nowhere to be seen. Chloe’s car was gone. I got in the Jeep and reversed out of the driveway. As I drove down the hill toward town, I suddenly knew for absolute sure that I had to call Ally. Of everyone I knew, she was the only person I actually wanted to hang out with. Who cared if I had to grovel to be with her? What was that old saying? Something about the ends justifying the means? At the first stoplight I came to, I grabbed my phone and let my thumb hover over the A button. But I froze.I couldn’t do it. I was too fucking scared. God, I hated myself.The light turned green. Cursing under my breath, I dropped the phone on the passenger seat and hit the gas.

Daily Field Journal of Annie Johnston Tuesday, June 29Location: Orchard Hill Country Club lobby.Cover: Applying for a summer job as a ball girl. As if I’d ever show that much leg.Observations:10:01 a.m.: Subject Faith Kirkpatrick arrives. Uniform: gauzy, see-through cover-up, silver sandals, string bikini, huge straw sun hat. Subject strides past without seeing me. (Note: I am, after all, invisible.) At end of hallway leading to locker room, Subjects Corrine Law (graduated senior) and Tiara Weston (finished freshman year at Duke by the skin of her teeth [see random gossip item #142 in appendix B]). Subject Faith gives them a bright “Hi, guys!” Subjects Corinne and Tiara reply with less enthusiastic “hi’s” and keep walking. Subject Faith visibly embarrassed, proceeds to locker room. (Assessment: Faith is a loser among Cresties. Personal Note: Payback’s a bitch.)

Location: Orchard Hill Country Club poolside.Cover: Applying for a summer job as a lifeguard. As if I can swim.Observations:10:31 a.m.: Subject Faith lies on a lounge chair. She takes out her phone and dials.Faith: “Hi, Chloe! I’m at the club pool! Come by if you get a chance! I have prime real estate between the snack bar and the warm water corner! Call me!”Subject hangs up. Frowns. Dials again.Faith: “Hi, Shannen! What are you doing later? We should get together before I leave for the shore! Call me!”Subject hangs up. Frowns some more. Dials.Faith: “Hammond! It’s Faith! Come to the club pool! That lifeguard you guys like is on duty! Bring the twins! Call me!”Subject hangs up. She looks at her phone. Considers. Sighs. Places it next to her thigh. (Note: It needs to be in grabbing distance for all the callbacks she’s not going to get.) Subjects Corinne and Tiara walk by. Neither acknowledges Subject Faith. (Assessment: Faith Kirkpatrick has no friends. Also, she’s destined for frown lines. Personal Note: Nice.)

“Jake? Can I see you for a moment, please?”My mother stood at the door of my room. There was a piece of paper in her hand. I had no idea what it was, but there was something ominous about it.“What’s up?” I asked.“Downstairs.”She turned around and went. Yeah. Very not good. I shoved myself off my bed and followed, walking through the cloud of flowery perfume that always trailed her. Her jewel-covered flip-flops left tiny footprints in the heavy carpeting of the hallway and made slapping sounds as she walked down the stairs. Why did I suddenly feel like those slapping sounds were the soundtrack of doom?In the kitchen, my mother walked to the other side of the island and placed the paper down in front of me. Now I could see it was my report card.Shit.“Three Cs, a C minus, one B, and an A,” she said. “In gym.” The dark red helmet of her hair kind of trembled. Never a good sign.“Yeah, but that C minus was totally unfair,” I said, leaning forward into the island across from her. “Mr. Caswell is a complete douche.”My mother flinched. “Language.”“Sorry. It’s just—”She held up her hand. The huge diamond on her ring finger swung around to face me. “Jake, I just talked to your father and we’ve decided that there’s only one thing we can do here.”“What?” I swallowed hard.“You’re grounded.”“What!?”“For the summer.”“What!?”Grounded for the summer? What did that even mean?“No more Mrs. Nice Guy, Jake,” she said, walking over to the fridge and yanking it open. She took out the glass pitcher filled to the brim with water, ice, and sliced lemon, then let the door slam. “Between this report card and your SATs, you’re going to be lucky to get into Bergen Community next year, let alone Fordham.”“But mom—”“There are no buts here,” my mother said. The ice tinkled as she set the pitcher down on the counter. “It’s about time you start taking your life seriously. I’ve already called this new SAT tutor Connor’s mother recommended and secured her services for the summer, and tomorrow morning you’re going to go out and get a job.”I blinked. She might as well have just dumped the whole pitcher over my head. “A job?”“We need to prove to the admissions people that you’re a serious, well-rounded person.” She turned her ring back around so the rock was face up, then laid her hands down flat on the granite counter. The lights overhead were reflected in her shiny pink and white fingernails. “In this economy, sloth is frowned upon, Jake. You need to show them you’re willing to work for what you get.”She wasn’t making any sense. “But I can’t go out and get a job here. We’re leaving for the shore on Thursday.”My mother cleared her throat and turned her back to me, plucking a glass out of the cabinet. Everything inside me sank.“Mom, you can’t—”“Your brother is leaving for the shore on Thursday,” she said. Her hand shook a little as she closed the cabinet door. She paused for a minute and drew herself up before turning around again. Like she was gathering her strength for the boxing ring. “He’s going to be staying with Jason’s family, and your father will go down some weekends. We, however, will be staying here.”“No,” I said. I walked around the island and stood in front of her. She held on to her glass, touching the opening at the top with her flat palm over and over, like she was playing a bongo. “Mom, no. You can’t ground me from the shore.”“Do you think this is fun for me, Jake?” There was something almost menacing in her eyes and she spoke through her teeth. “If you can’t go, I can’t go.”Yeah. Mom was not happy. If she had to stay here with me it meant losing out on quality bonding time with all her Crestie girlfriends. The lobster bakes, the sailing trips, the farmers’ markets. She lived for that shit. So maybe, just maybe, all she needed was a push in the right direction.“Well then forget about this and let’s both go!” I said, already seeing three moves ahead—and I never saw three moves ahead. “I can get an SAT tutor down there! I can get a job down there!”“And you’ll also be up all night partying with your friends and running around meeting girls,” my mother shot back. She set the glass down, braced her hands on the granite for a moment, then poured herself some water. “No way, Jake,” she said resolutely. “There are just too many distractions down the shore. I need you focused this summer.”She picked up her drink and started for the sliding doors, which led to our patio and pool. I walked over to the table and dropped down in the nearest chair. My hands propped up my head as I stared through the glass top at my bare feet. This had to be a nightmare.“Oh, and I also signed you up for an American Literature class at BCC,” she said. “It starts in a couple of weeks and according to your vice principal, if you ace that, they’ll change your C minus to a B plus for the year.”I let my hands drop. “So while all of my friends are down the shore surfing, partying, and hanging out, I’m going to be working, studying, and reading?”“If you wanted to have fun this summer, you should have worked harder during the year,” she said flatly.“If you’d warned me this was going to happen, maybe I would have.”She shook her head. Smiled like I was so stupid. “Well, then consider this a warning for next year.”I glared after her as she walked off toward the pool. This could not be happening. I was not going to spend my entire summer stuck here with her while Hammond, Chloe, Shannen, Faith, and Todd and Trevor were hanging out down the shore.And Ally. There went any chance in hell I had of making up with Ally.I shoved away from the table, grabbed my car keys, and stormed out the front door, slamming it so hard she’d be sure to hear, even all the way out back. It wasn’t until my feet hit the pavement and their bottoms were scorched off that I realized I had no shoes on. Fuck it. I could drive without shoes.As I floored it out the driveway, I almost careened into a white contractor’s truck that was turning into Chloe’s. The guy behind the wheel cursed at me, but I just kept going. All I wanted to do was go and see Ally.I stopped at the bottom of Harvest Lane and cursed again. I couldn’t go see Ally. She was five minutes away, but I couldn’t go see her because Ally didn’t want to see me.I put the Jeep in park, slammed my hands against the wheel, and tried to breathe. The sun was beating down on my face, and when I looked at my reflection in the mirror, there were beads of sweat on my forehead.This sucked. Everything, everything, everything sucked.And now, even if a miracle happened and Ally and I made up, it wasn’t going to be any five minute drive to see her. I was going to be three hours away from her all summer long.

“Dude, that is so not right,” David Drake said, laughing through a mouthful of a Nathan’s hamburger. Marshall Marino was dipping his onion rings into his Häagen Dazs coffee icecream shake and popping them, dripping wet, into his mouth. Disgusting. But oddly intriguing.“You have no idea what you’re missing, man,” Marshall replied, slurping some shake off his chin.Annie leaned her elbows on the table, shoving back her zillion rubber bracelets as if she was pushing up long sleeves. For the past few days she’d been experimenting with dark eye shadow, so when she narrowed her eyes at Marshall, they almost disappeared. “Are you, perhaps . . . pregnant?”David and I laughed as Marshall flung an onion ring at her. I sat back in my chair and sighed. This was what summer was all about. Hanging out in a frigidly air-conditioned mall, eating junk food with my friends. Not sitting in Gray’s shore house listening to Quinn sing show tunes, watching Gray and my mom make out, wondering what new torture the Cresties were devising for me two houses down.“What’s your deal, Sigh-ey McGhee?” Annie asked.“What?” I blinked and sat up straight.“You just sighed, like, four times in a row,” David pointed out.Marshall confirmed with a nod of his head as he sucked half his shake down through the straw.“I was just thinking . . . maybe if I stay with my dad, I could get a second job here,” I said, leaning my elbows on the table. “I could just spend all my time out of the house, working, and kind of . . . power through the summer. Then, I not only wouldn’t have to live with my Mom, Gray, and the cheerleader, I’d also barely have to deal with my dad and all the awkwardness.”Annie rolled her eyes as she sipped her soda. “That sounds like fun.”I rolled my eyes back and stole an onion ring from Marshall. “Well, I’d hang with you guys, too.”“I’m for that plan, then,” Marshall said, giving me a joking wink.“Your mom hasn’t said anything to you about it yet?” David asked, his feet bouncing under the table.I shook my head. “She said she got the message and we’d talk about it later. So now I’m both dreading and looking forward to later. Whenever that ends up being.”I had tried, as promised, to talk my mom into calling my dad and hearing him out—I had even hinted at his grand master plan—but my mother had basically shut me down. She’d said she would call my dad when she was good and ready. When I’d asked when that might be, she’d turned up the volume on the television so loud my eardrums hurt.“Ally, all I’m hearing here is that you want to avoid all the conflicts in your life,” Annie said, placing her soda on the table and lacing her fingers over her stomach.“Oh, boy. Here we go.” David crumpled a napkin. “This happens every summer. She’s been watching Dr. Phil again.”“Shut it, Drake,” Annie snapped, her eyes disappearing again. Then she looked at me, her expression eerily neutral. “What you need to ask yourself is (a) what do you really want? and (b) what do you need to do to get it?”My smile faltered a bit. Because what I wanted was for my parents to get back together. And I wasn’t going to get it if they were apart all summer, no matter what kind of plans my dad had up his sleeve.“Can we go now?” I said, looking at the guys.“Most definitely.” Marshall rose from his chair, shooting Annie a disturbed look. She was still eyeing me carefully, as if waiting for me to bare my inner soul.“You stop watching Dr. Phil,” I admonished. “Cuz you’re freaking me out right now.”Annie shook her head as she got up, sliding her tray from the table. “All I know is, if you don’t talk to them soon, you’re gonna bottle it all up till you pop. And when you pop, it’s not gonna be pretty.”“Everyone always says that, but it’s so not true,” David said as he shoved his tray into the garbage. He’d cut his hair so short for the summer you could see his scalp, and it shone under the fluorescent lights. “I say, clam the hell up, put on a happy face, and get through the next year. Then you’ll go away to college and you’ll never have to see these people again.”“So . . . the approach your sister took,” Annie said, sipping her soda while simultaneously emptying her tray.David lifted his shoulders. “Yeah.”“The sister you never see and totally resent.”He blushed, but lifted his shoulders again. “Well, yeah.”“Sure. Good plan,” Annie said, facetiously.She dropped the tray atop the can with a clatter and turned, her plaid skirt flouncing behind her.“I like David’s plan,” I said. “It lacks confrontation. And I, personally, am anticonfrontation.”“Speaking of confrontation . . . ,” David said under his breath.We all spotted her at the same moment. Faith Kirkpatrick. Her blond hair was back in a tight ponytail, and she wore a floral minidress that left zero to the imagination with a trendy little vest tossed over it. Her wedge sandals were so tall it was a miracle she hadn’t bumped her head on the banner advertising the Books-A-Million summer reading sale. Dangling from one hand were her car keys, on a Coach leather key chain, even though she had a purse and all those shopping bags. As soon as she saw us, she stopped and almost tripped. Where the hell were Chloe and Shannen? I’d hardly ever seen Faith without them all year. They were like her permanent accessories.“Hey, Ally,” she said. Then she squinted briefly at my friends. “Guys.”For a moment I felt off balance. Like I’d slipped through a wormhole into an alternate reality. It was the first time she’d greeted me without an insult since I’d been back.“Excuse me. I see that book I wanted to read,” Annie said, grabbing David and Marshall’s wrists. “You know, the one about the rich bitch who drops her best friend for no apparent reason and becomes a vapid airhead overnight? Let’s go.”Faith shot Annie a sarcastic smile as she dragged the guys away. Annie and Faith had a bit of a history. As in, they used to be best friends until Faith decided it was more important to impress Chloe and Shannen and she dumped Annie like last year’s It bag. And because of that three-year-old injustice, I was now without an entourage.But Faith hadn’t word-slain Annie, either. Which was also odd.“So. What’s up?” Faith asked casually. Like we were just two friends bumping into each other at the mall.“Seriously?” I said, raising my eyebrows. I glanced past her at the crowd of hungry kids and harried moms, wishing she’d move on before her friends caught up with her. I didn’t know whether I’d have to deal with Chloe or Shannen or both, but “none of the above” was the option that appealed. “You’ve been a bitch to me all year and you’re leading with ‘what’s up?’”“Ally, you know I had nothing to do with what Shannen did, right?” she said, sounding almost fed up. Like she was already over me accusing her, even though I’d yet to actually accuse her—of that anyway. “I mean, I was there when the thing was taped, but she never told me what she was going to do with it.”“But you knew it was nothing good,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.“Well. It’s Shannen,” she replied under her breath, looking warily around as if the potted plant next to us had ears.Translation: When Shannen decided to do something awful, there was no talking her out of it. Which wasn’t the greatest excuse, but it was one we’d all used at some point in our lives.Silence reigned. Faith twisted her ankle down and up, down and up, laying the side of her wedge sandal flat on the floor, then righting it again, over and over. She twisted her mouth into a sideways pucker. Her keys jangled as she scratched an itch above her eye.“I’m really sorry, okay?” she said finally. “I know I’ve been a bitch to you. I know. I just . . . I was so mad at you. When you left it was like there goes my best friend! And then you never even called. And Chloe and Shannen basically ignored me for, like, ever. I was a complete outcast for, like, weeks. Which, by the way, is not fun. And then everything happened with my parents and I just . . . I hated you for not being here.”She tilted her head and gnawed on her bottom lip.“None of that is my fault,” I said. Except the not calling part. Which I used to feel guilty for. Until she sank her fangs into my neck my first night back in Orchard Hill last summer.“I know! I know, okay?” she pleaded. “When I saw your face the night of Shannen’s party. When she . . . you know . . . showed the thing?”I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah . . . ?”“Well, when I saw your face I realized . . . this whole thing sucks for you, too.”I bit back a sarcastic laugh. The girl was a genius!“It’s just, I never really thought about it that way before.”I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised. Empathy had never been Faith’s strongest quality. She felt all her emotions to the ten-millionth degree, but rarely seemed to grasp the fact that other people had feelings too.Suddenly I felt very, very tired. I found the nearest empty table and sat down. Faith followed me.“So, do you hate me still?” she asked.I looked up at her. Her blond hair was perfectly backlit by a spotlight to form a halo. Hilarious.“I guess ‘hate’ is a strong word,” I said.The thing was, Faith always had been kind of a follower, and I knew in my heart of hearts that most of the torture I’d been put through the past year had been Shannen’s plotting—that Faith had just been along for the ride. Plus, at the moment, there was something weirdly vulnerable about her and it took the wind right out of my indignation.“Thanks.” She didn’t sit, but hovered alongside the table. Like she sensed she shouldn’t push it.“Don’t mention it.”She gave me a genuine, if tentative, smile, and I couldn’t help remembering the way Faith was before I’d left. Fun, imaginative, but most of all, needy. That was why I’d been so surprised when she was the first to bite my head off last year. Faith with a backbone had been a shock.“So you’re staying at the Nathansons’ this summer?” she asked.My stomach swooped with dread. “My mother is. I’m undecided.” Faith’s already Bambi-esque eyes widened. She finally sat across from me, dropping her bags and leaning forward. Her keys clanged against the table. “Oh, no! You have to come.”“Why?” I asked.“Because . . . it’s totally gonna suck this year,” Faith said. “Shannen and Chloe aren’t talking. Chloe and Hammond aren’t talking. Jake’s not even coming. Who am I supposed to hang out with?”Okay, I wasn’t even going to get into the hypocrisy of that question. Like I wanted to hang out with her? Like I was really going to swoop in and save her from a socially bereft summer? Maybe I didn’t hate her, but I wasn’t about to become her BFF. Really there was only one part of that ramble I was interested in addressing. The part that had made my breath catch.“Jake’s not going down?” I asked.“No,” she said with a pout. “His mother went all strict on him and grounded him for the entire summer. He’s staying in Orchard Hill.”Every inch of my skin tingled, and not from the overzealous air-conditioning vent behind my head. Jake was going to be here all summer. And the Cresties were not.Suddenly the idea of staying with my dad was a lot more appealing.