“Thanks, guys,” Todd says as he wipes his mouth and grins at me. Both of our lips are red and swollen. Man, our parents should make us break up more often—that was amazing. Wait. What am I thinking?

“You need to be more careful,” Ryan says, taking on a parental tone. He eyes me and Todd, and I see the concern. I know without him saying anything that he cares. As much as he hates us together, he doesn’t want to see us apart.

“You’re right,” Todd agrees, dead serious. Then he turns to me. “He’s right, Ash. If we get caught, and they know we’re still together …” He shakes his head. “They can’t know.”

I just nod.

“I still don’t have my phone, but you know where to meet up, right?”

“Yup,” I say with a grin.

“I don’t even want to know.” Ryan shakes his head with a smile then turns to walk away.

***

I nonchalantly walk up to the janitor’s closet and knock twice, as if this is a perfectly normal thing to do. The door instantly opens.

Two knocks is our signal; it means the coast is clear.

Todd’s hand quickly pulls me into our closet where the smell of bleach fills the air. He brushes his hands over my hair and pulls me farther into him.

“I missed you.”

“I know. Breaking up sucks,” I whisper back with a smile.

“Tell me about it.” He leans down to kiss me. “We have twenty minutes. Charlie said he’d cover for us at lunch. He doesn’t need anything in the closet since this is his lunch break, too.” I feel him wrapping my hair around his finger as he talks through the plan. “So every day at lunch, we can be alone.”

“We can take turns packing lunches,” I interject.

“Sure.” He pulls me closer. “Or we don’t have to eat.” He gives me a sly, crooked smile.

“I, personally, need to eat,” I say with a kiss at the end of each word.

“Oh, yeah?” He returns each kiss as his lips float down my neck.

“Or I’ll never make it through swim practice.” I run my fingers through his soft hair as his wisps of breath send chills through my entire body.

On my words, I feel his body tense and his kisses stop, but his head remains resting near my neck, so his breath is still caressing my skin.

“Have you talked to him?”

“No,” I say, continuing my trail of kisses. I will not allow Casey to draw a wedge between us. “And I’m not going to.”

He stops and pulls back. “Don’t tell him what happened, Ash. Let’s not tell anyone the truth. This should just be between us.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but I’m pretty sure Ryan told everyone this morning to explain why we were mauling each other.”

His eyes are locked on mine, his hands cradling my jaw. “Yeah, I know, but I’ll talk to them. The more people who know, the better chance of word getting back to our parents. We need to act like we’re not together. It’s you and me, same as always, but people shouldn’t know. I think everyone needs to think we’re broken up. I’ll talk to Ryan and the guys. You talk to Sid, Blythe, and Shane if he knows.”

“Done.” I can’t stop kissing him. I can’t get enough. I feel like he’s going to be ripped away from me at any second. “But wait. What about Casey? Do I tell him we broke up?”

“Shit. Casey.” Todd clenches his fists at his side and then runs them back through his hair. “I guess you need to tell him, or maybe just don’t bring it up. Let him think we’re still together. Don’t say one way or another.”

My heart starts to pound at just the thought. Casey is tough to get anything past. I know he won’t stop trying to figure it out if he thinks something is up.

“Look at me, Ash.” He pulls my chin up so our eyes lock. “We can do this; just until we convince our parents they’re wrong. Remember that I love you. You. No matter what.”

“You, too. No matter what.” I step up on my tiptoes and kiss him to show him just how much. Then we hear the muffled sound of the bell ringing and know our time is up.

After Todd opens the door and peeks outside to make sure the hall is empty, he looks back to me and then drops my hand.

“Here we go.”

***

I have been dreading seeing Casey. I want to punch him myself. I know he has no idea how much trouble Todd got in after their fight or what happened, but in my heart, I blame him for everything. Now I need to try to hide all of that and act like everything is fine. I know he’s going to see right through me, though.

I am the worst liar.

My heart is slamming against my chest, and I feel like I might vomit. Good thing I didn’t eat anything for lunch today. Damn, I didn’t eat anything today at all. This practice is going to be rough.

“Here goes nothing,” I whisper to myself.

“What?” Janice asks.

Wow, I really need to stop talking to myself out loud.

I give her a fake smile. “Oh, nothing. Sorry.”

“Hey, how was homecoming? Your boyfriend is so cute.” She giggles.

Fake, fake, fake, I think to myself.

“It was great,” I say with a plastered smile as we approach Casey and the rest of the team.

This is the first time I’m laying eyes on him since the fight, and he looks pretty bad. He’s got a giant bruise across his cheekbone, a big gash across the bridge of his nose, and his lip looks like it was split open. It’s clear Todd won this one.

“What was great?” He gives me his bright white smile.

“Oh, my God. What happened to your face?” Janice shrieks. I try not to laugh at her reaction. I will be forever grateful to her for distracting him.

“What, this?” he asks innocently as his green eyes land on mine. “Just a misunderstanding, right, Ashley?” His confidence, even in defeat, is incredible. And from the way he looks at me when he says ‘misunderstanding,’ it’s as if he knows something. But he couldn’t, right?

“Were you there?” Janice whips her attention back to me.

I shrug and try to stall, but thankfully, we are interrupted by George’s shrill whistle as he calls the team over to the pool. Thank you, George.

TODD

I’m having a hard time concentrating at practice today. I can’t stop thinking of Ashley with Casey. Every time I kick the ball, I picture his face on it. I hate that he is with her right now. I hate that he gets to spend time with her out in the open, while I have to sneak around just to see her.

I’m grateful when Coach tells us to run laps. I love the feeling of my feet pounding the pavement or asphalt or whatever it is we are running on. Usually, we all run together as a team, but today I need to be alone, so I take off at full speed and keep it up.

I know Ryan knows the whole story and will cover for me. I just need to concentrate on my feet and the track, nothing else. I try to push everything else out of my head, but it keeps creeping back in, so I just run harder, faster.

I feel the sweat dripping down my back, running into my eyes. I don’t care. I slam my feet harder with each step, trying to stamp out my dad’s voice, Casey’s face. I hate that I can’t even pick her up from practice today.

With each lap, I feel stronger. I don’t care about anything else, just running faster. I lose track of what lap I’m on, but it doesn’t matter; pushing myself is the only thing that is helping.

“Todd. Todd!” Ryan’s in front of me, running backward to get my attention, trying to get me to slow down. I’m at full speed, so he’s got to be running incredibly fast backward. He’s always been faster than me, the asshole.

“Todd, stop!” he shouts in my face.

I slow down a bit. He’s going to kill himself running backward this fast.

“I can’t!” I shout back. I need to keep going.

“Dude, just stop.” He reaches out to me. At this point, we are at a slow jog, but I need to keep going, or I’m going to have to face reality again.

Out of nowhere, Mark side tackles me, and we land on the grass in the middle of the field. Damn, that hurt.

“What the fuck? Are you trying to kill me?” I shout.