Yelling my apologies over my shoulder, I ran down the walk and across the yard until I came to the back deck of the house where I found a swing. Dropping into it, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, swaying gently. The swing jostled when someone sat next to me, and my eyes shot open.

Please don’t be gazebo guy. I saw enough of him tonight.

“Great party, huh?” Natalie, a girl from my English class, said with a frown.

I made an I-hate-every-second-of-it face, but said, “Yeah. It’s wonderful.”

“I saw Jaden and Sarah. I’m sorry.”

I braced myself for the pity I’d see in her eyes. Instead, I saw disgust and, for one tiny second, I didn’t feel so alone. “Thanks.” I shrugged a shoulder. “I’m used to it. He’s a real douche when he’s drinking.”

“They all are.” She took a drink from the Dr. Pepper can she had in her hands. “You want to get out of here? I could drop you at your house.”

I let out a huge sigh. “If you could drop me at the school so I can pick up my car it would be wonderful. Thanks so much.”

When I got home, I went straight to my bedroom and fell across my bed. My phone chimed that I had a message. I knew it was from Jaden, and I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. So I turned my phone off, slipped into my boxers and T-shirt, and climbed into bed.

I closed my eyes and waited for the nightmares to begin.

Breathe. You’re strong. Breathe. Just breathe.

I walked into school Monday morning, bracing myself for the fallout after Jamieson’s party. The gossip chain at Cassidy High was wicked. Everyone would know about Jaden and Sarah. I hadn’t talked to Jaden since the party. He called and texted all night Saturday and all day Sunday. I ignored him.

“Hey, baby.” Jaden sauntered up to my locker.

“Hi.” I slammed the locker door shut and spun the dial.

“Are you mad? I’m sorry about Sarah. I was drunk. You know how it goes, but I swear nothing happened.” He reached out and brushed my hair away from my face, leaning in for a kiss. I turned away.

“It doesn’t matter if anything happened or not. Everyone thinks something did.”

“I’ll set them straight. You know you’re the only girl for me.”

I walked around him and into my classroom, dropping my books on the table.

“I’ll make it up to you. Go out to dinner with me tonight,” he called from the doorway.

“Maybe.”

He smiled and held his arms out from his sides. “You know you want to. Come on, Wills, I said I was sorry.”

“Fine.” There was really no sense in arguing with him. He’d bug me until I said yes. Or threaten me.

He gave me one of his cocky grins. “I’ll pick you up at six. See you at lunch.”

Whatever. Did I really have a choice?

I was looking through my notes when a piece of wadded-up paper landed in front of me. I looked over and saw Tim smiling. He nodded at the paper. I smoothed it out and read the note: ‘Look up.’

Frowning, I looked at Tim. He pointed to the front of the class with a smirk.

My gaze followed his finger and my breath hitched. The hottie stood next to the teacher’s desk. Looking back at Tim, I smiled with a shrug of my shoulder. Tim batted his eyelashes and sighed, and I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from laughing.

“Sit anywhere you can find an empty seat,” my biology teacher told him.

I watched as the dark-haired hottie turned and looked around the room. His eyes fell on me, and a corner of his mouth tipped up in a half grin. He walked to the table where I sat and tossed his book down, pulling out the chair next to me. I cringed when it screeched against the tile floor.

“Hi, Willow,” he murmured. I stared at him. He turned and looked at me, an amused grin playing on his lips. “This is when you say hi.”

“Hi, Brody.”

“Mind if I sit here? You’re the only familiar face I see.”

“Um, no. It’s fine. I’ll finally have a partner when we do labs.” I smiled quickly and looked down at my notes.

Oh jeez, Jaden is gonna bust a nut.

“Sounds good,” Brody said, opening his book. “What page are we on?”

“Forty-two.”

We didn’t talk the rest of the class. When the bell rang, Brody swiped his things off the table and walked away.

“Later,” he said over his shoulder.

“Bye,” I whispered, watching him disappear in the crowded hallway.

“Whoa, he’s taking his life in his hands sitting next to you,” Tim said behind me, making me jump. “What do you think Jaden will do?”

“For Brody’s sake, I hope he doesn’t find out.”

Tim chuckled. “Yeah, right. With the gossips around here? He probably knew before class was over.”

Dinner with Jaden. Not how I wanted to spend my evening. I was still pissed about him and Sarah, even though he promised me over and over nothing had happened. Still, Sarah sat with us at lunch, flirting with him even though I sat right next to him. The skank.

Rushing home from school, I took an extra-long shower, painted my toe and finger nails, and got dressed for my night out with Jaden. Curling my wavy, dark brown hair, I put it up with curls framing my face. I picked a jean skirt and green, paisley pheasant blouse with flowing sleeves that Jenna said brought out the green in my hazel eyes.

Not too bad, I guess.

I curled up on the black-and-white cushioned window seat in my bedroom with a crime novel I’d gotten at the library that afternoon. The story quickly drew me in, and I lost track of time. It wasn’t until my phone chimed that I had a text message that I glanced at the clock. It was past seven. Jaden was over an hour late. Nice. I grabbed my phone, expecting the text was from him with some lame excuse. I frowned when I saw Tim’s name on the screen.

Tim: Just saw Jaden.

Me: Where?

Tim: At The Dive.

The Dive was a local burger joint where everyone hung out after school and on weekends. They had the best burgers in Middleton, the small Michigan town where I lived, and their milkshakes were to die for. I gained weight just thinking about them.

Me: Nice. We were supposed to go to dinner.

Tim: Sorry.

Me: Who’s he with?

Tim: Football team.

Me: Sarah?

Tim: No.

Me: I gotta go. See you tomorrow.

Tim: Bye.

Jaden didn’t text me until nine that night. I didn’t answer. He texted every few minutes after that. They went from apologetic to irate that I was ignoring him. I turned my phone off and got ready for bed.

I lay in bed most of the night, thinking about Jaden and his crap. This wasn’t the first time he’d missed a date because something better came up. But I was expected to sit at home—alone—and wait on him. God forbid I go out without him. And it wasn’t the first time something had happened like the thing with Sarah.

Independent. That was me. Did my own thing and made my own decisions. Keeping up with trends wasn’t on my to-do list. I didn’t care if people thought I was cool or not. Expensive, designer clothes didn’t overflow my closet—dressing for comfort was my thing. That meant sweats, my funky-print Converse sneakers, and T-shirts with sarcastic sayings. Even though I dated the star football player, I wasn’t a cheerleader. The chess club was my peeps.

But when it came to Jaden, I was trapped. It felt like a boulder sat on my shoulder, pushing me down a little more each day, drowning me in the secret I was forced to keep. The secret only two other people knew besides my mom and me—Jaden and Ralph.

Get it together. This is the life I was given. Time I put my big-girl panties on and deal.