The Boyfriend Thief

CHAPTER 18





“Remember, a vote for me is a vote for integrity!”

Hannah stood on a makeshift platform of six physics books in the middle of the Willowbrook High main hall. Behind her sat a table full of voting jars for class king and queen, with a large poster of Hannah’s smiling face above her own jar.

Her friends stood in a half circle around her, each holding up their own “Vote for Hannah” poster, with her name written in red glitter and encircled with sparkling silver stars.

“I have served faithfully as class queen these last two years,” Hannah went on, ignoring the fact that no one was listening to her speech. Not that it mattered. Hannah enjoyed any opportunity to make a speech, whether or not people listened. Her voice could be heard over the din of conversations around me as people pushed through the hall toward their lockers or the cafeteria for breakfast before the first bell.

Class king and queen was a secret vote, so the jars had been painted black and it was impossible to tell who was in the lead. But still, Hannah had to know she was the most likely candidate and this whole campaigning thing in the middle of the hall was all for show.

“Can you believe we have to listen to her mouth first thing in the morning?” Molly fell into step next to me and wrinkled her nose toward Hannah and her gang. “A day that starts off this bad can only get worse.”

“She wants attention,” I said, leading Molly away before she did something crazy. “Hannah thrives on attention.”

“I can’t see what Zac sees in her.” Molly looked over her shoulder back at Hannah, who was still leading her voters toward victory from the top of Mount Physics. “She’s so irritating and stuck up. Has she ever had one fun day in her entire life?”

A series of images flashed through my head at Molly’s words: Sleepovers. Skating as fast as we could down the sidewalk in front of our houses. S’mores in the middle of the night, shrieking so much we woke my parents when the marshmallows exploded in the microwave. Whispering secrets to each other in the dark as we lay side by side in her big bed.

“Probably not,” I mumbled.

I could ask myself what had happened to Hannah and me, why were we so focused and serious all the time, but the truth was I knew already. I had been there, had heard the words, and had seen the look of pure hatred Hannah had given me that day she threw her half of the friendship necklace in my face. Everything changed after that moment and we stopped being the giggling, carefree kids we had once been.

You could stand to loosen up a little every now and then, Zac had said. His words still rang in my ears, accusing me of being as uptight as Hannah.

But what was the other option? Becoming a failure, never making it to Costa Rica, never becoming a doctor.

Never becoming anything that would make people want to stay.

I had already failed once. It wasn’t going to happen again. Uptight or not, I would make everything better for myself and my family. And I would do it by depending on the only person I’d ever been able to depend on: myself.

Molly rattled on throughout my zoning out, oblivious to the fact that I hadn’t heard a word she’d said. I blinked, trying to focus on her voice.

“So I think I’m going to throw out the entire code and start over,” Molly said. “All the tables in the database aren’t communicating the way I want them to and it’s not giving me any logical matches.”

It didn’t take me long to figure out she was talking about the website for A to Z Love Matches again.

“There is nothing logical about matchmaking,” I told her as we pushed our way down the hall. “It’s a scam, it’s always been a scam and it always will be a scam. A computer can’t ever predict romance between two people.”

“You’re the one running a matchmaking business,” Molly said with a shrug. “I’m just the person building your website.”

I pulled at my hair. “I am not running a matchmaking business. Zac is. I’m the unlucky person stuck with him as a partner for a fake business that doesn’t exist even though he can’t seem to figure that out.”

Molly pulled me to a stop in the hall. “Hey, you’re not about to combust, are you? Because your face is starting to match your hair again.”

I forced myself to take a few deep breaths. Distal phalanges, intermediate phalanges, proximal phalanges, metacarpals, carpals. I recited the words over and over in a steady rhythm, forcing the tension out of my body in a long breath.

“I’m fine,” I said, when I finally felt as if the last bits of my sanity weren’t about to explode out of my skull. These last couple of weeks with Zac had messed me all up. He’d ruined my perfect sleep patterns and distracted me in class. My blood pressure had probably skyrocketed. I wished Dad had listened to me and bought that blood pressure cuff I’d asked for last year for my birthday instead of a gift card to The Gap.

“Good, because I don’t want you blowing your berries right here in the hall.” Molly’s gaze moved to something behind me and her smile widened. “Hey, there’s Elliott.”

My fists clenched and all the breathing in the world wouldn’t help calm me down now. “Is this morning going to get worse with each minute?”

Molly pinched my arm. “Be nice.” She smiled so wide her teeth looked likely to fall out of her head at any second as Elliott drew closer.

“Hello, ladies,” he greeted us. He looked like a slithering snake as he returned Molly’s wide smile. I could almost see him waiting to sink his fangs into poor, naive Molly as soon as I turned my back.

“Hey,” she said. “Ready for the quiz in trig?”

“As ready as I can be, I guess,” he said. “I stayed up until two studying last night. I figure I’ll either pass the test or else collapse on my desk from exhaustion.”

“Your brain retains less information in a sleep deprived state,” I told him. “Which is why late night cramming sessions never work.”

“Thank you, Dr. James,” Elliott said. “I don’t know what we’d do around here without your medical input.”

I glared at him when he grinned my way. Why couldn’t Molly see him for what he was? She laughed along with his stupid joke, which wasn’t even the least bit funny. He could learn a thing or two about jokes from Zac. At least Zac actually knew something about comedy.

Why was I thinking about Zac?

I pushed past Elliott, not caring that my backpack hit him in the stomach. “I have to get to class.”

“See you later,” I heard Molly say to Elliott. Then she was at my side again, almost running to keep up with me.

“What is your problem?”

I raised my eyebrows. “My problem? You’re the one hanging all over Elliott Reiser like a pathetic lovesick idiot.”

She stepped in front of me, blocking my path. Molly may have been small, but she was a force to be reckoned with when she was angry. “You don’t have to be so rude to Elliott all the time.”

“Then maybe he should stay away so I won’t have to be.” I tried to move past her, but Molly anticipated my movements and slid to the left along with me.

She crossed her arms, scowling up at me. “I’ve listened to your complaints about Elliott for two years now. And I haven’t yet seen him do any of the things you accuse him of. What exactly do you have against him? It’s something more than what you’re telling me, I know it. Out with it.”

I almost told her everything. About the little gumball friendship ring with the plastic purple stone in the center that I had buried in the bottom of my jewelry box because I had never been able to throw it away. I almost told her about how in the end, everyone had turned their backs on me. How I wasn’t good enough for any of them. Not for my mom, not Hannah, and not Elliott.

And one day, not Molly either.

But I couldn’t say the words. If I told her about what had happened, she wouldn’t see me as the person she knew. She’d understand then how imperfect I really was.

“I lost all confidence in him long ago,” I whispered, my gaze locked on the toes of my shoes.

“That Lila Mahoney thing?” Molly waved a hand, dismissing it. “That’s ancient history and Elliott says it got blown way out of proportion. You can’t always believe the things you hear.”

I didn’t bother to correct her. If I opened my mouth, words I was too afraid to say might come spilling out.