Kat had sided with me, and I loved her so much more for it. I’d never let her go now. Never. I didn’t care what Cole said.
“At our very first meeting I told you that you’d be my number one,” she’d said. “And I never lie or exaggerate.”
“True story,” I’d replied with a laugh.
“Plus, how can I let you go when I’m so close to finalizing the rumor tree?”
Oh, yeah. The rumor tree. I’d stopped caring about it, to be honest. I’d tried to make things up to Mackenzie for wrongly blaming her, but the most she’d given me was a dirty look.
One day, during lunch, I’d had enough. “What’s your problem?” I demanded from across our table. Yep, I now sat with Cole’s group. “I said I was sorry.”
Kat, whom I’d dragged with me, leaned toward Mackenzie and said, “Yeah. What’s your problem?”
Flashing emerald eyes moved from me to Cole, who was at my other side. “Lift the ban, and let me handle this.”
“Nope. The ban stays,” Cole said with a shake of his head.
The not-hurting-Ali ban? “Go ahead,” I retorted, “lift it.”
Mackenzie popped to her feet, leaned over and flattened her hands on the table, rattling the entire thing. “First, I don’t need your backup, cupcake. Second,” she said, glaring at Cole, “you can’t stop this forever.”
“Actually, you do need my backup, Tinker Bell,” I said.
She ignored me. “If you don’t want me yelling at your tasty treat, how about I tell her what you told me?” Finally her attention swung back to me. “Every time I ask him if he’s dating you, he says no. But then he gets around you, and well, you know the way he is with you.”
I did, yes. Friendly. But that was it, nothing more. “Your point?”
“I think he’s using you. Either that or he’s lying to me and himself. I only wonder what he’s saying to you.” She stomped out of the cafeteria, shoving kids out of her way.
Multiple calls of “hey” followed her.
I remained in place, one terrible fact sinking in. Mackenzie and Cole had talked about me, and quite a lot, considering she’d said “every time.”
What else had been said?
Had she asked him to get back together with her? Obviously she still loved him. But how did he feel about her?
Whether they’d done anything together since I’d come into the picture, I didn’t know and shouldn’t have cared, but…yeah, I cared.
“You should join her,” Kat said to Trina, and I knew she’d done it to remove attention from me. Any time I thought I couldn’t love her any more, she surprised me by winning another piece of my heart.
Trina was eating a sandwich and never even glanced over at Kat.
“Do you have to dive into every fight?” Frosty asked Kat. He’d been sitting beside Mackenzie, and now sat beside Trina—and tried to scoot away from her, as if he couldn’t stand the idea of Kat seeing him next to his alleged hook up. “Ali can handle herself.”
“Do you hear that pesky buzzing noise?” she asked me, ignoring him.
He gave a sad shake of his head. “You are such a child, Kitty Kat.”
“Buzz, buzz.”
“I have no idea what I ever saw in you,” he said.
She gasped and threw an orange at his head. He easily dodged. “You saw all of my wonderful qualities, you butt!”
A booming laugh escaped him. “You sure you’ve got any?”
“I’ve got plenty, and you know it!”
They weren’t officially dating, but anyone who saw them together knew they belonged with each other. She made him laugh, as proved, brought him out of his depression over Brent, and he distracted her from whatever had been bothering her. Too often lately she was pale and quiet, but anytime I asked, she waved me off and changed the subject.
I wasn’t sure what to do about her. Heck, I wasn’t sure what to do about anything.
*
Later that day I found myself back in the boxing ring with Cole, both of us in our spirit form, our bodies resting peacefully on gurneys, but I was too distracted to learn anything. I was stuck on Kat and kept replaying some of my conversations with her, trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong with her.
Wren and Poppy’s desertion hadn’t fazed her. “Honestly? I expected it,” she’d said. “I’d just hoped they’d learned how horrible their lives are without me the first time around.”
She’d missed several more days of school, but when I asked her why, she’d said, “My mom thought it’d be cool to spend some time together,” and once again waved it off.
“Ali!”
The snap of Cole’s voice jerked me out of my head. Just in time to watch—unable to react—as he kicked out his leg, knocked my feet together, and sent me crashing to the floor.
You need to concentrate, his expression said. We weren’t supposed to talk while we were like this.
My bad, mine replied.
He didn’t help me stand. He never did. I lugged to my feet under my own steam.