Avery laughed.
“Why don’t I know you?” I asked. “I mean, if you go to my church and all.”
“My family moved here a year ago, and while you were picking up trash on the highways, I was attending youth group at your church and learning all about your deviant behavior.”
“Hmm. So I guess you already know my name, and that’s why you didn’t bother to ask?”
“Oh, I know exactly who you are. You’re Cadence Miller, the girl who got high, robbed a convenience store, and went to juvie for ten months,” Avery said. “You’re the girl who avoided real prison by the skin of her teeth. Lucky.”
It was true. I was a few months shy of my seventeenth birthday when I was sentenced, the age teenagers are tried as adults in Georgia.
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“Hey, no judgment here,” Avery said, throwing up her hands.
“One time,” I muttered. “One freaking time.”
“It only takes one time for your life to be over, Cadence. But I think I can help,” Avery said.
“Why would you wanna help me?” I looked around the cafeteria. “You probably shouldn’t be sitting with me, actually. People might start putting hate notes in your locker.”
“Like I care,” she replied flippantly. “Now listen. I think this”—she moved her forefinger back and forth between us two—“could be very mutually beneficial.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“Uh huh.” I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.
“I don’t have any friends, really, because I didn’t bother to make any last year. You don’t have any friends because you’re a criminal.”
“Thanks.”
“Let’s be friends and help each other out,” she continued.
“Why? Shouldn’t you try to make friends with some of the students here in good social standing? I’ll completely ruin your reputation.”
“Not likely. But I can help with yours,” Avery said. A wicked little grin curled her lips.
“I don’t get it.”
Avery leaned in close. “Look, Cadence. You wanna go to the movies, right? Maybe go to the mall every now and again? Sneak off to get an ice cream cone? Well, I wanna go to parties and sneak around with Gavin.”
I nodded, intrigued.
“You want some freedom. I want some freedom. But we both know you’re not getting it unless you’ve made a nice new friend at school who just happens to be a student leader in the youth group at church. And makes straight A’s. And never misses curfew. And just happens to be freaking amazing,” Avery said.
“Are we talking about you?” I asked, and grinned.
“Cute. And yes. You’re looking at her.”
“I’m confused. If you’re so wonderful, surely your parents let you go do stuff,” I said.
“Uh huh. I have a ten o’clock curfew.” She stared at me with deadpan eyes. “On the weekends, Cadence.”
“So how can I help?”
“I want us to be each other’s alibis,” Avery said.
I laughed. Hard. This chick was insane.
“Um, Avery? Why do you think your parents would even let you hang out with me? Surely they know all about my juvie history.”
“Yes, they do. And they also know that they have an awesome daughter who wants to be a good influence on you and get you back into youth group. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to bring you back into the fold, establish myself as a loyal, positive influence in your life, and then slowly gain the trust of your parents. Suddenly it’ll be, ‘Oh, you’re spending the night with Avery? Have fun, honey!’” Avery sat back in her chair satisfied. “Go ahead and say it. I’m amazing.” She popped a potato chip in her mouth and chewed while she smiled.
“You’re deluded,” I replied. “There is no way this plan would work. I mean, you think parents don’t call each other? You think my parents wouldn’t call yours to check up on me?”
“No, I don’t. Not once I’ve shown them that I’m a girl they can trust.”
“Why me? Why not some other girl?”
“Because I can’t trust my plans with someone else. And I know you’ll lie for me.”
I bristled. “Why do you think that?”
Avery sighed patiently. “Because, Cadence. You’ve been trying to show your parents how good you are for how long now? And where has it gotten you? Can you drive yet? Are you allowed to go out on the weekends yet? Is your dad letting you date?”
I couldn’t argue with her. She was right. All my efforts to show my parents I was trustworthy fell flat. I was still a prisoner, and would be one until I graduated. If I wanted to have any kind of fun my senior year—and I’m talking about innocent fun like going to get a damn ice cream cone—then I’d probably have to lie to them.
“I want to use you, okay?” she went on. “But in exchange, you can use the hell out of me.”
I shrugged. I didn’t want to commit just yet.
Avery huffed. “Once my parents see what a great influence I am on you and what a good girl you’ve become, I’ll be sleeping over at your house. Understand what I’m saying? Sleeping over,” she said, putting air quotes around “sleeping over.”
I giggled. “Ohhh, I get it! You wanna lie to your parents about hanging out with me when you’ll really be off somewhere in a parked car going down on your boyfriend.”
“Try him going down on me,” Avery replied. “And yes, you’re finally starting to get it. And you can do whatever you want when you’re ‘sleeping over’ at my house.”
“So you don’t really wanna be my friend at all.”
“Seriously?”
I chuckled, shaking my head.
“Look at it as a partnership. If a friendship develops, then all the better. But I think what you and I need right now is freedom over friendship.”
Freedom over friendship. I liked the sound of that.
An inconvenient yet mercifully fleeting image of Mr. Connelly doing me in his car flashed in my head, and I gasped. Then I coughed to cover up the gasp. Avery didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy scheming.
“So what’s the first step in this plan of yours?” I asked.
“To get you back to church, missy.”