I see Sheila searching the cafeteria and I just know she’s looking for me. I pay for my shitty pizza and when I turn to leave, Sheila’s blocking my way.
“Holy shit!” She gapes at me, as do all the people in our vicinity. “I can’t believe Brett was able to do that much damage.” Her voice lacks any concern. In fact, she sounds amused.
“Yep,” I say. “He has a hell of a left hook.” Let them believe this is Brett’s doing. At least no one will suspect my dad.
Sheila follows me as I move toward the exit. “That must’ve seriously hurt.”
I ignore her.
She takes my silence as a confirmation. “Good. You deserve it.”
? ? ?
And I’m done being at school today. I hate that Brett’s going to get credit for my face. Like that asshole needs a bigger ego. I’m about to walk home again, but Jordyn sees me and she knows exactly where I’m headed, so she runs to catch up with me. We walk out to the parking lot together. When we reach her car—she’s decided neither of us needs to be there for the rest of the day—I’m smiling with relief.
“I just couldn’t be there anymore,” I tell her as we drive away. She gets it.
“So . . . what should we do now that we’ve been freed from the clutches of hell? My treat. No arguing.”
“I don’t know. Give me some options,” I say.
“Hmm. You like to swim?”
? ? ?
Even though it’s in a regular old subdivision, Jordyn’s dad’s house looks like it’s right in the middle of the woods. It’s this giant A-frame log cabin. The pool is designed to look like it was made by nature, but it only looks more man-made. It’s heated, though, and it’s a pool and we’re ditching, so it’s perfect.
Jordyn tells me to change in the guest room—we stopped at my house for my suit on the way over—and meet her in the pool.
It’s not exactly warm out—it’s officially fall in three days—so I jump into the cool water and gasp and swim over to where the warm water from the elevated hot tub spills into the pool. I splash around for an eternity attempting to amuse myself. What’s taking her so long?
But when she finally emerges, I understand. She had to take off all her makeup.
“Now, if you’d looked like this at school, I would have absolutely recognized you, so you really can’t hold that against me anymore.” In fact, she hasn’t changed much. Except now she has curves. I didn’t realize she had such impressive, perky breasts under all those layers of black.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
I swim over to her. “Seriously, though. You’re kind of hot. I know like six guys that would keel over dead if they saw you right now.”
“Sure.” She quickly gets in the pool.
“Marcus would be first in line. He likes his blondes, but he’s always mused about bagging a girl of the ‘Asian persuasion.’”
“Oh, god. Does he really say that shit?” She swims toward the hot waterfall.
“You would cringe if you heard half the shit that comes out of his mouth.”
“And why are you friends with him again?”
“I guess I’m not anymore, really.” Marcus didn’t even acknowledge me in the hall, so either he’s scared that I’m mad about him and Sheila, which I still kind of am, or he’s mad that I beat the shit out of Brett and they lost the game. Whatever. I stand up so the hot water can splash down my back.
“I still think you should get that looked at.” She points at my ribs.
I wave her off. “They’re not broken. Cracked maybe, but they’d just wrap me up and send me on my way with some painkillers I couldn’t afford the prescription for anyway.”
She lets it go.
The wind kicks up and we both huddle under the hot waterfall.
“Maybe I didn’t really think this through,” she says sheepishly.
“Hot tub?” I suggest.
“Yes please.”
The hot water feels great, but it also makes all my injuries angry. Still, warmth wins out.
She starts laughing out of nowhere.
“What?” I say, wiping at my face like I have a bug on me.
“You know what I just remembered? Brian O’Reilly.”
“Aw, man,” I say splashing at her, which only makes her laugh harder. “Dude. That asshat attacked me with a squirt gun filled with Nair in sixth grade.”
“Is that why you shaved your head?” Now she’s laughing so hard, she has to wipe her eyes.
“Shut up.”
“I can’t believe you never told me that. That’s really messed up.” Her laughter slowly dissolves into a smile, but the spark remains in her eyes. “You were just beginning to think you were hot shit and he didn’t like it.”
“I didn’t think I was hot shit.”
“Oh, but you did. Remember the girls who formed the Tyler Blackwell fan club after they watched you play football?”
“But I didn’t, like, tell them to do it.”
“Still. You threatened the very nature of the sixth-grade pecking order. Brian had to take you down.”
“Now that dickhead thought he was the shit.”
“You know, it’s pretty ironic that you went from being bullied by Brian O’Reilly to becoming Brian O’Reilly.”