Numb the pain…
Brynna’s mouth watered. Her head pounded. She could dull the pain again, just this one time. She swung her legs down, but everything froze when she heard the laughter. It was high-pitched and funny, the kind of laugh that made you giggle too. It was too loud, too distinct.
It can’t be Erica.
She was on her feet then, vaulting over the metal guardrail of the bleachers. Her feet hit the hard-packed ground with a thud, and all the kids huddled under the bleachers—there were three of them—stopped what they were doing and glared at her.
There were two scrawny boys that Brynna vaguely recognized from school and a tall girl with fake platinum blond hair. She was holding a cigarette a half-inch from her pale, chapped lips, and Brynna watched, mesmerized, as smoke curled up in a lazy trail.
The taller boy shoved the blond behind him and gestured to Brynna. “Want something?” His voice was sharp but not unkind as his dark brown eyes went up and down Brynna’s body.
Her muscles tightened, and the back of her neck pricked with sweat.
The blond peered around the boy. “Travis, who’s she?”
Brynna could smell the sharp tang of vodka mixing with ash on the girl’s breath. She immediately recognized the glossy sheen in her eyes, the unfocused stare of someone who just got high.
Hours seemed to pass as Brynna stood there, thinking, until Travis hitched his chin. “Hey.” His eyes went over Brynna’s shoulder and she turned, seeing Evan cutting through the grass, coming right for her. When she turned back to Travis and the two others, they had shrunk back into the shadows of the bleachers, their backs turned on Brynna as they walked away.
“What are you doing out here? Seriously, we sent out a search party.” Evan stayed just outside the shadowed border of the bleachers, arms crossed over his chest. “You know the only people who hang out here are the freaks and stoners.”
Brynna’s stomach shifted. “Yeah, well…”
He held out a hand. “Come on.”
It was like the first day of school all over again, and Brynna wondered whether Evan thought that too. She took his hand and let him pull her onto the grass. He immediately squeezed her palm and they began to walk.
The almost-tardy bell rang and students buzzed around, rushing toward classes, and Brynna, strangely, felt herself looking forward to walking into a room crowded with students. She was ready for some normalcy in her day, and the din of student chatter calmed the constant questions that pinballed through her mind.
“Hey! I was hoping to run into you,” Teddy said, his face lighting up when he saw her.
Brynna could feel herself blush and hoped she no longer looked as ghoulish as she did in the locker room.
“We were taking a breather,” Evan answered.
Teddy tossed him a noncommittal glance then went back to Brynna. “Walk to Fallbrook’s with you?”
“Yeah.” She turned to Evan. “See you after?”
“Yep.”
“So, Bryn—”
“I’ve been looking all over for you!” Darcy cut right between them, her slick pageboy nearly slapping Teddy in the face. “Sorry, T.” She turned back to Brynna. “I went looking for you in the locker room and you, like, poof, were gone. What happened to you?”
“Oh, I—”
“Look, Darcy, I need to talk to Brynna,” Teddy cut in.
The final bell cut them all off.
“Into class,” Principal Chappie yelled as he zigged through the hall. “That means you three,” he said, pinning Teddy, Darcy, and Brynna with an authoritarian glare.
Brynna tugged on the back of Darcy’s sleeve as they pushed into Mr. Fallbrook’s class.
“Hey, when you were in the locker room,” Brynna started.
“You’re in my classroom, guys, zip it.” Mr. Fallbrook looked slightly annoyed, but Brynna knew it was more for effect than anything else. Darcy was already ignoring her, sliding primly into her seat and batting her eyelashes at Mr. Fallbrook.
Brynna slid into her desk and tried to catch Darcy’s eye. Her pulse throbbed with curiosity: did Darcy see the lipstick on the mirror in the locker room too?
Teddy leaned toward Brynna. “Hey, I just wanted to ask you—”
Mr. Fallbrook tapped on the blackboard. “Ms. Chase, apparently Mr. Higgins has something so important to tell you that it trumps whatever I was planning on teaching.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against the edge of his desk, hitching his chin toward Teddy. “So, go ahead, Mr. Higgins. We’ll all wait.”
Brynna’s skin burned white-hot as every eye turned toward her and Teddy, eyebrows raised expectantly. Teddy glanced at Brynna, his cheek pushed up in that half smile, then leaned toward her.
“Oh no.” Fallbrook stood. “If it’s that important, we should probably all know.”