“I thought I’d try something new,” Emma said lightly. Though football clearly hadn’t been Sutton’s thing, she was actually looking forward to this game. The closest thing to a family outing she’d ever had in foster care was a trip to the recycling center to turn in soda cans. She loved that the Mercers had annual traditions like this. Plus, it was just the kind of distraction she needed after the panic of receiving another note from Sutton’s murderer.
“But you always complain about how much you hate grass stains and that Dad’s end-zone shuffle makes you want to die of embarrassment,” Laurel said cautiously.
Emma elbowed Laurel, grinning. “Scared I’ll beat you, little sis?”
“You wish.” Laurel laughed. “Bring it on!”
Emma surveyed the field. Besides Sutton’s friends, plenty of other kids from Hollier were gathered to play. Emma waved at Nisha Banerjee, who sipped an iced tea under the awning, and Nisha gave her a friendly wave back. Nisha and Sutton had been rivals, both on the tennis court and off, but Emma had recently forged a tentative friendship with her. Sutton’s ex-boyfriend Garrett Austin was here, too, sharing a hot dog with his younger sister, a sophomore with Buddy Holly glasses and purple hair. Emma avoided catching his eye—she’d broken his heart after he’d offered his willing body to her on her birthday.
Charlotte grabbed her by the elbow. “Don’t look now, but you have an admirer.”
Emma glanced around, looking for Ethan, but it was Thayer whose eyes she met. He stood in a group of guys across the field. The other boys were punching each other on the arm and horsing around, but Thayer just stared at Emma. When she caught his eye, he grinned bashfully and looked down.
He meant that look for me, I repeated to myself, but knowing it didn’t make it any easier to watch.
“Here we go again,” Madeline groaned.
“What?” Emma turned to her friends. They were all watching her with varying degrees of skepticism on their faces. She swallowed nervously. It wasn’t that hard to guess what they were thinking—that something was going on between her and Thayer. Ever since he’d returned to Tucson, things between Emma and Sutton’s friends had been a bit tense. Charlotte hated the fact that Sutton always seemed to get all the guys—which Sutton hadn’t exactly helped when she’d stolen Garrett from Charlotte several months ago. Madeline didn’t think Sutton was good for Thayer, who was recovering from his alcohol addiction. And as for Laurel, she and Thayer had been best friends for a long time. She’d always had a crush on him, which had made it especially humiliating when Sutton decided to go for him. Emma could only imagine how upset Laurel had been when she found out Thayer was meeting her sister in secret the whole time he was supposedly missing.
“You guys, it’s not like that!” Emma said, hoping to avoid what was clearly a touchy subject. “Thayer and I are just friends.”
“Oh yeah?” Charlotte looked across the field at Thayer, whose eyes were still locked on Emma. “That’s a friendly look he’s sending you.”
Emma felt her face getting warm. Fending off boys was a new experience for her. She’d never stayed in one school long enough to connect with any would-be boyfriends. She leaned over to retie her shoelaces, trying to ignore Charlotte’s accusing glance.
When she straightened, she noticed another familiar figure on the other side of the field, and her heart lifted. She waved at Ethan, but he didn’t seem to see her. Then she caught his expression. He was watching Thayer with fire in his eyes. Emma recoiled. She knew he was jealous of Thayer, but she had never seen him look so venomous before.
“Ethan!” she yelled, but the crowd shifted and he disappeared from her line of sight.
“So which one of them are you bringing to my party in two Saturdays?” Charlotte asked with a smirk.
“You’re having a party? Since when?” Madeline interrupted, fingering the collar of her T-shirt, which she’d cut into a boat neck.
“Since about an hour ago,” Charlotte said coyly. “I just found out my parents are going to Vegas that weekend. We can’t let an opportunity like that pass us by, can we?”
“Nice,” Gabby whispered, reaching for her iPhone and starting to type. Lili followed suit. In twenty seconds, the whole school would know about it, thanks to their Twitter feeds.
“Well, I’m taking Ethan, obviously,” Emma said. She looked for him across the field again, hoping she’d just imagined the terrifying look he’d given Thayer. A headline popped into her mind, an old habit from the days of imagining herself an investigative journalist: Rumored Love Triangle Drives Teen Couple Apart; Details on Page 11.
The referee blew his whistle, signaling the players to assemble in the middle of the field. Emma, Madeline, and Charlotte were with Mr. Mercer on the red team. Ethan joined them, giving Emma a kiss on her cheek. Laurel and Mrs. Mercer stood on the other side in blue, along with Nisha and Thayer.