There are some dirty looks shot at me, but I don’t return them. I don’t want to sink to their level. I hold no disregard for them. I’d be friends with them if they would accept me. Instead of reacting, I just keep walking by, keeping a solid poker face on as I climb to the third floor.
I stop at the same door as last year in the girl’s dorms. Dana promised we’d be here, together, again last year … but there’s no telling if that’s changed. I inhale deeply and hold my breath as I turn the knob and walk in.
The first thing I spot are her things on the desk right in front of me. I expected that. She’s always early.
It isn’t until I step into the room that I spot her standing around the corner at my desk.
Half of me expects her to turn around in shocked, embarrassed surprise—ready to tell me I’ve been shoved off into some stranger’s room, or worse, entirely by myself. But when she turns all the way round, I see why she’s standing there in the first place.
She pauses in the middle of rearranging a bright bouquet of flowers with a big card pinned to the top. It’s addressed to me. Teddy.
With a squeal of joy, she throws herself into my arms.
She hugs me tight and doesn’t let go until fresh tears sting at the back of my eyes. I’m so relieved that she’s still on my side, and that she still wants to be my friend.
“I missed you too.”
She scowls darkly. “I tried to call you so many times this summer, but that rotten woman always told me that you weren’t home. Then she told me that you weren’t living there anymore, and she didn’t know where you were. I’ve been so worried!”
She follows me as I drop my bag on the bed, and then wraps me up in a second, proper hug. I never used to be so open to this kind of affection, but right now, it’s just what I need.
She’s still babbling on. “I had no way to contact you, and I wasn’t even sure if you were going to come back.”
“I wasn’t so sure myself, for a minute there,” I say. I’m not sure how much to tell her about Blair. It’s like … as long as it stays a secret inside me, it can’t come back to hurt me. “But it’s good to be back. It’s good to see you.”
And despite everything, I mean it.
Chapter 5
I was quick to forgive Dana for her betrayal last year. She’d never meant any of it, and to be quite honest, she wouldn’t have been driven into Victoria’s arms if I’d been paying her more attention in the first place. She was putty in the queen bitch’s hands, something I’m still all too familiar with.
Now that we’re back at school, Dana and I click right away … and I’m surprised by how much we have to catch up on. I felt like most of my summer was just lots of the same, but a hundred little stories start coming to mind as soon as she offers up a listening ear. I might not be ready to tell her about Blair, but Rob comes readily to mind as a target for my anger. She listens in wide-eyed rapture as I describe our last chilling interaction on the way to pick up our books for this semester.
Today is all orientation for new students, and meetings with advisors and teachers if we want them. I was at Sadie’s funeral on this day last year. Our classes start tomorrow. Dana and I have some time to visit and talk in private, and I’m so glad for it.
With her beside me, it’s a lot easier to ignore being ignored by everyone else.
I’d forgotten how the lake turned silver in the mornings, and how it always seems to be carrying a breeze with it even when the rest of the world stood in still, muggy summer air. I have to settle for sitting beside my open window, looking out at the lake from a distance back up in our dorm room. There’s too many people down by the water, and though I can’t make out exactly who they are from a distance, I can’t be too careful.
I don’t want anyone else ruining these moments any sooner than they inevitably have to.
“I can’t believe I missed all those calls,” I tell her again, my eyes trained on the far shore of the lake. I can’t see it from here. It’s all silver water melting into sky. It really is so large, it could be an ocean. “I thought you’d changed your mind and decided to hate me too.”
She rolls her eyes. “Not going to happen, so try all you like … you’re stuck with me now.”
“Guess I am,” I say, grinning back.
Before I have the sense to change the subject, she’s started up again.
“What happened after your birthday? When your foster mother—who’s a serious witch by the way—said you weren’t living there anymore, I didn’t know what to think.”
I slump down on my bed and look across the room at her on her bed. I’ve absentmindedly started picking at the edges of a decorative pillow.
She must see the truth on my face, because she suddenly scoots forward to sit on the edge of her bed. “What is it? What happened?”
Emotion chokes the back of my throat. “That’s such a long story,” I say.
She moves to sit beside be on my bed. “Do you want to talk about it?”