I didn’t let myself smile until I was safely back in my crappy room. At least I had one friend at English Prep, right?
On Monday, Piper slid in beside me during lunch and whispered, “Any luck?”
I closed my world language book and placed it in my bag. “Nope.” Piper and I had spent the entire forty minutes it took to get to school trying to figure out what Christian meant. I searched him and his family online, but not a whole lot popped up. There was a brief article about a car accident, but there were no fatalities, so that didn’t make any sense either. It was a mystery.
“I’ve been trying not to think about it, honestly. I have too much other shit in my life to worry about other than Christian thinking I had something to do with his mother's overdose. That’s insa
ne. He’s insane.”
Piper was nodding along with my rant as she picked at the contents on her tray. Before I knew what she was doing, she was placing food on a separate plate and sliding it over to me.
“No,” I said, shoving the plate back over to her.
She gave me a pointed look, her green eyes peering up at me through her thick eyelashes. “Yes. Now eat.”
I shook my head. “Piper, I appreciate this, but you already conned me into allowing you to give me rides to school every day. I’m not taking your food, too.” But my stomach protested as the aroma filled my nose. Just take the food, Hayley.
She pushed the plate back in my direction. “Hayley, can you just let someone help you? I want to do this. I don’t like the thought of anyone, not just my friend, going without food. I volunteer at the soup kitchen on Saturday mornings, and I donate all my old clothes to charity. I like helping people. Especially if they’re my friends. So please, eat.”
I gazed into her genuine, doe-like eyes as they pleaded with me. I fiddled with my skirt, trying to keep my emotions in check. I wasn’t an emotional person by any means. I never cried. I pushed every feeling down the second it came into view. I didn’t feel. Feelings made you weak and vulnerable, and that wasn’t something I wanted to feel. That was why it made me so angry that Christian got to me. Those stormy eyes and steely jaw were a vision in my head I couldn’t ignore. His grainy words were on repeat.
“Thank you, Piper,” I barely squeaked out. “But let me repay you with something. Do you need a tutor? Or um…” I thought for a moment. What the hell did I have to offer? “A car wash? Although, I’d have to use your water and your soap… at your house.”
Piper laughed, plucking a French fry from her plate. “Hmm, maybe go to the next home football game with me? I haven’t been to one since Callie moved away, and I feel like a loser because it’s my senior year and I haven’t been to any of the games.”
“Deal,” I said as I snatched my own fry and plopped it into my mouth. “As long as Jill and Pete say it’s okay.”
Piper’s eyes twinkled as she squealed and threw her arms around my neck briefly. I smiled when she released me, and it was a genuine one. I allowed a tiny piece of happiness to creep into my heart for a second—that was, until I happened to glance up to see Christian glaring at me.
And that was how the rest of the week went: Piper and me laughing together at our table while I tried to pretend that Christian and his angry, smoldering looks weren’t bothering me. He ignored me completely in our classes together. I hid in the back like a coward as he commanded all the attention in the front. If I had any spare time in class, I spent it doing homework, which kind of backfired as I usually did all my homework when I got home so I could have a distraction from Pete’s drinking and Jill’s pleads for him to be nicer to her.
Although I hated my foster home, it wasn’t the worst one I’d been in. That didn’t mean it was great by any means, as Pete was still locking my door, but I was surviving. And despite the whole Christian fiasco and either being ignored completely by my peers or sneered at, I actually enjoyed English Prep. I liked the extensive curriculum. It occupied my mind when it wanted to wander and took up a lot of my free time. Sure, Christian hated me, and Ollie wouldn’t look in my direction. I was among the peasants in the hierarchy of royally popular kids, but at least I had made one true friend, and that was more than I could have said for any other high school I had gone to in the last few years.
Even Madeline had left me alone, which was surprising. If you didn’t poke the bear, it wouldn’t wake up, I guess.
Slipping off my gym shirt in the girl’s locker room, I listened to the gossiping occurring around me. Gym was my last period of the day, so as soon as I got dressed, I was able to leave. I always thought guy locker room talk was a thing people often talked about, but girl locker room talk? It made my head spin.
“Did you hear that Madeline kicked April off the cheer squad?”
“Did I hear my name?” That was Madeline speaking.
“Yeah, we were talking about how pathetic April has been since you booted her hoe ass off the squad.”
Shrill, ear-piercing laughter. God, girls were so mean and catty—vindictive, at best. I was almost thankful I’d been such a loner all these years. Girls like them were awful.
As I bent down to gather my uniform, it was suddenly snatched out of my grasp. I spoke too freaking soon. I sighed as my nostrils flared with annoyance. One guess. I had one guess at who would be stupid enough to take my uniform as I stood there in my bra and underwear.
I slowly turned around, and there she was. Madeline, with her bleached hair and fake tan. She was smiling connivingly, her posse not far behind her, all sharing equally bitchy smiles. They were all back in their school uniforms, whereas I stood half-naked.
They had the upper hand.
Lovely.
I had let my guard down. I had gone a few days without anyone bothering me, and that was my first mistake. If you take down your trap, the wolves will tear your shelter down eventually.
Not bothering to cover my skin, I inched an eyebrow upward at Madeline. She thought she was the queen of this school, but didn’t she realize that queens were often overthrown from their throne? Being a queen didn’t mean anything if people feared you more than they loved you. The only reason those girls were standing behind her was because they didn't want to stand in front of her, much like I was.
“Like what you see?” I asked, planting a sly smile on my face.