“Yes, I know, and they’ve all had a crush on her, but the princess was too deaf, dumb, and stupid to notice.” Hate flooded every word, and yeah, they stung. “Idon’tcare, Maria. I don’t care what she knew or didn’t know. I care that she finally went away, and thencame back.”
The sink turned on.
“I finally got him. I spent all year on getting him, just like you wanted Jake. She was gone, and they were right there.”
“Jake and I didn’t break up because she came back.”
Tipping my head back, I blinked away tears.
“You’re not together because she’s in the way—if you told him…”
“I’m not,” Maria said. “So don’t say another word, or I’ll pop you in that mean mouth.”
Silence ripped through the room.
“You need to let it go,” she continued after a minute, the sound of paper towels tearing out of the dispenser. “I mean it. Don’t bring it up and leave Frankie alone. At this point, you think any of them would touch you with a ten foot pole?”
“Then I have nothing to lose,” Sharon stated. “But her highness does, and maybe it’s time someone knocked her down a peg.”
“Yeah well, leave me out of it,” Maria said. “I mean it. You want to get arrested for vandalizing her car, be my guest. My beef isn’t with her—I feel kind of sorry for her. Cause they’re going to tear her apart like dogs with a bone.”
Sharon had…? Anger flared through me, burning through some of the hurt.Sharonhad done that to my car?
“And for the record,” Sharon announced. “IwishI’d thought to do that to her car. The look on her face was awesome.”
Bitch.
The door closed behind them, cutting off whatever Maria’s response was.
I finished cleaning up and then slipped out of the stall to wash my hands. The bell rang as I stood there. Sharon definitely did the Instagram thing. Confirmed. She didn’t do it to my car, though. As much hate was in her voice, she would definitely have taken credit for it.
Her anger wasn’t because Bubba asked me to Homecoming. That could have been the trigger. But it wasn’t about that, it was because I’dcome back.
Pushing away from the counter, I left the bathroom. Arms folded, I made my way toward Jake, who was looking in the classroom with a frown. The scowl only deepened when he caught sight of me coming from the other direction.
“You were supposed to wait…”
“I had to go to the bathroom,” I said, keeping my voice low. But I didn’t unfold my arms. I was cold all over, the cramps were damn uncomfortable, and I had questions.
Again.
What was it Maria was supposed to tell Jake that would change his mind? I couldn’t see it. Not really.
“Okay,” he said, but when he went to hook an arm around me I shook my head. “What’s wrong?”
Fastest way to make them take a step back. “Shark week.”
“Damn,” he whispered with a wince. But instead of leaving it alone, he said, “Can I do anything?”
Oh. “No, I’ll be fine. Just want to get to Mr. G and get this over with.”
“Need to hit your locker?”
Actually, I did, and Jake had already veered us in that direction. I swapped out my books. Half of them I didn’t need to take home, so I didn’t have to carry them. There was an envelope inside of my locker though, and Jake scowled at it.
The lettering on the front was familiar. Thorns.
Guess he discovered my car wasn’t there. I tucked it into the backpack without opening it.