“True. I want her to back off on you. But Jake’s a dick.”
I frowned. “You’re entitled to your opinion.” I got it. The guys hadn’t always been that great to the girls they dated. Trust me, I was aware, but at the same time... “Just do me a favor? Remember he’s my friend, too.”
Her mouth tightened a little, and she nodded once. Then frowned. “Wait… you consider me a friend?”
I shrugged. “We used to be. I get that we haven’t been, and you’ve got your things and I’ve got mine. But I prefer to not bad mouth others.”
“Sometimes I think you’re too damn nice,” she said flatly. “You should stand up for yourself more.”
“Well, like I said, you’re entitled to your opinion.”
Maria actually smirked at that. “At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite… I have missed you.”
“I’ve missed you guys, too.” It wasn’t hard to admit it. “I’ve missed a lot of things. But we all made choices. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you got hurt.”
No, I was not sorry her and Jake didn’t work out. Call me selfish, but Ilikedhaving Jake.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m sorry you did, too.”
Her copier was done, but mine kept humming along. Maybe I should have left it at that. I mean, we’d reached a kind of peaceful accord, yeah? But Sharon’s words to Maria in the bathroom surfaced with a vengeance. If she just told Jake…
“You okay?” I asked as she gathered her copies out. Though her back was to me, her shoulders stiffened. Not a lot, but enough I could tell.
“I’m fine,” she lied in that airy kind of tone you use when you want to change the subject.
Let it go. Let it go.
But I ignored that litany. We had been friends once. “You sure?” I pressed one more time. “I meant it when I said we were friends once. If something’s going on…”
The brief pause worried me, but she straightened her copies and pulled out the originals before she faced me. “Did Jake tell you why we broke up?”
“No.”
“Oh.” That seemed to surprise her. “I thought they told you everything.”
“Sometimes,” I admitted. “But that’s kind of personal.”
She laughed a little hollowly. “Yeah, personal. Look, I’m fine, Frankie. Thanks for asking. Take care of you, and seriously, watch your back with Sharon. Hopefully she gets over this, but with Bubba on the Homecoming committee now, she’s probably going to get worse.”
Yay?
I was there for another ten minutes after she left, turning that over in my head. Why did she and Jake break up, besides Jake wanted to break up? Maria hadn’t wanted as much. He said it was over before school started, but the note talked about the last hurrah of summer, which was just days before we were all back together.
When the last copy was done, I stacked it in the boxes and rolled it over to the slot for my teacher. She’d either get it, or I’d be back here tomorrow to grab it.
I fired off a text to Jake.
Me:Had to do copies in resource room. I’ll meet you at G’s.
Jake:I’ll meet you halfway.
A partof me wanted to roll my eyes. I could walk on my own. The guys had been overprotective and great. I had to admit, being valued had a lot of merit. Despite the ‘meet me halfway’ part, Jake caught me as I made it to the end of the resource hall after the bell rang.
“Did you cut class early?”
“Nope,” he said, snagging my backpack and slinging an arm around my shoulders as we flowed through the sea of humanity. “Just said I had to hit the bathroom.” He grinned.
He totally cut class early. I gave him a poke. “Thanks.”