He headed for the bus where some of the players were already waiting. Celeste went over to Harleigh, Nix, and Jessa.
“Would you like to ride with us, Celeste?” Jessa asked. It sounded pretty genuine, but Harleigh failed to hide her annoyance at the request, and Celeste noticed, her expression dropping.
“No, it’s okay,” she said. “I’ll ride with Nate and Chloe.”
She didn’t wait for them, walking toward the parking lot.
“I fucked up, didn’t I?” Nate said.
“No, it’s… complicated.”
Nix tucked Harleigh into his side.
“She’s had a shitty week at school so I thought this would cheer her up.”
“What do you mean?” Chloe asked Nate.
“Miles has been all over the girl he’s taking to Winter Formal. And it isn’t like she has any other friends.”
“Bullshit,” Kye snorted. “Of course she has friends.”
“No, she had Miles and Harleigh.”
“But that’s not possible. She’s hot and rich and her dad is Michael Rowe. I don’t get it,” Kye went on. “Celeste is good people.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.” Nate shot Harleigh a strange look, but she didn’t take the bait.
“Hawks, let’s go. We’ve got a long night ahead of us,” Coach boomed.
“He’s not fucking wrong,” I murmured, my cold stare sliding to Celeste.
Nate had it all wrong. He must have. Because the idea that Little Miss Perfect’s life wasn’t so perfect after all, rattled me.
And I didn’t fucking like it.
Celeste
“You could have rode up front,”Chloe said from Nate’s passenger seat.
“It’s fine.” I watched the Darling Hill High school bus disappear in the distance, my stomach churning still at Zane’s cruel words—his accusation.
I wanted to believe it was jealousy, and maybe there was an element of truth to that. But even if he was jealous, it only made him hate me more.
“I know things are messed up with Harleigh.” She twisted around to look at me. “But I think that she’s just worried about making life difficult for you with your parents.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t meet her eyes. I couldn’t. Or else the tears caught in my throat might overwhelm me.
“Hey, Rowe,” Nate said, and I met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Make life happen, remember.” He winked, but it was lost on me.
I’d thought maybe by coming here, things would be different. That maybe Harleigh would be excited to see me. Impressed, even. But it had backfired spectacularly and only served to make Zane angrier than usual.
And now I had to survive dinner with them all, pretending that everything was okay.
That I was okay.
They were all so quick to judge the kids in Darling Academy—and sure, maybe most of the time it was warranted—but loneliness didn’t discriminate. You could be in a room full of people, attend the biggest parties, the most expensive restaurants, and still feel completely alone.
I thought Harleigh of all people, understood that. But she was so distant lately. It was hard to believe we’d spent months living as sisters, sharing our lives.