Страница 29 из 61
“Okay, everyone, just calm down,” I said, splaying my fingers. “We just jumped to about a million conclusions.” I turned and walked toward the chain link fence around the field. Moving away from the fire helped, and leaning my weight on the fence helped even more. “What do we actually know? Do we actually know Chloe and Will were a thing?”
A
I swallowed hard. “Then we don’t actually know anything,” I said, looking at each of them. “Maybe they were just hanging out. Maybe they were just friends. Maybe she came here to, like, talk about a bio project or something.”
“But what if—” A
I shook my head, clutching the cold links of the fence behind me. “I can’t believe Chloe would do that. I mean, why would she do that?”
“I believe it,” A
I tasted bile in the back of my throat. Because she was right. If Chloe had to be in this awful situation, it would be a lot more livable with a fellow Crestie and Country Club member like Jake by her side than with a blue-collar worker like Will. It was disgusting, but it was just how Orchard Hill had always functioned. But Chloe was a good person. I’d known her my whole life. Compared with the rest of the Cresties, she’d always been the most human, the most kind, the most down-to-earth. I couldn’t imagine her screwing with people’s lives this way. But if there was even a chance …
“We gotta find out,” David said, his jaw set. “I mean, if the baby isn’t Jake’s—”
“He needs to know,” I finished. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “Okay, okay. Here’s what we’re going to do,” I said, pacing away from them, then back again. “I’ll tell him about Chloe and Will, and then he can ask her about it. Because technically, this is between them, right?” There was a prolonged moment of stoic silence. “Everyone good with that plan?”
My friends just stared at me. My throat filled with nervous desperation.
“You guys can’t tell anyone,” I said. “You can’t. I swear, if I hear this around school before I get a chance to deal with it, I will disown each and every one of you.”
We looked around the circle solemnly, each of us meeting everyone else’s gaze. My friends looked so sure that our hastily woven story was true, my heart pounded an excited beat. Because for a split second I let myself believe it too. I let myself imagine what life might be like if Jake wasn’t actually the baby’s father.
Everything would go back to normal for us. All the strain and jealousy and tension? Gone.
“Do we have a deal?” I asked pointedly. I put my hand in the middle of the circle, like I was one of the Three Musketeers or something.
“Deal,” Marshall said, putting his hand atop mine.
Celia groaned reluctantly. I knew that sharing gossip this huge about two of the most popular Cresties would totally improve her status. Right now she was seeing that possibility slip away. But she put her hand on top of Marshall’s.
“Deal.”
“Deal,” David said, adding his hand.
A
“I just want you people to know this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. And you’re looking at a girl whose appendix burst on the same night her pet hamster died,” she said. Then she looked me in the eye and I just knew that whatever happened next, she was with me. “Deal.”
december
Can you even believe that Ally Ryan and Jake Graydon are still together?
I know! Shouldn’t he, like, be going out with the mother of his baby?
Do you think he and Chloe did the deed while he was with Ally?
No way. She definitely would have broken up with him if he cheated on her.
Not necessarily. He’s Jake Graydon.
So?
So? With that face? Everything’s forgivable.
Nah. Ally Ryan isn’t like that. She has, like, integrity and stuff.
If she has integrity, shouldn’t she break up with him so he can be with the girl he impregnated?
Okay. This is making my head hurt.
Tell me about it. When did other people’s relationships get so complex?
ally
“Where have you been?”
I scurried to the end of the counter at Jump, Java, and Wail! on Sunday night, grabbed Jake by the apron with both hands, and kissed him. Someone nearby went “Aw!” One of Jake’s coworkers muttered, “Get a room.”
Jake leaned back, blushing. “Philadelphia, remember? I just got back a couple of hours ago. Also, your dad’s in the office, so maybe chill with the PDA.”
“Noted,” I said. I lowered my voice as I slid onto the last stool. “So? Did you lose your phone? Fry your laptop? Forget how to work a landline? I left you, like, a million messages.”
Jake’s blush deepened. He wiped his hands on a clean towel and looked around, as if any of the middle-aged couples huddled around tables were interested in us. Sunday night was not usually a big night for our age group at Jump. Which was probably why it was always packed with adults.
“I know,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. It was just a crazy weekend.”
I made a surprised, choked sound. “Crazy enough to not respond to a text that said ‘You might not be the father’?” I whispered.
I saw Jake’s jaw working as he stood up straight. He glanced over at his coworker as he untied his apron. “Chase, I’m taking my fifteen.”
“Got it, bro,” the guy replied, not looking up from his iPhone. So much for my dad’s strict rule about not texting while on shift.
Jake came around the end of the counter and tugged me toward the back of the shop, where we sat down at the most secluded table there was—the one cornered by the door to my dad’s office and the emergency exit. The one no one from school ever came near. Jake sat down and blew out a sigh. He was acting beyond weird. Shouldn’t he be excited? Angry? At least moderately a
“I already know about Will Halloran,” he said. “I know he and Chloe went out this summer.”
Someone had left a glass canister of ci
“What?” I whispered, leaning into the table. “And you didn’t tell me?”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
I felt like reality had just reversed itself. “How could it not matter? How do you know Will’s not the father?”
“Because. Chloe never slept with Will,” Jake replied, holding the canister with both hands now. He scratched at some crust on the side with his thumbnail.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because she told me,” he replied.
My jaw dropped. “And you believed her? Just like that?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw my dad emerge from the back room. He looked like he was about to say hi, then noticed how serious we looked and thought better of it. He moved to the other side of the shop.
“Do you really think Chloe would lie about something like that?” Jake snapped defensively.
I sat back. For a long moment I couldn’t locate my voice. Was he seriously defending Chloe’s honor to me right now? When I was trying to help him? When I was trying to throw him a lifeline? I couldn’t believe that he didn’t grasp the seriousness of the situation.
“Well, let’s see, I never thought she was the kind of person who’d fool around with two guys at one time, but apparently I was wrong about that,” I said finally. “And I didn’t think you were the kind of person who’d have sex with someone else when you were supposed to be in love with me, either.”