23
The ruckus continued around us, but I could have sworn the whole world went silent.
TJ lowered his sign in slow motion, his lips parted in bewilderment as he looked at Kendall and me standing next to each other. Kendall’s fists balled at her sides as she turned to face me.
“You. Fucking. Bitch,” she said through clenched teeth. And then the floodgates released. “You bitch! Did you bring me here to see this? Did you know this was going to happen?” She shoved me into Charlie, and I’m pretty sure she would’ve punched me, if Charlie hadn’t leaped between us, throwing Kendall off balance and causing her to land hard on her backside.
“Kendall, are you okay?” I asked.
She sat on the sidewalk, cheeks flaming, chest heaving with furious breaths. “I can’t believe I apologized to you,” she growled. She scrambled to her feet, snatching her bag off the ground.
“Kendall, I swear I didn’t know—”
“SHUT UP. You are the worst friend ever! Funny how you didn’t bother to admit you’ve always been jealous of me too, huh, Marisa? You’ve always wanted the things I had, whether you say it or not. Your life is full of stupid, useless shit like this.” She yanked my heart pin off her bag and threw it at me. “Keep it. And keep him.” She jerked her head in TJ’s direction. “Enjoy my leftovers like you’ve been doing your whole fucking life.”
With that Kendall turned and stormed off to her car, leaving every eye in the parking lot on me. Everyone’s eyes except for TJ’s, who leaped off the car and took off after her.
• • •
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Charlie asked again. She’d driven her own car to Waterside but wouldn’t leave my front seat until I could convince her I wasn’t about to drive off a cliff.
“Let’s see. Kendall hates me, my cover with TJ is blown, half the senior and junior class witnessed one of the worst moments of my entire life, and at least four people caught it on video. I’m awesome.”
“She was pretty harsh.”
I looked out the window. “I deserved it,” I said quietly. “I made out with her boyfriend.”
“You what?” Charlie yelped loud enough to make me wince. A grin spread across her face. “You nasty whore! TJ is hot!” She gave my arm a way-to-go punch but composed herself when she saw I wasn’t amused. “I mean, how did that happen? Are you into him?”
“I don’t know.” But the squirm in my stomach told me I did know. “The more I got to know him, the more I liked him, and then all of a sudden I was noticing things I shouldn’t have noticed and looking at parts of him I had no business looking at, and he makes leather jewelry, and oh my God, that kiss was amazing.” I draped myself over the steering wheel and banged my head against it a few times.
“He makes jewelry? Jesus Christ, you’re soul mates.”
“You’re not helping.”
“I’m sorry. One more inappropriate question and then I’ll grow up. Tongue or no tongue?”
“Tongue.”
“Did he feel you up? Did you feel him up? I bet lifting all those pumpkins and Christmas trees makes for some nice upper body strength.”
“Charlie! Do you want to go to the dance with him?”
She waved her mittened hands in the air. “Sorry, sorry. I got a little carried away.” She tapped her hand against the dashboard and looked thoughtful. “What do you think you’ll do? Are you going to say yes?”
I leaned back against my headrest. “Who knows if he even wants to take me anymore? You’ll notice he’s not here.” I buried my face in the steering wheel again. “Now I’m the girl who got asked to the dance by the guy who took off after his ex-girlfriend. And she is going to tell him why I started spending time with him, and he’s going to hate me.”
Charlie stroked my hair. “It’s his own fault, you know. If he’d had the balls to break up with her, Kendall never would’ve asked you to spy on him. Do you really want to date a guy who doesn’t even tell people he has a girlfriend?”
“According to him, he didn’t have a girlfriend.”
“According to him before or after he kissed you?”
“Before.”
“Oh.” Charlie nodded slowly. “That changes things.”
“It doesn’t change anything now. Everything is still a disaster and that promposal video is still going to be all over the internet.” I closed my eyes. “Do me a favor. Do not let me watch it.”
“Unless there’s a way I can put locks on your eyelids, you know you’re gonna do it.” She twisted her lips. “What else can I do to help?”
I sighed. “Come with me to the Templeton game tonight?” She looked away, but I’d already seen the hesitation in her eyes. Being suspended from the cheerleading squad was embarrassing enough without having to sit in the stands among the people making her life hell with false accusations. But I couldn’t do this alone. “Please, Char?”
“Why are you still going?”
“I told Sara I would. She doesn’t know Reverse Cupid and me are the same person. How can I get out of it?”
Charlie fake coughed. “I think the flu is going around.”
“I can’t. One, she already paid me. Two, I need this for the Story Break essay. And three…I’m too curious not to go. But I need you with me. To be my bodyguard if Kendall is there.”
“You don’t think I’m in the same boat, Palmera? She and half the school are hoping I get expelled.”
“We can protect each other?” I offered weakly.
Charlie smiled a mischievous, Cheshire cat grin. “Not gonna lie. Knocking that wench to the ground when she came at you felt damn good, even if it was an accident. Next time, I’m drop-kicking her in the face.”
We both laughed. My world might’ve been going to hell in a handbasket, but at least I had Charlie along for the ride.