Bully (Fall Away, #1)(61)

Don’t judge. She texted back.

Relief flooded me. There were back together.

Never. If you’re happy…

I am. Just hope I can trust him. She still had doubts, and rightly so. I don’t think I could take back a guy that cheated on me, but then again, I’d never been in love. I guess I wouldn’t know anything until I’d experienced it.

You may never know for sure, but as long as he’s worth it. I wrote.

I think so……So Jared’s all yours.

What?! The thumping in my chest actually hurt.

Apparently, I took too long drowning in my own sweat, because she texted again.

No worries, Tate. He was never mine anyway.

I couldn’t text back. What would I say? Thanks?

Jared wasn’t hers, and he definitely wasn’t mine. He made it abundantly clear that he belonged to no one. Was Jared holding back with her because of me? Is that why she said what she said?

I spent the rest of the weekend doing anything to keep my mind off Jared. Saturday and Sunday I spent cleaning the house, washing the Bronco, completing homework, typing up procedures for my experiment, and avoiding texts from Ben and K.C.

I needed to be alone, and I wasn’t sure I could keep what happened between Jared and me a secret. K.C. deserved to know that I kissed him, but I didn’t want anyone to know, so I chose to avoid everyone. Even my dad when he called.

Ben deserved my silence, even if he had called and texted several times to apologize. If he’d just taken me home like he’d promised, then I wouldn’t have gotten into that mess with Nate.

Honestly, Ben was probably a very decent guy, despite his behavior at the bonfire. But the problem remained—I didn’t feel firecrackers going off in my stomach when he kissed me. I didn’t feel anything.

Jared was like the Fourth of July…all over my body.

***

As I stepped out of French class Monday morning, I immediately halted. Madoc stood across the hall, leaned up against the lockers, eyeballing me with a goofy grin.

“Hey, Little Speed Racer.” He sauntered over as kids behind me bumped into my back trying to get out of class.

I rolled my eyes, not ready for another irritation. Already this morning, I’d been late to school after coming out of the house to find that the Bronco had a flat. Dr. Porter had emailed to tell me the lab was off limits tomorrow afternoon. And people had been talking to me all day about the race Friday night.

As positive as that attention was, it was like someone scraping their teeth across their fork. I didn’t want to be reminded of how Friday night had gone from good to bad, and then good again, and then to worse. The week was starting off rough, and I wasn’t in the mood for * Madoc.

“What do you want?” I mumbled, walking past him down the hall.

“Well, it’s nice to see you, too.” He seemed to hold back his usual sinister self. He wasn’t making innuendoes or trying to grope me. He just stared down at me, almost timidly, with his ridiculously playful smile.

Ignoring him and making a beeline for my locker, I felt an urge to kick something when Madoc only increased his speed to keep up. “Listen, I want you to know that I was really impressed with your driving Friday night. And I heard you placed second in the three mile. Sounds like you had a great weekend.”

No, actually, I’m completely in knots. I hadn’t seen Jared at all since Friday. His house seemed abandoned until late last night when I heard the roar of his engine crawl up the driveway. I hadn’t seen him today either.

And I was looking for him. I was more irritated about that than anything.

“Spit it out, Madoc. What disgusting, demeaning prank are you pulling on me today?” Reaching my locker, I didn’t even spare him a glance as I dumped my bag and books.

“I have absolutely nothing up my sleeve, Tate. I’ve actually come to beg your forgiveness.” Madoc took my hand, and I turned my face to look at him.

He placed his hand over his heart and made a low bow.

Oh, what now?

Looking around to see the flood of students in the hall, all gawking at Madoc Caruthers making his grand gesture, I swatted him on the back.

“Get up!” I whisper-yelled as people around us laughed and murmured to eachother.

What was he up to?! Dread tightened my stomach.

“I am truly sorry for everything I’ve done to you.” Madoc raised his body again to face me. “I have no excuse. It’s not my thing to make an enemy out of beautiful girls.”

So you’ve said.

“Whatever.” I crossed my arms, ready to go get lunch. “Is that it?”

“Actually, no.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I was hoping you would go to the Homecoming dance with me?”





Chapter 26


My muscles tensed. I immediately started scanning the hallway to see if anyone was laughing, a sign that this was all a joke.

But none of Madoc’s pals were around to witness the prank, and Jared was nowhere in sight.

Turning back to Madoc, I fixed him with a glare. “Did you really expect me to fall for that?”

“Fall for what? My charm and amazing body? Absolutely.”

His sarcasm did nothing to ease my distrust. I rolled my eyes, already wondering why the hell I’d stood here listening to him. “Enough. I’m going to lunch. Tell Jared that I’m not that stupid.”