One of Us is Lying(30)
“Yeah, exchanging numbers is a shit idea. Unless you want to use this.” He reaches into his backpack and hands me a flip phone.
I take it gingerly. “What is it?”
“An extra phone. I have a few.” I run my thumb across the cover with a dawning idea of what it might be for, and he adds hastily, “It’s new. Nobody’s going to call it or anything. But I have the number. I’ll call you. You can answer, or not. Up to you.” He pauses, and adds, “Just don’t, you know, leave it lying around. They get a warrant for your phone and computer, that’s all they can touch. They can’t go through your whole house.”
I’m pretty sure my expensive lawyer would tell me not to take legal advice from Nate Macauley. And she’d probably have something to say about the fact that he has an apparently inexhaustible supply of the same cheap phones that corralled us all in detention last week. I watch him head up the stairs, knowing I should drop the phone into the nearest trash can. But I put it in my backpack instead.
Cooper
Monday, October 1, 11:00 a.m.
It’s almost a relief to be at school. Better than home, where Pop spent hours ranting about how Simon’s a liar and the police are incompetent and the school should be on the hook for this and lawyers will cost a fortune we don’t have.
He didn’t ask if any of it was true.
We’re in a weird limbo now. Everything’s different but it all looks the same. Except Jake and Addy, who’re walking around like they want to kill and die, respectively. Bronwyn gives me the least convincing smile ever in the hallway, her lips pressed so tight they almost disappear. Nate’s nowhere in sight.
We’re all waiting for something to happen, I guess.
After gym something does, but it doesn’t have anything to do with me. My friends and I are heading for the locker room after playing soccer, lagging behind everyone else, and Luis is going on about some new junior girl he’s got his eye on. Our gym teacher opens the door to let a bunch of kids inside when Jake suddenly whirls around, grabs TJ by the shoulder, and punches him in the face.
Of course. “TF” from About That is TJ Forrester. The lack of a J confused me.
I grab Jake’s arms, pulling him back before he can throw another punch, but he’s so furious he almost gets away from me before Luis steps in to help. Even then, two of us can barely hold him. “You asshole,” Jake spits at TJ, who staggers but doesn’t fall. TJ puts a hand to his bloody, probably broken mess of a nose. He doesn’t make any effort to go after Jake.
“Jake, come on, man,” I say as the gym teacher races toward us. “You’re gonna get suspended.”
“Worth it,” Jake says bitterly.
So instead of today’s big story being Simon, it’s about how Jake Riordan got sent home for punching TJ Forrester after gym class. And since Jake refused to speak to Addy before he left and she’s practically in tears, everyone’s pretty sure they know why.
“How could she?” Keely murmurs in the lunch line as Addy shuffles around like a sleepwalker.
“We don’t know the whole story,” I remind her.
I guess it’s good Jake’s not here since Addy sits with us at lunch like usual. I’m not sure she’d have the nerve otherwise. But she doesn’t talk to anybody, and nobody talks to her. They’re pretty obvious about it. Vanessa, who’s always been the bitchiest girl in our group, physically turns away when Addy takes the chair next to her. Even Keely doesn’t make any effort to include Addy in the conversation.
Bunch of hypocrites. Luis was on Simon’s app for the same damn thing and Vanessa tried to give me a hand job at a pool party last month, so they shouldn’t be judging anyone.
“How’s it goin’, Addy?” I ask, ignoring the stares of the rest of the table.
“Don’t be nice, Cooper.” She keeps her head down, her voice so low I can hardly hear it. “It’s worse if you’re nice.”
“Addy.” All the frustration and fear I’ve been feeling finds its way into my voice, and when Addy looks up a jolt of understanding passes between us. There’re a million things we should be talking about, but we can’t say any of them. “It’ll be all right.”
Keely puts her hand on my arm, asking, “What do you think?” and I realize I’ve missed an entire conversation.
“About what?”
She gives me a little shake. “About Halloween! What should we be for Vanessa’s party?”
I’m disoriented, like I just got yanked into some shiny video-game version of the world where everything’s too bright and I don’t understand the rules. “God, Keely, I don’t know. Whatever. That’s almost a month away.”
Olivia clucks her tongue disapprovingly. “Typical guy. You have no idea how hard it is to find a costume that’s sexy but not slutty.”
Luis waggles his brows at her. “Just be slutty, then,” he suggests, and Olivia smacks his arm. The cafeteria’s too warm, almost hot, and I wipe my damp brow as Addy and I exchange another look.
Keely pokes me. “Give me your phone.”
“What?”
“I want to look at that picture we took last week, at Seaport Village? That woman in the flapper dress. She looked amazing. Maybe I could do something like that.” I shrug and pull out my phone, unlocking it and handing it over. She squeezes my arm as she opens my photos. “You’d look totally hot in one of those gangster suits.”