Emerge (Evolve Series #1)(55)

and looks down, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

“Of course I’ll take you. Run and tell your coach, sweetie.”

She’s back quickly and climbs in through my side as I settle her bag in the back. Silently I climb in, trying to decide what I

should or shouldn’t say to this precious, forgiving creature beside me. After I pull us onto the main highway we’ll be using for

the next several hours, I finally find my voice. “Why you crying, darlin?”

“Something’s wrong, Evan, and I hate what I’m thinking. Someone sabotaged me on purpose; someone took away UGA for me.” Her

body tenses and she falls silent but for a second, the calm before the storm. “Someone TOOK YOU AWAY FROM ME!” she screams and

breaks into full body sobbing.

I give her a minute to gather herself before I ask questions; she can barely breathe. I may be a sorry bastard, but I can’t just

watch her hurt from across the cab. Hesitantly, I place my hand on her thigh, hoping to fuse comfort into her.

“Laney, what are you talking about? No one took me from you; I’m right here, baby girl. I figured out the phones, we’ll be able

to talk now. Just calm down for me, lamb.”

“Yeah, and what’d you figure out on the phones?”

“Your number had been changed in mine and I would never think to even look at that, so all the time I was texting and calling you,

it was to the wrong number. And you never called me back, cause you never got them, so you thought I was ignoring you and I thought

you were ignoring me.”

“And how would my number get changed in your phone, Evan?” Her head whips towards me, nostrils flared and eyes glowing.

I’ve never seen her so mad.

“I already know the answer, but I want to hear what you’ve come up with. Just tell me—cause trust me, your shocker is not even

close to as big as mine.” She starts shaking, crying again.

“Laney, there’s only one person at school with me who knows you and would know your birthday to crack my passcode.” Kaitlyn

better steer clear of me.

“Say it—say her name—say out loud who did this to us!” she screams.

“Kaitlyn. It had to be, Laney, nothing else makes sense.” I hate to say it, Kaitlyn’s her best friend; it’s got to hurt like

hell. What the f*ck was that bitch up to? Sending a picture, appearing in my room, hacking my phone...why?

“It hurt so bad, Evan, to think you just took the breakup pass and ran, didn’t care to even talk to me anymore.” Poor angel’s

whole body lets out a quiver. “She couldn’t have taken anything more valuable from me than you. She hit where it would hurt the

worse. And then, she took more, she just had to twist the knife. I’m surprised she didn’t just kill my dad, that’d have wiped me

out completely.” She slams her hands on my dashboard, the most gut-wrenching wail I’ve ever heard coming for her.

“You’re scaring me, sweetie, what else are you talking about? I fixed the phones, and she’ll never touch mine again...so what

aren’t you saying?” Please don’t let her say the picture. Or maybe please let her, it might be better to just get it out in the

open, cause Lord knows I’m pussing out on fessing up.

“Well, you know, I thought it was odd when my good friend and I hadn’t talked in weeks, even weirder when she barely acknowledged

me at clinic.” Her head is snapping back and forth now, anger frothing from her. She’s all kinds of worked up and I’d rather

throw myself from this moving truck than hear whatever big conclusion she’s leading to.

“I also found it strange when I went up to her to give her a big hug and venom dripped off her voice when she said my name and the

girls around her laughed. But I gotta say...the highlight was when the freaking coach of the college of my freaking dreams, The

University of Georgia, told me how sorry he was when he received my declination of his offer.”

Darting my eyes from the road to her quickly, she’s now slamming one fist into her other flat palm faking a huge grin in sarcasm.

“He said he sure had been looking forward to having my big stick in his lineup this year!”

She’s gone back to crying so hard now I find a safe spot to pull over; I have to hold her. “Come here baby, come here.” I undo

her seatbelt and pull her into my lap and hold her. I will all the love and peace I can into her; running my hands up and down her

shaking arms, kissing the top of her head, whispering that it will all be okay.

“She did this, Evan, my best friend, Kaitlyn, who stood by me when my mother didn’t, who helped me pick out my prom dress, who

taught me how to put on makeup...she did this to me. I had the scholarship to UGA, Evan! THEY WANTED ME! I WAS GOOD ENOUGH, DAMNIT!

”

I hold her as tight as I can and I literally cannot contain her thrashing.

“I could have been there with you this whole time! All this heartache, all this damage, all the misery...it was her. No one else

would intercept my letter and decline for me. The only people with that kind of access to my life are you, my dad, and her. And the

minute he said it, I knew what had happened with the phones, too. She screwed us, Evan, she cost us so much.” Her head and body go