Ever After (East Raven Academy Book 1)(9)

Maybe starting over won’t be so bad.

Still, I’ll be glad when I have my life back.





Saturday, August 19





Painful to watch.





Last night, Teagan and I both ended up falling asleep before curfew, and I woke up to a bunch of texts from Estaine, Jason, and Ian asking where we were. I texted them back to let them know. I feel bad, but I was exhausted. Yesterday was a stressful day.

We meet the guys for breakfast and they catch us up on all the “dock gossip,” at least that is what Teagan called it. About halfway through breakfast, a guy and a girl I hadn’t met sit down at our table.

“Hey, guys,” Teagan says to the girl. I notice she ignores the guy.

“Hey,” the girl says, then looks at me.

“Oh, this is Phoenix Underwood,” Teagan says, introducing me to the girl. “Phoenix, this is Emma Voss.”

“Hey,” I say.

“I’m Bryce Armstrong,” the guy says, only sounding slightly offended that Teagan didn’t introduce him.

Teagan seems like the kind of girl who likes everybody, so it surprises me that she doesn’t like him. He must not be very likable.

“Nice to meet you,” I tell him, just because I want to form my own opinion about the guy.

“Did you guys have a good summer?” Estaine asks them.

“It was amazing,” Bryce says. “I spent the summer in Europe with my brother.”

Emma pouts a little. “My summer wasn’t quite as exciting as his. But I did spend most of my summer in The Hamptons.”

“You two were apart all summer?” Ian asks, sounding a little shocked.

“We took a little break,” Bryce says.

“But we’re back together now,” Emma says in a tone that makes me think that she didn’t much like the break. It was probably his idea. He probably wanted to be free to meet girls while he was away.

Honestly, I can’t blame him for wanting to be single. He’s probably sixteen or seventeen. It’s too young to be tied down. But he shouldn’t go back to dating her just because it’s convenient now.

If Teagan and Emma are good friends, I see why she doesn’t like Bryce.

“Why aren’t you two rooming together?” I ask Teagan.

Emma casts her gaze down.

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later,” Teagan says.

Well, that doesn’t sound good.

“Emma, are you on the soccer team?” I ask her, trying to be friendly. If this girl is Teagan’s best friend, I should probably try to be friends with her, too.

“Um, no,” she answers. “Soccer took up too much time.”

Too much time? We’re in boarding school. What else is there to do? It’s not like we ever leave campus to do anything else.

Unless she is in another club.

“Oh, what do you do then?” I ask.

“Oh, umm... just my regular classes,” Emma says.

I look up at Teagan, who looks thoroughly annoyed.

“I did play soccer,” Emma says. “When I was a freshman.”

“She was awesome, too,” Teagan says. “That’s when we became friends.”

“When did you quit?” I ask.

“Last year,” Emma answers. She looks a little sad as she says it.

“It works out better this way,” Bryce says, putting his arm around Emma. “Now she can come to all my football practices and games. She loves watching me and cheering me on. Don’t ya, babe?”

She beams at him. “Absolutely.”

Wow.

This is actually painful to watch.

Bryce is playing her, and manipulating her, and she is just letting him. It’s sick. Someday, after he dumps her for good, she is going to look back on her high school experience and realize just how much she missed out on.

“I didn’t realize the soccer games and football games interfered with each other,” I say. “Isn’t football on Fridays and soccer on, like, Wednesday night?”

“Occasionally there is a Saturday soccer game,” Emma says. “But Saturday night is date night.”

I roll my eyes.

“Well, it was so nice to meet you, Emma and Bryce, but I’d pretty much rather be anywhere but here right now,” I say, then get up from the table. I hear Ian and Jason laughing as I walk away.

“Wait up,” I hear Estaine yell.

He comes up behind me as I dump my tray from breakfast. We walk out of the dining hall together.

“That was painful to watch,” I tell him, in regards to Emma and Bryce.

“Try watching that happen for the past two years,” Estaine says. “Those two are toxic together.”

“Sounds like Bryce is more toxic than Emma,” I say.

“She can be bad too, trust me,” he says. “They’re both obsessed in a bad way. I thought the break this summer would do them good. I hate knowing they got back together before school even started.”

“It’s like I’m living in a bad reality show,” I say.

“Exactly,” he says. “Since you ditched me last night, are we going to hang out at the mixer tonight?”

“Sure,” I say. “And sorry, but I fell asleep. I guess I was exhausted. I was excited to hang out.”