Saint Sloan (Saint Sloan #1)(21)

“And I’m sure he’ll enjoy every minute of it.” Mackenzie winked with a smile. “Speaking of Ray, where is he?”

“No sense looking for him. He’s not coming.”

That information intrigued Mousy. She leaned further on her hand toward our direction. She hadn’t said anything to her group in the last five minutes.

Interesting.

Mackenzie took it upon herself to look a few more seconds for Ray. “Why? What’s up?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. He was here this morning and then he left.” She took another drink of water. It was quickly becoming her nervous tic. It wasn’t a lie. He’d been there this morning, and he had left. She honestly had no idea where he’d gone. She had a pretty good idea, though. If she had her guess, she’d assume that he was, right at that moment, at Boyd’s house, talking to his mother and verifying he was actually in a wheelchair. And of course, Ray’s crazy idea that Boyd’s mother was the stalker. He’d better be careful. Sloan didn’t know what she’d do if something happened to him.

“You keep doing that,” Mackenzie said as serious as Sloan had ever heard her. “You keep zoning out. Are you overly stressed? I mean, we can blow off the rest of the day if you want.”

Sloan shook her head and ran her fingers through her falling hair. The side ponytail hadn’t held up today. She had to keep it together or everyone would know and Mr. ICU would see. Irony and all. “Just a long morning. I’ll be fine. I am fine.” She plastered on the biggest smile ever. “I’ll call you after Ray’s house. I promise. We have prom issues to discuss.”

“Yes. We do.” Mackenzie knew something was up. She also knew not to say anything out in public. Good girl.

Without much of an appetite, Sloan put her tray up, deciding she’d talk to Mousy first. Rumblings of things to say ran through her head. When she turned back to the table, Mousy was gone, but the girls she sat with were still there.

Interesting indeed.





BY THREE O’CLOCK, SLOAN hadn’t had a chance to talk to Darcy. On any normal day, she’d be shouting from the rooftop. Today, it wasn’t a good thing. All she needed was proof for Ray that Darcy wasn’t Mr. ICU.

That worried her too. She hadn’t seen Ray in hours. Hadn’t even heard from him. And he was at Boyd’s house. She assumed he was at Boyd’s house anyway. He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming in his location destination.

So much to worry about.

Darcy.

Mousy.

Ray.

Mr. ICU, who may or may not be a mister.

The stress made her head hurt, and she pulled out the aspirin she’d thrown in her bag from home. She popped two in her mouth and swallowed them at the water fountain.

“You looking for me?”

Sloan nearly choked on the little tablets. There, in all her colorful glory, stood Darcy. “Hey, why would you think I was looking for you?”

“Samantha told Tamela that you were asking where I was. Tamela told me. I’m here. What’s up? You haven’t wondered about my whereabouts in months.”

The water had done nothing to wet her throat, and if it had, it was already gone by now. “Um… well.” Totally, totally thrown off-guard. “I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about this morning. I was being stupid. And so was Ray.” Might as well throw Ray under the bus with her. It was his stupid idea to talk to Darcy in the first place.

She looked very confused. “It’s okay. I mean, I guess I was being pushy. I just couldn’t understand why you were being so secretive. Like maybe you didn’t trust me again.”

Aw… now she felt bad. She’d had this big speech about how she’d changed and how she didn’t judge people and all this other stuff, and what had she done with Darcy? Technically, Ray had done it, but she was doing his dirty work.

Blurg.

“No, I trust you. It’s nothing like that. It’s just—” What could she tell her without telling her? “I had some embarrassing personal stuff in there that I wanted to grab and throw in my bag without anyone seeing it.” There. Not actually that much of a lie. Hmm… She had had something embarrassingly personal in the locker — the note and flowers from Mr. ICU — and she had wanted to throw them into her bag without someone seeing her. Luckily for her, if one could call it luck, they had been gone.

“I understand.” Darcy got very close and whispered. “Your period.”

My what? “Exactly. Had some necessities in the locker and wanted to get them out discreetly.”

“Honey, I’m a girl. I get things like that. We all have a stash.”

Sloan did not want to have this conversation with Darcy. Darcy, of all people. Ray would have to pay for this. “I know, but still. Not something I want to advertise.”

“Oh, I totally get it.” Darcy acted like she totally did. “You don’t want it to get out that Sloan could be a possible hormone monster. And you know how much I like to talk. It’s okay. It’s true. I don’t have a filter.”

Truer words had never been spoken. “Still. I should have told you instead of freaking out.”

“No worries. Do you need something? Oh! That’s why you needed the medicine yesterday! You had…”