Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(76)

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO


Peter


“Where are we going? I just wanna go home,” I muttered to Gavin, sounding like a big fat baby as we trudged across the football field. Practice had sucked. Of course it had sucked. Claudia had picked Keegan over me. Everything sucked.

Of course, if I did go home right now, it wasn’t like there was anything awesome waiting for me there. My mother had finally laid down the law and said that if I didn’t finish at least three applications by the end of the night, I was grounded for two weeks.

Did I mention how everything sucked? Somewhere in the distance, the marching band was practicing. The trumpet was louder than the other instruments and playing a mournful tune. The perfect soundtrack for my life.

“There’s someone you need to talk to.”

Something about the way Gavin was talking was off. He swiveled his head from side to side, wearing these mirrored sunglasses like he was some kind of FBI agent. Or the Terminator.

“Why are you being so weird?” I readjusted my bag on my shoulder as we got closer to the Snack Shack on the home side of the field. The sun beat down on my back like an assault. I turned my baseball cap around so the bill covered my neck. “You do know this is only open on game days.”

He just looked at me. At least I think he did. It was hard to tell with those glasses.

“You’re really starting to freak me out,” I said.

Then we came around this hedge line, and I stopped walking. Lauren was sitting at one of the white plastic picnic tables with True. Great. The girl who’d given me false hope about getting Claudia back, and my ex’s best friend. What was this, some kind of bizarro intervention?

“You again?” I grumbled.

“She’s here to help,” Gavin told me. He looked at True and removed his sunglasses, folding them carefully. “Operation Love Sack has hit a snag.”

“Is that what we’re calling it?” True asked.

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Lauren said, screwing her face up.

“Yes, it does!” Gavin countered. He might even have whined.

“How? How does that make any sense?” Lauren asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Because! He’s, like, the linebacker trying to get to the quarterback, and Claudia’s the quarterback trying to, you know, evade the sack.” He stopped and blew out a breath, hands on his hips. “Can we just do this?”

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?” I demanded.

“We’re gonna help you get Claudia back,” Lauren said matter-of-factly.

My shoulders tensed, and I shot Gavin a death glare. He was going to pay for dragging me up here for this. “It’s too late. She already rejected me.”

“We know,” Lauren and True said at once.

So she’d told them. Already. Told them about how pathetic Peter tried and failed to win her back. Probably laughed about it with them, wondering how I could be such an idiot. I deflated at the thought, sitting down on the bench next to Lauren and slumping against the table.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“Well, you can’t just ask her out again, clearly,” Lauren said, shaking her dark curls back over her shoulders.

“Clearly,” I said through my teeth. I’d always liked Lauren, but right then, she was completely getting under my skin.

“You have to do something to make it up to her—the breakup, I mean,” True said, leaning into the edge of the table while Gavin stood over us, like our very own Secret Service agent.

“What makes you such an expert?” I asked True.

True narrowed her eyes. “Trust me. I have a lot of experience with this stuff.”

I sighed. So everyone felt like being cryptic today. Cool.

“You have to show her that you never stopped caring about her,” True said. “That you care about the things that matter to her. Her future . . . your future. Together.”

“I tried to tell her,” I said, turning my palms up.

“It’s not enough. You need to do something,” True said firmly.

“Like what? What can I do? After today I’m not sure she’s ever going to talk to me again.”

“You could come to our recital, for starters,” Lauren said.

“When’s that?” True asked.

“Friday night,” Lauren said.

The girls looked at me hopefully. “I could do that. I mean, I’d have to break my pregame ritual, but—”

“So break it,” Lauren interjected.

“I don’t know,” True said, biting her lip. “I don’t think it’s big enough, just showing up.”

I groaned and crossed my arms on the table, dropping my head onto them. The conversation I’d had with Claudia earlier rang in my mind. Everything she’d accused me of was true. How I’d been snapping at her, how I’d been angry so much, how I’d bailed on her when she’d found out she got the audition—letting my own insecure crap ruin her big moment.

Suddenly my head popped up. For the first time in my life I understood why cartoonists are always drawing lightbulbs over their characters’ heads, because that was what it felt like. My whole brain shone with an idea.

“The audition,” I said quietly.