Evie flushes bright red as I call her out, and I wait for her to say something, to say anything, but she doesn’t. All she does is grab her clothes, throw them into her bag, and then turn and skulk out of the changing rooms with Lila on her heels.
The bell rings, breaking the tension in the room as everyone suddenly rushes to finish getting dressed and collect their things. I make my way over to my own clothes and try to get ready as quickly as possible, my whole body vibrating with tension.
I hate that girl. I hate that Ethan is with her.
I pull my hoodie on over my head and quickly step into my jeans. I gather the rest of my stuff and turn to leave before I notice that Pippa and Rachel are still there.
Rachel bites her lip as she looks at me. “I…um…what you did there—”
“Don’t. Don’t break the habit of a lifetime and be nice to me.”
She flashes a small grin, not quite her usual toothy smile, and I know that whole situation affected her more than she’d ever admit.
“Um, do you guys maybe want to skip the cafeteria today and go to the drive-through?” Pippa asks, looking between us. “I could do without having to see Evie again today.”
That sounds like the best offer I’ve had all week.
“Carrie Whitmore was asking me about you today,” Finn tells Matty with a smirk on his face from across our lunch table.
I grin as I look over at Matty.
“She’s into you, bro,” Finn assures him.
Matty smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I’m too busy to date right now. I’ve got schoolwork and football.”
I scoff. “You’re not a priest, Matty,” I tell him. I actually can’t remember the last time he went on a date, even though plenty of girls are interested in him. “You gotta have some fun.”
Matty looks away, and Finn looks at me and shrugs. Carrie Whitmore is pretty and nice. She’s definitely worth giving a chance if she really is into Matty, but apparently he’s not interested.
“Have you thought any more about your offers?” he asks me, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out he’s trying to change the subject.
“No.” I sigh. I have absolutely no idea where I want to go to college. I impressed a famous scout a couple of months ago and he's come through with an offer for my dream school, along with a bunch of others, but now I'm second guessing where I should go and I'm still not closer to making a decision. “I have no clue.”
“My mom said to just let her know where you want to check out and she’ll go with you,” Finn tells me, and I manage a small smile. Finn’s parents are awesome and know my dad couldn’t care less where I’ll go next year so they’re willing to step in and visit colleges with me themselves, but I can’t help thinking it would be different if my mum were here. She would make it a priority to come for a visit and sit down with me to go through the pros and cons of each school, and then she’d take me to visit them so I could get a feel for each place. This decision would be just as important to her as it is to me.
God, I miss her.
“How many scholarship offers have you gotten?” Logan asks.
I shrug and he takes the hint, doesn’t ask any more questions. I don’t really want to talk about the fact that I’ve had five offers from good colleges I would be lucky to go to. I don’t need the scholarships. Because of my father’s money, I don’t have to worry about college fees, and I know I’m incredibly lucky, but what most people don’t know is that I don’t want to rely on my dad’s money. I want to go to college off the back of my own talent, and I never want him to have anything over me. I know Izzy’s planning on holding out for her trust fund before she walks away from dad, but if I have my way, I’ll manage to get a scholarship through college and not rely on him from the minute I set foot on a college campus to start my freshman year.
Not many people know that, especially not Izzy—she’s never asked.
Deacon Phillips sits down next to Finn. One look at his face tells me he’s got something to say. He’s the team gossip.
“Shit went down between Evie and Izzy.”
I still. This is all I need. Even if Izzy and I aren’t talking right now, I can’t have her fighting with my girlfriend.
“When?”
“In gym class just now. Apparently Izzy went off.”
Of course she did. Wherever Izzy goes, drama follows. I turn around to look towards the table where Izzy sometimes eats lunch, but she’s not there. In fact, it’s half empty. “What did she do now?”
Deacon shakes his head. “Not Izzy, Evie.”
Wait… “What?”
“What happened?” Finn asks, his voice sharp.
Deacon shrugs. “I don’t know the full story, but Rebekah was just telling Stacey.” Stacey is Deacon’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, and I know she and Rebekah are close. Rebekah wouldn’t lie to her.
“Is Rebekah in that class?”
Deacon nods. “Yeah. I don’t know fully what went down because Evie showed up to talk to Rebekah and pulled her away, but apparently Izzy came out of the showers and went crazy at Evie. She didn’t even bother to get dressed first, just went off on her in a towel.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Logan open his mouth to say something. “Say one word about Izzy in a towel and I will knock you out,” I warn him.
He throws his hands up like he’s innocent and I turn my attention back to Deacon.
“I didn’t hear exactly what happened, but something about a picture in the locker room and Rachel Bridges.”
Logan stiffens at the mention of Rachel’s name. He’ll never admit it, but I think he’s secretly in awe of her. She does his homework for him and I know they live close to each other, but I think their relationship is more than just him using her for his homework.
My eyes lift and, at that moment, Evie walks into the cafeteria, her arms linked with Rebekah and Lila. Her eyes dart nervously towards me and then she looks away and joins the food line. Something’s wrong. Evie never eats the cafeteria food. She’s obsessive about gaining weight and only eats the plain, boring salad she brings in from home every day. Usually she’d walk straight over to our table. I watch as she glances back at me and then again looks away. Something is definitely not right.
I can’t help but remember what Izzy said to me when we were arguing, how she shouted that Evie is a bully who picks on everyone around her, friends included. For some reason, I haven’t been able to dismiss those words. For some reason, I haven’t been able to think my sister is wrong about my girlfriend and she’s never done that. Because since then, I’ve been watching Evie more closely when we’re not together, and I haven’t exactly liked what I’ve seen. I’m starting to think she’s not the person I thought she was.
None of us say anything as we watch my girlfriend make her way through the line, picking up various dishes—again, something she’d never usually do—and eventually make her way over to our table, her friends right behind her.
“Hey, baby,” she says brightly. She doesn’t quite hide the nerves in her voice.
“What happened with Izzy in the locker room?”
Her jaw hardens. “Look, I don’t know what she told you, but she’s lying. She blew it way out of proportion.”
“Blew what out of proportion?”
“Ethan, you know she doesn’t like me. She has this huge problem with me and honestly I feel like I should report her for bullying.”
I’m trying really hard to suppress my temper. “Evie, what happened?”
“Well, what did she say?”
“She hasn’t said anything. I haven’t seen her.”
Her posture changes slightly at this and she sits up a bit straighter. She didn’t know I haven’t spoken to Izzy. This changes things for her, and I can tell she’s happier than she was a couple of seconds ago. That just sets off even more alarm bells for me.
“It was just a little misunderstanding after gym. I was taking selfies with Lila and she got the wrong idea.”
Bul
lshit. Izzy might be unreasonable at times and occasionally flies off the handle, but she’s not going to start a fight with Evie over a selfie.
I turn to Lila. “What happened?”
“Um…” She blinks. She wasn’t expecting me to ask her. “What Evie said. Izzy went crazy over a picture.”
“What’s Rachel Bridges got to do with it?” Logan asks. His voice is colder than I’ve heard it in a long time, and he’s staring at Evie with distaste.
Evie winces. She didn’t know we knew Rachel was involved. We know more than she thought we did.
I turn to Rebekah. “Were you there?”
“Um…well…” Rebekah looks physically uncomfortable. I’m surprised to see her and Evie together, actually. Evie’s been not so subtly bitching about her to me for days; I guess she’s gotten over whatever problem she had with her.
“Baby, it’s nothing,” Evie insists.
“Evie, you better tell me what happened right now or I will hunt down every person who was in that locker room until I find out what went down.”
She stares at me for a second and must decide I’m serious because she slumps in her seat. “We really were taking selfies,” she insists. “And then…I dunno, Rachel was bending over and she looked so funny, and you should have seen her underwear—it was tiny and all old and dirty, and I just took a picture.”
My lip curls in disgust. “You took a picture of her bent over? In her underwear?”
She at least has the good grace to look ashamed, but is that because she actually is or because she knows that’s the right reaction?
“What were you going to do with the picture?” Finn asks.
My eyes flash back to him. I hadn’t even thought about that.
“Nothing. I swear I wasn’t going to do anything. Izzy just got confused. When she grabbed the phone from me she must have pressed something and my Snap and Insta came up. She must have thought I was going to post it or something.”
I sit back and take her in, my girlfriend of a year who is squirming in her seat and looking around uncomfortably. My girlfriend who was going to post a picture of someone bent over in their underwear online just because she thought it was funny. My girlfriend who I currently can’t stand the sight of.
If I think about it, really think about it…I outgrew Evie a long time ago.
We started dating because I was lonely, because my dad is never around and my mum and Izzy were in the UK. I thought I needed someone over here besides my friends, someone I felt had my back, because I needed someone to rely on. And Evie was persistent. She was persistent, pretty and popular and she became my girlfriend. I wanted someone I could trust and who would be on my team.
Turns out I picked the wrong person.
“We’re done,” I tell her flatly. I’m surprised by how little thought it takes me to come to this decision.
Panic crosses her face. “What?” She sits forwards in her seat. “Baby, don’t say that. It was a misunderstanding.”
Logan snickers next to me, and I see the rest of my friends around the table staring at Evie in distaste. No one likes bullies, and no matter what Izzy thinks about me and my friends, no matter how much she chooses to judge us and avoid us, we’re not going to overlook something like this.
“I’m not gonna be with someone who pulls shit like that, Evie.”
“But it was a one-time thing.”
The minute she says it, I realise it’s not true. I realise Izzy was right. People in this school are terrified of the way Evie can potentially treat them, and I want to punch myself for not taking my sister seriously, for being blind to it and only thinking about the way Evie treats me just because she looks good in a bikini.
“Ethan!” Her voice has become shrill. “No. No, you don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“Ethan.”
“Stop embarrassing yourself,” I tell her. Her jaw falls open, and she looks around and realises we have an audience. Our whole table, which is heaving with people as usual, is watching. “You’re making a scene.”
“Bro, did you talk to Coach today?” Finn asks pointedly, and I turn my attention back to him.
“No.
“Man, he was not impressed with us in training yesterday,” Matty says, tilting his body away from Evie. “He is gonna punish us today.”
Logan pipes up. “I reckon he’ll make us spend longer in the weight room.” He takes a sidelong glance at Evie. I don’t bother looking at her, and I don’t care that we’re freezing her out. Right now, I can’t even stand to look at her.
“Baby?” I don’t give her my attention, and out of the corner of my eye, I see her wipe at her face and then she lets out a sob and runs crying from the room. Lila follows her.
For half a second, I want to follow her. I’ve cared about her for the past year and I don’t want to see her upset, but then I remember what she did and how she tried to defend it, how she tried to play it down and act like Izzy was overreacting and how there are probably a dozen more similar scenarios I know nothing about and I stay right where I am. I don’t move.
“That was long overdue,” Finn tells me, swiping up some fries and shoving them into his mouth. He doesn’t even look a little bit sorry for Evie right now.
I nod my head. I think he might be right.
Ethan and Evie have broken up. We hear it almost the second we step through the school doors when we get back from lunch, the gossip mill working at full force.
Everybody seems to be talking about it. The perfect king and queen of Northview High have split up, and everyone wants to know why. It doesn’t take me long to find out it was because of what happened in the changing rooms. Rachel’s mortified that everyone seems to know about it, but I can’t help feeling a small amount of pride. I knew Ethan wouldn’t stand for that. I knew he wouldn’t accept that sort of behaviour from his girlfriend.
I walk to my classes, not spotting Evie or Lila for the rest of the day, but when I walk past Finn, he acknowledges me for the first time in over two weeks—barely. It’s just the slightest nod of his head, but it’s there, and the slight recognition that I did something right for once makes me feel that little bit better.
I enjoy the rest of my day at school. I enjoy it because Evie, who values her social status above anything else, has been revealed as the bully she is, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it.
The bell rings for the end of the day, and I’m ready to get out of here. I’ve just spent the last hour in English reading through Macbeth and doing text analysis. It’s something I did over a year ago at school, and I was so bored that I wanted to rip my eyes out. Instead, I just thought of that graduation certificate, kept my head down, and completed the work.
“Hello, Izzy.”
I look up from my locker and see Benson Montgomery there.
“Hi?” I reply, looking at the guy who randomly asked me out on a date when I’d just moved here. I don’t really have an opinion on Benson either way. He just sort of swans around the school with his preppy crew, looking down on anyone who doesn’t drive a car that costs over twenty thousand dollars and looking around to see who notices him. On principal, I should despise him, but I don’t care enough to do that. If you ask me, he cares too much about how other people perceive him and this image he’s trying to portray in order for me to dislike him too much. Anyone who cares so deeply about what others think about them is seriously lacking in self-confidence.
“I was wondering if you’re planning on attending the Rosemary Gala this weekend?”
Rosemary Gala? Why does this ring a bell?
He must read my blank expression. “Your grandmother organised it? It’s to raise money for the children’s hospital.”
That’s right. “No.”
He looks surprised. “No you’re not going?”
“No, I’m not going.”
“But my mother assured me you were. She spoke to your grandmother last week.”
That would explain all the emails and
messages I’ve been getting from her. I haven’t even bothered to read them. “Well my grandmother is delusional if she thinks I’m going to voluntarily spend time with her.”
His jaw falls open. Clearly he wasn’t expecting that. “Well that’s a shame…I was going to offer to escort you as your date…” He lets the sentence linger as though his offer might change my mind.
“Still not going.”
He looks insulted. “You know, Izzy, I’m actually willing to overlook your recent transgressions and take you on a date.”
What the hell? “My recent transgressions?”
“Yes,” he says irritably. “That business with Craig McGarretty—I don’t know how someone like you would even consider going there. And honestly? It sounds like you’re rather lacking in friendships of any kind at the moment, so I would seriously reconsider my offer if I were you.”
What an absolute dick.
“You know what, Benson?” He straightens up and steps slightly closer to me. I think the stupid idiot actually thinks I’m going to agree with him. “Even if every single person on the face of this earth stopped talking to me, I still wouldn’t be caught dead on a date with you. Now leave. Me. Alone.”
He blinks in total astonishment, but I don’t wait to see if he has anything else to say to me because I see Paul in the distance. I slam my locker and hurry to catch up with him.
“Hey,” he says as I fall into step at his side.
“Do you know Benson Montgomery?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he hesitates. “I mean I know who he is. I’ve never spoken to him.”
“Well he’s a weirdo,” I tell him. “Stay away.”
He grins back at me, and we exit through the main hallway and walk down the stairs before heading to the junior parking lot.
“How was your day?” Paul asks.
“Eventful,” I tell him, and he smiles broadly back at me. Something tells me he already knows what went down between me and Evie, and I’m guessing he’ll be pretty pleased about it. He’s incredibly loyal, and Rachel is one of his friends. He won’t like what Evie did.
I open the passenger door to Paul’s car and swing my bag in.
All That's Been Said Page 4