High School Heartbreak (Forest Ridge High Book 2)

by Sherri Renee

  His words broke through my thoughts. I turned to face him with my brows knit low over my eyes.

  He simply gave me a soft smile and nodded. “I’d go now if I was you. I doubt they’ll stick around long.”

  His plan made sense. My heart gave a hopeful leap, and I glanced towards the exit. I bit my lip then turned to Jace and threw my arms around his neck, giving him a quick hug.

  “You’re awesome,” I said. I darted away, maneuvering through the crowd as quickly as I could without running. I thought, but couldn’t be sure, I heard Jace say, “You’re awesome too.”

  Part of me wanted to turn and see if he was watching me. A bigger part was more worried about reaching the exit before Danny did. Sure enough, the locker room door flew open just then and the coaches walked out followed by the team.

  They were again in single file, staring straight again. Oh no! I was going to miss him. I watched for him to appear as I fought the crowd. There he was. The last person out. I broke through the crowd and ran to the door just as he got there.

  I stopped breathlessly just in front of him. If he walked by now without a glance it had to mean things were over. No one was here to see but me and him. I waited, unsure if I should call his name. Reach out and touch him.

  I knew he knew I was there. He took another step without expression and everything inside me froze. The Danny I knew wouldn’t treat me like this. No matter what kind of coach he had. Just when I’d given up on him he threw a quick look over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching then grinned at me.

  “Michelle,” he said my name as he wrapped me in a quick hug.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” I said. “Can’t you stay for a few minutes?”

  He shook his head and pulled away. “Coach will have my head if he knows I broke protocol to talk to you.” His lips thinned as he looked at the door and shook his head. “I’ve got to go. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

  Staring straight ahead once again, he shoved the door open. He walked past me without another glance but from the corner of his mouth, he said, “We’ll talk soon.”

  The door closed behind him but not before I caught sight of the little blond cheerleader waiting to board the bus with Danny. I tipped my head to the side with a frown.

  I wanted to throw the door open and watch him until he was on the bus and I couldn’t see him anymore, but I didn’t want to get him in trouble. Was that girl waiting for him or did it just look that way? I leaned against the wall and took a couple of deep breaths. Talk about a stressful night.

  I got a couple of curious looks as people walked past me to the exit. I forced a smile and pushed away from the wall. I wish he’d told me ahead of time that he wouldn’t be able to talk to me so I wouldn’t have had to wonder what he was thinking all night.

  The gym had almost cleared already so I was able to quickly make my way back to the locker room to get my stuff. Kristen looked up in question when I walked in. I wasn’t ready to talk about it here with everyone listening so I just nodded to let her know I’d seen him. I guess there really wasn’t much more than that to say.

  Chapter 13

  Friday was a lazy day, Christmas Eve eve. A lot of the girls would be out of town visiting family and stuff so we didn’t even try to sneak in a cheer practice. I woke up early with a smile on my face. I’d decided seeing Danny with that cheerleader didn’t mean a thing. He would have told me it was over last night if he’d decided to move on to someone else.

  Stretching against my silky purple sheets I wiggled away the last of the tension that had been weighing me down all week. It was so good to see Danny last night. Even though we’d only had a minute together it was all I needed to know Danny hadn’t been trying to ditch me. He really had just been busy.

  I felt silly for getting so spazzed out. I mean, sure, it still wasn’t fun that he’d moved, but we could make it work. Two hours wasn’t that long of a drive. We just needed to start making plans to spend time together as often as possible.

  I wrapped my arms around myself, imagining Danny was holding me again only when I closed my eyes it was another face I saw. Jace. My eyes flew open, and I stared at the ceiling. Why did Jace keep popping into my daydreams?

  I rolled over and hugged my pillow, deep in thought. I wouldn’t have even had the single stolen moment I did with Danny if it hadn’t been for Jace telling me to wait for him by the exit. That was really thoughtful of him.

  And it kind of answered my question of whether Jace liked me or not. No guy was so sweet that he’d help a girl he liked sneak away with another guy. He’d be doing everything he could to keep us apart, right?

  I thought about that for a second then decided I was right. Jace was an amazing guy, but he was just looking for a friend. That was something I could be. Feeling that question was resolved, I popped out of bed, finally starting to feel like my normal chipper self again. I’d been moping so long, I’d forgotten how good it felt to be happy.

  I jogged downstairs and made some bacon and eggs. I left a plate in the oven for Mom. She was off for the next three whole days, but I knew she’d sleep in this morning. I added a slice of toast to my plate, grabbed a glass of orange juice, and went back up to my room to eat.

  Setting the food on my nightstand, I went to the closet and found the bag from Monday’s shopping trip. I pulled out a thick book with a glossy purple cover. A blond warrior girl threw a fierce look over her shoulder from atop a beautiful, but even fiercer looking unicorn as it raced across red, rocky terrain.

  The cover made me think of Jace as a little boy, being so sneaky and going into his big sister’s room and then sitting in there bored until he came up with his unicorn game. I could picture him with his wavy brown hair flopping over his innocent brown eyes. No matter how innocent he’d probably looked it sounded like he’d been a bit of a stinker.

  I still couldn’t believe he’d written and published the huge book I held. How long would it even take to write that much? I’d have to ask him about it sometime. And he said he’d already written the second book in the series. That was a whole lot of writing. I shook my head at the thought. I had trouble with ten-page essays.

  I fluffed my pillow up against the headboard and got comfortable. Opening the book to the first chapter, I absently finished my breakfast as I got caught up in the story. The book began with an action scene, and I fell in love with Celeste, the main character, within minutes.

  Jace had filled her with so much life she felt like a friend rather than a character birthed from his imagination. I’d finished the first two chapters and could have kept reading, but my phone rang. I had a second of hope that it might be Danny but saw it was Kristen.

  “Come over,” she said when I answered. “The guys are here ready to play basketball. I need you on my team.”

  By “the guys” I knew she meant Matt and Jace. I’d decided Jace liked me as just a friend which was perfect. But I remembered the more-than-friend’s sparks he caused in me. I bunched my lips to the side, searching for an excuse when Kristen added, “Please? I need you.”

  “All right. I’m on my way,” I agreed before I hung up, but instead of getting ready to go, I sat there and thought about how I should act around Jace. Even more importantly I thought about how I needed to keep my distance so I didn’t feel anything for him that I shouldn’t.

  I figured the easiest way to do that was to have Danny fresh on my mind. I dialed his number and listened to the phone ring, hoping it wouldn’t go to voicemail. He answered, sounding out of breath.

  “Hi!” I said. “I’m glad I caught you. You’re always on the run.”

  “Hey, yeah. I’m about to head out now.”

  He didn’t offer anything more so I tried to fill the silence. “It was so nice to see you last night. You played a great game.”

  “Yeah, it was a good decision coming back here. Forest Ridge doesn’t have their stuff together yet. It doesn’t look like they’re going to have a good year.”

  My bot
tom lip stuck out in a small pout. Where was the “It was great to see you too?” I’d hoped for.

  “So,” I said. “Christmas is Sunday. Think you’ll have time for a visit.”

  “Oh, wow,” he said. “Probably not.”

  “Don’t tell me you have practice on Christmas Day.” And I meant it. If he tried to pull that over on me, I’d know he was making up excuses.

  “No,” I could hear the frown in his voice. “It’s just that we’re going to be seeing a bunch of family. My whole day’s shot.”

  I heard the doorbell ring in the background.

  “Hold on,” he said.

  I held the phone and tried to decide if I was hurt or angry by the way he was acting. Everything had seemed fine last night. He’d seemed happy to see me, hadn’t he? I guessed happy was probably an exaggeration, but he had hugged me. Didn’t that count for anything?

  “Hi, Danny. Are you ready?” I heard a girl’s voice in the background. It was muffled by distance, but I matched the blond perky cheerleader from the game last night with it. My eyes narrowed as I swallowed.

  “Michelle?” Danny came back to the phone. “I’m going out with some friends and they just got here. What are you going to do today? Can I call you back later?”

  I wanted to say no and hang up on him, but I knew I’d been overreacting to every little thing since he left.

  “Sure,” I said instead, taking a deep breath and trying to keep my voice from trembling. “I’ll probably just hang out at Kristen’s.”

  “Ok, talk to you later.”

  He hung up, and I stared at the movie posters on my wall with the phone still pressed against my ear. Movie romances were supposed to have some serious hurdles to overcome because really, what fun would they be to watch if everyone was happy all the time? But was real life supposed to be this tough?

  I knew it was probably just me. I kept getting upset with Danny, and every time I analyzed the situation it was just me overreacting about something. If we were going to make this relationship work he was going to have to carve out some time for me, but I was going to have to learn how to chill out.

  And somehow not worry about the blond-boyfriend-stealing-cheerleader I was pretty sure he was “hanging out” with.

  That wasn’t going to be easy. I was thankful that I’d agreed to go to Kristen’s. If I sat here alone I was going to pick apart every word he said, the few that there’d been, searching for hidden meaning whether good or bad. In other words, drive myself crazy with worry.

  Chapter 14

  Kristen and the guys were already in Matt’s driveway with a ball when I pulled up.

  “It’s about time you got here,” Kristen called. “Come on.” She wore a heavy white coat with a baby-blue knit cap, sports pants, and sneakers. I’d dressed pretty much the same but instead of a hat I’d wrapped a long white scarf around my neck and my coat was silvery pink.

  “I’m coming. I’m coming.” I laughed, jogging across the yard to join her.

  “Hi, guys,” I said with a glance at each of them. I didn’t mean to let my eyes linger, but I noticed Jace had a bruise beside his right eye. “What happened?” I closed the distance between us in two quick steps and lifted my finger to gently touch the bruise without even thinking about what I was doing.

  Jace smiled down at the concern on my face. “One of the hazards of the sport.” He shrugged. “I got a little too close to an elbow last night.”

  “Stop being a baby,” Matt said tossing him the ball. “That little bruise isn’t even worth talking about.”

  Matt continued to tease him, but I searched his face for any other signs of injury. “Does it hurt?” I asked with a worried look.

  “Not when you’re touching it.” His eyes held that warm, longing look I’d seen so many times before.

  I swallowed and took a step back, dropping my hand from his face. I couldn’t seem to remember that we were friends. Tenderly touching a boy’s face was usually reserved for those in the more than friends category.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” I said softly.

  Kristen pulled me aside to discuss our game strategy. I was pretty sure it was more to rescue me before I made a fool of myself because her strategy so far consisted of, “Don’t let them get the ball.”

  “Good plan.”

  She tipped her head to the side and we prepared to take on two guys who towered over us and actually knew how to play basketball. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

  It wasn’t pretty, but it was so much fun. I’m sure half the stuff we did would have been a foul in a real game but the guys let us get away with everything. They even held back so we could each make a few shots.

  Jace caught me from behind once to keep me from getting to the ball, and I pulled away from him, laughing. A few times I found myself wishing I didn’t have a boyfriend. Matt and Kristen shared lots of hugs and kisses. I looked at Jace from the corner of my eye. I wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

  He caught me staring and gave me a smoldering look as time seemed to freeze around us. For just a second I thought he might kiss me right then and there, but then a basketball hit me in the leg.

  I looked down, watching the ball roll across the driveway straight to Matt. He gracefully swooped it up and tossed it into the basket, adding his own “whoosh” sound for effect.

  “Michelle,” Kristen complained. “They’re killing us.”

  I glanced at Jace and found him still watching me. I swallowed hard. “Sorry,” I said. “I’ll do better.”

  I did play better after that. I also noticed every move Jace made. Every time he looked at me. Every time we touched. And we touched a lot. My heart beat harder than could be explained by the small amount of running I did, and my chest felt tight but it wasn’t from exertion.

  I was really having a lot of fun.

  Matt’s mom invited us all in for lunch. I’d never met her before. She was thin with medium length brown hair and she was so short she would have made Megan look tall. What she lacked in height she made up for in personality. She made me immediately feel at ease.

  A giant Christmas tree filled an entire corner in the living room where we walked in. It was beautiful and carefully decorated, I noticed, with no same color bulbs side by side and everything evenly spaced.

  Mrs. Brady led us to the kitchen, visiting and laughing while doling out bowls of steaming soup and slicing off thick hunks of homemade bread. She kept an eye on our bowls and glasses and as soon as something started to get low she’d jump up for refills. Matt’s dog ran back and forth under the table looking for scraps, and I pet her soft fur as she ran by.

  After my second bowl of soup, I pressed my hands to my stomach. “That really hit the spot on such a cold day,” I said and everyone agreed while Mrs. Brady beamed at us.

  “It’s my pleasure,” she said. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I need to start on the pies for Christmas dinner. You’re still joining us at my parent’s house, aren’t you Kristen?”

  Kristen nodded and shot a shy smile at Matt. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  I was surprised her parents were going to let her miss Christmas dinner but decided they probably saw the same look on her face that I did. She was in love.

  It took a few minutes to get back in the game when we went outside. It felt extra cold after being in the warm house, and we were all full. We started with a game of “horse” which was fine with me. I was pretty sure I’d get sick if I tried to do much running right now.

  I made a shot from half-way down the driveway.

  “Way to go!” Kristen yelled.

  “No way.” Matt grinned. “I think we need you on our team.”

  “What about me?” Kristen pretended to pout, batting her lashes with her hands on her hips.

  “Um, I’ve seen you shoot,” Matt teased her less than impressive stats, and she playfully pounded on his chest.

  Jace rebounded the ball and called out, “She cheated.”

  “What?�
� I shouted back, getting in his face. “How could I cheat?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged with a teasing smile. “But I’m sure you did.”

  “I did not! Give me that ball and I’ll do it again.” He held the ball above his head, and I grabbed his arm, trying to pull it down. The ball disappeared around his back, and I wrapped my arms around him trying to reach it. We were all laughing so hard it really wasn’t surprising that we didn’t hear Danny until he was standing right beside us.

  “What the hell is going on?” Danny stood in Matt’s front yard wearing his Wylie letterman’s jacket with a nice button down dress shirt peeking out the top. He wore dark blue jeans and brown dress shoes. Other than the rage on his face he looked dressed for a date.

  Chapter 15

  “Danny?” I spun around so fast I knocked into Jace. He reached out to steady me, and that’s when things went from bad to worse.

  “Get your hands off my girlfriend.” Danny’s voice was low and menacing. I felt Jace’s hands tighten on my arms before he released me and held them up.

  “It’s not what it looks like,” Jace said firmly.

  “Danny?” I said, staring at him as if unsure it was really him. “What are you doing here?”

  He tore his eyes from Jace to focus his anger on me. “I came to surprise you. I guess the surprise is on me.”

  “Hey, man,” Matt called, his voice light as he attempted to ease the building tension. “We’re just hanging out. Why don’t you come shoot some hoops with us?”

  Danny turned and strode back to his car with a shake of his head. He waved his hand in the air like he was out of there.

  “Wait!” I ran after him and grabbed his arm. He shrugged me off but stopped without turning. “I know how that looked, but Jace is just a friend. Let’s go to my house and talk about it. I’ve missed you so much.”

  I stared at Danny’s unmoving back. He was so still he could have been carved from the hardest of stone. I heard Kristen come up beside me and felt tears wetting my cheeks. I didn’t even know I’d started crying.