As she sat there between the couple, laughing so hard she was almost in tears, Annabelle could understand what Will saw in her. Ebony was beautiful, she was funny, she was well spoken, and clearly a leader. What wasn’t to like about her? Shame on her for being upset, when there was no reason to be upset her friend—they were friends, weren’t they?—had found someone so wonderful.
To make amends, she looked over at Will with a smile, startled to find him watching her. She straightened, caught off-guard as she gazed into his unwavering dark eyes. She nearly gasped when she heard Ebony’s voice, breaking their stare.
“Hey, Will,” Ebony drawled. She looked down at her watch. “It’s almost 3:00. Didn’t you want to get home by then?”
Annabelle looked back at Will, who was staring at Ebony flatly. Then he gave her a fake, bared-teeth smile. Clearly whatever he had to do at home he wasn’t looking forward to. Annabelle tried to recall if Trevor had said anything about their mother and Will, but nothing came to mind. “Thanks for the reminder,” he said, lifting himself to his feet. He hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder, started to head to the door, sighed, then turned back to Annabelle. “You came in with Trevor, right?”
She nodded, stunned. “Yeah.”
“Okay.” He turned back to the door.
“Oh, Will, don’t make her wait for Trevor!” Ebony exclaimed, frowning at Will. Annabelle looked over at her in disbelief. “Will can give you a ride. Send Trevor a text saying you got a ride home with someone else. It’s silly for you to wait around for an eternity.”
“Oh, I-I usually just do my homework in the library—“ she protested quickly, not wanting to inconvenience Will. He probably liked the time alone. More importantly, he seemed unusually annoyed about something, and it was making her uncomfortable.
“That’s boring. Will, I order you to take Annabelle home.” Ebony stood up from the retaining wall and crossed to Will’s side, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Annabelle had to look away, trying to force down the strange twisting sensation in her stomach. “Call me later,” she purred.
“Belle?” Will sighed.
She dutifully rose from the wall, smiling weakly at Ebony. “I’ll see you later,” she said.
“You bet,” Ebony confirmed, grinning.
Annabelle walked through the door Will held open, both of them silent as they made their way through the empty hallway. She fidgeted uncomfortably as she tried to figure out what she had done in the last half hour that could have caused such a dramatic change in Will. He’d been so sweet and charming yesterday… Was he angry she had invaded his circle? Was he mad Ebony had made him give her a ride home?
When he unlocked the passenger door and held it out for her, she hesitated. “I can get a ride home with Trevor,” she said uneasily. “I don’t mean to inconvenience you.”
She couldn’t meet his eyes, but she could feel his stare. “You mean inconvenience me by making me drive to the same place I was already going to go?” She looked up quickly, but his annoyance appeared to have faded, and a slightly teasing smile lifted the tone in his voice and relaxed his shoulders. “Get in the car, Belle.”
Relief washed over her and she flashed a grin back at him, sliding into the seat. He shut her door and climbed into the driver’s side.
“I finished Elmer Gantry,” she told him, as he started driving.
“Yeah? What’d you think?”
“I thought it was amazing and insightful.” She smiled over at him. “Thank you for loaning it to me.” He flashed back a charming grin that made her heart skip, surprising her. Nervous at the sudden beating in her heart, she went on quickly. “If you want to come in, I have it and your shirts all washed and cleaned for you.” She paused, then shook her head, even more flustered. “I mean, I have the shirts washed and cleaned. Not the book. The book’s fine.”
Will laughed and looked over at her. “You had me worried about you and books for a second there.”
She blushed and made a face at him, which just made him laugh more, and she couldn’t resist joining him. She relaxed back in the seat, feeling herself start to calm down. This was Will. He was a good looking guy, but he was her friend. That was all.
“Are you going to Homecoming?” she asked, looking over at him.
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Are you kidding?” he asked back.
She frowned, caught off-guard by his tone. “No. Your brother is the quarterback, and it’s going to be his last game at our school. I thought maybe you’d want to go and support him.”
Will didn’t say anything for a moment. “You mean the homecoming game.”
“Yes.” Surprised, she looked over at him, then laughed as she caught on to his clarification. “Did you think I meant the dance? No. I couldn’t exactly picture you at a school dance, all dressed up in a tuxedo.”
He made a face at her. “I can wear a tuxedo,” he objected.
She laughed again, trying to picture Will in a tuxedo. The thought was so foreign she couldn’t even conjure the image in her mind. “I’m sure you’re fully capable of it. But actually wearing it… for an entire night… It just doesn’t seem you.”
“Not like you, right? Happy to be all dressed up in some fancy gown like a princess?”
She frowned and straightened at the insult. “I like dressing up,” she argued. “What’s wrong with wanting to look nice and get to feel like a princess once in a while?”
Will looked over at her. “Reality?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, scowling. “I think it’s fun,” she insisted. “We’ll never have chances like these again in the future. Why not enjoy them now while we can?”
“Why not get lobotomies while we can, too?” he countered, rolling his eyes.
“What do you object to about dances?” she asked sharply. “You get to dress up, look nice, go out to dinner with your friends, dance, have your picture taken, and have a great time.”
He snorted derisively. “You just named everything I hate about them.”
“You hate having a great time?” she returned, surprised at her anger.
He slammed on the brake at a red light and faced her. “Why don’t you just call it like it is?” he snapped. “It’s fun to dress up and pretend to be someone you’re not for a night.”
Her face flamed. “And you?” she demanded. “You just don’t want to show up in an uncomfortable tuxedo and risk being ridiculed by your classmates for coming to an event that doesn’t fit in with your image!”
There was silence as they glared at each other. Annabelle’s heart pounded furiously in her chest as she stared into his flashing dark eyes, refusing to look away. She didn’t think she’d ever really yelled at anyone like that before. She wasn’t one to attack when someone said something nasty to her. She usually just looked away and tried to say something nice. And yet she didn’t want to back down. She didn’t want to let him get away with accusing her of something without pointing out his own motives.
Behind them, a car honked its horn loudly, and Will spun in his seat, slamming on the gas. Flustered, she crossed her arms and glared out the window, her mind racing. Will would probably never have this kind of argument with Ebony. Ebony probably hated school dances as much as he did.
They finished the drive in silence, and before Will could get her bag, she retrieved it herself. “Thanks for the ride,” she snapped, throwing open the door.
“Anytime,” he returned sarcastically.
She slammed the door on him and stalked up to her house. She slammed the front door shut behind her, too, hoping Will would hear it in the street. Then she stormed up to her room, threw her bag on her floor, and sat on her bed, fuming.
And then an overwhelming sadness overcame her, and she buried her head in her pillows to muffle her tears.
Chapter Ten
It had been a bad week.
Claire had ignored her for two days for talking to “losers,” she’d failed both of her tests, she barely saw Trevor because they had
stepped up football training, and whenever she and Will saw each other in the hallway they glared at each other.
So even though she wanted to just curl up into a ball on her bed and lay there until she had to get up for school the next morning, on Thursday night she dutifully joined the other girls at Claudia’s house to get ready for the homecoming carnival. They were all wearing black and gold outfits—the school’s colors—and hers was made up of a black mini skirt, a gold tank top, and a black sweater. Claire wrote “09” in black and gold on her cheekbone, Trevor’s jersey number, and Erin had curled her ponytail and wrapped black and gold ribbons around it. The other girls were dressed in similar outfits, and around nine when the boys arrived they were finally ready to go.
She forced herself to laugh along with the others when the boys all failed at being able to ring the bell on the sledgehammer game, and tried to fake enthusiasm when she and Trevor shot water into clown’s mouths to make the balloons behind them explode. He won, and she received a tiny stuffed dog out of the deal.
She was starving, and jealous of all of the people walking around with corndogs and fries. Carnival food was the best tasting food, but even suggesting carnival fries would have earned herself a one-way ticket right out of their group. So instead she just held Trevor’s hand, miserably drinking her watery soda.
Everyone else seemed to be having so much fun it almost made her sick. Just thinking about how long it would be until she could lay down in bed and sleep made her even more exhausted. Why was she the only one who didn’t think Parker making derogatory, sexual comments at Erin was funny? Why was she the only one who didn’t think it was hilarious when Zach tripped into a garbage can and spilled his soda everywhere? Had she always been so boring?
No. It couldn’t be. She used to think her friends were fun. She was just tired. It had been a rough week, and it was catching up with her. As soon as she got a good night’s rest, she would be back to normal.
When Malcolm won a stuffed crocodile at the ring toss game and the girls all started begging for it, offering to trade a kiss for the toy, Annabelle had to excuse herself. She received several stares of disbelief as she headed to the bathroom alone—it was unheard of to go without at least two other girls—but she needed to get some air. She didn’t actually need to use the restroom, she was just exhausted trying to maintain appearances, and no one seemed to notice, or care.
“Annabelle!”
She turned at her name, grinning despite it all when she recognized Ebony. Her briefly uplifted mood quickly soured when she saw Will standing beside her. She frowned at him as their eyes met, meeting his glare head-on.
“Come here!” Ebony called, waving her over. “Will’s about to win me the really big duck.”
Reluctantly, Annabelle headed over, looking down at the large duck Ebony was holding. It was the milk bottle throw… None of the guys in her group had been able to knock down any of them, but apparently Will was faring better.
Annabelle watched as Will drew back the baseball, his eyes focused on the milk bottles, and then sent the ball flying forward, knocking all three down. She gaped at him in disbelief, even as Ebony let out a squeal of delight and handed over the large duck for an even larger duck, bigger around than she was.
“Now get something for Annabelle,” Ebony ordered.
“No, I don’t need anything,” Annabelle assured her quickly, forcing a smile. “Thanks, though.”
Ebony waved a hand at her. “Don’t be silly. Will, pay the man.”
Before Will could snap back something nasty, Annabelle broke in. “Really. Don’t bother. I need to get back, anyway. Trevor already got me something. He was just holding it for me while I went to the restroom.”
“Annabelle?”
She froze, her eyes falling shut. Of all people to find her here… Why did it have to be Claire? She turned slowly, forcing a smile, even more horrified to discover her entire group of friends behind her.
“Hi,” she greeted breathlessly, taking in the accusing looks on their faces. Only Trevor appeared confused. “Ebony was just showing me the stuffed animal Will won for her.” She turned to look up at Trevor. “Did you know your brother had such a good arm?”
He looked genuinely astonished, a disbelieving look on his face. “No,” he said, almost uncertainly, lifting his eyes from hers to look up at Will.
“Well, if you’re done, can we go? I want to ride some rides.” From her tone, Claire wasn’t just mad… she was furious. She eyed the game they stood in front of with a sneer. “All these things are rigged anyway… so it’s not really a testament of skill.”
Annabelle felt her slumped shoulders straighten at the insult to Will’s abilities. “I thought it took more skill when the games were rigged?” she offered airily, in a tone she didn’t even know she possessed. She knew it well—the other girls often used it when they wanted to disagree with each other without starting an argument—but she had never used it before. She had never felt the need to. But somehow, hearing the scorn in Claire’s voice about what Will had accomplished made her burn with anger.
Claire stared at her, but she returned the look with deliberately wide, innocent eyes. Claire suddenly laughed. “Who knows,” she agreed, stepping forward and linking her arm through Annabelle’s. “Let’s go, though. You have to sit with me on the Octopus. That thing scares me to death.”
Annabelle paused, looking back at Will and Ebony, who were staring at them. “I like it,” she said to Ebony, smiling apologetically, hoping that she would understand.
Ebony just stared back at her.
It was hard to finish out the carnival. Claire wouldn’t let go of her for the remainder of the night—literally. Even when Annabelle really did have to go to the bathroom, Claire went with her. Between trying to be a good girlfriend to Trevor, hiding how miserable she felt, and having Claire attached to her like a fly on flypaper, by the end of the night she was so frazzled all she wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep for the rest of the weekend.
The tap on her window scared her straight up out of bed. Wide-eyed, her adrenaline pumping, she pulled apart her curtains to reveal Will sitting on the tree limb outside her window, his face almost completely hidden in the shadows.
She quickly pushed the window open, her heart pounding. “Will?” she whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“Ebony asked me to give you something,” he said softly, sliding into her room. She stepped back to allow him access.
“What?” she asked, bewildered. Couldn’t her skirt have waited until Monday instead of the dead of night, terrifying her half-to-death?
He reached back out through the window and emerged with a large blue duck. “This,” he said, handing it to her.
She took it slowly, stunned. “Her duck?” she asked softly. It was soft and plush, and so large she couldn’t hold it in both arms without squeezing it. She hugged it to herself, feeling tears in her eyes. She knew the gesture meant Ebony was saying everything was okay, but she slowly shook her head, holding it back out to him. “I-I can’t. You won it for her. I can’t take it.”
“No, I didn’t.” Will gently pushed it back at her. “She made me get you one, too.”
She was grateful for the darkness that covered the tears sliding down her cheeks as she hugged the duck to herself. It was large and silly, but it was one of the best presents she had ever received. “Will you tell her thank you for me?” she asked softly, her voice thick with tears in the silent night around them.
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.” She trembled in the cold air and searched for her robe, but Will was already at the chair in the corner of her room, where she had placed his folded shirts. She watched in disbelief as he picked up the white one and unbuttoned it, bringing it back to her. She knew it was wrong, but she was glad she was wearing her pale pink satin tank top and matching shorts. The pajamas were very cute, even sexy, and as she set the duck down on the bed and allowed Will to bring the shirt around her, the air between them
grew thick and warm.
He drew her slowly into his arms, but she almost sobbed as she leaned into him, holding him as tightly as she could. His embrace was warm, strong, and dependable, just like Will. It surrounded her, protecting her.
When had she come to depend on Will so much?
She didn’t know how long they stood there in each other’s arms, but if she could have, she would have fallen asleep without letting him go. All the bad things from the past week—all the catty fights, vicious rumors, constant pretending—just seemed to fade away when she was with him. Will let her be herself, and forgave her even when she was downright cruel to him. Wasn’t that really why he had come into her room? To make amends?
Slowly, he released her, and she forced herself to do the same, though she really just wanted to continue to cling to him. “I need to get in,” he said, nodding at his room. He offered a light smile. “My mom likes to check on me in the early morning hours to make sure I actually came home.”
She smiled, feeling better than she had all week. “Yeah,” she agreed. She watched as he easily slid out of her window and onto the branch, making his way back to his room. She knelt down in front of her window and called out, “Will?”
He paused with one foot in his window and looked back at her.
“Thank you.”
He flashed her a smile, and then he was in his room.
Chapter Eleven
Annabelle cheered at the top of her lungs as the football players came running out onto the field. Below the bleachers of the packed stadium, Claire and the other cheerleaders waved their pompoms at the players and the crowd, inciting them to scream louder.
Annabelle felt a surge of happiness go through her as her eyes landed on Trevor’s jersey. She cheered as loudly as she could, hoping he would be able to hear her through the audience’s deafening cries.
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