by Gina Ciocca
“You—what?” It took me a second to digest his statement. “Then what are you still doing with her? Were. Why were you still with her?”
“Marisa, I broke up with Kendall months ago. She wouldn’t accept it, so maybe in her mind, we were still together, but whatever she hired you to catch me doing, it wasn’t cheating. Up until the other day, we were still hanging out, trying to make it work as friends. Because I didn’t have proof that she took advantage of me or swiped the keys, and I didn’t want to completely cut her out of my life. I do care about her, despite what you think.”
My posture stiffened. I wanted to ask, Then why did you kiss me? But I wasn’t about to do it in front of Eli.
So even though his statement sat rotting in my stomach, I didn’t touch it.
I said, “Kendall called me the morning after…the morning after you gave me my bracelet.” His eyes held mine, acknowledging what else happened that day. “And she told me you broke up with her.”
“I did, in a way. I told her I didn’t think we should see each other at all anymore. She kept making it clear that she wanted to get back together, even though I kept making it clear that wasn’t happening. How could I, without knowing if she’s been lying to my face?”
“No,” I said, more to myself than to him. “She’s competitive, but she’s not desperate. She’d die if she got caught doing something like that.”
TJ’s lips thinned and his jaw hardened. “She hasn’t been caught.”
“Yet,” Eli said pointedly.
“Are you telling me you’re trying to trap her?” My eyes widened as something finally clicked. “Holy crap, you’re Hood Boy!”
Eli laughed and flipped the hood of his sweatshirt up over his baseball cap. “At your service.”
I spun back to TJ, trying to ignore the flutter in my belly when he looked at me through those dark lashes. Now was not the time to get all hot and bothered—not that it had ever been.
“After Mr. Katz accused me of tampering with his tests, Eli told me he saw Kendall coming out of his classroom after school,” TJ said. “I was at work and Mr. Katz was at track, so the room should have been locked. When Eli mentioned it in front of Kendall, she said she’d been taking a makeup test but she got so…weird. I don’t even know if I can explain it, but we’ve been suspicious ever since. The more I thought about it, the more I think she took my keys, stole the data, and put the keys back before I ever noticed. I think she wanted me to take the fall. Eli’s been trying to prove it.”
“Prove it how?”
Eli’s heel bounced against the floor. “I’m trying to find people who cheated and get them to talk, which is a lot harder than it sounds.”
“But don’t you go to Templeton?”
He and TJ exchanged a look. “I’m not what you’d call the most popular kid in school. I only transferred there because my mom remarried.”
“And his stepbrother is a jackass. Another jerk who can’t handle new people on his turf. So it’s not exactly shocking that Eli got framed too.”
I turned back to Eli. “You did?”
“Not for cheating,” Eli said. “My asshole stepbrother set me up. Took me to the school one night with a few cans of spray paint like we were gonna bond writing graffiti or some shit, then calls the cops and takes off laughing like a little bitch.”
“And so…you and TJ bonded over your false accusations?”
His chin jutted in TJ’s direction. “T covered for me. Told the cops I was there to meet him about a project and the paint was part of it. He had my back, and now I’ve got his.”
I looked at TJ, slightly dizzy from the back-and-forth. “What were you doing at the school then?”
He’d wound the pillow thread so tightly around his pointer finger that the tip had turned purple. “I was working on a project. I used to write for the school paper, and I’d borrowed the digital media department’s camera to take pictures of the campus earlier for this big story about Templeton’s fiftieth anniversary. After I got home, I realized I’d lost one of the lenses, and there was no way I was blowing my money to replace it. So I went back to find it. Guess I was in the right place at the right time.” Coming from TJ, it didn’t surprise me at all that he’d refer to accidental involvement in vandalism as a good thing. “It was bad enough that the teachers all looked at me like I should’ve had a giant scarlet C on my chest for cheater. I didn’t want to see Eli get blamed for something he didn’t do.”
“Okay.” I nodded, trying to process everything they’d told me. “I guess my next question is, why all the secret meetings? Don’t you two believe in cell phones?”
As if on cue, Eli’s phone rang in the pocket of his jeans. He pulled it out and, looking at the screen, announced, “I gotta jet.” He rose from his chair and put the phone back in his pocket without answering it. “I’m supposed to be grounded and Mom’s gonna kill me if I’m not doing homework when she gets home.”
“All right, man.” TJ extended his hand, which Eli grasped for a bro handshake.
“Later, Marisa. Nice meeting you.” Eli stopped to shake my hand too. He held it a beat too long, and half his mouth quirked up into a grateful, crooked-toothed grin. “I’m glad TJ has someone else in his corner.”
With that, he let go and bounded down the stairs.
“To answer your question,” TJ said, “Eli’s mom keeps tight reins on his internet and cell phone usage. He’s spent some time with the wrong crowds, and even though he’s cleaned up his act, it’s her way of making sure it stays clean. Meeting in person eliminates a lot of prying ears and eyes.” He looked at me and snorted. “Or so we thought.”
I sat back, letting all this information sink in. My head spun with it. So much so that I hadn’t even asked Eli about the heart in his car. But it didn’t seem important anymore, not compared to what they’d told me about Kendall. She’d flat-out lied to me, and she’d possibly driven TJ out of Templeton. The Kendall I knew was competitive and, yes, a little manipulative. But I didn’t want to believe she was capable of something as awful as this, because if she was, then that meant…
It all came together in my head and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made the connection sooner.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Kendall’s the one who stole the information from Mrs. Pace’s laptop.” I looked at TJ, expecting him to appear angry at Kendall’s deceit or even smug at my blindness.
What I didn’t expect was the look of total disgust on his face.
“Or maybe someone gave it to her?” he leered.
I blinked. “You think Jordan is in on this?”
“Don’t you think it’s a little convenient that she’s rubbing elbows with the chemistry teacher’s son? Kendall’s very good at getting what she wants from people.”
“You really think Jordan would just hand over his mother’s lesson plans?”
TJ stuffed the pillow into the corner of the couch. “God, Marisa, you really have no clue when it comes to him, do you? It didn’t occur to you for one second that he might have something to do with it, did it?” He stood up and threw his hands in the air. “Why would it? You’re never going to be over him.”
I sat there shell-shocked, tripping over my own tongue. “I am over him,” I finally managed. “And—and you’re one to talk, keeping Kendall in your back pocket on the off chance that you might be wrong about her.”
TJ looked at the floor and scraped the toe of his boot against it. “All things considered, it didn’t seem important,” he mumbled.
“Ugh! You’re just like the rest of those guys, aren’t you? She’s a person, not a minor freaking detail.”
I hadn’t realized how much I wanted him to be different from other guys I was asked to investigate. How much I needed him to be the exception to the rule. Because if he wasn’t, then maybe one didn’t exist.
“I broke up with Kendall long before
I asked you to the dance, and things were rocky between us a long time before that. I didn’t do anything wrong.” TJ’s eyebrows drew together. “Whose side are you on here?”
I massaged my temples, suddenly exhausted. “I don’t know. Not Jordan’s.”
“I saw the two of you at the Templeton game. I was there meeting Eli, and I saw you.” He pushed his hands into his pockets and turned away from me, but not quickly enough to hide the darkness in his eyes and the disappointed set of his lips. He was hurt.
Because he liked me. A lot.
“Nothing happened between us at the Templeton game.”
He turned back to me, his forehead creased with indignation. “We both know where it was going if Charlie hadn’t interrupted.”
White-hot embarrassment flushed through me. My mouth opened and closed. I knew what Jordan had intended to do, but he hadn’t done it. I’d never stopped to think about an alternate ending.
“That’s not fair. You’re making assumptions about something that never happened.”
“What if it had?” His eyes bored into mine. “Tell me the truth. What would you have done if Jordan kissed you that night?”
I pressed my lips together, feeling heat climb up my neck. Could I honestly say I would’ve pulled away? Would I have kissed back? Would I have fallen into his trap again, or would I have realized he wasn’t the one I wanted to kiss anymore? It didn’t matter, because it hadn’t happened.
And I’d come to that realization on my own.
I stood up, moving closer to TJ until I stood right in front of him. I looked up at him and lifted my hands to let my fingertips linger at his rib cage. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if he kissed me that night,” I murmured, gently tugging his shirt around my fingers. “But I know what I’d do if you kissed me right now.”
His hands came up to wrap around mine, enveloping them in warmth. His thumbs slid against my palms, gently massaging the insides of my hands, and he exhaled that delicious cinnamon-and-chamomile scent that turned my insides to pudding.
Detaching me from his shirt, he pressed my fingertips against his bottom lip. “I’m not going to,” he said softly. “I think we both have some things to figure out before this goes any further.”
“But I—”
The sound of the barn door banging open interrupted my protest. Our heads turned at the same time and in two seconds flat, six feet of space had grown between us. Too late though.
Kendall looked up at us from the main floor, her arms folded across the chest of her camel-colored coat, making its white, furry collar bunch up against her jawline.
“What are you doing here?” she sneered at me.
“What are you doing here?” TJ countered.
She kept her eyes on me as if he hadn’t even spoken. “I have no idea why I’m surprised that you decided not to take me up on my offer. It’s not like I expect you to care about my side of the story after what you did to me.”
I had no idea what offer she meant, and I didn’t care. I gripped the loft railing and glared down at her. “What I did to you?” My knuckles turned white with the effort of restraining myself from saying more. There were so many accusations I wanted to throw at her, so much venom I wanted to spew until her honey-golden locks dripped with it. But I knew if I ever planned to get to the bottom of her deception once and for all, I had to control myself. I gritted my teeth. “And what offer are you talking about?”
This time, it was me she ignored. Giving both of us a derisive once-over, she told TJ, “I hope she’s worth it.” Then she turned and stormed out of the barn.
31
Something inside me snapped as I watched her self-righteous ass flounce out the door. The nerve of her, talking about what I’d done to her after she’d spearheaded a worldwide smear campaign against me, for crying out loud. She’d tried to ruin my life, and possibly TJ’s and Charlie’s lives too. Who the hell did she think she was?
I took off like a racehorse out of the gate, bolting down the stairs so fast that they shook. Pure adrenaline pumped my legs and I shot out of the door seconds behind Kendall.
“Kendall!”
She didn’t turn around. “Fuck off, Marisa.”
That did it. I launched myself at her back with kung fu skills I never knew I had, and we landed in the snow with a thud and a yelp.
“Get off me!” Kendall screeched, wriggling onto her back like a wild animal beneath my weight. I shoved her shoulders into the ground, not caring that the snow seeped through the knees of my jeans as I pinned her.
“Where did you get those pictures of Jordan and me?” I yelled in her face.
“Get off me, you bitch!”
She flailed an arm free and smacked me in the face, catching fingerfuls of hair and knocking my knit cap cockeyed in the process. I grabbed her wrist and rammed it back to the ground. Two red streaks appeared on her cheek when she scratched her own face trying to fight it.
“Tell me where you got them! And then tell me you’re taking that site down or I swear to God, you’re going to regret it!”
“Stop!” The sound of pounding footfalls met my ears seconds before hands swooped down and pulled me off Kendall like a bird snatching a fish out of water.
“Let go of me!” I shouted at TJ, bucking and flinging myself in every direction, but he wrapped his arms around me and held fast. “Did you have something to do with Charlie being framed?” I demanded as Kendall scrambled to her feet. “Did you?”
“You are insane!” She smacked at the snow on her clothes and tried to flip her matted hair away from her face, but it stuck to her cheeks in wet, dirty clumps.
“If you had anything to do with it, I swear to God I’ll find out. I’ll ruin you, Kendall, I swear it.” I made one more attempt to lunge at her, but TJ’s arms stayed locked around my shoulders.
“Go ahead and try, Marisa.” She clawed at the snow by her feet, then hurled a snowball at my face. “You’re already fucking ruined.”
Then she turned and stomped toward her car, leaving the remains of our friendship to melt away with the snow.
• • •
TJ didn’t let go of me until Kendall had revved her engine and sped away.
“What the hell were you thinking?” He dropped my arms. I hadn’t stopped squirming and promptly fell on my butt. For a moment, we stared at each other, breathing hard. He leaned down and picked up my hat, which had fallen off sometime after Kendall’d whacked me, and held out his other hand to help me up.
“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching for his hand and brushing myself off. “I couldn’t help it. I can’t believe how selfish she is.”
“We still don’t know how much of what we talked about is true. Thank God you didn’t say more. I don’t want her to know I’m looking for answers about what happened to me.”
“Not that I’d throw you under the bus, but what difference does it make now?”
TJ frowned. “I already broke up with her and hooked up with her friend. If it turns out she’s innocent, why add insult to injury?”
I snatched my hat back and jammed it on my head, dirt, wetness, and all. “We didn’t hook up. We kissed. And unless you blabbed, she doesn’t even know about that part. I’m done protecting her, and you should be too.”
He hooked his thumbs into his belt loops and hunched his shoulders. Whether it was the cold or a gesture of apology, I couldn’t tell.
“You of all people should understand wanting to give someone the benefit of the doubt.”
So we were back to Jordan again. I rolled my eyes. “Do I have to remind you that you and Jordan are on that website right next to me?”
“Of course not.” He scratched his head and dug the heel of his work boot into the snow. “What offer was she talking about?”
“I don’t know,” I said as I rolled my sleeves back to keep the moisture off m
y skin. “I was more interested in beating the crap out of her than finding out.”
To my surprise, TJ smiled. And then chuckled. “I’ll deny saying this later, but that was kind of hot.”
I couldn’t not smile back. Except when I did, his eyes dropped to the ground and the grin dropped off his face. So much for that.
“Yeah, well, it doesn’t feel so hot right now,” I said. “I’d better get home and wash these clothes.”
I started toward my car, but TJ called after me. “Marisa?”
I turned around.
“I’ll keep you posted if Eli finds anything, okay?”
“Sounds good.” I resumed crunching through the snow, but only took a few steps before I turned again. “TJ?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m assuming your invitation to the winter formal is recalled?”
He rocked on his heels. “It’s not that I don’t want to go with you, Marisa, but I don’t think—”
I cut him off. “Don’t worry about it. I just realized I never gave you an answer. For the record, it would’ve been yes.”
I didn’t wait for a response before finishing the trek to my car. I had bigger fish to fry at the moment. I understood that TJ still felt some twisted tether of loyalty to Kendall, but I’d had enough. It was one thing to mess with me, but if she thought she could mess with my friends and get away with it, she had another thing coming.
I took out my phone and went to text Kendall, but found she’d beaten me to it. When I looked at her message, I finally knew what “offer” she’d been talking about:
Stay away from TJ and I’ll explain everything.
I snorted. That sounded more like a threat than an offer, and I wasn’t impressed. I hit reply. The message was short and not so sweet:
Take down the website or I’m taking you down.
32
I’d gone to bed that night with my mind racing, trying to figure out how I could put my so-called PI skills to use for a purpose other than catching cheaters. I was missing an important detail, something that should’ve been jumping out at me but wasn’t.