“Insult me. That should help your cause.” She scoffs at me.
“I didn’t mean to insult you. I’m only trying to show you that we’re best friends because we get each other. We always have. Until now.”
“Yeah, because you went behind my back. God, Becca, you did this. You have no right to accuse me of anything.”
Accuse her? “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You’re going to say my rule is stupid. That I never should’ve enforced it. That none of this would’ve happened if I’d let you be friends with Toby in the first place.”
“You think I blame you?”
She stares at me, her eyes red and full of tears. “Don’t you?”
“No.” I step toward her, but she backs away. “I blame myself. I should’ve been honest with you, but I thought that would only hurt you. I thought maybe if you saw how much Toby and I care about each other, you’d see the rule wasn’t necessary. But I was wrong. I shouldn’t have tried to prove you wrong. I should’ve just talked to you like my best friend.”
“You need to go.”
“No, Tori. Please.” I thought we were making progress. Why is she kicking me out?
“I’m done.”
“But I’m not. I don’t want to lose you or Toby. Can’t you see that?”
She nods and the tears spill from her eyes. “You just don’t get it. I can’t. I can’t be second to him, but I can see I already am. So I’m done.” She turns and walks out on me. I hear her car start in the driveway and watch out the window as she drives away. I drove her out of her own house.
***
“You tried. I appreciate that.” Toby sits on my bed, fidgeting with his hands.
“I really thought I was getting somewhere. She cried. She broke down, and I thought maybe she was going to forgive me or at least tell me that with time she’d get used to us being together.”
“Stop thinking about it. It’s over.”
I sit down next to him and lean my head on his shoulder. “It can’t be.”
“Then why is it?” He kisses my forehead. “Look, after Friday, I’ll understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore.”
I jerk my head up. “What?”
“You don’t have to go down with me. There’s no reason to let this lie bury both of us.”
I shake my head and swallow the lump in my throat. Leaving Toby after this kind of accusation will make him look guilty. I’m not about to do that. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve waited seventeen years for us to be together. Meredith isn’t taking you away from me.”
He looks down at the floor. “If she goes through with it, I’m asking my parents to send me to my aunt’s.”
“To live?” I squeeze my pillow in my hands to keep from jumping out of my skin.
He nods.
“You’re just going to leave?” That would look like he was admitting his guilt.
“What choice will I have? No one here is going to talk to me.”
“I will.”
He frowns, and I get it. I’m not enough to pull him through this. Having one person on your side when the rest of the town is against you isn’t enough. I feel sick to my stomach.
“I—”
“I’m sorry, Becca. I wish I could say I’m sorry I kissed you that day in my room when I started all of this, but the truth is, I wouldn’t take back one second of the time we’ve spent together.”
I break down and cry. If he hadn’t kissed me, he wouldn’t be in this mess, yet he wouldn’t take it back. How can the universe let Meredith Ackles, bitch supreme, take down someone as sweet as Toby? “It’s not fair.”
“We still have two and a half days together. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend them with you in my arms than worrying about Meredith. Friday’s going to come no matter what we do. We can’t change it.”
I’m not sure what he’s actually asking me. Is this about sex? Because I can’t sleep with him knowing he’s going to leave and never come back. “I can’t.”
“That’s not what I meant. I really just want to hold you.”
“Oh.” I feel guilty for even thinking he’d use the situation to get sex. In a way that made me no better than Meredith, and that’s not what he needs right now. “I’m sorry.”
“If you don’t even believe me, I’m really screwed.”
“I do believe you.”
He nods, but I can tell it’s not sincere. I lean back on my bed and pull him to me. Instead of kissing me, he lays his head on my stomach. I run my fingers through his hair. We stay like that, not talking, not doing anything but holding each other, until my dad makes him go home for the night.
I barely sleep, and first thing in the morning, I text Tori.
Becca: Please, think about what I said. Meredith is going to accuse Toby at the pep rally. Forget about forgiving me. Don’t let her destroy your brother.
I wait, but no reply comes. I’m not surprised. Toby and I hold hands between classes and do all the things he swore made couples get tired of each other. And he initiates all of it. I know he’s not trying to make me get tired of him. He just wants to be together as much as possible before he leaves. I don’t ask how he’ll convince his parents to let him move in with his aunt. I kind of assume once they hear the rumor, they’ll understand and want him to move away. I just hope they don’t believe a word of it. I hope they know their son is one of the good guys.
I skip my afternoon classes, choosing to hide out with Toby on the bleachers. The gym classes haven’t started coming outside yet, so no one catches us until last period when the security cop does his rounds in the parking lot and hauls us into Vice Principal Davidson’s office.
“Well?” Davidson drums his fingers together in front of his face. “Which one of you would like to explain why you felt the need to cut your afternoon classes and sit on the cold bleachers for hours?”
Neither of us says a word. I don’t want to make this worse. I just want my detention because that’s more time I can be with Toby.
“Fine. Since neither of you wants to talk, it’s a week of detention for you both. Mr. Michaels, that means you’ll have detention all of next week as well. And I’ll be calling both of your parents.”
Wonderful. Mom and Dad are going to ground me for at least a month, and I’m sure they’ll put an end to Toby tutoring me too.
Davidson looks back and forth between us. “Go. I don’t want to see either of you right now. Just know I’m highly disappointed. A few weeks ago, neither of you had any prior infractions, not a one. Now, you’ve both gone off the deep end.” He shakes his head and waves us out of his office. “Just go. I can’t look at you anymore.” I refrain from telling him that he’ll be seeing us in about ten minutes when detention starts.
Toby walks me to my locker. “Sorry I got you in trouble.”
“Are you kidding? It was my idea. I wanted to get detention.”
“Why?” His brow wrinkles.
“To be with you. I’m not losing a second with you.”
He takes my hand in his and kisses the back of it. “I don’t even know what to say except you’re amazing.”
Every moment with him feels like a good-bye. Maybe because I know that’s where we’re headed. To a good-bye.
Davidson separates us the second we walk through the door, so we’re reduced to texting and staring at each other for the hour.
Toby: I probably shouldn’t come over tonight, huh?
Damn it. I can’t let my parents keep me from seeing him. We don’t have much time left together.
Becca: Yes, you should. Just wait until after my parents go to sleep.
Toby: Sneak in?
Becca: Why not? I’m already grounded. What’s the worst that can happen?
Toby: I hate that I’m making you into this person who lies and sneaks around. I never wanted this.
I look over at him and sigh.
Becca: You didn’t. And like you, I wouldn’t take it back.
Toby: I love yo
u.
Becca: I love you too.
After detention, I go home and face two hours of my parents’ screaming. I tune them out after about thirty minutes. I can only take so much of “We’re so disappointed in your lack of judgment. What would make you think it was okay to skip class for a boy?” I can’t tell them the truth. They’ll end up making me break up with Toby. They’re too overprotective to blindly accept Meredith’s accusation as a lie.
When they’re through yelling, I go to my room and lock the door. I text Toby.
Becca: Come now.
Toby: Already here. Parked next door.
Becca: At Meredith’s?
Is he crazy?
Toby: Tried to reason with her one last time.
Becca: Any luck?
I hold my breath, waiting for his response.
Toby: None. Give me a second to move my car down the road so no one sees it.
I unlock my window and open it all the way. Toby comes walking up the driveway, barely visible in the dark. He climbs the tree in front of the house and slips in the window.
“You made that look easy.”
“I was determined.” And most likely fueled by rage after talking to Meredith.
“What did Meredith say?”
“She gave me an option.”
I perk up for a second. “What was it?” I’ll take just about anything over what she has planned.
“She wants me to publicly dump you and promise to stay away from you for good.”
With all the secrets and all the lies, I should’ve expected this, but it doesn’t hurt any less because I know what Toby needs to do. I won’t let Meredith ruin him because of me. My heart clenches as I look into his eyes and say, “Then do it.”
Chapter 28
“No way. I’m not humiliating you in front of everyone, and I’m not going back to sneaking around. I don’t want her to have this kind of control over me for the rest of my life. She’ll back off for now if I go through with this, but the next time I piss her off, she’ll threaten me with it again. I’m not going to be her bitch.”
“Then tell her you’re going to do it. Friday. At the pep rally. Only we’ll out her instead. We’ll tell everyone how she threatened us. How she made you pretend to date her. We’ll expose her for a liar before she can say anything.”
“What if she tells everyone anyway? Some people may still believe her. I don’t exactly have a big following anymore.”
Once again, I know Tori could fix this. People would believe her over Meredith. But she won’t help us. She probably wants to see us suffer as much as Meredith does. “This is our only option, unless you do what Meredith asked.”
“No.” He reaches for me and pulls me to him. “I’m not breaking up with you.”
I lean my head back and find his lips. His kiss is hungry. His hands are in my hair and then running up and down my back. He pulls me closer, but I back us up to the bed.
“What are you doing?” he asks when we’re lying on the mattress. “I’m not asking for this. I’m sorry if I got a little carried away just now, but this isn’t what I was trying to—”
I press my finger to his lips. “I know. I just thought we’d be more comfortable here.”
He smiles, and I lower my finger to kiss him again. We’re a tangle of limbs as he kisses my mouth, my jaw, and my neck. I have to stifle a few moans. The last thing I need is Dad breaking down the door. Finally at about midnight, Toby lies flat on his back, and I put my head on his chest. We fall asleep in each other’s arms.
He’s gone when I wake up in the morning, but he left me a text.
Toby: Telling Meredith before school. Hope this works. I love you.
Becca: Good luck. I love you too.
It’s Thursday. Our last day together if our plan doesn’t work. While Toby is talking to Meredith, I make one last attempt to talk to Tori. She’s at her locker with Ryder. Ryder nods to me when I come up behind Tori.
“Can I have a minute alone with Tori, please?”
She turns to look at me and slams her locker shut. “No.” She loops her arm through Ryder’s, but he doesn’t move.
“This is ridiculous. Toby is my best friend, and I haven’t even talked to him since your party. Becca’s your friend, and you haven’t talked to her either. Personally, I think it would be great to all hang out together, like we did at your house that night. So can’t you two just suck it up, do whatever girl-bonding thing you need to, and get over this?” He kisses the top of Tori’s head and walks away.
“Bastard,” she says, looking after him.
“Actually, he’s a pretty great boyfriend. He wants you to be happy. So do I.”
“Is that why you snuck around with my brother? Because you thought it would make me happy?” She starts toward class, but I grab her arm and pull her into the girls’ bathroom. “Let go of me, Becca. I’m not in the mood to listen to you.”
“Yeah, well, after tomorrow’s pep rally, you may never have to listen to me or Toby again.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “What are you talking about?” She obviously deleted my text without even reading it, because this is news to her.
“That’s when Meredith is going to make her announcement. That is unless Toby publicly dumps me instead.”
A smile creeps across her lips.
“Yeah, I know you’d love that, but what’s going to stop Meredith from making her announcement some other time when Toby gets on her bad side again? You can’t possibly want that for him, Tori.”
“Look, I’m sorry if things didn’t work out the way you and my brother planned, but it’s not my problem. You chose this. If you’re smart, you’ll tell Toby to dump you. Save you both some pain and suffering. Cut your losses and find some new friends.” She walks out, taking all my hope with her.
Toby’s leaning against my locker when I get there. “Any luck?” I ask.
“I told her I’d do it. She seemed happy about it.”
“I talked to Tori again.”
He stands up straight. “I can imagine how well that went.”
We don’t say another word about it for the rest of the day. We have to stick to our plan and hope for the best. Toby comes over again at night after my parents are asleep, and we make out like there’s no tomorrow because I don’t want there to be one. But before I know it, the sun is up. Only this morning, I’m still in Toby’s arms.
“You stayed.”
“I couldn’t make myself leave.” He must be just as worried as I am that our plan isn’t going to work.
“So, are you ready to dump me?”
“Not even close.”
I roll over onto my stomach so I can look him in the eyes. “Listen to me. If our plan doesn’t work, I want you to break up with me. Give Meredith what she wants. I won’t let you move away. I’d rather give you up than see your life ruined.”
“I never bought into that ‘if you love someone, let them go’ crap.”
“Well, I’m asking you to. For me.” He shakes his head, but I cup his face in my hands. “Promise me, Toby.”
“I hate this.”
“Believe me, so do I.”
I kiss him softly on the lips before I get ready for school and our possible breakup. The day flies by. It’s like time doesn’t exist anymore because all the seconds run into each other. And before I know it, they’re making the announcement to call everyone down to the gymnasium for the pep rally. Toby finds me in the hall and pulls me into the girls’ bathroom.
“You’re making a habit of this,” I say with a nervous laugh.
He smothers my lips with his. I can feel all his tension, and I want to cry because my insides are aching for him. “I love you,” he says, pulling away.
“I love you too.”
“We’re going to walk in there together. Hopefully this will go in our favor, and we’ll walk out of there the same way.”
I shake as I place my hand in his and nod. We follow the crowd into the gymnasium. Toby and I huddle
together on the bleachers. I look for Tori, and find her sitting with Ryder, Jeff, and a bunch of girls, Meredith included.
“I can’t believe she’s hanging out with Meredith.” I motion to the group.
“My guess is they’re not really friends. They’re just coexisting since they both want to hang out in that crowd.”
I can’t imagine Tori putting up with Meredith, but maybe hating Toby and me is enough to bring them together.
“When do you think—?”
“Meredith will come out with the cheerleaders,” he says, answering the question so I don’t have to say the words out loud. “She said she’ll call me up to the microphone then.”
“And you’ll…”
“Tell everyone the truth.”
“And if Meredith tries to interrupt with her story?”
He sighs.
“Toby, you have to do it. Please, promise me you will.”
He doesn’t say a word, but I can see his answer in his eyes. And that means I’m going to have to intervene and make up a story of my own. One that makes me look like the pathetic loser instead of Meredith.
The pep rally begins, and I see Meredith leave her spot on the bleachers and head to the locker room with the other cheerleaders. My breath catches in my throat with the announcement of every team. After about four other teams, the cheerleaders are announced. I clutch Toby’s hand, and he gives me a weak smile.
Meredith is announced as captain, and she walks over to the microphone. “Good afternoon, Lansfield. I have a very special announcement to share with you today, but I’m going to need some help. So if Toby Michaels could please come down here, we can get started.”
The crowd mumbles and heads turn toward Toby. He squeezes my hand before getting up and walking down the bleachers. My heart is pounding so hard I’m afraid I’m going to need medical attention.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 110