Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 163387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 654(@250wpm)___ 545(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 654(@250wpm)___ 545(@300wpm)
“Hey guys, wait up.” We both turned to see Alexis running to catch up. She’d apologized a hundred times the night before, but I couldn’t find it in myself to blame her; in fact, I really appreciated what she’d tried to do. To date, Jess was probably the only one who’d have reacted that way on my behalf.
“What’s going on? Why are you guys so distracted? I’ve been calling your names for like five minutes.” She was almost out of breath when she caught up with us.
“We didn’t hear you, serious convo. Speaking of which, we should probably let you in on this.” Jess offered before I could. If I was going to do anything, whatever that thing was, I’m going to need help.
Alexis had shown that she could be trusted, and after the way she kept apologizing for being wrong, I was sure she’d be more than happy to help to make up for it, so when Jess gave me a questioning look after the fact, I just nodded.
“Let me in on what?” She looked back and forth between us.
“Let’s talk about it after lunch; we’re already late.” I didn’t miss the fact that Cody hadn’t come to pick me up this morning, and I was trying not to let it sting too much. He’d sent me a text last night, which at least told me he wasn’t breaking up with me before we even got started, but I still missed his presence.
“Give me a hint, at least,” Alexis begged. “Is this about what happened yesterday?”
“Yes, it is; I want to find out who sent you that picture.” She bit her lip and looked down at her phone.
“It’s weird because there’s no number. I didn’t even know you could do that; send a text without your number showing up.”
“We’ll brainstorm later this evening; right now, we should all get to our classes.” Jess ushered us along before the three of us split up to go to our respective classes so we wouldn’t be late. For the first time in my life, I was tempted to skip, but that ingrained sense of responsibility wouldn’t let me.
I was tense all day until lunchtime rolled around because I didn’t know what to expect. But when I saw him standing outside my classroom door waiting for me, the relief was unlike anything I’ve ever known. My heart, which had been heavy all morning, was suddenly light, and I took a deep breath and then exhaled just as strong, releasing all the tension of the morning.
I was close to tears when he put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. That one innocent touch made butterflies take flight in my tummy. I didn’t know until that moment how much I’d missed him, and not just physically. I realized that the rift between us was what had caused most of my angst and what kept me up most of the night.
CODY
“Sorry about this morning, baby; something came up.” I hated lying to her, but the truth was too stupid to mention. I’d talked myself into believing that putting some distance between us may change Susie’s course of action or whoever was responsible for this and make them leave her alone. That didn’t work!
I missed her all damn morning, and so here I am, not even a whole twenty-four hours later. Whoever is doing this shit isn’t going to win; I won’t let them come between us or cause doubt. Knowing her, she was hurt by my absence which just means I have something else to go after this bastard for.
I hate that she looked so unsure of herself, and the sadness I saw on her face before she noticed me standing outside her class waiting is like a dead weight in my gut. I’d hurt her with my stupidity, I can’t blame anyone else for that, but I’ll do my best to make it up to her. This should be the happiest time in my life in the last year or so, well, other than the day I met her, of course.
I should be celebrating the fact that dad might be getting a chance at life, that things were actually starting to look up there. And even though I didn’t know anything about the program he’d been signed up for, I knew at least that we were finally moving in the right direction.
Don’t get me wrong, I am overjoyed by this, but the situation from the night before more than tainted my joy. What if I hadn’t really looked at that picture? What if I hadn’t seen the discrepancies? Would she have left me? If it wasn’t fake, she would’ve been more than within her rights to do so, and that thought scared me more than anything had in a long-long time.
I didn’t kid myself that this was the end of it, that whoever this was, was going to stop at just one attack. The boys are already on the job, especially after Chad and Henderson repeated what happened the night we think Susie drugged me. No one had any doubt that it was her, and even though I don’t believe in accusing anyone without proof, I’m not stupid enough to ignore my screaming gut.