Chapter 3

Trisha and Jake met up earlier and are now sitting at our table, cooing away, their heads bent toward each other, while my friends and I have to jostle near the register for a while longer to buy lunch.

“Ashley, did you hear? Turns out the guys who fought outside the club Saturday night were Bruce and Hugh—that’s what Roan told me. Good thing Zachary was in the parking lot, saw the fight, and stepped in, or those idiots—Hugh’s buddies—would never have let go of Brody. What assholes, right?” Amber fires off the fresh news indignantly, pressing her lips together angrily as she waits for my reaction. “And they were the ones who came up and hit on us!”

“Total assholes!” I agree, remembering the guys’ nasty provocation at the party, and look at Baker. Zachary and I saw each other yesterday evening and even talked when I brought Mary Ann to his restaurant after dance class, but he never mentioned the fight.

“Is that really true, Zack?”

Baker is taking a green salad and tacos from the counter, and he doesn’t deny it. But he’s too terse to give us all the details of what happened.

“It’s true. But everything’s settled now, girls. Forget it.”

“Nothing is settled,” Amber disagrees with our friend. “If you only knew, Zack, how ashamed I am in front of Brody. God,” she says, getting upset, “he must hate me! And it’s all because of idiots like Grimes and Renton!”

“What do you have to do with it, Amber?” Zachary asks in surprise, lifting a serious brow. “Guys from Renton’s crowd have been picking on people they consider beneath them at this school for a while. Bruce was just unlucky enough to get in their way, and someone should have stopped Hugh a long time ago.”

“It wasn’t just that. Sean and Hugh started by bothering me and Ashley, and then Bruce walked by in a Joker costume. So they started laughing at us and him like we were some kind of couple. Of course I didn’t keep quiet! I got mad and made Bruce kiss me. In the end, we were the ones laughing at them, and they turned on him. That’s what happened!”

Now Zachary looks at me, puzzled, and I nod, moving my lunch tray along the serving line.

“Believe me, Zachary, Brody surprised all of us,” I admit. “But he didn’t provoke anyone. I’m a witness. So forgetting a fight is hard when you’re not guilty of anything. And it hurts too; I agree with Ambi there. I can imagine what he thinks of us…”

We pay for our lunches at the register, take our trays, and head toward the table where our friends are already sitting. We settle into our usual places, and I immediately open a juice box—I’m horribly thirsty! Turning my head, I look at the table on the opposite side of the room, where Matthew usually sits.

He isn’t in the cafeteria, but girls are sitting at his table—Nadine and two friends—and they’re talking about something, glancing at the entrance… and at me. All day, the upperclassmen have been whispering behind my back, and the girls’ looks are unpleasant, but I can’t forbid people from looking wherever they want, so I turn away and start on my lunch. Although thoughts of Matthew once again block out everything else.

“Jake, you tell her yourself,” Trisha unexpectedly says to her boyfriend, her voice somehow tense, “or should I?”

My friend shifts a confused look to me and nudges Finley in the ribs with her elbow.

“You do it.”

“No, better you!” Trish decides firmly, and Jake has to hurry up and swallow a bite of hamburger, washing it down with cola.

“What happened?” Looking at the guys, I set my juice aside and put my pizza back on the plate.

“Basically, Ash, here’s the thing…” Finley begins grimly. “Today one of the guys admitted to me that Palmer danced with you on Saturday only to piss off Renton. And he did the rest for the same reason. He and Sean have serious competition going on in the team right now, and Coach Hurley lets Palmer get away with too much.”

“Well… let’s say that’s true. What do I have to do with it?”

“But Renton was dating you when he was picked as captain. What if Palmer hasn’t forgotten who got him kicked out of school and decided to get even? Don’t laugh, but a lot of the guys consider you, not the Red Foxes captain, to be the Golden Eagles’ good-luck charm. Ever since you started being on the field during games, our team has always had luck.”

“What?” I’m stunned. “Jake, that’s stupid! Complete nonsense. And as for Matthew… I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten anything. But why would he need me if Sean has another girlfriend?”

“How the hell should I know?!” Finley’s black brows draw together. “Trisha and I just don’t want those two dragging you into their beef. As far as I’m concerned, let them fight over Kate Harding instead. I told you what I heard, that’s all!”

Right. The girls and I exchange looks, and Zachary asks:

“And this ‘one of the guys’ wouldn’t happen to be Ronnie Salgato, would it?”

Apparently, his guess hits the mark, because Jake decides not to deny it.

“So what if it was Ronnie? Zack, did you see what Palmer did at Fever? Hey, man, wake up! This is Ashley, and what do we know about Palmer? That his older brother is a criminal and that he himself nearly landed behind bars last spring? And you really believe that if he keeps picking fights with Renton, he’s going to graduate?”

As always, Baker is unshakably brilliant in his answer and his logic:

“I saw everything. Better answer this, Jake: why don’t you know anything about him? Have you thought about that?”

He hasn’t. It’s obvious from the way Finley shrugs so easily.

“No idea. What do I care about him and his hellish family? Personally, I haven’t crossed either Renton or Palmer, which means I don’t owe either of them anything.”

“Exactly,” Zachary snorts with a smirk. “Personally, you don’t owe anyone anything, but you also haven’t done anything to get to know Palmer better. No offense, Finley, but it isn’t fair to judge people one-sidedly, based solely on other people’s opinions and their relatives.”

Baker’s fair point gets under Jake’s skin, but he isn’t about to hand Zack the win in this unexpected argument that easily.

“Then what am I supposed to judge by? If you want to know, Palmer acts provocative with us too, even though the guys and I are nowhere near Renton’s crowd. Are you saying I’m supposed to wipe his ass so he’ll turn nice?”

“You get what you give. What are you surprised about? You made your conclusions; he accepted them. Now everyone lives by the rules they’ve agreed to. But that doesn’t mean, Jake, that the conclusions are true or the rules are objectively right.”

Jake wants to object to Zachary again, but suddenly falls silent. Shifting his gaze behind my back, he presses his mouth tight and returns his hand to his hamburger.

And then I hear a voice I know so well.

“Hey, everyone. What’s the argument?”

Matthew?