I set the sandwich down on my lap. “Piper, we need to talk.”
She must sense something in my tone because she flips up the visor and folds her arms across her chest. “Don’t you dare try to break up with me right before the dance.”
“That dance isn’t for another three weeks.”
“Three weeks isn’t that far, Grey.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone else to take you.” I flick the keychain with my fingers as I think of the right thing to say that will cause the least amount of drama.
“Is this about Luna Harvey? Because, if it is, then that’s just insulting.”
I tense at her mention of Luna. The last thing I need is for Piper to go after her.
“Why would you think this is about Luna?”
“What, you think I’m blind? I’ve seen you talking to her and looking at her when you think no one is paying attention.” She flips her hair off her shoulder. “It’s kind of pathetic and makes you look like an idiot. I mean, picking her over me . . . Most guys would kill to be with me.”
“Then I guess you won’t have too much of a problem finding someone else to take you to the dance,” I say flatly.
“You’re going to regret this,” she huffs, reaching for the door handle. “By the time I get finished with you, no one will want to touch you again.”
“Calm down, okay,” I say as she kicks open the door. “I’m sorry you’re upset, but I can’t keep doing this. We were never . . . really right for each other.”
“Oh, I’m not upset.” She plants her heels on the ground, tugs on the bottom of her dress as she stands up, and then reaches back in to snatch up her purse from the seat. “I’m pissed off. No one breaks up with me. You knew that when you first started dating me. I warned you, if you so much as tried to break my heart, I’d end you.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t break your heart. We weren’t even in love, Piper. You know that just as much as I do.”
“Obviously, but that’s not the point.” She digs her phone out of her purse. “The point is you broke up with me after all that whining and sulking I put up with over the summer, and I’m not going to let you get away with it. By the time I get through with you, you’re going to have no one left.” She slams the door so hard the entire car groans in protest. Then she storms off toward the entrance of the restaurant, putting her phone up to her ear.
I grip the living daylights out of the steering wheel and take a few measured breaths. That was even worse than I thought it was going to be. Still, threats and all, I’m relieved it’s over. Maybe now I can move on from that chapter in my life.
Except, in the back of my mind, I worry about what’s going to happen if she does make good on her threats, mostly because I’m worried she’s going to try to do something to Luna. I can handle Piper’s temper tantrums, but the last thing I want is for Luna to have to.
I’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen.
By the time I make it back to school, Piper has told almost everyone that she broke up with me at lunch. Thankfully, that’s the only rumor that seems to be spreading around the hallway. Still, I can’t help noticing that some of my so-called friends are acting differently, like Logan. He does take a moment to corner me in the hallway and express his “concern.”
“I just hope you don’t go all loner crazy like Jay,” he says, looking way too happy over the idea.
Jay was the last guy who dated Piper. After spreading around a rumor that he was in a cult and spent a lot of time hurting animals, most of his friends cut ties with him. I’m ashamed to admit I was one of them.
Maybe I deserve what’s coming. Maybe I deserve worse.
“Why are you being such an asshole about this?” I ask as I open my locker. “We used to be friends.”
“You know as much as I do that we were never really friends.” He leans his shoulder against the locker with his eyes on the people traveling through the hallway. “We’ve hung out and shit, but we’ve never really liked each other. In fact, a lot of the time I hate you. You think you’re the shit, which you’re not.” A slow smile spreads across his face as he looks at me. “Haven’t you ever heard ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’? Good luck with whatever you’ve got headed your way.” It’s a threat. Clearly, he has every intention of helping Piper try to destroy me.
I spend the next couple of classes trying not to notice how different people are treating me, suddenly avoiding me like I have the plague. It takes me until the last class of the day to figure out why.
“I heard Grey Sawyer has herpes,” a girl whispers to her friend as I enter Biology.
Herpes? Really, Piper? That’s the best you can do?
“Yeah, which pretty much means she has it too,” I say to the girl.
Her eyes widen as she seizes ahold of her friend’s arm and scurries to the opposite side of me.
Shaking my head, I take a seat at my usual table and wait for class to start. No one sits by me, and no one seems too enthusiastic to be my partner when the teacher hands out a group project assignment.
I feel unsettlingly uncomfortable sitting there all alone. You did this to yourself. If you’d been nicer, then maybe people would have your back.
“So, you have herpes, huh?” Beck drops his books down on the table and pulls out a chair to sit down.
“Apparently, at least that’s what I’ve been told.” I try not to appear too relieved when he sits down, but I am. Like, a ton.
“You know, I’ve seen Piper come up with a lot crazier rumors, but this one might be the most disgusting one she’s ever spread.” Beck flips open his book as Ari joins us, sitting down in the chair across the table from me. “She must be really pissed off at you. Then again, almost everything pisses her off if it means she’s not going to get her way.”
“That it does,” I agree as I crack my textbook open.
I wait for him to start asking questions about what happened between Piper and me, but instead, he nods his head at Ari.
“I’m not sure if you two have officially met, but this Ari, my partner in crime and the guy who will get us an A on this assignment.”
Ari rolls his eyes as he reads through the assignment packet. “I’m not going to do all the work for you this time.”
“That’s what you say now, but we both know that’s not how things are gonna go down,” Beck tells him cheerfully then looks at me. “He says that every time, but then he gets really frustrated and takes over when he remembers how much I suck at homework.”
“It all turns out okay, though,” Ari says, opening his binder. “Beck makes up for it by giving the presentation to the class, which I suck at.”
“So, what does that leave me with?” I ask, twirling my pen with my fingers. “Because I’m not that great at science, either, and while I usually rock the presentation thing, I’m not sure how well the class is going to react when they fear they’re going to contract herpes from me.”
Ari sighs as he removes his glasses to clean the lenses with the bottom of his shirt. “People really are stupid, aren’t they? And seriously, who believes anything Piper Talperson says? The girl should’ve lost all her credit when she tried to convince everyone back in seventh grade that broccoli was a fruit and that it grew from trees. She even tried to argue about it during debate class and told a story about the broccoli she once saw growing in her backyard. God knows what she actually saw.”
Beck reclines back in his seat with his hands tucked behind his head. “How did I not know about this?”
Ari slips his glasses back on, shrugging. “It’s not like we ever talk about her.”
“True,” Beck says with a bob of his head
God, if Piper heard what they were saying, she’d lose her mind. I find myself smiling at that.