Crushed (26 page)

Adam punche
d
him
in the arm and m
ade
a face at
Reece
like
he was
the stupidest person he
had
ever talked to. “Cleo and Ethan.”

Reece’s
eyes darted around, looking for her. She
was
chatting with Emma who
was
frowning.
Emma probably wasn’t real pleased,
Reece decided. Because she probably
did
like
having her brother and best friend together. Although, she
had
warned Reece that their relationship was complicated. He had no idea what she’d meant
by that at the time. And even less of an idea now.
Then again, it was Emma who had said Reece and Cleo belonged together. So maybe she
wa
sn’t frowning about Ethan
.

Girls
, Reece thought.
Mia, Cleo, Emma…none of them make any sense
!

Mr. Jessen
flew
into the room
, squeaky shoes and all,
just as the bell rang
. E
veryone took their seats.

They were
supposed to be doing work out of the textbook
. B
ut
he
couldn’t stop wondering when
that
had happened. Before Friday night?
Why didn’t she mention it? Unless, probably she thought it was none of
his
business. Or was it a
fter? Was it
because
of Friday night?
He
shook that thought from
his
head. Thinking that way would only end up backfiring on
him, he was sure.

His
eyes kept drifting over to her throughout the hour
. S
he never once looked
his
way. What
he
did notice was that she didn’t look too shaken up. And shouldn’t she be? If she was
so into Ethan?

He thought so. But what did he know? Nothing. And he
dou
bted she’d be willing to tell him
.

Or was she just working hard at looking unaffected?

When the
bell rang
he
hadn’t noticed how late it was
.
He
scrambled to get
his
things together.
Natalie cornered
him
when
he
finally made
his
way to the door
. She was
furious
.

“Were you with Cleo on Friday night?” she demanded.

“Why?”
he asked as he
tried to sidestep her.

“It’s a yes or no question,” she hissed back.

“Yes.”

Her face turned livid.

“We were talking.”

“I’m sure you were,” she said.

“I think Mia and I broke up,”
he
told her.

She gave
him
a look that seemed to be somewhere between confusion and horror before taking off.

Not that it mattered—or maybe it did, to
him
anyway—but
he
wondered how Natalie knew that. And if Natalie knew,
he
was sure Mia knew.
He
hadn’t told anyone.
Not even Adam.
So that
meant Cleo had to have
told someone
.
But who? Emma?
He
was sure Emma wouldn’t blab if Cleo had told her. That led to only one explanation.

Thinking that Mia and Cleo had had a confrontation didn’t sit well with
him
.

Mia could be vicious and Cleo was typically an expert at holding her tongue. But apparently,
she hadn’t. If that was truly the case, he was proud of her
. Because he was sure she wouldn’t have said anything unless Mia pushed her into it
. It was about time she let Mia have it.

By the end of the day,
he
decided it didn’t matter. Things with Mia were over as far as
he
was concerned
.
He
was sure she thought so too since she’d gone off campus for lunch without telling
him
.
He
’d tried calling her but she was still ignoring
his
phone calls, which was really starting to piss
him
off. Her running of
f
at lunch nixed yet another chance for
him
to be certain things were over.

When it came right down to it, none of this really surprised
him
. H
e
’d realized Mia was good at making things difficult.

When Adam asked if
he
wanted to go to the batting cages after school,
he
was glad to have something to do for a
while
.
Nothing beat letting o
ff
some steam like slamming a baseball.
Between what was going on with Mia and what
wasn’t
going on with Cleo,
he
definitely needed it.
It also meant
he
could avoid
his
dad for a while.

They spent a few hours there.
When they left, Adam turned in the opposite direction of the school parking lot,
where Reece’s vehicle was parked.
It wasn’t until
then
that
he
realized
Adam
might have an ulterior motive.

“Where are we going?”

“There’s something I think you need to see,”
Adam told Reece
. H
e glanced at his dashboard clock. It was
almost six.

“On Mia’s street?”
Reece
asked as
he
looked around.

“Y
eah
,” he said as he pulled up to the curb. He parked behind a new
yellow mustang. It was the same
ugly
,
mustard yellow as
Reece’s
locker.

It took
him
a few seconds to figure out what this meant.

“Colby’s here?”
he
asked
.
He
glanced at the car and then up to the house.

“Looks like it,” Adam agreed
. It was obvious he was keeping his expression impassive.

“Oh,”
Reece
said
.
He
stared at the car for a minute.

“That’s it?”

Reece
shrugged. “I think Mia and I broke up.”

“You
think
?”

“Yeah. I tried to break up with her Friday night. I’m sure she knew it. Now she’s
been avoiding me. I thought maybe she was avoiding me so I couldn’t tell her we’re
done.”
He
shrugged again. “But it looks like she got it.
I mean, if she’s seeing Colby now.”

“She’s been seeing Colby for a while,” Adam corrected
.

Was
he
surprised? Not particularly. It would explain why she never answered her phone.
And did
he
blame her?
He
actually didn’t.
He knew he and Mia
were a disaster from the start.
He was
pretty sure
they
both knew it. 

“Are you sure?
That it’s been going on for a while?
”
How long?
Reece
wondered.
The entire time we were together? Or just recently, since school started?

Adam
nodded. “
I’m sure i
t’s been going on for a while.
I’ve heard him bragging about it a few times.
Sounded like it was
at least part of the summer.
At first,
I thought he was talking about Mia
. B
ut I wasn’t sure because
when he realized I was listening, he
always
clammed up. Today I heard him talking to Justin. He said he was meeting her after
practice.”

That’s why he’d kept
Reece
busy until now.

“Do you want to go in and talk to her?”
Adam
asked.

“No.
” No way in hell did
he
want to go in there. Even though
he
thought maybe
he
should. If she’d been seeing Colby for a while
anyway
, then maybe she
didn’t
think they
were over. Even though as far as
he
was concerned,
they
were.

“This is why you were going out with her, isn’t it?” Adam asked.

“Why?” Reece wondered, not following. “So I’d have a girlfriend that was cheating
on me?”

“No,” Adam clarified, “because you knew it would never get serious.”

Reece shrugged. Maybe Adam was right.
“Aren’t you… I don’t know…supposed to t
ell me about stuff like this?” he
asked.

“I just did,
”
he said as he pulled away from the curb.

Chapter 1
5

“That was so amazing,”
Cleo
moaned.
“You guys spoil me.
”

“Yeah,” Emma said in a teasing tone, “we do.”

“
Y
ou spent way too much, I’m sure,
”
she
accused.

“Not really and birthdays only come once a year,
”
Emma
said with a laugh
. “Besides, I had an ulterior motive. I knew you would probably never use the gift
certificate if I didn’t come with you. And you know how I love any excuse to go to
a spa.”

Emma had been furious when her boss scheduled her to work on
Cleo’s
birthday, which she’d requested off. So when she’d handed
Cleo her
present
a day early
, she’d announced that she alread
y had the appointment scheduled
.
Emma had also
already let Luci know
Cleo would
be home late.
The gift certificate was from the whole Donovan family
. Cleo had
given up trying to protest when they gave
her
gifts like this. Instead,
she
just smiled and
gratefully
accepted.

They
’d just gotten massages
.
Cleo had
worried that
a massage
would be just way too
awkward
, h
aving some lady’s hands all over
her
.
It
hadn’t been.
It
had been
unbelievably relaxing; despite the masseuse
’s running commentary accusing
her
of carrying too much tension in
her
body for someone so young.

N
ow
they
were sitting, lett
ing
their
facials do their thing for another fifteen minutes.