Delusion Road (25 page)

That question cut deep. “We did plenty of things together before Wynn came along,” said Willa. “Didn’t we call ourselves the three musketeers?”

“When we were in grade
five
,” Celia replied, “before we grew
up
.”

Willa let the lock drop from her fingers, its metal housing
clanging against the steel locker. “Are you saying I need to grow up?”

Now it was Celia who let her silence speak for her.

Willa felt their betrayal like a slap. “I thought you were my friends.”

“We
are
your friends,” said Britney. “Which is why we want to keep you from doing something you’ll regret later.”

Willa struggled to keep her voice even. “This isn’t something I’ll regret.”

“Look,” said Britney, “it sounds like you and Wynn just had your first fight. It was bound to happen, okay? Everybody has them.”

“Exactly,” added Celia before Willa could respond. “No big deal. It’ll blow over. These things always do.”

Willa suddenly wanted to ask Celia if that mindset worked for everyone in her family, if maybe the person who was giving her Platinum MasterCard a post-relationship workout in Halifax was a
different
Rachel Waters. But she didn’t. “This isn’t going to blow over,” she said simply.

“Of course it will,” said Britney. “We’re talking about Wynn here, remember? The guy’s a sweetheart.”

And there it was.
The guy’s a sweetheart.
Translation:
You’re being an unreasonable bitch.
They’d chosen Wynn over her.

How had this happened? She’d have stood by
them
if they’d broken up with
their
boyfriends, wouldn’t she? She wouldn’t have made them justify their decision, wouldn’t have complained about how it was going to change things.

Or would she?

She no longer felt like the person she’d been only a few days
ago. Maybe that Willa
would
have reacted the same way. Until recently, the only person she’d been thinking about was herself. Hadn’t she nearly thrown a tantrum at the dealership the first day of school when she hadn’t gotten her Camaro? And all the while her poor father had been grappling with the prospect of losing everything he’d ever worked for.

As much as it humbled her to admit it, Willa knew she probably
would
have said the kinds of things Celia and Britney were saying to her now. The kinds of things that
real
regret was made of.

“Wynn would do anything for you, Willa,” added Britney.

“He’s done enough already,” Willa muttered.

“Like what?” Celia demanded. “
Christ
, Willa, why do you have to be so frigging mysterious? You could at least give us a
hint.
”

How she longed to, but she was afraid to say anything, afraid that, if she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop, everything pouring out of her like it had yesterday with Keegan. She thought of him now, remembering how, even after the lousy way she’d treated him, he’d approached her at Memorial Park and offered to help. So different from the two people she’d always thought she could count on. “Wynn and I are done,” she said simply.

Britney and Celia looked at each other, and something seemed to pass between them. “You’ve got such a great thing going with him,” said Celia. “I don’t know why in hell you’d go and screw it up.”

“Why don’t you ease up on her?”

All three turned toward the voice. Her face nearly as bright as her hair, Bailey held her books against her chest like a shield.

“Do you
mind
?” asked Britney. “This is a
private
conversation.”

“Then you might want to take it down a notch,” said Bailey, nodding toward the students staring in their direction.

Celia’s eyes flashed fresh anger. “Why? Somebody change your name from Holloway to Hall Monitor?”

Britney hooted.

“Celia—” Willa began, her tone filled with warning.

“Mind your own goddamn business, Bailey.”

The red in Bailey’s face deepened, but she didn’t back down. “Maybe you should take your own advice,” she said.

Celia’s eyebrows disappeared beneath her bangs. “And maybe
you
should take a flying fu—”

“Everything okay here, girls?” asked Mr. Caldwell, who had appeared, wraithlike, beside the group.

“Everything’s fine,” offered Willa. “Just getting ready for first period.”

The vice-principal looked at all four of them skeptically before moving farther down the corridor.

Celia glared at Bailey. “Why are you still standing here?” she snapped. “Go!”

“Leave her alone,” said Willa.

Britney’s eyes bulged. “Leave her
alone
? What, are you two BFFs now?”

“C’mon, Brit,” said Celia, her voice icy, “let’s go. I’m sure these two have
tons
to talk about.” She stalked off.

Britney gave them both a hard stare before trailing Celia down the corridor.

“Sorry,” said Bailey when they’d left. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

“You didn’t. They were doing a good job of that all on their
own.” She gave Bailey a weak smile. “Thanks for standing up for me.”

“Glad to.” Bailey lowered her voice. “I saw Keegan a few minutes ago. He told me a little about what happened yesterday, what you tried to do. I can’t tell you how much I—” She looked away, but Willa could see her swallowing hard.

Willa put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Friends stick together, right?”

Moments after the bell rang following first period, Willa found herself alone at her locker. Neither Celia nor Britney had come to collect her the way they always did each recess. Willa could have gone looking for them, but she knew the drill. They were cold-shouldering her, like that day in grade ten when she’d refused to skip last class with them so they could bid on tickets to a Toxic Rosebud concert some scalper had put on Kijiji. Willa had had a test scheduled during last period, and she wasn’t willing to risk taking a zero for the chance to see a band she really didn’t like in the first place. In the end, Celia and Britney had gotten two tickets for a price even Willa thought was outrageous, and they’d refused to speak to her until Willa apologized repeatedly for letting them down.

Well, she had no intention of apologizing to them this time.

She’d just closed her locker when she sensed someone standing behind her. Large hands settled on her shoulders, strong fingers massaging her trapezius muscles in a way that had always made her weak before. Now those hands made her shudder.

“You can’t stay mad forever,” Wynn breathed in her ear.

“How about disgusted?” she asked coldly, still facing her locker.

Impossibly, she heard him chuckle. “I told you this doesn’t have to change anything.”

“It changes everything,” she said, biting back the barrage of words forming in her throat. If she didn’t keep a lid on, she might end up screaming at him, and who knew what he’d do then? Her father had asked her for more time, and she’d promised him that.

She stepped out from under Wynn’s hands and turned to face him. “I don’t want anything more to do with you, okay? I don’t want you talking to me in school, calling me, texting me, nothing.”

He raised his eyebrows. “For how long?”

She fought against the rage welling inside her. “You don’t
get
it, do you? We’re over, Wynn. Done.”

He leaned toward her and she unconsciously took a step back, her locker’s hasp digging into her. “We’re done when I
say
we’re done,” he hissed. “You got
that
?”

His voice sent a chill through her, and she was relieved when he stormed off. Watching him go, she saw several students in the corridor step quickly aside to let him pass.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one afraid of Wynn d’Entremont.

Tray in hand, Willa stopped beside the cafeteria table. “Okay if I join you?” she asked.

Looking up, Russell choked on a mouthful of his pita, and Greg reached over and began pounding him on the back.

“Sure,” said Bailey. Raven was already sliding over to make room.

Russell’s choking now under control, he stared wide-eyed as Willa slid her legs into the space and sat down across from Keegan. She felt awkward, certain that the arrival of talking plant-life couldn’t have generated a more astonished response from Russell, and she was grateful for the welcoming smile on Keegan’s face. More than grateful, actually, feeling a pulse of excitement zither through her. She tried to make her voice sound nonchalant. “So how’s it going?”

Raven and Bailey offered casual remarks about their first two classes, after which Russell managed a comment about phys ed, saying that he was thinking about recommending Coach Cameron for Brookdale’s annual Teacher of the Year Award for choosing walking as their cardio activity that day. “Anything else in this heat and I’d have been tits-up on the training field.” He glanced down at his own considerable moobs as if underscoring the certainty of that outcome, sparking laughter all around their table.

“Russell,” said Raven, still grinning, “you just need to build up your endurance. A little exercise every day would do wonders for you.”

Willa could vouch for that. She usually spent at least thirty minutes each day on the treadmill in her parents’ home gym, and she couldn’t believe how sluggish she’d felt after that week of non-activity at the cottage. She’d enjoyed getting back into her routine.

“You run every day, don’t you, Raven?” asked Bailey. Rather pointedly, Willa thought.

“Not when the heat and humidity get this bad,” Raven replied.
“But I walk.” She turned to Russell. “If you’d like a walking partner sometime, give me a call, okay?”

Russell’s face again conveyed that same talking plant-life surreality Willa had seen only moments ago, and she found herself smiling. Russell and Raven. Who’d have thought? She wondered what Celia and Britney would make of that combination, imagining their caustic commentary. But she had no right to be judgmental—until a few days ago, she’d probably have responded the same way, or at least laughed at their remarks.

“So how was
your
morning?” asked Keegan.

She read in his eyes what he meant, whom he was referring to. “It was interesting,” she replied.

He nodded, seeming to grasp her meaning. “You okay?” he asked.

She thought she was, despite having spent second period boiling inside at Wynn’s implicit threat. She was glad they hadn’t shared the class before lunch so she could get her anger under control. But that was this morning. Now she wasn’t so sure. She felt something pull taut inside her, and suddenly she couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even shake her head.

Keegan reached across the table and took one of her hands, and the gentle strength in his fingers around hers was exactly what she needed in that moment, melting her paralysis. He smiled at her and, as she smiled back, an unfamiliar clarity washed over her. She recalled a passage she’d read in
The Mountain and the Valley
where the main character marvelled about an abrupt change in a relationship, how his life until then seemed like black
and white but now everything was in colour. This moment was like that for Willa.

Growing conscious that silence had settled over their table, she turned to see the others staring at them, Raven and Bailey and Greg grinning broadly. Russell, however, was shaking his head. “Cripes,” he muttered, “let the games begin.”

K
eegan’s head was whirling. All through the previous class, he couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering toward Willa and, as a result, Shedrand’s PowerPoint slides about the quadratic formula might as well have been in Japanese. Math had always come easily to him, but today he felt like Todd Thomas, who’d finally dropped out of the advanced course. Keegan couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t make meaning of the notes he’d taken, couldn’t figure out any of the problems on the sheet the teacher had given them to work on. He was so screwed.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to feel this way. Didn’t even think he
could
feel this way again, not after—

No. Forget about before. He had to focus on now.

Now he was screwed.

One thing he
didn’t
have trouble figuring out was what his father and Forbes would say if they found out. But it wasn’t as if he’d
intended
for it to happen. He hadn’t even seen it coming. He’d been so torn up by what that asshole had done to Bailey that he’d been blindsided by this thing with Willa. Sure, he’d known he was attracted to her—a guy would have to be gay or comatose not to feel that—but he really thought he was just being supportive. But then he’d held her hand at lunchtime and—

He was so screwed.

He tried to focus. When English class began, Richardson had passed out handouts containing passages from
The Mountain and the Valley
and asked them to discuss in pairs what they revealed about particular characters, and Keegan had ended up partnering with Willa. He hadn’t planned it, but Celia and Britney seemed to be shunning her, and Willa had nearly stumbled over a desk moving away from Wynn when he’d approached her. So Keegan had stepped up. Simple as that.

What wasn’t so simple was his reaction to the nearness of her, the way her hair glowed in the light streaming through the window, the way her china-blue eyes moved languidly from Richardson’s handout to Keegan’s face, the way her lips moved as they—

“—out loud?”

He blinked at her. “Hmm?”

She smiled self-consciously and something in his chest expanded fourfold. “I asked if you wanted me to read the passages out loud as we talk about them.”

“Yeah, okay,” he mumbled.

She turned again to the handout and began to read, but he couldn’t hear the words above the rush of blood in his ears.

He was so screwed.

And he didn’t give a damn.

“Willa, we need to
talk
!”

Heading toward the classroom exit at the end of the period,
Keegan paused beside Willa, both of them turning to see Wynn barrelling past the handful of students still there. He bumped into Greg, knocking his backpack to the floor and spilling books everywhere, but Wynn ignored him and kept coming, a moving wall of muscle.