Only Everything (16 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Katrina

“I know I usually harsh on lunch, but these cheese tots are frickin’ awesome,” Raine said, spearing a mound of potatoes and cheese with her fork. We were sitting at a picnic table near the edge of the quad, soaking up the sun like every other fifth-period luncher at the school. It was way too nice out to be inside.

“Lemme try,” I said, opening my mouth and angling toward her.

“No way, dude.” She slid the tray away. “Get your own!”

Lana and Gen laughed, and I rolled my eyes. Out on the street the white Goddess Cupcakes van rolled by, followed by a few cars, then a big Barnes & Noble truck. Ugh. The very thought of books made me want to curl into a ball and die. When I’d agreed to go back to honors English, I knew I was going to have to read more books and write longer papers, but the threat of Mrs. Roberge’s first assignment had kept me up half the night. What the hell did public speaking have to do with English class?

I heard a familiar engine growl, and Ty’s black Firebird pulled up at the foot of the stairs. The brakes squealed as he slammed to
a stop. Everyone stared as he got out wearing a Hawaiian print bathing suit and a white T-shirt. His flip-flops slapped noisily as he walked toward our table.

“Hey,” I said, getting up. “What’s with the beachwear?”

He leaned in for a kiss, and he smelled like beer. I winced, but kissed him anyway. Hopefully he’d only had one. “Get your stuff, baby. We’re going down the shore.”

“I’m in!” Lana said, shoving her iPod into her purse.

“No one invited you,” Ty said with a sneer. Lana sat back down again with a pout. Ty had a mean streak when he drank. So maybe it hadn’t been only one. He picked up my bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go. The guys are already up at the rest stop waiting for us so we can caravan.”

“Ty, I can’t,” I said under my breath. “And should you even be driving?”

“Number one, don’t tell me what to do,” he snapped. Then he laughed and headed for the car. “And number two? Of course you can.”

I pressed my lips together, holding my ground. Already I could feel people starting to stare, and I looked down at my feet, letting my hair cover my face.

“Katrina,” Ty said through his teeth.

His nostrils flared, and sweat prickled the back of my neck. When I still didn’t move, he glanced around, self-conscious. I saw a couple of footballers quickly focus on their lunches, pretending they hadn’t been looking. This was going nowhere good. Ty already thought the “loser jocks” at LCHS judged him for dropping out. Me saying no to him in front of them would get right under his skin. And the beer would only make it worse.

“Why not?”

“I can’t blow off half the day, Ty,” I said pleadingly, reaching for his hand in an attempt to save the situation.

“God, Katrina, why don’t you just go?” Raine said. “If someone came in here right now and invited me to the shore, I’d already be slapping on the sunscreen.”

Great. Way to have my back, BFF.

“I’ve got English this afternoon,” I told them. “It’s important.”

“And I’m not?” Ty took a step back, still wearing my bag, and lifted his chin. His fighting stance. I wanted out of this moment so badly I could taste it.

“I didn’t say that. Don’t be mad,” I begged quietly. “I don’t want to—”

“So let me get this straight.” His voice boomed through the courtyard. “I’m good enough for when you need a place to crash, but you can’t take half a day off to hang out with me and my friends?”

The sun was like a spotlight searing my skin. All around me, smiles were hidden behind hands, girls leaned across tables to whisper, I heard giggling and a few real laughs. Hot tears filled my eyes, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I trusted Ty. He knew everything about me. Including how much I hated to be the center of attention. And here he was, humiliating me in front of the entire school.

I thought he’d let me crash at his place because he cared about me. Because he wanted me around. Not because it would mean I owed him something.

Tell him off,
I thought.
Grow a pair and tell him to take his own drunk ass to the shore.
But it was like my mouth was pinned shut. I was too terrified to speak. So instead, I turned around and ran.
I had made it maybe three blurred feet when Ty’s fingers closed around my bicep, the tips almost touching.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you’re going? We’re not done talking yet.” His grip was so tight I winced.

“Let go of me, Ty,” I whimpered.

“Oh, no. I’m not gonna be the only loser there without his girlfriend.”

“Let her go!” a girl’s voice shouted.

Time seemed to stop. Through the haze of tears I saw vomit girl storming toward us, her blue eyes on fire. True. Right. Charlie had said her name was True. She dropped her tray of food on our table, stepped on the bench next to Gen, walked right over the tabletop, and jumped down next to me, her sneakers slamming heavily into the packed dirt and grass. She was wearing overalls that were a size too big and had her long hair woven into two braids down her back.

“Who the hell are you?” Ty asked, looking at her like she was a crazy person. “Super Lesbian?”

A couple of guys laughed. My jaw dropped and my face burned even hotter. Had he really just said that?

“Very original,” True said, unfazed by my boyfriend’s total bigotry. “Let go of her.”

Ty shot me a look like,
Is she serious?
I had no idea what to say or do. My arm throbbed inside his grasp.

“Make me,” Ty said finally.

True shrugged. “Okay.”

She lifted her elbow and brought it down in the center of his forearm with a crack. “Ow! Sonofa—”

He let go. My skin was marked with the white stamps of his fingers. But True wasn’t done. She grabbed his arm and twisted it
against his back, getting behind him and bending him forward. Ty’s face contorted with pain. A few kids lifted their phones, recording the whole thing.

“Let him go!” I cried. “He didn’t mean anything.”

“You won’t be grabbing her again, right?” True said to Ty.

He grunted, turning his head to spit on the ground near my feet.

“Right?”

Apparently True twisted even harder, because Ty let out a screech.

“No! Fine! I won’t!” he muttered.

True let him go and he flung himself away. “You’re a psychotic bitch!”

“That seems to be the consensus today,” she replied.

Finally, two of the school security guards came jogging over in their white shirts, gray pants, and cheesy silver badges. The whole incident had taken about thirty seconds, but I was exhausted. Exhausted and hurt and humiliated.

“What’s going on here?” the skinny one asked.

“Are you a student?” the chubby one demanded of Ty, heaving for breath.

“Lucky me, no,” Ty replied, already backing off.

“If you’re not a student here, you can’t be on campus without a pass from the office,” skinny guy said.

Ty raised his hands. “I’m already gone.”

He shot me a disgusted look, then jogged down the stairs. With one dramatic rev of the engine and another loud peel-out, he was gone. I bit my lip, hoping I was wrong about the alcohol, or if I wasn’t, that he would drive home instead of to the shore—that he wouldn’t put anyone, including himself, in danger.

Meanwhile, every single pair of eyes in the courtyard was now
focused on me. The security guards hovered at my sides like I was tonight’s lead story on TMZ and they were protecting me from the paparazzi.

“Are you okay?” True asked, her startling blue eyes wide with concern.

I ducked my head, wondering if it was possible to die of embarrassment.

“You should’ve just gone with him,” Raine muttered under her breath.

It took everything within me to hold back a flood of tears.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I muttered, shoving past the security guards. That was when I saw Charlie standing in the doorway to the cafeteria, holding his tray between his hands. He’d clearly seen everything, and his pity was written all over his face.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Charlie

I felt sick. I felt like I wanted to punch something. Preferably the asshole who was currently wheeling his way to the beach. But mostly I wanted to follow Katrina and see if she was okay. I wanted to tell her that she didn’t deserve to be treated like that. She had to see that, right? If she didn’t, I had to make her see it.

But who the hell was I? I’d talked to her exactly three times, for two seconds each time. Her friends were the ones who should have been running after her, but they were too busy whispering to each other. The door to the hallway swung closed behind Katrina. Screw it. I dropped my tray on the nearest table.

“Charlie! Wait!”

True jogged to catch up with me. I waited for her, but my toes were bouncing beneath me. Katrina was probably on her way to a bathroom somewhere. A bathroom I wouldn’t be allowed inside of. One I probably couldn’t even find, since I hadn’t figured out the maze of hallways yet. I saw that girl from my first day, Zadie, dash into the hall, and hoped that at least she was going to check on Katrina.

“Hey,” I said to True. “Are you okay?”

Her brow knit. “What? Me?” Then she seemed to realize what I was talking about. “Oh, yeah. That was nothing. I’m fine. But there’s someone I want you to meet.”

I was already looking past her at the door, as if Katrina was about to reappear.

“I’m sorry. What?”

True took my arm and started dragging me toward a small table in the shaded area of the courtyard. One where a girl sat alone, her curls nearly covering her face. I saw that her nails were painted black, the polish chipped, and that she had earbud wires dangling toward her bag.

“Charlie, this is Marion. Marion, meet Charlie,” True said, with a completely confusing, proud smile on her face.

Marion’s eyes darted to my face. Her curls shivered. I think it was her way of saying hello. Or possibly,
Go away
. I stared at True.

“Is this . . . what I think it is?” I asked.

She turned her palms out. “What do you think it is?”

“Another setup?” I whispered, turning away from Marion’s huddled shoulders.

“Yes! You said you wanted to find love! I’m finding it for you!” True exclaimed.

“With a girl who doesn’t speak?”

“She’s into music, and she’s sweet!” True whispered, leaning toward my ear. “And she’s very reserved. There’s no way she’s going to send you two hundred seventeen texts in one night.”

“True, look at her,” I whispered. “She’s literally trying to fold herself into an accordion. Did you even ask her if she was interested in me, or did you tell her she was?”

“Huh. You make a decent point. But I’m sure she—”

Right then, Josh, Brian, and Trevor burst out of the cafeteria
with their trays, a big wall of blue-and-white varsity jacket. A few people scurried out of their way, which seemed the best strategy. Somehow those guys took up more space than everyone else. Josh looked over at me and did a double take.

“Dude,” he said, joining us. “What’re you doing over here?”

“We were just talking,” I said.

“In no-man’s land? No,” Josh said, hooking his arm around my neck and dragging me toward his table in the sun. “We don’t hang out in no-man’s land.” I had that squirmy feeling in my gut. That feeling that I’d been caught doing something wrong, not knowing the ins and outs of this school yet. But whatever no-man’s land was, Josh wasn’t harping on it. He straddled a chair and sat. “You coming to the first football game Friday night?”

I glanced over my shoulder at True. She just stood there. Glowering. Marion, however, seemed relieved. I knew I was right about her. She looked like the kind of girl who wanted to be left alone.

“Um, sure. I guess.” I’d never gone to a game by choice before. Only to support my brothers in big play-off games and stuff. I sat down in the seat where Josh basically deposited me. Veronica, Darla, and a few other girls were already eating their salads.

“You have to come,” Trevor said, taking a big bite of burger. “And bring your dad so he can see where the real talent in Lake Carmody is.”

“You know it.” The guys high-fived over the table.

Suddenly True dropped my tray in front of me with a clatter. My face burned. She looked pissed. And after what she’d just done to Katrina’s boyfriend, I didn’t like the idea of True pissed. I cleared my throat and pretended she wasn’t there. It wasn’t my fault she felt some need to find me a girlfriend. And it definitely wasn’t my fault that she kept choosing the wrong girls.

“You could sit with us at the game,” Darla said, smiling at me from across the table. The breeze tossed her dark hair forward so that it perfectly framed her face. “The student section is always packed, but I could save you a seat.”

I stared at her. So did True. Was Darla flirting with me? She was one of the hottest and most popular girls in school. The kind of girl who formerly would never have considered speaking to me. Even Josh raised his eyebrows in what looked like intrigued surprise.

“Um, sure,” I said, pressing my sweaty palms into my thighs. “That’d be cool.”

“Cool,” Darla replied.

“Are you gonna stand there the whole period?” Veronica asked True snottily, flicking a piece of lint off her tight short-sleeved sweater.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” True replied. “But I need to talk to Charlie.”

I glanced around the table. Josh pointedly turned his head toward Veronica and Trevor. Brian stared straight ahead as he shoveled fries into his mouth. Darla widened her eyes while picking at her salad. None of them wanted True here. These people were actually starting to accept me—they were even flirting with me!—but clearly, they were nowhere near accepting True.

“So talk,” I said through my teeth, feeling squirmy. True was cool. Outspoken, badass, and oddly chivalrous. And I didn’t want to be rude to her, but . . . I wished she would walk away. Just for right now.

“Are you just going to ignore Marion?” True asked me.