Crushed (2 page)

He had
put a lot of effort into trying t
o like Mia. But sometimes? She was a lot to handle. She was kind of exhausting
. H
e wasn’t used to a high maintenance girlfriend. In the summer he’d been able to shield
him
self a bit with work and baseball. Now, it wouldn’t exactly be Mia
all
day. But it would be
every
day. The thought of it was overwhelming.

The reality of it?
He
was starting to worry would be even worse.

But it wasn’t like
he
could break up with her.
Right or wrong—and yeah, he knew it was wrong—he
needed her.
He
need
ed her so that he
could prove
to Cleo just how over her he was. Even if it was a lie. He
wanted Cleo to believe it was true.
She was over him, right? So he
was damn well going to prove
he
was over her, too.

“Reece!” Mia snapped. Her small hand slapped
him
across the shoulder.

He
wondered just how long he’d been zoning out.

“Yeah?” he asked. He
leaned against the locker next to hers.

“Are you listening to me?” she wondered. Her head was tilted to the si
de. Her eyes were narrowed at him again. He wondered if she was aware of the little
wrinkle it formed between her eyes. He doubted it or she probably wouldn’t be looking
at him that way.

“Yes,” he
said. “Party at Mel’s. Friday night. Me and you. Got it.”

“I’m going to class. My first hour is on the other side of campus” she said. She hugged
a sparkly
purple notebook to her chest. He
coul
dn’t help but wonder if she was
squeezing the notebook ju
st a little too hard on purpose. C
ausing her to spill out of her top just a little too much.

“’Kay, see you later,” he
said.
He
pushed
him
self off the locker.

She reached out and snagged
his hand in hers, reeling him in. He had
never been much for PDA. Definitely not while standing in the crowded
hall, the first day of class. He
cut the kiss
short and tried to back away. But not before she squeezed
his butt and smirked at him. He tried not to cringe. He forced a smile and left for
his
own locker.

He
dug out
his schedule. He’d scanned over it when he
got it. B
ut he hadn’t looked at it recently. He
glanced over it again as
he walked. Dodging people as he
went.

The in
side of the school depressed him
. The boring beige tile. The horrible fluorescent lighting. The multi-colored lockers
in primary colors. They made him
feel like a kid on the set of Sesame Street.

He
found the bank of lockers that held 1
036. His
locker was yellow this year. It was a bright, cheery, awful yellow.

He
hated it already.

He stuffed what he
didn’t need inside of t
he ugly locker and glanced at his
schedule again.

Community Participation. That’s right. F
irst class of the day. The class was only offered to seniors and in the past, it had
been hard to get into
. He
’d heard you had to work hard, a lot of volunteering
,
but never any homework. And better yet? No final exam.
That
being the reason a lot of seniors signed up.

He made his
way toward the room.
The hall was crowded and loud. He
wondered how people coul
d seem so excited. Personally, he
’d rather be just about anywhere but
here. He’d even rather be at his
crappy summer job. C
leaning up dirty dishes and scraping off other peoples’ half-eaten food scraps.

When he
got to the classroom, there was a clu
ster of people in the doorway. He
realized they were looking at a huge piece of tag board taped to the wall.

A seating chart? What senior class has a seating chart?
he
wondered.
Oh, right. Apparently Mr. Jessen’s.

He
stood there for a minute, waiting for the
cluster of people to thin out. He
took a
few steps forward when it did. He
was able to see over the top of the head of the girl in front
of him. He
sca
nned over the chart and found his
name immediately.

Reece
was relieved to be in the back r
ow. R
ight next to the windows. He made his way to his desk and tossed himself into it.
He flipped his
notebook open, for lack of anything better to do.

He thought he
vag
uely recalled Adam saying they had this class together. He realized he
should’ve
asked him this morning
. O
r
taken a better look a
t the seating chart. But maybe Adam
had
b
een talking about second hour. H
e couldn’t remember. He looked around. If Adam
had this class, he definitely wasn’t here yet.

The classroom was on the third floor.
He
realized it had a mesmerizing view of…
absolutely nothing from where he
sat. Except clouds. Lots of clouds.

He
ground out a sigh.

He
glanced around looking for the clock. It was
going to be a long year
. H
e
was already desperate for the time and first bell hadn’t
even rung yet. He
found the clock on the wall
behind him. Directly over
his
head. He was just swinging his
gaze back around when Cleo walked in.

Her eyes landed on his
immediately.

Reece had always thought that
Cleo’s eyes were the
most incredible shade of blue he
’d ever seen. Lik
e the Cornflower Blue Crayola he
’d
always chosen for the sky when he
was a kid. They stood out against the espresso color of her hair. They were beautiful.
And expressive. They also made her easy to read.

At least, easy for
him
to read.

Now that he had a closer view than he’d had that morning, he
noticed a few things.  Her skin was pale. Her eyes were hollow and glossy, the way
the eyes of only the severely sleep deprived are.

Not my business anymore
,
he told him
self. As if it would stop
him
from wo
rrying
. It didn’t, of course.

Her eyes lingered on him as long as his lingered on her. He
forced a small smile and a wave, feeling pretty
sure she was going to ignore him
. She didn’t. Not completely anyway. She bit her lip and raised her hand. Just barely.
Then her eyes finally darted away. Emma was tugging on her sleeve.

“You sit right here,” Emma pointed out to her.

He
hadn’t seen Emma walk in. Too busy watchin
g Cleo, he
supposed. Emma was pointing at the seat in the front row. It was the seat closest
to the door. Right where she’d been standing.
He
was in the seat furthest from the door
.
This put Cleo
in a pe
rfect diagonal line from where he
was.

He
saw Cleo’s lips move.
He w
as sure she said ‘thanks’ or something along thos
e lines. He
couldn’t hear her over the racket the class was
making. Emma started heading his way. She gave him
an uncomfortable looking smile. Then she popped into a desk a row ahead and one seat
over.

Emma was Cleo’s b
est friend. He
’d gotten to know her pretty well ove
r the last year. But now that he
wasn’t with Cleo…because
Cleo was with Emma’s brother…he was pretty sure h
e and Emma might not be friends anymore. Wasn’t that how tho
se things were supposed to go? He
didn’t really know.

He slouched down in his
chair
and forced his
eyes to the front of the room.

Not seeing Cleo all summer had been tough. But s
itting in the back row, where he
would have a clear vantage
point of her? Day after day? He
knew, without a doubt, it was going to be hell.

Chapter
2

She
shoul
dn’t have even been looking. She knew this, yet she
couldn’t help it.

“You okay
?” Emma asked as she grabbed
her elbow. She knew she
’
d spotted Reece. He was sitting in his vehicle which was pretty impossible to miss.
If he had gotten out, he would have at le
ast blended with the crowd and she
might have been able to avoid seeing him
. But h
e was chatting with Adam while he gazed out the window
. L
ike he was already bored with school and it hadn’t even started yet.

“Cleo?” Emma pressed when she
didn’t respond.

“I’m good,” she told her as she
pulled
her eyes away. She
’d followed Reece’s line of sight and realized he’d been watching
Mia. Of course he had been. Her stomach folded
into a
painful knot.  She
’d been dreading this day
. O
f course Emma knew this. She
tried to smile and Emma rolled her eyes because she didn’t buy it. She knew better.

“So, Luci looked super cute today,” Emma said. She’d brought up the one subject that
she knew would m
ake Cleo
smile.

It work
ed. She grinned despite her
self. “
Thanks.
I thought so
, too
.”

Luci was her
life.
She wa
s the thing that kept
her
sane. She
couldn
’t help but picture her. H
er long blond ha
ir all curled to perfection. She
’d helped her curl it because
she’d
asked
.  B
ut
Luci
still had such baby-fine hair
that
she
knew it would be back to stick str
aight by the end of th
e day. She
didn’t care. It ma
de Luci happy and that made her
happ
y. They’d gone school shopping
.
Cleo had
let her pick out an outfi
t that cost twice as much as her
own first day outfit. But you only
start middle school once and Cleo
had felt the splurge was justified.

“
Thanks for driving us,” she
said.
She hadn’t asked Emma to. She
sure didn’t expect
her to. But when she offered, she hadn’t
decline
d
. Emma was sweet enough to insist on driving Luci
,
to
o. Even
though it added an extra
fifteen
minutes
because the middle school was definitely out of the way
. And Emm
a was not a morning person. So Cleo
appreciated the
offer that much more.