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I stared at her. "What?"
"You know what I keep thinking about?" Piper said, searching my face while hers practically dripped with disbelief. "I keep thinking about how for you, that picture must've been super funny. Just hilarious. And for me? It ruined my life."
"I—"
"Did you think that’s the first time I’ve had to ignore that?" she snapped.
"They wanted you to sign it."
"So did everybody else!"
I shifted back, shocked. The bleacher bunny photo had gotten me a strict conversation with Coach Lawson and Cleo, but the photo’s momentum fizzled after that. I thought it did for everybody.
"Are you serious? That’s not even the worst part of it." Piper put a hand on her hip. "People mined through my social media, making these huge videos laughing at me. That was worse." She sucked in a breath. "All of his teammates marching into my classes because of how embarrassed he was? That was worse. My face photoshopped on that picture? Even that was worse!" She stepped away from me, crossing her arms over her chest. Not out of frustration, more like…she was holding on to herself. "My job couldn’t handle the harassment. That was done! And the moment I broke up with him over the photo, everyone blacklisted me. All the friends I thought I had, gone! After he kicked me out."
I felt…horrible. In the last ten parties I’d hosted, there was a whole list of things I could’ve had shame over, but I’d never bothered with that. Shame never mattered to me. I honestly never gave a shit. But with Piper, I couldn’t think of anything else that weird, awful feeling was.
"This is my presentation," she said simply and her hands dropped at her sides. "I worked…I worked hard on this. It’s the one thing I wanted to do right. I don’t need you to ruin it."
Guilt caught in my throat. "I didn’t mean to."
20
Adam
These Girls Fuck With Your Head
That wasn’t a good enough apology. I didn’t make it a habit to apologize—it creates the wrong standards—but even I knew that.
“I don’t need you to show off your muscles during my talk.” Piper sighed. “This is hard enough. And nobody even showed up…”
She cast a wistful look to the door window, to the couple of people who even bothered to come, and I’d never felt like a bigger asshole in my life.
Piper bit her lip. “Adam, you get the rest of the day off.”
“What?”
“Go away,” she said, her voice low. “Go do whatever you want. Just keep a low profile.”
My babysitter was giving me my own leash, and I had no idea what to do with it. I almost started to argue against it. I’ll be on my best behavior. I won’t ruin the rest of the presentation. But Piper held a hand up against the door. I wasn’t allowed inside.
This was exactly what I wanted, wasn’t it? I should’ve punched the air in relief and skipped down the hallway, whistling daisies. Instead, I was frozen to the floor, gazing down at this girl who didn’t want me around.
“You need to come for the formal,” she said.
I hesitated. “Piper, what am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t care, Adam.”
Oh.
With a click, the door closed behind her, and I watched in the little window. She crossed the room to her desk and offered an apology to the class. Then she disappeared, no doubt to ask about that asshole, probably seeing if he was okay, like he deserved that. I stared at the empty window and shoved my hands in my pockets.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” I muttered and made a one-eighty, walking down the hallway of a shit university on a shit day.
No one else was out there, and Zariah and June had their own stuff to go to. I was by myself for a couple of hours. No restrictions. I could’ve done anything I wanted. Hell, I probably could’ve gotten plastered and cleaned up before the formal or done some crazy shit under the radar. As long as there weren't any photos, I could do anything.
I didn’t know why I found myself back in my room.
