AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Instead of answering, she wrinkled her nose and shook her head before demanding, “What iswrongwith you lately?” She wasn’t very quiet about it either. “It’s like you’re present but not even here anymore. Are you on drugs or something?”
“What?” Widening my eyes at her in censure, I hissed, “Jesus, no. And will you keep your voice down? That’sallI need—some stupid rumor spreading that I do drugs.”
When I glanced across the pizza parlor to make sure no one was listening to us, I accidentally made eye contact with Connor Resson of all people at the checkout counter, paying for a to-go order.
“Great.” When he turned away and grabbed his pizza before hurrying out the door, I groaned and sank lower in my seat. “And that guy works for the school paper.”
“Well, geez, I was just teasing,” Amy shot back defensively.
“It’s not going to be so funny if it ends up in the paper,” Brey muttered, coming to my defense.
“Yeah,” Reed joined in. “Besides, you know Foster would never do that.”
“Exactly!” Amy explained, throwing up her hands. “Who’d even believe he was a druggie, anyway? What was the harm in joking around?”
“What’s a druggie?” Little wanted to know.
I sighed and rubbed at the aching spot in the center of my forehead.
While Reed and Brey tried to explain it to her, Amy kicked me under the table to get my attention.
Lifting her hand as if to prove her point, she said, “Something’s still off with you.”
When the other three paused to look at me, I sank away from all the stares. “Nothing’s off,” I assured them.
“Well, no one believesthat,” Reed countered with a roll of his eyes.
I groaned, hating to be put on the spot, so I just blurted, “I lost a girl. Okay?” Lifting my hands, I added, “That’s all this is. It’s just regular, old, normal heartbreak.”
The three oldest kids dropped their jaws in shock before Reed uttered, “I didn’t know you were even dating anyone.”
“I wasn’t,” I started, only to wince. “Not technically. It’s…complicated.”
“I’ve never seen a girl break your heart before,” Amy said next, looking stunned.
I shrugged. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
“Wow.” Brey shook her head. “What’s her name?”
I wasn’t going to tell them, but then I decided they wouldn’t know who she was so what was the harm.
The moment I murmured, “Raina,” however, Amy gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth.
“You mean the coma girl?”
My brow lowered. “How did you?—?”
“Her dad came to eat supper with us. Duh,” Breydan reminded me.
“Right.” I winced. But shit. “I forgot about that.”
“I thought you didn’t know her,” Reed asked in confusion.
I winced, not sure how to answer that, until Amy shook her head. “Did she die or something?”
“No. Actually, she woke up. But she asked me to go away and never come back.”
“Holy shit,” Reed breathed, causing Little to snap her head up from her drawing and point.
