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Today curiosity was beating self-preservation.

We had almost reached my locker when a girl I barely knew stepped directly into my path.

“So?” she asked.

I stopped. “So?”

She smiled like we were friends. We weren’t.

“Which one?”

Beside me, Sadie went very still.

I knew exactly what the girl meant.

I smiled back. “Your dad.”

Her friends burst out laughing. The girl’s face changed.

I stepped around her.

Sadie waited until we were out of earshot before she said, “That was unnecessarily cruel.”

“She’ll recover.”

“I meant to her dad.”

That got me. I was still smiling when I reached my locker.

Then I saw Chief.

He was twenty feet away near the end of the hall, standing with Clayton and two other football players.

Megan was there too. Of course she was.

She stood close enough that her arm brushed his, long blond hair falling over one shoulder while she showed him something on her phone.

The list. I knew before I saw the screen.

One of the football guys laughed.

Clayton looked annoyed. Chief didn’t.

He looked exactly like he always did.

Calm. Unreadable. Bored, almost.

Then his eyes lifted. Found mine.

Everything inside me changed.

God, I hated that.

Across a crowded hallway, after two years of barely looking at me, he could still do it. One glance and my body betrayed me.

His gaze held mine. Not long. Just long enough.

Then Megan said something and touched his arm.