of a wall of water. It lifted her off her feet, spun her, slammed her into the ground, and dragged her, tired and teary and confused, to shore, to safety, to the relative peace that would rule until another wave swept in and knocked her down all over again.
There were moments, brief moments, where she thought she would be okay, that all the pain and sorrow sweeping over her would end, that it would drag her down, but not forever. And then there were other moments, long, interminable moments, when she feared she would drown.
He was drowning-in anger, in despair, in indecision, in regret.
Had he done the right thing?
Was he a complete hypocrite? Sleeping with someone else and then dumping on Beth for doing the same? Had he made a horrible mistake?
Adam sat on the floor of his bedroom, door shut tight, loud music drowning out the rest of the world-if only it could drown out his thoughts. But they were too loud.
In front of him sat a pile of pictures, pictures that Beth had given him over the past couple years, pictures of the two of them together, happy.
There they were in the mountains, and there, in another, curled up together on the couch. Beth, cheering in the stands at one of his basketball games. Beth, cheeks flushed, eyes radiant, balanced on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Beth, elegant and lovely, in her silver evening gown at last year’s spring formal.
He held the last picture in his hands-it had always been his favorite and, until this evening, had sat on his desk in a silver frame. It had been taken just after they’d started going out. They were in the park. It had been a rare, beautiful day-cool air, brilliant blue sky. Even the grass had seemed lush and green. Adam had swept Beth up in his arms, dangling her above the ground, and she was laughing, trying unsuccessfully to get away, her hair billowing in the wind, her face filled with joy-his face filled with love. It was how he always thought of her-open, happy, laughing, so in love with him, so hopeful about the future. She’d believed in them-believed in him.
He held the picture, wondering: Had he made a mistake? Thrown away something too precious, too perfect to lose?
But then he remembered that these weren’t the only pictures, that these images no longer told the whole story. He looked out the window, to Harper’s dark bedroom only a few feet away, and remembered who he could count on-and who he couldn’t, who had taken everything good in his life, everything he’d thought was real, and stomped on it. Destroyed it.
This picture in front of him that he’d loved so much-it was a lie. Everything he’d loved had been a lie.
He tore the picture in half, right down the middle, and threw it aside.
He was done with lies, forever.
Chapter 14
The next morning Harper ran out the door at eight a.m. sharp to meet Adam, who was driving her to school for the dreaded test. She was still hungover from the night before, and she expected he’d look even worse, but instead, Adam was clean shaven and bright-eyed, and had a wide smile on his face. Too wide, Harper decided, but if he wanted to pretend nothing had happened, she’d respect that and go along with it. For a while.
“Excuse me while I have a heart attack,” he joked when she climbed into the car. “Harper Grace?
“Hold the applause and let’s get going,” she sighed, squinting in the bright morning sun. “The sooner we get started, the sooner we can get this thing over with.”
“Amen to that,” he agreed, and shifted the car into gear.
The whole ride was like that-pleasant small talk, strange and unnerving only because it was so utterly and completely normal. As they pulled into the lot, they passed right by Beth’s car, but Adam said nothing-maybe he hadn’t noticed.
The car pulled to a stop, and they got out. Harper took a deep breath. “Well, should we go face our future?”
She began to walk toward the school, but Adam grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the car.
“Wait,” he said, smiling. “I have a present for you.”
He pulled a small, hastily wrapped package from his pocket and handed it to her. She ripped off the wrapping.
“A new cell phone?” she asked, surprised.
“To replace the one I broke,” he explained, blushing. “Sorry, again.”
“Oh, Adam, you know, I don’t care about the phone,” she assured him. “I mean, thank you-this is so sweet, but-how are
He shrugged and looked away. “Okay, I guess.”
She took a step closer to him and put her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eye. “How are you
Slowly, carefully, as if afraid it might hurt, he smiled. A real smile, this time.
“I think I’m really okay,” he told her. “Now.”
And he leaned toward her, and they kissed, and it was sweet and soft and perfect-and again, she forced herself to push him away.
“Adam, I told you-,” she protested.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him, bending his lips to her ear, and whispered the words she’d been waiting so long to hear.
“I don’t want revenge,” he promised. “I want
She didn’t think it would hit her so hard.
One minute, Beth was on her feet, barely awake, barely functional, but still upright, moving forward.
And the next, there they were, Adam and Harper, locked in each other’s arms.
It was as if all the breath was sucked from her lungs, all the energy leeched from her body. The world narrowed to a pinhole vision-all she could see was him, with her, those familiar hands all over another body. She knew every inch of him, could almost feel what he was feeling as Harper wrapped herself around him. She wanted to throw up-instead she staggered, would have collapsed, but a pair of strong arms caught her halfway to the ground.
Kane.
“Beth, you look terrible,” he said, helping her up and putting his arm around her. She leaned against him gratefully.
“Thanks,” she said weakly as they shuffled toward the school. “A girl always likes to hear that.” She did look terrible, she knew that. She’d cried all night, and it showed. When she’d looked in the mirror this morning, she had barely recognized the pale, gaunt face looking back at her with dead, hopeless eyes. “You don’t look so great yourself,” she added, gesturing toward the angry, enflamed skin around his left eye.
“You should see the other guy,” Kane joked-then looked appalled, as he realized what he had said. “Beth, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“It’s okay.” But it wasn’t. It might never be.
“Beth, I want you to know, if you need-”
She put up a hand to silence him.
“Can we not do this now? I just need to-I just need to make it through the test.”
It was as far ahead as she could bear to look. The future, which started in three hours, would take care of itself.
Three hours.
One hundred eighty minutes.
Too many questions to count-and a whole future riding on every answer.
Miranda bit nervously on the eraser of her number two pencil. Maybe she should have spent a little more time studying and a little less time partying. Too late now.
