“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “You just looked so sad each time I saw you. And I knew you’d seen me in the school. I just wanted to talk to you after that.”
“You quoted Oscar Wilde.” I smiled.
Hayden laughed. “Yeah, that was, like, the height of geekdom.”
“No. It was kind of cool.”
We lapsed into silence. He kept up the thing with his hands, repeatedly coming dangerously close to my skin. After a while, my arms tingled, kind of like when our skin had touched before, but not as overwhelming. When I finally reopened my eyes, Hayden had this serious look on his face. “What?” I murmured.
Shaking his head, he dropped his hands and stood. I felt the loss of him. “You know what the sad thing is? You trust me, and you don’t even trust yourself.”
I stared up at him. He was so right. “I don’t trust your father.”
“I know.” A glimmer of a smile appeared. “But maybe one day you can learn to trust him… and yourself.”
“Probably ain’t going to happen.” Hayden crossed his arms. “Why?”
I shrugged. The dude was his dad, so it wasn’t like I could tell him that I thought Cromwell was skeevy. So I said nothing.
“You ready?” he asked, letting the subject fall to the side.
I nodded, and we made our way back through the dark woods in silence. At night, the forest took on an almost surreal atmosphere, one where all kinds of critters waited in the bushes. Needless to say, I felt ecstatic when we stepped into the house.
Hayden headed off to his room, but I stopped him with two words. “I’m sorry.”
He flipped around, head cocked to the side. “Sorry about what?” I bit my lip. “I’m sorry for what I said to you before. When you said you were here for me and I said that meant nothing.”
He waited.
Flushing, I ran my hands over my arms like he had. The feeling was so not the same. “It was rude.”
“You were upset.” Hayden shrugged, a troubled look pulling at his face. “Adam… was everything to you.”
I flinched. Adam was nothing to me now. “Anyway, I’m sorry.”
Hayden nodded. “It’s all forgiven, Ember. Friends?”
I felt my lips curve. “Friends.”
Chapter 13
Excitement hummed through bio—last class of the day, also Friday, and oh, yeah, Homecoming Weekend. Bor-ing.
“You really aren’t going to the game?” Disbelief filled Cory’s voice. As if nothing else in this world could be as important as “the game.”
“Nope,” I eyed Coach Ashford, who had his feet crossed at the ankles and propped on the desk. His head kept falling down, and then he’d jerk it back up and blink.
“And you’re not going to the dance, either?”
I yawned loudly. “No.”
Cory shook his head. “I thought you girls lived for that kind of thing.”
We did—I did—but my date (if I had one) wouldn’t live through the night, which kind of took the fun out of it all. “Just not my kind of thing.”
“Oh.” Cory twirled the pencil between his fingers and cleared his throat. “Billy is having a bonfire after the dance. You should come.”
I simply stared at him. Billy McIntyre was in my English class. Nice kid, captain of the football team.
I barely spoke to the guy.
Cory’s cheeks turned a ruddy color. “Well… the other ones go—the ones you live with. They usually go— even Hayden. It’s like tradition around here. Go out in the cornfields, get drunk, whatever. Anyway, you should come.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip. Hayden hadn’t mentioned it. He also hadn’t mentioned the dance, even though I’d overhead Phoebe talking about going. She had a date—some pensive-looking guy with dark hair and full lips.
I wondered who Hayden would take to the dance. I mean, he had to, right? Over half the female population stopped to drool over him when he crossed their paths. And why hadn’t he mentioned the party? We were friends. Didn’t friends tell each other about these things?
“Ember?” Cory said.
“Oh. Uh, I don’t know.”
Cory frowned. “Think about it, at least? It’ll be fun.”
“Sure.”
Thankfully, the bell rang. A party sounded fun. So did keg stands. But if Hayden wanted me to go then he’d have said something, right? Of course, the moment Hayden and I walked to our lockers I had to open my big mouth. “Are you going to the bonfire Saturday night?”
Hayden palmed his bio book. “How do you know about the party?”
A frown creased my brow. “Cory invited me.”
“Did he?” His voice was soft, deceptively quiet.
“Yeah, so what?”
We stopped at his locker. With one try, he popped it open and tossed his book inside. “I’m not planning on going this year.”
“Why?”
He slid me a knowing look. “I didn’t think you’d want to go.”
“What does that have to do with you going? And why wouldn’t you think I’d want to go?”
“Well, I thought we could work on the
“I like people. I like parties.” We started down the hallway.
“I’ll take you if you want.”
I stopped and stared at my locker. Was he offering because he now felt obligated? “Look, you don’t have to take me if you don’t feel up to it.” I finished dialing the numbers, gave the handle a tug, then sighed and started the combo over again. And then, I said something I had no intention of doing. “I can go with Cory.”
His dark eyes flashed, like tinder igniting. “I want to take you. If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t ask. You want to go, don’t you?”
My tummy warmed for no reason.
Hayden leaned against a locker next to mine and sighed. “I don’t dance—ever. An elephant has better moves than I do.”
I kind of doubted that.
“I have no rhythm whatsoever. And I hate tuxes and stuff like corsages and really bad punch. Just thinking about all of that makes me want to gouge my eyes out.”
“Okay.” I laughed softly. “No dance.”
“But I’m taking you to the party.”
A stupid grin fought its way to my face. “Is that so?”
He nodded, a challenging look in his eyes. “So don’t even think about arguing with me about it.”
“Okay. I guess I can—” The locker finally swung open. The blood drained from my face, from all of me.
Hayden went rigid beside me. “What the hell?”
Sitting on the shelf was one of those model cars someone usually had to order and put together with glue and stuff. But it wasn’t just any model car; it was the exact replica of Dad’s Lexus: white, four-door, luxury edition. How someone knew that kind of detail amazed me.
But it was the driver’s side of the model car that stunned me into silence. Someone had taken a hammer to
