Page 82 of Chasing Your Ghost

“It’s too bad you’re not my type,” Riley told him before spinning around.

“I’m everyone’s type,” Chris called out as she walked to the front door.

She couldn’t exactly tell him that she was far more interested in his green-eyed black-haired friend, so she left Ella’s house without replying, groaning as the humid heat outside settled over her. She raced down to the sidewalk, already feeling sweat starting to bead on her forehead and under her Blink-182 concert Tee.

Riley looked both ways before she saw Ella and Archie a block away. She ran to catch up with them and pretended not to notice when Ella turned her head to the side and wiped at her cheeks.

“Hey,” she said, keeping her voice light. “Mind if I join you guys?”

Ella returned her head to center. “Of course not.” Brushing her tears away may have removed some of the evidence, but the proof that she’d been crying was still evident in the shaky roughness of her voice.

Riley sighed. “Noah’s a jerk.” It felt weird to say when Noah was also sweet and very much not a jerk, but the words weren’t a lie—not for Ella.

She huffed out an unamused chuckle. “You don’t say.”

Riley chewed on her lip, debating if she should bring up something that had become painfully clear to her watching Ella and Noah interact. They reached the street corner, and she followed as Ella turned left. “I know it’s none of my business,” she said. “But you like him, don’t you?”

Ella’s grip on Archie’s leash tightened, her knuckles paling as she squeezed it in her fist. “Is it that obvious?” she asked in a whisper.

“No,” Riley rushed to assure her. “There were small things that made me suspect it, but I only knew for sure a few minutes ago. I could tell what he said about the cheerleaders got to you more than it should have.”

Ella nodded. “You probably think I’m an idiot for liking someone who hates me,” she said with another humorless laugh.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot,” Riley replied firmly. “Quite the opposite.”

“What? You think I’m a genius?” she asked.

“Well, I was going to say that Noah’s the idiot,” Riley explained with a grin. “But sure, that works too.”

Ella laughed, and this time it was real. “He wasn’t always this way with me, you know. When he, Asher, and Chris first became friends, I used to tag along with them. Noah and I got along well, or at least I thought we did, and I developed a massive crush on him.”

“What changed?”

Ella shrugged. “I don’t know if anything changed as such. I just overheard them talking about me one day. Noah was teasing Asher about me always following him around like an annoying stray puppy, so I stopped hanging out with them.”

Riley winced in sympathy. “Kids can be such little shits.”

Ella was back to her fake smile. “I felt so pathetic. I thought he liked me back, you know, but all along, he thought of me as some irritating tag-along, and after I stopped following them all around, he finally showed me what he really thought about me to my face. I think he was hoping Asher would drop me too, and the longer Asher kept being my friend, the more Noah seemed to hate me.”

“I don’t get it,” Riley admitted. “Noah is such a nice guy to everyone.”

“Exactly,” Ella said, her tone steeped in bitterness. “That’s what makes it so much worse. He’s so kind to everybody, and it’s no wonder that everyone at Georgetown, the girls on my team included, love him. But he treats me like I’m worth less than the dirt on his shoe.”

She looked down at Archie, whose feet were happily clipping against the sidewalk in sharp contrast to his owner’s somber mood.

“And what’s even worse is that I’m still that pathetic puppy, pining for him even though it’s clear he can’t stand me.”

“You’re not pathetic,” Riley argued, though a small part of her did wonder how Ella could still have a crush on someone who treated her so cruelly. “If you were pathetic, you would have let Noah talk to you like that back there without standing up for yourself, but you didn’t take it lying down. You dished it back just as good.”

Ella pursed her lips. “Most of the time, that’s exactly what I do: take it lying down.”

Riley cringed, remembering how Ella had stood there silently outside the ballet studio when Noah had been so rude. She’d really put her foot in it.

“Can we just stop talking about it, please?” Ella asked with a shake of her head. “Better yet, can we forget this conversation ever happened in the first place?”

Riley would never forget what she’d learned since leaving Ella’s house, but she could most certainly keep her lips sealed and not bring it up again if that’s what the other girl wanted. “Sure. I’m sorry I even brought it up.”

“It’s okay.”

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