Page 4 of The Thought of You

Sighing, I quietly accept my fate and make the switch, grimacing more and more with every inch of my foot, ankle, and shin these boots cover.

I try to stand tall, but is such a thing possible with these on my feet? They don’t match with anything, except perhaps a baby onesie, but they certainly don’t go with the pastel pink sleeveless dress I’m wearing over a white top.

“Cute, cute, cute boots.”

Oh no.

Please, Lord, no.

“Why didn’t I think to wear my ducky rain boots today? Oh, right, because I’m not four.”

I steel myself against the evil voice that belongs to none other than Emmy Salinger. I’ve been the object of her terror for the last two years, ever since she got her headgear off, but now I’ve actually fueled her fiery rampage of insults by wearing such hideous boots.

“Good to see you too, Emmy,” I toss back, my tone as sweet as freaking honey because I’m a polite Southern woman in the making, damn it.

“Yvonne, come get a load of this!” she calls out to the second most awful human in our class.

Was it me who threw out a few of their homecoming maid ballots last year? Sure was. I’m not proud of committing fraud, of course, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the looks on their faces when they realized they both had lost.

My stepmother has done an excellent job of teaching me to take the high road, but even I have my limits.

From the looks of it, though, I played the fraud card too soon.

Yvonne rushes over to witness my humiliation, stars in her eyes like she’s struck gold. She takes one peek at my boots and points and laughs alongside Emmy.

Their eruption of mockery feels like it echoes across the parking lot, catching the attention of a few passersby. It seems that the whole student body is laughing at me, when in reality, it’s mostly just the evil twins.

In a blink, I feel like I’m in a teenage drama where the overexaggerated cartoonish bullies become warped, slow-motion figures. They loom over me, and shadows emphasize their soulless features.

I slump against my car, wishing I could hop back into it and drive away to Florida, where I could change my name and be someone else.

With a deep breath, I reach into my car for my heavy backpack full of fresh notebooks just waiting to be filled with ideas and valuable information. I square my shoulders and prepare to strut into the school for homeroom, my skin thicker than ever, but I freeze.

Owen reappears and drapes his arm around Emmy’s scrawny shoulders.

“When we go shopping this weekend, can you get me boots like hers?” Emmy asks him with a point of her manicured nail at me.

He simply nods in return without sparing me or my shoes in question a glance. If Owen senses her nasty sarcasm, he doesn’t show it.

He whispers something else in her ear, then nuzzles his nose into her neck, which makes her giggle. The high-pitched sound could wake hibernating bears.

Are they… together? When did this happen?

And here I thought Owen had a decent side to him beyond the goofy jokes and careless façade. When he offered his sister’s shoes to me, I assumed there was a tender part of him, but obviously, I was so very wrong.

He’s exactly what I’ve always thought about him—a spineless jock with absolutely zero standards.

I can’t wait for him to disappear to the other side of the world to play baseball far from here. I only hope he takes his precious Emmy with him.

That way, after high school, I’ll never have to deal with either one of them again.

chapter

one

ADDIE

Present day…

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