Page 20 of Falling

I’ve spent the rest of my time in the gym, at the rink, or in the library. They’re the only three places I go to nowadays. I can’t even remember the last time I had a good night's sleep without having to tire myself out by working too hard.

Trying to think of a plan to get people interested in me and the team has not been working out very well. We had a team meeting last night at Madelyn Briar’s house. She called it and said that we all had to do something to raise more awareness for the team and get people interested. I was there for three hours, and the best we came up with was a bake sale. I wasted three hours of precious reading time for abake sale.

We’ve not been able to come up with any solutions, and trying to focus on classes as well as all of this isn’t helping. I need to do something about it, and quick.

“Well, as long as you don’t go all Millie Trainor on him, you should be fine,” Kennedy says.

“You always blurt out names like I’msupposedto know who these people are.” I groan, pushing my head into my hands.

“Wren, we’ve been going to this school for a year, and you don’t know who some of the most talked about students are, and it shows,” she argues.

“Why would I spend my time gossiping about people I don’t know?”

“Because it’s fun?” Kennedy stares at me, and I stare back. She rolls her eyes. “Millie catfished her boyfriend for three years in high school, and he only just found out now thanks to Mason Greer.” I give her another blank look, and she sighs. “He’s the creator of that gossip page on Instagram. They have a bunch of accounts for different cities to expose couples and just post about drama that doesn’t involve them. It’s like TMZ. And, no, I’m not explaining who TMZ is.”

“That much I can understand, thank you,” I say dryly.

“Anyway, as long as you’re upfront with him about the terms and conditions, you should be fine. If anyone gets a whiff of this beyond the three of us and Miles, even if you’re justthinkingabout it, it’ll be used as an excuse to expose you,” Kennedy explains. My eyes widen. I don’t like the sound of that. “Again.”

“I wasn’t ‘exposed’ with regionals,” I say, knowing exactly what they’re referring to. My fall on the ice was filmed like the competitions usually are, and someone posted a clip of it online. I’ve been more careful about what I post and who I share my account with since it happened, but the only thing it did was make me a laughingstock for a few weeks and push people even further away from the skating team. “Well, thank you for that insight, Kenny girl. I’ll think about it.”

“Well, you should probably think quickly because he’s right here,” she says. The words fly out of her mouth, and before I can even register them, she’s beaming up at Miles as he stands by our table. Of course, he’s here right now. Kennedy’s smile doubles in size. They haven’t seen each other since the party, and I planned to keep it that way. I don’t want him to get the wrong idea and think we’re the kind of friends who have friendship groups merging together. “Hi!”

Miles’s smile is all confidence and ease as he says, “Hi. It’s Kennedy, right?”

She beams, holding out her hand for him to shake it. “Wynter, like the season but with a ‘Y.’”

Miles nods, turning to Scarlett. She sits up straighter, if that’s even possible—she has the posture of a ballerina—holding out her hand to him. “Scarlett V?—”

“Voss,” he finishes, shaking her hand. “Trust me, you don't need an introduction. You and your entire family are millionaires. And I’m sure you remember me from when you were fooling around with Jake.”

She beams with pride at the “millionaire” part before scowling at the mention of Jake. “Yeah, I do. I don't remember you being this polite.”

“Well, turning over a new leaf and all. Really trying to impress this girl,” he says, turning to me. His entire face lights up, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “Oh. I didn't see you there.”

“Bet you didn't.”

He grins. “How are you?”

“I was good until you showed up,” I lie.

He frowns, taking the spare seat on the table next to me and Kennedy. “Let's not do the whole song and dance.”

“What song and dance?” I ask, pretending to be more interested in the tea in front of me.

“You pretend to hate me; I pretend to not be turned on. It's our thing, Wren.”

“Right.”

“We were just talking about you, actually,” Kennedy says.

Miles gasps, looking around at the three of us. “You were? How sweet of you to talk about me to your friends. I haven’t got a text back from you all day.”

I roll my eyes. “I spoke to you last night.”

“And I texted you again this morning,” he argues. I stare at him. He stares back at me. “I’m clingy, okay?”

“I can tell.”

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