Page 392 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

I knew I shouldn’t have had those shots of tequila. I’d forgotten how hard they kick.

But I don’t make it to the bathroom, because when I clear the landing, Jude is standing there barring my way.

Chapter 15

Harper

Jude and I stare at each other silently as our parents come through the front door. They’re whispering to each other, my mom’s high heels clacking loudly on the marble floor. I have no idea if Jude is just here to stop me, or if he wants to go speak to them too because he just stands there staring at me.

Until Wayne says, “Come here, kitten.”

Both me and Jude turn to look over the railing. Downstairs, our parents haven’t made it past the foyer.

Wayne is in a tuxedo, and my mom in a slinky black dress that exposes more than a decent amount of cleavage. My heart seizes when I realize they might have come looking for me to say goodbye before they left. Did they find me in the cinema, passed out drunk? Did Jude already speak to them, already tell them how I fucked up?

But they couldn’t have. They don’t look like they’re coming home to discipline their kid. They look like they’re in love.

Wayne grabs my mom’s wrist. He whirls her around and into him like they’re actors on a movie set. I watch spellbound as they kiss. He slides her handbag off her shoulder and the sleeveof her dress comes with it, baring her skin. He kisses her there and then moves his lips to the inside of her throat. Mom makes a sound I can hear all the way up here, and I take a hurried step back.

“Really get a kick out of watching, don’t you?”

I spin around with a strangled gasp. Jude is right beside me, so close I can feel his body heat. Then he steps closer, crowding me against the railing. My hips thump into the steel banister a moment before Jude’s thighs brush mine.

With him this close, I catch his scent for the first time since we’ve met. It’s fresh but deep, like new growth in a shadowy forest. It makes me want to lean in, to put my head in the crook of his neck, and breathe in deep while he holds me tight against his chiseled body.

“How do you want to do this?”

“What?”

“They have to know what happened. So which one of us is going to tell them?”

Is he still talking about Rosie…or something else? Maybe what happened in the pool? Or the fact that I interrupted his?—

Ha, no, I didn’t interrupt him. He was done by the time I ran out of the room.

I blurt out a quick, “I won’t say anything.”

“Good.” Jude’s eyes slide past me, malice glittering in his black eyes. “Besides, it looks like they’ve got their hands full.”

I peek over my shoulder. Wayne has my mother pinned to the wall, one hand up her skirt, the other grasping roughly at her breast.

When I turn back, Jude’s gone.

I straighten hurriedly and step away from the landing in case either Mom or Mr. Dearth happen to look up. When I realize I’m staring at them making out, I hurriedly look away and head back to my room. Falling onto my bed, I stare up at the white ceilingwith its twinkling downlight before letting out a low laugh. Jude thinks I’m a voyeur? Well, if I’m a freak, then so is he.

Why does that make me so happy?

Chapter 16

Jude

Fridays have a different energy at Cinderhart High. Everyone’s foaming for the weekend, fed up with the classwork and the social niceties they have to participate in every day. Even the teachers look exhausted. Most of them get out of any real teaching by giving us surprise tests...which, after the first year you’re at this school, isn’t much of a surprise anymore.

A lot of kids bunk off—some for the whole day, some just the last class. I’ve not one of those anymore. I’m serious about football, and I’m serious about my grades.I’d have thought Harper would be serious about getting back on track too. But the first Friday of the semester I find out she missed science class. Admittedly Mr. Monroe nearly putmein a coma back when I was still taking his class, but that’s the kind of shit she needs to deal with if she plans on building a life for herself.

Which makes me think that maybe she doesn’t.

What a fucking waste.

---