Page 14 of New Year

“Todd’s usually a good guy, but when it comes to her…” He shrugs. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you. But you’ll find someone better.”

“Can we not talk about this?”

I don’t even know why I’m being such a drama queen about the whole thing. I wasn’t surprised, and I’m not even mad about it. At least not at Todd.

“Sure,” Chase says with a sigh. “Hey, you know I’m with Lindsey right now, and I’d never ask you to wait around for me. I know you don’t owe me anything, but will you promise me one thing?”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Don’t fuck with Colin.”

“I thought it was Oliver you had your eye on,” I tease, though it sounds forced even to my ears.

“I was hoping you’d forgotten about that,” he says with a grimace. “But seriously. Can you do that for me?”

“I’m not going to go after Colin,” I assure him. “He’s Daria’s ex. Besides, I don’t think I’m his type.”

I nod to where he’s flirting with a group of cheerleaders.

“Ah, but he’syourtype, right?” Chase asks. “Dark haired foreign guys? He’s got that one nailed.”

I shrug, trying to ignore the little curl of joy at the jealousy I hear in his voice. “Maybe. What do you have against him anyway?”

“He’s not good enough for you,” he says.

“And who is?”

He looks away. “If you date someone and you’re happy, then I’ll try to be happy for you. Just not him. I wouldn’t be able to watch what he would do to you.”

He squeezes my knee and then hops up and walks away, confident as always. A gaggle of cheerleaders break away and surround him. You’d never know from the easy, relaxed way he talks and laughs with them that his girlfriend is in the hospital and he just saw someone viciously attacked and almost killed.

But then, it’s not like I go around broadcasting my sorrows, either.

I look up a few minutes later and Oliver is coming over, towing a petite girl who looks vaguely familiar. Damn, it didn’t take the twins long to find girlfriends.

Oliver sits down next to me, leaving a few feet of space between us, and the girl sits on his other side. “This is Sky,” he says to her. “This is Isabel.”

“Hi,” she says, leaning forward to smile at me. A row of long dark curls swings forward past her shoulder—perfect, fat ringlets that actually dangle like hair is supposed to. Myimpossible tangle of wild sprouts that grows in every direction definitely did not get the memo, which is why I’ve started to flat-iron it into submission. I try not to be bitter that Oliver replaced me with a girl who looks like everything I’m not but wish I was.

“Are you an athlete?” he asks, nodding toward the floor.

I laugh at the thought. “Definitely not.”

“You look like one.”

Before I can as if that’s a compliment, Greg comes over and starts lacing up his shoes, teasing me about finally being off house arrest and coming to see him play, even though it’s just practice.

“I do skate sometimes,” I say to Oliver, feeling the need to justify my lack of sportsmanship, since he’s just sitting there watching my exchange with Greg.

“Like ice skate?” Isabel asks. “Or roller skate?”

“Um, no. Skateboard.”

“Seriously?” Greg says. “You’re a skater girl?” He studies me a minute, then laughs. “Yeah, I guess I could see that. You’ll have to show me how sometime.”

“Only if you’ll show me how to shoot a three pointer.”

“Deal,” he says, getting up and giving me knuckles before trotting out onto the floor. Unlike Oliver, I always feel completely comfortable with him.

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