Page 60 of Survival

“Your routine is looking really good, Izzy. I swear. We’ve been in the studio tons more these past weeks—”

“Which we would have been doing the second I got my cast off if the doctor had cleared me any sooner.” Izzy’s eyes flashed, and she shoved her water and a towel down in her bag, yanking the zipper shut before throwing it over her shoulder to stand.

“But he didn’t.” Leo leveled her with a stern look. “You had to heal and gain strength back, therightway, or you could have damaged your ankle worse. It sucks. I get it, but I swear, you’ve madeamazingprogress.You. Are. Going. To.Get.This.” He placed his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to meet his eyes, and I watched the fight in my sister’s stance slowly deflate.

Leo pulled her in for a hug. “Trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong?” He gave her a wink in the mirror, and Izzy grinned.

“No. You haven’t. Thank you. And I’m sorry for making us late, sis. I just… There’s this pressure hanging over me with this now. I’m running out of time.”

Most of my frustration with her fled at that. “I know. I’m sorry. I get it. But I really do feel guilty making Emma wait.”

“Well, she said I could shower and change over at her place, so it’ll be fine. See you tomorrow,Leo?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” He waved us off, already working on another set of steps in the mirror, and IfeltIzzy’s hesitation to leave as she watched him.

“Come on.” I linked my arm with hers, pulling her out the door.

It took us a good twenty minutes to get to Emma’s, the ride between us silent, both of our minds elsewhere, like a silent pact that we’d talk later, and after excited hellos with Megan, Casey, and Dinah, Izzy took a quick shower, and we made the spontaneous decision to go out for food. Settling on our favorite Mexican restaurant, we chose to go big and order the massive order of nachos Izzy and I usually shared with the guys. Between the six of us, we managed to down most of it, our stomachs ridiculously full as we laughed and chatted for over an hour.

“So, how’re things with you and David?” I asked Megan when the rest of the girls left us to head to the restroom.

“Good mostly.”

“Mostly?” She gave me a small smile and popped a shoulder before taking a small sip of her soda, and I propped my elbow on the table to rest my chin on my hand. “Well, you sound convincing.”

Megan laughed. “That’s because I’mnot. I don’t really know. We were so good the first several months we were together, and a lot of the time we still are, but he has moments where he acts weird. Like really irritable over stupid things and he tries to pick a fight for no reason. I think he’s freaking out that graduation is coming up. We didn’t get into the same school.”

“That’ll do it.” I gave her a sympathetic look.

“Yep. I really care about him, and I don’t want to spend the last few months we have together fighting.”

“So, tell him.”

“Ihave. He just tells me that I don’t know what I’m talking about or suggests that if I don’t want him in a bad mood, I should do something to distract him.”

“You mean?” I made a gesture with my hand near my mouth.

“Yep.” Megan nodded, popping the p. “That or sex.”

“Ass.”

“Sometimes.” She sighed, and we both took another drink.

“So, have y’all?” I asked, unsure if it was crossing a line.

Megan twirled her straw around her glass, not meeting my gaze. “Yeah, for a while now. I just don’t like the implication behind it when he brings it up like that.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

I looked over when the bathroom door opened and saw our friends coming out. What I didn’t expect to see was Ruby barrelling past with a tray full of food.

“Oh, my God.” Casey yanked Izzy’s arm to pull her back before she could get trampled, and I immediately glared at the bitch that nearly ran down my sister. Ruby looked to the side with a small smirk, but then her expression fell when she saw me, the color draining from her face.

I was immediately up and crossing the restaurant, pulling my arm away from my friends when I passed them.

“Annie,” Izzy hissed. “Stop it. It’s fine.”

It so wasn’t. Because that bitch thought she was knocking intome.

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