Page 30 of When Ellie Falls in Love

“I’m okay.”

“Yeah?” Ellie looked at her over her sandwich. “You sure?”

“I mean, I have to be, you know. I don’t want this to define me.”

“It doesn’t have to define you but you’re still allowed to have feelings about it.”

“Oh, I haveplentyof those. Don’t you worry.” Sadie leaned onto the table and lowered her voice. “I called Trevor a pea brain this morning. To his face.”

“Shut up.” Ellie leaned forward, too. “And you didn’t tell me you were going to say that beforehand so I could have been there to see his face?”

Sadie chuckled. “Honestly, I think he was just trying to figure out whatulterior motivemeant.”

“You deserve better than him,” Ellie said through her laughter.

Like you, Sadie wanted to say. But she was nowhere near that brave yet. She was still glad Ellie hadn’t heard her agree that climbing down the trellis the other night was sexy. Sadie would have died from embarrassment if she’d heard that.

“I know,” she finally said. “Maybe I’ll find that someday.”

“Maybe at college.”

“Yeah.”Or maybe across the lunchroom table.“Maybe at college.”

For the rest of lunch, the two talked about their families and their plans for spring break. Ellie’s family was going to their Cape Cod house, as they did on most school breaks, while Sadie was staying home. As she did on most of her school breaks.

“You should come to the Cape with us in the summer. You’d love it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Ellie smiled. “The beach and sun and the whole atmosphere is fun. If I didn’t love the Cove so much, I’d move to the Cape.”

“I do love the beach.”

“Then you should come.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said, knowing damn well she already knew the answer.

“Oh, and here.” Ellie dug into her backpack and pulled out three tickets. “They’re tickets to the opening night of the spring musical. If you and your mom and Charlie want to…”

“We’ll be there. Totally.”

Ellie’s smile widened. “Good. I’d love for you to be there.”

The damn bell interrupted Sadie from whatever she might have said next. As they gathered their things and headed back to their classes, Sadie couldn’t help but notice the extra spring in her step. As bad as Saturday night had been, Ellie had brightened up her Monday. Nothing was going to knock Sadie off her high. She was going to move on from the events of prom and never look back on them. Her gaze was forward-facing from now on.

But that mentality only lasted a few hours.

Because when she arrived at her locker in the gym, that damn picture was waiting on it. This time, in print form. Someone had taped it to her locker and Sadie ripped it down as all the girls laughed. Sadie marched over to Abigail, who was smugly standing with her arms folded over her chest.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Shouldn’tIbe askingyouthat? I mean,” Abigail took the crinkled paper from Sadie and held it up, “Ididn’t take this picture.”

“No, but you seem pretty obsessed with it for a woman who claims to love dick.”

“Hey!” Charlie’s stern voice echoed through the locker room. She had her hands on her hips and a frustrated look on her face. Sadie had never seen her like that before. “What is going on in here?”

Sadie watched in horror as Charlie yanked the picture from Abigail’s hands and looked at it. No one dared to say a word or even look at Charlie. Especially Sadie.

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