Page 56 of My Brother's Best Friend

Mom stiffened. “But he?—”

“He didn’t start the fight,” Coach said. “Why would he?”

I forced myselfnotto roll my eyes at Mom, but, damn, she really was attempting to defend Oliver in any way that she could, huh? I let out a low breath, blowing some hair off my forehead, and slumped even lower in my seat.

“If you’re going to give me detention too, just assign it, so I can find Maddie,” I said.

It would look shitty as hell with the recruiters sitting in on practice and games this week, but if that was what it took to get me out of this damn principal’s office and to find Maddie—because she was a fucking wreck—then I would take it.

Dean Sanatora and Coach shared a glance, and then she finally sat up and cleared her throat. “You have a clean record, Mr. Wolfe. You will not be assigned detention today, but I expect that you will be on your best behavior for the rest of the year, which means no fighting on school grounds.”

I stood up and nodded. “Thank you.”

Once she finally dismissed me while Mom fumed inside the room for some reason or another, I hurried into the hallway and headed straight for the parking lot. I needed to get to Maddie’s place—or at least find her.

I didn’t know if she would be home, but I?—

When I turned the corner, I slammed right into Piper. Her books scattered everywhere, and she bent down to pick them up.

“Sorry,” she muttered, then peered up at me, brow furrowed. “Oh, hey.”

After picking up some books, I handed them to her and grimaced. “Sorry about that.”

She tucked some hair behind her ear. “Have you seen Maddie?”

“I’ve been stuck in the principal’s office. Have you?”

“Yeah, she left about fifteen minutes ago,” Piper said, frowning. “Sobbing.”

“Where’d she go?”

“Probably her house,” Piper said. “But I hope she got in safely. When I last saw her, she was a mess. Vera left her with me while she grabbed some tissues from the restroom, and Maddie just ran off to her car. She was in no shape to drive?—”

“Fuck,” I growled, rushing through the exit door and heading straight for my car.

“Wait up!” Piper shouted, hurrying after me. “I can?—”

But before she could finish her sentence, I slipped into my car, slammed the door closed, and sped out of the parking lot to find my girl.

CHAPTER34

MADDIE

Curled up into a tight ball underneath my blankets, I stared emptily at some anime playing on my TV screen. My phone lay in my lap, the screen lighting up with about a hundred notifications from social media.

And I wasn’t exaggerating.

Since the last time I had been on Instagram, which was half an hour ago, my social media tab on my iPhone had had ninety-eight notifications. Ninety-freaking-eight notifications from Sandra, Tiffany, and about every other girl at Redwood.

I pulled my gaze away from the TV and looked down at my phone with tears in my eyes, finally succumbing to the pressure. Unable to stop myself, I tapped on one of the Instagram notifications, where a girl I didn’t even know had tagged me in a porn star’s post.

There were fifteen comments from fifteen bitches at Redwood, all tagging me and gossiping about how slutty I must’ve been to snag Alec Wolfe because Alec didn’t go for girls like me. He went for those like Sandra, who threw themselves at him every chance they got.

My phone vibrated, jolting me out of my teary-eyed trance.

Vera: I’ll be over as soon as school ends. xx

Quickly, I pushed her notification away and continued to scroll through the hundreds of negative comments. I just wanted to wallow in my own self-pity and disappear so I wouldn’t have to go back and face everyone at Redwood, even the teachers.

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