Page 142 of The Play

“Here it is!” he says, and my stomach plummets like a shot-down missile.

TJ slides the phone toward me. Pippa practically drapes herself over the sticky tabletop to get a good look.

The photo features half a dozen guys and a few girls. I recognize several faces: Matt Anderson, that Jesse guy, and I think that’s Mike Hollis in the corner but it’s hard to tell. Matt has his arm around a smiling redhead, and Jesse is posing next to a girl I think might be his girlfriend Katie. But I don’t see Hunter—

Oh. There he is.

TJ’s right. Hunterisin the photo.

And he is absolutely kissing someone else.

35

DEMI

MY HEART JUMPS TO MY THROAT IN HORROR, TIGHTENINGmy windpipe and making it difficult to breathe. In the photo, the blonde’s mouth is fused to Hunter’s in a frozen kiss captured for all of eternity. Permanently documented for me, Demi Davis, to see.

Jealousy and anger form a pretzel in the pit of my stomach. I’m allowed to feel the former, but not the latter.

“D?” Pippa says.

I paste on a careless expression. “We never had the are-we-exclusive talk.”

She sees right through me. “Oh, babe. We don’t know when this was taken,” she points out.

TJ speaks up. “It was posted like six days ago.”

“That doesn’t mean it wastakensix days ago,” argues Pippa.

“Why would someone post an old picture?”

“Are you serious? People do it all the time! Throwback Thursday? Flashback Friday? Way-back Wednesday?”

“The caption doesn’t use any of those hashtags,” TJ counters.

“Maybe they forgot. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?” a third voice joins in.

I glance up at Corinne’s arrival. She’s wearing an oversized sweater and skinny jeans, her curly hair pulled back with a yellowscrunchie. She climbs into the booth beside me, and now it feels even more cramped.

“We’re just arguing about this picture of the guy Demi is dating,” Pippa explains.

“Hockey boy?” Corrine asks.

“Yeah.” That awful cold sensation keeps fluttering through my body.

She picks up the phone. “Which one is he?”

I point at Hunter and the blonde. They’re still kissing in the picture.

Dammit. I was kind of hoping I’d look at it again and they’d be standing on opposite sides of the frame.

Corinne studies the image. “This is the guy you’re seeing?”

“Yep.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” She seems genuinely upset on my behalf. Or maybe it’s just pity.Poor Demi, the girl who keeps getting shafted for other chicks.

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