Page 58 of Sincerely, Your Enemy

“But—”

“You didn’t think I was going to let you keep seeing him, did you? Sorry to disappoint, rich girl, but if we’re doing this,I’mthe only guy who gets to touch you.”

I almost look down to make sure my jaw isn’t on the floor. What does that even mean?If we’re doing this? Doing what? It’s as though I’ve sealed my fate when I let him touch me.

“I…” I stop, needing a second to get a grip. “Fuck you, TJ.”

I whip around and make a beeline for the door.

“Soon, Mattson. You can quote me on that.”

I hate him so much.

I swing the door open and bolt out of the locker room. Only someone is standing on the other side, about to come in.

Chance. His eyes grow when he sees me, with the strap of my sundress cascading down my shoulder and my hair a mess. Then he spots TJ, still inside the locker room, watching me walk away. Chance starts to say something, but I don’t acknowledge him, rushing past him and down the hall.

One thing is for sure…

This is going down as the most memorable “date” I’ve ever had.

Lacey

“What are you guys having?” Dia’s voice is just background noise as I watch houses parade past the car window on the way to our favorite coffee place.

“I can only do decaf,” Aveena answers before pressing a button on the passenger door and reclining her seat all the way down. She says it helps with her motion sickness. Turns out you can still get carsick in an eighty-thousand-dollar car.

Aveena’s flashy new ride is a gift from her younger sister, Ashley. Aveena doesn’t like to brag about it, but her sister is kind of a big deal in the music industry.

Ashley’s an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who got her start on a talent show when she was just six years old. Although her career really took off last year when she started dating some guy in a boy band that’s all the rage right now.

She was touring with that same boy band as their opening act, but the tour concluded last week, and she dropped by to visit Aveena, who looks like she’s about to give birth any day now.

Apparently, Ashley took one look at her sister’s old car and declared it an unfit vehicle for an expecting mother. She said her sister and nephew deserved nothing but the best and dragged Aveena to a car dealership to get her a new one.

Oh, and did I mention Ashley is the girl Theo chose over me when we were in high school?

These two fell head over heels in love during senior year. I used to hate the girl. Of course, that’s all ancient history now, but back then, I was over the moon when she moved to LA to chase her dreams, shattering Theo’s heart in the process.

As petty as it might sound, it felt good to see him suffer the way I’d been suffering for years.

It seemed to wake him up as to what he’d put me through because a few months later, he sat me down and apologized for stringing me along all these years.

I’m not sure how long Ashley’s planning to stick around or if Theo even knows she’s in town visiting Aveena, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t track her down the minute he finds out.

“Lacey? Do you want anything?” Dia jolts me back to reality, and I snap out of it, realizing we’re up next in the drive-through.

“I’m good, thanks,” I say, seconds away from diving back into deep thoughts when a female voice cuts through the car.

A string of young girls has been reported missing in the past few months, making fourteen-year-old Leah Jenkins’s disappearance the third in just three weeks. Her family is urging anyone who might have information about what happened to come forward.

My heart drops thinking about those poor parents. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have no idea what happened to your kid.

“Jesus, that’s horrible,” Dia comments as we pull up to the drive-through speaker.

“It’s all over the news. Young girls have just been vanishing in the area,” Aveena informs us.

“Do they have any idea what happened?” I ask.

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