Page 65 of The Wrong Bachelor

My shoulders slouched as I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. “Madi's been avoiding me all week,” I finally admitted.

“Do you think she’s upset about you picking Laurie for your date?” Tanner asked.

“She told me it was fine,” I shrugged. “In fact, she didn’t really seem to care at all.” I’d tried to explain that she was the one I wanted on the date with me, but she wasn't bothered about not being selected. She actually seemed happy I’d picked Laurie. Things went so well during the group date at the ice rink; I couldn’t understand why Madi didn’t want a repeat of it.

“You sure?” Tanner asked.

I shrugged again. It’s not like I could read Madi's mind, but she’d made her feelings pretty clear. “Madi seemed fine earlier this week. She was really happy when she found out I fixed her locker, and we were passing cute notes and everything. Then she suddenly started ignoring me.”

“Are you sure your note wasn’t sleazy rather than cute? You know girls don’t like that crap.”

I didn’t answer. There was no way I was going into the details of what my note to Madi said. My words had been from the heart and, though Tanner was my best friend, there was no way I was revealing them to him.

“It wasn’t sleazy,” I replied. I huffed out a breath and glanced toward Madi’s table once more. My gaze had barely landed on her when I felt a firm smack against the back of my head.

“Repeat after me: I am not a creeper,” Tanner said.

“I am not a creeper.”

Tanner grinned. “Great, now act like it.”

I shifted on my chair so I was firmly faced away from Madi. “Better?”

“Much,” Tanner said.

“Any news on who vandalized Madi’s locker?” I asked.

“Do you remember how to talk about anything other than that girl?” he laughed.

“Sure, let’s talk about you and Stacy instead,” I said, with an evil grin. I knew that Tanner and Stacy were currently in the off portion of their on-again, off-again relationship, and I knew how much he hated talking about her when they were “off."

“No news on the vandal,” Tanner said, flashing me a look of annoyance. He was too easy sometimes.

“How does no one know?” I asked.

Before he replied, Tanner took a bite of his burger, almost devouring it in one mouthful. I thought I was an animal when it came to stuffing myself with food, but Tanner was a beast.

“It happened before anyone got to school and no one’s been bragging about it. I guess they saw how upset everyone else at school was and didn’t want to be the bad guy.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. Madi got along with everyone, so anyone trying to bully her was definitely going to come across as the bad guy in the situation. Not that Madi would believe the fact that most of the people around her had her back. Judging by all the votes she was receiving from True Love audiences, even people outside the school loved Madi. I didn’t understand why she failed to see how great everyone thought she was.

“I’ll still keep my feelers out though,” Tanner added.

“Thanks, man.” I hoped Tanner would come up with something soon. Even though the words had been removed from Madi’s locker, it still left an angry pit in my stomach whenever I thought about it. I wasn’t going to feel better until I’d found out who’d done it and brought them to justice.

“You ready for your date tonight?” Tanner asked.

“Don’t remind me,” I muttered. I looked over at Laurie who was flirting outrageously with Skip today. The poor guy looked like he didn’t know what had hit him. He was one of the quieter guys on the football team, and I never saw him going out of his way to talk to girls. He clearly didn’t know what to do with all of Laurie’s attention. I almost felt sorry for him.

Tanner chuckled. “What are you guys doing?”

“Well, I was going to try and convince Angus that he should let me take her to the movies. I thought it would be great because then I wouldn’t have to speak to her, but then I remembered that Laurie struggles to keep her hands to herself in broad daylight—I can only imagine the horrors I’d experience in a darkened theatre.”

“Yeah,” Tanner laughed. “Good call. So, what then?”

“No idea. Angus pretty much decides all of that stuff,” I said, before taking a bite of my own burger. Our cafeteria was known for its lousy cooking, but the food today wasn’t so bad.

“You trust him to plan your date?” Tanner asked.

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