Page 99 of As the Rain Falls
“I saw the trick on YouTube like, once.” He shrugs. “But, like, I never actually tried doing it before.”
“Are you coming or not?” Antony asks, his voice low. He glances back at me, expectant. “Snitches get stitches, Rivera.”
I hesitate, retreating to my desk instead. I’ve never skipped detention before, mostly because I’ve never been caught cheating on a test either.
“You guys can go. I’m not a snitch.” I pick up the crayon again, twirling it between my fingers. “But my dad’s the principal, I can’t just—”
“Oh, come on. You’re one of us now,” Mateo cuts me off as he gathers up his things. “And you already took the test again. What more does she want from you?”
“Let’s just go home and say you had to go to the bathroom or something,” Antony says, agreeing with his friend. I watch as he slings his red backpack over his shoulder. “She’s definitely not allowed to keep us locked in here.”
“I…” My chest tightens.I really want to go. “I don’t know.”
“You know what?” Antony’s comeback is almost immediate. His voice is sharp, filled with agitation, “I don’t know about you two, but I’m out of here.”
He walks off, his expression unreadable.Before he leaves, though, he looks at me one last time. It’s not exactly anger on his face, but something far worse: disappointment. It’s like he expected this kind of answer from me all along.
Ah.
And they say peer pressure isn’t a real thing.
Well, it definitely stings more than it should.
I close my mouth shut, wondering what makes it so that we’ve never really spoken to each other. I know he is close friends with Beckett, and I am friends with Beckett too, especially now that I’m dog-sitting Pepé.Maybe Antony and I could get along really well, too.That is, if we talked.
“Are you really not coming?” Mateo asks again, quieter this time. “This won’t get you in trouble, Cassandra. I promise.”
But it might.
What if it does?
What if Mrs. Yun comes back and I’m gone?
What if my dad finds out?
What if…
What if I never get the chance to befriend Antony Silva again?Will Beckett hate me for not liking his best friend?
It’s so easy to tiptoe the line between what you should be doing and what you really want to do. Maybe it’s human nature, or maybe I just like to do the wrong thing.
“C’mon, Cassie,” Mateo urges, insistent and persuasive. “It’s detention, okay? Not a fucking prison.”
Antony, who I thought had left, comes back.He stops by the door but doesn’t say anything, just tilts his head back, eyes flickering to me with the same half-bored, half-expectant look as before.
It feels like he already knows what I’ll choose.
And maybe he’s right.
Screw it.
“Okay,” I say, surprising even myself.The word comes out quite uncertain, but I still grab my bag and hurry after them. The logical part of my brain is telling me to stop, but I don’t.“Where are we going?”
Mateo grins wider, triumphant. Antony scoffs, but the corner of his mouth twitches up. It’s not quite a smile, but it feels close enough to one, and I find myself fighting off a grin.
“Are we showing her the spot?” Mateo asks, skipping like an excited gazelle. “Please, Tony. Weneedto!”
Antony doesn’t answer right away but glances over at me again instead. This time, the look isn’t disappointment or anger; it’s something entirely different. I can’t tell what that is, though. I swear to God, his poker face—it makes himsounreadable!
