Page 47 of Finding Her
“Fine,” I said flatly. After the conversation I’d had with Mia last night, I had no interest in being anywhere near either of the Thompson sisters.
“Where’s Levi?” Claire asked, looking around.
“Getting our bags.”
She looked me up and down and smiled. “Aw, that’s sweet that he didn’t want you to have to stand in the rain. Of course, if it wasme, I would have insisted on standing with him but…” She shrugged. “I guess we all have different priorities.”
I mumbled out agood for you, not believing for a moment that she was telling the truth, and looked for Bear in the crowd of girls getting their bags. Normally, he was easy to spot since he towered over them all, but he must have been hunched over to get the bags out of the bus, and with the rain as well, it was impossible to make him out.
“So, there was something I wanted to show you,” Claire said.
“Thanks but I’m not interested,” I said, still searching for Bear. He had to be inside the bus to be this hidden from view.
“Oh, I think you’ll want to see this,” she said. And then before I knew it, she was shoving her phone in my face. I was ready to push it away and remind her about a little thing we called personal space, until I saw exactly what was on the screen.
Me and Bear. Kissing.
Phones weren’t allowed on the camping trip, which meant somebody had risked having their phone confiscated just to be able to snap that photo. And just as I was wondering who on earth would do that, the answer became perfectly obvious: the smirking girl standing just behind Claire.
Before I could react—and honestly, I wasn’t sure how I would have reacted—Claire threw her arms around me as if we were thebest of friends and said, “Congrats, you won the bet! You got him to fall for you!”
“What bet?” A deep voice asked behind me.
I pushed Claire off of him, feeling a warped sense of satisfaction when she stumbled back into Mia in surprise. Good. She deserved it.
I spun around to face Bear, who was standing right behind me with both of our duffel bags over his shoulders. And even though Claire had only said ten words, I knew it was enough to tell him everything he needed to know.
His gaze flicked over to Claire and then down to her hand, where the photo was still sitting. His face hardened even more, if that was even possible. In fact, he looked downright murderous. And then, without a word, he turned and stalked off.
“Bear!” I yelled. But he didn’t turn around. I turned back to Mia and Claire. “I hate you!”
My voice screeched, the anger and sadness I was feeling bleeding out into it. They both stared at me with wide eyes, looking horrified, ad I wondered how terrifying I must have looked for that to happen.
I left them in the dust as I ran after Bear. The cold rain hit my face hard as I ran against the wind, trying to keep his retreating gaze in my line of vision. I expected him to head for the dorms, but instead, he was headed for the lake, where I’d seen him on his run just last week. Already, it felt like a lifetime ago.
“Bear!” I called again breathlessly. He was slowing down now, as he turned onto the bridge that ran over the water. The lake had been flat every time I’d come out here, but now it was choppy from the storm. He was holding the railing, staring out at the water.
I skidded to a stop beside him, my converse slipping on wet wood.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said immediately. “I’m sorry about all of this, okay? I didn’t mean for?—”
“What was the bet?” he asked, his voice deadly.
I stared at him with wide eyes, breathing hard from the run. Even in those early days, when we had first met, and he had been the grumpiest person I had ever seen, he had never spoken to me like that. And I knew, right then, that I had really, really messed up.
“Claire,” I said. “At the beginning of the year, she overhead me and Lilah talking about you and how you let me call you Bear and…” I cut off my rambling and shook my head. My wet hair hit my cheek. I was already soaked to the bone. “Well, long story short, she wanted to start a bet. She wanted to see who would be the first one you asked out.”
He pressed his lips together. “So, all of this… was just to get me to ask you out? All this time we spent together? All the times you…” He cut off suddenly and turned away from me.
“That’s what it started out as,” I admitted, my voice soft. “But I swear—it’s not like that now.”
“How can it be anything else?”
It broke my heart to hear his voice then, so beaten down. If Mia was to be believed about what it was like between him and Claire, then he’d spent his whole life being told who he was supposed to love and what his life was going to look like. I had to wonder how he’d felt when he met me. What it was like these past few days for him, as he opened up to me—the first girl he ever let himself fall for.
And I ruined it all.
“Because you’re different than I expected. Because you’re better than I expected. And honestly, Bear, I didn’t think I would ever win the stupid bet. I just couldn’t say no when Claire suggested it because…” I threw my hands up and said honestly,“Because I didn’t want to let a mean girl walk all over me or all over Lilah, okay? I didn’t want that to be who I was here.”
