Page 38 of Beyond the Lines
“Yep.” I stuff a forkful of mystery meat into my mouth to avoid elaborating. “Big important project.”
“But the Princeton game is, like,thegame,” Ping protests. “Everyone goes. Even people who hate sports.”
“Which I do,” I say around my mouthful of probably-beef. “Hate sports, I mean. With a burning passion. Like, Olympic-level hatred.”
Em’s foot connects with my shin again.
“Jesus!” I yelp. “Would you stop that?”
“Stop what?” She examines her perfectly manicured nails,bubbly as hell despite dishing out corporal punishment below the table. “I’m just sitting here, being a supportive friend, who thinks maybe getting out of your room for something other than class might be good for you.”
I shoot her a death glare. “I?—”
“Not done talking!” she says. “And hoping that a friend who has been a miserable downer for, I don’t know, three or four days, might recognize that hersuper supportive friendsare tryingreallyhard to keep her spirits up and get her out of bed…”
“I went to the library yesterday!”
“To hide from Trevor.” Em glares. “When he came looking for Marnie…”
“Trevor asked about me?” Marnie says, in a sickeningly gooey voice. “That’s it, I’m going to text him and?—”
“Offer to fuck his brains out,please, for the sake ofall of us,” Ping laughs, cutting Marnie off from gushing for another hour, then turns to me. “Lea…”
“Fine, I’ll come to the stupid game, but I won’t promise to like it,” I sigh. “But can wepleasestop talking about it.”
“Do I ever stop talking aboutanything?” Em laughs, but at least she’s stopped kicking me. “It’ll be fun! We can paint our faces in school colors?—”
“Hard pass,” I say.
“—make signs?—”
“Absolutely not.”
“—talk about which members of the team we’d like to spread rumors about?—”
I smirk. “Now we’re talking…”
“—and which ones wouldtotallyhave STDs…”
I burst into laughter, Em’s cheer and persistence cutting through my mood like sunshine through clouds. The othersjoin in too, and for a moment, I forget all about stupid Declan, and stupid Mike, and stupid me for being stupid enough to get sucked in by another boy so soon…
But then, just like that, the gloom returns.
“I have to go.” The words come out in a rush as I grab my bag. “I just remembered I have… a thing.”
“Another thing?” Marnie frowns. “But you already have a thing on Thursday night, is that right?”
I look at her, wondering how she got into college, but then I shrug. “This is a different thing, Marn. A very important thing. That I need to do. Right now.”
I’m already halfway to the exit when Em catches up to me. “Lea, wait,” she says.
“I’m fine,” I say automatically, even though she hasn’t asked.
“Sure you are.” She falls into step beside me. “That’s why you’re fleeing the dining hall like it’s on fire. Because you’re totally, completely fine.”
“I just…” I push through the heavy doors into the crisp air. “I just can’t sit there while Marnie is all gooey for Trevor and you’re all talking about the game…”
“Sorry.” She grabs my hand and pulls me into a fierce hug. “But you know, going to the game won’t be the worst thing. It’ll show him you’re not hiding.”
