Page 45 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
The Brentwood halls felt different Tuesday morning as I walked down them, pretending to be absorbed in my phone to avoid making eye contact with anyone.
There were two things on my mind that made it impossible to feel like anything other than a bug under a microscope. After my doomscrolling yesterday in my car, I hadn’t had the heart to open Babble again, too afraid of the comments I’d find waiting for me like a ticking time bomb.
And then there was the bigger problem. I was afraid the second I looked at anyone, they’d see that I’d committed treason of the highest order.
Or, well,plannedto commit treason of the highest order.
I’ve got a date with a Bulldog at six-thirty.
“Morning, sunshine.” A sudden jerk on my ponytail had my head pulling backward, literally yanking me from my thoughts. “You look a little tired.”
I swatted Kyle’s hand off. “I do not,” I said. “I look perfect.”
And I did. I’d made sure that my blonde hair waspulled back into a smooth braid, that my makeup was immaculately done, and that my clothes did not look frumpy. No sweatshirts and leggings today—I could not look like I was wallowing in light of the MLTs. I needed to look confident, cool, and collected.
Even if I felt like a bee buzzing in a glass jar while people took turns shaking it.
Kyle took my zero eye contact as encouragement, and inched closer. “You and Jade fighting over the label?”
“Of course not.”
“Really? I’d be upset if I were you.”
I could tell he was fishing. “Butt out, Kyle.”
Kyle tapped my cheek, pulling his hand back before I could bat it away. “I’m allowed to be worried about you, Maddie.”
The thing with Kyle was that he seemed trustworthy—and would swear he was—but wouldn’t hesitate to run his mouth if backed into a corner. As flirty as he was, I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. “She’s not angry. No one’s angry. It’s just a meaningless label, like the rest of them.”
I could feel his gaze roam my face. “I heard you asked Landon out over the summer.”
I looked up at him in surprise. “Landon told you?”
“Jade.”
When would Jade have told Kyle anything about that? Or did she tell Connor, and Connor told Kyle? I squeezed my eyes shut, head already aching.
“He went out on a date last night. Landon. With Lacey Churchill.”
I slammed my locker door shut, staring at the slats in the painted blue metal. I couldnotdeal with anything else—not Jade gossiping about my love life, not Connortelling his friends, and definitely not Landon going on a date with one of Brentwood High’s outcasts. My brain felt as if it was going to explode with the bombardment of information, filling to the brim and leaking over.
“You know,” Kyle went on when I didn’t reply, unaware of how close I was to snapping. “If Landon doesn’t want you, Mads, I have dibs.”
I finally faced Kyle fully, finding his expression nothing short of serious. “I am not a football you can pass around. And you can call dibs all you want, Kyle, but it’s never going to happen.”
Since he wasn’t walking away first, I was going to. Clutching my first period textbook to my chest, I pivoted, ready to leave him in the dust. A hand grabbed my wrist, and I pulled my other back to slap Kyle into the next century, but it wasn’t the pushy defensive lineman—it was Jade.
“We need to talk,” Jade said, no room for argument. Her grip on me was firm, almost painful, like a bracelet that was too tight.
My heart skyrocketed all at once in my chest, panic biting its teeth into my skin.She knows, she knows, she knows.
Kyle readjusted how he leaned against the lockers, looking like he was getting comfortable to eavesdrop. Thankfully, Jade noticed, and tugged my arm. “Follow me.”
With each step we took, nerves slithered their way through my entire body. I immediately regretted skipping practice yesterday. Now, though, as the consequences to my actions loomed closer and closer with each step behind her, I regretted it. Majorly.
Or maybe it was worse than that. But how could shehave found out about yesterday with Logan? Did someone from his football team recognize me? Even if they had, who would’ve spread the information back to her?
Since the bell was set to go off in five minutes, most students in the freshman hallway had gone to their classes. We went to the west staircase, and she opened the door underneath the stairs that led to the sport equipment closet—one the Top Tier utilized often for… different things.
