Page 7 of Exposed

“Why do you look so sad?” Kennedy asked. “Brooklyn’s back. You should go after her.”

It didn’t feel like Brooklyn was back. The Brooklyn I knew was a ghost. My stomach twisted. But she’d looked the same. She’d smelled the same.

I took a deep breath. No, she wasn’t the same. And standing here with Kennedy while our team celebrated was where I needed to be right now. Because no, I wasn’t in love with Kennedy. But I still cared about her. And I needed to make sure she was okay.

I cleared my throat. “When you said you had something you needed to tell me after the game…I thought you were going to say you still had feelings for Felix.”

“What?” She laughed. “No.”

“Really? Because you two were flirting pretty hard the other night at dinner.”

“We definitely weren’t.” But she was smiling again.

“Well, he was definitely flirting with you. I never meant to get in between the two of you in high school. I hadn’t realized I was doing that. I think I owe you an apology for that too.”

She shook her head. “I wanted to be there for you.”

“Right. Because Brooklyn would have wanted that.” But I don’t think either of us knew Brooklyn as well as we thought we had. And I was honestly a little surprised that Kennedy wasn’t more upset with Brooklyn. I wasn’t the only one who’d struggled after Brooklyn’s supposed death. Kennedy had too. All my friends had.

“Besides,” Kennedy said. “I wasn’t ready for a relationship back then anyways.”

Yeah. Because of freaking Cupcake. If I ever saw that guy again I was going to punch him square in the nose. And not just for Kennedy, but for Ash too. He really had a way of fucking over good people.

“He said he liked you first.”

“What?” Kennedy said.

“Felix. He said he liked you first. You deserve someone who liked you first. Who will always put you first. You deserve the world, Kennedy.” She deserved a hell of a lot better than me.

“Thanks, Matt. But Felix and I are just friends. Like you and I are just friends.” She lightly punched my bicep.

“That was weird.”

She laughed. “Yeah. It was. And I know we were supposed to have dinner with your friends, but I think I’m just going to go congratulate Henry and get going, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.” I didn’t think I’d be going to dinner withmy friendseither. I wanted to get out of here just as badly as Kennedy did.

“Okay then.” She gave me one last smile and ran out onto the field.

I thought I’d known what I wanted. Her. How could I have been so wrong?

“Matt?” James said.

I turned around to see all my friends standing there. Staring at me with very concerned expressions.

“Congrats on the win,” Rob said. “You killed ‘em.”

Daphne elbowed him in his side.

“Ow. I was just breaking the ice. Look, Matt. We all have a confession.”

I put up my hand. “Let me guess. You knew Brooklyn was back and you didn’t tell me?” I looked at Penny when I said it.

“Matt,” Penny said. “Brooklyn asked us not to. She wanted to speak to you herself. I…”

“And you’re not friends with Brooklyn, Penny. You’re supposed to be friends with me.” I forgave Kennedy for not telling me because she was best friends with Brooklyn. Her loyalties were with her friend like they should be. So why the fuck hadmyfriends kept me in the dark? They were supposed to have my back. They were supposed to care.

Especially Penny. I’d just opened up to her about how much losing Brooklyn broke my heart. She’d sat in my art studio and held my hand as I cried. How could she have kept Brooklyn’s return from me? How could she?

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