Page 22 of The Other Half

I look up and it’s none other than Amber and her friend Kaylee. I’m amazed at how perfectly their hair and makeup has stayed intact after an entire school day. I don’t even want to imagine what my hair is looking like now.

I avert my gaze and pretend to keep reading my book, hoping she won’t notice me at all. That hope is quickly crushed when the two of them plop down right beside me on the same bench, even though there’s an empty one a few yards away.

“Hey, Oakley, is it?” she asks, in a sickly sweet tone, one that I can tell is not genuine at all.

I close my book and look up, feigning confidence as best as I can manage. “Yep.” I don’t pretend to be friendly back to her, I’ve already seen where that got me.

“Look… I know I was a bitch at lunch. I’m sorry,” she says with a halfway look of sincerity in her eyes.

I’m caught off guard a bit. “Oh…I mean, it’s okay, I guess.”

“It’s just that, I know how Oliver is,” she says as she rolls her eyes and shakes her head in annoyance.

I have no idea what she’s getting at. “How he is..?” I ask, hoping my mother will be here soon so I can escape this conversation.

“I mean obviously there’s more to this, you know? I just would hate to see you get hurt. I can tell you’re a good girl, and he’s obviously doing this as some kind of conquest,” she says as if she’s stated the most obvious thing on earth. “You’re just really not his type.”

Finally I see the silver SUV rolling around the front of the school and slowing down in front of us.

I’m not sure how to end this conversation gracefully, so I just quickly hike my bookbag onto my back. “I gotta go,” I say as I walk away. She doesn’t bother to respond, instead I just hear her incessant giggling again that reminds me of nails on a chalkboard.

Wow, what a bitch.

Chapter 21

Oakley

Later that night, we’re laying in Oliver’s bed, watching tv. I can’t stop thinking about what happened with Amber today. I worry that she’ll make sure his entire group of friends ostracize me, forcing him to choose between them or me.

I sit up and lean my back against the wall, pulling all of my limbs away from his.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

He stares at my face carefully and sits next to me, holding his knees in his arms. “I know that isn’t true. I can tell when you’re upset.”

“Your friends hate me,” I say as I stare blankly at the floor. The nauseous feeling from earlier invades my stomach again.

I look up at him, expecting him to roll his eyes. But instead he just looks sad, and concerned. “They don’t hate you. I promise.” He puts his arm around my shoulder. “Amber can be hard to deal with sometimes. She’s used to always getting her way.”

“So what would be her way? You dating her?”

He looks away and worries his lip between his teeth. “I don’t know about that, exactly. I think she’s just jealous of you. I don’t think she actually cares for me that much.”

I’m scared. I’m finally happy for the first time in so long. I don’t want it to end.

“Hey.” He dips his head toward mine, and I move my eyes to meet his. “Nothing is going to change the way I feel about you. No one’s ever made me feel like this before. I’m not going to let anyone ruin it.”

My heart flutters at his sweet words. “Okay,” I whisper and nod.

“I think if she got to know you she’d really like you. She’s just dramatic, give it some time.”

I nod even though I’m thoroughly unconvinced that she could ever like me.

“Do you want me to stop hanging out with her?” he asks.

Honestly? That would be ideal. But I feel like it would be wrong for me to expect that, considering that she’s friends with everyone he hangs out with. I don’t want to tear apart his group of friends, they’ve all known each other a lot longer than he’s known me.

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