Page 48 of Sweet Ruin

Me: Ha, ha. Very funny. I got caught too. I’m grounded till next week and have detention on Friday.

Wes: Same, but I have a meeting with my rowing coach Friday after school, so my detention is Saturday morning. Still worth it.

“You look veryhappy for someone who just got detention,” Cress said, noticing my smile as I looked at my phone.

“Wes is so sweet,” I replied. “And his kisses were definitely worthy of detention.”

“That good?”

“I guess what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder is true.”

Cress looked thoughtful and then smiled. “If that’s the case, maybe I should sneak out and find Kaden.”

“Maybe.” I laughed as I started to get ready for bed.

“Oh, man, there’s no way I’m going to be able to sleep now.” Cress sighed.

“Yeah, me neither.”

Cressand I stayed up late chatting, so it wasn’t all that surprising when Anna burst into our room the following morning and we’d both slept through our alarms.

“You guys aren’t up yet?” Anna asked with surprise. She walked over and threw open the curtain.

“Neither of us could get to sleep,” I said, pushing down a groan as sunlight filtered into the room, while Cress threw her pillow over her face. I must have been truly exhausted because it was rare for me to sleep much past sunrise. It had been a busy weekend though, and the excitement of last night probably hadn’t helped.

Anna didn’t seem to be listening as she came and sat on my bed beside me, pulling out her phone. “Now, don’t freak out, but there’s something you need to see…”

“Okay…” Her voice was serious, and I suddenly felt more awake. “Why do I feel like you’re about to deliver bad news?”

She winced slightly, and her hand seemed to clutch her phone a little tighter. “There’s a picture of Wes at his parents’ charity gala in the society pages.”

“And…?”

She gave me a tense smile before she continued. “And he’s with his ex.”

She turned the phone so I could see the screen. I had to blink my tired eyes several times to be sure I wasn’t imagining it. I was looking at a photo of Wes dressed in his tuxedo, and he was standing next to the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. She had long dark hair falling over her shoulders and was wearing a stunning green sparkly dress. Her brown eyes were glancing up at Wes, and he appeared to be laughing at something she’d said. His arm was lightly wrapped around her back, and they looked every bit a happy and glamourous couple.

“Are you sure that’s her?” I asked, swallowing as I tried to calm the nerves building in my stomach.

“Yeah, that’s Sarah,” Cress said. She’d moved off her bed and was peering over my shoulder at Anna’s phone. “But maybe that’s Sawyer with her.” She said it more with hope than confidence.

“No, it’s definitely Wes,” I replied, and Anna nodded in agreement.

I swallowed again. “I know you said not to freak out, Anna, but I’m finding that a little hard right now. They look so…” I paused as I searched for the word that best described how perfect Wes and Sarah looked in the photo. “They look sotogether.”The word I’d landed on stung my mouth as I said it.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Cress said, trying to reassure me. “He wouldn’t have snuck out to see you last night if something was going on with Sarah.”

“And he wouldn’t have been constantly calling and texting you the whole weekend either,” Anna added.

“No,” I agreed. But then my doubts took over, and I started to speculate. “Unless he felt guilty about something…” I placed my head in my hands. This was not the news I wanted to wake up to. Especially not when things with Wes had felt so good before I fell asleep last night.

“I’m sure it’s not that,” Cress said.

I didn’t share her optimism. “Then why didn’t he tell me he saw her?” I asked. “We’ve been in touch all weekend, and we saw each other last night. He could have said something if he wanted to.”

Neither girl had an answer for me.

I tried my best to ignore the churning in my gut as I got ready for school. I looked at myself in the mirror as I put on my makeup and told myself there was no reason to get upset. There was probably nothing to worry about. I trusted Wes completely, and he deserved the benefit of the doubt. But the more I thought about it, the worse my anxiety became. I’d trusted Levi, and that had come back to bite me. Everything had been perfect with Noah, and then something totally unexpected had blown it to pieces. History was not on my side here.

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