Page 76 of The Sun
“Shit.” I bent to tie my shoe, and when I stood, I noticedBrandon McClure’s a fagscribbled in thick black marker, right underneath the cut-out letters spellingHammerhead Pride.
My heart sputtered. I slapped my hand over my chest to work out the hiccup while my eyes remained glued to those awful words. I blinked, thinking they may somehow disappear. But when I opened my eyes, there they were. Uninvited and accusing.
And then the fear set in. Someone knew.
My vision blurred. I crunched my teeth when I grabbed the corner of the paper and ripped it. I shredded those words until they were nothing but hateful confetti in my hands, and then I went to class and sat next to the boy I pretended to love in a way I loved Elias Black, wondering how we could keep this all together.
The sun had already begunits slow descent behind the ocean when Brandon and I sat down at our usual table at Coconut Larry’s. The waitress swooped by with our drinks, and Brandon placed our order, while I stared across the Parkway, watching the sea oats waver on the cooler than normal breeze.
“Hey. You okay?”
“Yeah. Fine.” I rubbed over my arms while forcing a smile.
He shrugged out of his jacket. “You look cold,” he said as he passed it over the table.
I slipped my arms through, quickly enveloped within his jacket’s warmth and too-clean smell, and I fought the tightening sensation crawling up my throat. I didn’t want to tell him what I saw on that bulletin board. I didn’tneedto tell him. Which meant I had a secret that felt like a barb buried deep in my heart.
The wrought iron gate surrounding the terrace squeaked, causing the pack of seagulls to scurry toward the opposite end of the patio. A group of guys from the basketball team lumbered toward an empty table.
The tall blond glanced at me while the waitress passed out menus. Seconds later, I heard a rumble of laughter. Brandon didn’t seem to notice, but my ears burned. They could have been talking about anything in the world, but to me, they were laughing at Brandon, saying the cruel things I’d heard others say about Travis, and it filled my heart with anguish.
Our waitress placed a plastic basket of hushpuppies in the middle of the table. Brandon took one and broke it open, steam rising as he set it on his napkin to cool. “I didn’t mean to piss you off today,” he said.
“What?” I had to drag my attention away from the basketball guys.
“You seemed mad after the, uh, the incident in the hall.”
I twisted my cup around a few times. “I wasn’t mad at you.”
“I just. . .” he rubbed over his neck. “The guys on the team were ragging me about Black dumping you in that pool. Not to mention, you’re one of my best friends. I’m sick of him hurting you.”
“He hasn’t hurt me, Brandon.”
“Come on, Sunny.”
“Getting tossed into some gross Jell-O didn’t hurt me. It just made me mad.”
His face looked a little confused, and then he did this half laugh. “Look, I know Elias is the guy. Okay?”
I fell silent. My heart thump, thump, thumped in my ears, and my mouth went dry. I took a sip of water while Brandon’s gaze bore through me. “I mean,” I started, but I didn’t know what to say.
“I should’ve known it. I mean, the way you two look at each other, but you kept telling me it wasn’t him.” The wind kicked up, blowing the straw paper across the table. Brandon caught it and balled up it. “I didn’t want it to be him because I thought he was a dick. Elias and his brothers deal weed. He’s rough, and you’re. . .not.”
“You don’t even know him, though.”
“He laid my ass out at football practice after that weekend after Radcliffe’s party.”
I took another gulp of water and swiped a finger through the ring of condensation.
Brandon folded his arms over the tabletop and leaned in. “Does he know we aren’t really dating?”
“No.”
“So,” his lips pressed into a thin line. “He thinks you’re screwing around on me with him?”
I buried my face in my hands. This was such a mess.
“Sunny? What’s going on?”
