Page 20 of Catch Me

I’ll check on Reid first then I’ll be over.

See you then.

I put the phone down and walk out to the kitchen table where my parents are sitting and talking. Dad looks up first. “What’s up, Sweetie?”

“Lex is coming over. He’s going to help me decipher some of this work I have to do to catch up.”

I stare at Mom, praying she won’t bring up leaving again. She’d said we would leave tomorrow, but I’m just going to act as if I didn’t hear that part. If I was changing schools, I wouldn’t need to hand in the homework I missed. I hope this subtle hint tells her I’m serious about staying in Spring Hill.

Holy shit. I never thought I’d hear myself say those words again. I guess the Spring Hill Blues have lifted—for now.

10

The next morning when Reid picks me up to go to school, Mom and Dad aren’t there. They weren’t there when I got up either. All I got was a note that said they had to go into the office early. Part of me cheered inside because at least I knew I wasn’t going to have to fight my mom this early in the morning about staying in Spring Hill.

I dropped a bagel into the toaster for him and carried it out when I heard him pull into the driveway. When I get out there, though, it’s Lex in his silver Honda Civic waiting for me, not Reid. He gets out of the car before he notices I’m on the front step. When he glances up, he pauses with his hand on the door. He must see my questioning gaze because he automatically explains, “Reid got a doctor’s appointment first thing this morning.”

“Oh,” I say. I pull out my phone to check to see if he’d sent me a message, and he hadn’t.

I fret over my lip, but Lex walks up to me. “He got a last-minute opening. He had to take it.”

“Right,” I say, smiling for him. “Well, here, this is for you then.” I hand him the bagel.

Lex takes it from me and gives me a thin-lipped smile. “Thanks. So, I called the police station this morning to talk to the same guy I reported the picture to. He couldn’t tell me much, but he did say that she was assigned community service.”

My eyebrows raise and a grin pulls at my lips. “Seriously?”

He nods. “He didn’t say so, but she probably had to pay a fine too. I did some research last night on the internet after I left your house,” he explains.

“I wish we could get a hold of the police report. That would be awesome. Her parents would die if something like that came out.” I take a seat in Lex’s car with a huge smile on my face. This was better news than I thought. I’d completely imagined that Sasha didn’t get anything but a stern talking to, but this is epic. This is definitely something we can use against her to keep her from messing with Reid, or hell, even as payback for what she’s already done. She deserves this and a hell of a lot more.

Lex starts the car and uses the mirrors to back out of the driveway before pointing the car toward school and taking a bite out of Reid’s bagel. “I wish we had that. I was also thinking maybe we could get lucky and figure out where she’s doing the community service. If we got pictures of her there…”

“She could lie,” I say. “If she’s doing community service somewhere, she could just say it’s for her college applications. Damn. I really wish we had the police report.”

Lex side-eyes me from the driver’s seat. “I haven’t seen you this worked up about something since Theo Laughlin took you out of the number one spot.” When I glare over at him, he holds his hands up defensively. “Still a sore subject. Got it.”

“She really needs to pay for what’s happened, Lex,” I tell him, justifying in my mind why I want to publicly humiliate this awful excuse for a human being. “She thinks she’s untouchable, but she’s not. Remember when she told Reid that Spring Hill was her school, not his. This is just a struggle for power. My God, we have a freaking Stalin on our hands. In high school. Imagine what she’s going to be like out of school.” I shake my head. “It’s not right.”

“I completely agree,” Lex says. He’s quiet for a moment as we pass the early morning crowd on the streets. There are adults going to work and other students just like us, making their way to Spring Hill High where they don’t even know the lengths some people will go to. “I just don’t want you to lose yourself, Briar.”

I shrug. “I’m just trying to protect the ones I care about. Isn’t that what you three tried to do for me?”

His fingers tighten around the steering wheel. I know I’ve struck a nerve, which is fine by me. It was meant to. I don’t need to be coddled anymore. Right now, shit’s happening to Reid, and I won’t stand for it.

When we pull into the school, Cade’s waiting for us. He jogs up to the car as we get out. “Any word?”

Lex shakes his head. “I don’t even think he’s gone in yet. He’ll text.”

I grit my teeth, but in the next moment, I try to make myself relax and not worry about the fact that I’m apparently the last person to know that Reid went to the doctor this morning. I shouldn’t be bitter about that. At all. Right?

“Hey,” a voice says.

The three of us look up to find Oscar without his arm candy. He hikes his bag up on his shoulder. “Reid around?”

Lex practically growls at him. I’m right there with him.

Oscar looks annoyed. “He ran out of practice before I could talk to him.”

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