Page 24 of Catch Me

I open my mouth to tell him to screw school when Reid sighs. “He’s right,” he whispers. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s okay,” I tell him.

He shakes his head. “No, it’s not.”

“Thanks for calling us when you were done, fucker,” Cade says as both he and Lex move down the hallway toward us. “What did the doc say?”

Reid shakes his head, and the two boys’ looks turn solemn. “Next time,” Lex says. “I’m sure he’ll approve you next time.”

“When do you go back?” I ask.

“A week,” Reid says. His voice is thin, like it’s tethered to reality by the barest of threads. The encounter in the locker room, wanting to leave, I understand all of it. I just wish we hadn’t been interrupted because I understand that, sometimes, all you need is to just get away for a little while.

“Come on,” Cade says. “You guys should get some food.” He gives me a once-over. “And you might want to run your hands through your hair, Briar, unless you want everyone to know you just had sex.”

My face flames. I immediately run my hands through my long strands a few times while Reid grins at me. “How?” I ask, looking at Cade.

“Sex hair? It’s a thing.”

I groan under my breath but follow them into the cafeteria. Jules looks up, a smile flitting over her face when she sees both Reid and I accompanying the other two in. She gives a knowing look and then peppers Reid with questions about his doctor’s appointment as Cade goes to get us something to eat. After Reid answers all her questions, Lex says, “Oscar wanted to talk to you this morning. Heads up.”

Reid’s jaw ticks.

I look behind me to the other table and notice Oscar and Sasha aren’t there. “They left a few minutes ago,” Jules says, just as Cade gets back to the table with a tray filled with food.

“I got paired up with Oscar for an English assignment,” I say, clearly expressing my disappointment on the matter. “We were working in the library, and he told me he heard a fight between Sasha and her parents. He told me she got fined five thousand dollars and has to do community service for the local parks service for having that picture.”

Everyone’s silent for a moment as they take the information in, but Jules finally says, “She should’ve gotten worse. Five thousand dollars is nothing to her parents.”

Lex and I exchange a look. What he’d heard from the officer this morning was true. For a second, I wonder if we can use Oscar to spread the rumor about the punishment she got, but it’s doubtful he would go against Sasha. He’d probably outright deny it. He is a man of opportunity after all. I tell the group as much and they agree.

Reid casts a look between Lex and me. He finishes off a slice of pizza and wipes his hand on a napkin. “So, your plan is to get back at her, huh?”

“She hurt you,” I say, daring him to disagree with me. “She’s not getting away with that.”

“It’s not going to be easy. If you think she’s bad, her parents are worse.”

“I just want to show her that she’s not as untouchable as she thinks she is. She manipulates everything,” I say, making sure I whisper the words instead of yelling them. “She got you hurt. She got you replaced on the team. She pretended to be my friend. I mean, what the hell is her problem?”

“She ruins anyone who gets in her way,” Reid says. “She’s always been like that.”

When I look at him, I still can’t believe he was with her for so long. If he knew she was like this, what was the appeal? It makes my skin crawl.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he says finally. After a beat, he looks away. I can tell he’s embarrassed, upset even, about their relationship.

It doesn’t matter now. We can’t change what’s in the past.

“If we really want to get to her, all we have to do is take away her power and prestige,” Cade suggests.

“We need to find physical proof of her community service,” Lex says, repeating the conclusion we came to earlier in the car. “A police report, a write-up, anything proving what she got community service for. Then, we’ll tell everyone.”

“We’re not bringing Briar down with her,” Reid says, anger lacing his words. He looks at all of us. “I don’t like the idea. Going after her confirms you were the one in the picture.”

“Everyone at the school knows it’s me anyway,” I tell him.

I’d already thought of this. If I want to take Sasha down about having my picture, I might get tangled up in the messy wake, but I’m willing to take the risk. If what Oscar says is true and her parents are already furious at her, it won’t take much to drag her down.

Reid shakes his head. “We should go after the guy who hit me instead. He’s fucking scum. We should be able to get him to out her for what she did to me.”

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