Page 31 of Catch Me

“Your enemy?” My eyebrows shoot up. “Didn’t she save you from Rawley Heights? Didn’t she give you the starting quarterback position here? Sounds like she’s your ally to me.”

“You’re naïve, Briar. It’s adorable. I wish we all could be as innocent as you.” He lifts his hand. I freeze when I notice he’s going for my face. My heart shoots up into my throat, and I stare at his fingers getting closer and closer to my cheek, but I can’t move. My heart thumps, thumps. His eyes track away, moving to mine instead of his intended target. Whatever he sees there stops him. He closes his fist and brings his hand back to his side. “I see why Reid wanted you over her. Sasha will never get it though. She’ll never understand why man after man will pick someone like you over someone like her. Even when she finally settles down and gets the guy she deserves, he’ll fuck someone like you on the side while she’s stuck at home, staring at her kids while simultaneously watching the clock, wondering where life went wrong.”

“That was...deep,” I say. And a lot of trivial information.

“It’s the truth.”

I stare into his eyes, watching the shadows flicker there. I believe him. I know I shouldn’t, but it feels like Oscar knows what he’s talking about in this respect. He understands the seedier side of life. “You never said what the second reason was. Why we came to Sasha’s party…”

He licks his lips and moves his stare to the threadbare carpet at our feet. The library is one of the few places in the building that has carpet. It’s a built in sound barrier as are the stacks enclosing us in. “You want to take her down. You think finding something on her is going to do it.” He lifts his hands. “I get it. If I were you, I’d want to take her out too. I think you need to think bigger than that though. Most of the students already know she took that picture of you. Hell, they’re the ones calling you Tiny Tits. Do you think that will change if they find out she got in trouble for it? That she was fined and has to do community service?” He shakes his head. “No, it won’t, Briar. You’re still going to be Tiny Tits, and she’s still going to be a bitch. No one’s arguing that fact. She’s hated. So, what? Do something more.” He drops his gaze to my chest pointedly. “For the record, I’d never call you Tiny Tits. I think they’re a nice size. The shape is on point, too.”

I shiver. His look makes me want to put on several layers of clothes.

His mouth quirks up. “Sorry. I usually say what I mean. I’m not used to sweet girls like you getting offended.”

“Are you telling me that’s a line to some girls?”

“Works like a charm.”

I can see how that would work for him. Back in Rawley Heights, Oscar was Reid. If Reid said that to a girl, he could probably get that girl to sleep with him too. The difference is, Reid would never do that. No, he’s not a saint. He’s just not a pig like Oscar.

“You’re pretty judgey for someone who wants to take someone else down, you know that? Love thy neighbor and all that shit. You’re just as bad as me. You just don’t know it yet.”

His words make my stomach upheave, like the world is shifting underneath us. My cell vibrates. Oscar keeps the confident smirk on his face while I take it out and check it. A shadow falls over the text I just got from Lex, and I look up to see Oscar reading the screen at the same time I do.

“When are you going to cut that poor guy loose?”

“What?”

“Lex,” he says. “He’s clearly in love with you, and he hasn’t gotten the memo yet that you’re never going to be with him.” His lips pull up. “You’re just like any other girl. You want the bad boy, but keep the other on the side burner to play with.”

“Fuck you,” I growl.

Oscar’s face radiates excitement. He’s clearly enjoying all of this, but it’s making my stomach turn. I already know how Lex feels about me. I’ve seen the looks Reid’s given him lately, too. In my heart of hearts, I know it’s only a matter of time before this all blows up in my face. “Cut him loose,” Oscar says. “It’s the right thing to do.”

My mouth opens. A million things come to mind to snap back at him with, but none of them eke past my lips. I turn quickly, my hair spiraling out around me, and I stomp back to the table just as the bell rings overhead. I curse under my breath and shove the book I have in my hands back on a re-shelve cart before heading for my bookbag. Behind me, Oscar starts to say something, but Lex opens the library door. He scans the crowd and then makes his way over to me. His face is filled with hard lines. Stress. The only thing that lights when he sees me are his eyes.

Guilt twists my stomach.I shouldn’t have done what I did with him, I think again.. It was wrong.

“Hey,” he says, his gaze shifting beyond me. His glare intensifies, so I can only guess he’s spotted Oscar following me out of the back of the library. “Everything good?” he asks, still watching the figure behind me.

“I can handle Oscar,” I say, probably with a little more bite than I mean to.

This makes Lex switch his gaze to me. My heart pumps inside, watching the worry lines etch onto his face.

“What’s up, Jones?” Oscar asks, grabbing his copy ofThe Great Gatsbyand throwing it into his bookbag before hiking it onto his shoulder.

Lex grunts in response, but then says, “Drego,” with a nod. I watch as they evaluate one another, Oscar’s words thrumming in my ears.Cut him loose. It’s the right thing to do.

I’m not holding him here, I counter, speaking up against that tiny voice inside my head.I swear. He knows Reid and I are together. He knows.

Oscar gives me a knowing look as Lex won’t take his eyes off me. It curdles my stomach so much that my hand comes to rest there, like it’s trying to hold everything in place.

I’m not doing that to Lex, am I?

15

Reid and I walk out of school together, hand-in-hand. He’s been looking at me weird all day. It’s probably the unnerved feeling I have inside coming out on the outside, but I don’t know how to explain to him what’s going on in my head. So, every time he asks what’s wrong, I tell him nothing. I just shrug, smile a false smile for him, and tell him I’m good. He can see through all of it. He saw through all the Brady bullshit before, so when a car horn beeps as we walk out, and my mom lowers the window to wave at us, I feel him tighten up.

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