Page 30 of The Promposal

“No, the ‘How to Tell If Your Guy’s Cheating on You.’ Listen to this list.” Ella began to read, and as she did so, my heart started pounding loudly in my chest.

“He’s suddenly uncommunicative. Tells stories to explain his absence. Has secretive phone calls and texts. Has cheated in the past. Shows a decrease in affection. Misses important dates and events. Changes his routine and spends less time with you.”

As Ella read through the list, all I could think wasJake. That’s Jake. Jake does that. Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake ...

When she finished, I groaned and put my face in my hands. “Oh my Buddha. My boyfriend is cheating on me, too.”

That made Ella stop reading. “What? Why would you say that?”

I started using my fingers to tick off my reasons. “He’s always taking these private, mysterious calls and texts. He leaves the room to talk on his phone. Something is going on with him, and he won’t tell me. He’s missing chances to make out. He is skipping important prom meetings and didn’t come to the birthday party today. The only thing he hasn’t done on your list is cheat in the past.”

“Well ...”

My eyes went wide, and my heart slammed hard into my rib cage. What was she implying? “Well what? What does that mean?”

“I mean technically, and this is only technically, Jake had feelings for you while he was dating me. He kind of emotionally cheated, even if you guys didn’t kiss until after we broke up.”

“That doesn’t count!” Or did it? Had Jake been a cheater this whole time and I just hadn’t known it?

Was this why Mercedes had been so smug? Had she finally accomplished her goal and landed Jake behind my back? My stomach flipped over, and I felt dangerously close to barfing all over Dr. Drummond’s very expensive-looking area rug.

“I don’t know why I said that.” Ella put one of her hands on top of mine and squeezed. “I’m a little insane right now. You need to ignore everything I’m saying. Jake is not a cheater. You know that, right? He’d never do that to you. He cares about you too much.”

“Before last night, wouldn’t you have said the same thing about Trent?”

At that, Ella fell silent. There was nothing she could say. Even if he’d become distant, neither one of us could have predicted what Trent would do or who he would be kissing that was not Ella.

Was this why Jake was pulling away from me? Was it why he hadn’t asked me to prom yet? Because he didn’t plan on going with me?

I stood up. “If he’s cheating on me, I want to know.”

She looked confused. “How are you going to know? If he is cheating on you, my guess is he probably won’t tell you the truth if you ask him.”

“You and I, dear sister, are going to follow him. I’m going to find out, one way or another, whether he’s stepping out on me.”

Ella sighed. “You do know that’s crazy, right?”

I nodded. Maybe I was crazier than a bag of rabid weasels, but I was not going to keep living in this limbo. If Jake was cheating on me, I was going to catch him in the act. I wanted actual proof and not just these gut-wrenching, heart-twisting suspicions.

Time to get my Nancy Drew on.

CHAPTER TEN

Ella and I spent the rest of the weekend eating more ice cream, and instead of dwelling on Trent like I’d thought we would, we strategized on the best way to find out whether or not Jake was cheating. (Although Ella kept insisting that he would never betray me and I was acting like an insane person. And I so wanted to believe that, but when you’re a realist and a pessimist, things don’t exactly work that way.)

In our first class together Monday morning, I told her, “We need to launch our plan soon. To see where he’s going and who he’s meeting up with.” Mostly because I suspected the anxiety was currently eating away at my stomach lining, and I wanted an answer before things got much worse.

“Text him and ask him what he’s doing today,” she instructed. I did as she said, and to my surprise, Jake wrote back almost immediately. How sad that a quick response now seemed uncharacteristic.

“He says, ‘Got some baseball stuff. Sorry.’”

“So now we follow him after school. See if he goes to practice, and if he does, we’ll follow him after. We should hang out in the parking lot, too, in case he skips it. If he does, we’ll start following him right away. Those are our best options, I think.” We agreed to meet up after school as quickly as possible and stake out his beloved red sports car.

In between third period and fourth period, Ella came running up to me at my locker. She looked so happy that for a brief moment I wondered whether Trent had come crawling back, begging for forgiveness or if that Liam Whatever guy announced that the doctors had been mistaken and his face would be fine. Instead she announced, “Mattie! Someone found my phone!”

She held her bedazzled cell phone up with both hands, like she was presenting it to all the animals on the savannah.

“Where was it?”

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