Page 57 of Going the Distance
Chapter 15
If I’d thought people had talked about the photo a few weeks ago, it wasnothingcompared to all the talk now. Lee bumped his shoulder against mine, letting me know he was there, as I ducked my head and made my way over to where the guys were hanging out by Warren’s car. Levi gave me an encouraging smile, and the guys looked at each other like they didn’t know whether to ask me all about it or leave me be and get the details off Lee later.
Levi already knew everything, of course.
After working on my college application essay for an hour the day before, I’d had enough and called him.
“Let me guess,” he said. “You’re babysitting and want some company?”
“I broke up with Noah.”
He was quiet for a while, then: “How’re you holdingup?”
“You don’t wanna know all the gory details?” I asked instead, thinking of the various texts and social messages I’d had from some of the girls at school, eager for the gossip, asking what had happened, they’d seen I’d changed my profile picture, what did it mean?
“You can tell me if you want,” Levi told me, “but you don’t have to.”
It was an oddly comforting response.
“I’m…not okay. But I will be. I think.”
“You will be,” he said assertively. “I was a mess forweeksafter the breakup with Julie, and look at me now.”
“Oh, God,” I deadpanned. “I’m doomed.”
Levi laughed and, rather than being offended, said cheerfully, “See? You’re already cracking jokes.”
“I think he’s seeing someone else,” I told Levi, my voice little more than a whisper, like saying it louder would make it true. I explained about the phone call, how he was hiding something from me, how we’d argued about Amanda, and how he’d defended her.
“Defended her?” he interrupted me to ask.
“I said she was a bitch and he said she wasn’t. It was a big deal,” I snapped, firm, when I realized how petty that came out.
Glad when he didn’t tell me how stupid that sounded, I carried on, until—
“Wait, soyoubroke up withhim?”
“Why is everyone so shocked about that?” I sighed, testy. Seriously, was Noah really in a league that far above me that it was such a shocking notion that I’d been the one to instigate the breakup, and not the other way around?If people keep saying that to me in school on Monday,I thought,I’m gonna scream.
Talking it through with Levi helped—and was so emotionally draining, I decided to spin a slightly different story in school. One that, hopefully, would involve a lot fewer questions and a lot less gossip.
“The whole long-distance thing just wasn’t working out for us,” I said calmly to the guys in the parking lot before we went into homeroom on Monday morning, when Cam cautiously broached the subject and asked what had happened.
And word spread pretty quickly.
Even so, the rumors were flying around just like the photo incident.
“Did you hear? He caught her withLevi.Yeah, from English class. I know, right? She’s such a slut. Totally deserves it for screwing around on him. Or, you know, screwing someone else.”
“She found out that he’s been boning that blond chick from the photo—you remember the photo, right?—behind her back. He’s such an asshole. How could he do that to her? I bet she’s heartbroken.”
“I told you it wasn’t gonna work out. These things never do, not that long distance. Hey, you think I should give her my number? Now she’s single again?”
“Well, my cousin was on the football team with Noah last year, andhesaid they’ve been on the rocks since Noah went to college. I mean, he can dosomuch better than Elle Evans.”
I grit my teeth as the rumors carried on spreading around me.
It made me feel two inches tall and vulnerable. It felt like they were tearing my personal life apart at the seams just for kicks, and I hated it. I’d never been gossiped about so maliciously before.
