Page 41 of Quarterback Crush
Mom didn’t say anything, but her hug was all I needed, and I wanted to stay there forever, wrapped up in her arms.
“Ahem.” Dad’s fake cough caused me to lift my eyes. “Everything all right in here?”
“It will be,” Mom whispered, “it will be.”
Dad came and hugged us both, a safe cocoon where my ludicrous situation was forgotten, if only for a minute. Mom tookthe cleaning products and told me she’d run a nice warm bath. She didn’t say anything about my stupidity in fake dating Oliver, but as I limped off to my bedroom I could hear her and Dad murmuring.
As the bath filled, I tortured myself with one last look at Savannah’s photos before closing my eyes to stop more tears.
I’d send Oliver one last text and let Sammy gloat on how she’d been right all along.
I typed:So, that’s it, you got your A and we’re over?
Too harsh, so I deleted and retyped:It was fun while it lasted
Not harsh enough, so I deleted again and retyped:Good luck with #Olivannah
“Maya,” Mom called, “your bath is ready.”
“Coming,” I yelled back, quickly deleting that last text which was too sarcastic. Better just to leave it and try to forget the whole thing.
THE LAVENDER BATH SALTS—YES, another gift from my grandma—must have done the trick because I slept deeply and restfully, the first time in days. Or it could have been because my ankle wasn’t so sore anymore. Or that crying into my pillow had exhausted me.
Bleary-eyed, I grabbed my phone to check my texts and pretended not to be sad or disappointed that Oliver hadn’t messaged, not even a breakup text. Though did fake dating require a breakup? Well, duh, probably he’d been too busy reuniting with Savannah.
There were a bunch of messages from Rose though, but Mom was hollering from the kitchen to get a move on. I’d check them later.
“How are you?” Mom hugged me and handed me a smoothie in a travel mug. “You forgot I’ve got a department meeting this morning. We have to leave now.”
“Yeah, sorry. I’ll just grab my cheer bag and get my shoes. I mean, shoe.”
Mom nodded and headed out to the garage. In the car, I texted Sammy to meet me in the parking lot. It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have, but I preferred to do it in person than by phone. And I didn’t want to deny my best friend the privilege of saying, ‘I told you so’ straight to my face.
I used the time waiting for Sammy to apply my makeup, going all out with concealer, color corrector, primer, highlighter, mascara and liner to hide my puffy eyes.
“Wow, is it photos day for the cheer squad?” Sammy asked, pushing back Mom’s seat to allow room for her long legs.
I frowned, steadily applying a rose colored lip blush. “No, just making myself pretty so that when you say‘I told you so’I won’t be tempted to cry.”
Sammy’s jaw dropped. “What?” Then something must’ve clicked because she said, “I told you so? Does this mean the fake dating is over?”
I clamped my trembling lips together, annoyed that the tears hadn’t dried up yet. “Yep, you were right,” I said, my voice squeaky and shaky. “Savannah posted that #Olivannah is back on and put up photos of them together. And they were out at the Golf Club for dinner last night.”
“Awww, Maya, I’m sorry.” Sammy leaned across the console to give me a brief hug, difficult to do with my large makeup bag on my lap. I fluttered my eyelashes to blink back the tears. “They’re back together?”
I nodded, pulling out a tissue to blot my eyes.
“I didn’t see anything online.”
“She posted in the Cheer Chat.”
Sammy pouted. “I don’t want to sayI told you so.”
“Say it,” I commanded. “You deserve to. You told me and I didn’t listen. And now I’m a blubbering mess.” I laugh-cried, grabbing another tissue to dab my nose.
Sammy shook her head. “That really sucks. I thought he was adamant he and Savannah were over.”
I shrugged, my voice flat. “Yeah, and I’m the fool who believed him.”
