Page 27 of Bad Crush
Instead of answering, I motion for him to have a seat.
He opens a bag of chips as he stares at me. “A problem, huh?”
“Not really. She knows about last night and is trying to give us time to talk.”
He nods slowly.
“I’m so sorry. I feel awful about the entire thing.”
“I told you, it’s fine. Though I probably have to tell Dr. Salco the truth. As much as I want to win, I wouldn’t feel right about getting the scholarship based on a lie.”
“You’re a good guy.” Somehow that makes me feel worse. “Blame me. Tell her I had food poisoning, or that I had too much to drink.”
“I’m not throwing you under the bus. I could have stopped you and I didn’t.”
I’m not sure a force of nature could have stopped me, but I appreciate him saying so. I even feel a little better now that I know he doesn’t hate me.
“I forgot that you went to high school nearby. What was Janine like?” he asks between bites.
“Smart and dedicated. She’s always been really competitive and driven. Her parents were hard on her to do her best and get good grades.”
“You two were close?”
A stab of guilt makes me look down at the table. “Yeah. We were.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing, really. We’re so different. When we got to Valley, we started running with completely different groups of friends and we lost touch. I met Dakota and we became inseparable. Plus, she’s been dating Sean forever, so she spent a lot of time with him.”
“Makes sense. She’s tough. We’ve been competing for years.”
“Yeah, about that. She’s my age; how is she already graduating this year?” It’s been bugging me since last night. I knew she was premed, but I never imagined she was the person Adam was competing with.
“I think she said she came to Valley with like thirty hours of college credit. Plus, she’s always taking big course loads, and she’s taken classes every summer. She’s intense.” He shakes his head. “If we weren’t always competing, I might even admire her for it.”
“Right. Yeah, I’d forgotten that she took a bunch of college credit courses during our senior year of high school. Meanwhile, I was partying and getting stoned with friends.”
“A stoner? Really?” His gaze narrows and he smiles at me. The first real smile I’ve seen since before I told all his professors we were engaged.
“For a short time. It wasn’t really my thing, but I gave it a shot.”
He doesn’t respond at first but keeps smiling at me to the point I feel a blush creeping up my neck.
“Thank you for last night. Seriously, you were amazing. Everyone loved you. And I’ll take care of everything.”
Everything being my big, fat lie.
“You’re welcome,” I say. “So, it’s over? Now you just wait to find out who won?”
He gets that panicky look from last night. “I still have to give a speech.”
“Right, the speech. What do you have so far?” I am desperate to move this conversation away from last night even if it means making small talk about his speech.
“Nothing.”
“Are you going to wing it? Because I feel like I should warn you, Janine is a pretty good speaker. She was valedictorian of our class and had students, parents, even some teachers in tears with her graduation speech. She doesn’t come across as someone who could command an audience, but the girl can perform when the pressure is on.”
“No, I know. We’ve done group projects together before. She’s great.” He blows out a breath. “I don’t love talking in front of people.”
