Page 107 of The Forever After Bet

“No. It’s my chance to show you how much I love you. When we’re together, you’ll see. You’ll fall in love with me. You’ll pick me.” Bree seems so sure of herself. It’s scary.

I scrub a hand through my hair. “I need to think about it.”

“Fine. I’ll give you until Monday.”

“I need more time than that.”

“No, that’s plenty of time. That you want to think about it tells me all I need to know.” She takes a step toward me, but I back up. “You’re mad. I get it, but it won’t always be this way.” She holds her chin up and walks down the hall, not looking back.

I scrub my hands through my hair, pulling at it. This year was supposed to be better. I finally felt like Hannah and I were in a good place. I’ve been wanting to talk about the end of school, to make plans for our future. I got a call from Nadia Fraiser the financial adviser who met with me and the guys over the winter break. She wanted to know what I’d decided about housing, and I told her I’d get back to her. There’s no way we can even attempt to make plans with something like this hanging over us.

I’m not going to date Bree. Thinking about what she did—what we did last year after junior prom — makes me sick. I should’ve never let it happen. I don’t have many regrets in my life, but Bree is one of them. I’m certainly not going to make Hannah watch Bree parade me around like a trophy. That would kill her.

But what alternative do I have? I’m not going to let Bree destroy Hannah’s life. I text 911 to Ty and Jack and tell them to meet me after class in my car.

“That’s bullshit!” Jack yells, pacing in front of my car. “She doesn’t have anything on Hannah. She’s just dangling a fake threat over your head.”

“I agree. That or she’s taken something insignificant and twisted it to suit her purposes. I don’t want to take the chance that she does have something that could hurt Hannah either,” I say.

“How would she know anything that personal about Hannah, to begin with?” Ty asks.

I glance at Jack and then back to Ty. “Alison.” Alison used to be Hannah’s best friend. Then Alison became friends with Bree during the summer, and she changed. “They were friends since the fourth or fifth grade.

“Oh, yeah.” Ty nods.

“This is my fault,” Jack says.

“No, it’s not. Stop thinking that, right now.” I huff. “This is Bree being a complete psycho.”

“Melissa threatened Hannah at lunch. She didn’t say she had something against Hannah just warned her that if she didn’t break up with me, Hannah would be sorry.”

“This is insane. We need to go to Jim with this.” Jack rants.

“I’m for that idea, but what exactly do we tell him?” I look at my friends.

Ty scrubs his hands through his hair. “We didn’t even get through a full day of school before the drama bus hit.”

“I’m going to tell Hannah what’s going on,” I say. “She’ll know something is up the second she sees me.”

Jack turns to me and nods. “She should know. I think we should tell all the girls. They might know something we don’t.”

I don’t like the idea of so many people knowing I’m being blackmailed, but Hannah’s friends have her back. I know they’ll keep this a secret. “Okay. Let’s wait until tomorrow. We can all get together and talk.”

“That’s a good plan,” Jack says. “Come on, let’s go. I need to run to my house. My mom packed dinner for Hannah and me, and I want to stop at McCaffery’s and grab some snacks before we get on the bus.”

I nod.

“We’ll figure this out, Ford.” Ty pats my back. “We always do.”

41. #23s Good Luck Charm

When I get out of PE, I text Ford to see where he is. He replies that he and the guys are at the grocery store getting snacks. Me, Leah, Aubrey, and Piper run to Twisted Soda for a drink and sugar cookies. I ask Ford if he wants something, but he says no. He usually doesn’t drink soda on game days.

“Where did you and Ford disappear to at lunch?” Leah asks.

“It wasn’t the janitor’s closet.” Piper laughs.

“Really? How do you know?” I tilt my head and smile at Piper.

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