Page 44 of Stand

“Make up your minds!” those holding the door closed said. “That was quick, even for you, Cavanaugh!”

Cavanaugh. Right. “Tyler. That’s your name.”

“Don’t wear it out,” he said, sounding bored.

Stung, she chanted, “Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler!”

Someone outside said, “Woo! Now he’s getting her going!” and Sam felt sick and everything changed.

“Shut the fuck up, Jason!” she shouted.

They jeered but didn’t say anything else. A silence fell, during which Sam could only stare at the boy across the unfathomable space from her.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay what?” he replied. “You see how those guys do exactly what you want? Don’t you think that’s freaking weird?”

“Of course they do,” she snapped. “They’re—”

She stopped, but he didn’t. “They’re what, Fielding? Tell me.”

She wanted to say “friends,” but something about this boy was making her face situations she’d ignored. “I know their secrets,” she said truthfully. “They’re afraid of me.”

“They still threw you in this closet,” he said. “That the kind of respect you want?”

“Don’t talk to me about respect!” she said hotly. “Ichoseto come in here!”

“I’m not—” He shook those beautiful blond locks. “I’m just telling you. I might be a fucking nobody in this school, but I hear things in the locker room. They don’t talk about you any better because you know which ones don’t want to come out or haven’t lost their virginity yet.”

She rolled her shoulders.Really itchy now. “I never said you were a nobody.”

He laughed again. “You think I need you to walk up to me and say it?”

It was Sam’s turn to cross her arms. Against his words. Against her own guilt rising through her gut and clogging her throat. Against his scent, which, unlike the boys outside, was clean and fresh. Because he didn’t do sports, probably.

See? She was a good person! She thought this guy everyone said was a dweeb was cute. That meant something, didn’t it?

She heard the words in her head, and they made her cringe.

“What?” he said. “You don’t like the truth?”

Sam’s chest felt like someone was trying to push her through the wall. But his words reawakened her fighting spirit. Not to refute him but to show her that she could take whatever he wanted to say.

Her dad had fudged the truth. He’d lied about the state of the company for years. And he’d died lying. Now her mom was dead, too, after lying about her husband’s goodness when Sam wanted to shout at her that he wasn’t good at all. If he was, why had he abandoned them?

She wasnevergoing to be like that. She was Sam Fielding. No one got one over on her. If this guy knew more about her than she did, she could take it. And if she had to face a few actions in her past, she’d handle that, too.

“I like the truth just fine,” she said. “Go ahead. Tell me.”

Now she’d surprised him. Which was hella satisfying. His eyes widened, and he forgot to scowl at her. “What do you mean?”

“Go ahead,” she said. “Tell me. Tell me what I look like from the outside.”

This time his mouth dropped open. “I—no. I just—you—”

She’d flustered him. Good. She put a hand on her hip. “Come on, Tyler. The great artist shrink. Tell Sam what she doesn’t know about herself.”

He’d talked himself into a corner, and his raised eyebrows showed he didn’t know how to get out. “I don’t want to play this game,” he said at last.

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