Page 132 - My FlipBook

L IS A J. L A W R E N C E

I promise.” Greta watched Rachel’s eyes look past her shoulder,
and she turned to see Ash, holding out her English textbook.
“I took this by accident,” he said. Then he’d left, his face
blank.
Panic had strangled Greta again, the feeling she’d tried to
corral all weekend. Everything had spilled out of her control.
“He didn’t hear that, did he?”
Rachel shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so.”

Greta watched his head disappear down the hall.
“Are you worried about your brother finding out?”
“Kind of. It’s embarrassing.” But not quite. Embarrassing
was when she didn’t have the right clothes or lived in a dumpy
stucco basement suite. This reduced her to something less
than human. Shame, shame, double shame, now we know your
boyfriend’s name. ADVANCE READING COPY

“You’re overthinking this.” Rachel put her free hand
around Greta’s waist and led her back into the busy stream of
the hallway. “This is all very normal.”
Rachel was right. It happened all the time. It’s what’s
done. And she had just compounded her weekend awkward-
ness by making an even bigger deal of it. Greta’s body felt
hollow, from her center right into her legs. She realized she’d
been looking for the right words, the right gesture—from
someone, anyone—to make it right. She drifted, unanchored,

from class to class.
After school, Rachel had stopped by her locker. “So I was
talking to Matt and Dylan, and we’re thinking of going out to
the cabin again this Saturday.”

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