5. Cooper
5
Cooper
L eah is up and gone before I can offer any kind of apology. And she’s making me realize that maybe failure isn’t something new in my life. Sure, the last six months have been one disaster after another. But maybe I’ve failed in other aspects of my life, too, without even realizing it. Maybe my mission to be confident and successful has been jaded from the start.
I jump up from my seat, ignoring Andrea’s pleas for me to leave Leah be.
Rushing past half a dozen guests—including Betsy, who is waving at me—I hurry out the restaurant exit. I ignore the forty-degree air smacking me in the face and catch Leah before she can reach her beater of a car. “Leah! Hey!”
She spins, her long hair whipping out like a Chinese fan. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I never needed to see you again, Cooper.”
“I know. I just—I’m sorry. I knew prom was a bad night for you. I didn’t realize the repercussions went quite as deep as they did.” I saw one meme—but it was a joke. I didn’t realize there were a dozen more, that they’d turned cruel. Or that they caused her so much pain.
“Of course you didn’t, because you never saw me again after that. You lived in your student body president, football star, never-ending friend world, forgetting all about me.”
But she’s wrong. I did see her. Everywhere. Leah Bradford didn’t walk into a room after that night without me noticing—the one person in school who seemed to loathe me. Suddenly she was sitting behind me in French class. I had to breathe her in and feel those pretty green eyes glaring daggers into my back. I could feel her seething like a heater on high in the summertime. And while I knew I’d ruined her night, I honestly didn’t realize how I’d ruined the rest of her school year, or the next year.
“Well,” I say, sounding not at all confident. “I wanted to say I’m sorry.” An idea hits me all at once. All isn’t lost—not if I can fix things. I’m trying to fix my career. Why not this too? “And,” I say, certain this is right, “I’m going to make it up to you.”
“Ha!” she barks. “That ship has sailed, Bailey. By all means, do what you do best and pretend this night, as well as prom night, never happened because I don’t want your apology. I have no desire to forgive you.”