Elite - Chapter 22 #2
I turned and looked at him. His broad shoulders. His easy smile. Not that Matt’s smile came easy anymore. I quickly turned back around. “I don’t see it.” But it was a lie. I did see it. Is that why I climbed into his bed each night and let him hold me?
The marching band had come onto the field, making it a little harder for us to talk. But that didn’t deter Kennedy.
“I bet Miller played football when he was in high school,” she said.
I shook my head. Yes, maybe Miller looked a little like Matt.
But the resemblance ended there. Miller couldn’t be more different.
And he was definitely no jock. I knew for a fact that his muscles were from a moving company he used to work for before Mr. Pruitt hired him.
He’d told me so. Miller wasn’t cocky. He wasn’t privileged. He was real. He was like me.
“Are you two serious?” she asked.
I shrugged. “He knows I still like Matt.”
“You’re still in love with Matt after everything he did?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Yeah. But it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Brooklyn, he kept you a secret for weeks because he didn’t want James to know he’d screwed Rachel. He lied to you. He…”
“Technically he didn’t lie. He just didn’t tell me.”
She shook her head. “Same difference.”
“Is this the part of the lecture where you tell me you warned me about the Untouchables? That guys like that don’t end up with girls like us?”
“What? No. It’s not a lecture at all. I’m just worried about you. It’s not like you to tell Felix you love him, then Matt within the same day, and now you’re with Miller a few days later? I’m worried about you.”
I bit the inside of my lip.
“What’s going on with you?” she asked.
I wanted to tell her she barely knew me better than any of those guys.
But that wasn’t true. She knew me. Which was why it didn’t feel like I could filter myself.
“I think maybe I just miss the feeling of being loved by someone. Unconditionally. And I know that there’s conditions with all of them.
But for a few seconds when Miller holds me, I feel like someone’s on my side. Like I’m not alone.”
She kicked my shin lightly. “Girl, you have me. I love you. My mom loves you.”
“But I’m not allowed to live with you guys.
Do you have any idea what it’s like for me to go back to the Pruitts’ after school every day?
To live down the freaking hall from Isabella?
I’m terrified all the time. I’m scared of her and her mom.
I’m even scared of Mr. Pruitt. I don’t trust any of them.
Some mornings my bedroom door is open. Did you know that?
And I lock it, Kennedy. I swear I lock it. ”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m not judging you. I’m just worried about you. If you still like Matt, you should tell him. Or if you like Felix more…” her voice trailed off. “You should tell him that then.”
I stared at her. She didn’t get what it was like in my shoes.
Yes, she’d lost a parent. But she didn’t lose her only parent.
And she didn’t lose Uncle Jim the same way I had.
We both loved him, but I needed him. He was all I’d had left.
And now I felt starved for love. Just thinking about it made me feel cheap.
I owed Felix an apology. I owed Miller an apology.
I even owed Matt an apology, but I wouldn’t give it to him because he owed me a lot more.
But the worst part was, I was worried I loved a piece of each of them.
I was too confused to know better. I just liked the way they made me feel.
“I’ll talk to them,” I said. “As soon as I figure out which one I like the most.”
She laughed. “We both know it’s Matt.”
I didn’t contradict her. We did both know it. And we also both knew he was an asshole. It was one trait I wasn’t sure how to overlook. Everything else I thought I’d known about him had just turned out to be a lie.
“You’re eventually going to need to talk to him,” she said.
“I don’t want to think about it today. It’s homecoming. Shouldn’t we be having fun?”
She laughed. “I am having fun. I’m watching my favorite sport with my bestie. And now everyone knows that Cupcake has a mini-dong. What’s more fun than that?”
I laughed. But in the back of my head, I was thinking that a swift kick in the nuts would be more satisfying than a rumor. Cupcake deserved worse for what he did to her.
“Oh the floats are starting.” Kennedy pointed to the field.
Several convertibles led the way, each with two members of the homecoming court sitting in them.
I hadn’t been paying attention to homecoming details at all.
But I wasn’t surprised to see that James, Mason, Isabella, and a few of Isabella’s minions had all been nominated for homecoming king and queen.
The stands started to fill up again so that everyone could watch who would be crowned. Not that I cared in the slightest. Although I really wished Isabella wouldn’t win. If she did it was probably because she’d threatened the student body. Stupid Pruitt rules that she doesn’t follow.
Behind the convertibles were floats that each grade had been assigned to decorate.
Neither Kennedy nor I had been asked to participate.
I watched the senior float go by. It was a 007 theme, which was pretty clever for their graduating year.
The junior float didn’t look nearly as good.
There was an Eagle made of crepe paper that was practically falling off the float.
Apparently the juniors were a bunch of slackers.
Then the sophomore float started to go by and I could barely breathe. Matt was standing in the middle of it, still in his football gear but without the helmet. A few of his teammates were on either side of him. He was holding a microphone in his hand and staring right at me.
Music started blaring through the speakers of the stadium. It was a You’re An American Reject song that I knew pretty well called My Dirty Little Secret .
“What is happening?” Kennedy asked right before Matt lifted the mic to his mouth. She gasped. “Oh my God he’s going to sing to you.”
“No he’s not.”
“This one’s for all the beautiful ladies out there!” Matt yelled into the microphone.
“See,” I said, but my voice was so weak I doubted Kennedy heard it. Had he really moved on that quickly? Hadn’t I? I swallowed hard. I hadn’t. That was the whole problem.
“Just kidding,” Matt said. “This one’s for my girl. Brooklyn Sanders in the house!”
Oh my God. He really is going to sing to me.
Kennedy nudged me with her elbow.
“This isn’t happening,” I said as students had already started looking back and forth between me and the float.
“Oh, it’s happening,” Kennedy said with a laugh as the music got louder.
“I know what I’ve done wrong,” Matt sung. If you could even call it singing, because it was way off key. “I’ve known it all along. I’ve tried to come clean a time or two. But I won’t steal any more time from you.”
I stared at him in horror. He was changing the lyrics to be about…us. I think? “What the hell is he doing?”
Kennedy grabbed my hand. “It’s a grand romantic gesture. He’s winning you back!”
I could feel my face turning bright red.
“What am I doing?” Kennedy said and pulled her hand out of mine. “I need pictures of this.” She lifted up her camera and started snapping away.
“Tell me you haven’t thrown me away,” Matt sung. “Because I’m done playing games with you, babe.”
His football friends leaned into the mic and added an out of tune, “Done playing games, babe.”
I wanted to run away from all the prying eyes. But my ass was firmly glued to the cold metal bench. Had he lost his freaking mind?
“Everyone needs to know about us,” Matt sung. “Brooklyn you’re not a dirty little secret.”
“No dirty little secret,” his football friends sang.
“I’ll tell everyone because you are not a regret.” Matt and his backup football dancers did a weird little spin maneuver. “Not a regret, hope you can believe that. You are not a dirty little secret, everyone needs to know.” He pointed up at me and did a weird hip thrust.
“We all know,” the football chorus sang and did matching hip thrusts.
It felt like everyone left in the stadium was turning my direction.
Except for someone in a suit who looked beyond pissed who was running up to the float.
Oh my God, it’s the principal. Coach Carter, my gym teacher and the football coach, ran up to the float too.
He was waving his hands in the air in clear agitation.
Matt ignored both of them. “Apart we live fragile lives. But together is the best way to survive.”
“Best way to survive,” the other boys sang.
“Get off the float!” Coach Carter yelled. “Right now.”
“I’ve been around a time or two.” Matt winked at me, not seeming to care at all about the fact that he was in serious trouble.
I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. At least he wasn’t lying anymore. He’d definitely been around a time or two.
“Stop this right now!” hissed the principal.
“I’ve never wasted a second on you!” Matt sang as Coach Carter lunged for one of his legs. “Shit,” Matt said as he ran into one of his backup dancers.
I was pretty sure he mumbled it, but it was into a microphone so it was really freaking loud.
I started laughing harder than I had in a really long time. This was freaking amazing.
The principal climbed onto the float and demanded for Matt to hand over the mic. Instead of complying, Matt jumped off the float. Coach Carter and the principal started chasing him.
“Tell me you haven’t thrown me away!” Matt sang as he ran across the field, picking up his pace.
“You’re not a game and I’m sorry. You are the only one.
I love you, Brooklyn.” He chucked the mic on the field and sprinted toward the gym, Coach Carter hot on his trail.
The principal had stopped at the 30 yard line, panting hard, his hands on his knees.
The stadium erupted in cheers that were just as loud as when the Eagles had scored a touchdown.
“If that’s not an apology I don’t know what is,” Kennedy said.
It was a grand gesture, just like she’d said.
Matt was not a good singer. Or dancer. And he’d just done both in front of the biggest crowd I could imagine, despite the fact that the principal was pissed.
What was more public than that? I wasn’t his dirty little secret anymore.
He wanted me back. I wasn’t sure if he had up until this point, but it was pretty clear now.
I felt Miller’s eyes on the back of my neck, pricking my skin. The question was…did I want Matt back? The smile on my face screamed yes. My heart that was still in pieces? That was a different story.
“That was seriously the most amazing thing ever,” Kennedy said.
She snapped a picture of me and pulled the camera away from her face.
“I haven’t seen you this happy in forever.
This is going to be the best homecoming ever.
Do you think he has anything else planned for the dance?
Can you even imagine how he’d top that?”
I nodded, but I wasn’t really listening. I was doing my best not to look over to see if Mrs. Caldwell was staring at me. Or the Pruitts for that matter.
I watched as things calmed down on the field and the homecoming king and queen were crowned.
James Hunter and Isabella Pruitt. Figures.
I stared at the two of them. James looked so drunk I doubted he’d remember a minute of this.
Did no one else notice? And then there was Isabella, who looked…
furious. We locked eyes for a second and I felt myself sinking.
She was definitely upset. And it was directed fully on me. Why was she mad at me?
Her anger slowly shifted to a smile as pictures started to snap.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder and jutted out her hip like she hadn’t just given me a death stare.
She even leaned over and kissed James on the cheek, much to his dismay.
He looked like he was going to be sick. I would have maxed out my untouched credit card to see him throw up on her cheerleading outfit.
But he didn’t. He just looked so freaking sad. Like his heart had been stomped on too.
I didn’t want their life. I wanted a little house in Delaware with a yellow kitchen. I didn’t want to be Untouchable. I just wanted to be loved. And Matt had just sung about loving me. I pictured him and his friends thrusting again and I laughed out loud. What the hell had he been thinking?