Chapter 6 #2
The people who made it are pathetic. They’ll be the sort of kids who peak in high school and go downhill from there. This is the happiest they’ll ever be, and they have their entire life ahead of them. “Morgan.”
Landon looked down at his hands and dusted them, though it only proved to smear the graphite residue more. “Well, she’s right. It’s not a big deal. Don’t feel bad about being on it. You’re probably only on it because of me.”
I frowned. “Because of you?”
“When you’re a senior in the Top Tier, you have to vote someone onto the Most Likely Tos or else you’re put on it. They probably made up a label for you for extra retaliation. Think about it—being a prude is a new label.”
Would his friends really do that? The Top Tier consisted of so many types of people, self-centered and funny types alike. Connor Bray and Reed Manning definitely weren’t the type to put their friend and his sister on blast like that, but Jade Dyer and Ashton Shaw? I could see it.
And then something else occurred to me. “Are you on it, then? For not voting someone?”
He smiled a little. “A little self-focused, were we? You didn’t even notice your own brother got a label?”
“I was a little preoccupied.”
“I’m Most Likely To: Never Get A Girlfriend.” He turned to his covered-up drawing, tapping his fingers against it. “It doesn’t bother me, though. So don’t let it bother you, either.”
Landon was much different at home than he was at school.
At home, the way he spoke seemed much more relaxed, less on edge.
At school, he was the picture of stiffness.
Quiet. Reserved. Like he was afraid of slipping up or making a mistake.
We were similar in that regard, and it made me think of Morgan’s comment. Shy.
“Do you think I am too reserved, though?” I asked him, even though it was weird to say aloud to my brother. He shook his head, but before he had a chance to say anything, I asked, “Do you think I’m too codependent on Mom and Dad?”
“Morgan again?” Landon sighed a little. “I think it makes sense, in a way, to spend so much time with Mom and Dad. It’s not like you’ve got sports or a job to distract you, you know?
Don’t let the stupidity of the Most Likely To list get to you.
And don’t let Morgan get to you. You know how she is.
” He lowered his voice. “And don’t try to remedy your casting, or whatever the phrase is to prove the list wrong. Got it?”
I wanted to ask him how he expected me to prove Most Likely To: Stay A Prude wrong, but thought better of it at the last second.
My imagination was creative enough to think of what his responses would be.
It was, however, the perfect segue into the conversation I’d initially come into his room to talk about, one that I still hesitated on bringing up even after going back and forth all day.
I tried to prepare myself for all of his reactions, but there was truly no telling what he’d say. “What do you know about Hudson Bishop?”
In the Settler household, there was really only one name not to mention. To my parents, and my mother especially, it was practically a curse word. To Landon, it made him turn as white as a sheet. I knew it was a topic I’d have to tip-toe carefully around to avoid setting off a landmine. “Why?”
“There are rumors going around, and Morgan lives for the gossip mill. I was wondering if you knew anything so I could tell her.”
“That’s what Brentwood Babble is for.”
“She said she looked but there’d been no search results for him.” She meaning me, of course. I’d used the school computer to reference Babble and had found zero search results for Hudson Bishop. There weren’t even any for Grim Reaper. “I guess whoever runs it is afraid to get on his bad side, huh?”
Landon rocked back into his chair. “I don’t know much about him. He keeps to himself. I don’t think anyone really knows enough about him to give good gossip.”
Everything I’d heard about Hudson was more legends and scary stories than actual gossip, but it was interesting that Landon didn’t know anything. “I figured you’d be a good person to ask, since you have personal experience.”
“I wouldn’t say that I do.”
“You wouldn’t call getting jumped personal experience?”
He shifted to try and hide his reaction, but I saw him flinch.
“It happened so long ago that even if I did know anything about him, I’m sure he’s changed now.
I do know that he’s not someone you want to go around gossiping about.
Morgan tends to run her mouth, and he’s not someone to do that with.
So just… You should still steer clear, okay? For your own sake.”
I thought of the icy look Hudson gave me in the counselor’s office, the threatening way he’d leaned forward over the table.
All the malicious things he’d said, the intimidating way he said them.
But those thoughts were quickly overshadowed by his hands closing over mine to shuffle the cards, or him bending to scoop up my flyers in the hallway.
Contradictory—that was the word. It all was contradictory.
Landon waved his hand at me. “Are you listening? Dodge him, okay? If only to put your big brother at ease.”
“Dodge who?”
Both Landon and I started at the sound of Dad’s gruff baritone, turning to find him standing in the doorway of the room. He still wore his clothes from dinner, which consisted of an office-appropriate dress shirt and a pair of khaki-colored pants.
“Who are you talking about?” Dad repeated, venturing farther into Landon’s bedroom.
“Boys in general,” Landon answered, giving one of his practiced, perfect smiles. One that put all parents at ease, especially our high-strung ones. “I’d be too on edge if she wanted to start dating.”
Dad rolled his eyes a little at the prospect. “Boys nowadays don’t have their heads on straight. You’re too young for that, Gemma. You shouldn’t be thinking about it. Unless, of course, we’re talking about Jaden.”
I pressed my knees together, cursing Landon in my head. But Dad’s swift dismissal and eye roll had me feeling a little breathless. No, not breathless—suffocated. “I’m sixteen, Dad.”
“I didn’t have my first girlfriend until college, and it was your mother.
” Dad stopped halfway into Landon’s bedroom and gestured to where my brother sat.
“Look at Landon. He’s well on his way to getting a football scholarship because he’s more dedicated to sports than girls. He’s got his head on straight.”
Landon looked at his covered artwork.
I saw Dad’s gaze fall to Landon’s smudged hands, but he didn’t say anything to him. “Gemma, how was your buddy program? You met with the student today, right?”
Now could’ve been the time to spill the beans. The time to back out of the whole peer-to-peer thing and get out from being stuck with Hudson.
But despite Landon’s warnings—and the alarms blaring in my head—I smiled at Dad, shaking my head. “You wouldn’t know her, but I think it’ll be good. I think I’ll be able to be a good influence.”