Chapter 10
Sadie
S howing her face at school was the last thing Sadie wanted to do. How was she supposed to walk the halls as if everyone hadn’t seen her boobs? How could she keep her head held high when she knew everyone at prom probably got that picture? Even faculty and parents. The only thing holding her together was the picture had been cropped so it didn’t show any identifying features. It could have been anyone’s chest. That made Sadie feel the tiniest bit better about what happened.
Well, that and the image of Ellie climbing the trellis to check on her.
Never in her wildest dreams would Sadie have pictured Ellie tapping on her window, waving nervously at her, or holding her close as she cried. And she definitely wouldn’t have dreamed they would come so close to kissing.
Okay, well, that part was a lie.
Sadie had had dreams of kissing Ellie.
She just didn’t think it would come so close to actually happening.
Of course, the near kiss only added to Sadie’s bountiful feelings on prom night. It had gone from uncomfortable to a nightmare to a happy ending so fast that even two days later Sadie was still reeling. She barely left her room the rest of the weekend, not wanting her mom or Charlie to ask her questions.
They had anyway, of course. It seemed as if they were on shifts coming to her room and checking on her. Sadie tried not to let it bother her; they were just concerned about her. But she also wanted them to leave her alone so she could get over the awful event that was prom.
Which also meant she had to face the music and head to school. She’d waited in her car too long and would barely have time to make it to her locker before her first class started. Maybe if she didn’t acknowledge anything was wrong, no one would bring up what happened. That was possible, right? The news cycle was fast in high school, right? Sadie hoped so.
Taking the keys out of the ignition of her Mustang, Sadie put her backpack on her lap and sighed. She flipped the visor down to check herself in the mirror and smiled at the picture she’d taped in there. It was of her and her mom, who was kissing her cheek while Sadie laughed. The picture always made Sadie smile, and she definitely needed a smile now.
“Okay, we can do this,” she told her reflection. “I’m sure everyone’s forgotten about you running out of the gym. No one cares that they saw your boobs. Just get out of your own head and get your ass into school.”
Flipping the visor closed, Sadie got out of the car. Her father had gifted her the car for her sixteenth birthday and promptly never said another word to her. Or, well, that was a lie too. He’d messaged her a few times and sent her a check for her eighteenth birthday. But otherwise, that was it. Todd Glassgow was never meant to be a father. Sadie knew that and tried not to fault him. Her mother more than made up for his absence, and Charlie had filled any void she’d been missing in the parental department.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Sadie encouraged herself as she began the walk up to school. The brick building loomed large in front of her, and Sadie wondered how, with each step, it seemed to grow. Maybe it was her overthinking brain that was catastrophizing the whole situation.
Whatever it was, Sadie was relieved when she pulled open the front door and stepped inside the fluorescent-lit hallway. Unlike in the movies, no one stopped to stare as soon as Sadie walked into the building. There were no dramatic mumblings as she walked down the hall to her locker. No one avoided her glance when she looked their way. In fact, the day seemed perfectly normal.
Thank God.
Sadie twisted the lock to open her locker, setting her backpack on the floor as she arranged it for her Monday classes. Their school rotated schedules so that some classes were Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while others were Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her first Monday class was AP US History, followed by AP Literature, AP Calculus, AP Biology, and gym, which doubled as her softball practice during the spring semester.
Despite it being her last semester of high school, Sadie hadn’t slowed down academically. Her goal was to complete as many AP courses as possible for college credit so she didn’t have to waste her time doing basic classes her first year. Which was why her Tuesday and Thursday classes were AP Spanish, AP Art History, a creative writing class, and gym. Sadie was easily one of the few people who enjoyed the gym, so she was glad it could be on her schedule twice during the softball season.
“Hey,” the familiar voice sent chills down Sadie’s spine, and not in a good way. Trevor leaned up against the locker beside her, smiling apologetically.
“Go away, Trevor.”
“I’m sorry about the other night.”
“I’m sure you are.” Her goal was to ignore him. Guys like Trevor liked it when they got attention. If Sadie didn’t give it to him, maybe he’d go away.
But she knew it was going to be impossible the minute he opened his mouth again.
“I am. I really like you.”
“Please,” she snorted a laugh.
“Well, I could like you if you’d give me a chance.”
Sadie stuffed her final notebook into her backpack and zipped it up. “You had your chance. Now it’s gone.”
“I didn’t know Abigail was going to send that picture to everyone.”
“Oh,” Sadie dramatically slammed her locker, getting the attention of the handful of students around them. “Is that why you screenshot the picture and sent it to her in the first place?”
Trevor looked momentarily caught off guard that someone would dare confront him, but he recovered quickly. “I was trying to make her jealous, okay? So what?”
“So what? So what? ”
Her voice was reaching the octave at which she turned into her mother when she was angry. It was the red hair; that’s what her mom always said. Gritting her teeth, Sadie put on her backpack, slammed her locker, and turned toward him.
“You know what, Trevor? I was an idiot for thinking you’d ever actually want to date me or go to prom with me. I should have known there was some ulterior motive behind it. And I never should have taken or sent you that picture. But I was dumb, and I’ll admit that. But what I won’t let you stand here and do is act like what you did was okay. Because it wasn’t. And I know that you know that on some level in your little pea brain.”
With that, she stormed past him down the hallway and into her first class. Her heart was racing as she sat at the desk, trying to follow along with the teacher’s lecture about the Vietnam War. By the time lunch came around, Sadie was thankful to be alone in the corner eating her square pizza.
Or, well, she was alone until Ellie sat down across from her. She had a pink lunchbox with her monogrammed initials on it and a homemade lunch inside.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Sadie smiled at her. “I didn’t know you had this lunch period.”
“Yeah, I usually sit over there but I saw you over here and wanted to sit with you. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” she blurted out. “It’s totally okay. I’d love for you to sit with me.”
Stop talking.
Ellie smirked, arching an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“Well, obviously. We’re friends, right?”
Even reiterating the words Ellie had said the other night felt like battery acid in her mouth. Sadie knew damn well her feelings for Ellie were developing into something more than just friends and yet she’d been friend-zoned before they could even have the chance to be something more.
Not that Sadie was ready for something more right now. She had no clue what she wanted from Ellie. Maybe eventually she’d figure that out and tell her. But for now, being friends was more than Sadie could have asked for.
“So, how are you?”
“I’m okay.”
“Yeah?” Ellie looked at her over her sandwich. “You sure?”
“I mean, I have to be, you know. I don’t want this to define me.”
“It doesn’t have to define you but you’re still allowed to have feelings about it.”
“Oh, I have plenty of those. Don’t you worry.” Sadie leaned onto the table and lowered her voice. “I called Trevor a pea brain this morning. To his face.”
“Shut up.” Ellie leaned forward, too. “And you didn’t tell me you were going to say that beforehand so I could have been there to see his face?”
Sadie chuckled. “Honestly, I think he was just trying to figure out what ulterior motive meant.”
“You deserve better than him,” Ellie said through her laughter.
Like you , Sadie wanted to say. But she was nowhere near that brave yet. She was still glad Ellie hadn’t heard her agree that climbing down the trellis the other night was sexy. Sadie would have died from embarrassment if she’d heard that.
“I know,” she finally said. “Maybe I’ll find that someday.”
“Maybe at college.”
“Yeah.” Or maybe across the lunchroom table. “Maybe at college.”
For the rest of lunch, the two talked about their families and their plans for spring break. Ellie’s family was going to their Cape Cod house, as they did on most school breaks, while Sadie was staying home. As she did on most of her school breaks.
“You should come to the Cape with us in the summer. You’d love it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Ellie smiled. “The beach and sun and the whole atmosphere is fun. If I didn’t love the Cove so much, I’d move to the Cape.”
“I do love the beach.”
“Then you should come.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said, knowing damn well she already knew the answer.
“Oh, and here.” Ellie dug into her backpack and pulled out three tickets. “They’re tickets to the opening night of the spring musical. If you and your mom and Charlie want to…”
“We’ll be there. Totally.”
Ellie’s smile widened. “Good. I’d love for you to be there.”
The damn bell interrupted Sadie from whatever she might have said next. As they gathered their things and headed back to their classes, Sadie couldn’t help but notice the extra spring in her step. As bad as Saturday night had been, Ellie had brightened up her Monday. Nothing was going to knock Sadie off her high. She was going to move on from the events of prom and never look back on them. Her gaze was forward-facing from now on.
But that mentality only lasted a few hours.
Because when she arrived at her locker in the gym, that damn picture was waiting on it. This time, in print form. Someone had taped it to her locker and Sadie ripped it down as all the girls laughed. Sadie marched over to Abigail, who was smugly standing with her arms folded over her chest.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? I mean,” Abigail took the crinkled paper from Sadie and held it up, “ I didn’t take this picture.”
“No, but you seem pretty obsessed with it for a woman who claims to love dick.”
“Hey!” Charlie’s stern voice echoed through the locker room. She had her hands on her hips and a frustrated look on her face. Sadie had never seen her like that before. “What is going on in here?”
Sadie watched in horror as Charlie yanked the picture from Abigail’s hands and looked at it. No one dared to say a word or even look at Charlie. Especially Sadie.
“What is this?”
No one answered. Sadie was about to burst into tears.
“Is anyone going to tell me what this is about?”
Again, no one answered.
“Oh, good,” Charlie sarcastically laughed, “I get to figure it out on my own. Well, let’s see.” She began to walk throughout the locker room, stressing them all out, but especially Sadie. “Is this the picture that had the prom in an uproar the other night?”
Sadie’s eyes shot to Charlie.
“Yeah, I heard about that. It seems whoever was dumb enough to airdrop a photo to everyone in a room wasn’t smart enough to think that adults and teachers would be on the receiving end of that too.”
Tears were uncontrollable as they ran down Sadie’s cheeks.
“When I first heard about that incident , my first thought was that it would never be my softball girls doing that. They respect and support each other, on and off the field. They’re a team. Or at least that’s what I thought.”
Wadding the picture into a ball, Charlie threw it into a nearby trash can.
“We are supposed to be a team. We are supposed to support each other, on and off the field. But clearly, that isn’t happening. And if that’s the case, it might be best to just not have a softball team at all this year.”
Everyone gasped and began to whisper, but Charlie silenced them.
“Stop! I’m so mad right now that I can’t deal with this rationally. Practice is canceled today. Get your things and go home.”
Everyone hurried to pack their bags and scramble out of the locker room. Sadie was nearly to the door when she turned to face Charlie. She looked so disappointed; Sadie had never seen her look like that.
“Charlie, I’m…”
But Charlie held up a hand to stop her.
“We will talk about this tonight when I get home.”
Sadie nodded quickly, then ran out of the gym.
For the second time in three days.