Chapter 3. Reed #2
Tessa just clocked that old lady like some mixed martial arts fighter. She went full Justin Gaethje on her, like she was in the UFC championships. I wish I’d had my phone out to film it.
Then realization dawns—she meant that punch for me.
Damn.
“Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. I can’t pass out in Principal Evans’s office.” Tessa leans her head between her legs. Beads of sweat run down her forehead, even with the air conditioner on. “Why did I wear this constricting suit jacket? I’ve already achieved peak humiliation. I can’t go any lower. Can I?”
“Don’t be so dramatic. You’ll be fine,” I say from my perch on the small mahogany bookcase near the window.
I pull the vertical blinds aside so I can spy the parking lot.
Flashing red lights splash the back wall, illuminating smiling family portraits and awards for educational excellence. “Looks like the ambulance is here.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Her breath comes rapid and shallow as she rocks back and forth. I thought she was being a drama queen before, but she really does look like she might hurl.
“Yikes.” I wince, trying to distract her with the action outside. Evans and the rest of the office staff have escorted Ms. Fieldman out front in a wheelchair. “Oh, that is not good.”
It works. Out of the corner of my eye I catch Tessa lift her head by a fraction, tracking me. She’s so predictable. Nothing irritates her more than being kept in the dark. She needs all the answers immediately.
“Are you being purposely vague to annoy me?” She waves her blouse a bit, trying to get a breeze flowing against her overheated skin.
My mouth goes dry.
Quit staring, dumbass. Get a grip.
“I wouldn’t dream of annoying you.” I place a hand over my chest, affronted. “I’m too afraid of your right hook.”
“Very funny. Just tell me what’s going on out there.”
I lift an eyebrow, bristling at the command, and she begrudgingly amends through gritted teeth, “Please.”
I pull the blinds aside again, preparing to give my report. “Well, Evans looks like he’s apologizing profusely … and … wow, she’s hit him with her purse.”
“What?”
“Your violence must be rubbing off. To think you’ve corrupted poor Ms. Fieldman.” I shake my head in mock disapproval, then turn back to the window.
“And now?” she prompts.
“Now they’re strapping her down and wheeling her into the ambulance. Oh … and look.” I can’t help chuckling. “A disgruntled EMT is shoving your giant scholarship check beside the gurney. I think there might be a little blood on it. You slammed her pretty hard.”
“I’m doomed,” she groans, head back in her hands. “No college. No future. My life is over.”
I can’t believe I’m feeling pity for Tessa.
“It was a misunderstanding.” I hop off my bookshelf perch and sit in the chair beside her.
When I stretch my legs out, she eyes them darkly.
Thinking of our moment back in McKeen’s classroom earlier, I shuffle them farther forward, reclining as far as I can, then wink at her.
She does not look amused—though that’s always been part of the fun with Tessa. And the challenge. Can I get her to crack a smile, let her guard down for a second, and take things less seriously? It’s something I’ve been trying and failing at since moving here in the sixth grade.
I still remember our first conversation at recess when she insisted that gallium was the best element because who doesn’t love liquid metal and then challenged me to a cartwheel competition—which she promptly won, clocking in at fifty-seven.
She’s always been smart and fearless and beautiful—if a bit high-strung.
But she has never, not once, been interested in me. She likes bland-as-toast guys like Brandon, I guess. Though why, I’ll never know.
“This is not the reputation I want to end senior year with.” She waves at the hallway outside.
I tilt my face toward her. “What? That you were the asshole who punched Grandma?”
Her glare is piercing.
“Look, I saw out the window. She’s fine.” That doesn’t seem to appease her. “Tessa, I promise you, this is not the impression you’re leaving high school with. It’s a footnote. An epically funny footnote, but that’s all it is.”
She bites her lip, so I know she’s at least considering what I’m saying, just like she does in debate when someone scores a point on her and she needs to craft a rebuttal.
This is not the catastrophe she thinks it is. I know what it’s like to have your life implode. When the tectonic plates shift underneath you and you realize something foundational—which you thought you could always count on—has vanished in a blink.
And the world seems like it’s over … but it’s not. Day by day, you discover you’re still here. You crawl back.
“I know it feels super important right now,” I say slowly. “But it’s really not, in the scheme of things. It’s all going to work out.”
“Why? Because things always work out for you, Reed? Not all of us are so lucky.”
And there it is again: the guy she thinks I am.
Some golden boy whose life is perfect. I’m not sure how she got that impression.
Besides valedictorian, which I pushed myself hard for—mostly thanks to her—my life is a complete shitshow.
But Tessa doesn’t look. Or ask. No, to her I’m just some guy she wants to slug in the face.
And that was no lightweight punch. That came with the full force of hatred behind it.
All that anger, meant for me. How did we get here?
The door flies open and Kira and Santiago step inside.
“Why is no one in the main office?” Kira tucks a strand of purple hair behind her ear. “Is this because you got into a fistfight in the hall?”
Tessa bolts upright in her chair. “Is that what people are saying?”
Kira shrugs. “Something about you two, fists flying, and some old lady getting tackled.”
“Oh my God,” Tessa groans again. So much for helping to snap her out of it.
“Dude, there’s no one here. I should totally smoke this jay in the principal’s office right now.” Santiago makes himself at home behind Evans’s desk, kicking his feet up as he pulls a joint out of his pocket. “I’d be a school legend.”
“Yeah, you would,” I say with a smile, and we air-five each other across the room.
“Are you crazy?” Tessa hisses. “They’ll be here any second.” The ambulance is already driving away, sirens blaring.
“You’re right. I should save it for the graduation party.” He stands, tucking the joint in his pocket. “You coming tonight?”
We all turn toward Tessa. It seems to take her a moment to realize who Santiago’s talking to. “Oh, um …”
“She doesn’t party,” Kira answers for her, lounging against the doorframe, absently scrolling her phone.
“You can’t miss the most kick-ass event in all of high school. We’re seniors. We’re gonna blow it up! Everyone’s breaking into that old van der Born mansion on Route Twenty-Eight outside town.” Santiago swings his hips back and forth, dancing over to Kira. “It’s going to be lii-ii-ii-ii-it!”
Kira laughs as he twirls and dips her. So, I guess it’s official. She’s fully moved on from me. Is she into Santiago now?
The thought doesn’t sting as much as I’d expect. There was a time when I’d hoped for more with Kira, but after one extremely awkward date, we realized we made better friends. Still, even though it didn’t last long, I wouldn’t mind her feeling a little jealous.
“Yeah …” As my eyes snag on Tessa’s, my heart picks up speed.
I can feel Kira staring at me, too. At us.
I hadn’t considered Tessa might actually attend, but what if she did?
Now that the idea’s out there, I realize this is what I want.
One night before my new life starts and I move away to Boston for school.
One final shot to prove to Tessa Sinclair that I’m not the guy she thinks I am.
And hey, if it came with the added benefit of Kira regretting shutting us down, then I wouldn’t complain about that, either.
“You should go. I hear it’s going to be lii-ii-ii-ii-it. ”
“She won’t attend if it’s not a school-sanctioned event.” Kira rolls her eyes.
Tessa crosses her arms, clearly annoyed by Kira’s assumption, but I can tell she’s still about to make her excuses.
Like always. I cut in before she has the chance.
“We’re pretty fun. Why don’t you come find out?
Or do you and that wet blanket you call a boyfriend have better plans?
Is it bingo night with the other retirees?
Big game of canasta you can’t miss? Come on, Sinclair. I dare you.”
“You dare me? What is this, sixth grade?”
“I dare you to live a little before your high school years are over.”
“Live a little?” she scoffs. “You think you have me all figured out, don’t you, Reed? But for your information, I was always going. Who do you think had the idea in the first place to party at the van der Born estate and arranged for us to use that mansion?”
The dancing comes to a halt. My jaw hits the floor.
What?
First Tessa hauls off and punches an old lady, and now she’s throwing the party of the year? An uneasy knot settles in my stomach. Maybe I don’t know her as well as I thought.
“So, looks like I’ll see you there.” Tessa shrugs, easy and nonchalant, though I clock the finger tapping rapidly against her thigh.
“Looks like it,” I say just as breezily back.
Kira’s eyes narrow, darting between us.
My smile is slow and victorious, because it occurs to me that I just got exactly what I want.