Chapter 8
Ella
“Where are you going?” Charlotte asks, stopping me in the hall. “I thought we were having lunch.”
It’s almost noon, and I’m meeting Briggs behind the bleachers. I try to think of a lie to explain why I’m leaving, but then remember I don’t have to anymore.
“I’m going to meet Briggs,” I whisper.
“Where?”
“The field out back.” I glance around to make sure no one’s listening.
Her eyes widen. “Are you guys going to—”
“No,” I say, pulling her aside, away from all the people going by. “We’re just talking.”
“Yeah, right.” She rolls her eyes.
I smile. “Okay, we might do more than talk, but we won’t be doing what you caught us doing there before. By the way, why were you out there that day? You never said.”
“I was going to walk around the stadium. I was thinking if I walked there every morning before class I could lose a pound a week. But then I decided I like sleeping too much to get up that early.”
“Charlotte, you don’t need to lose weight.”
“Skinny people always say that.” She looks me up and down. “How do you get a body like that without working out?”
“It’s all the lawn work. Sweeping and pulling weeds keeps me in shape.” I check my phone. “I need to go.”
“Be careful!” she yells as I leave.
She thinks Briggs and I will get caught, but there’s nobody on the field this time of day, and even if there were, they wouldn’t go behind the bleachers.
As I walk down there, I feel my excitement building. It’s hard to believe just a few weeks ago the idea of meeting up with Briggs filled me with fear and dread, and now I can’t wait to see him. But when I get behind the bleachers, he’s not there.
“Briggs?” I call out.
It’s a few minutes past noon. Maybe something came up, and he can’t meet. I check my phone, but he didn’t text me.
Someone grabs me from behind, and I almost scream, but then smile when I smell his cologne and feel his warm chest behind my back as he pulls me against him.
“Hey.” He kisses my cheek. “Sorry I’m late.”
I look up at him, smiling. “You scare me to death when you sneak up on me like that.”
“You love it and you know it.”
“Maybe.” I turn to face him, and he leans down to kiss me. He holds me close and deepens the kiss, making my body tingle and want more.
As much as I’d love to keep doing this, I need to tell him about Ms. Higgins.
We’re running out of time to find out who’s sending those texts, and if we don’t find out who it is, we won’t be able to stop the person from going to the cops.
There’s probably no chance we can stop it, but I’m holding out hope that it’s possible.
I pull back from Briggs. “We need to talk about Ms. Higgins.”
“We’ll do it later.” He kisses me and runs his hand up the back of my thigh, under my skirt.
“Wait,” I say, stopping him. “We can’t do this. Someone might see us.”
“Nobody’s out here.”
“I know, but still, we need to talk. I have to work after school and you have practice. This is the only time we have to talk.”
He sighs and steps back. “What is it? What’d you find out?”
“I don’t think it’s her. I was telling her how unfair it is that you get away with stuff because you’re rich and popular, and instead of agreeing with me, she stuck up for you.”
“Yeah? So?”
“She wouldn’t stick up for you if she was trying to put you in jail.”
“She would if she didn’t want you to know.
If she was there that night, she saw you.
She knows you’re part of this. She’s keeping you out of it because she likes you and doesn’t think you deserve to be punished.
If she figured out you were saying all that stuff to get her to admit she’s the one texting us, she’d say something to make sure you didn’t think it was true. ”
“You’re saying you still think it’s her?”
“As of now, yeah. I don’t know who else it could be.”
“But why would she have been on the road that night?”
“It’s really dark out there, dark enough to see the stars. One time I saw a group of people with telescopes on a hill along that road, like they were part of an astronomy class. Maybe Ms. Higgins is into astronomy.”
“I could ask her.”
Briggs takes me in his arms and kisses me. “Are we done talking? Because I can think of a lot better ways to spend the next twenty minutes.”
I put my hand on his chest, gently pushing him back. “There’s something else.”
“Make it quick because I’m dying here, not being able to touch you.”
I smile, then get serious. I’m nervous to even mention this, but I need to, or it’ll keep coming up.
“The valedictorian thing,” I say.
“Forget that,” he says, bringing me back into his arms and kissing my neck.
“Forget it, meaning you won’t keep pressuring me to give it up?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” His lips slide up my neck, causing a shiver to go through me. My body is begging me to stop talking and let Briggs continue what he’s doing, but my brain won’t let it happen. I need to settle this once and for all.
“Briggs, I need to talk about this.”
He lets me go and takes a step back. “We’ve already talked about it. There’s nothing else to say.”
“But what does that mean? That you’re not giving this up? You’re going to keep fighting with me and threatening me until I let you have it?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Just tell me what this is about. Why is it so important that you’re valedictorian?”
He hesitates, then says, “My father’s already told people it’s going to be me. He doesn’t like being let down.”
“So this is about your dad? Why does he think it’s going to be you? Did you tell him that?”
“No. He just assumed. Chadwick men don’t accept second place. It doesn’t happen.”
“You’re telling me you’re trying to take the valedictorian title from me to protect your dad’s ego?
” I shake my head, feeling annoyed and disgusted with his reasoning.
“Sorry, but that’s a really shitty reason.
I can’t believe you’d go along with that.
Unless you feel the same way. Is this about your ego?
You can’t stand the idea of someone else being ahead of you? ”
“Ella, I don’t want to talk about this. Can we just go back to—”
“We’re not doing anything until you call this off. I’m done fighting about this. I’m not going to give up being valedictorian.”
“I don’t want to fight about it either.” He takes my hands and pulls me towards him. “Can we just forget about it?”
Is he saying this is over? Is he agreeing to let it go? I didn’t think that would happen. I thought he’d at least try to fight with me before giving in. But maybe he decided our relationship is worth more than him winning this battle.
I reach up to kiss him. “I think we have a few minutes left.”
He kisses me back as his arms go around me. His kiss deepens, and we find ourselves moving to the area where Charlotte found us. I told myself this wouldn’t happen, but I can’t seem to stop myself. I want to be with Briggs. It’s a need I can’t make go away.
“Over here!” someone yells.
I pull away from Briggs and yank down my skirt. “What was that?”
“Some guy on the field.” Briggs walks to the end of the bleachers. “There’s some guys on the field tossing a football.”
“I told you people come out here during the day.”
“Doesn’t mean we have to go.” He walks back to me, kissing me and making me want to finish what we started.
“That was a shitty throw!” a guy yells from the field.
“I can’t do this,” I say. “Not with people just a few feet away.”
“I’ll tell them to leave.”
I smile. “We’ll just do this later. Maybe tomorrow morning. We could get here early, before anyone’s here.”
“Tomorrow at six.” He gives me a kiss. “Go ahead. You leave first. I’ll wait.”
I walk to the end of the bleachers and see three guys on the field. They don’t even notice me.
As I go back into the school, I feel relieved and happy that Briggs finally agreed to stop demanding to be valedictorian.
Maybe he realized how ridiculous his reason was when he said it out loud.
Who cares what his father told people? I’m not giving up the title to save his dad from being embarrassed.
He’ll just have to get over his son not being first and be happy he’s in second place.
I feel so much better after talking to Briggs.
Now we can move on and hopefully get back to the place we were before I found out about the city taking my house.
I really don’t think Briggs had anything to do with that, especially after finding out his dad is the reason Briggs insisted on being valedictorian.
His father sounds controlling and manipulative.
I could totally see him lying and saying it was Briggs who wanted to tear down my house.
Manipulative people never take responsibility. They always blame someone else.
“Ella!” Calvin races up to me, grabbing my arm. “We need to talk.”
“About what?” I ask, looking down at his hand on my arm.
He notices and lets me go. “Can we talk outside? I don’t want anyone hearing us.”
I glance around the empty hallway. “There’s nobody here. Everyone’s at lunch.”
“They’ll be coming out any minute now. I have to tell you something. It’s important.”
I sigh. “Okay, fine.”
We go outside.
“Over here,” Calvin says, walking along the side of the building, stopping under a tree.
“Calvin, what’s going on?” I ask, taking my time walking over to him. I hope he isn’t taking me out here to tell me he likes me or wants to date me.
“Hurry!” he says. “The bell’s about to go off.”
I stop a few feet in front of him, folding my arms over my chest. “Just say what you have to say.”
“This morning I got a call from Briggs.”
“About what?”
“About your grades.” Calvin looks around, then back at me. “Briggs asked me to hack into the system and change them. He told me to lower your grades, and he offered to pay me.”
“Are you making this up?” I ask, thinking this is some kind of joke.
There’s no way this could be true. Briggs wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t go behind my back and try to change my grades and then tell me he’s given up trying to take the valedictorian title from me. Would he?