Payback (15 page)

GAIA HAD ACTUALLY LEFT SCHOOL
feeling pretty damn good about herself. Not only had she helped Ed expose the Stud Club boys that morning, but she'd not had one evil thought about Heather all day, and she'd spent the entire time in detention thinking solely in Russian. All in all, in Gaia terms, it was a perfect school day.

But by the time she walked up the steps at George and Ella's that evening, Gaia was back on self-deprecation mode. And it was all Sam Moon's fault.

Okay, so she wasn't exactly experienced in this stuff, but she hadn't stopped obsessing about Thanksgiving once since he'd e-mailed her. Well, except for those brief moments of focused hatred on Charlie and Tim and beating the crap out of people.

Gaia sighed as she closed the heavy wooden door behind her. She leaned back against its cool surface and stared at the foyer. Didn't he know that a person couldn't send a cryptic e-mail like that and not follow up on it? Didn't he know what he was putting her through?

"You're being a whiny girl, Gaia," she told herself, pushing away from the door. "You're annoying me."

After all, she hadn't contacted him, either. Yeah, she'd skulked around the park, staked out his dorm, triple checked her e-mail, but she hadn't called him or written to him or buzzed his room. This was an equal opportunity nonrelationship.

Gaia pulled her messenger bag off over her head and dropped it on the floor under the now conspicuously empty hall table. She briefly wondered what Ella had done with all her hideous knickknacks but then decided not to waste brain space on it. She should just count herself lucky they were gone and hope they weren't replaced by something even more ceramic-y and pink.

Opening the door to the closet, Gaia automatically reached for the empty hanger she always left behind, but her hand hit a nylon jacket instead. She looked at the rack and groaned. Someone had taken her hanger. She opened the door wider and started to search, pushing aside a few of Ella's musty fur coats until she found a bent and abused wire hanger.

As she fought to pull it out, her eyes fell on a little red box stuffed onto a shelf between a hatbox and a stack of old magazines. Gaia just looked at it for a moment, wondering if it was some Christmas gift for George from Ella. She could just imagine the kind of present Ella would buy for her husband. Probably a copy of
Eight-Minute Abs
or one of those spray-on hair kits.

Gaia rolled her eyes, slung her jacket over the hanger, and slammed the closet door.

She was sure she wouldn't be getting anything for Christmas this year, at least not from her dad or her uncle or anyone who mattered. But as she grabbed her bag and trudged up the stairs, she realized she didn't really want gifts, anyway.

As pathetic as it was, all she wanted was for Sam to call.

THE PHONE WAS RINGING WHEN SHE
walked into her bedroom, and she dropped her things onto her bed, diving for the receiver.

"Hello?" she said, breathless after climbing about a million stairs. She sprawled out on her stomach across her comforter.

"Hey."

Her heart skipped crazily, and she rolled over onto her back, a slow smile spreading across her face.

"I was wondering if I'd ever hear from you," she said.

"I know," he said slowly. "I'm sorry it's been a while. You don't know how sorry."

"That's okay," Heather said, grinning for real. "I'm just happy to hear your voice."

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