The Way to Game the Walk of Shame (5 page)

“Nothing happened. Between us, I mean.” My voice sounded confident even though I didn’t really know myself. But I was
pretty
sure nothing happened. My body would have been way more relaxed yesterday if I had gotten some action the night before. “We just slept. Or at least I tried to. You snore pretty loud for a little girl.”

Judging by the way her body slumped forward with relief, that was exactly what she wanted to hear. “Thanks.” Taylor fumbled with her blue backpack strap and cleared her throat. “For letting me know. I guess I’ll see you around.”

When she turned away to leave, I reached out to touch her arm. It wasn’t a grab or even a pat. It was a light touch, but I could feel her skin beneath my fingertips. Soft and warm. A warmth that seeped into my skin. If just a fingertip could make me feel that way, what would it feel like if I curved my entire hand around her wrist?

Despite my curiosity, I shoved both hands back in my pockets before she fully turned around.

“Look, I know this probably sucks for you since you’re, you know, Miss Perfect and everything.” I waved a vague hand in her direction. “But don’t worry about it too much. People will get tired of this and move onto something new eventually. Trust me.” I gave her my best innocent, everything-is-perfect smile. “I mean, who would know more about this stuff than me?”

“You’re right. It’ll be fine.” She turned away, and I could hear her mutter under her breath, “Hopefully.”

*   *   *

People continued to point at me as I walked to PE, but I didn’t care. In fact, it was fun to pop in on a strange group or even lock eyes with people and watch their conversations fade into awkward silence. The simple joys in life. It certainly made the school day go by quicker.

I stretched out on the patch of lawn behind the cafeteria for a quick nap. Coach Jill used our PE class after lunch to practice with her cheerleaders before football games. As long as we stayed in sight, she didn’t care what the rest of the class did.

With my left arm cushioned beneath my head, I was about to doze off when a shadow fell over my face. I pried an eye open but could only see the outline of a figure peering down at me. Judging by the red hair and the mouthwatering curves on the figure, I could guess who it was.

“Looking for me so soon? I thought you’re supposed to wait an hour after you eat before you have sex?” I closed my eyes again. “I think I heard that somewhere.”

There was a low chuckle, and Lauren flopped down on the grass beside me. “You and I both know that’s not true. We certainly tested that theory out enough times last year.”

A grin stretched across my face. “Right, I guess we did.”

Despite our big talk, Lauren and I weren’t dating. We did last summer, after she grabbed hold of me at the beach to introduce herself in the most exciting and memorable way possible. It was fun, but we broke up a month after that. Now we were friends who just hooked up once in a while.

I usually made it a rule never to date or even sleep with the same girl twice. Somehow Lauren was the exception. She always had a way of getting under my skin. Or rather in my pants. Besides the awesome sex, she was pretty cool. She was different from the other girls I knew. I liked having her in my life. And this worked for us.

“What are you doing here?”

Instead of being deterred by my casual tone, she rolled over until she was squished against me, not even caring that the damp grass was probably making green smudges on the back of her jeans. For a girl who cared about her appearance, she didn’t think twice about sitting on wet grass. Hell, she’d go to school in a chicken suit if someone dared her to.

Lauren pulled my arm away from my side and laid her head on top of my stomach. She laced her slim, cool hand around mine. “I wanted to apologize for leaving the party early. Paul wanted to take me out.”

“Paul?”

“You know Paul. That guy from the prep university I told you about?”

Ah, right.
I shrugged. “It’s cool. I found other people to hang out with.”

“So I heard.” She didn’t say anything else, but I could tell something was bothering her. Lauren pressed my hand against her mouth. “You know, you could at least
pretend
that you’re jealous about Paul.”

That’s weird.
She never asked me about my girls, and I didn’t ask her about her guys. It was an unspoken rule between us. “Sorry, so how is the prep boy doing? Did he get his fraternity’s sigma tattooed on his ass yet?”

Her lips curved into a smirk against my palm. “That’s better. And Paul’s fine. I’ll probably see him next week.”

“Good to know that the tuition his parents paid for is being used wisely.”

Lauren laughed, and the weight of her head disappeared as she leaned back on her elbows. She kept holding my hand, though. “So the funniest thing happened in class this morning.”

“Oh yeah?” I played with her fingers, caressing her soft skin and smooth nails. “I’m surprised that you were actually paying attention in class.”

Her grip on my hand tightened a bit. “Usually I don’t, but I wouldn’t miss the chance to see Taylor Simmons taken down a peg or two.”

My hand froze. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, the princess didn’t have her homework to turn in for once.” Lauren giggled to herself. “You should have seen the anxiety on her face when Mr. Peters chewed her out. I could swear she was going to burst into tears or something.”

With a frown, I let go of her hand and sat up. My arms crossed over my chest. “Uh, I don’t see why the thought of another girl crying would be so funny to you.”

She slowly sat up, too. “Because she’s annoying. Everybody was glad to see her get yelled at for once.” The expression on her face was curious as she watched me. Her blue eyes narrowed a bit. “And why do you care? She’s just some random girl you screwed. You didn’t even know her before the party.”

The corner of my mouth jerked into a half smile as I remembered the first time I actually spoke to Taylor. “Actually, that’s not true.”

It was last summer, after Lauren and I had broken up. I was working part time as a lifeguard at the pool when I saw someone flopping around in the deep end. It took seconds for me to swim over and save her. After I carried her out of the water, Taylor spit up pool water in my face and scrambled away after mumbling thanks. I was shocked. No girl had ever treated me that way before. I saved dozens of people in the pool—mainly girls—but she was the only one I remembered from that summer. “Taylor’s not just a random girl. And to be honest, it’s kind of bitchy of you to consider her misery
fun
.”

Lauren’s mouth dropped open. Even though everyone knew she was a bitch, this was the first time I had ever called her one. I felt kind of bad about it, but it was true.

She brushed her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. “Whatever, forget I even said anything.” Wrapping her hand behind my neck, she pulled me toward her until her lips, her breath, was tickling my ear. “How about we get together tonight? My house? For old times’ sake.” There was smug smile on Lauren’s face. Her blue eyes seemed to be taunting me, urging me to just give in.

I was tempted. Really tempted. Any other day and I wouldn’t have even waited for tonight. I would have buried my face in her hair, pulled her into the locker room and locked the door for the rest of the period. God, I hated to admit it, but my emotions were usually controlled by my dick. But not today. I wasn’t in the mood. “Sorry, as exciting as that sounds, sweetheart, I think I’ll pass.”

She shoved me away and rose to her feet. “Fine. But don’t bother calling me the next time you want to hook up.” With a huff, she stalked toward the parking lot, nearly knocking over Aaron on the way.

“Jeez, what’s her problem?”

“You act like I ever know what she’s thinking.” I let out a sigh and fished my keys out of the pocket of my gym shorts. “Come on, Jill isn’t paying attention to us anyway. Let’s get out of here.”

Aaron was still watching Lauren as she peeled away in her car. “Okay, where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere but here.”

4

{Taylor}

One day at a time.
Until it all blew over and things got back to normal again. I repeated the same thought over and over in my head until I
almost
started to believe it.

When the last bell rang for the day, I jumped out of my seat with joy. Now all I had to do was go home and crawl into my bed, and this nightmare day would be over.

Just as I left my AP English class, some girl jostled my shoulder, making me fall back into the doorway. My books and binder smacked to the ground and flew open. Various articles for next week’s newspaper edition sprinkled the floor. I cursed under my breath and knelt to pick them up, wincing as my shoulder throbbed. I turned to stare at her, but she had already faded into the hallway crowd.

“Seriously?” I muttered, stretching to reach my scattered books. My fingers had just closed around my blue binder when Todd Herbert, the unspoken leader of the pack of Neanderthals from lunch, smacked my butt.

I jumped to my feet, but he just smirked and gave his buddies a high five. I narrowed my eyes at him.

The reason people had never gossiped about me before was because I never gave them a reason to. I never did anything wrong. Unlike Carly, who never cared what people said or thought of her. Secretly, I envied that. I couldn’t be like that. I preened with pride when people complimented me, and my stomach turned when I got a dirty look. Dad said what people thought of me affected the outcome. Granted, he was talking about court cases and the jury, but it’s all basically the same. No matter what people said, appearances
did
matter.

But I was sick of it. Evan was wrong. Things didn’t get better. My name was even scrawled on the toilet-stall door with Wite-Out, paired with the words
WHORE
+
SLUT
. I had waited until the bathroom was empty before attacking the door and breaking three nails in the process. And I was sick of everything. But most of all, I was sick of doing nothing. Screw appearances.

“Hey, idiot!” Without thinking, I snatched my binder off the ground and threw it at Todd. It hit his shoulder with a loud, satisfying smack. Score! I fist-pumped the air in celebration just as he turned around with a scowl.

Crap.
Maybe I should have thought this through. I backed up a step when he stalked toward me, and—
whoosh!
—suddenly Carly flew in like my knight in a blue cardigan and jeans and shoved him aside with her shoulder. He stumbled backward against the lockers.

She groaned and rubbed her right shoulder. “Damn, that hurt!”

I grabbed her. “Carly! Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She turned to Todd. “But I swear you’ll get a lot more than that if you bother either of us again.” She waved her hand for him to come forward. “Try me.”

His nostrils flared, and he lurched toward us.

With a yelp, I grabbed Carly’s shoulders to pull her back and out of his way when a tall back obstructed my view of Todd. A very familiar back that materialized out of nowhere.

When did Brian get here? I peered up at him and poked the center of his broad back to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. He turned to look at me, and his frown deepened. His hand lightly touched my arm. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

Carly cleared her throat. “I’m fine, too. Thanks for asking.”

“I know you are. Nothing could bother you.” Brian gave her a quick grin and turned away. “You know, Herbert, picking on two girls kinda makes you look like a wimp.”

Cursing under his breath, Todd took another step toward us just as Mr. Peters stepped out of his classroom. “What’s going on here?”

The hall had been crowded during our fight, but everyone faded backward and practically evaporated as soon as a teacher showed up. Our group remained quiet. Even if we didn’t say anything, the evidence was pretty obvious. My books were still scattered on the ground. My binder was even at Todd’s feet, and Carly was still rubbing her shoulder.

“Nothing, we just had a little accident, but everyone’s fine now,” Brian smoothly lied. He bent down to grab my books. “Nothing to worry about. Right, guys?”

“Right, it’s nothing,” Carly chirped with a beaming grin.

Todd’s eyes flickered between each of us—lingering on me for the longest time—before landing on Mr. Peters. After a long and agonizing minute, he shook his head. “Yeah, everything’s good.”

Mr. Peters didn’t look like he believed us, but he nodded. “Then why don’t you guys go home? School’s over, you know. Ms. Simmons, can I talk to you again?”

“Uh, I guess so.” I turned to Brian and Carly. “Do you guys want to wait for me?”

Carly frowned. “I have to go to theater practice. But I’ll talk to you later.” She gave my arm a tight squeeze and turned to Brian. “Take care of her, okay?”

“’Course. I’ll be here, Taylor.”

With a nod, I let out a low, deep breath and followed Mr. Peters into his classroom. He sat down behind his desk, picked up a pen, and tapped it against the side of his desk. I shifted my weight side to side as I waited for him to speak.

“First the late report and now this
accident
.”

I ducked my head a little. “I know. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“I hope not. But you’re clearly too distracted these days. I think you should take a break from preparing the Career Day presentation. Drop off your materials tomorrow, and I’ll have Lin take over.”

And just like that, my dream of wowing the Columbia alumni—along with my chances of actually
going
to Columbia—faded away. “But—but you can’t. I’ve been working on this for ages! You
can’t
just give it to Lin. She’ll mess it up.”

He dropped his pen with a clatter and meshed his hands together under his chin. “I’m just helping you out, Taylor. I know senior year is tough and you have a lot on your plate, but that’s life. Everyone has things to do. Obligations to fulfill. Families to feed.
Bills
to pay. This isn’t easy for me, either.”