Chapter Twenty

Ayla

As I sat in the library, I glanced down at my phone for like the hundredth time. What if something had gone wrong in court? God, I hated waiting.

Someone sat down across from me, and I peered up to see Brady and Chloe. “So where’s Luke today? He never misses school. I’ve tried texting him a bunch of times,” Brady said.

I frowned. Did Luke want everyone knowing what was going on? I hadn’t even told Chloe what’d happened or that Luke had spent the weekend at our house. “He had some things come up. Some really big things,” I said, hoping that would appease him.

Brady quirked an eyebrow. “His mom didn’t make him stay home to watch Landon again, did she? That woman is such an asshole about stuff like that. You don’t know how many times I’ve offered to let him come stay with us, but he didn’t want to leave Landon alone with her.”

“No. It’s something else. I’m sure he’ll call you and let you know soon. I just don’t feel like it’s my place to say anything.” I toyed with the crust on my sandwich. Jeez. I was too worked up to even eat, which so wasn’t like me.

Chloe fidgeted with her bracelet, watching me pick at my food. “If you need to talk, we’re here, Ayla.”

“I know.” I smiled. My phone buzzed, and I peeked at the screen to see Luke’s number pop up. “Um, I’ll be right back.” I leaped from the chair and made my way over to the nonfiction section of the library. Mostly because I knew no one would be there. As soon as I checked to make sure I was alone, I hit the talk button. “Hello?”

“Ayla, hey, it’s Luke,” he said.

“I know,” I teased. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. The judge is placing us with our dad.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s good news, right? I mean, you’re okay with it?”

“For now. At this point we don’t really have anyone else who can take us.” I heard him sigh on the other end. “I want to trust him, but I just don’t know. It’s been too long since we last saw him. But my mom got hauled out of the courtroom for freaking out on us. It was a mess. She actually blamed me and Landon for our situation—it’s like she wouldn’t even own up to the part she played. I’m just glad this part of it is over.”

Relief flooded through me. I was glad, too. No one deserved to be treated like Luke had been. “Brady’s been asking why you’re not here. I haven’t said anything yet because I wasn’t sure who you wanted knowing what.” Leaning against the bookcase, I twirled one of my curls around my finger.

“I’ll call him later on tonight. But look, I wondered if I could ask you for a huge favor.”

“Of course, what’s up?”

“We dropped Landon off at the elementary school, as he had a field trip to the zoo today he didn’t want to miss, and we need to go get our things packed up at the house. Do you think you could drop by and grab him after school for us? My dad added you and your parents to the list of people who are allowed to pick him up.”

I had to see Mr. Leaver about the vandalism article, then right after I was supposed to go to drama club, but I was sure I could con Mrs. Parkins into letting Landon help out with something. “Absolutely. I have play practice until seven tonight, I can drop him off after that, or if you guys want to swing by the house to get him, that’d be fine, too,” I said.

“You’re a lifesaver. After all this, I’m going to owe you big.”

With a snort, I peered out the window into the courtyard, where several leaves fell from the lone tree. “No, you don’t. I’ve kind of made your life a living hell these past couple of weeks.”

Luke got quiet for a second, then said, “No, you haven’t. If anything, you helped me through all this. Besides, maybe it was a good thing that you blackmailed me. Otherwise, we never would’ve started talking or hanging out. And that would’ve sucked.”

My cheeks grew hot. “It still doesn’t make me feel any less shitty. But I’m happy with how things have turned out.” Would Luke stick around after the election? He’d said he would—I mean, he’d said he really liked me, and we were kind of dating now. Even if neither of us had stated it.

“Plan on me dropping by to get Landon. That way I can thank your parents for this past weekend,” he said.

“Okay, I’ll see you tonight, then.” After I hung up, I scrolled through my phone to find the video of Luke and his friends. I pulled up my text box and sent Luke a quick message.

I’m deleting the video. So no more thoughts of blackmail.

Luke: Thank you.

“Everything okay?” Brady poked his head into the section I was in, Chloe right behind him.

I quickly closed my screen down. “Yeah, Luke said he’ll give you a call in a little bit.”

“So he’s good?” He watched me.

“He will be.”

Right then the bell rang, and I grabbed my books to head to next hour. When I came to the senior wing, Jenna stepped out in front of me. “So are you going to set up a table Friday?” she sneered.

My eyes narrowed. “Yes.”

“I don’t know why you’re even bothering…I’ve got this election wrapped up, and you know it. No one is going to vote for you.” She gestured to my Magic T-shirt and holey jeans. “People think you’re a joke. And God only knows how you managed to land Luke.” She smirked at me. “Trust me, everyone is wondering…”

Not wanting to deal with her, I attempted to push around her. “Screw off,” I said.

She clutched my arm. “Did Luke ever tell you we dated?”

“No, and I honestly don’t give a shit.”

“Don’t you? Because here’s the thing, all I’d have to do is bat my eyelashes at him, and he’d come running back to me in a heartbeat. He was devastated when we broke up. He’s messaged me several times over the last couple of weeks…face it, you’re not really his type.”

This time, I jerked away from her and headed to class. I wasn’t going to sit there and listen to her. Although I wondered if Luke did want someone more like her. People like them always dated. They were both popular—beautiful. Nothing about his being into me made sense. What did I really have to offer? Sure, I was vocal about important issues, and I tried not to ever give a flying fuck what anyone thought about me. But I didn’t fit the mold of the type of girl he usually dated. Jeez. Why was I doubting everything? Luke wouldn’t have said he liked me if he didn’t.

Or would he? Maybe this was about the video. Maybe they were all playing me. Him. His friends. All of them.

My stomach churned with the thought. Okay, I needed to let it go. Jenna was just trying to cause trouble. I’d show her on Friday when we set our tables up to hand out flyers and pins. Everyone had to see through the fakeness.

As I was getting ready to walk into my classroom, Jack appeared in front of me. He glared at me. “This thing between you and Luke isn’t going to last,” he said.

God. What was this, the day of the dick? “Jealous?”

“He’s gonna get bored with you…I don’t know what kind of crap you’ve been talking behind my back. But it’s always been bros before hos—so don’t think any of the shit you keep telling him about me is going to ruin our friendship.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have to tell him anything—he already knows you’re an asshole. As does the entire school. Now get out of my way.” Luke would be proud of me right now, standing up for myself.

“You’re going down, heifer. Just wait.”

“Obviously, you can see I’m super frightened of you. Now back the hell off.” This time, I rammed an elbow into his side and plowed past him.

“Lay off her, Jack,” Brady said, gripping him by the arm and dragging him down the hall. “Ignore him, Ayla. He doesn’t mean any of it.”

“The hell I don’t.” Jack’s jaw tightened as he bored holes through my face with his eyes.

I hurried into my classroom. Damn. I’d never been exposed to this much drama…normally the only people I bumped heads with were the principal and the counselor about the paper.

Jack stayed out of my way for the rest of the day, mostly because Brady seemed to be glued to his side.

When I got to the elementary school, Landon was waiting out front. As soon as he saw my car, he rushed toward me.

“Ayla—can I sit up front?” He slipped his backpack from his shoulder, holding it against his chest. His blond hair blew into his eyes.

“Sure thing. Just throw your bag in the back. I hope you don’t mind, but you’re gonna have to go to my newspaper meeting and to play practice with me.”

“What do you do there?” he asked, slipping into the passenger seat.

“Well, for my newspaper, I’m the editor in chief. Today I have to talk to my adviser to see if my article was okay. And in drama club we work on our lines for our play coming up. Kind of like acting. I bet if you wanted, you could come up on stage with me,” I said, shifting the car into gear.

“Really?”

“Yep. I already talked to my teacher, and she said she might have small part for you.”

He grinned, revealing several missing teeth. “That would be awesome. Would I have to talk?”

“No. She’ll probably just have you walking around in our fake town that we built on our set.”

“I can do that. Oh, and I have some homework tonight. Mr. Darvis said I have to read a chapter in my book before tomorrow.”

“You can sit in the audience and read while we work on our singing parts.”

He nodded. “Okay.” He stared at me for a second then said, “Me and Luke get to move in with our dad now.”

“That’s what I heard. Are you excited?” I couldn’t imagine going to live with someone I didn’t know, let alone a parent who hadn’t been around much.

“Yes. But I’m kind of nervous, too. What if he doesn’t like us? Sometimes I’m messy or forget to brush my teeth. Do you think he’ll get mad about that?”

“He’ll love you, Landon. Don’t worry about anything. Just be you.” I reached across the seat and patted his arm. It tore me up to hear him worrying about stuff like this. My eyes blurred, but I kept my head straight forward.

When we got back to the high school, Landon grabbed his bag and followed me inside. “Okay, can you sit out here in the hallway for me while I meet with Mr. Leaver? It should only take a minute.”

“Okay.” Landon slid to the floor and held his backpack in his lap.

When I got inside, Mr. Leaver glanced up from his computer. “Ayla, glad you stopped in. So I read your article on the vandalism, and, well, it wasn’t all about vandalism. You managed to sneak some things in there about other crimes, like sex trafficking. You did a great job, however…Mr. Fairchild wasn’t impressed. He said that the school paper is not an actual local or national newspaper, and he doesn’t want to see big issues in it.”

My fist tightened. “I don’t get it. It’s like he has blinders on to everything outside the world of high school. People need to be educated on real issues…not just what sport’s star scored the most points this week. It’s bullshit,” I said.

“It is, and unfortunately, Mr. Fairchild has decided to move us to online only. He said he needs the funds for other things…”

“Wait, he can’t do that. Not yet. The election’s not even over…what if I could get outside funding?”

Mr. Leaver stood and came over to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “I can try to stall him, let him know we might have other means to fund it, but I tell you what I’m going to do, just in case this falls through. I’m going to print this issue of your paper anyway. Any punishment that comes down will be mine. You’re a great writer and deserve to have your stories read. So do the other writers. You’ve all worked your tails off. And I know what’s on the line for you, Stacy, and Holly.”

My eyes widened. “Mr. Leaver, you can’t do that—”

“It’s about time I took a stand with you. If the paper’s going down, I guess we all are. Get a hold of the other newspaper staff, let them know that if they have a story they want out there to get it to me by midnight tomorrow. We’re going to have at least one real-issues paper. We may not get another opportunity. Besides, this will look great for your scholarship competition at Columbia, don’t you think?”

My throat constricted. This might be the end of my scholarship dreams. But like Mr. Leaver said, at least we’d go down fighting…and I’d get to do one meaningful piece, which I could send to the university. Maybe they’d like that I’d fought censorship—at least Mr. Leaver could give me a good recommendation.

When we finished talking, I got Landon and headed to the auditorium.

Several people were already on stage running lines and working on musical numbers.

Mrs. Parkins glanced up from her place at the piano. “Ayla, good, you’re here.” She stopped playing and met us at the front row of seats. “This must be Landon.”

He nodded shyly. “Yes.”

“Ayla said you were going to come hang out with us today. And you know what, if you’d like, I think I have a small part for you in our play.”

I took his backpack from him and put it on one of the seats, then grabbed his hand and led him up to center stage.

Mrs. Parkins walked behind the curtain, then came back holding a big red ball. “You won’t have any speaking lines, but if you want to take a place next to our store, over there”—she pointed at the fake storefront—“you can bounce this ball around. We need a few kids like you to be playing around during some of our songs.”

“I can do that.” He took the ball from her, and she helped him find a spot.

So for the next two hours we went through lines and songs, and Landon got to learn firsthand about putting on a musical. By the time practice ended, we were both wiped and it was already getting dark. Once I got Landon settled into the passenger seat, we headed for my house.

When I pulled in the driveway, I spotted Mr. Pressler’s fancy SUV.

Luke came out onto the porch as we climbed out of my car.

“Luke, guess what? I get to be in Little Shop of Horrors. Ayla’s teacher gave me a part.” Landon tugged on his sleeve, trying not to drop his book bag on the cement.

“That’s what I hear. Guess I’m gonna have to go watch it now, huh?”

“Yes. But you were going to go anyway for Ayla, right?”

Luke peered at me. “Yeah.”

Landon moved to the porch, where my dad held the door open for him to come in, leaving me and Luke alone.

“Thanks for taking care of him today,” he said, reaching for my hand and tugging me closer.

My heart skittered against my ribs with a loud thud-thud. “He’s a good kid. And I’m glad I could help. These past few days have been hard enough on you guys.”

He stroked my cheek, bending down slightly so his lips brushed against mine. My hands slid up around his neck. Tiny electrical bolts swirled through me. I’d never imagined in this lifetime that I’d be kissing Luke Pressler. That he’d be my boyfriend. Now I hoped I didn’t do anything to screw it up.