Genevieve jumped up off the bed, and it looked like she yelped too.
Everything was silent to Landon. He had an idea of what Genevieve was saying, though. He didn’t have to read lips to know she was raving mad. Landon told himself to stay calm. He knew he just had to weather the storm. It would pass. And, a storm was always a lot less frightening when you couldn’t hear the thunder.
Genevieve started pacing and flashing her phone in his face. He didn’t read the text messages or the Instagram posts. He didn’t have to. He knew from the pain and anger on her face that they were about him. He didn’t have to read about people calling him a powder puff. He knew what they thought.
“I can’t even hear you, Genevieve.” Landon stood in the same spot, folded his arms, and pointed to the ears in their drier.
“Look at me.” She mouthed the words slowly. The look in her eyes was so white-hot that he couldn’t look away.
She shook her head violently. “You cannot quit!”
Landon just looked down at her and shook his head. “Leave me alone, Genevieve. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything’s easy for you.”
“For me?” Her face twisted in disbelief. “Do you know what I’ve done for you?”
Landon looked away until she grabbed his arm and gave it a yank.
He could tell she’d lowered her voice as she leaned close and said, “Don’t you look away. You look at me! I know you understand. I’ve made nice with one of the meanest girls I’ve ever met in my life because of you. Do you know why? So she won’t torture you.”
Landon was confused. “Not Megan.”
“No, not Megan. Katy! She looks at you like a spider looks at a fly. She’d love to wrap you up and suck out every ounce of blood and leave you shriveled up like a mummy, but she won’t because she wants to be my friend.” Genevieve jabbed her own chest with a thumb. “Do you know how much I hate that? You think that isn’t hard?
“No, you don’t.” Genevieve shook her head violently again, and then she grabbed him by both arms and looked up into his eyes, slowly mouthing the words, “Pain is temporary, Landon, but quitting? Quitting is forever.”
She turned and left him alone, wrapped in his towel, still dripping.
Landon felt like she’d stabbed him in the stomach and twisted the knife. It hurt and it made him furious. He wanted to strike back, and when he saw the medal she’d given him, he snatched it off the bedpost and marched after her. She’d already disappeared into her bedroom.
He knew he should knock, but he was too mad for manners. With the medal in his hand, he cocked his arm back, ready to throw it onto her floor. He didn’t need her medals and he didn’t need any of his own.
He grabbed the door handle with his other hand and flung it open.
Landon couldn’t hear the screams, but he knew there was screaming.
In a flash of skin and underwear and towels, he realized he’d barged in on Genevieve and her friends changing to take a night swim.
The medal slipped from Landon’s hand and fell silently to the floor.