Chapter Thirty

By the time Avery opened her front door, everything was normal again—at least, it sounded normal. Colin was in the den watching a loud football game, and her father was at the dining room table, on his laptop, with his phone pinned to his ear.

“Nope. Five p.m. in the conference room. Thanks, Bob.”

Avery crept up the stairs slowly, watching as her father speed dialed someone else. “You’ve heard already? Sure. It does look bad, Matty. Just come to the meeting tomorrow at five p.m. The conference room. Thanks.” As she rounded the corner of the stairs, she saw what was on her dad’s laptop: the footage of Lucas from Brady’s Balls.

If they were having an emergency school meeting, it had to be bad.

She closed the door to her room quietly and flung herself on the bed. Why hadn’t she just told her father what Mr. Duchamp had said? She sat up. No. She still couldn’t have.

But still. Everything that was about to happen was down to her. Well, her and Lucas. Mainly Lucas. Okay, really, it was just Lucas.

And then she remembered the tornado and how he’d pushed her under the shelving unit so nothing could fall on her. And how he’d just held her all night after the game. And how he always gave her space when he felt the tiniest bit of resistance in her. How he’d shown up with a replacement planner last night.

No. No. No. I’m not going soft.

This was his fault. And just because he had some redeeming qualities, it didn’t mean he was any less at fault. There was no way he was going to weasel his way out of this one.

Taking a deep breath, she lay back on her bed.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Lucas. Why wouldn’t her brain switch off or at least just let the images of him pulling a weird face or having boogers or bad hair flash by? Why was her own brain torturing her? Why was she only remembering the times he kissed her or made her laugh or looked at her with that expression…

She grabbed her pillow and hugged it to her stomach, as if it would take the churning emptiness away. He’d lied to her. He’d lied to everyone she cared about.

And that was that.

She needed a new planner, one that didn’t have his name in it.

Maybe that’s why hers had blown away.