Moment of Truth - Kasie West Page 0,13
I can come up with another good excuse to talk to him. Should I ask if he wants to go get hot wings with us?”
“Hot wings?”
“I’m hungry. Can we go get something to eat? I’ll ask him if he wants to eat with us.”
I grabbed her arm before she could go through with this plan. “He broke up with me. It wasn’t mutual. He said I had a one-track mind.”
“What? Hadley! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Shh.” I could hear Robert’s voice behind us still. I was sure he could hear us.
Amelia lowered her voice. “Sorry. But you should’ve told me. We could’ve bad-mouthed him together all these weeks.”
“I just wanted to forget about it. I felt stupid. I had liked him.” I obviously still did. But nothing had changed. If he didn’t like what was important to me, or at least understand why it was important, there was no chance for us.
“He should feel stupid. You’re amazing. Don’t let his blindness make you feel bad about yourself. You have a passion and you work hard at it.” She made a weird noise in the back of her throat that I recognized immediately as a noise Robert made. “So annoying.”
I laughed.
“Of course you’re too focused for him because he is a lazy pig.”
I smiled. “He’s not lazy. He’s on the track team.”
“Shhhh,” she said. “We’re venting.”
We reached her car and I dug out of my backpack the notebook we had been using the day before. I drew a line through Robert. “Okay, seventy-one more people to go.”
She started the car. “What do you think Robert meant by ‘figure that out on your own’?”
“I don’t know.” We both watched as his car backed out of the space and drove through the parking lot, like it would somehow answer our question. It didn’t . . . obviously. She took the list from me, ran her finger down the page and then ripped it in half. “Well, we’re going to figure it out together. We’ll divide and conquer.”
I took a deep breath and shoved my half of the list back into my backpack.
The next day, I stared at the names on my Who Is Heath Hall? list. I didn’t have to do this. What were the odds that he’d show up at my swim meet again this Friday? The image of him jumping into the pool made my shoulders go tense immediately. I growled. Apparently, I did need to do this.
I scanned the list. I’d start with the people I semi-knew, like Brady Thompson. Then I’d move on to the total strangers. Brady sat two seats to the left of me in math.
Five minutes before class ended, I packed my book away and readied myself to cut him off on his way out the door. I felt like I was planning some sort of attack. I wiped my hands on my jeans. The bell rang right in the middle of Mr. Kingston telling us our homework assignment. I stood, my movement making the chair scrape the floor.
“I haven’t dismissed you yet,” Mr. Kingston said.
I sat back down. He held us an extra minute, then finally let us leave. I caught up to Brady at the door and followed him several steps out of it before I said, “Brady, hi. Um . . .”
He looked around, then right at me. “Hadley Moore. Are you talking to me?” If it weren’t for the smile on his face, I might’ve thought he was being rude.
Even with the smile, I hesitated. “Yes. Can I ask you a quick question?”
“If I can ask you one?”
“Okay.”
“Where is your music today?” He pointed to my ears that were free of the headphones I normally wore between classes.
I patted my pocket where they were stashed.
“I see. Okay, go ahead.”
I cleared my throat. “I noticed that you follow Heath Hall online.”
“Not the real one.”
Was everyone going to point that out? “I know. But I was wondering if you know who he really is. Like, who wears the mask? He goes to our school, right?”
He laughed at this like he thought I was making some inside joke with him.
I waited until he was done to say, “So you don’t know who he is?”
“If you don’t, I’m not going to be the one to tell you.”
I curled my lip. Was this some kind of pact? First Robert, now Brady.
“I knew it wouldn’t last long,” he said.
“What?” I gave him a sideways glance.
He pointed at my hand that was clutching an earbud and getting ready to