Most Likely (Most Likely #1) - Sarah Watson Page 0,65
to third base, and yet she was always thinking about sex when she was near him.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Clarke. You were thinking about something. Tell me.”
“Oh god. Please don’t ask me again.”
“Clarke.”
“I was wondering if you can have sex.”
Wyatt’s hand hovered over a puzzle piece. She’d probably offended him. Of course she’d offended him. It was an offensive thing to ask. But when he looked up, he was smirking. “Clarke Jacobson. Are you propositioning me?”
“No. Of course not.” Her eyes immediately darted back to the table. “I’m so embarrassed. I should have never asked—”
“Yes.”
She looked up. He nodded, slowly, carefully, and deliberately. “I can. Is there anything else you’d like to ask me?”
CJ felt her face get warm. “Have you?”
She wanted to look away. She didn’t want to look away.
“Yeah. Not since the chair. But, yeah, I have.”
“Oh.” CJ went back to the puzzle and fumbled for another edge piece. She didn’t like thinking about Wyatt with another girl. She was probably beautiful. She was probably a normal height and totally unselfconscious.
“I had a girlfriend before the accident. We didn’t break up because of what happened to me or anything. We made a mutual decision to end things when we both left for college. So you don’t have to hate her.”
“Can I still hate her?”
“I would love for you to hate her.”
CJ escaped into the puzzle again.
“Okay, Clarke. Now I get a question.”
She suddenly became very focused on looking for the puzzle piece she needed. “Sure,” she said. “That seems only fair.”
“Okay, my question is why did you ask that question?”
CJ found the puzzle piece she wanted. Tell him. Tell him that you have feelings for him. She turned it over in her hand. Tell him that you’ve never felt this way about anyone before. She put the puzzle piece back down. Tell him everything. Tell him! CJ looked up. “I was just curious.”
She watched him nod. He betrayed nothing. Then he went back to the puzzle. CJ connected a few more edge pieces and wished she were a better person. That’s when her phone buzzed with a text from Martha.
Jordan paced the sidewalk in front of Ava’s house. The snow had lightened up for a while, but now it was coming down hard. She turned when CJ’s car pulled up, and when she saw that Martha was in the passenger seat, she immediately felt awkward and awful.
“Hey,” Jordan said sheepishly, as both of her friends climbed out of the car.
Martha responded in kind. “Hey.”
It was hard to tell who made the first move. Jordan only knew that one minute they were standing there kicking at the snow and the next minute they were hugging.
“I am so sorry,” said Jordan, pulling back from the hug. She found Martha’s eyes and said it again. “So, so sorry. I should have told Scott to shut up. I wish I could take it back.”
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it.”
“Do not let me off the hook. I feel horrible.”
“I know you do. And I feel horrible too. Because I know you’ve dealt with stuff like this times a million and—”
“This is not a privilege-off. I love you, Martha.”
“I love you too.”
They hugged again. This time neither one of them pulled away until CJ cleared her throat and said, “Um, guys?”
Jordan told CJ that she’d already tried the front door. She’d slammed her palm against the side window like an octopus so Ava would know it was her. “No answer.”
“She must be in the shower. Or asleep,” CJ said.
Fortunately, they knew another way in.
The night was bitterly cold, and their breath came out in steaming clouds as they walked around to the side of the house where Ava’s bedroom was. CJ found the flowerpot that they could turn over and use as a step stool. It had been almost four years since they’d climbed through Ava’s bedroom window. Back then, they didn’t know what was wrong with her. They only knew that sometimes she couldn’t seem to get out of bed. They thought they were helping when they encouraged her to try harder. They thought they were doing the right thing when they tried to drag her out. Everything they did only made Ava want to burrow in deeper. It also made her lock the door. But that’s the thing about best friends; they’ll always find a way around a lock. Jordan would never forget the night they broke into her bedroom. Ava was so tired that she didn’t even