The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,37

her back…bad idea? Maybe? Probably, especially given how unsteady I was. So we continued silently. I let her tug me along awkwardly like one of those toddler pull toys, my brain occupied with counting down the seconds until the end of the song. There was something about the lead singer’s voice that made me cringe. And my balls cringe. No grown man should be able to sing that high.

The end of couples’ skate took an eternity to finally come. When the rainbow lights came back on, we exited the rink and rolled straight into Peter Haskill the Fourth and his crew, who were skateless and drenched from rain. Glad they weren’t drenched with anger from Jaxon’s earlier identity theft.

“Hi, Pete,” Annie said, letting go of my hand.

“Hey,” I said, using my newly freed hand to do some sort of handshake/hand-pull/pull-in-hug thing with him. He slapped my back at the end, making me cough.

“Hey, Annie. Nate. We just got here.” Pete nodded toward his crew. “There was a front desk mix-up, but I straightened it out.”

In the distance, Zach and Jaxon headed our way. I shot them a get-the-fuck-out-of-here look, which luckily Jaxon saw. They about-faced, retreating back to the arcade.

Pete and Annie chatted about school while I glanced around the rink, looking for Kate. Maybe she was still here and could hang out with us afterward. Or maybe she and her friend left to do something more fun, leaving us losers here to stay till closing.

Thankfully we’d be competing together to win that cash prize in a few days. Just the two of us. Kate and me. Alone. And maybe we’d win the whole thing. I could wow her by showing her sporty and strategic Nate. Not the guy in the stiff new shirt who crashed a skate party he wasn’t invited to and could barely stand upright on wheels. The chickenshit guy shooing his best friends away because he was worried about getting on Pete’s bad side.

Pete still had my hand in his, which was a little weird. I pulled away from him a little, but he pulled me back in like a yo-yo. “Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?”

My muscles in my neck and back clenched, my body reflexively knowing what this was about. Roll away, Nate! Far, far away!

“Sure,” I croaked, gesturing my free hand toward the bench where Kate and I had sat. “Roll into my office.” Bad joke, but my friends would have laughed. Or mustered a pity smile. Kate especially. Pete just stared at me with a blank look on his perfectly symmetrical face.

I led the way. My heartbeat quickened as I sat in the exact same spot as earlier. He plopped down in Kate’s spot. How unfortunate to have ruined that memory. At least Pete finally let go of my hand.

“You have a chance to think about what we talked about the other day? All of the other high-GPA skids said they wanted to know what you were doing first—seems like you’re the alpha dog in the skid pack,” he snorted.

I tried to swallow away the grittiness in my throat. “I’ve been so busy finishing up applications, working extra hours, stuff like that…” I trailed off because frankly, I didn’t know what else to say to him. What he was asking me to do was wrong. I didn’t want to do it but didn’t know how to say that to him.

“Well, time’s ticking,” he muttered. “Regular applications will be due soon. Next time we talk, I want your answer.”

He stood up and instinctively, I mirrored him, rising to my feet. The nice thing about being on roller skates while talking to him was that I was temporarily taller, so that was good. The bad thing was I was a little unsteady. I wobbled a little by getting up too fast.

Pete’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his front jeans pocket, dismissively waving goodbye as he took the call.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead while he walked away.

I texted Zach and Jaxon. When the coast was clear, we all met at the car. Their arms were full of plush animals of various sizes. Jaxon