it. Then she lets out a loud laugh. She thinks I’m lying. “I’m serious,” I say.
“Georgia? Cheerleading is going to pay for my college. My friends are cheerleaders. I am proud that this my life. It’s who I am.”
“But you might wake up and realize you wasted your time.”
“Have you?” she asks.
“No,” I lie.
I feel a tap on my shoulder, and Izzy goes quiet. “Georgia?”
I turn around. “Jake?”
We haven’t talked in weeks. He looks cute in his white shirt, unbuttoned flannel, and letter jacket. “Hi, Georgia. Can we take a walk?”
“To where? The pawnshop across the street?” I ask loudly. The entire table has halted all activities to stare at Jake. Real casual, gals. He smiles uncomfortably and waves at them. Under his breath, he whispers to me, “Please?”
I stand up and act like I don’t care. “Izzy, if I’m not back in twenty, then Jake has pawned me off for quick cash.”
“Truth,” says Izzie.
Kids these days.
I follow Jake to the parking lot, headed toward his truck. Whatever is about to happen, it’s not going to work. I can’t deal with Mr. Richpants having secret conversations with Taylor. Major red flag. I ghosted Jake hard after his party—so hard and for so long that he eventually gave up. Now that I think about it, I was doing Jake like Pony did me. Anyway, Pony sucks. Why can’t we just be friends? Was all he wanted from me sex stuff?
Jake lowers the back door of the truck, revealing two lawn chairs and a bottle of champagne in a bucket.
“Do you always drive around with this spread?”
He jumps up on the truck and extends his hand. “Ten minutes?”
“Ten minutes,” I agree, taking his hand.
We sit on the chairs, and Jake pours some champagne into red Solo cups (we can’t be too obvious about our underage drinking).
“Georgia. Can we talk about what happened? We were having fun at my party, and then poof.”
“Poof,” I repeat.
“What did I do to you? It’s killing me. I just need to know why,” Jake says.
I take a big gulp of the bubbly drink. It tastes expensive. The sun is half gone, setting earlier and earlier in prep for the winter. The sky lights up red and pink and blue; it’s one of the few things I will miss about Texas.
“Jake, I’m going to become a nun. I need to cut earthly ties.”
“I’ll become a priest, then!” he offers.
“I don’t think it works that way,” I say. “OK, fine. Pony saw you talking to Taylor alone at that party. In the garage? So, for all the obvious reasons, I split.”
Jake laughs and then tightens up. “The new kid? He tattled on me?”
OK, that was probably a mistake.
“I wouldn’t call it tattling. He just mentioned it. He didn’t know about us.” Lie, lie, lie.
“Georgia, I promise to god that I will never hook up with Taylor.”
“Dude. How could I trust you? What were y’all talking about?”
“Can’t you just trust me?” he asks with sad eyes that only make him cuter.
“It’s not you, Jake. You can thank Anthony for this.”
He puts his head down, like he’s trying to think big thoughts. Good luck, buddy. There’s nothing he can say right now that would make me change my mind.
“Taylor is my half cousin,” he mumbles.
“Excuse me, your what?”
“My uncle married Taylor’s mom, but he’s not her dad. We don’t advertise it. It’s a family thing.”
“Why? That’s silly.”
“Taylor doesn’t want people to know she comes from money. She tries to hide it.”
“Oh,” I say, trying to process.
Jake stretches his arms above his head. I can behold all his muscles through his tight shirt. “It must look great from the outside, to come from a rich family,” he says. “Living in a giant house. Doing whatever I want. This truck.”
“I’m struggling to have compassion here,” I report from obvious town.
“Having money doesn’t mean there aren’t problems,” he says, refilling his cup. “And people just see me as the rich kid. That’s boring. I can’t tell if they like me or my money. I don’t even care about the money.”
“I’ll take it off your hands,” I offer.
“I didn’t choose this life. This is the life I was born into. What would you do?” he asks. My family is not rich but not poor. I haven’t been spoiled, but I don’t want for anything. Well, more clothes. And a better car. Nicer house? But nothing else. I guess it would be weird to be known for having large amounts of money.
“Yeah, fine. Point taken,” I