Clique Bait - Ann Valett Page 0,32

it wasn’t even half as full as it used to be when Monica and I had practiced diving—fracturing the glass-like surface and emerging at the shore—it was still stirring memories. The happier ones.

“Wow,” William said. “How did I not know about this?”

“That’s the best part about it,” I said. “Even in this huge city nobody ever comes up here. We always kept it a secret.”

“We?”

“Me and Monica,” I said. “Her parents used to take us as kids, and then we started coming here alone when we were old enough.”

William was walking along the rock, kicking his shoes off. He knelt down next to the water, dipping a hand in. “It’s freezing.”

I followed him, taking off my socks and sitting on the smooth rock, letting my toes dip in. He was right. It was like ice.

“We never used to care about the cold.” Monica didn’t care about a few goose bumps when it came to having fun.

I wiggled my toes in the water, feeling the cold travel up my body, cooling me. Though the pool was shaded by tree branches, I was still hot from the walk.

“You guys spent a lot of time together, huh?”

“All our time,” I said with a small smile. “Until last year, at least.”

“You know, I never had a friend like that,” he said, perching on the rock beside me. “Francis isn’t exactly someone I can just hang with for fun. He’s too competitive.”

I looked at him curiously. “What was it like? Growing up, with your dad and everything, I mean?”

After all, if his oldest friend was Francis and his dad was a corrupt political figure, then I was curious as to how he ended up as he was today. Monica was right. He wasn’t quite like the others.

“He wasn’t always like this, you know.” He kicked his feet, stirring ripples. “He still isn’t, not outside his job, I mean. He’s my dad. Mom warned me things were getting bad when he started running for mayor. He was so stressed, it put a strain on our whole house. He was just doing what he thought was best for us. I never exactly agreed with his decisions, but I didn’t want to get on his bad side by speaking up.”

Just like my dad. I couldn’t exactly call him out when it’d only make him frustrated—ruining whatever rare family time we got. We were the kids. We weren’t supposed to have opinions against our parents.

“I’m not saying I regret it but . . . I’m sorry I have to use your father’s mistakes against you.”

My heart thudded, waiting for his response. Was that too far? Was it going against everything I’d worked toward with my revenge plan?

“I’ll make it right, someday,” he said. “I’m not going to be like him.”

And I wasn’t going to be like my father either. Our flawed parents would teach us what not to do.

“Here,” I said, finding a smooth pebble at my side. I handed it to him, his fingers enclosing a little too soon, the warmth of his skin making my chest pound. I pulled my hand away quickly.

Finding my own pebble, I tossed with all my might, the rock hitting the water at the perfect angle, bouncing off the surface one, two, three, four times. A lousy throw. I used to manage over ten before the rock would hit the other end of the pool. It felt good, dissipating the heaviness growing between us.

“How do you—” William cut off his sentence with a grunt as he hurled his pebble. It fell in the water with a messy splash, spraying our faces.

I laughed at him.

“Like this.” I tried to show him, slowly releasing a new pebble and watching it skim lightly, as if it weighed nothing.

It was strange to be here with someone else, someone new. I wondered what Monica would say. I peeked at William from the corner of my eye, watching him as he narrowed his eyes in utmost concentration, again failing to bounce his rock.

“Goddammit.”

I felt strangely satisfied knowing I was better at it than him. After all, he was a prodigy in everything he tried. I was just a nerd who had a pass from phys ed so I could take extra math units.

“Are you laughing?”

I shrugged, picking up another rock to throw. If we threw for long enough, maybe we’d forget about the rest of Wandemore Valley and it would forget about us. It sounded so simple.

“Whittaker, you better show me how to skim these rocks properly. My

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