Last Year's Mistake - Gina Ciocca Page 0,5

her ribs, and Violet promptly shot back a death glare.

“How well do you know this kid?” Ryan asked, his eyes narrowed.

Miranda snorted. That sound, that death knell, made me turn back to her so fast, I thought my neck might snap. The panic on her face didn’t stop my own from welling up inside me. She and my mother were the only ones who knew what had happened between David and me, and I’d made her promise never to tell. I’d always thought Miranda could keep her mouth shut when it counted most, and watching her stare at her feet and bite her lip, I knew she’d thought the same thing. Both of us must’ve had our heads lodged firmly up our rear ends when we’d come to that conclusion.

Heat prickled the back of my neck. I glared at Miranda even though she wouldn’t look back at me, silently threatening her life if she dared to take the things I’d told her while drowning in uncertainty and awash in my own tears and let them slip like a greasy bowling ball. “He was a friend,” I repeated through gritted teeth.

Ryan tore another bite from his sandwich and threw it down without looking at me. The whole table shook from his leg bouncing beneath it, and he mumbled Sure. A loaded silence settled over the group, and my friends appeared extra fascinated by their lunches.

“Bye, Kelse.” Miranda turned on her heel and hightailed it out of there. She’d sold me out, even without saying a word, and she knew it. Thanks, little sister.

“Ryan, I—” A quick glance down the length of the table reminded me that I didn’t want to have this conversation there. Even with every set of eyes trained downward, I knew all their ears were primed and ready. I tugged at his shirt. “Come for a walk with me. Please?”

Ryan’s jaw tensed. He balled up his sandwich wrapper and threw it into his lunch bag. But he took my hand and rose from the bench, and I knew he’d at least hear me out.

I could only imagine the conversation that exploded the moment we were gone.

I pulled him by the hand through the main doors, and then into the deserted hallway that led to the chorus room. The moment the doors closed behind us, Ryan let go of my hand, leaned against the wall, and folded his arms across his chest.

“I’m listening.” He stared down the hall, refusing to meet my eyes.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“I’m not an idiot, Kelse. You’ve been lying to me all morning, haven’t you? Something happened with you and this kid.”

I twisted my hands. “Nothing worth mentioning.”

“I knew it!” He pulled his hat tighter to his head and paced back and forth like a caged animal. “I knew there had to be more to it. No girl reacts like that to a friend. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Ryan, I didn’t even know you when—” I bit the inside of my cheeks and looked at the floor.

He stopped pacing and jammed his fists in his pockets. “When what? When you were with him?”

I stepped closer to him and put my hands on his upper arms. “Ryan.”

He backed away from me and against the wall, his shoulders hunched as he frowned at the floor. “I can’t believe you lied to me.”

I let out a sigh of resignation. Normally I would’ve given him hell for throwing such a ridiculous temper tantrum, but I needed our fight to be over more than I needed to be right. The sooner I could rebury all this, the better.

Pressing myself against the length of his unyielding body, I sandwiched him between me and the wall. “Why are you being like this?” I grazed my nose against his cheek. “I was never with him—not like that. He . . . he liked me, but I freaked out when he told me. We haven’t talked since.”

True enough.

Ryan searched my face. “Because you didn’t like him back?”

Heat crawled up my neck and spread to my cheeks. I eased back a little, praying he couldn’t feel the suddenly erratic beats of my heart. “Because it never would have worked. He and I, we were good friends. And then we were nothing at all.”

“Then why did you hug him like that?” Ryan’s hands settled tentatively on my hips, and I knew the worst was over.

“It caught me off guard, that’s all. I haven’t seen him since I moved here. Knee-jerk reaction, I guess. But you saw