Out of My League - Sarah Sutton Page 0,17

Mom decorated the room as my nursery.

I looked away from them, rubbing my eyes.

I must’ve slept like a rock last night, because I couldn’t pinpoint my last memory, at least not clearly. Did I even take my makeup off? Had Edith gotten a chance to hang out with Zach? Had I found—

Scott.

I froze, breath stalling with me. I had found Scott. Holding that girl in the middle of the party. Scott broke up with me. He told me I wasn’t fun enough, that he couldn’t fix me.

He dumped me.

And then—oh. Oh, gosh. Walsh.

I looked over at Shiba, the gray cat that sat on the edge of my window seat, giving me judge-y eyes. Granted, judge-y eyes were the only kind she had, but they did nothing to help me feel better.

“You’re lucky you’re a cat,” I told her, swallowing hard. “Don’t have to deal with stupid boys.”

She just blinked at me, and when I slipped from the room, she didn’t follow.

The TV was on in the living room again, but instead of Mom’s soaps, a sports anchor spoke quickly. No one even sat around to watch it. Dad was too busy sitting at the kitchen table, pretending to be engrossed in his newspaper, but I knew better. He didn’t have his reading glasses on.

I stumbled past him, trying to catch the headline of the paper as I did so.

“You’re up early,” he greeted, not looking. The lower half of his face was obscured by the paper. “I would’ve thought the first day of summer you’d be sleeping in. Especially since you were out late last night.”

I made a soft noise in response, finally giving up trying to read the headline, making my way to the fridge. Yeah, out late. After the nightmare that was Walsh’s party, I went back to Edith’s place and we spent the time drowning ourselves in ice cream. She took pity on me, though, and didn’t say a word about the party, about Walsh or Scott, or her conversation with Zach. We just ate our ice cream.

“Did Mom go to her room?”

“No, she went to the studio.”

Mom rented out a studio downtown, where she held morning and afternoon yoga classes. Every moment she could, she was there. Her clients probably saw her more than I did.

I downed my drink fast, enjoying the sting that the OJ gave, and thanked the stars Mom remembered to buy pulp-free this time. “Well, I’m going to go shower. Save the paper for me, okay?”

“Don’t forget to clean Shiba’s litter box,” Dad spoke to the pages. “It’s getting full again.”

Right. Shiba and her full litter box.

I groaned as I walked past him, pressing my fingers to my forehead, hating that my thoughts went back to last night. Try as I might, there was no shutting out the gory details of the stupid party.

It was official. Last night had truly been from my nightmares. I found out I’d been cheated on just before I got dumped, and then the school’s most desirable bachelor declared his love for me in front of the entire county of high schoolers. And instead of just leaving it at that, Walsh proposed a fake dating scheme, to which I so stupidly accepted.

I was never leaving the house.

* * *

Edith had this strange habit of claiming my bed whenever she came over. She laid stomach-down on my bedspread later that afternoon, desperately trying to push her dark hair from her face with the back of her hand. Her wet nails prevented her from holding it back for long. “I just still can’t believe everything that happened last night. I mean, Scott’s a jerk, but what Walsh said? I couldn’t believe my own ears.”

I frowned at her, my desk chair squeaking as I turned. Our unspoken agreement of not talking about the party must’ve reached its expiration date because it was all she could talk about now. “Can you at least be mad at Walsh with me? Him stepping in was…ugh. Annoying.”

“No,” she said quickly. “It was chivalrous.”

Ha. Sure.

“So are you going to do it?” Edith asked as she blew on her nails, kicking her heels together. “Fake date Walsh Hunter? I vote yes. The opportunity to date the most popular guy in school only comes once in a lifetime.”

I’d told her everything, of course. Though the idea crossed my mind to keep it a secret from everyone—to minimize the utter humiliation of anyone finding out the truth—there was no way I could keep this secret from my best