what I can tell, Lauren is not fine at all.”
“I’m nauseous because I have a blinding migraine,” she grumbles.
“Why don’t you go home?”
Her brows furrow. “Because Dad will make me go to the doctor.”
“That’s what people do when they’re sick—”
“I’m not sick,” she hisses, her tone defensive.
I study her for a moment. Dark circles under eyes. Pale skin. The heavy way she breathes. She’s definitely not well.
“Not sick. Got it.” I stand and pat her back. “Period pains are a bitch.”
“Period pains?” She looks up at me in confusion.
“When I want people to leave me the hell alone, I tell them I’m having period pains and they need to go away.” I hold up my hand before she can speak. “I know the truth, so you can’t use it on me. But Principal Renner? He’ll cringe the moment we start talking about periods. I’ll get us out of here and take you home.”
“Thank you,” she murmurs.
“But promise me something.”
“Okay.”
“If it gets worse, go to the doctor. Whatever it is that’s going on isn’t going to go away on sheer will alone. You might need medicine.”
She touches a silver heart on her necklace and a tear races down her cheek. “Medicine doesn’t fix everything. Some things are unfixable.”
I frown at her. “What is this unfixable thing? And how do you know it’s not fixable unless you’ve tried?”
Her lip wobbles. “I know enough. I know what these things do. They take until they can’t take any longer. Denial means it can’t take anything from me.”
Rather than telling her denial is a bad idea, I simply offer her my hand. “You can’t hide from the inevitable.”
“Right now I can.”
Stubborn girl.
“Okay,” I say with a huff. “Fine. Hide. For now, let’s go freak out Renner. I can’t wait to see his face when I tell him you’re clotting and have made a horrible mess of your panties.”
She giggles and I feel tons better.
Lauren is going to be okay.
At least I hope so.
As I try to focus on what Coach Long is saying, I can’t help but think about Lauren. Yesterday, when I drove her home from school, I tried to pull information out of her about what was going on with her. That girl is stubborn as hell, though. I’ll have to ask Callie to keep an eye on her.
Coach bends down to pick up his chalk he’s dropped, showing everyone his fine ass today, and I peek back at Jenna to waggle my eyebrows at her. She’s frowning hard but cracks a smile at my antics. My fingers fly over my phone as I text her.
Me: Why the LONG face?
She smirks and darts her gaze to Coach before looking down at her phone to reply back.
Jenna: Ha. You’re so punny. Just stressed.
Me: Duh. You have bags under your eyes and you’re twitchy. What’s up?
She frowns and stifles a yawn.
Jenna: You don’t want to know.
Me: I do…otherwise I wouldn’t ask. Don’t be so difficult. Spill.
Jenna: It’s complicated.
I let out a snort, causing Coach to whip around and give the evil eye to every kid in this class. When he’s intimidated us long enough, he goes back to the board.
Me: You’re so grumpy and secretive. Lucky for you, I have the patience of a saint. Now tell me what the hell is wrong with you before I get us both sent to detention where I can spend an hour bugging it out of you.
The brat flips me off and I bite back a grin.
We ignore Coach’s lecture as we text back and forth. She’s finally opening up to me, but I feel like she really needs to unload. Texting in the middle of Coach’s class isn’t going to be enough so I ask her to meet me after school for coffee.
Me: I should get home to Cora.
Winter: I’m sure Cora will be fine for half an hour. Want to check first and let me know?
I stare down at my phone and curl my lip up.
Callie: You should come out with us tonight.
It’s awkward being with her dad. We can’t exactly double date because that’s just weird. But she’s also my best friend.
Me: Coach is trying to kill me so I have tons of homework. Raincheck.
She sends me some sad face emojis but lets it go. I shut off my car and look out the window to the coffee shop. My world feels so turned upside down right now. Callie has been my best friend my entire life, but lately, we’re not as close. Since I