The Wrong Path - By Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris Page 0,32

defenses so they could retaliate?

No. Ebony had been so nice. It couldn’t be.

Could it?

For the next three periods, everyone who talked to her all warned her about Ebony’s ulterior motives. By the end of the day she was nearly sick with anxiety. She just wanted to go home and get away from all the people who felt the need to weigh in on her life.

After all… Will was friends with Ebony, and he wouldn’t let Ebony do anything to her.

Would he?

Of course he wouldn’t, Annabelle assured herself, admonishing herself for even entertaining the thought. Will had been nothing but a good friend to her.

But… what if Will were in on it, too?

She felt her stomach churn even as she approached Trevor’s locker. “Trevor!” she greeted breathlessly, watching as he turned at the sound of his name.

A charming, warm smile gracing his features. “Hey, baby,” he returned. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss that ordinarily would have made her heart skip, but now only felt… necessary. He paused and leaned back, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

She forced a smile. “Nothing. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to catch a ride home with Claire. I’m kind of tired.”

He held her shoulders, concern marring his attractive features. “Is everything okay?” he asked, frowning.

She shook back her hair and rolled her eyes, giving him her practiced, teasing smile. “Of course. I’m just a little sleepy so I wanted to go home and take a nap so that when you come over later I’m awake.”

He grinned, and she was a little disappointed at how well he bought her act. “Okay. Well call me if you need anything. I’ll see you after practice.”

She didn’t want to see him, or anyone, tonight, but she nodded. “Definitely.” She reached up and kissed him lightly, then headed down the hall to Claire’s locker.

To her dismay, no one was at Claire’s locker. It was almost unheard of for Claire to leave within twenty or thirty minutes of school ending, and there was always a crowd at her locker. Where was everyone?

And then a new thought struck her, making her knees weak. Was she being singled out for some reason? Had her friends abandoned her because of the Parker thing?

Nausea and fear sent her running for the bathroom, where she desperately tried to catch her breath and recompose. It couldn’t be. Her friends wouldn’t turn against her for that. Parker had acted like nothing was wrong on Monday. He claimed he couldn’t even remember anything after they’d arrived at club. He had even thanked Annabelle for dropping him off at home, which had made her gape in disbelief. But maybe he really did remember. Maybe he had told the others she had ditched him in the parking lot with a split lip and no ride home. But could her friends really be mad at her for leaving him there? They all knew what he was like when he was drunk. She had just been trying to protect herself and Erin. They couldn’t really be mad about it—could they?

When she finally made her way out of the bathroom, the hallway was deserted except for a couple of students making their way to the parking lot. She sighed, closing her eyes against tears, and started to the parking lot herself, hoping to find one of her friends out there.

She rounded the corner and almost collided with someone, stepping back at the last moment. “Sorry,” she apologized quickly. This was not her day. This was really not her day. Why, when everything had been going so well, was everything starting to fall apart?

There was a moment of silence. She lifted her head, startled to find herself looking up into Will’s dark eyes. “Hi,” she breathed. “What are you still doing here?” Will, of all people, was the last person she expected to still see at school. He and his friends were usually out the second the last bell rang, if not sooner.

“Mrs. Littey wanted to talk to me,” he said, naming the sophomore English teacher. “What’s wrong?”

She started to tell him nothing with her fake, practiced smile, but it suddenly broke apart, and there, in the middle of the school hallway, she burst into tears.

He hugged her gently, holding her close, his embrace comforting. From the safety of his arms, she blurted out the whole story, even telling him that people were warning her that Ebony was only being nice to her because she wanted revenge, and that Will