some sleep, knowing full well she dreaded facing the girl tomorrow more than she dreaded being outed at school.
Chapter 11
T HE alarm clock wailed the most horrendous, biting sound and ripped Brynn from her sleep. She swatted at the thing, sending it flying off her nightstand and bouncing down to the floor. This was going to end up being the worst Monday ever. She could already feel it in the pit of her gut. Not only had she managed to get about two hours of sleep for all her internal panicking, but she also had to face Cassidy Rivers again—the reason for her internal panicking.
Groaning, Brynn rolled out of the bed. Her black fuzzy socks contrasted the light-gray carpeted floor. She kept staring down, only occasionally attempting to blink the sleep from her eyes. Yes, she absolutely was procrastinating, only because she didn’t know what seeing Cassidy again would do to her.
Jeez, maybe she could suddenly become deathly ill and “call in sick” like her parents did when they didn’t want to go to work. Wait. No. She couldn’t. There was a stupid history quiz today.
Sighing, Brynn pushed up from the bed and went over to her closet. She grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans and a black hoodie, a black T-shirt, and her black Converse. Maybe if she looked like a shadow and hid beneath the cover of a hooded sweatshirt, Cassidy wouldn’t notice her and wouldn’t demand to know why she’d hightailed it out of the house. After all, it wasn’t like she could tell Cassidy how she’d been picturing them in that movie instead of Neve and Denise.
After pulling her jeans up her short, skinny legs and the T-shirt and hoodie over her head, she slipped her feet into her shoes, then hurried down to the bathroom. The minutes were dwindling, and her stubborn reluctance to leave her bed had cost her precious moments in front of the mirror. Thankfully, her hair was still a bit damp from the shower last night, so she could brush it board straight without using the flatiron. Didn’t matter really, though, since she fully intended to keep her entire head hidden under her hoodie.
“I’m gone, Mom,” she called from the base of the stairs as she grabbed her backpack from the spot she’d dropped it Saturday evening.
Crazy thing was, she’d gone all weekend without touching her laptop. In fact, she hadn’t even bothered with her phone—something that was normally glued to her hand at all times. Not this time. She spent Sunday hiding in the bed, beneath layers of covers so no one would bother her, all the while thinking about Cassidy and how she’d had the urge to kiss the cheerleader. Not once, but many, many times. That revelation scared the hell out of her and confused her. Did her desire to kiss Cassidy make her a lesbian?
Shaking off the thought as best as she could, she climbed into her car, eased out of the driveway, rounded the cul-de-sac, and headed out of her neighborhood. She tried not to stare as she passed the Riverses’ house, tried not to wonder what Cassidy thought of her now.
The drive to school didn’t take long at all. In fact, it didn’t give Brynn a whole lot of time to think about anything, which was both good and bad. She didn’t have a lot of time to stress over the unwavering need to taste Cassidy’s lips or the unnerving uncertainty of facing the cheerleader for the first time. Would she blurt her feelings out because she always had those foot-in-mouth moments when she got nervous? Or would she be too afraid to utter the first word?
When Brynn pulled into the school’s parking lot, the place was pretty much deserted. Brynn couldn’t have been more relieved. She just knew she would be able to sneak into the library and wait out the thirty minutes to go before the bell rang. But the moment she climbed out of her car, grabbed her backpack from the passenger seat, and spun back around toward the school, Cassidy’s sporty silver Scion wheeled in beside her. The sight of it stole Brynn’s
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