Torched Page 27

  She was gone before I could respond, but the sentiment was echoed five times before I made it to class. Clearly, everyone had heard what went down over the weekend. All morning my classmates tripped over themselves to pretend they’d always believed in me.

  They seemed ready to take out their guilt for treating me like dirt all these weeks on Juliette and Kayla, and I was glad they’d stayed home. Alina, knowing how I felt, helped me try to calm people down, which I was grateful for. Once upon a time, I would have been happy to see the unrepentant Juliette harassed the way I’d been for weeks, but now all I wanted was for this to be over. The legal system would take care of punishment.

  And honestly, my victory wasn’t the dream dish I’d salivated over back when all I yearned for was to clear my name and regain my social standing. I was back at the top of the class pyramid, but it felt hollow now. The past month had taught me that most of my friends weren’t the thick-and-thin type, and that, just like my mom, I’d been oblivious to a lot.

  Paxton wasn’t in class, and my insides twisted. He must hate me for turning in his sister. I spent the morning trying not to think about him.

  Tiffany and I were walking to lunch when she stopped cold in the hallway.

  “I can’t believe it,” she said. I followed her gaze to the front office, and then I was right there with her in her statue impression.

  Juliette. And Paxton. They were checking in, or had just done so; the slips in their hands were authorized tardies to give their teachers.

  “She is so going to regret showing today,” Tiffany said, but I caught at her arm.

  “Tiff, no. Let it go, alright?”

  “But she--”

  “Come on, let’s just go eat.”

  Tiffany shook her head, but we headed off to hit our lockers en route to the cafeteria. When I reached the lunch line I saw Juliette ahead of me, paying for tater tots and wearing a stubborn expression. People glanced between us, watching for my reaction, but I just dug in my bag for some dollar bills and turned my attention to the hot-meal options.

  When I emerged from the line with a bowl of mac & cheese--the other choice had been sloppy joes, and you didn’t make that mistake twice--I went outside. It was cool but sunny, and probably one of the last days of the year it would be warm enough to sit in the courtyard for lunch. I spotted Juliette at the far end, occupying a small table by herself. Her face was red, her tater tots strewn across the ground. A trio of seniors high-fived each other at a table nearby.

  Paxton appeared next to me, holding a paper tray of chicken fingers in the hand not wielding a crutch. He took in the scene, then muttered a curse.

  “You happy?” he said to me.

  “Juliette deserves this,” Ryan said, suddenly by my side. “She started it when she set that fire.” He gestured for us to join him and Alina at the prime table, by the central fountain.

  Paxton met my gaze. “I started this. It’s my fault.” Maneuvering his crutch with the hand not holding his tater tots, he started towards Juliette. Ryan stepped in front of him.

  “Your sister set my dad’s boat on fire, then framed Rose for it. You’re already on thin ice here, Paxton.” Their gazes clashed, and I flushed, knowing the anger on Ryan’s face was from Paxton’s and my kiss. “You go over there, and you’re finished.”

  Paxton gave Ryan one scathing look and went around him. First he hobbled to the seniors who were still high-fiving. Whatever he said made them pause open-mouthed. Then Paxton crutched over to Juliette’s table and sat down. He set the chicken fingers between them.

  Juliette stared at him angrily, but after a moment looked down at the table. Then she glanced up and caught my gaze, and my breath disappeared at the force of her glare. I felt the wisps of a new war starting, like the one Paxton and I had carried on, but in earnest.

  Juliette was soaking in rage, and suddenly I pictured her drowning in it. Who set a boat on fire just to frame someone?

  Someone in a lot of pain.

  “Come on, Rose.” Ryan returned to the table by the fountain. He patted the spot next to him. Everyone in the courtyard was staring. At me. Waiting.

  Paxton’s gaze met mine across the tables, and it suddenly felt like lunch period in seventh grade all over again, except worse. I wanted to go over to him, but his sister had drawn the line of battle, and he’d sat down on her side.

  Then again, what exactly was I fighting for? I didn’t hate Juliette. I never had, and even though she’d made an A+ effort to ruin my life, I still didn’t. Mostly, I felt hurt, and sort of horrified that I’d been so oblivious to her fury.

  Seeing Juliette’s red face, my anger drained away. She would have to face her crime legally, but here at school ... I knew I couldn’t watch everyone beat up on her. And they would--unless I stopped them.

  I glanced at Alina. “Tell everyone to lay off, okay?”

  She met my gaze and nodded. Her mouth quirked up, as if she knew what I was about to do and understood, and in that moment I knew we’d be okay.

  I walked across the courtyard and slid onto the bench across from Paxton.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Juliette asked, glaring at me. I took a deep breath.

  “Juliette, I’m sorry. For the water balloons, and for not realizing how much you wanted Cloudmonster, and all the other stuff, and for how hurt you’ve been.” It felt insane, apologizing to the person who’d framed me for a felony, but you had to start somewhere, and just because she’d hurt me worst didn’t mean I hadn’t hurt her first.

  “I don’t want your apology,” Juliette said.

  “I know. You’ve got it anyway.”

  Juliette’s expression ricocheted from anger to disbelief to a sort of horror that made her lip wobble. It settled again on anger. “Screw you, Rose.” She shoved away from the table and fled the courtyard.

  When she’d disappeared, I looked at Paxton.

  “I’m not sorry I made Kayla turn her in. But I get why you asked me not to.”

  Paxton dropped his gaze to the table.

  “I shouldn’t have,” he said. “You were right, I was kidding myself thinking she’d ever confess on her own.” He sighed. “I just don’t know what to do to help her.”

  “Maybe ... maybe we can figure it out together?” I said, and held my breath. So much had changed between us so quickly, and I didn’t know whether whatever it was we’d started was enough to overcome the last few days.

  Paxton’s brown eyes lifted to mine. They seemed to be asking the same thing, and for a moment I thought he’d get up and follow his sister.

  “I’d like that,” he said.

  The words hung in the air, and it was like the whole world opened up between us. I felt so filled with simultaneous urges to laugh and cry that I had to look away.

  When I did, I realized everyone in the courtyard was either staring at us or gossiping over what had just happened. For once, though, I didn’t care what anyone thought.

  I turned back to Paxton. “Now what?”

  “Now we eat.” Paxton nudged his paper tray to the center of the table. “You know, chicken fingers go really well with mac & cheese.” He raised his brow.

  I met his gaze, and a grin took over my face. I pushed my bowl forward.

  “You know, they really do.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Several weeks later, Alina and I walked toward the parking lot after school.

  “Only a week in jail?” Alina asked.

  “Afterwards Juliette’s got enough community service to last her until she’s in college, plus therapy.” Kayla had been let off with only a few weeks of community service, but she was genuinely remorseful, plus she’d come forward on her own, which had impressed the judge. Juliette, on the other hand ...

  Things were still rocky between our families, b
ut my dad and Mr. Callaway were at least speaking again. Paxton and I had sat them down. I’m not sure what surprised them more--our covert years-long prank war, or that we were now dating. In any case, we’d tried to explain why Juliette had done what she did.

  My mom, of course, ignored everything. But my dad and I had actually grown closer. We had meaningful conversations now. Crazy, right?

  “You know, I tried to apologize to Beverly today,” Alina said.

  “Tried?” I asked. Alina and I still fought about the way she sometimes acted, but she was making an effort to change, and I wasn’t giving up on her. Apologizing to Beverly would be a big deal.

  “I got as far as, ‘About middle school ...’ before she flipped me off and walked away.” In spite of that, Alina didn’t seem upset. I eyed her.

  “So why are you smiling?

  “Hm?” Her gaze slid away. “Because we’re only four days from winter break, silly.”

  Not buying it, I put my hand on my hip. “What’s going on?”

  “Over there? I don’t know.”

  I followed her gaze to the crowd in the lot.

  The crowd around my car.

  I hurried over, pushing through the throng. Someone was sitting in Cloudmonster’s front seat.

  No, not someone. Something.

  A gorilla, to be precise.

  Paxton, who leaned against his car two spots away, was failing miserably to look innocent. When I glanced at him, he started to laugh. I took the last steps to Cloudmonster’s side and poked at the gorilla suit in the driver’s seat. It was hairy, with vacant eyes. I tried to pull it out, but it didn’t budge. There was something in it. I unzipped the back of the neck and stared.

  “Is this completely full of marbles?” It had to weigh a million pounds.

  Paxton only laughed harder. Alina was grinning, and I realized she’d been in on the prank. The crowd was waiting to see if I’d be angry; I tried to scowl, but ruined it by cracking up. Alina started giggling too, and everyone eventually began to move off.

  I finally caught my breath and looked at Paxton. In between one space and the next, I was struck by a thought. I walked over, feeling light as air. “I have to tell you something,” I said, but before I could say I love you, Paxton pulled me close. His eyes sparkled, as if he already knew.

  “Use your mime voice,” he said, and kissed me.

  THE END

  Author’s Note

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed TORCHED, please consider leaving a review online, recommending the book to a few friends, and/or remembering it in times of gift-giving extremis.

  Want more books? Visit www.lynncolt.com, where you can sign up to hear about new releases, find out my recommendations for similar titles, and tell me to write faster.

  Acknowledgements

  Wow, TORCHED is a book! I don’t even know where to begin in my flood of gratitude. This is gonna be long.

  I guess I’ll start with the first person I ever met: my identical twin sister Vicki Wenderlich, to whom this book is dedicated. Thank you for making things up with me, both now and when we were little. Thank you for reading all my novels, even the terrible ones. Thank you for ripping my work apart, and never hiding one shred of your opinion. When you raved about the first draft of TORCHED, I knew I had something special. Thank you for never letting me quit, and for the constant encouragement. Thanks also for all the graphic design work; collaborating with you is one of my favorite activities.

  Thanks to my parents, for turning baby Andrea into reader Andrea, and for raising me to love learning. Mom, thank you for (among so many things) the butterfly card--I think about its sentiments every day. Dad, thanks for the hilarity, the menagerie, and for making me cherish every day. I wish you were here to see this.

  Thanks to my beloved, Gene, for unwavering encouragement, for laughter, for the kitties/muses. Life is so much fun with you :)

  Thanks to Christine, for putting up with Vicki and me and our crazy stories since elementary school, and for loving every single one my novels.

  Thanks to my brother-in-law Ray, for being an inspiration as well as the first person to dive into the Follow Your Dreams ocean. You started this whole thing!

  Thanks to Ginger Clark, who believed my work was publishable before anyone else did, and for her suggestions about TORCHED that improved the manuscript.

  Thanks to my non-writer friends, for listening to me babble about books and publishing, for celebrating with me, and for simply being the best. Thanks particularly to Jessica Sperlongano for my fabulous author photos!

  Thanks to Caroline Richmond, for being my very first writer friend, my earthquake buddy, and one of my biggest cheerleaders. Thanks to Miranda Kenneally for the shiny blurb on my cover! Thanks to them and to Robin Talley, Jessica Spotswood, and Lindsay Smith for the weekly writer dinners, the massive support, for beta reading TORCHED, and for being so freaking talented.

  And, finally, thanks to ALL my writer peeps! Whether I know you in person or online, you turn the writing journey from lonely to lively. DC MafYA, you all are awesome, and I’m so grateful to be a part of such a supportive and enthusiastic community. My only regret is that there are way too many of us to list here!

  One more shout-out: thanks to all the teachers who encouraged me to write, particularly Cathy Bayne. You might never get that doghouse I promised you, but I think you’ll agree books are way more portable :)

  To close out, although it sounds trite, thank you (yes, you) for reading.

  About the Author

  Andrea Lynn Colt grew up laughing, reading, and squabbling with her twin. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her fiancé, a fridge full of cheese, and two muses in feline form. Visit www.lynncolt.com to get to know her better

  Copyright & License

  Copyright 2012 Andrea Lynn Colt. All rights reserved.

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  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Coming Soon

  Wavecrossed, a young adult paranormal novel, for December 2012.

  When nature-crazy Leisel finds out that two of her classmates are selkies (seal-human shapeshifters who shed their pelts to come ashore) whose family is enslaved by the town mayor, she makes freeing them her newest conservation project. But she doesn’t count on getting caught up in the lives of both captor and captive, and in the end, success might mean losing everything.

  ~~~

  See www.lynncolt.com for excerpts, release dates, suggestions for similar books, and more. Happy reading!