Page 77 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
He snorts. “Iampissed at you. But as your brother?” He shoots me a look over his shoulder, wrist-deep in sudsy water. “I know what you’ve been through this year.” We almost have a moment until he keeps going. “ButI need you to stop bringing disgrace on the family and make this right.”
I throw a dish towel at his head and he laughs.
“If you want to fix this, show her how sorry you are—however you can.”
Show her. An idea strikes me, and I stand up as quickly as I dare given my knee is still aching. As I pass behind him at the sink, I ruffle his hair in gratitude before bounding off to the garage to look for the right box.
I hear the smile in his voice when he calls out behind me, “You’re welcome.”
CHAPTER TWENTYCLARANOW
MY MIND REELS WHILEI dress for Shakespeare in the Vines, guilt pulling at the edges of my choice to block him. But I can’t see his name on my phone or his photo on my screen. I can’t breathe when I do.
Anxiety grips my stomach as I check the Legacy Lore profile again and see more people have been commenting.
Dude @reidrousseau making the rounds after hooking up with that sluuuut all last year.
The one who was disqualified??? WOW.
This behavior is hardly acceptable for a Legacy @reidrousseau. My kids looked up to you!
There are at least a dozen more comments like that. All equally hurtful and judgmental. I’m used to the scorn of Woodhurst. But Reid isn’t. He’ll be gutted when he sees that last one. Which I shouldn’t care about… but I can’t pretend like I don’t.
I know firsthand how damaging gossip can be. How hard it is when people believe the worst about you without allowing space for context or an explanation.
My phone buzzes with a string of texts on the group chat about carpooling tonight.Really, Mitchell?I should just leave this group chat and block Delaney while I’m at it.
But something stops me. Now that the initial shock has worn off, I realize I don’t have to take Reid’s word for what happened.
I check the clock. We still have a few hours before Shakespeare in the Vines. Without another thought, I snatch my keys off the hook and run to my car.
Delaney answers the door dressed all in black. Her makeup looks half-finished, but it’s thick and theatrical for the play. She tucks her sleek blond hair behind her ear. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
“Can I come in?” I ask. My voice is too loud, my pulse wild.
“Uh—sure, I was just finishing getting ready.”
I follow her through her house and into her bedroom. Agitated fury radiates from every single cell of my body.
I settle on her familiar purple bedspread, where her two chunky tabby cats, Tater and Tot, are snoozing away. I haven’t seen them in months, and an ache forms in my throat at the sight of them. All the sleepovers where they would curl around our legs as Delaney and I talked for hours.
So much has changed.
Tater purrs in his sleep as I start to pet him, and Delaney settles back on the carpet in front of her full-length mirror, her makeup kit strewn around her on the floor in a cascade of tubes and jars of various sizes and colors.
Her eyeshadow brush never stops moving against her eyelid as she asks, “So, what’s up?” All casual. Like this is totally normal.
“Did you see the post?” I ask.
She gets more shadow on the brush and starts on the next eye. “Oh god, is there another one? I’ve been avoiding it. What did it say?”
“Oh, it basically implied you and Reid had sex in his dorm room.”
The brush freezes. We stare at each other in the mirror, and I watch the color drain from her face.
“What?”
Her shock seems genuine—it’s almost enough to convince me she didn’t make the post after all, but I can’t be sure if she was so willing to lie to me about Reid. So willing to betray our friendship.
