Page 106 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
“You’re an adult now, but…” He sighs and rubs his forehead. “Well, what am I supposed to think here? As far as you’re telling me, you’ve been fine all year, but the minute you see her again you’re drinking, staying up late, your times are off. For all I know, she could be buttering you up, trying to get your scholarship money again.”
I stare at him, too stunned to even speak for a second.
“It’s a slippery slope, Reid, and you have put in too much time and work to get sidetracked from your goals. She’s a distraction.”
I almost laugh at the irony as I hear Clara’s voice from this morning, urging me to talk to him. To tell him everything even if I don’t understand it all myself.
Now I know he couldn’t possibly understand, either.
My voice is a furious calm when I say, “You couldn’t be more wrong about her.”
After a long stretch of silence where I’m convincing myself slugging my own father would be the exact wrong look for the Legacy guest ofhonor, he says, “Okay—but I need to know your head is in the game. That Olympic coach, Coach Andrews, reached out again because he’s traveling nearby for one of his athletes. You’ve been dodging his calls, so I invited him to the banquet tonight.”
“What?”
“I don’t know why you look so shocked, this was always our plan.”
“Yourplan.”
He frowns. “Meaning?”
Before I can answer, someone calls his name and he says, “That’s one of the benefactors. We’ll continue this later.”
As soon as he walks off, I bury my face in my hands. My breath is too short, my entire body covered in a nervous sweat. I’ve let this go too far. What am I going to do?
I just might puke.
But I can’t wallow long because moments later Clara slips into the chair beside me like she’d been waiting. She has on pink lip gloss and a dark sweater and jeans. Her hair is pulled back in its usual high ponytail, highlighting the sharp slant of her cheekbones.
“Hi.” Her smile is timid, and I instantly feel both anchored with her beside me and like absolute shit for walking out on her this morning. For letting myself get sucked into my own self-pity instead of hearing her out.
“Hi.”
There is so much to say, neither of us seems to know where to start.
“Ready for your interview?” she asks.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.
“Now?” We probably talked about this last night and I just don’t remember. I’m wearing old jeans and a gray hoodie that’s torn at the neck, and my hair is a mess as usual. I should probably get it cut soon.
Her eyes flit to it at the same time and light up with amusement. Great.
“I have to edit the video for the banquet tonight, and I managed to get Amaya’s interview by catching her off guard about the latest posts.”
My eyebrows rise in interest, but her sigh is frustrated as she turns her phone toward me. The one about Josh cheating is pretty damning, and as Delaney predicted, the screenshots of Amaya’s texts to her cast were just posted.
“She cried—like sobbed. Maybe I was wrong about her being behind the account.”
“Maybe.” I nod slowly. “But don’t forget that she’s a good actress.”
“Yeah… I just feel like we’re missing something crucial.” Clara tucks her phone away and studies me. “Yours is the last interview I need for the video, though. It’s now or never.”
She always told me she wanted to make films that matter. The glimpse I got of the doc she made last year filled me with all the confidence I needed for her to tell my story then. To trust her.
But I have too much I need to hold back. Too much I don’t want her to show.
Principal West gestures to me that it’s time for my speech. “I gotta do this,” I say, instead of giving her a straight answer.
