Page 88 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
I STEP TO JOSHsneering down at Clara, ready to knock him the fuck out. Only I’m groggy and my knee is stiff and sore from lying in that awkward position so long that I stumble.
Thankfully, Mitchell is right there and catches me around the arm before I eat shit in front of everyone.
Josh’s eyes narrow to slits. “Youareinjured, aren’t you? I knew it!”
“He’s wasted,” Mitchell shoots back. “He and Kenji pounded a Hydro Flask of wine. Look at him.”
The whole group turns to watch Kenji, who has his hands over his head as he sways to the medieval music still pouring through the speakers by the stage, obviously toasted. I squeeze Mitchell’s shoulder, and he squeezes back.
Josh makes a disgusted face. “What are you, my mom? Who drinkswine?”
With him properly distracted, I turn to Clara and notice she has her camera out, and it’s focused on Josh.
“Let’s talk about the ‘video thing,’ Josh.”
His eyes widen as he stares at the camera.
“Unless you’re scared to go on the record?” she goads.
I do my best to suppress my grin. Which is near impossible when he puffs up his chest and predictably says, “I don’t have anything to hide.”
Clara walks Josh down by the stage, close enough where I can still see them but too far to hear anything they’re saying. She lifts her camera in a way that’s determined. Even in my addled state, it’s clear she’s ready to follow through on her plan. Though after what he said earlier, I’m not sure he has anything to do with the posts.
But the only thing he’s better at than me is lying. If anyone can get him to admit the truth, it’s Clara.
I lower myself back onto the blanket, watching them intently. I can’t believe I fell asleep on her like that. That she didn’t just push me off her.
The fact that she’s talking to me, maybe even willing to forgive me? I hoped for it but didn’t expect it. Now I don’t know what to do with it. Everything between us is entirely too breakable.
My brain feels like soup, so I wonder if I imagine when Logan says quietly to Mitchell, “You look good” before walking off. Mitchell stares after him, scrubbing a stressed hand across his eyes. Kenji pulls him into a hug, and they talk in low voices on the other side of the blanket. I’m unable to make sense of it before Nicole sinks down next to me.
“Somehow Josh has gotten even worse, hasn’t he?” she asks, tossing her thick hair over her shoulder to look at me.
I snort. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
Her high-pitched laugh punctures straight through my skull.
Nicole maneuvers herself directly in my line of sight, cutting off my view of Clara and Josh. But not before I see Amaya walking from backstage, her fingers flying across the screen of her phone. I realize then that I haven’t seen a phone out of her hand all weekend. Not even when we ran this morning.
“Are you okay?” Nicole’s sympathetic voice cuts into my thoughts. “I mean, I saw the way people were looking at you tonight.”
So itwasn’tin my head. Great.
“I’m fine,” I say automatically.
“This Legacy shit is so much.”
Her sigh is weary, and I let out a concurring grunt.
“And now these posts?Whocould be doing this?”
Despite the sluggish pace of my thinking, I manage to recall her conversation with Amaya about Legacy Lore this morning at the Fun Run. “Theonlything I know is that it’s not Clara.”
Nicole nods slowly, chewing on the inside of her cheek like she doesn’t quite believe me. “Everyoneis talking about it. If I lose my scholarship, I lose school, my sorority, my team—everything.” She shakes her head, her eyes getting teary. “We can’t let that happen, Reid.”
“We really can’t,” I agree, trying to keep up. Hoping she means “we” as in all of us Legacies.
She sighs and scoots a little closer. I lie all the way back, more exhausted than ever.
