Page 22 of The Bad Boyfriend Curse
“And he’s okay with that?” Sadie asks.
“Once he heard who my parents are, he was all over the idea.” I take a sip of the coffee, and it tastes burnt. I put the mug back down. “Hey, why do you think Noah was excited to upset Jason? Do people in this town hate the LeClairs?”
Sadie shrugs, but she doesn’t seem offended by the question, and she’s a LeClair too. But I’m not talking abouteveryonein town hating the LeClairs, just peoplesouth of the riverhating them, and I don’t think Sadie realizes that.
“Uncle Jason doesn’t have any public scandals that I know about,” Sadie says. “He’s politically pretty liberal, and a lot of people don’t like that. Maybe that’s why?”
“Or people who work in the plant don’t like the LeClairs because they’re the bosses,” Liv says.
I suppose. Noah said his father is a supervisor; I would think supervisors wouldn’t be going around publicly hating the owners. I turn to Sadie, remembering something. “Didn’t you say that the grown woman Noah supposedly went out with works at a donut shop? Was it this donut shop?”
Sadie glances around. “Yeah. I don’t see her, though. She’s really pretty.”
“Maybe she’s friends with Noah’s mother?” I suggest.
“Could be,” Liv says. “I know that the waitress is from the Philippines. Where is Noah’s mother from?”
I shrug. “All I know about her is that she lives in Toronto.” I shoot Sadie a look. “She didn’t die of an overdose like you thought. All the stuff you heard about him, like that he deals drugs and stuff—are youpositivethey were talking aboutNoahand not his brother?”
“I don’t know,” Sadie says, shrugging. “Could be his brother.”
Liv nods slowly as if the difference is just becoming clear to her. “Yeah, Aaron’s the drug addict. Noah’s the musician.”
That matches with what Noah told me. “He plays the guitar. Did you know his dad was a musician too?”
Sadie shrugs again. “No.”
I sigh. It’s clear that these two, despite telling me all those rumors about him the other day, don’treallyknow anything about Noah. Or any of the Jacobses.
“You really shouldn’t speculate about people you don’t know,” I say. I try not to sound too scolding, because these are new friends after all, but it just doesn’t sit right with me that they were saying all that stuff about Noah’s family tome— someone they barely know and who’s new in town.
Liv looks contrite and puts her mug on the table before looking me in the eye. “You’re absolutely right. Sorry, Meera.”
Sadie nods along. She looks a little guilty but manages to meet my eye too. “Yeah. No more gossip about people we don’t know.” Her eyes flit to the other side of the bar. “Except for this one last time—because that’s the waitress we were talking about behind the counter.”
I turn to look. The woman there is super pretty, like Sadie said, but seems kind of tired. Long shift, maybe. I’d guess she’s in her late twenties to thirties.
At that moment a loud fight breaks out at the other side of the restaurant. Followed by swearing and someone pounding on a table. Staff rush over to break it up.
“We should leave soon,” Liv says. “This place can get pretty rough; we won’t want to be here if a fight breaks out.”
I shrug. I’m not worried. I grew up in Toronto; I can handle a little argument in a coffee shop. Or bar. Or whatever this place is. Just like Cherrybridge itself, it’s a little hard to figure out.
I video-call Keeley and Adanna after Liv drops me home, because I need to tell my best friends about this plan. And I’m a little surprised that they think my idea is ridiculous.
“This is going to blow up in your face, Meera,” Adanna warns.
“It won’t,” I say. “It will work. I’ll be home on Sunday. Monday at the latest.”
My friends look skeptical. “I think this Noah guy is into you,” Keeley says. “That’s really why he agreed.”
“Maybe before, but definitely not now that he knows who my stepfather is. This town is weird. I get the impression that kids south of the river wouldn’t date kids north of the river.”
Adanna shrugs. “It kind of makes sense,” she says. “Class differences are a huge societal divide. You’re literally living in different worlds.”
“But Noah and I aren’treallyfrom different worlds. We were both raised by single parents who struggled financially. Both our mothers are nurses. We’re more the same than different.”
“What does your mom think about you bringing a boy to Jason’s party?” Keeley asks.
