Page 40 of Falling Into You

“What’s so bad about shaking pom-poms?” she asked, cocking her hip. “I thought youwantedto be a cheerleader.”

He tsked and looked up at the dark sky for a moment. “Come on, Rory. You know it’s not that simple. Soccer is my sport. It’s been my sport for years. I made first team all-county last year. I might get a scholarship. And I miss playing, okay? I’m sorry, but I do. If I had to choose between soccer and cheer...”

Her heart sank. Of course she knew all of this. But hearing him say it out loud somehow made her feel incredibly disappointed. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how much she’d been hoping he’d come around, that he’d become a true part of the team. What had she been thinking? This was Jacob Reilly. All he cared about was having fun and being the center of attention. He’d more than proved that tonight with that idiotic chant. Jacob was not a team player.

“Okay, great. Good to know where you stand,” she said.

“Wait. I didn’t mean—”

“Yes. You did,” she said, storming away. “If you see Tucker, tell him I’m walking home.”

An hour later, Rory found herself at the diner with Tucker, Kai, Cody, and Everett, munching half-heartedly on a grilled cheese sandwich while they went over the game play-by-play.The mood was subdued, as it always was after a loss, and the only other girl at the table was a sophomore Cody was dating, who kept getting up to chat with her friends at another booth.

When Tucker’s car had pulled up next to her on Orchard Lane, Rory had almost told him to go without her. But then she’d remembered that Owen was having dinner at a friend’s house, and the idea of going home to an empty kitchen had depressed her even more.

“Oh my God, how hilarious was Reilly, though?” Kai said out of nowhere.

“I don’t know. I think he looks super sexy in those cheer pants,” Cody joked, then took a huge bite of his hamburger.

“Was he wearing makeup?” Tucker asked, nudging Rory. “Do you make the guys wearmakeup?”

“Um, no,” she said firmly. “We don’t make anyone wear makeup if they don’t want to. And he was not.”

“You sure? He looked like he had on that cheek stuff. What’s it called?” Tucker said.

“Rouge? I think it’s called rouge,” Everett said, rubbing his own cheeks and batting his eyes. The guys all threw napkins at him. “What? I have sisters in dance!”

“Yeah, no. I’m pretty sure he was just so embarrassed he couldn’t control it,” Rory replied, dropping her sandwich onto her plate. She felt bad the moment she said it. Yes, she was pissed off at Jacob, but she knew if she gave these guysany ammunition, they’d use it, and she didn’t want to be responsible for that.

“I don’t know why he’d be embarrassed,” Tucker said, feigning innocence. “Prancing around all, ‘Rah, rah, sis boom bah.’?” He waggled his hips on the booth bench and flopped his hands around on his wrists. His friends cracked up.

“I’ve literally never said ‘Rah, rah, sis boom bah’ in my life,” Rory said flatly.

“You just did!” Kai crowed, earning more laughter.

Rory stood up abruptly, glad she’d taken the end of the bench. “I’m gonna go.”

“What? Why? We just got our food!” Tucker said.

“If cheerleading is such a joke to all of you, then maybe we won’t cheer at the soccer games anymore,” she told them, shoving her arms into her varsity jacket and grabbing her bag. It was Tucker who had begged Coach Maguire to have the cheer squad at some of the soccer games last year, citing the unfair treatment their crappy football team got.

“Oh, come on, babe! You’re overreacting!” Tucker whined. “As usual,” he added under his breath and behind his hand, but not quietly enough for her not to hear. His friends laughed again, this time uncomfortably.

“Nice,” she said. “I’m out.”

The good thing about the diner was it was only a few blocks from Bellissima, her dad’s restaurant, so she couldwalk over there and get the car. Plus he’d feed her something that was not soggy grilled cheese.

As she headed for the door, she half expected Tucker to come after her and apologize. To tell her he’d drive her home. But he didn’t. Rory held her head high as she walked away. She was starting to wonder what she’d ever seen in Tucker to begin with.

Rory

Sitting at her desk in her bedroom later that night, Rory was having an uncharacteristically hard time concentrating on her lit homework. How was she supposed to analyze the themes ofMacbethwhen all her brain wanted to do was concoct revenge scenarios? She kept going back and forth between wanting to strangle Jacob for his behavior at the soccer game and wanting to grill Tucker about his comments at the diner. She picked up her phone and started a text to him for the twentieth time, but then deleted it yet again.

Heshould be textingher. Apologizing for being such a jerk about Jacob and cheer and pretty much everything, and in front of his friends, no less. He should say sorry for not coming after her and apologizing in the moment.

Rory sat back hard in her chair. Her phone pinged with a text from Gwen.

Gwen: