“Answer it,” Belle says, her hand on the door of the building, but her gaze sweeping around us. “I’m okay.”
I take my phone from my back pocket and check the caller ID. “It’s just Declan. I’ll call him back later.”
“No you should answer it.” Belle is the biggest supporter of my secret thing with Declan. She makes me tell her every single detail about every time I see him. She loves that we meet in the garden when we can’t meet in real life. It’s some kind of romantic secret like in the books she reads.
“Tell him to come over,” she says.
The phone is still ringing in my hand. “Are you sure?”
She nods. “We’ll order pizza for dinner.”
I answer the call, and Declan is just as surprised as I am when I tell him to come visit us. I give him directions to our room, and promise him that no other students will be here. No one will see him and me together and report it back to Chad.
A short while later, I am so nervous I could burst into electricity at any moment. Belle plays music on her laptop and she braids my hair and I add a little bit of makeup to my bare face.
The pizza is ordered. All we’re missing is the boy.
And then there’s a knock on the door. Belle draws in a deep breath.
“You okay?” I say.
She nods. “Yes. Totally okay.”
It doesn’t look like she’s lying, so I walk over and let Declan inside. He’s more adorable than ever in jeans and a T-shirt. I usually see him in his school uniform in classes, or wearing his gardener jumpsuit while he’s working. But Declan in normal clothes is a sight to see.
“You look pretty,” he says softly. I know we both want to kiss, but we’re also smart enough not to flash around the PDA in front of my cousin.
“Hi,” Belle says with a smile. She’s sitting on the foot of her bed with her sprained ankle propped up on some pillows.
“Declan, this is my cousin, Belle.”
“Nice to officially meet you,” he says.
I was worried this might be awkward, but Declan and Belle get along great. We talk about the garden, and how we’re going to visit it soon, in the daylight.
“Spring Break is in a few days,” Declan says, reaching for another slice of pizza. “Maybe we could plan a picnic or something. The Wi-Fi signal is good out there in the gardens, so we could bring a computer and watch movies.”
“It’ll be a mini vacation,” Belle says, her eyes lighting up. “I think I’ll spend every single day of Spring Break in that garden.
I raise my glass of soda to hers in a toast. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
We all press our drinks together in a celebration, and I try really hard to hold back my worries. My mom had said she was pulling me from school soon. I might not last until Spring Break.
Chapter Twenty-One
A woman walksinto my history class and says something to my teacher in hushed tones. The teacher nods and then her eyes go straight to me. My heart races. I hope that maybe I’m just mistaken and she’s looking at the person behind me.
“Sophia?” my teacher says.
Dang.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“You’re needed in the office.”
I grit my teeth and pack up my school work, ignoring the stares of other students in the class. I have a pretty good idea of why I’m being called to the office, and I refuse to cry in front of all these people.
But I know the tears will come sooner or later because I can’t help it. My mom is here. I just know she is. She’s here and she’s taking me out of school. I’ve been ignoring her calls for two days now, and I even ignored a call from my dad, who only calls me when my mom is really mad at me.
