That new knot of worry worked its way into my gut.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on here?” Mr. Meadows bellowed.
Ms. Tolken motioned for me to follow her to the adjacent wall. Jett shot me a lingering look before setting his gaze back on Meadows.
But TJ spoke up first. “Me and Harper were dancing…”
“Harper andI,”Mr. Meadows corrected.
TJ’s face scrunched up. “What?”
“That’s the proper way to say it,” Ms. Tolken said. “Continue.”
TJ glanced at me for a blink, then shook his head. “We were dancing and suddenly Jett swoops in like Batman and sucker punches me in the face.”
“It’s not a sucker punch when you provoked it,” Jett snapped, pulling away from the wall to glare at him.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Mr. Meadows put his hands out. “Violence should be a last resort, Mr. Bryant. I’m sure you know that. In the years I’ve seen you play ball, you’ve practiced more self-control than I thought possible. You should have exercised some of that tonight. Coach isn’t going to be happy.”
“I was protecting her,” Jett said, “and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” My heart, which hadn’t even begun to recover, did a little flip.
Mr. Meadows spun to look at me over his shoulder.
“Did you need protecting?”
Now a full on gymnastic routine was happening inside my chest. I looked over at TJ. “Ididtell him to take his hands off me,” I said.
“It was just an act.” TJ rolled his eyes. “We were trying to make our exes jealous.”
“Oh, soI’myour ex now?” Jett asked.
I looked into his deep brown eyes, taken aback by the emotion I saw there. “I don’t know what you are, Jett. All I know is that I asked you to the dance a week ago and you never answered. Andthenyou say yes to Tasha in front of the entire school without ever acknowledging—”
Jett put his hand up to stop me. “Wait, did you say you asked me to the dance?”
“You asked him to the dance first?” TJ asked.
“I thought you knew that,” I said.
“Who?” Both TJ and Jett looked at me, confusion crumpling their faces.
“Both of you,” I said. “TJ, I thought you knew that I asked Jett and that he never answered me and that that’s why I was so upset about him going with Tasha.” I set my gaze on Jett next. “And you…why are you acting surprised? There’s no way you didn’t get what I left for you.”
Jett’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t get anything from you, Harper.”
We stayed like that while the music from the gym went from muted to loud. Someone had opened the door, I realized.
“It was a poster and it had pictures of us on it. There was other stuff too. Basketball balloons…you never saw those?”
Jett shook his head. “Seriously, Harper. I never saw it.”
“Waitjust a minute, Miss Martell,” Ms. Tolken said.
I looked over my shoulder in time to see Tasha sneaking back into the gym. She stopped in her tracks, shoulders dropping, and let the door swing to a close. “I don’t know anything about it,” Tasha said with wide, innocent eyes. “If you ask me, any good wind could come along and sweep that stuff right off his porch.”
I fought back an eye-roll. “Yeah, right.”
“Wait,” Jett said. “How didyouknow it was on my porch?” His eyes narrowed in a hard glare.
