“I want to go home,” I croak.
“I’ll call Jade,” Rae offers, grabbing my phone from my glacial fingers.
What is my mother going to think? The same thing that Ten did? That I lied? Oh, God, Ten… the hurt and anger on his face when he walked away from me brings up a new wave of tears. I have to call him. Have to tell him that I have no clue why his mother chose me.
“Um, Angie, Nev just sent you a text.”
Rae shows me my phone. My eyesight is so blurry that I have to blink several times to decipher her words, and after I do, I keep blinking.
NEV:Don’t hate me.
I close my eyes, head pounding as furiously as my heart.
Don’t hate her?
Don’t hate her for what?
Like a bucket of icy water, understanding washes over me.
I seize my phone from Rae.
ME:You submitted my application and song?!?
My phone rings, and Nev’s name flashes across the screen, and although I don’t want to talk to her, I want to scream at her, which I do, the moment we’re connected.
Rae and Laney look on in stunned silence.
Nev’s crying so hard by the time I’m done chewing her out that I think I overdid it, but then I remember the look on her brother’s face, and it lessens my guilt.
“I d-didn’t w-want you to… to give up because of T-Ten,” she croaks.
My heart bangs so hard I taste metal. “I never gave up, Nev! I just changed directions.”
“B-but you m-made me a p-promise.”
I swallow, my throat feeling raw and stiff.
“And y-you didn’t k-keep it.”
“So that makes what you did okay?”
She sobs so wildly that I expect her tears to seep right out of my phone. “I’m s-s-sorry.”
“Are you really, though?”
Silence, then, “For the way I d-did it, yes.”
I shut my eyes for a millisecond, massage my temples.
“Don’t h-hate me. P-p-please d-don’t.”
I heave a long sigh. “I don’t hate you, but I amrealmad.”
“T-T-Ten’s going t-t-to hate m-me,” she stammers. “He’ll n-never forgive m-me.”
“He’s your brother. He’ll forgive you.”
“N-no, he won’t. He’ll n-never forgive me. He’ll h-hate me fo-forever. J-just like he hates M-Mom.”
