Our sleepovers are the best. I love feeling his body next to mine. His strong arms around me. The only time I sleep well is when I'm with Jackson. He relaxes me. Makes me feel safe.
"He wants me to come home," I say. "Braden's being released. Brock's going to get him."
"I'm surprised he was able to get him out on a weekend."
I sit up. "I don't want to be there when he gets home. Braden's going to be screaming and throwing stuff and breaking everything in the house."
"If he acts that way, then leave. Come back here. You don't have to put up with that."
I kiss him. "Sorry I have to go but if I don't, Brock will just show up here."
"It's fine. I need to get some stuff done."
I get out of bed. "I was going to come over later to study, if that's okay."
He smiles. "Studying? Without me telling you to?"
I smile back. "What can I say? You're a good influence. My grades have gone up since we started studying together." I grab my clothes from the floor and get dressed. "Did I tell you about Ms. Pruitt?"
"No. What about her?" Jackson asks, putting on his jeans.
"She may not come back to school. The sub told me she's sick but Alyssa heard she had a nervous breakdown."
"Working at Twisted Pine, I'm not surprised."
"But she's worked there for ten years. Why now?"
"Maybe she can't stand working for Steven. The other principal was bad but he didn't play favorites the way Steven does."
"Play favorites? What do you mean?"
"She's old. He doesn't like old women. He likes them young. Attractive. Available."
"He's married."
"Yeah. And he cheats. If he cheated with his stepdaughter, you know he'd cheat with his employees."
"Hey, what ever happened with that investigator you hired to find out if Principal Edwards was cheating?"
"I don't know. I didn't hire him. Kristen did. I just gave her the guy's contact information."
"Could we ask him what he found out?"
"It's confidential. He won't tell us because we didn't hire him. Kristen said she knew Steven was seeing someone else. She just didn't know who it was." Jackson comes over and gives me a kiss. "You better get home."
"Yeah. Bye."
I slowly walk back to the house, dreading Braden's arrival. I'm hoping he just goes to his room and leaves us all alone.
"You ready for this?" Trystan asks when I go in the kitchen. He's sitting at the counter eating a plate of scrambled egg whites.
"Ready for Braden's tantrums? No." I point to his plate. "Did you make that?"
"Ana did. She just left. Your plate's in the oven."
"She made me egg whites?"
"Waffles. She made us each our favorites, knowing what was coming."
