Flat and cold and strange.
But Blondie didn’t seem to notice.
“Oh my god. Searing hotandmodest. I think I have my dream man.” She paused again, but this time it was purely down to the elbow her friend gave her. It was hard and insistent, and it seemed to bring Blondie back to something like sense. “Unless you guysarea thing?”
“I don’t even know who you mean.”
She shook her head, to make it stick.
But a sick feeling was starting to thread through her stomach.
“You know, he’s the wrestling champ Coach Parker is completely in love with. Can’t miss him—he’s like seven feet tall and super beefy. Just really, really beefy.”
“Sam, I think we should just leave this nice girl alone, okay?”
“No, no, hold up—his name is something like…Trent.”
“You don’t even know his name? Sam, seriously let’s just go.”
“A guy like that doesn’tneeda name. He has to learn to respond to desperate grunts.”
“It’s Tate,” Letty said, but they didn’t hear her.
Probably because she sounded like she was dying when she spoke.
“I think it might have been Taylor. He looks like a Taylor.”
“I don’t think it’s Taylor. Maybe Topher?”
“Topher is not a name, Bea. Come on, where is your head?”
“It is a name I—”
“His name is Tate; you mean Tate. Tate Sullivan.”
They both turned and looked at her, half surprised.
Half so gleeful it sort of made her sick.
“Yeah that’s the guy! So youdoknow him.”
“No, I don’t. I really don’t at all.”
She was glad that she sounded so sure when she said it.
Only they didn’t seem to think she sounded sure at all. Blondie leaned and put a hand on her arm, her face a picture of completely sincere concern. “Hey, are you okay?” she asked, so kindly Letty couldn’t speak for a moment. Her throat was apparently full of very emotional bees. Her head was spinning and her stomach had clenched into a knot, so it seemed like the best thing was to just get out of there.
She needed to get out of there,now.
“Yeah, I’m fine, I just have to go. I left the curling iron on while needing to wash my hair just as my favorite show is starting. See you around, okay?”
Chapter 4
Letty decided the best course of action was just to pretend none of this was happening. But it was hard to, with ten girls a day coming up to her to ask if she was dating her mortal enemy. Most of them were lovely about it, but lovely was not the point. She came to this school to get away from Tate, and now he was everywhere.
He was in their starry eyes and behind almost every whisper she heard. She had to endure a million iPhones being thrust at her so she could see herself being carried in his massive arms and hear comments likeit looks as if it hardly took him any effort. And she couldn’t disagree, either.
It was true. His biceps were barely tensed. She looked tiny and featherlight cradled between them, like some kind of doll of herself.
