“I know that. But I told Owen specifically because I wasn’t going to do anything about it. Because my friendship with Rachel matters more.” I pushed a piece of apple around my plate. “And now she thinks I was going behind her back.”
Knox looked at me for a beat, before lowering his voice. “You shouldn’t have told Owen.”
I didn’t want to hear it from him. Mostly because I knew he was right.
“I know that now,” I muttered.
He grabbed another apple slice off my plate and I let him, too deflated to give him shit about it. My phone kept buzzing with notifications, until I grabbed it and put it on silent.
Knox stayed where he was, leaning against the counter, quietly chewing, not filling the silence with unnecessary chatter. I appreciated that more than I would have admitted.
Footsteps sounded from around the corner right before Owen appeared in the doorway in fresh clothes, hair still damp, smelling way better than he had a half hour ago.
“Hey,” he said to Knox as he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. “How was practice?”
“Fine.”
Owen turned to me, his usual self, completely unaware of the tension in the room. “Okay, I’m ready. Where are you at?”
I looked at him and tried to keep my face neutral even though his smile and easy personality grated on me. He was already pulling out the stool next to mine like nothing had happened. No idea that most of our grade has probably been talking about me all afternoon.
“Owen,” I started, keeping my voice low. “Did you tell anyone about Chase?”
He paused for a second, his smile dropping.
“What? No. Why?”
“Because Brianna Wilson just texted me that Rachel knows.”
His eyes shifted down to the textbook. “I mean...I might have mentioned it to Evan. But just Evan, and I told him not to say anything. I didn’t think he’d?—”
“Owen.”
“It slipped out.” He messed with the water bottle in his hands. “It wasn’t a big deal, I didn’t think it would be a problem. What happened?”
“She’s my friend and now she thinks I went behind her back.” I took a breath, trying to stay collected. “I told you I wasn’t goingto do anything about it. To keep it to yourself. I just needed to tell someone and get it off my chest.”
“Shit.” He turned to face me fully, and I could see the genuine regret in his eyes. “Sunny. I’m really sorry. I wasn’t thinking. You know I’d never do it on purpose.”
I held his gaze, feeling my anger already softening at the edges. I kind of hated that it was so hard for me to stay mad at him.
“I’ll talk to Evan,” he continued. “And figure out how it got back to her. We can fix this.” He bumped his shoulder into mine. “I promise. Okay?”
I looked back at my laptop. “Fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I turned the laptop toward him. “But you’re actually helping me with this stupid essay.”
He grinned and leaned over to look at my screen. “Okay, so we have a lot of work to do.”
“I know.”
“Like a lot, a lot.”
“Owen. I know.”
I felt Knox push off the counter behind us. I’d almost forgotten he was still there.
