Private (Private 1)

her script, I knew she would hold it against me.

Please, please, please, don’t do it, James.

“She said it’s over.” I pressed my lips together. “She said she no Finally, he took a deep breath and deflated.

longer wants anything to do with you.”

“Can you tell her . . . can you tell her I’m sorry?” he asked quietly.

James’s jaw clenched. “What?”

He’s sorry? He’s sorry? Was he kidding me?

I took a deep breath and soldiered on. “She said . . . she said

“Just don’t tell her when her friends are around,” he said. “Wait you’re a pasty loser with a puny, shriveled little thing and she never till you’re alone.”

wants to speak to you again,” I said quickly.

He understood everything. That much was clear.

“Oh! That’s just wrong!” one of the kids at the table cried. A few

“Sure,” I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. I was that stunned laughed, but most looked as sickened as I felt inside.

by my own reprehensible actions. That humiliated by his mature

James shoved away from the table, his chair clattering against

response. I had no idea when I would ever have the chance to get the empty one behind it.

Kiran by herself—I had never seen her without at least one of her

“Where’re you going?” I asked in a panic. At the Billings table, friends by her side, except for the time she was with James—but I Noelle glared.

would do it if I could. I figured I owed this kid that much.

“Where do you think I’m going?” he said through his teeth. “If

James grabbed his stuff and skulked out of the room, much to

she wants to say all that she can say it to my face.”

the glee of his audience. I was almost surprised when they didn’t My heart lurched and I grabbed his arm, stopping him.

applaud.

Somehow I knew that I couldn’t let James the Dreck humiliate

Slowly, I walked toward the Billings table, willing myself not to Kiran in front of the entire school. Somehow I knew that would

heave. But when I saw the amused expressions on their faces, the

92

K A T E B R I A N

barely-contained misery on Kiran’s, I realized I was in desperate need of some air. I walked right past them and out the double doors, pausing under the rain-soaked eaves. Thunder rumbled overhead