Letting You Go (Stone Lake 1)

It’s better this way.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself. I slide down against a tree, bring my legs up, and rest my hands on my knees. Then, I look at the table that she scurried off to and watch as Luna sits down with her friends.

Atticus isn’t there.

He’s home after I fucked him up. He’s the one that told Larry I was bragging about sleeping with Luna. I’m sure he told others to. I wanted to leave him in a lot worse shape than I did. He’s lucky he’s only nursing sore ribs and a black eye. I was angry enough to leave him breathing through a straw.

Every now and then I can see Luna looking over at me. She knows I’m watching her, and I don’t bother hiding the fact that I am. Truth be known, I can’t tear my eyes away from her.

I don’t know how one girl can be so damn beautiful, but she is. Today she’s wearing her hair straight and it looks lighter as the sun shines down on it. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on.

“I know that look.”

I look over at Wally and frown. I like him. He’s a good friend, but I’m definitely not in the mood for company.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie.

“Bullshit. If you stare at her any harder, she’s going to call the cops on you.”

“There’s no laws about staring at someone.”

“There is the way you’re doing it, Gav. Damn, boy, if you liked the girl that much then why were you spreading shit all over the school about her. You know how girls are. They might like to get freaky under the sheets, but they sure as hell don’t want you to spread that crap and ruin their good girl image. And, if there was ever a girl in the school that protects her image it would be Luna Marshall. Hell, I think until this happened the entire student body expected her to move into a nunnery after school.”

“Just let it go, Wally. Nothing happened.”

“Nothing?”

“Not a damn thing.”

“Then, why in the hell did you say it did, Gav?”

I don’t bother replying. I could tell him what a dick my brother is. I could deny everything, but there’s no reason. People are going to believe what they want, and Atticus is the poster child of being everything I’m not. There’s no way they’d believe he’s behind all of this. Besides, I knew I was the one who went after Luna after knowing that Atticus was interested in her. In some ways, I probably deserve this shit.

Luna didn’t, however.

I need to fix that.

“It doesn’t matter. Just make sure it gets spread around school that I lied.”

“Gav—”

“Just do it, Wally.”

“Okay, if you can handle the fallout, it’s no skin off my nose.”

I shake my head.

I’m not important.

Only Luna…

Chapter Thirteen

Luna

“Did you hear what Gavin Lodge did now?”

The mention of Gavin’s name is enough to make my stomach hurt. It doesn’t matter that it’s been almost two weeks since that night on the docks. It all still feels like yesterday, especially the part where I found out he spread those tales around school.

“I don’t really care,” I lie. I do care and Jules probably knows that, but I don’t have to admit to it. That’s the beauty about having a best friend. You can lie and they’ll pretend to believe you because they know that’s what you need right now.

“He told Wally that he lied.”

“He what?”

“Hand to God, Luna! He told Wally Andrews that he lied. That he didn’t sleep with you and that you didn’t even give him the time of day. Wally is telling everyone, including Motormouth Molly McKay and you know what that means.”

“It’ll be all over school by the end of the day,” I mutter.

“Girl, it already is.”

“Great,” I say on a sigh, slamming my locker door shut.

“What? I thought this was what you wanted.”

“No, what I wanted was for Gavin Lodge to disappear off the face of the earth.”

“What you wanted was for him not to be an asshole,” Jules corrects, and I stare up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, I guess so. But what he did isn’t going to fix anything. Now instead of being the school slut, I’ll just be back to being the icebox queen. I’m not sure which is better at this point.”

“I see what you’re saying.”

“Why do you think he did it?”

“What? Lie? Who knows, Luna. Maybe he wanted a boost in popularity.”

“No, why do you think he admitted the truth to Wally?”

“Wally is his best friend. I think he might be his only friend. Maybe he didn’t think Wally would tell everyone in the school. Wally’s kind of cute, don’t you think?”

“Maybe, it just seems weird that he would lie about me and then turn around confessing the truth soon after,” I mutter as we walk down the hall.