Very Bad Things (Briarwood Academy 1)

He rubbed his hands through his hair several times, a crazed look on his face. “Fuck. Nora, I’m sorry. I feel out of control here. Forgive me, okay? But this Finn guy . . . I will rip him apart for giving you drugs.”

I shrank from him, frightened by hearing Finn’s name on his lips. “Please, don’t ask me about him ever again.”

He nodded uncertainly and moved closer to me, like he wanted to hold me, but I stepped back. I still couldn’t handle him touching me; Tiffani was too fresh. He sighed and turned back to the stove to stir the sauce.

I bit my lip as I watched him, not wanting to be angry with him. I needed him, just like I needed Sebastian.

“Tell me a happy story, Leo.”

He gazed at me. “One day you’ll have your own stories.”

“Yes, I will,” I said firmly.

“Let’s finish cooking this killer meal and then eat it. How’s that for a happy story?”

I nodded. “I like it. What’s for dessert?”

“You’ll love it,” he said, his fingers brushing mine as we turned back to the stove.

As the minutes passed, we eased into a familiar camaraderie that reminded me of our night at the movies. I made a salad, and he put the French bread in the oven. He set the table, and I poured the tea. We talked about similar books we’d read and movies we wanted to see. I admitted my word compulsion, and he laughed and told me I was wacko. I informed him wacko was a relatively new word, an Americanism coined in the 1970s. He explained how he’d taken his parents’ life insurance and restored the old gym his dad had owned, turning it into a lucrative business by buying and selling several gyms, like people flip houses. I told him how high my IQ was, and he called me a geek. I grinned and said I preferred the term intellectual badass. He laughed uproariously.

By the time Sebastian and Mila came in the kitchen, dinner was on the table and smelled wonderful. As we ate, the sun was setting and a golden glow came in through the window and lit the table. Leo had turned on some R.E.M., and a song about losing your religion played. I looked at each of them. Sebastian’s cheeks were bulging because he’d tried to stuff as much bread into his mouth as he could. Leo thumped him in the arm, telling him to mind his table manners around their company. Mila had spaghetti on her fork, but it plopped in her lap when she burst out laughing at their banter. I closed my eyes, savoring, because this . . . this was one of those happy moments I could string on my necklace.

Leo jumped up. “Time for dessert,” he said, grinning, as if he knew something I didn’t.

“What’s going on?” I asked the other two as he went into the pantry.

Sebastian laughed and Mila grinned.

Leo came back holding a giant misshapen pink cake with candles on it, and my heart swelled because I could tell by looking it was homemade, and no one, not even Aunt Portia, had ever baked me a cake.

“Is that what I think it is?” I whispered in amazement.

“Surprise. I know it’s a little late in the game, but seeing as you didn’t tell anyone until the day of . . .” Leo said, setting the cake down on the table. I watched him light the candles.

“Happy Birthday,” he said, leaning over and surprising me by tucking my hair behind my ear. “Now, make a wish and blow them out, so we can eat this monstrosity.”

“Beautiful monstrosity,” I murmured, staring at the fluffy icing, imagining Leo standing in the kitchen making something special just for me. I grew emotional, sitting there, thinking of him trying his best to be my friend. I blew out the candles and made my wish. It might never come true, but my heart still yearned for Leo.

Some would say love at first sight is ridiculous, and perhaps love never happens for those people at all. I kept thinking about what Sebastian had said: that when it was real then you know it. I looked at Leo, sitting there around his friends and family and knew the truth. I loved him. Forever. Was it surprising that as I was searching for myself, I’d also found love? Yeah. Fate, destiny, karma, kismet, God, crazy coincidences, or whatever you wanted to call it, had written in the stars that I would find my soulmate.

Only he didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t fair, I wanted to yell out. Why grant me this once-in-a-lifetime chance and then leave me unrequited? Why was he my Romeo, but I wasn’t his Juliet?

Did I have the strength to move on and find my happy moments with someone else? Could I let him go?

“Um, meerkats? Yeah, not so cute and cuddly.

Have you seen the nasty things they eat?

I bypass them at the zoo . . . freakish little things.”

–Nora Blakely (shuddering)

A FEW DAYS later, I arrived at the gym for my first day on the job. Leo let me in after I buzzed the bell since the gym hadn’t officially opened yet for the public. He sat down with me and explained the requirements and gave me several shirts with Club Vita’s logo on them. He informed me he was going to pay me twenty dollars an hour, which I thought was ridiculously too much, but he insisted. My schedule would be three days a week from one o’clock until four, which would put me at close to one-hundred eighty dollars a week before taxes. I did the math and figured I’d have a small nest egg saved by the time college started.

He left me to work in his private office, so I settled in at the front desk, getting familiar with the computer and the list Leo had left for me to do.

As Sebastian let himself in the door from school, my phone buzzed. I looked down to see Finn had left me another text, but thankfully no picture. He’d been bombarding me with emails and texts all week. Usually I deleted them without reading, but this time, I needed to know what he was thinking. I suspected he was growing desperate, and it scared me.