Betting on You

41

f o r t y o n e

"Oh, my gosh. Maddy!"

I barely had enough time to turn away from my locker and when I did, Stephanie was barreling into me and winding her arms around my neck.

"Steph! Uh.. hey.." I awkwardly wrapped my arms around her waist to return her hug, my heart pounding in my chest. Did she know where I'd been? Why I'd been away? Seeing as this was her reaction to my first day back, there was definitely hope that she didn't know anything.

Steph pulled away, hands on my shoulders to look at me at arm's length. Her eyes looked over my outfit, inspecting it for some reason and causing me to suddenly feel self-conscious. Which I shouldn't. My purple long sleeve was weather appropriate and so were my black jeans. She had no reason to look at me and know what I had done to myself. Or ask questions.

If anything, I had questions for her. She was wearing a pink mid-length dress in the middle of winter.

"Where the heck have you been, Mads?" she dropped her hands from my shoulders and fluffed her blonde hair. "I have so much to catch you up on!"

I gave her an awkward laugh as I turned towards my locker again, pulling out my social science notebook for my first-period class. I needed to get a grip. "I haven't missed that much, have I?"

"Um, yes!" she exclaimed loudly, not caring that she was drawing attention towards herself. When I closed my locker she wasted no time in linking her arm through mine, leading the way down the hall. "Okay, so-"

And off she went, babbling about whatever it was that she thought was important that I had missed during my week away. And for once, I was happy that she was so self-oriented. I didn't have to talk about myself at all.

As Steph led the way to her first-period class, I tried my best to keep up with what she was saying. Something about drama on the cheer squad. Something about one of her teachers. Nothing that had to do with me or... Jared, or him. Which was both a relief and a dread. I had left my window locked and curtains drawn throughout the entire weekend to avoid catching Luke looking over at me again. That also seemed to send him the message that I didn't want him knocking on my front door either. I had also asked my dad to drop Harm and I off early this morning for school so I could avoid running into him outside our houses. I was taking all the necessary precautions, yet even the thought of running into him in these halls, with people around, was enough to make my anxiety rise.

I knew that there was only so much avoiding I could do before we crossed paths but the longer I went without seeing him, the better I felt.

But it was only Monday morning. I had an entire week to get through and I was not looking forward to it, especially since I shared classes with both boys. What was I going to do if either approached me? My ex-bestfriend might be sick of staying away. He might try and talk to me to clear his conscience, like Calum had come to do. I wouldn't cause a scene, but how would I get away from either?

"So yeah," Steph concluded once we reached her class. "That's all you've missed. Gosh, you can't be gone a week again and not tell me, alright?"

"Yeah," I gave her a small smile, my eyes wandering over her shoulder and into her classroom. My intention was to try and see the clock on the wall, as I knew there must be maybe a minute or two before the bell rung and I'd be late to my own class, on the other side of the school. But then I frowned, looking back to Steph. "Wait, what's your first-period class again?"

"Senior-level math or something," she shrugged. "I took this class because Luke's here, remember? He's so sweet, he always helps me out when I don't do the homework. Ugh, what a gentleman."