Betting on You

47

f o r t y s e v e n
~ one month later ~

I was late. So, so late.

"Mother is going to absolutely murder me for this," I mumbled under my breath, rushing down the halls and towards my locker.

"My mother is going to absolutely murder me for this," Harmony chimed in as she stopped at my side, watching me throw open my locker and collect my books. "Sure, I've been skipping fewer classes but that woman threatened to ground me if I kept this up."

"Not helping, Harm," I sent her a quick glare, shoving my history textbook into my bag. "And you know how my mother is, so I think mine is the worse of the two."

To that, my cousin scoffed. "As if," she rolled her eyes. "And why are you skittering about? Second period is almost over. It doesn't even make sense to go."

"Ugh," I groaned, pulling out my phone to check the time, only to see that she was right. Huffing in defeat, I took my history book out of my bag to shove it back into my locker. "I'm never letting you talk me into another Twilight movie marathon again."

Feigning offense, I couldn't help but giggle as Harm mocked the action of wiping tears from her eyes. "You can't just make a statement like that! Take it back!"

"Absolutely not!" I laughed some more, dodging her hand as she attempted to shove me. "If my grades start to suffer because of Edward and Jacob, I'll never forgive myself."

The bell suddenly rang as we continued to joke back and forth, nudging each other with no ill intent. It was still a little bizarre, Harm and I getting along so well. We had been closer than we'd ever been before, and while I had finally gotten used to this new dynamic between us, sometimes it still caught me a little off-guard.

But the sound of the bell had gotten us to calm back down, and I turned myself back towards my locker to see if there was anything else I needed to grab before shutting it and slinging my bag back over my shoulder. "Wait a second, your second-period class was maths, right?"

"Yeah," she shrugged, looping her arm through mine and dragging us a little way down the filling hall towards her locker. When we got there she dropped her hold on me, entering in her combination. "I can afford to miss it."

"I hate that you're so good at math," I grumbled. "It's so hard for me. That's why I didn't take it this year."

"Is this you finally admitting that I'm smarter than you?"

"No!" I laughed, poking her arm as she opened her locker. At the same time that she did, a folded piece of paper fluttered to the ground, catching her attention. "Well, maybe a little bit. But whatever. It's a new year and I made the resolution to not do things that I didn't like. Math fits that category."

Harm rolled her eyes at my remark but her attention was now on the paper that she had picked up from the ground, opening it up and scanning its contents. There was a slow smile that begun to make its way onto her lips, piquing my interest.

"What is that?" I asked.

Her smile widened. "A note from Cal."

I smiled too.

Cal and Harm had been going strong for about two or so months now. Though I had initially had my doubts about whether or not what they had was going to get serious, Harm had surprised me with the way her relationship had been going.

Calum was great for her. It wasn't hard to see how happy he made her, and the little things that he did to keep their romance going. He took her out on dinner dates often, was sweet to her no matter who was watching, and had helped her to become a better version of herself. He was actually a huge help to Harm and I's relationship, helping her to see that the drama we had been in when we were kids was in the past now, and it would help her if she tried to move forwards.