Betting on You

49

f o r t y n i n e

"These look great! Thanks, Mads!" Jaime beamed as she looked at the painted posters on Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday had been so busy that she hadn't gotten to see them and now it was the day of the game and she was getting the rest of the posters and things that she needed from the art classroom to bring to the community center.

Just like the last match, months ago, the game would be held at the community center a couple of blocks down the road since there was snow on the ground and it was freezing outside. Some of the other students on her committee had already packed up everything else in their cars if they had them, and were already on their way over there. Jaime and I were the last to go, as she wanted to make sure that absolutely everything they'd need had been packed.

As she re-rolled the posters, I shook my head. "I didn't paint them."

She glanced at me confusedly before handing them back to me and turning to get the remaining posters, rolls of tape, and some scissors. "What do you mean? I thought that's why-"

"I left them in Luke's car," I blurt out. "And then when he gave them back to me, they were already painted."

She turns to look at me, eyes wide, mouth slightly parted. "That's..."

"I know," I breathed, then shoved my hand into my pocket. I was about to take out the letter that he wrote me and show her — I wanted to talk to someone about this letter — but then I thought against it. Luke never wanted me to see this, let alone anyone else. Showing it around would be crossing a line.

Crossing another line, seeing as I already crossed one yesterday morning by opening the present in the first place.

I removed my hands from my pockets, seeing Jaime purse her lips. "Does he expect something from you in return?" she asked.

"No," I shook my head. "He apologized that I left them in his car."

She scrunched up her nose. "That doesn't make any sense."

"I know!" I threw my hands up and followed Jaime as she made her way out of the classroom, everything she needed in hand. We were on our way to her car, which had thankfully been fixed. "What should I do?"

"Well," she began, "If he wants nothing in return then you don't have to do anything. Painting the posters was a nice gesture, but that's all it was. You told him you don't want to be friends anymore, so I'd say keep it at that. If you limbo between talking to him and not talking to him, that's not fair to either of you, right?"

"Right," I mumbled as we made it to the back doors, and then towards her car in the parking lot. When we reached it she opened the trunk and we shoved the posters and supplies into the back. When that was done, we hopped into her car. "Do you think he's changed?"

She started her car and turned up the heat, getting her hands warm. "It's been almost two months. Do you think he's done anything to change in that time?"

I hesitated from saying yes because then I'd have to justify it, and I was unsure how public the knowledge of him having a therapist and taking medication was. Harm knew because of Cal, so I could assume that only him, Michael, and Ashton knew. Other than that, I should probably assume that no one else was aware.

Other than that, he'd done what I'd asked; Stayed away. For the past two months or so, he'd avoided me in the halls, he hadn't tried to talk to me in classes, and he even took back his stupid hands-off rule. He didn't interfere with my relationship with Darius, and he stopped tutoring Jaime.