"Well, well, well. Looks like you actually showed up today. The infamous Amanda Winters," a familiar voice says from behind us.
I close my eyes, fighting the dread that's washing over me. Without having to see her, I know it's Lauren Mancini. I'd recognize that snotty voice of hers anywhere. I dab at the tears before I turn around to face her. She physically recoils when she spots my black eye. "What do you want, Lauren?"
"Your eye. It look hideous," she says, making all of her cheerleader friends laugh nervously. She's brought a posse with her, but why? For backup? So they can all make fun of me?
Great.
"Gee, thanks. I didn't know." Sarcasm drips from my words.
"So is it true?"
I decide to play dumb. "Is what true?"
"The rumors about you and Cannon and Jordan." I seriously hate it when she calls him Jordan. Like she has the right. "You guys are now a threesome or what? I mean, that's very … modern of you, and them." She laughs and so does the rest of her friends.
I clench my hands into fists and part my lips, but no words come. It's like I've drawn a complete blank, which is the absolute last thing you want to do when forced to confront Lauren Mancini.
"No, of course it's not true. How dare you even ask," Livvy says, rushing to my defense. "Who the hell are you to judge anyway, Mancini? We've all heard the rumors about you."
Lauren's eyes flicker for the briefest moment. Thank God Livvy remembers all the rumors and crap that fly around this school. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Neither do you, so keep your thoughts to yourself, bitch." Livvy grabs my arm and starts steering me down the hall. "Let's go, Amanda."
"Wait a minute. I need to get my book out of my locker," I start to say, but Livvy cuts me off.
"Come back and get it later," she says under her breath. "We don't want to stick around here. Lauren will only make everything worse."
I know she's right, so I follow her lead, wishing we'd run into Jordan. Or even Cannon. Anyone to help set the rumors straight. But we don't. We're less than a minute away from the final bell ringing, so I run into class, settling into my seat and pretending to dig in my backpack, searching for my book.
But I know it's not in there.
The final bell rings and I go to my teacher's desk, asking if I can go get my book since I forgot it in my locker. He hands over the hall pass and I run back out into the empty hallway, thankful Lauren's not lurking around anymore with her little group.
I go to my locker and open the door quickly, noticing the folded piece of white paper caught in the door vents. My heart picks up speed as I pluck it from its spot and carefully unfold the paper behind the still-open door.
There's only one sentence scrawled across the middle of the otherwise blank paper, in slashing black script.
You look pretty today.
Lifting my head, I glance around the hall, wondering who left it, and when. Was it some creeper preparing to give me grief over the threesome rumors? I don't recognize the handwriting. And I don't know why anyone would leave me a note. Jordan and I have talked. He picked me up from work when my Yo Town shift was over and we chatted on the drive home, but we kept it easy. I felt like I was hanging out with a friend, not my boyfriend.
Not that he's my boyfriend. I can't make that claim yet.
I grab my book and slam the locker door, the metal clang reverberating throughout the otherwise empty hallway. The overhead speakers click on and the student body president starts the morning announcements, and I cringe, praying he doesn't say anything about the weekend rumors.
Not that he would. I'm just totally overreacting.
I look at the note once more as I head back to class, rereading the words. I guess it could be Jordan who wrote the note, but I'm not sure. Maybe it was some jerk hoping to rattle me. It could've been anyone really. Maybe even Lauren, though I don't know why she'd do this sort of thing. Without thought, I crumple the paper into the palm of my hand and I drop the balled up note in the trashcan as I pass by.
The morning passes with little fanfare, which works for me. Livvy tries to convince me to hang out in the quad at lunch with her and Ryan, but there was no way I could show my face there. Lauren would gloat and say something awful. Some of the cruder boys from the football team might make comments I don't want to hear. And I have no idea where Jordan is. I haven't heard from him all morning. No passing by him in the halls, no texts, no Snapchats.
Nothing.
So I hide out during lunch in the library like old times. It's cloudy outside and the wind has picked up, so I'm glad I'm not out in the quad.
I'd rather be by myself.
"I figured I'd find you hiding out in here," Em says when she approaches my table, pulling out the chair on the opposite of my table and settling in.