Freefall (25 page)

I was about to argue some more, but someone tapped my arm. I turned, and Rosetta was standing there, glaring as if someone had just tried to run her over in a crosswalk or something. I did a double take—yup, that was definitely anger there—and then my mind started racing to work out what that look could be about.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, putting my hand on her shoulder.

She jerked back. Her voice was sharp as she said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Xander and Taku were watching us, looking only about half as confused as I was feeling.

“Um, yeah,” I said to Rosetta. “Of course.”

Without a word to the guys, I followed her, my stomach sloshing the whole way.

She seemed to be making it a point to keep several feet between us, and my heart was hammering like crazy. Seeing her was always—without fail—the best part of my day, and things had been so awesome with us when I’d left her at the country club last night. So this, whatever it was, made no sense.

Stopping near the announcement board at the less-crowded end of the hall, Rosetta turned to face me, looking even more pissed than she had twenty seconds before.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I honestly trusted you,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “With everything. My friends have been warning me about you from the very start, but I refused to listen. They were right, though, weren’t they?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you and Kendall.” Rosetta’s voice was quiet, but with her flashing eyes and tight lips, she looked anything but calm. “I’m talking about how you told
her
every single thing about my parents, the accident, my phobia, and my shrink.”

“
What
?”
I practically yelled. About ten heads turned my way, so I lowered my voice. “That’s ridiculous.” And it was. The most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. “I never said any of those things to her. Where’d you hear that I did?”

She bit her lip and looked at the floor. “Mostly from Carr after dinner last night. But a couple of other people filled me in on the rest of it.”

Great. Just great.

“You can’t be serious with this,” I said. “Even if I’d talked to Kendall—which I
haven’t
—she wouldn’t have said anything to Carr of all people. Don’t you think it’s possible that your busybody aunt was spreading that stuff around and Carr’s blaming it on me?”

“That did occur to me.” Her mouth was still turned down, but already she was looking and sounding less fierce. “I just don’t see what he would get out of lying about it. Besides, doesn’t it seem like an awfully strange coincidence that right after I told you, everything got out?”

It stung that she thought Carr wouldn’t lie to her, but that
I
would. “I’m telling you. I didn’t tell Kendall. I didn’t tell anyone.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Well, you also once said that Kendall was your enemy, and that you came to homecoming with her because you wanted to see
me
.”

“I
did
come to see you,” I insisted. “And I didn’t say she was my enemy. I said she was my nonenemy.”

“Whatever that even
means
,” Rosetta said, tossing her
hair over her shoulder in frustration. “You know, I didn’t want to believe it when people were saying that you couldn’t keep your hands off each other at the dance, but I can’t keep ignoring it if it’s still going on.”

“Nothing is going on.”

“I’ve had to hear from everyone how she was all over you at the bowling alley, and then you disappeared together.” Her voice was cracking now like she was struggling to keep it together. “I need you to tell me what this is, okay? The truth. Are you playing me because she’s the one you want, or vice versa? Or are you playing both of us?”

This was exactly the thing I’d been worried about with Kendall—that the wrong people would get the wrong idea and it would get back to Rosetta.

“It’s none of those. Kendall was hanging around me to try to make some other guy jealous. But I am totally into
you
, Rosetta. You’re the only one I want to be with. I swear.”

Then we stood there staring at each other for several long seconds. Rosetta wasn’t looking angry now as much as hurt. I could tell she wanted to believe me as much as I needed for her to.

“Okay,” she said. “You’re telling me there’s nothing between you and Kendall. Not now, not ever?”

It was the “ever” part that threw me, of course. I hesitated, trying to work out the best way to tell the truth without hurting her more.

“So there is something,” she said flatly.

“No! I mean, not really.” I couldn’t think about it anymore;
I had to blurt it out and try to make her understand. “I got drunk one night at the end of summer, and, well, it just sort of happened, I guess. But it was a one-time thing and—”

“Wait.” She put up her hand. “Are you saying you slept together?”

With my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my ears, I nodded.

And just like that, tears were spilling down Rosetta’s cheeks. “I flat-out asked you about her! All you would say was that she wasn’t your girlfriend. You told me she hangs around your house because she’s friends with your
mother
. How stupid was I to believe that?”

It’s crazy when the truth sounds like lies. I took a few deep breaths to try to force back my panic. “Everything I told you about Kendall is true. And I tried to tell you the rest of it, too, but you asked me not to. All I can say now is that it happened before I knew you, and I was so wasted I don’t remember it anyway. The Kendall thing was a huge mistake, and it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

I waited, hoping I’d said it the right way. Hoping Rosetta understood that no one had ever mattered to me the way she did.

“That’s great,” she said, wiping her eyes. “‘The Kendall thing.’ So I guess being with me was the ‘the Rosetta thing’?”

She hadn’t gotten it.

Rosetta rushed to get away, and, not knowing what else to do, I let her go.

7:45
A.M.

I was on a hunt. For Kendall. For Carr. For
anyone
who could explain what the hell was going on.

“Is everything all right?” Xander asked, walking fast to catch up with me.

I had the headache from hell, and my stomach was about to explode. Really, I wanted to tell Xander to back off, but instead I just said, “No. Nothing is all right.”

I spotted Kendall coming out of the girls’ bathroom and went after her. Xander came along.

“Kendall, I need to ask you something,” I said.

She stopped short. “Go for it. But just so you know, I’m
not
having my best week ever.”

“Yeah, neither am I. Rosetta’s pissed. She said you told Carr a bunch of shit about her that came from me. Obviously, I didn’t tell you anything, so can you maybe clue me in on what this is about?”

Kendall made an irritated growling sound in her throat. “That asshole is so dead.”

I don’t know if it’s possible for
hair
to be aggressive, but that’s how Kendall’s black-and-blue strands looked, swinging behind her as she stomped away.

Xander gave a low whistle. “Yikes. Yesterday, Carr was
telling some of the guys in Spanish class that Kendall’s been following him, and he’s going to the police with a bunch of evidence or something.”

I would be the first to admit that Kendall would make an excellent stalker if she wanted to be one, but I didn’t believe this shit. What was Carr’s deal with her, anyway?

“He is such a liar.”

“Oh yeah, I know,” Xander said quickly. “I don’t think anyone was taking him seriously or anything. After seeing her now, though, I’m thinking he’s just given himself a good reason to worry.”

Just then Kendall’s voice rang out from down the hall. “This is going to happen one of two ways. We can go outside. Which, for the record, is my preference. Or we can have it out in front of everyone here. It’s your choice.”

I didn’t want to stand there staring like the other thirty or so people leaning in to watch. But I needed to know what was going on so I headed that way. Kendall was outside the cafeteria with her hands on her hips, glaring at Carr. I hadn’t quite caught his answer, but her reply was loud and clear: “Then right here it will be.”

Carr smirked at his friends and then at her. “Really, Kendall,” he said, raising his voice. “I’m flattered by all this attention, but I’m not interested in you. And, to be honest, it’s getting kind of awkward having to say so all the time.”

For a second, Kendall looked shocked, but she recovered quickly. “As you well know, that is hilarious on many levels,”
she said, flashing one of her fake smiles. “
I’m
kind of flattered that these past few months have meant so much to you that you’re bothering with this smear campaign. But if you don’t stop spreading lies about me, I’ll make sure you regret it. Are we clear?”

I don’t know about Carr, but I was getting clear on something. I’d been wrong about Pete Zimmer all this time.

“I have plenty of evidence of the stuff you’ve been up to,” Carr said, performing for the crowd. “Text messages. Voice mails. E-mails. I’ll go to the police with all of it if you don’t stop this harassment.”

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Carr had been calling Kendall a slut behind her back while he’d been hooking up with her. Now that she’d decided to end things with him, he was trying to get back at her and make himself look like some kind of victim. He’d also made it a point to ruin things between me and Rosetta in the process. Un-fucking-believable.

“Give me a break, Goodwin,” I said, stepping forward. “Kendall has evidence like that against you too. And she has the good stuff. You know, videos and pictures and DNA samples.”

Carr looked back and forth between us, frowning. “No, she doesn’t.”

Kendall didn’t say anything, but she kept her expression bland enough that, for all I could guess, she really
did
have that shit.
The girl could roll with anything you threw at her.

I shrugged. “If you don’t get off her case, you might get to find out the hard way that she does. Maybe she’ll wait until someday in the far-off future when you’re trying to run for governor or whatever to make it really hurt. Or, hell, she might hang on to this stuff to keep you in line for the rest of your life.”

Carr wasn’t even trying to look cool or composed anymore. He was too busy freaking about what kind of videos and DNA Kendall might have, I guess. I didn’t even want to imagine what he was imagining.

Behind Carr, Vicki was watching me. I had a feeling she’d be running off to tell Rosetta about this the first chance she got. Which
sucked
. But I couldn’t just leave Kendall now. I had to hope that after Rosetta found out the whole story about Carr and Kendall, she’d see that she should have believed me all along.

I gave Kendall a nudge. “It’s about time to head to class.”

She hesitated, but I poked her again, so she started walking. I turned to follow. But before I’d made it three steps, there were hands on my shoulders and I was being flung sideways into a row of lockers. My arm and head crashed against the metal. I stumbled but managed to stay upright. When I spun around, Carr was standing his ground—surprisingly—and watching me with that
smirk
.

“Come on, Seth,” Kendall said. “Let’s just leave.”

For about half a second, I considered it. Walking away, I mean.

But then I thought about how Carr was a guy who used girls and then told lies about them. He was a guy who would shove you into a swimming pool or against the lockers when your back was turned. A guy who’d screw things up between you and the coolest girl you’d ever known just because he could. When it all came down to it, Carr Goodwin was a waste of space who severely needed to get beaten down.

So, after about three seconds of considering all that, there was no way I could walk away.

Instead, I lunged right at that fucker.

7:49
A.M.

My senses were overloading.

I heard my own hard breathing, people yelling, Kendall shrieking.

I tasted blood.

I felt an ache in my jaw, throbbing under my eye, adrenaline pumping all through my body, the floor under my back, Carr’s fist in my water-filled gut.

I smelled floor detergent, Carr’s deodorant.

I saw fluorescent lights, Carr getting pulled off me by Xander and Pete, and lots of shocked faces looking down.

It was over already.

After years in the making, my big fight with Carr
Goodwin had wrapped up in thirty seconds, give or take. And the wrong one of us had been left lying on the floor.

4:48
P.M.

The drizzling was starting again, but I didn’t get up from the boulder by the river I’d been on for almost an hour. Instead, I took another swallow of the Southern Comfort I’d swiped from home, and winced at the pain in my ribs as I raised and lowered the bottle.

The ass-kicking Carr delivered that morning had given me a bunch of bruises and an immediate five-day suspension from school. Maybe I should have been glad that the vice principal considered Carr the instigator and gave him
six
days, but it was hard to give a shit. I’d lost the fight without managing to get in even one decent punch. Worse, I’d lost Rosetta because she trusted Carr more than me.

Right then, a girl’s voice rang out over the roar of the river. “A ha! I knew I’d find you here. Of course, your car over at the park gave it away.”

I turned my head toward Kendall, who was making her way down the bank. She wore a long-sleeve T-shirt and baggy exercise pants. I hadn’t even known she owned clothing that covered her legs.

She was watching me the whole time she jumped across the rocks. Then, after she’d settled on mine, she said, “Seth, your
eye
. Oh my God. That looks awful!”

At that moment, I had a dark red ring around my eye spanning from my eyebrow to my cheekbone—a nasty shiner in the making. “Yeah, well, it’s only going to get worse.”

She reached one of her gummy-bear-scented hands out as if she was going to touch it, but stopped inches short and set her hand on her lap instead. Then she kind of scooted her butt around like she was trying to get comfortable.