Becca: Any luck?

 

I hold my breath, waiting for his response.

Toby: None. Give me a second to move my car down the road so no one sees it.

 

I unlock my window and open it all the way. Toby comes walking up the driveway, barely visible in the dark. He climbs the tree in front of the house and slips in the window.

“You made that look easy.”

“I was determined.” And most likely fueled by rage after talking to Meredith.

“What did Meredith say?”

“She gave me an option.”

I perk up for a second. “What was it?” I’ll take just about anything over what she has planned.

“She wants me to publicly dump you and promise to stay away from you for good.”

With all the secrets and all the lies, I should’ve expected this, but it doesn’t hurt any less because I know what Toby needs to do. I won’t let Meredith ruin him because of me. My heart clenches as I look into his eyes and say, “Then do it.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“No way. I’m not humiliating you in front of everyone, and I’m not going back to sneaking around. I don’t want her to have this kind of control over me for the rest of my life. She’ll back off for now if I go through with this, but the next time I piss her off, she’ll threaten me with it again. I’m not going to be her bitch.”

“Then tell her you’re going to do it. Friday. At the pep rally. Only we’ll out her instead. We’ll tell everyone how she threatened us. How she made you pretend to date her. We’ll expose her for a liar before she can say anything.”

“What if she tells everyone anyway? Some people may still believe her. I don’t exactly have a big following anymore.”

Once again, I know Tori could fix this. People would believe her over Meredith. But she won’t help us. She probably wants to see us suffer as much as Meredith does. “This is our only option, unless you do what Meredith asked.”

“No.” He reaches for me and pulls me to him. “I’m not breaking up with you.”

I lean my head back and find his lips. His kiss is hungry. His hands are in my hair and then running up and down my back. He pulls me closer, but I back us up to the bed.

“What are you doing?” he asks when we’re lying on the mattress. “I’m not asking for this. I’m sorry if I got a little carried away just now, but this isn’t what I was trying to—”

I press my finger to his lips. “I know. I just thought we’d be more comfortable here.”

He smiles, and I lower my finger to kiss him again. We’re a tangle of limbs as he kisses my mouth, my jaw, and my neck. I have to stifle a few moans. The last thing I need is Dad breaking down the door. Finally at about midnight, Toby lies flat on his back, and I put my head on his chest. We fall asleep in each other’s arms.

He’s gone when I wake up in the morning, but he left me a text.

Toby: Telling Meredith before school. Hope this works. I love you.

 

Becca: Good luck. I love you too.

 

It’s Thursday. Our last day together if our plan doesn’t work. While Toby is talking to Meredith, I make one last attempt to talk to Tori. She’s at her locker with Ryder. Ryder nods to me when I come up behind Tori.

“Can I have a minute alone with Tori, please?”

She turns to look at me and slams her locker shut. “No.” She loops her arm through Ryder’s, but he doesn’t move.

“This is ridiculous. Toby is my best friend, and I haven’t even talked to him since your party. Becca’s your friend, and you haven’t talked to her either. Personally, I think it would be great to all hang out together, like we did at your house that night. So can’t you two just suck it up, do whatever girl-bonding thing you need to, and get over this?” He kisses the top of Tori’s head and walks away.

“Bastard,” she says, looking after him.

“Actually, he’s a pretty great boyfriend. He wants you to be happy. So do I.”

“Is that why you snuck around with my brother? Because you thought it would make me happy?” She starts toward class, but I grab her arm and pull her into the girls’ bathroom. “Let go of me, Becca. I’m not in the mood to listen to you.”

“Yeah, well, after tomorrow’s pep rally, you may never have to listen to me or Toby again.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “What are you talking about?” She obviously deleted my text without even reading it, because this is news to her.

“That’s when Meredith is going to make her announcement. That is unless Toby publicly dumps me instead.”

A smile creeps across her lips.

“Yeah, I know you’d love that, but what’s going to stop Meredith from making her announcement some other time when Toby gets on her bad side again? You can’t possibly want that for him, Tori.”

“Look, I’m sorry if things didn’t work out the way you and my brother planned, but it’s not my problem. You chose this. If you’re smart, you’ll tell Toby to dump you. Save you both some pain and suffering. Cut your losses and find some new friends.” She walks out, taking all my hope with her.

Toby’s leaning against my locker when I get there. “Any luck?” I ask.

“I told her I’d do it. She seemed happy about it.”

“I talked to Tori again.”

He stands up straight. “I can imagine how well that went.”

We don’t say another word about it for the rest of the day. We have to stick to our plan and hope for the best. Toby comes over again at night after my parents are asleep, and we make out like there’s no tomorrow because I don’t want there to be one. But before I know it, the sun is up. Only this morning, I’m still in Toby’s arms.

“You stayed.”

“I couldn’t make myself leave.” He must be just as worried as I am that our plan isn’t going to work.

“So, are you ready to dump me?”

“Not even close.”

I roll over onto my stomach so I can look him in the eyes. “Listen to me. If our plan doesn’t work, I want you to break up with me. Give Meredith what she wants. I won’t let you move away. I’d rather give you up than see your life ruined.”

“I never bought into that ‘if you love someone, let them go’ crap.”

“Well, I’m asking you to. For me.” He shakes his head, but I cup his face in my hands. “Promise me, Toby.”

“I hate this.”

“Believe me, so do I.”

I kiss him softly on the lips before I get ready for school and our possible breakup. The day flies by. It’s like time doesn’t exist anymore because all the seconds run into each other. And before I know it, they’re making the announcement to call everyone down to the gymnasium for the pep rally. Toby finds me in the hall and pulls me into the girls’ bathroom.

“You’re making a habit of this,” I say with a nervous laugh.

He smothers my lips with his. I can feel all his tension, and I want to cry because my insides are aching for him. “I love you,” he says, pulling away.

“I love you too.”

“We’re going to walk in there together. Hopefully this will go in our favor, and we’ll walk out of there the same way.”

I shake as I place my hand in his and nod. We follow the crowd into the gymnasium. Toby and I huddle together on the bleachers. I look for Tori, and find her sitting with Ryder, Jeff, and a bunch of girls, Meredith included.

“I can’t believe she’s hanging out with Meredith.” I motion to the group.

“My guess is they’re not really friends. They’re just coexisting since they both want to hang out in that crowd.”

I can’t imagine Tori putting up with Meredith, but maybe hating Toby and me is enough to bring them together.

“When do you think—?”

“Meredith will come out with the cheerleaders,” he says, answering the question so I don’t have to say the words out loud. “She said she’ll call me up to the microphone then.”