“Ooh. Do tell.” Lennon rolls onto her stomach and rests her chin on her fist.
I shake my head. “There’s nothing to tell. I just really want to do well at the recital, that’s all.”
It’s wrong to lie to my best friend, and making Grayson right about me sucks, but it’s better than the alternative. If I told Brady that I lost my virginity, and who I lost it to, he would lose his shit. Protective is an understatement for what he is when it comes to me. I’m already beating myself up over all this. I don’t need his lecture on top of it.
Sleeping with Grayson was a bad move. I know that. It gave him another thing to hold over my head. But, in that moment, with him less than an inch away from me and looking in my eyes like he needed me to ease the pain, I’ve never wanted anything more.
I thought maybe things would be different after that night. Don’t get me wrong, I never expected him to magically fall in love with me and everything to be okay, but I didn’t think he’d still be a cold-hearted asshole. Hearing him continue to flirt with Kinsley right in front me stung. I had hoped that at the very least he would stop that, but I was wrong.
When I saw him waiting for me behind the bleachers, I had every intention of telling him to go fuck himself. However, the second he kissed me, all the willpower I had to resist him vanished. Kissing Grayson is just as exciting and heart stopping as it was the first time, when we were ten years old and sitting on top of his roof, under the stars.
The level of certainty in his voice as he told me that I’m his sent shockwaves straight through me and made me clench around nothing. He could have taken me right then and there, and I probably would’ve let him. It made one thing very clear to me—turning him down is not something I have the ability to do. It’s a scary revelation, because that means I’m completely at his mercy.
I’M JUST ABOUT TO get in the shower when there’s a knock at my front door. As soon as I open it, I feel like someone hit me with a bus. Delaney stands on the other side, looking just as shocked as I feel.
“Fucking Grayson,” I grumble under my breath and open the door wider to let her in.
She gives me a warm smile as she steps inside and looks around the hellhole I’ve been so very blessed with. That’s the thing about Delaney—she always tries to withhold judgment of others. However, I’ve known her since I was a kid, and I can almost hear the thoughts running through her head.
“What are you doing here?”
She shoots me questioning look. “I could ask you the same thing.”
My eyes roll harshly. “Yeah, yeah. Perfect Savannah Montgomery is really just a poor chick from the wrong side of town. Quit the shit and just tell me why you’re here.”
Placing a hand on her hip, she shakes her head. “Okay, stop. Just because your life went a little downhill doesn’t mean you can be rude to everyone around you.”
“A little downhill? Look around, Delaney! This place looks like it’ll fall apart with too strong of a breeze. I’d hardly call going from living in the house next to yours to this shit hole just ‘a little downhill.’ ” As she remains quiet, I take a deep breath and run my fingers through my hair to calm down. “Are you going to tell everyone?”
“No.” She answers without any hesitation at all, catching me off guard. After how I’ve been the past few years, I wouldn’t blame her for a second if she went to school tomorrow and shouted it from the rooftops.
“Why not?”
“Because.” She shrugs. “You used to be my best friend, and I miss that. I miss you.”
All the emotions from the last couple weeks take over as I start to tear up. I cross the room quickly and pull her into my arms. It’s been so long since I had a friend as good as her, and I was wrong to assume she would think any less of me for where I live.
We stand in the middle of the living room, sobbing like babies and squeezing each other like our lives depend on it. By the time we pull apart, our faces are soaked and my mascara is running.
“You look like a raccoon,” she giggles, reaching up to wipe away some of the makeup. “I think I just made it worse.”
I laugh and go toward the bathroom to wash up. “My room is just down the hall. You can wait in there. I’ll only be a minute.”
After I rid my face of all things cosmetic, I pull my phone from my pocket and send a quick text to Grayson.
Savannah: You sent Delaney to my house?! Are you out of your mind?
As I walk down the hallway, a response comes in.
Grayson: Depends on who you ask. Have fun.
I roll my eyes.
Savannah: Oh, I will, and jokes on you. She’s not going to expose me.
Grayson: Damn.
I could spend all day overevaluating his sarcasm and trying to figure out what it means, but that would be pointless. He’s so different from the boy I remember. To understand him, I’d need to get closer, but that process alone is dangerous. One of us will end up hurt, and I have a feeling it won’t be him.
DELANEY AND I SPEND hours catching up. She tells me about how her older sister Ainsley went away to college, which doesn’t surprise me. After graduating valedictorian three years ago, I’d expect nothing less. She also fills me in on what Tessa has been up to lately. I’d heard plenty of the rumors going around, but I never thought they were true—especially the one about her dating Easton, one of Knox’s best friends.
“What did your dad have to say about that? I can’t imagine he was okay with it.”
She laughs. “I mean, if you call getting into a screaming match with Tess as he told her she’s forbidden from seeing him okay with it, then sure.”
“Oh God.” I face palm. “That probably only made her want to date him more.”
“Worse. She slammed a door so hard the chandelier fell from the ceiling and shattered on the floor.”
My jaw drops. “She didn’t!”
Laney nods. “Oh, she definitely did. And then she went and snuck out her window to go see Easton. My dad threatened to send her to boarding school, but you and I both know it’s an empty threat.”
“She’d get kicked out anyway,” I reply, only half joking.
The front door opens and then slams shut. A wave of dread washes over me as I look at Delaney, eyes wide and pleading. She may already know I’m poor, but I seriously doubt my father is sober right now, so she’s about to know all my secrets.
“Savannah!” he shouts, sure enough slurring my name while he stumbles down the hall. “Whose expensive ass car is in front of my house?” Appearing in the doorway, his sights land on Delaney. “Well, I’ll be damned—little Delaney Callahan. Look at you! You must be eighteen by now.”
Her brows furrow as she looks between the two of us. “Uh, not for another few months.”
My father, the sick fuck that he is, blatantly checks her out before frowning. “That’s too bad.”
“Dad, Delaney was just leaving.” I stand up from my bed, praying she follows my lead. I turn and give her a look. “I’ll walk you out.”