I cursed under my breath as I saw that she was alone standing off to the side.
She had one arm up and was grasping the elbow of the other arm. She looked so small and delicate. And I could tell she was uncomfortable. She’d clearly been anxious and nervous all day, but she’d been hiding those nerves like a champ. It took all my strength not to run over and protect her once more today.
“How is Eve holding up?” Ethan asked as he stood next to me. I glanced over at him to see that his gaze was in the same direction as my own.
“Eve? How would I know?” I said as I turned so that my back was to Eve and I could focus on something other than my desire to rescue her.
“So you don’t care that your best friend’s little sister is now at our school?” Ethan asked.
“She’s a big girl, she can take care of herself.”
That might have been the biggest lie I’d ever told. Between her kind but overbearing parents, her overprotective older brother, and her years spent at an elite ballet academy, the girl had led the most sheltered life of anyone I’d ever met.
Ethan snorted. “That’s not Colette’s view of it. She was constantly texting me this morning telling me I need to keep an eye on Eve. She was texting with Eve this morning and, from the sounds of it, she was super nervous to come here.”
I stopped to stare at Ethan. She was that worried? I mean, I knew she’d been nervous but why did she act like she wasn’t around me? I was a family friend. I’d known her forever, so why would she tell Collette she was scared and not me?
I swallowed back the hurt that rose up inside of me as I realized that Eve didn’t even trust me with her concerns. How had things gotten like this?
I gave my head a little shake. Whatever. So we weren’t friends. Probably for the best. But concern for Eve still nagged at me.
She didn’t want to talk to me? Fine. But maybe she would talk to Ethan. I wave my hand in her direction. “Well, now’s the time. Go over and see how she’s doing.”
Ethan studied me and then nodded. “Yeah, I probably should. If I don’t, Collette will have me for dinner.” He gave me a wicked smile. “And not in a good way.”
I shoved his shoulder and pushed him in Eve’s direction. He chuckled as he walked away. I couldn’t help but stare at them as Ethan approached her. They talked for a minute and suddenly Eve was laughing and smiling. She looked much more relaxed than she ever did around me.
I turned my gaze to the grass and let out a sigh. I knew I should be happy that my friend had helped ease Eve’s worry. I knew I should be happy that she was adjusting to the school. I knew I should be happy that she looked happy.
But I wasn’t.
And I was pretty sure that I was most definitely not in the right headspace to dissect why.
Because deep down—very, very deep down—the truth lived. And if I let that truth out, there would be no going back. If I let the truth out, I just might lose everything.
Chapter 3
Eve
Extending my arms up over my head, I leaned forward until my nose touched my knee. I came back up, twisted my waist and did the same stretch on the other side, my muscles practically moaning in relief as I performed the familiar pre-dance class stretches.
The next time I sat up, I drew in a deep inhale and let it out with a sigh that was part happiness, part sadness...and totally pitiful. Who would have thought the scent of wood floors, cleaning products, and sweat could make a girl so freakin’ emotional?
I was glad the other girls weren’t there to hear my pathetic sighs. Colette, Bianca, and the others were probably en route from their last class right now and the boys from the football team would be here any minute, but for one blissful moment, I was alone in my favorite place in the whole world.
Tears stung the back of my eyes but I blinked them back. Feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to change the fact that this was no longer my home away from home. And no amount of self-pity was going to make my dreams of being a dancer come true.
Besides, I ought to be enjoying myself right now. After four days of being the new girl in a strange school, I was finally back at the academy. I should be enjoying this moment, not moping.
“There she is!” Colette’s voice cut through my thoughts and I glanced up to see her rushing through the door and straight toward me. I’d only just scrambled to my feet when I was tackled in a hug. “We’ve missed you. Olivia’s going to swing by later. She says to say hi and she misses you and that if you don’t set her up with a hottie from Oakwood, you’re dead to her.”
I laughed as I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her back. “I missed you guys, too.”
“So?” Tilly took her place at the barre behind me and even though I’d never been particularly fond of Tilly, even the sight of her made me want to weep with nostalgia. “Tell us everything.”
“Um…”
Colette was watching me expectantly, her brows arched high and her eyes wide like she was just waiting for me to say something fun or funny or at the very least interesting. I could tell she wanted to keep the fact that she was using Ethan to keep tabs on me a secret—but I figured it out day one when he came trompsing over to me to see how I was doing. Now, with the intrigue written all over her face, I knew that she wanted to find out if what he’d told her was the truth.
But, the truth was boring. I had nothing. “Um, the people are...nice.”
I looked from Tilly’s unimpressed stare to Collette’s obvious disappointment to Bianca’s full-on sneer. “Nice?” she repeated, like it was a foreign word or something.
Tilly huffed beside me. “I meant, tell us everything about the guy situation. Have you met any hotties yet?”
Suddenly and inexplicably, Cooper’s face filled my mind’s eye. I gave it a mental shove. Cooper was so not a hottie.
Liar.
Okay, fine. He totally was a hottie, but more than that he was rapidly becoming the bane of my freakin’ existence.
“Um, hello…” Bianca waved a hand in front of my face. “Does that dazed look mean you’ve got a crush already?”
“What?” I blinked, heat flaring in my cheeks as if they could read my thoughts about Cooper. “No. No, no crushes.” I glanced over at Tilly. “And no guy situation to speak of.”
Colette narrowed her eyes. “Are you telling me that no guys have hit on you? You’re gorgeous and you’re new. There had to have been someone—”
“Nope.” I cut her off and my tone came across more bitter than intended. “I mean, there might have been except that Cooper has been scaring off any guy who dares to get within three feet of me.”
“Cooper?” Bianca repeated his name as if she didn’t know the giant wide receiver she’d been attempting to teach dance to these past few months. “But I thought…”
She never finished her sentence, her eyes narrowing on me instead like she was putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Colette, meanwhile, got this weird look in her eyes. They went all soft and sappy and...oh no.
“Aww,” she said in a girlie sing-song voice. “He’s jealous? That’s kind of sweet.”