True (True Believers #1)(22)
Author: Erin McCarthy

I pushed my quesadilla around on my plate with a tortilla chip and stabbed at my guacamole. Jessica and Robin and Nathan were talking away about a movie I hadn’t seen, and I was puzzling out all the things about Tyler that didn’t make sense. Why was he still texting me? If his goal was strictly to collect the money, then why had he put so much effort into being friends with me? Why would he still bother at this point?

But most of all, why wouldn’t he have taken me to Nathan’s and nailed me when I clearly had been willing? He had insisted we were just going to make out. That I could stop him at any point.

It wasn’t logical. But I kept learning over and over that people did not behave in any logical way. They were random and unpredictable, and didn’t always choose the quickest route to accomplish a goal.

Kylie and Tyler were making their way over to the table, and I hit the button to turn on my e-reader, forcing myself to stare at the words on the screen. It was a book I’d never heard of by an author I’d never heard of, and the language was so choppy, I basically gave up by the third line. But I still kept staring because I did not want to talk to Tyler.

A hand squeezed my shoulder and I looked up.

“Hey,” he said, smiling at me.

“Hey.”

“Whatcha reading?” He leaned over and swiped one of my tortilla chips.

As he crunched, I stared up at him, wanting to probe his mind, wanting to know what was going on there in his gray matter. But I figured every girl on the planet had found herself wishing she had a free pass inside a man’s mind at one point or another. Maybe it was self-preservation that we didn’t have such powers. It might be holy-crap creepy in there.

“I have no idea,” I told him honestly.

He laughed. “We studying this Thursday?”

My hesitation was obvious. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Tyler pulled out a chair and sat down on it backward, so he was leaning over the back watching me. “What’s going on? Why are you acting weird?”

“I always act weird.”

“No, you don’t. You are usually honest and straightforward. Now you’re just avoiding me.” He leaned closer, his voice dropping. “Why did you tell Kylie we had sex?”

“I never told her that,” I protested, because I hadn’t.

“Then you let her assume. Why? You told me it was no one’s business what happened between us. In this case, what didn’t happen.”

I glanced around, nervous. No one was looking at us, but it wouldn’t be that hard to hear what Tyler was saying. I played with my stacked bracelets, pulling them up my arm and letting them fall. “I don’t want to talk about this here.” I didn’t actually want to talk about it ever. I couldn’t tell him the truth, and anything else I might say to try to justify my behavior was going to sound like a lie, which it was.

He made a sound of exasperation and then shoved the chair back. “Then let’s go somewhere private and talk about it.”

“I have class,” I protested. But I couldn’t help but wonder why it mattered to him, why he was so clearly frustrated. Why he still wanted to see me.

Without another word, he stood up and slammed the chair back into the table, making me jump. Everyone at the table stopped talking and turned as he stalked off, hand raking through his hair. The minute he shoved through the front door he was digging in his pocket. For a cigarette, I was sure.

“What is his problem?” Nathan asked me.

I shrugged. The truth was I really didn’t know what was going on. I wished I did. It just seemed like if he had been doing a favor for my friends, or had needed the money, or was looking for the ego stroke of bagging the virgin, he wouldn’t react like this.

“Well, what did he say?” Kylie insisted, her smoothie hovering in front of her lips.

“He wanted to leave, and I said I had class and he shoved his chair. That’s it.”

“He’s been acting moody all week,” Nathan commented. “I wonder what’s up with him.”

“Yeah,” Kylie said, looking at me. “I wonder what’s up with him.”

Jessica and Robin’s eyes were on me, too. Nathan was frowning at me. So many eyes staring at me, it was unnerving. I didn’t like being in the spotlight.

“How would I know?” I asked defensively. Honestly, I was the one who knew the least about what was going on. They were all in on the Get Rory Fucked Fund. Well, I didn’t know that Nathan knew, but it seemed likely enough, given how much Kylie was into him. “I have to go to class.” I stood up, grabbing the plate with my barely eaten quesadilla.

“Rory,” Kylie started, but Jessica shook her head at her, an indicator to let me go.

So I left, with a wave and a half-smile.

Tyler texted me on Wednesday and I didn’t answer.

He texted on Thursday and I didn’t answer.

By the time he texted on Friday I felt like my skin was too tight and my legs wouldn’t stop bouncing up and down every time I sat. My fingertips felt cold all the time, and there were dark circles under my eyes from not sleeping. Everything I had heard Kylie and Jessica say and everything Tyler had said to me kept spinning around and around and around in my head like a violent whirlpool.

I spent extra hours in the lab, face covered in protective goggles, drowning in a lab coat. On Friday, I went to the animal shelter even though I wasn’t scheduled to work. They could always use an extra hand, and I didn’t want to be in my room or in the cafeteria with everyone.

What I didn’t expect was Tyler to show up at the shelter. I was on the floor playing with a few of beagle puppies when I heard Joanne. “Rory? Your friend is here.”

I glanced up and her eyebrows were raised in question, and she looked concerned. Behind her was Tyler, his hands crammed in his front pockets. I lost my balance and fell back onto my butt. Puppies leaped all over the front of me, and I tried to control them, hands blocking multiple tongues determined to lick my face.

“Tyler, what are you doing here?” I hadn’t thought he would track me down. I thought he would get tired of me not answering his texts and stop.

Clearly, I was wrong.

“It’s dark outside and I didn’t want you walking back by yourself. I’m here to give you a ride.”

I wanted to trust that he was genuine. I did. My frozen insides thawed just slightly.

Joanne’s expression changed. “You know what, I tell her that all the time. I can’t stand that she walks around in the dark by herself. All it takes is once for something awful to happen. We appreciate you picking our Rory up . . . She’s a sweet girl, isn’t she?”