The Naughty List (The Naughty List #1)(49)
Author: Suzanne Young

SOS

Text: 555-0101

Exposing Cheaters for Over Two Years

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

KIRA TOOK ME TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM AFTER Aiden called her to come pick me up. It was sweet of him to make sure I got home okay, even though he wasn’t willing to do it himself. At one point while I was walking, I thought I’d heard someone following me, but when I turned, no one was there. I chalked it up to head wound delusions.

Kira had picked me up about a block away from Aiden’s house and driven directly to Good Samaritan Hospital. When we got there, the blue plaster walls were filled to the brim with patients. But the nurses quickly evaluated me. Probably because I was still in uniform.

I needed a stitch, but luckily, I didn’t have a concussion. And although I asked, there was no medication for a broken heart.

As Kira and I waited in the lobby for me to be called back, the nurse gave me a gauze pad that I held to my forehead. My life was shattered, and my brain was throbbing. Things would never be okay.

“I’m not trying to be nosy,” Kira said from the hard plastic chair next to me. “But what exactly happened when you and Christian were in his car?”

I didn’t want to tell her. I’d glossed over the details the first time for a reason. No, all I wanted right now was to listen to coughing patients and the hum of the monitors.

“I’m a horrible person, K,” I mumbled, staring at the receptionist behind the desk. She had on those chic, beehive-frame glasses with a dainty silver chain dangling from them, looped around her neck. I’d have to tell Leona about them. They were fabulous.

Kira gasped. “No, you’re not, Tess. You’re the greatest person I know.”

I scoffed. “I kissed Christian,” I said, turning to stare at her. “I was upset and I cheated on Aiden. What kind of person does that make me?”

My best friend smiled and reached out to take the gauze from my head, checking my wound. “It makes you a regular person, Tessa Crimson. You can’t be spot-on all the time. You made a mistake. Aiden will get over it.”

She refolded the bandage and applied pressure. She was too good to me, but she was wrong. Aiden would never forgive me. I saw it in his eyes tonight.

“I don’t deserve you,” I said, feeling it was true. “I don’t deserve to be a Smitten Kitten.”

Kira squeaked and touched her chest. “Are you kidding?” She stood up in front of me and tilted her head. “Last year when I was dating all those football players, who told me that I was more than a piece of tail?”

I looked at her. “I did.”

Kira glanced around the room, not seeming to care that people were watching her. “And who saved Leona from that Kitten fight at the pool with Lucy McGill after Leona called her fat?”

“Me.”

“Who told Izzie that being adopted was better than having regular parents because it meant they’d handpicked her?”

I nodded. I saw what Kira was doing, but it wouldn’t help. I had guilt so deep in my skin that I didn’t know if I could ever perk up.

Kira leaned down, putting her hands on either side of my chair. She got close to my face. “And who”—her eyes began to water—“was there for me when my dad left?”

I sniffled. “Me.”

“And that’s because you’re a great person. You’re the queen bee for a reason.”

I nearly burst into tears as I reached out and hugged her. The smell of her strawberry shampoo filled my nose and set me at ease. I could always count on Kira.

“Tessa Crimson,” a nurse called from the triage room. I turned to her and then nodded at Kira.

“Thanks, K,” I said, pulling back. I was glad that I still had someone.

“No prob, Tess. Just remember, a Smitten Kitten always lands on her feet.” She took my arm and helped me up, then followed me to the cubicle.

Despite being a game day, Friday was easily the second-worst day of my life. I had a Band-Aid on the side of my forehead, which was not at all cute. It wasn’t even pink. And I had a bruise on my jaw from where Chloe had punched me. Plus Christian the Creep had come to school, and Aiden was completely avoiding me. Like completely.

The one bright spot was that when I saw Chloe, she had a black eye and a small scratch on her cheek. It made me feel a little better.

The Smitten Kittens were all on edge, watching the crowds, keeping our ears to the ground. Christian would surely tell the school. If not, his sister wouldn’t miss the chance. But none of the guys did more than their usual gawking. No one even seemed to have heard about Aiden and me.

“I feel like we’re in the nose of the storm,” Kira leaned over to whisper to me during history class. “It’s eerie.”

“I think you mean the eye of the storm.” I took out my pen and drew hearts on my notebook, not looking at her. I was a mess. There was a purple, stitched welt on my forehead, my cheer skirt was wrinkled, and the paint on my toenails was chipped off. I hadn’t even bothered to tie my hair up. I was a poor excuse for a captain.

Kira sighed. “Tessa,” she said. “It’ll be okay. Aiden is still whipped cream; I know it.”

I shook my head. “He hates me.”

“Cut up the charge card because I’m not buying it,” she said, tickling my nose with the purple pom-pom on her pen.

Mr. Powell cleared his throat, and I glanced up at him in front of the class. I wondered if he knew—if my teacher somehow knew that my boyfriend had kicked me out of his room. But I was being paranoid.

I dropped my eyes and continued to draw on my notebook. Since I’d left Aiden’s last night, I’d become numb. Well, except for my forehead, which still throbbed.

Kira looked over her shoulder toward the back of the room and then leaned into me. “Do you think Christian is going to tell everyone about SOS?”

Her voice was shaky. I didn’t blame her for being nervous. Kira still cared about her social life, and she still wanted to date. If we were outed, both of those things would be crushed. But I didn’t give a rusty nail. At least about dating.

“I don’t know if he’ll tell,” I said, my voice low. “But Chloe probably will.”

Kira gasped. “She knows?”

“Ladies,” Mr. Powell interrupted. “Do you mind?”

Kira and I both looked up at him. “Sorry,” Kira said and smiled. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was completely and utterly without spirit. I just wanted class to be over. There was a slim chance Aiden would be at my locker, and there was an even slimmer chance that he might talk to me. After all, my mother had forgiven my father. Couldn’t Aiden forgive me?