Eenie Meenie Minie Mo

Chapter Forty-Three

    I moped through the weekend without telling anyone what had happened at Leander’s house; you know, me humiliating myself in front of all those people. It got worse. I decided to be pathetic and still hold onto hope that Leander would randomly show up at my house and tell me what a lousy ass he’d been.

  But that never happened.

  No, he stayed safely inside his own house; not caring.

  I was sure it was killing Maddie not to know what was going on. After all, I had promised to call her later. Graciously, she hadn’t called once. I think I would have sounded absolutely pitiful if she had.

  As it was, I had to act interested Monday morning while my mom went on about her students and class and what not.

  “She was my best student,” Mom continued. “I’m really close to asking her what’s going on. It’s really worrying me. I mean, her grades have dropped severely.”

  “My grades haven’t dropped,” I snapped defensively.

  Mom looked at me in a perplexed way. “I wasn’t talking about you.”

  “Who were you talking about, then?”

  “Marley St. Claire. One of my students.” My mom studied me for a long minute with narrowed eyes. “Honey, are you feeling okay?”

  “Fine,” I brushed off. “I’m fine. Just tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

  She still looked doubtful, but it was clear she was letting me get away with it. For now.

  “Um…have you heard from Jason?” I asked, desperate to change the subject.

  Mom shook her head. “Not a word. He’s probably really busy with school and his new wife.”

  “One—ew. Two, he hasn’t had an old wife, so how can he have a new one?” I smiled to let her know I was teasing. 

  My mom swatted me with her newspaper. “Smartass.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I glanced at the clock and let out a long sigh. “I guess I ought to get going. Do you have time to drop me off?”

  “Sawyer’s not driving you there?”

  I bit my lip. The mere mention of his name had my nerves on end and my mind screaming hateful things to myself. “Ah, no. Not today.”

  “That’s, what, the fifth time?” Mom asked curiously.

  “Um…something like that. Anyway, didn’t wanna bug him.”

  Her playing along demeanor fell almost immediately. “Honey, is everything between you two okay? I haven’t seen him around here in a while.”