“Like Minnesota is the moral center of the universe!” Aidan roared.
Sawyer was gazing at Aidan with pure hatred. And Sawyer had been known to swing a punch in the heat of the moment. Quickly I crossed the room and pushed Sawyer into the next one, which wasn’t as crowded. I whispered, “Do you need to leave? I don’t want you to get in a fight with Aidan.”
“I’m not angry with Aidan,” he said, slowly turning to focus his furious gaze on me. “I don’t have any room left for that, because I’m so angry with you.”
“With me?” I breathed.
He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket. Before he’d even opened it all the way, I knew what it was. I saw Tia’s drawing of me lying like a dog.
“I lost that,” I said carefully. “Did you find it stuffed down in the chair at Harper’s?”
He stared at me silently, then shook the note at me. “I was your experiment? I asked you something like that the other day, and you lied to me. You said no.”
“You don’t understand,” I said quickly. Lowering my voice to a whisper, I said, “This is just between you and me, but the Superlatives elections got messed up. A lot of the titles are wrong, including yours, and mine. We’re actually the Perfect Couple That Never Was.” In a normal tone—which was shaking now, because no matter what I told him, he didn’t look any less angry—I said, “That’s why I’ve been curious about you for a while, not just because Aidan broke up with me.”
Sawyer gaped at me. “So I was your experiment,” he repeated. “You thought it would be hilarious to fuck around with me, knowing that I’ve had a crush on you since I moved here.”
It was my turn to stare at him with my mouth open until I covered it with my hand. “No, I had no idea about that.”
“Tia told you,” he prompted me.
“No,” I said, “she didn’t.” But if she’d known, that explained why she’d been so keen on throwing me together with Sawyer.
“Harper told you,” he said next.
I shook my head. “Harper keeps secrets.” I wished she didn’t. I really could have used this information a couple of weeks before.
He nodded. “Everything makes sense now. When I talked about following you to New York, you looked at me like I had three heads.”
“Because I never thought about it before, Sawyer!”
“I’ve thought about it for two years,” he said acidly. “And what do I get for my trouble? I’ve made Aidan so jealous that he’ll want to take you back. You’re welcome.”
“No—” I had no intention of dating Aidan again, ever.
“What are you going to do once you graduate from high school,” Sawyer sneered, “and from college, and there’s no preplanned program for you to cycle through? There’s no Most Likely to Succeed for the rest of your life to let you know you’ve succeeded. There’s no office of student council vice president to let you know you’re almost in charge, or head cheerleader to let you know you’re the only popular girl anybody trusts to keep the rest of the cheerleaders out of trouble. How will you know how or when to be happy if nobody’s telling you?”
Tears stung my eyes. “That’s not fair.”
He stepped very close to me. “You know what’s not fair, Kaye? I risked everything for you. I could have been arrested. Your mother could still have me evicted and fired from the B and B.” He pointed in the general direction of that awful argument. “She just called me trash, all for the sake of your experiment.”
Now he pointed at me. “I have been playing you straight this whole time. When I told you I loved you, that’s what I meant. I never intended to be your experiment, or your walk on the wild side, or your favorite mistake.” He blinked, appearing for a moment like he had tears in his eyes. “I can’t even look at you.”
That hurt worse than anything else he’d said. He’d loved to look at me even when it seemed nobody else did.
He stomped back through the doorway, bullied right through Will’s lecture to Aidan, and parted the crowd around the front door. I tried to push through, but by the time I’d run down the front steps, the taillights of his clunker truck were disappearing down the street.
I turned slowly toward the house. Tia stood in the doorway. Our note with her dog drawing was crumpled in her hand. Sawyer must have shoved it at her on his way out.
* * *
“He’ll be back for work in the morning,” Harper said. “I promise. He never misses work.”
She and Tia and I sat on the low wall of the mermaid fountain with the water flowing between our toes before it cascaded over exquisite antique mosaics. The party was winding down, and so were they, with their elbows on their knees and their chins in their hands.
I was past wound down. I’d cried so hard in the past fifteen minutes that I felt half dead. At least DeMarcus had driven Aidan home to get him away from the alcohol supply secreted in someone’s car, and from Will, and from me.
I wished so hard that Sawyer would reappear in Aidan’s place. To give me a comforting hug, or to drag our awful argument out. Anything, just to have him here with me a little longer.
But I knew he wasn’t coming back.
“Why didn’t you tell me Sawyer’s had a crush on me for two years?” I finally whispered.
“I’ve only known for a couple of weeks,” Harper said. She glanced at Tia for help.