Read Online This Is So Not Happening by Kieran Scott - Free Book Online Page B

bad for you. So did she smile?”
    I narrowed my eyes. It had been hard to see her face with the lights blinding my vision. “I don’t think so.”
    “Yay! That’s good, then!” She gave me a brief hug before slipping past me.
    “Break a—”
    She held up a hand. “I don’t need it.”
    Then she disappeared inside, letting the door slam behind her. I shook my head at her ego and grabbed my messenger bag off the bench next to the wall.
    “Hey! Are you done? Did you nail it?”
    Annie was near the bottom of the stairs when she called out to me. Chloe was a few paces behind her. The two of them were coming from an Orchard Gazette meeting, no doubt. Chloe was editor in chief of the student news site, a fact that Features Editor Annie never ceased to resent.
    “It was pretty good, I guess. I’m just psyched it’s over,” I replied.
    “Cool. Wanna go get some food?” Annie asked.
    “Sure.”
    Chloe was just walking by as we headed for the door. She paused and shot me a tentative look. “Hey, Ally.”
    “Hey,” I replied. “How’re you … I mean … how’s it going?”
    Annie stood next to me, her hands shoved tightly under her arms. I could actually smell the bitterness of her hateful scowl as she stared Chloe down.
    “Good. I’m … good.” Chloe shrugged. “How’s Jake?”
    Annie cracked her knuckles.
    “He’s fine,” I replied, wondering why she was asking. We all saw one another every day in school. Although they’d been avoiding each other in the halls most of the time, I’d noticed. Almost like they thought if they were caught talking to each other, people would know their secret.
    “Good. Okay. Well. See ya.” Chloe turned and traipsed outside, slipping on a pair of designer sunglasses. She didn’t look tortured or tired or conflicted, the way Jake kept saying she was. The way that most people would have been in her situation. She just looked like Chloe Appleby. Crestie Queen.
    “How can you be so nice to her?” Annie demanded, turning on me the second the door was closed.
    “Nice to her? I just asked how she was,” I replied.
    “The girl hooked up with your boyfriend!” Annie hissed.
    I rolled my eyes. “He wasn’t my boyfriend yet!” I shoved through the door and out into the sunshine, even as my heart tightened into a cold, dry ball.
    “Oh please, everyone knew you were in love with him,” Annie replied, scurrying to catch up with my long strides. “You know she only did it because she was pissed off you kissed Hammond. You do know that, right?”
    I scoffed, even though I’d had this suspicion myself. I’d hada lot of suspicions about Chloe’s motives. That’s what happens when you spend half your time obsessing about something. Was she getting back at me for kissing Hammond freshman year? Was she getting back at Hammond? Was she just bored that night? Horny? Or did she—and this was the worst one— like Jake? “Please. That was a million years ago.”
    “Yeah, and she just found out about it in June and then suddenly developed the hots for Jake?” Annie paused at the edge of the parking lot. “Have you ever heard the expression ‘There are no coincidences’?”
    I frowned. “No.”
    “Well it’s an expression because there are no coincidences,” Annie told me. “I mean, did you hear her? ‘How’s Jake?’ ” she said in a high-pitched, mocking voice. “It’s like she’s rubbing it in. Either that or she actually does like him, which would be a huge—”
    “Stop,” I said, practically choking on the word. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” I turned my steps toward my mother’s car. It was parked in the faculty lot, waiting for me. Gray had gotten out of work early and picked my mother up for some kind of wedding meeting—flowers or limos or table linens or something. “Are we getting food or what?”
    Annie sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Yes. We’re getting food.”
    “Good.” I opened the driver’s side door and tossed my