Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend (40 page)

my ear harder, trying to listen. Someone hurrying down the

sidewalk caught my eye— there were almost no pedestrians out,

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as anyone with any sense had stayed home. But this person

looked familiar, and as I squinted through the sheets of rain, I

saw that it was Reid.

I tapped on the windshield, but he just kept hurrying,

umbrella- less, up the sidewalk. There seemed to be no choice but

to get out and try to talk to him. Phone still to my ear, I grabbed

the massive umbrella from the fi rst backseat and stepped out

into what I felt had to be classifi ed as a tropical storm by now. I

beeped the car shut and jogged up the sidewalk toward Reid, the

rain lashing against my legs and soaking my feet, making me

glad I’d gone with fl ip- fl ops.

“Reid!” I called, then realized that if I could hear Hallie and

Sophie through the phone, they would also be able to hear me.

Wishing I didn’t have to, but not seeing any other choice, I ended

the call and dropped the phone in my bag.

Reid turned and squinted at me through the rain. “Sophie?”

he called.

“Hi,” I said, then, taking pity on him, raised my umbrella

over his head so that he was under it too. Even though it was an

enormous umbrella, I was still closer than I really wanted to be

to Reid, and the fact that he was leaning back as far as he could

and still stay dry led me to believe that he felt the same way

about me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Meeting Josh at the diner,” he said, gesturing up the street

to the restaurant that was still a good two blocks away. “I, um,

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thought it was closer than it turned out to be. And I didn’t realize

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it was raining quite this hard.”

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“Oh,” I said. Even without knowing the guy well, I had a feel-

ing that things like this probably happened to Reid a lot. I

searched his expression to see if I could tell he’d remembered

anything about Sophie, but Reid just looked the way he had last

night— cheerful but also slightly confused. And, right now, damp.

“So that was crazy last night, huh?” Reid asked after a

moment.

“Yeah,” I agreed, shaking my head, hoping he’d say more.

“Crazy.”

There was a slight pause, and I was about to take my um-

brella and head back to the car— I was worried that Sophie might

be running into trouble, and I wanted to text her to let her know

I was still there even though I’d disconnected the call— when

Reid cleared his throat.

“You know, it’s weird,” he said. “But you know that friend of

yours? The one from last night? I could have sworn . . . I mean,

she looks just like this girl that my roommate . . .”

Oh no. For a fl eeting moment, I thought about denying the

whole thing, but just as quickly, I dismissed it. If I wasn’t going

under Sophie’s name, we might have been able to get away with

pretending it was just a coincidence, “Gemma” looking so much

like “Sophie.” But all it would take was one text to Justin— or

Jason— to double- check Sophie’s name, and we’d be exposed. The

only thing to do was to come clean. Even though I didn’t see Josh

coming up the street, I didn’t want to take any chances. I grabbed

Reid’s sleeve and pulled us both, still under my umbrella, into

the nearby alley.

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“Uh . . .” he said, looking alarmed. “What’s going on?”

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“Listen,” I said, keeping my voice low and talking fast. I low-

ered the umbrella, forcing Reid to bend down to stay under it,

bringing him closer to my height. “You’re right about what you

think you’re right about. But I just need you to not say anything

to anyone about what it is that you think. Okay?”

Reid just blinked at me. “What?” he asked, a little helplessly.

“Just don’t say anything to anyone about what you’re think-

ing,” I said. “Especially not Hallie or Josh. And I promise that I’ll

explain later, okay? Oh, wait, I don’t have your number. What is

it?”

“But . . .” Reid said, looking more confused than ever. “I

don’t . . .”

“Or e-mail?” I asked. Reid just opened and closed his mouth,

and I sighed. “Come on, Reid. Your e-mail?”

“Um . . . Reid Franklin at Clarence Hall, edu. My name’s all

one word. But I don’t . . .”

“Do you promise?” I asked, taking a step closer to him. “That

you won’t say anything about this to anyone?” I knew I probably

sounded crazy, but the last thing we needed right now was Reid

casually mentioning to Josh or Hallie that his roommate used to

date a girl named Sophie Curtis, who looked nothing like me

whatsoever.

“Okay,” Reid said, his face turning red. I wasn’t sure he was

entirely clear on what he was promising, but that would have to

do for now.

“Thank you,” I said. I raised the umbrella up a bit and Reid

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stopped hunching over so much.

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“Sophie?”

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I turned around and saw Josh, standing under a blue um-

brella, his expression confused— but mostly hurt. “What’s going

on?”

“Nothing—” I started, when Reid jumped in.

“Nothing!” he said, loudly and too emphatically. “Totally

nothing. We were just . . . talking. But I can’t tell you about what.

Not that it’s anything bad, I just . . . can’t tell you. Um, what’s up

with you?”

If Reid had intended to sound incredibly guilty, and like he

was hiding something, I wasn’t sure he would have been able to

do a better job of it.

“Not much,” Josh said, looking from me to Reid, like he was

trying to fi gure something out. “I was just heading to the diner

and saw you guys.”

“Cool,” said Reid, in what I’m sure he thought was a casual

tone, but was actually incredibly suspicious. “Cool. Cool . . . beans.”

I winced at this, but before I could say anything, my phone

beeped with a text. I pulled it out of my bag, trying to shield it

from raindrops, and glanced down at the screen.

Sophie Curtis

12:25 PM

Done with coffee! Where are you?

“Did you just get a text from yourself?” Josh asked, and I real-

ized that he was leaning a little closer to me and had a perfect

view of my screen.

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I instinctually turned my phone over. “No,” I said, forcing a

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laugh. “It’s . . . Gemma. She grabbed my phone by accident this

morning.” I texted back that I was across the street, and dropped

my phone in my bag, looking away from Reid, who was maybe

doing the worst poker face I had ever seen.

“Oh,” Josh said. “About that.” He took a tiny step closer to me

and Reid— though you couldn’t get too close, as my umbrella was

far too big to make any rational sense— and I noticed for the fi rst

time that he looked tired, his hair slightly more askew than

usual and circles under his eyes, like he hadn’t gotten much sleep

the night before. “I wanted to explain about last night . . .”

“Hi!” I looked away from Josh to see Sophie dashing across the

street to join us. I looked at her carefully to see if I could get any

clues about what had happened during her coffee with Hallie,

but she looked fi ne— untraumatized and not bearing any obvious

psychological scars. And her white tank top was free of coffee

stains, so clearly she’d been safe on that front.

“Hey,” I said, gesturing to her. “Get under here. There’s kind

of room . . .”

“Here,” Josh said, his voice cool. He moved to the side of the

umbrella and held it toward Sophie. “You can share with me if

you want.”

“Oh,” Sophie said, as she stepped under Josh’s umbrella and

brushed her damp hair out of her face. “Thank you so much.” I

tried not to see how close together they were now standing, or

how cute Sophie looked. I never looked good in the rain— my hair

got plastered down in a way that made my head look huge. But

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Sophie got these cute little ringlets in her hair, and I noticed

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they were appearing now.

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“Hello,
Gemma,
” Reid said in a louder- than- normal voice. He

really was a terrible actor. I made a mental note to tell him never

to pursue the theatrical arts.

“So,” Josh said. He was standing at the edge of his umbrella,

looking at her, and apparently, to my relief, not taken in by how

great her hair was currently looking. His expression was cold and

unimpressed. “I don’t suppose you remember me?”

“Um . . .” Sophie said. She glanced back at me, and I tried to

nod my head as subtly as possible. “Yes?”

“It has been a while,” Josh said, and his tone got slightly less

frosty. “And we really just had dinner that one time.”

“Right,” Sophie said, nodding emphatically. “That one time.

Dinner.” She took a small glance back at me, and I gave her an-

other tiny nod.

“And you do look a little different than you did back then,”

Josh said.

Josh couldn’t be fl irting with Sophie, right? He was just being

polite.

“Just a little bit different,” Sophie said, and I could hear the

tiniest bit of playfulness creeping into her voice. I know she

didn’t mean anything by it, it was just natural instinct as far as

she went. Sophie could fl irt with the umbrella I was holding. But

still. I widened my eyes at Sophie over Josh’s shoulder, and she

took a tiny step away from him. “Anyway,” she said, looking to

me. “We should go?”

“We should,” I said.

“Great idea!” Reid chimed in, again much too loud. He shot

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me a look that I pretended not to notice as he stepped back into

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the rain and Sophie ducked out from Josh’s umbrella and joined

me under mine.

“Oh, Sophie” Josh said, and both Sophie and I looked over at

him. Sophie looked away a moment later, and I just hoped Josh

hadn’t noticed. “Um . . . can we talk later? Once you get your own

phone back?”

I nodded, relieved he’d brought it up. It felt like what had

been maybe starting between us at the bonfi re was getting lost

in everything that had happened since. And Josh and I talking,

just the two of us, sounded wonderful. “I’d like that,” I said.

Josh nodded and Reid waved, and Sophie and I hurried over to

the car. I left her the umbrella as I ran around to the driver’s side

and unlocked it. Like we’d agreed on it beforehand, we didn’t

speak until we were back in the car with the doors closed.

“So how was it?” I asked as I wiped the droplets off my hands

and started the car.

“Where were you?” Sophie asked as she buckled her seat belt

and I headed for home, the windshield wipers already working

overtime. “Hallie started talking all about some time we built

sandcastles together, and I had no idea what to say!”

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I saw Reid, and thought I better go talk

to him.” I fi lled Sophie in on the fact that Reid had put her iden-

tity together. “And he’s a terrible actor,” I added. “I don’t know if

he’s the best person to keep this secret.”

“But we have to tell him the truth, right?” Sophie asked. “I

mean, since he’s pretty much fi gured it out anyway?”

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“I guess so. I left him pretty mixed up, so we should probably

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e-mail him and straighten things out.”

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“Poor guy,” Sophie said with a sigh as she fl ipped down her

visor mirror. “But he’s kind of cute, don’t you think? Not as cute

as Josh, obviously, but not bad.”

“Mmm,” I said. I paused at a stop sign, then turned to her, not

able to take the suspense any longer. “So aside from the sand-

castle thing, was it terrible?” I held my breath.

Sophie paused for a moment, looking out the window, like she

was gathering her thoughts. “You know, it really wasn’t,” she said,

sounding a little surprised. “I thought she was actually really

nice about the whole thing. She apologized for the way she acted