Comeback (2 page)

Khloe's expression looked so sincere. She looked like the Khloe
Kinsella who'd taught me everything about Canterwood when I'd arrived. The
Khloe Kinsella who was still teaching me things. The girl who'd given me a campus
tour, introduced me to her friends, and accepted me when I'd finally told her
about my accident at Red Oak.

“You told me that next day,” I said. I let out a breath.
“I just got . . . I don't know! I got my feelings hurt that I wasn't
the first to know. If I'd been in your position, I wouldn't have woken me
either, but I also would have wanted to tell
someone
. I should
have believed you the first time.”

Khloe shrugged. “I thought you had.”

“And I thought you'd taken my word about Mr. Spellman's
history class,” I said. I tried to keep the bite out of my tone, but my words came
out sharp. “I meant what I said—I dropped the advanced part because it was
more work than any of my other classes. The chances of me having to transfer to another
class are practically zero.”

“I knew in my gut you were telling the truth.” Khloe
sighed. “You had no reason to potentially drop a class that
you and I share. I don't know why my brain went there.”

“I wish we had every class together. If I'd had any other
options, I would have changed another class. Promise.”

Khloe rubbed her hands over her tan face. “Maybe I really have been
watching too many soap operas.”

“How are you supposed to star in one if you don't watch
them?” I asked, giving her a small smile.

Khloe returned the smile. “True. If only there was a story line
about roommates at boarding school. Maybe it would give me tips to be a better
roomie.”

“You're a great roommate, Khlo. We've obviously been
having some . . . communication problems lately. There's no reason for us not to
trust each other.”

Khloe nodded slowly. “There's not.” She stopped, and I
could tell she wanted to say something else.

I knew what she couldn't say or didn't want to. “Except
for Red Oak. Khloe, if you have issues trusting me after I kept Red Oak from you, I
understand. Please tell me.”

Khloe shook her head, her ponytail flying. “This has nothing to do
with Red Oak. Lauren, I promise, when you told me and everyone else about it—I
asked questions, and if there was anything bothering me or something I wanted to know
I'd have asked you.”

We looked at each other for a few seconds before I
answered. “Okay. Because I want you to trust me and believe me that my secret was
a one-time thing. I hope it doesn't cloud the person you see now or how you
trusted me before.”

“It doesn't,” Khloe said. “I think we had a lot
going on and we took the easy way out—we got all caught up in our heads and went
to Lexa. We know better—I should have come to you and not let all these things
build.”

“You're absolutely right. It shouldn't have taken Lexa
to haul us up here to have this talk. You and I are more mature than that. And poor Lex.
We both put her in a bad spot.”

“Lexa didn't deserve it.” Khloe tossed her head back,
letting it bounce against a hay bale. “Speaking of Lex . . . Laur, I wasn't
sleeping at her place. I was at Clare's. Riley left last night for her audition in
New York City. Clare asked me last minute to sleep over. We never get to hang out
without Riley, so I said yes.”

Eavesdropping and assumptions had made me two for two in the wrong
department. Major fail.

“I just assumed you were at Lexa's,” I said. “That
you didn't want to sleep in our room because you felt things were weird
too.”

Khloe's blue eyes stayed on my face. “Not at all! I'm
sorry about Clare's. It wasn't very roommate-like of me
not to tell you that I was staying over when she asked me. It had to hurt your feelings
to think I was at Lexa's.”

“I respect your and Lexa's friendship outside of ours,”
I said. “If you had been staying with her, I wouldn't have cared. It
bothered me that I didn't find out until later that you were staying
out.”

“I get it,” Khloe said. “I'd feel exactly the same
way. Just like I would have felt like you did with my guy friends.”

Every single thing we laid out on the table felt good. We moved forward
with each confession.

“If I'd come to a new school,” Khloe continued,
“and a bunch of guys I didn't know but seemed to know you very well
descended on our lunch table, it would have been so weird. I would have been like,
‘Dude, who
are
all of you, and why do you know my BFFL
LT but not me?'”

Khloe's theatrics made me smile.

“Those guys aren't my close friends,” she said.
“They're people I share classes with and have run into around campus. The
beginning of this year has been so crazy, I hadn't said more than ‘hi'
to any of them. You're so cool with everyone that I shouldn't have assumed
you'd be fine and left you with them.”

I sagged back into the hay bale. Everything I'd doubted
about Khloe seemed neurotic now. How had so many misunderstandings
been possible? “I get it now,” I said. “I really do.”

“If I'd had time to have a real conversation with them, I
would have told them all about you. I wasn't hiding you—I
promise.”

“I went way overboard on that,” I said. “Lexa even told
me those guys weren't your best friends. Clearly, I have been influenced by your
soap-opera ways.” That made Khloe smile. “I let my imagination go crazy.
Bad
crazy. Like, I thought you were swapping places
part-time with your twin, like on
Pretty in Port Royal
.
I'm sorry.”

“If only I had a twin,” Khloe said, cracking a grin. “I
don't think I've ever said ‘I'm sorry' or heard
‘I'm sorry' so much in such a short time.”

“Me either. But you're going to have to hear it again, because
I want to explain about—”

Khloe held up her hands, palms facing me. “I think we've
apologized to each other enough. You agree?”

“Definitely. Unless there's
something—anything—else you want to ask me. I don't want you to walk
away from this with any questions or lingering doubts.”

Khloe scooted closer, closing the giant gap between us. “I
don't have any. I promise. Do you?”

Relief replaced the dread that had pumped through me.
“I don't. I think there are two things left to do. First thing: I want to
promise that if I ever feel something's off or think you're mad at me or
whatever, I'll ask you instead of dreaming up scenarios gone so, so wrong. I hope
you'll do the same.”

“I swear,” Khloe said. “If you wake up and I see your
eyebrow twitch in a weird way, I'll be like, ‘LT, what's up? Is
something wrong? Are you harboring a deep, dark secret from me?'”

We giggled.

“Definitely watch out for my eyebrows.” I wiggled both of
them.

Khloe laughed, and we both reached out our arms to each other. We hugged,
and I silently vowed never to let things get so out of control with any of my
friends.

We let go of each other, smiling, and Khloe sat beside me. “I bet I
can guess the second thing,” she said. “Lexa.”

“Yeah. I owe her a huge apology. It's okay to ask friends for
advice, but not like I did with Lex. It's a miracle she didn't lock me in a
stall or something!”

“Same. I used our friendship for the wrong reason, and Lexa deserves
better than that. After all we put her through, Lex still cared enough to bring you and
me up here and make sure we talked things out.”

I stood, then offered a hand to Khloe and pulled her
up. “It definitely took one very wise Lexa Reed to make us do what we needed
to.”

“I hope you spent the last hour talking about each other and not
me,” a voice said. Lexa appeared around a stack of hay bales. Her boots had a fine
coat of arena dust, and there were a few red and white horsehairs on her shirt. She
glanced between Khloe and me like she was trying to figure out if we'd made up or
not.

“We only said awesome stuff about you,” Khloe said.
“Lauren and I worked out everything because you forced us up to this hay
dungeon.”

Lexa cocked a hip, smiling.

I nodded. “Everything we thought was wrong. All these little
misunderstandings kept adding up and made us—”

“Insane,” Khloe finished. “Lex, I'm so, so sorry.
I didn't act like your best friend when I came to you with my worries about
Lauren.”

“I'm sorry, too, Lexa,” I said. “All the questions
I asked you were things I should have asked Khloe.”

Lexa ran a hand over her curly black hair. “Apologies accepted. You
guys care about each other, and it came across—in the wrong way—when you
kept asking me questions about the other.”

“So, you're not mad?” Khloe asked,
bouncing on her tiptoes.

Lexa smiled. “Nah. All I care about is that you two worked it
out.”

“Yay!” I said. “Thanks, Lex!”

We three-way hugged. All my worries and insecurities about Khloe melted as
I squeezed my friends.

“There is
one
thing,” Lexa said when
we stepped back.

“Name it,” Khloe said.

“Totally yours,” I said.

“The Sweet Shoppe has a new triple-layer chocolate cake that
I'm dying to try,” Lexa said.

Khloe and I smiled. “Deal!” we said simultaneously.

FRIDAY CLASSES ALWAYS WENT ONE OF TWO
ways:
Time either crawled by, or I barely had time to catch my breath between courses and
didn't have time to wish for the weekend to come sooner.

Today's classes went the second way. I dashed from building to
building, collecting stacks of homework, raising my hand in class, smiling at people in
the hallway, and finally taking a seat in study hall. Last class of the day.

I opened my Chatter application and typed a message.
LaurBell: Friday @ last! So xcited 4 my lesson w @Lexaaa, @ColeIam, @SwmerGuy, and
@CutieClare.

I didn't have to include Riley (
@OfficiallyRiley
), since she wasn't here. It had been a sort of
freeing day—not having to worry about running into “Reiler”
(Khloe's
nickname for her) on campus or having to avoid eye
contact with her during one of our shared classes. If it wouldn't upset Khloe so
much, I wished Riley would get the part she was auditioning for in New York City. And
stay
there.

I posted the message, wondering if Drew would see it. I'd looked him
up on Chatter last night and found his handle. It had taken me until now to come up with
a good enough reason to Chat at him.

Mr. Davidson, my English teacher, was monitoring the period. He was
engrossed in grading papers, so I slipped my BlackBerry out from my pocket and held it
under my desk. I made sure it was on silent, then typed a BlackBerry Message to
Khloe.

Lauren:

What do u think abt sleepover 2nite? U, me, Lex,
Clare?

Seconds later,
Khloe is writing a message
appeared.

Khloe:

♥
! Want me 2 ask Clare if we can go 2 her place? U
haven't been there and neither has L.

Lauren:

Sounds perf. Let me know!

I put my phone on my lap and opened my English folder. My class was still
working on memoirs. Today Mr.
Davidson had assigned
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou. We had to read
the first three chapters and pay attention for potential essay topics, listing them as
we read. The syllabus said we had a paper due a couple of weeks after we finished the
book.