The Swap (26 page)

“What was that kiss all about?” I blurt it out. “That was, like, um—”

“Messed up!” Jack shakes his head, and we both begin to laugh again.

“Kissing yourself.” I stop. “That's the weirdest thing I've ever done!”

He grins. “Kissing and hugging and looking into your own eyes?!! Oh my god!”

We almost fall off the monkey bars laughing, like really laughing hard. It takes a few minutes before we settle down. When I finally get quiet again, and feel the growing hush, I sit up and stare straight ahead into the dark.

Jack sits up too.

“Hey,” Jack says. He lifts his arm and rests it around my shoulders, pulling me in like Gunner and Jett. “The reason I did that? The kiss, I mean? I had to do it because your friend Sassy, she's, like—” He stops. “She's unreal.”

My stomach drops.
Jack likes Sassy?
I don't have feelings like that for Jack, but after everything we've been through, I just didn't expect—

“Wait,” I start. I look right at him. “You mean you think she's nice? You
like
her?”

Jack's eyes get crazy big and wide. “Nice? Like her?!! Are you kidding me? She's the lousiest person I've ever met in my life!”

“Jack! Please don't say that. She hated me before, now she's going to, like, never talk to me again!” For the first time I recognize a desperation in my voice that I haven't heard since—

Since I've not been me.

Jack just shakes his head and inches over. We couldn't be sitting any closer.

“Elle,” he says.

“Elle?” It took me till now to realize he has changed my name.

“Elle.” He smiles with his eyes. “Sounds good, right?”

I nod. I like the way that sounds.

“Look, seriously, Elle, listen,” Jack continues. “Sassy is brutal, man! She's, like . . . she's really not a nice person, trust me. She said some—”

“Really mean things?” I interrupt.

“Exactly!” His eyes get big, he's not kidding around. “You get it, right? I had to do that. I had to. I can explain it all later, but . . . I couldn't allow someone to walk all over you like that.”

Honestly, part of me is so touched that Jack stood up for me. Relieved that someone else saw what I have been pretending not to see. I think this whole time I just thought I was doing something wrong. That there was something wrong with
me
. But this other side? God. I hate to even admit this part—I know Sassy can be mean, but I've never had another best friend. We've been friends since kindergarten. For the first time, what I am actually thinking, what I really feel falls out of my mouth.

“Without Sassy”—I look down—“I don't even have any friends.”

“You're kidding me, right?”

“I'm serious,” I say. I'm so embarrassed, I just look at the ground as I talk. “Sassy's been my best friend since—”

“Elle, the girl is a clown! Nobody needs a friend like that, she's—”

“I know she can be bad sometimes,” I cut him off. “But, I mean . . . when she's nice, she's really nice.” When I hear myself say the words, something just clicks in me.

Sassy hasn't been nice in a really long time
.

Jack is looking at me like I'm crazy. “Are you kidding me, Elle? Seriously?”

“You don't understand! She can be—” I stop. I stop because for the first time I realize how pathetic I sound.
I can't believe I'm defending her
.

“Elle, look.” Jack takes a deep breath.

I lie back again. My eyes scan the sky.

Jack lies back too, and we talk into the darkness. “Trust me,” he says. “Stay away from her, Elle. Really, I swear to you, dude, friends don't treat each other like that.” Jack turns to me again. Our faces are so close. “And you're kidding me about friends, right? Mackenzie and Sammie, they're both awesome. Don't you get it?”

“Get what?” I ask.

“You're amazing, Elle,” he tells me. “Everybody loves you.”

I don't know what to say back. It's just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said. I feel tears gathering in my eyes. It's almost like Jack has a sensor—even though it's dark, he can tell.

“Oh, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! No tears, Freckles!” He bursts out laughing. We both do. Then we both just look up into the night for a long time until Jack finally says what we've both been avoiding.

“How are we ever going to switch back? What are we going to do?”

“I have no idea,” I answer. “I guess we'll just have to figure it out.”

“I guess,” he breathes.

I give Jack a little nudge with my elbow. “Never thought I'd be out in the middle of the night looking at the twinkling sky with
The Prince
of Thatcher!”

“The Prince, please!” He grins, laughing lightly and shaking his head. “Promise me you'll never say that again.”

I flash him a smile. “Face it, they're all in love with you! Don't get a big head.”

“Whatever,” he says, and grins.

For a minute again we don't talk. Then it just comes out.

“Jack, I'm so sorry about . . .” I pause.

“About what?”

“About your mom,” I whisper.

I can hear him breathing. I feel his arm up against mine.

“Yeah,” he finally says. His voice is so quiet. “Thanks.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

WE'RE ABOUT TO JUMP DOWN
off the monkey bars. We're about to jump down onto the ground and just make it through the last twenty-four hours. We have a plan. We're going to meet at the nurse's office door before the bell rings Monday. We're going to figure this out together. I have no idea how. But for the first time since this happened, I feel more sure than ever it's going to work out.

“After tonight, we just have one more day,” I say.

“One more day,” she says, echoing me, her eyes lighting up.

We hear them coming at the same time and both kind of take a deep

breath.

“Here we go,” Elle whispers.

“We can do this,” I tell her, under my breath.

The entire group—six guys, eight girls—are walking toward us through the dark. I can hear Sassy, of course. She's so loud. I can hear her irritating snorts of laughter.

I look at Elle. “We got this,” I tell her.

We both leap off, landing with a thump on the wood chips.

Sammy walks right past me, straight for Elle. He has on that goofy smile of his. He doesn't even try to keep his voice down. I can hear everything he says.

“Bro,” he tells her, “you are an absolute stud!”

For a second I'm worried Elle might laugh, but she really is a good actress. So clutch.

“Whatever.” She nods at Sammy. “I don't kiss and tell.” She looks at me as she says it with a smile.

“She's a stunner,” Sammy says, his voice cracking. “I've always loved redheads.”

Demaryius just shakes his head. “Gorgeous and athletic. Dude, you have good taste.”

“'Sup stud,” Trey says, slapping Elle on the back. “A girl who can rock red hair? So hot.”

You should see the look on her face when I catch her eye. They're all talking about her to, well . . .
her
. I can't see because it's dark, but I guarantee she's blushing.

The girls. They are just as bad—

Claire runs at me with open arms. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” she whispers, kind of loud. “I had absolutely
no
idea! Wow! Just, wow! Wow! Wow! Oh my gosh, seriously, Elle, this is, like, this is
epic
!”

“This is a major development!” Tori squeals, walking up behind me. “He's such perfection. He's
so
freakin' hot! Oh my gosh, you're literally the chosen one, Elle!”

I look at her and almost shake my head and laugh. That's the first time Tori has even talked to me tonight. She's suddenly a whole different person. Wow. True colors are coming out.

Kaitlin giggles. She's grinning too. “Looks like you won the lottery, Elle!”

I take a deep breath and catch Mackenzie's eye. Dang! I didn't think about that. Now how will I ever have a chance with her if she thinks . . . whatever. I can't worry about girls. I have to stay focused on making it through the next twenty-four hours. Then, you know, maybe I can fix this. Make it all right. I look at her through the dark and smile lightly.

Mackenzie sneaks up beside me. “Hey,” she says softly. “That was kind of—”

“Surprising?” I finish for her. We both sort of laugh nervously.

“Yeah!” She grins.

“I know, random, right? Whatever.” I try awkwardly to brush it all off. “I think Jack and I are just really good friends,” I say. I have no idea where I am getting this stuff from. I sound like a friggin' girl. It's embarrassing! Man.

“Well, you're lucky, Elle.” Mackenzie smiles and raises her eyebrows. “I'll tell you a secret,” she says, leaning in and whispering again. “I used to have the
biggest
crush on Jack Malloy.”

“You did?” I say. I let out a shy smile into the night. This feeling goes through my heart. I can't explain it. Mackenzie is just so, like, full of life. Her eyes are so bright, even in the dark. There's something special about her, it's hard to describe.

“Well, yeah,” she goes on. “Major crush on him since, like, since sixth grade. But don't worry, I'm over it.” She grins at me. “He's all yours now!”

“You're over it?” I repeat. My heart sinks. “But wait, it's not like that, we're not, I'm not—”

Oh, man, this is so messed up
.

“Well,” she says, her eyes twinkling through the dark. “Whatever, it's all good! I'll always have your back, no matter what. Elle, seriously, I'm so pumped for you, girlie! Also, I'm really glad that he just walked up to you like that. You should have seen Sassy's face!” Her eyes jump to Sassy and Aspen, glaring back at us from the two side-by-side swings. “Oh, man.” Mackenzie sighs. “I don't have a good feeling about this. This is going to get bad. Stay close to me, Elle, okay? I should have done more back at Claire's. I should have said something. I should have spoken up. Sassy's seriously scary intimidating. She makes everyone kind of terrified, right? She's a total bully! Someone needs to stop her. She's out of control.” Mackenzie threads her arm through mine. “I don't know how to stop her, but, like, don't worry, okay?”

“Oh, I'm not,” I say, looking right back at Sassy. “Trust me.”

For a good twenty minutes we all sort of laugh and talk and joke around. Sassy and Aspen are off on the swings, doing their roll-their-eyes-and-glare-side-by-side thing. The rest of us are standing around the monkey bars. Trey is making us all laugh, showing off, doing pull-ups.

I see the headlights in the parking lot. Then I hear her. Owen's mom.

“Oh, man!” Owen cries out. “I knew it, Sammy! I knew this would happen.”

“Owen! Boys! Get over here this instant!” Owen's mom gets closer. She's wearing her bathrobe, and she looks angry.

“Oh, snap,” I hear Sammy whisper into the dark.

“We're dead.” Owen sighs.

Then—

I watch Owen elbow Elle. “Dude,” he whispers to her. “I think she called your—”

“Jack!” I hear. I feel instantly sick. I turn to Elle. Both of us stand there totally frozen. The panic in our eyes is equal. I can tell in one look that Elle knows how quickly this is going to go from bad to so much worse.

Suddenly, nothing about Sassy Gaines matters anymore.

Everyone else standing here? They all fade away. My eyes move between The Captain, getting closer, and the stunned look on Elle's face. And the voice in my head is shouting now:
Why am I even out here? I'm so stupid! I should know better! Why'd I even come? I should have just stayed at Elle's with Summer, then I wouldn't be in this mess now!

Only then do I remember—as I watch The Captain get closer and closer with each step, in his jeans, his gray army sweatshirt, his Red Sox cap. He's not coming for me.

I turn to Elle again. She has her hands hidden in the front pouch of my black hoodie. She glances at me nervously. My heart is absolutely pounding. Everything in front of me appears to slow down. Everything is going horribly wrong. I watch The Captain stop and turn to Elle.

“Jack,” he repeats. I can tell by his voice how livid he is.

“Yes, sir,” Elle stutters under her breath. For a second I'm relieved she knew how to answer back. But then he reaches out and grabs on to what he thinks is
my
shoulder—hard.

“Get your tail in the truck” is all he says.

The Captain takes Elle by the arm, my arm, grabbing her. The look in his eyes is so intense. Elle glances at me as she walks past. She looks petrified.