Shot Through the Heart

by Niki Burnham

  “Getting chemistry notes, you half-wit.” Josh scowls, then turns to me and rolls his eyes in Drew’s direction.

  “If that’s what you want to call it. Because last night, your sis and your best friend were in your garage, and the chemistry there—”

  “Shut up, Drew.” The words come out with more bite than I intend, but no way will I let him finish what he’s about to say. “You’ve officially overstayed your welcome. Oh, wait, you weren’t welcome in the first place. Look, I wasn’t happy with how things went down at Blanchard’s yesterday. I’d rather have shot you in your driveway after staking out your house for the better part of a cold morning and been done with it right then and there. But getting shot is no excuse to be rude and gossip about Josh’s sister, even if you hate Josh and me. Like Josh said, it’s a freaking game.”

  “Don’t you want to know all the gory details? Promise I’ll keep it PG-13.” He addresses everyone at the table except me, then leans over as if he’s going to whisper in Kendall’s ear. Her face contorts in horror as she looks to Peyton for guidance.

  Josh loses it. I lose it, and I never lose it. At the same time, Josh and I both jump up from the picnic table. Josh’s hands are clenched into fists.

  “Drew.” Molly’s soft voice cuts in. “If you want to accomplish anything, why don’t you talk to me?”

  Every head except mine swivels in Molly’s direction at once, as if the entire courtyard is watching a tennis match. I glance sideways at her, then return my focus to Drew.

  “I planned to.” The snigger is lost from his voice as he looks past Josh to Molly, who’s now standing at the opposite end of the picnic table from where he plunked his tray. His anger dissipates instantaneously as he takes in the sight of her. There’s no doubt in my mind now that the bouquet was intended for Molly. “But I need to put this liar in his place first. Whatever you think of me, I won’t let him do this to you. You don’t deserve it.”

  “Neither does he, though I appreciate the gesture.” Drew opens his mouth to protest, but Molly cuts him off with a pleasant smile. Her voice is so quiet, I doubt anyone beyond our table can hear her. “Last chance. Come talk to me. Now or never.”

  In spite of what happened between them, she’s once again helping Drew save face.

  Unbelievable.

  Drew flicks a seething look in my direction before taking his tray and following Molly to the far side of the courtyard. Josh and I sit. Gradually, people at the tables around us start talking again, though in hushed tones. Our table remains silent. No one moves to eat, no one leaves.

  I think my burger’s going to come up. I don’t dare look at Peyton. I can tell from the stiff way she’s holding her body that she doesn’t want to look at me, either.

  “Anyone else believe what we just witnessed?” Josh’s voice is barely above a whisper. “No one likes to be eliminated, but geez, more than half the teams go out in round one and only the top three finish in the money. What did he think was going to happen?”

  Peyton’s friends ignore Josh to study me. Finally Kendall says, “Drew has a temper, and he’s always doing things without thinking first—”

  “Like Sofia Magaro,” Tina mutters.

  “—but at the end of the day, even if he behaved with all the class of a sewer rat last year, he still loves Molly. He thinks he’s protecting her. He seems pretty certain that Connor used Molly to advance in the tournament.”

  Tina starts nodding along, which pisses me off. Mostly because I’m pissed at myself. It might not have been premeditated, but I did use Molly to eliminate Drew. I doubt she’d have volunteered to help if she wasn’t interested in me.

  And now it might cost me a lot more than I feared when I stupidly agreed to her idea.

  “Drew may say and do things without thinking them through, but Molly doesn’t.” Josh casts a sidelong look across the courtyard. “Molly offered to help us. We didn’t ask. Don’t belittle her intelligence by saying she was only helping us because she’s crushing on Connor and wanted to impress him.”

  “Is she, then? Into Connor?” Incredulity fills Tina’s voice, making me want to kick Josh under the table. “Or was that more Drew Spew?”

  “Why are we still talking about this? None of it matters.” They have to stop before this spirals out of control to the point Peyton refuses to speak to me again. How my life has suddenly gotten so insane, I’ll never know, but I don’t want to lose what I’ve gained—or hopefully gained—with Peyton over this idiocy.

  Kendall persists, “Well, if Molly likes you and you knew that when you accepted her offer—”

  “Are you two…?” Tina asks at the same time, looking from Connor to Peyton. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peyton make a dismissive gesture in Drew and Molly’s direction, but she doesn’t speak. I can’t bring myself to turn enough to see Peyton’s face. If I look at her, I’m afraid my expression will make our relationship obvious to everyone at the table, which won’t help the situation at all.

  “Of course they’re not,” Josh assures both girls. “If they were, don’t you think I’d know about it? Plus, you know Connor. He wouldn’t use Molly that way. I even suggested to Connor that he should tell a few people he was seeing Peyton so that if Molly was interested in him—which I’m not confirming—he could dissuade Molly from flirting with him without having to flat-out tell her he wasn’t interested and hurt her feelings.”

  Josh points to me, but his eyes remain on Tina. “Connor refused. He told me he wouldn’t be comfortable with a lie. He even went so far as to thwack me in the head for suggesting it. So Drew’s the bad guy here, not Connor. Connor’s honest.”

  “Josh.” I look at him, but don’t say anything more. I realize he’s trying to defend me, but the hole I’m falling into with Peyton—let alone with her friends, who are bound to repeat each and every word Josh utters—is getting deeper and deeper by the second. There’s a flicker in Josh’s gaze, as if he’s finally catching on that not everything is as it seems.

  “So Molly does like Connor. And Connor’s not into Molly?” Tina squints as she thinks through what Josh said. “Or are you into Molly, and that’s why you didn’t want her to think you were seeing Peyton, even if it’s not true? I mean, what was Drew talking about with the hallway flirting? Because he clearly thinks you and Molly are—”

  I wave my hand to cut off the conversation. “Guys, guys, this is nuts. This whole discussion feels very late-night, trashy reality TV, which, as we all know, has zippo to do with, I dunno, reality? It’s exactly the kind of muck Drew was hoping to stir up when he walked up to us. Let’s talk about how the soccer team is doing, all right? Or about the article in the paper saying the town might finally put in a swimming pool.”

  “I did see that!” Tina brightens. “Not that I’m a huge swimmer, but I’d love to have an outdoor pool where we could hang out next summer. I’m sick of going to the indoor one at the Y. The whole building feels damp and reeks of chlorine.”

  “Hate to miss the continuing lunchtime drama—and the swimming pool discussion—but I have a student council meeting. I’m outta here.” Peyton sounds normal enough, but as she loops one leg, then the other out from under the picnic table, she spins away from me, preventing me from gauging her mood. I’m positive it’s intentional. “Catch you guys later.”

  “Oh, shoot!” Kendall reaches around Josh to nudge Tina. “We have our meeting for the dance committee. We’ve gotta hurry!”

  Tina blinks at Kendall. “Ohmigosh. You’re right. I completely forgot!”

  Tina says goodbye to me and Josh, apologizing for the quick departure as she and Kendall gather their belongings and hustle after Peyton.

  “Well, that’s not good,” Josh murmurs, his gaze following the girls as they disappear through the doors into the cafeteria.

  When I grumble my agreement, he drops the last few bites of his burger bun into its wrapper and squishes it. When he looks at me, there’s a hardness to his gaze. “Is there something going on—ei
ther with my sister or with Molly—that I should know about?”

  “Nothing’s going on with Molly. It’s exactly what I’ve said before. I still want her as my friend, but I have zero interest in going out with her.”

  “But?”

  “But” —there’s a decade-plus of friendship between us, and I’m afraid I’m about to call on all of it— “I can’t tell you the rest. Not yet.”

  The edges of Josh’s mouth curve as he sucks in his bottom lip. After a moment’s consideration, he spreads his hands on either side of his lunch tray. “All right. As long as you know that where Peyton’s concerned—”

  “I know.”

  He nods in understanding. We gather the extra napkins and I use one to wipe up a smudge of ketchup Drew dripped onto the table while he was yapping at us. We’re about to stand up and head back into the cafeteria when Molly slides in beside me, feet aimed away from the table. I half-expect Drew to appear behind her, but when I make a quick surveillance of the courtyard, he’s nowhere to be seen.

  “I am soooo sorry about that, guys,” she whispers, twisting her torso so she can see both of us. “I had no idea he’d go bonkers like that!”

  “Not your fault,” I say. Josh nods his agreement.

  With multiple club meetings taking place in the second part of the lunch hour, the courtyard’s nearly empty now. After glancing around to ensure our conversation will remain private, she looks from Josh to me, her expression apologetic. “Actually, it kinda is. I should be at Model U.N., but we’ve gotta talk.”

  I exhale. I didn’t want to do this in front of Josh, but the sooner I come clean, the better. “I didn’t mean to lead you on, Mol.”

  She stares at me for a moment, squinching her eyes like she can’t quite decipher my meaning. Then she covers her mouth with her hand and starts laughing. Not one of those false laughs where you don’t want anyone to know you’re uncomfortable, but a genuine, gut-busting laugh.

  “What?” I have no idea how to take her reaction.

  “Geez, Connor!” She lets her hand fall from her mouth, but her body is still shaking in amusement. “Is that what you thought?”

  Josh and I share a look of confusion. “Um…I don’t know?”

  She gives me a playful punch on the arm. “How long have we been friends? We are so not couple material. If we were, I’d have been after you back in sixth grade or you’d have been after me.”

  Wait. So Molly doesn’t like me?

  “Forgive me, I’m a little slow on the uptake. You’re saying that you aren’t…?” I can’t imagine how to phrase this without sounding either conceited or moronic.

  Josh is still frowning. “If you aren’t all hot for Connor, then what was with the flirty texts? Not that I was reading Connor’s phone or anything.”

  Molly pulls a face. “Of course you weren’t, Josh. You would never read anyone’s messages.”

  She has the decency to look remorseful as she turns to me. “I’m sorry, Connor. I figured you knew what I was doing! You were so nice after Drew dumped me for Sofia.”

  I spread my hands as if to say, so?

  “You remember when we talked a couple days after it happened?” She rolls her eyes, exasperated. “I told you how much I wanted Drew back. I said I was sure he wasn’t thinking straight when he did it and that I wanted to come up with some strategy to make him realize his mistake.”

  “I remember.” It was the Monday after Drew dumped her. I was about a half-block behind her, walking to school. She’d stopped walking twice, turned around once as if she wanted to ditch, then turned back and was walking toward the school again when I caught up to her. Her eyes were red and puffy. When I asked if she was all right, she confessed that she wasn’t sure she could handle the inevitable expressions of pity when all anyone really wanted from her was dirt on the breakup.

  Then she’d launched into a three-block monologue about how much she wanted Drew back, which made me want to simultaneously plug my ears and smack some sense into her.

  “The minute you mentioned the word ‘strategy’ I told you that strategies have no place in a relationship and that you were better off without him,” I remind her.

  “And I told you I wasn’t.”

  I shrug. “And?”

  “I was still crazy over him! One conversation with you wasn’t going to change that. I spent that entire day in school distracting myself from everyone’s fake sympathy by working out a plan in my head.”

  Josh studies Molly as if she’s sprouted antennae. “A plan?”

  “I wanted him back. Duh.” She spins so her legs are under the table and she’s facing Josh. “I was hoping Sofia would get another offer and ditch Drew before the prom—because you know she’s that kind of girl—and that he’d come crawling back asking me for forgiveness, so it’d all come to nothing. But it didn’t work out that way.”

  “Drew doesn’t crawl,” Josh points out. “His ego won’t let him.”

  I’m still not following. “So all those texts were what? To make Drew jealous?”

  Her mouth curves into a self-deprecating grin. “I thought it’d work. I made sure to send them whenever my friends were watching. You know they’re all major bigmouths. And like Josh said, Drew has an ego. If he heard through the grapevine that Connor and I might hook up, his instinct would be to prevent it. No offense, Connor, but he’s never liked you.”

  Josh’s head is in his hands. I don’t blame him. I can’t believe Molly could be so smart and so stupid at the same time.

  “Am I the only person in this whole school who doesn’t consider gossip an effective relationship-building tool?” I groan in frustration.

  Molly elbows me, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she does so. “Admit it. Getting all those texts made you feel good. I just wish you’d picked up on the fact that, hello, they’re from me.”

  “Me, too,” I say. How much grief would it have saved me? As it is, I have a heck of a lot of explaining to do to Peyton.

  “You’re demented,” Josh tells Molly, but there’s a smile in his voice now. “Guess you changed your mind about wanting Drew back at some point, though, given what you said to him at the funeral home.”

  Molly checks her watch, then tilts her head toward the cafeteria doors. As we leave the table and cross the courtyard, she says, “Deep in my gut? I’ll always have a soft spot for him. I couldn’t be so ga-ga over him for so long and not, you know? Plus, I meant it when I said I didn’t want to humiliate him the way he humiliated me. But before I’d even consider getting back with him, I’d need to know that he respects me and doesn’t simply see me as a possession to be taken for granted. Otherwise, what would be the point?”

  “I’m not sure he can do that.” I hate saying it, but Molly needs a good dose of honesty.

  “Me, either. Especially given how ballistic he went at Blanchard’s.” She pauses to pick up an abandoned granola bar wrapper and toss it into the nearest can. “But he’s learned the hard way not to treat his next girlfriend the way he treated me. And I’ve figured out that I’m perfectly fine without him. Happy, even. It’s weird to say, given all that planning I put into getting him back, but it’s a liberating feeling. And I like it.”

  “Maybe there’s someone better for you than Drew.” Josh can’t resist getting in one last comment.

  “Maybe.” The sly way she says it makes me wonder if she already has someone in mind. Since that someone obviously isn’t me, I don’t ask. I don’t want to know.

  The guy has no clue what he’s getting into with her.

  I pause a few steps from the door. Now that I know this was all part of a grand scheme, it occurs to me that there may a lot more to Molly’s plan than sending a few texts to make her ex jealous. Texting doesn’t constitute ‘all that planning.’ And Molly’s I’m perfectly fine spiel strikes me as too laid-back.

  “Hold on a sec.” As much as I should let it go, I can’t. It’s too important.

  She spins around, all serenity and light. C
autiously, I ask, “Just how extensive was your plan? What haven’t you told us?”

  Josh stops walking, confusion etched on his face. When Molly flashes the same sweet smile she gave Drew when she first tried to wave him out of his car, dread bubbles up in my gut. “You said you wanted to teach Drew a lesson. That was the big plan, wasn’t it? It wasn’t simply to make Drew jealous.”

  “A lesson?” Josh’s expression goes from confusion to horror. “No way. Oh, Molly, tell me you didn’t.”

  “Didn’t what?” Molly looks from me to Josh in complete innocence. I don’t buy it. I know how good an actress she is.

  “You rigged Senior Assassin.” Josh whispers the accusation, even though no one else is outside to hear. “Jayne was picked to run it only a few days before you and Drew broke up. It wouldn’t take much for her to switch up the computerized assignments.”