Ugh, I so did not need the school’s resident gossipmonger putting her vicious spin on what had happened over break.
“I am over him,” I protested, fiddling with my long braid. No game today meant my hair could have a little break from the tight ponytails we kept them in while cheering. I couldn’t wait for the season to be over and my poor hair could be free for awhile.
And my heart.
I stuck out my lower lip, and Staci arched one of her perfect eyebrows.
“You have been moping for two weeks, Sammi. You were only going out for two months.”
“Well, it was a very intense two months.” Maybe too intense. If I hadn’t let myself fall like that, it wouldn’t hurt so much now.
“I’m sure it was,” she said but looked at me like she doubted it very much. “But this moping needs to end. You need to find someone else.”
My heart lurched. Someone else? Like anyone could compare to him. Sure, the basketball team sucked, but he was hands down the best player and had some college scouts seriously interested. He was also smart, and funny, and so insanely hot it wasn’t even fair to the other guys at school. Those perfect light-brown, almost golden eyes were offset by thick dark hair, worn just a little long so his coach always complained. But the coach had stopped complaining when he’d seen how great he was on the court. And then there was that tiny bit of stubble on Jeremiah’s face, enough to scratch my cheek when we kissed…
Okay, yeah, I needed to get over this guy. And quick.
“Any ideas for a replacement?” I said, looking around the room. Advanced Chemistry was not exactly crawling with hotties. Why my mom had insisted I take as many AP classes as possible when I already knew what I wanted to study was beyond me. At least Staci had placed into it, too, so I wasn’t alone. The guys in here were terrified even to look at us, let alone talk to us.
She shook her head and sighed.
“For now, just work on getting rid of those lovey feelings and replace them with the anger he deserves.” She held up a finger and started ticking things off the list. “He dumped you two days before your birthday. He returned the Christmas present you’d spent weeks looking for, unopened. He gave you no logical explanation other than he ‘had to,’ which is the lamest excuse in the history of the world.”
She had three fingers up now and was really riled.
“Finally, he dumped you for your best friend, a fellow cheerleader, so that is basically proof he is total scum and not worth your time.”
She held up four fingers triumphantly, as if that settled the matter.
And it should have.
No, it did. I looked at Staci and took her in angry face, realizing she was more upset about this than I was.
“Why do you care so much, Staci?”
“Because you have been letting yourself feel sad and lonely and worthless, when really, he is the jerk. You deserve better and you will find better.”
I let this sink in. I thought about what it felt like to see him kiss Linzie in front of everyone every single day since we’d gotten back from winter break last week. There was anger underneath the sadness, for sure. I focused on that and let it bloom inside me.
“There it is,” Staci said triumphantly, and cackled, and several pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. As if these guys weren’t afraid enough of us already.
Who was Jeremiah Keller to dump me, Samantha Parsons? I was the hottest, most popular girl in school.
He was nobody.
Chapter 2
Chemistry was the last class of the day, thankfully, and there were no more run-ins with Jeremiah.
Unfortunately, I still had to see Linzie during cheerleading practice. She’d been walking around with a smirk on her face for the past week, which made it almost impossible for me to concentrate on the routine.
I still blamed her for the entire thing but I had to deal with her every day. When you trust people to throw you into the air, you can’t spend too much time hating them. It seemed easier to place the entire blame on Jeremiah who I could avoid besides our one class together. Sure, I couldn’t be mad that she’d said yes when he’d asked her out—he was without a doubt one of the hottest guys we knew. But he’d been the one to decide he didn’t want me anymore, not Linzie. Staci was right. He was the jerk.
Still, if Linzie didn’t stop smirking I might change my mind and we’d have an unbalanced pyramid pretty soon.
Since there was no game that night, and Coach Fontana had to help with the parent-teacher night, it was a shorter practice than usual. As we were changing, Staci informed me she was coming over to my house. She insisted I do a complete and total purge of all things Jeremiah to get rid of his influence on my life.
“You’re not going to make me pull tarot cards again, are you?” I looked at her, an eyebrow raised.
She smiled. “No, I think your path forward is pretty clear right now,” she said, her voice taking on that mystical quality she liked to play with. How many cheerleading sleepovers had she pulled out her cards, or read our palms, or consulted up a horoscope website to predict our futures? Staci was super smart, but also super into stuff like that. It was fun to play along, but since all she’d ever predicted had seen me and Jeremiah going to prom together, I didn’t let myself trust those things too much.
When we got to my house, I called out as we walked in, knowing that no one was there but feeling the need to check anyway. Staci pushed me straight up to my room and demanded I take out ‘the box.’ It had been hiding under my bed ever since that night in December, and I was surprisingly emotional just looking at its closed lid.
It contained every single piece of Jeremiah I had. The ticket stub from the first movie we’d gone to. The map from Langford Farm’s haunted corn maze. Pictures I’d printed out. An old t-shirt of his I’d grabbed once out of his bag that he’d said looked good on me. I’d been wearing it to bed most nights until Staci had come over one morning unannounced and made me banish it to ‘the box.’ Now I would have to banish the entire box from my room, and Jeremiah from my heart. Forever.
Staci saw me tearing up and rolled her eyes. “Sammi, he’s a total dog,” she said, placing her hands on ‘the box.’
I swallowed hard. “What are you going to do with ‘the box’?”
“Get rid of it for you.”
I gripped it tightly, trying to pull it back.
“Sammi, it’s for your own good. Can you do it yourself?”
I looked down at it, thinking of all the memories attached to the things inside. Did I want to keep the memories of someone who’d been so cruel to me?
“Look, I won’t burn it in front of you,” she said, easing it out of my grasp.
“Burn?”
“I mean throw out,” she said quickly, hiding it behind her back.
I ached to reach around her to take it back, but she was faster and stronger than me. I was on the top of the cheer pyramid, she was on the bottom. She was my strength I could rely on, and I needed it more than ever.
“Right now, it’s time for the ceremony.”
I raised an eyebrow. I’d been through a few of her ‘ceremonies’ before. “I’m not killing any chickens, Staci.”
She flushed. “That was one hundred percent my aunt, and it worked, didn’t it?”
“Pretty sure we won the competition because of practice and hard work.”
She waved away my arguments with a perfectly-manicured hand.
“We’re just clearing out the room and your spirit of his influence, that’s all.” With this, she stood and placed ‘the box’ just outside my bedroom door. I didn’t think my mom would get home, see it, and throw it away in the time it took to chant whatever Staci had made up, but my heart beat a little faster anyway. It was one thing to let Staci take care of it, but I wasn’t about to let anyone else touch it, even my mom.
“Now,” Staci said, sitting to face me, her legs crossed. “Remember everything good about him.”
I snorted. “How is that going t
o help me forget him?”
She shot me a ‘just do it’ glare.
I sighed and closed my eyes.
I pictured his soft amber eyes and the way they’d glow hazy gold after we kissed. I remembered the feeling of his arms around me, and how I fit perfectly into him. I thought about the way he’d whispered encouraging things in my ear right before I’d go into class for a test. He thought I was so smart, when everyone else around me treated me like just another dumb cheerleader, even though I did really well in most stuff, once I had the confidence. He’d given me that confidence. He’d seen so much in me. He was so sweet, and kind, and—
Without warning, Staci slapped me.
“What the heck!” My eyes popped open, and lifted a hand to my cheek. It hadn’t hurt at all but it shocked me something fierce.
Oh, maybe that was the point.
“Now, whenever you catch yourself thinking nice things about him, think me of slapping you,” Staci said, a little too enthusiastically.
“Is that really necessary?”
“You tell me.” She raised her hand threateningly.
I bit my lip. “Fine. I’ll try. But no more slapping, please.”
She nodded, then reached into her oversized purse and pulled out a giant bag of peanut butter M&Ms.
“Ooh.” I was drooling already. Coach had us paying pretty close attention to what we ate. She never wanted us to starve ourselves or skip a meal, but eating so much good stuff meant we didn’t really have room for empty calories. Like candy.
“Now, for every bad thing you say about him, you get some.”
I licked my lips. Staci knew me too well. We’d always been good friends, but she’d really stepped up since Linzie had betrayed me. I’d have been totally lost without her the past few weeks.
“Ready?” She took out a handful of chocolate-covered morsels and held them up above my head.
I held out my hands, ready to catch them.
“Ready,” I said and giggled. This was slightly ridiculous, but at this point, I was willing to try anything. Especially if it avoided any more slapping.
“Go!”
“He yells at TV sports.”
She shook her head. “Every guy does that.” She dangled an M&M. “Try again.”
“He dumped me via a text message!”
“Good.” A few red M&Ms dropped into my hands. She pulled out another bunch. “More!”
“He makes out with Linzie literally every single time he sees me in the hall.”
Another few dropped into my hands.
“He hooked up with her at the squad’s New Year’s Eve party.” They’d disappeared for a good half hour and came back with their faces red, and Linzie giggling. I’d nearly kicked them out, but I had to keep peace on the cheerleading team.
Yet more M&Ms fell into my waiting palms.
“He never returned my Coldplay album.” It was my favorite too.
Another.
“He thinks the starting five can do no wrong.” Listening to them talk about each other was pretty gag inducing.
Another.
“Okay, I think that’s enough for now. Enjoy your bribery. And don’t tell Coach.” She giggled. Five handfuls of M&Ms wasn’t going to derail things too much, but it still felt like an indulgence.
“Do you really think this will help?” I said, popping one into my mouth. I nearly groaned with pleasure as the chocolate and peanut butter melted over my tongue.
“Well, this is not exactly ideal testing conditions for aversion therapy,” she said with a laugh. “But if you ever need a slap or want a piece of candy, you know what you need to do.”
Was I willing to put up with the slaps just to keep holding on to someone who didn’t want me anymore? Wasn’t candy for thinking badly of him better?
“Can we up the prize to a bag of candy for every bad thought?”
Staci gave me a glare. I sighed.
This was going to be harder than I thought.
Available now:
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Also by Daphne James Huff
Sweet Young Adult:
Rebound Boyfriend
Leah’s Song
Carnival Wishes
Home for Christmas
This Summer at the Lake
The Princes of Prynesse:
A Royal Distraction
A Royal Decision
A Royal Departure
Dreamers Series:
I Dream of Fire: Parts 1 & 2
The Magician’s Test
The Devil’s Trial
The Nurse’s Secret
Varsity Girlfriends
Sweet YA Sports Romance
Mountain Creek Drive
Sweet Young Adult Series with a touch of 2000’s nostalgia
Love Lessons Page 17
