Love, Lies and Unfiltered Hearts

The Rescue

JOSIE

Two weeks into living at the Callahans as their babysitter, Morgan made it her mission to tell whoever cares to listen that I'm Drew's charity case, that I live in his basement, and that she was the one who put in a good word for me so Drew could help me get the job.

*Of course she did. Rewrite history, make herself the hero. Classic.*

Then she made me an ice girl.

Not because she wanted me on the team, but because she wanted me somewhere with a defined set of rules she had personally invented, so she could document exactly how badly I was breaking them, and also to keep an eye on me.

The Lakebridge Wolves' ice-girls were technically open to any girl who tried out, but Morgan ran the squad the same way she ran everything else, by deciding in advance who belonged and who was there to be reminded they didn't. I found out I'd been added to the roster when I saw my name on the list outside the gym. I stood there reading it for a full minute. Then I went straight to Ms. Ricci.

"I didn't sign up for this," I said.

She looked at the photo I'd taken on my phone and chose her words carefully. "The away trip to Blackbridge is next Friday. If your name's on that list, pulling out now creates a situation."

"Why?"

"Because Morgan Kinsley will use it. Given everything you're already managing, Josie, I'd rather you not hand her more ammunition than she already has."

So I went. And afterwards, officially, I became an ice girl, without consent.

I was the team's errand girl. I paid for the squad's snacks out of my pocket money before every practice. On the days I didn't have enough, Morgan made sure everyone knew.

*Public humiliation. Her favorite sport.*

She'd given me a uniform a size too small that pulled across my hips and rode up every time I moved, and she told me in front of the whole squad that I should stop eating or I might bust the seams and have to walk around in pieces. She said it smiling, and with cruelty.

Two girls in the back laughed. The rest went quiet in the particular way people went quiet when something made them uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to say so.

I wore the uniform. I showed up every time. I bought the snacks and cleaned up after practice and kept my face blank and my shoulders straight. I had learned a long time ago that disappearing only gave them less to say.

[Present day]

Tuesday comes with its own issues. At lunch, Tyler Vance sticks his foot out as I walk past his table.

I go down hard. My knees c***k against the tile, and my tray flips. The mashed potatoes and gravy go straight into my chest, warm and thick. The whole cafeteria goes quiet, the way it only goes quiet when something is worth watching.

Morgan crouches in front of me before I've even fully registered what is going on.

"You know what, Josie?" She tilts her head and smiles the way she always smiles, like she is doing me a favour just by acknowledging I exist. "If you just skipped lunch once in a while, things like this probably wouldn't happen."

She grabs a napkin from the nearest table and reaches toward me. "Here, let me help." She dabs once at the gravy on my chest and holds it up for the room to see. "Yeah. That's not coming out."

She tosses it onto my upturned tray and stands.

"Honestly, I feel bad for you," she says, pressing her hand to her chest. "It must be so exhausting carrying..." She waves her hand at my body. "...all of that, every single day."

*Don't react. Don't give her anything. Just get up.*

The laughter comes from everywhere. Not the half-covered kind, it is the wide-open kind.

"I wonder what Maxwell Thorne would say seeing you like this, eating your lunch from the floor like a pig."

More laughter as someone makes a pig noise that echoes through the hall.

I push myself up onto one knee as gravy drips from my hoodie onto the tile.

Morgan stretches out her hand, as if to help. "Need a hand?" She asks wickedly.

"Careful," Tyler calls out. "She goes down again, she might c***k the floor."

The laughter gets louder as I manage to look up, and two freshmen near the window are recording on their phones. Drew Callahan is three tables away, looking right at me, our eyes meet for one second, then he drops his gaze back to his tray.

*Of course he does.*

I drop my head and try to get up, but someone's shoe is pressing down on my feet behind me, making it difficult to stand.

I am still on the floor with my knees throbbing, and my hands shaking when the laughter cuts out. Not fade, cut, like someone pressed a button and the room remembers how to be silent.

I look up, and Maxwell Thorne is standing at the cafeteria entrance in his Blackbridge letter jacket. At Lakebridge High. In the middle of a Tuesday.

*That's… not normal. That's very not normal.*

His eyes move from the gravy on my hoodie to Morgan, still standing over me with her arms crossed and her head tilted.

His jaw tightens, and he holds it.

Then he walks across the cafeteria like he owns every inch of the floor between us, and stops a few feet in front of me. But Morgan faces him fully, blocking me off.

"Move." He tells her.

Morgan tries to say something, but he moves even closer and repeats it. "Move, Morgan."

Morgan steps aside, her face caught between rage and embarrassment.

Maxwell holds out his hand. "You okay?" he asks.

I start to nod, then I look at his face, and something about seeing him makes my throat close around the automatic yes, and I shake my head instead.

He extends his hand a little further. "Come on."

I stare at it for a second. Then I take it. His fingers close around mine, warm and steady, and he pulls me to my feet. I stagger from the numbness and pain in my feet, but Maxwell catches and steadies me.

His face is controlled, but underneath it, something is burning that he is holding back with visible effort.

*Yeah… she picked the wrong day.*

He leads me out of the cafeteria without letting go.

Becca appears at the edge of the hallway, gives me a wide-eyed thumbs up, and mouths 'text me later' before disappearing in the other direction.

I let Maxwell walk me out into the cold air, and I don't look back once.