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I turned to look at him. He stood up.

“I’d like to apologize,” he said.

“Apologize? To whom and for what?” Mrs. Nelson asked.

“To Sasha Fawne Porter,” he said. “For my being a nasty bastard.”

There was a little laughter, but everyone was more surprised and shocked than amused.

“I don’t think that sort of language is called for, Mr. Garfield, and I don’t think it is necessary for you to make your apology to another student a public thing in any case,” Mrs. Nelson said.

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” he replied, and sat.

Everyone looked to see what she would do or say next, but Dr. Steiner came on the public-address system to talk about a change in the schedule. The faculty was going to have its meetings early next week instead of in two weeks, and students would not attend classes. There was a loud cheer from our homeroom and from all of the ones down the hallway in celebration of a day off.

Mrs. Nelson took attendance. Just before the bell rang to start the day, she asked Ryder to come up. I left the room with everyone else, and of course, Jessica and my other girlfriends wanted to know what that was all about.

“What did he say to you?” Sydney asked.

“Was it really nasty?” Keana Welles wanted to know. She was obviously hoping it was.

Jessica stood there waiting with the others for my answer. When I had a confrontation with any other boy, as I’d had with Shayne Peters recently, they were all eager to hear about it, and whenever any of them had any problems, they did come running to me for advice. I knew I shouldn’t be annoyed at their interest now, but somehow, I did feel differently about Ryder Garfield. He wasn’t just a big challenge. There was something deep down inside me that kept me attracted to him.

“Since he apologized, I don’t think it’s right for me to say,” I told them.

There were audible groans of disappointment. I deliberately walked slowly.

“Are you very upset about it?” Jessica asked in a whisper.

“No,” I said. “I’ll tell you later,” I promised, and she smiled so brightly she practically glowed.

Kiera was famous for doing this, I told myself, making one of her girlfriends feel special by promising to tell her something none of the others knew. She spoke to others the same way. Before she was finished, half a dozen of them would claim to be her best friend.

I glanced back and saw Ryder come out of homeroom.

“I’ll catch up with you,” I told Jessica, and turned to wait for him.

“She’s scary,” he said, nodding back toward homeroom. “I saw two long fangs start to grow while she was bawling me out.”

“You’re such an idiot. Why did you do that?”

He shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea to me. Public confession was supposed to be purifying, according to the Puritans.”

“You won’t find any Puritans here,” I said, and he laughed.

“You haven’t said whether or not you forgive me,” he said when we reached our first classroom.

“You’re on probation,” I told him.

“How did you know?” he replied, his face deadly serious.

I stared at him, not knowing what to say. Was that why he was so standoffish? Then he laughed and entered the room.

“You creep!” I cried. He looked back, smiling.

Being with him was definitely like riding a roller coa

ster, I thought. Was he bipolar? Or was he just an angry, insecure young man? Once again, I had to question whether I wanted to get more involved with someone like him. There were a number of boys in our class, besides Shayne Peters, who were so much less complicated and probably would treat me like a little goddess.