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I let out a long sigh. “It doesn’t.”

“And have you given any more thought to the truce he offered?” Tessa continued. I’d called her last night the moment after Chase left me alone in my room and told her all about his offer. She was wary about the truce, but she seemed more open to considering the idea than me. Tessa wasn’t the one who had a list a mile long of reasons not to trust Chase though.

I shook my head, my arms tightening around my books. “I’m still not sure that making a deal with the devil is a good idea. What if this is just another way for him to mess with me?”

“Or what if he’s fed up fighting with you just as much as you’re fed up fighting with him?” Tessa asked. “A lot can happen over the summer.”

“I suppose, but surely, he can’t have changed that much,” I replied. “I just wish I could get rid of him somehow.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Tessa said. “He’s got nowhere else to go, and your dad’s made up his mind about it. You’ve probably got a better chance of your dad agreeing to let you leave home yourself than convincing him to make Chase leave.”

“I know, so can we please just talk about something other than my impending doom?”

Tessa grinned at me. “Well, there has been other news circulating the corridors this morning. Did you hear there’s a new guy starting today?”

Mia’s eyes lit up. “So, I’m notthenew personanymore?”

“Nope,” Tessa replied. “You’re officially losing your title.”

Fairview was pretty small, and we’d all been at school together forever. It was rare that new kids got thrown into the mix, so a new boy starting in senior year was definitely big news.

“And I’ve heard he’s cute,” Tessa added. “How much do you want to bet Jenna’s throwing herself all over him before the day is through?”

“I thought she was dating Chase,” I said. She’d already dated pretty much every popular guy at school, but Chase was like Jenna’s white whale. I don’t think I’d ever seen her as smug as the day she rocked up to school on his arm, proudly showing off her biggest catch.

“No, they stopped dating at the start of summer vacation,” Tessa said. “I sometimes wonder if you’re willfully deaf when it comes to that boy. The mere mention of his name in conversation and you tune out.”

“Self-preservation?” I suggested, making Tessa shake her head at me.

The bell rang, and I tucked a stray hair behind one ear. “Well, I guess it’s going to be an interesting year.”

“It’s going to be amazing,” Mia added with a smile.

I couldn’t help but disagree with her.

* * *

Mia wasn’tthe first person to ask me about the rumor of Chase living with me that day. Several girls came up to me before and after classes, and by the time lunch rolled around, I was more than ready to never hear his name again. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Chase was now living with me, his name was following me everywhere I went, and I couldn’t seem to escape him.

Even as I lined up for food in the cafeteria at lunch, the girls behind me whispered about it. At least most people asked me to my face. Hearing them gossiping behind my back seemed so much worse.

I glanced over my shoulder at the two girls as I paid for my food, and they stopped talking. I didn’t recognize them, but by the look of their baby faces, they had to be freshman. Guilt flashed in their eyes when they realized I’d heard them, but the moment I looked away, they giggled.

I let out a sigh and grabbed my tray. How was it that people I didn’t even know were talking about me? I hadn’t asked for any of this, and I certainly didn’t want it. I turned to walk over to my table, but as I spun around, I slammed into a hard body. Almost in slow motion, my tray full of food and drink went flying through the air. My soda cup sprayed everywhere, and the piece of pizza I’d been salivating over landed facedown on the linoleum floor.

I swore, dropped to my knees, and tried to clean up the mess and salvage some of the food. I grabbed a handful of napkins, but they were quickly soaked in the sticky soda as I attempted to mop it up, and the pizza was definitely a goner. There was no such thing as a ten-second rule when it came to the school cafeteria floor. The person I had bumped into crouched down and helped me by passing over my bag of chips—the lone survivor from my tray’s demise.

“Sorry for crashing into you,” I said, as I took the chips and looked up. My eyes widened with surprise as I found myself looking at a guy I didn’t recognize. He had kind eyes and an easy smile that made a pair of cute dimples appear. He looked about my age, and I was guessing he was the new kid Tessa had been talking about.

“It’s no problem,” he said. “I should probably have been looking where I was going a little better.”

I shook my head. “No, it was totally my fault. I’m kind of accident-prone and have a reputation for tripping on things that aren’t there. My food probably would have ended up on the floor even if you weren’t standing there.”

The boy laughed, and the two of us stood. It was pretty sad that a packet of chips was the only thing to survive our collision, but after a day of dodging gossip, I wasn’t feeling all that hungry anyway.

“I’m Ally, by the way.”

“Luke,” he replied.