Page 41

“I’m guessing you’re hungry,” he said.

“Starving.”

He started to laugh again. “Did you have a good day at school?”

“It was fine.” I hated lying, but I couldn’t exactly tell him the truth.

“Have you done your homework?”

“Yes.” I omitted the fact I’d had more than enough time to focus on it in detention.

“That’s my Ally.” He headed toward the kitchen with the food.

I stared after him, a frown creasing my brow. I didn’t feel like his Ally right now. I’d gone to a nightclub on the weekend and danced on a table in the cafeteria today. I’d never had detention before, and it wasn’t the kind of milestone I was proud of.

All I knew was none of these things would have happened if Chase weren’t living in our house, and I had to focus on getting rid of him as quickly as possible.

Following our latest confrontation, it didn’t feel like I was making much progress with Tessa’s plan. Chase wasn’t exactly making it easy for me to be nice to him, but I didn’t have a choice. Failure wasn’t an option, so I needed to start getting serious about Operation Pest Control.

14

Ally

“Didyou hear about the fight in the parking lot this morning?”

Tessa’s question made me jump. I was staring into my open locker, thinking about the geography assignment I’d just received when she appeared out of nowhere. The mention of a fight quickly pushed school to the back of my mind. Fights didn’t exactly break out regularly at Fairview, but when they did, the teachers normally came down pretty hard on the students involved. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard about it yet.

“There was a fight?”

Tessa nodded enthusiastically. “Well, I didn’t see it myself, but everyone’s been talking about it.”

“Between who?”

“Declan and your boyfriend-to-be, apparently.”

“Chase?” I clarified.

“The one and only.”

I frowned and focused back on my locker as I pulled out a book. Declan and Chase had little to do with one another, but they had butted heads on Saturday night, and it seemed too coincidental not to be related. All Chase had done was stick his nose where it wasn’t wanted though, and they hadn’t seemed angry with each other at the time.

“Do you know why they were fighting?”

“No idea,” Tessa replied. “At least it’s given everyone something else to talk about.”

She had a point. I’d barely received any mocking laughs or snide comments today. I’d had a few girls congratulate me on the way I handled myself in the cafeteria, but for the most part, it felt like the poster scandal had died down.

“So, did they get in trouble?” I asked.

Tessa shook her head. “I think it was broken up before any teachers got involved.”

“So, I guess Chase is still in school then.”

“You don’t need to sound so miserable about it,” Tessa replied.

I blew out a breath. “I’m not miserable about it, I just don’t know what to do. I’m supposed to be following your plan, but everything’s a mess. I can’t seem to stop arguing with him, and I can’t imagine him ever wanting to date me. I mean, look at the posters he put up around the school. He’s really pulling out the big guns in his war with me.”

Tessa went to respond but was interrupted by the sound of someone calling my name. I turned in the direction of the voice and was surprised to find Declan walking toward us.