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Elliot didn’t.
“I’m gonna go home,” I said, and slipped the apartment key over to Elliot along with the money my mom had given us for the food. “I’ll text you the address. I just … need a moment.”
Without a word, he slid out of the seat in order to let me by. He avoided looking into my eyes. I wasn’t angry with him. I just didn’t know what to feel. There was just something in my gut telling me that if we agreed to Vivian’s plan, something bad would come of it. it didn’t make sense to me.
Elliot would be getting more out of this agreement than Vivian would be getting in return. Something else was at stake—where would the money actually be coming from?
“Kat,” Elliot said, just as I started walking toward the exit. I turned around, and saw his eyes were watering, just so slightly. That’s why he was avoiding looking at me. He was trying to hide it—hide himself. “I’m sorry, I just need to think about this. I’ll see you later, okay?”
I nodded, and turned back toward the exit. The host, Rupert, nodded at me and gave me a pat on the shoulder as I walked through the door, as if he knew something had happened.
“Thanks,” I said, nodding at him. “Have a good one.”
I hated my life.
Pushing through the glass double doors, the cold air rushed at my skin through my open jacket. A moment later, I felt a new warmth around my shoulders.
Leo’s arms.
“Wait up,” he said, hugging me close to him. “I’m coming with you.”
I shook my head, but allowed him to hold me close to him as we braved the cold. “It’s a five-minute walk,” I replied. “You up for that?”
“I’m up for anything.”
I wrapped my arm around his waist, hugging him closer.
“So,” I said, once we were far enough away from the restaurant. “What do you think about all this?”
I felt him shrug. “He’s desperate,” Leo replied. “I’d understand if he went for it. Seems simple enough.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” I said. We turned the corner, and I could see the top of my apartment building in the distance. “It’s too easy. Vivian’s going to rope him in and get something else out of him, and I’m not sure what. I don’t even think he’s considering that.”
“You don’t?” Leo turned his head to look at me. “Because it seems like he’s doing that right now. Considering, I mean.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. Maybe that was it—I didn’t even want him to consider any part of this. “So, you’d do this for him? Sign up for her stupid plan?”
Leo took a moment before answering, and then said, “I’d do it if Ell wanted me to, sure. I’ve always done what he’s wanted.”
His answer left me feeling colder than the weather did. He was right, of course. Leo might have been the mastermind behind the countless schemes and pranks they had pulled back at Woodman, but he only did so because Elliot wanted it. I couldn’t remember a day that only one or two of them had showed up at school. If Elliot was absent, so were they. If he was there, they’d do their hardest to be present, too.
If Elliot needed to do this, so would he.
Still, there was a bitter edge to the way he had responded—always done what he wanted. Always.
As if he’s never had the choice to begin with.
We were about to cross the street, but before we reached the corner, I pulled Leo back and wrapped my hands around his arms, holding him close to me.
“Why did you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at his, searching his gaze for any hint of authenticity. No more lies. “Why are you friends with him?”
I had realized something—Leo didn’t belong with Elliot. Outside of the bit of mischief he had caused back in high school, he proved to me that his innocence was more than skin-deep. He didn’t do the things he did back at Woodman for the thrill of it—because he actually wanted to hurt me.
No.
Leo never hated me. It was Elliot who made it seem like he did.
“It’s embarrassing,” he replied, moving his gaze to the ground even though his own hands tightened his grip on my arms. “We didn’t start out as friends. In middle school, he saw that I was close with the girls. Guess it made him insecure or jealous, or something, so he started calling me names and shit. He was my bully before he became yours.”