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“Too late.” He grinned, and I struggled not to smile in response. “You know, I had a hard time focusing on anyone else tonight. But, then again, you could have been in sweats and I would have had a hard time focusing on anyone else.”

His confession made my smile falter for a brief second. Why did he say that? I liked hearing it way more than I should have; just like the words on the half-heart he gave me had made me happy in a moment when I should have been furious.

I suddenly noticed how close he was standing; how our bodies were almost touching and how electricity seemed to spark between them. He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but I interrupted him before he got a chance to say any more. My feelings toward him were becoming muddled, and I was reacting to him in ways I hadn’t anticipated. I had enough confusion in my life without him adding to it, so I needed him to keep his thoughts to himself.

“So, before I leave I just wanted to say that I understand why I had to stay in the competition,” I said, the words coming out in a rush as I cut him off. “If the audience voted for me, I could hardly back out,” I added.

He looked confused, so I hurriedly continued. “So, yeah, I just wanted to say that I get it and you can eliminate me next week instead.” I was rambling, and I never rambled when I spoke with Cole.

He frowned and looked away from me. Until now, his eyes had been fixed so intently on my own that the loss of his gaze on me left me feeling cold.

“You still want to be eliminated?” he asked.

“Well, yeah, obviously,” I replied. “I’m with Jake.”

He nodded, but there was a hint of hurt in his eyes. Uncertainty swirled through me as I tried to understand it. But a moment later he lifted his gaze back to meet mine and his expression turned neutral.

“No problem,” he said.

I let out a breath. “Okay, that’s great.”

“Yeah, great,” he replied. We were still standing close to one another, but it felt like a huge void had suddenly opened up between us.

“Anyway,” he continued. “I have homework I need to get started on…”

“Right, of course, me too.” I didn’t miss the hint. It was time for me to go. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you then, Matthews.”

As I walked back to my house, I kept glancing down at the paper heart in my hand. I was somehow still stuck in the competition, but I felt confident I could handle another week of it. I just wasn’t so sure that Jake could.

It wasn’t Jake that I was thinking about when I went to bed that night though. Cole’s message kept replaying in my mind. The words had been silly and playful, but their meaning was clear. Cole wanted me in the contest, and I was afraid to find out why.

10

Madison

When Jake came to pick me up from school the next morning, he did not look happy. He didn’t get out to greet me as I walked toward his car, and he didn’t glance in my direction as I opened the passenger side door and took a seat.

I could see the tension in his shoulders clearly, and his hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white. He’d watched the selection ceremony and he was upset.

“Hey, Jake,” I said, my voice hesitant.

He finally turned in my direction and the look in his eyes was enough to stop my beating heart. They were filled with so much anger and hurt that the breath was stolen from my lungs and I was left speechless.

“I can’t do this,” he said, the words as strained as the tension in the air between us.

My eyes automatically glistened with tears. “I know it can’t be easy for you,” I whispered.

“Not easy?” He thumped his hands against the wheel. “It’s torture. You think I like listening to people rave about the two of you together? That I want the whole school to see my girl flirting with that dick?”

“I haven’t been flirting with him—”

“Don’t lie to me,” Jake growled, cutting me off.

The anger in his voice made my blood run cold. “I would never lie to you.”

He scoffed in response but didn’t utter a word in reply.