Page 41 of Friend

I yelped under my breath, recoiling from her. My thoughts were still reeling from the conversation. “Where did you come from?” I asked, and also, “How did you know I was here?”

Neither question she had a chance to answer before something even more important came to mind:how the hellhad she cometothisconclusion?

“What in the world makes you thinkthat?” I almost stammered out the question but was filled with a desperate need to try to understand her thought process. “He never said he would.”

“He was happy when I reminded him that he was enough as he was,” Bianca replied, and I gaped at her. “He won’t do it again.”

“I still don’t understand.” Because, really, was that what she’d said? I did not get that from their conversationat all.

“Just trust me. We did it.” Her lips curled into a small smile, and she seemed so serenely confident that I couldn’t destroy her delusions. “Don’t you feel good about yourself?”

“No,” I grumbled, crossing my arms in front of me. I glared at the spot where Cory had been parked. I really did not. “You’re not going to prom with him.”

She blinked at me, the joy somewhat dimming in her expression. “Why not?”

“Because he’s just using you.”

“Using me, how?” she asked, eyes beginning to shine in hurt. “He said we were friends.”

“That’s not what he said,” I muttered. My thoughts turned red at what he’d try if they ever were in his car, alone, together.

He was a monster.

“Finn?” Her trembling fingers touched the bottom of her lip, and her small shoulders were tight with hurt and anxiety. “What do you know?”

I gazed down into her wide eyes and my heart thrummed loudly in my ears. She knew me well enough to know that there was a deeper reason for my discomfort.

I couldn't spell it out for her—no one knew how she’d react.

It just could never happen.

“Nothing.” I couldn’t look at her anymore. So I backed up, wiping the pine needles off my clothes. “You’re not going to be allowed to go anyway,” I reminded her. “Do you really think your parents are going to be okay with it?”

She didn’t sound as confident when she finally said, “Maybe if I asked Dad…”

“Yeah, sure,” I told her. “See what he says.”