Page 17 of Take Care, Taylor

“Um…”

“The sucky part is I’m not allowed to go back to school for an entire month.” She frowned. “It’s not fair. It was just a knife, and it wasn’t even my sharpest one.”

I glanced at her pocket, noticing a slim silver handle sticking out.

I moved over a little bit for my own safety.

“Have you tried stabbing Taylor yet?” she asked. “I guarantee he’ll leave you alone if you choose violence.”

“If I stabbed him, I’d get a felony charge.”

“Huh?” She tilted her head. “What’s a felony charge?”

“It’s—” I leaned forward and took the knife from her pocket, throwing it into my desk. “You can’t stab people just because they’re mean to you, okay? Life doesn’t work like that. You have to outsmart your bullies. You have to strategically plan for—” I stopped mid-sentence, an idea sparking that had nothing to do with knives and everything to do with payback.

With Taylor’s suspension over far too soon and him already showing me that he’d learned nothing, I needed to think.

“Strategically plan for what, Audrey?” Cecelia asked.

“His demise.”

“Can you let me help?”

“Absolutely.”

The following afternoon

I swam down the lane in the training pool, looking up at the time when I reached the end.

Six seconds short.

Sports was not my thing—at all—but I was determined to try them to see if I had a natural talent at something other than writing. Something that would separate me from being anything like my mom and dad and their zombie-like nights poring over their laptops and caring more about their characters than me.

I sighed and took off my swim cap, quickly changing into my clothes. Vowing to try harder tomorrow, I picked up my bag and heard a door creaking behind me.

The scent of chlorine hung heavy in the air as a shadow slid across the tiles—and then… Taylor.

“Hello, Audrey,” he said, smiling. “How are you this afternoon?”

“Fine.” I rolled my eyes as he moved toward me. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”

“Neither are you. You’re not on the swim team.”

“I’m trying to make it.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Can you please go wreak havoc on someone else’s life?”

“I thought you’d want to see me during my first week back.” He smirked. “You haven’t missed me since my suspension?”

“You’ve already got me grounded since your return, so no.”

“That’s a shame,” he said. “I’ve missed you.”

“If you don’t leave within the next ten seconds, I’m going to scream.”

“I take back what I said about missing you.” He paused. “I don’t think I really got the chance since you put a hate letter under my windowsill every day.”