Falling Like Leaves (Bramble Falls, #1)(63)

He shoots me one last unreadable look and leaves, taking his future Pumpkin Prom proposal with him.





Chapter Twenty-Seven




Over the next week, I keep my head down at school. When Jake texts me at lunch, asking where I am, I tell him I’m meeting with my guidance counselor about college stuff or tutoring freshmen who have study hall during that time. Really, I skip eating and do homework in the library.

I do not once look in Cooper’s direction.

When he asked me to forget the kiss happened, I’m sure he meant he still wanted to be friends. But I don’t know how. I don’t want to axe him from my life, but things are different now, no matter how much he wants to pretend like they’re not.

It’s easier to avoid him until I go back to the city.

But Jake is nothing if not persistent, and by Friday—after four days of incessant begging and complaining—I’m back at our lunch table.

“You’re coming tonight, right?” he asks on Friday as he slides into the seat next to me with his food. Cooper eases onto the bench across from us, sitting next to Slug.

“To the drive-in movies?” I shrug. “Maybe. I haven’t been to one since…” My eyes meet Cooper’s, and I wonder if he’s also remembering Free Willy. “Well, since middle school.”

“We always put a mattress in the bed of Cooper’s truck and load it up with blankets and pillows. It’s a good time,” Jake says, throwing his arm over my shoulder. “Think of it as more time to hang out with your favorite person.”

I glance at Cooper. He looks at his tray and says, “You should come.”

“Okay,” I say because I don’t have a good excuse not to. At least not without screaming from the rooftops that it’ll be too hard to sit there with Cooper, knowing what it’s like to kiss him and knowing it won’t happen again.

Jake grins at me. “Perfect. We’ll swing by and pick you up then.”

At the end of the day, Sloane meets me at my locker instead of the flagpole out front, excited to tell me that she and Asher are going to the Pumpkin Prom together. “As friends, of course,” she’s sure to add.

I grin at her, genuinely thrilled to see her happy, even if I’m a miserable sack of potatoes. But then I spot Cooper walking down the hall behind her, and my smile quickly disappears as I duck my head behind my open locker door.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Sloane asks once I’m practically inside my locker.

“Is he gone?” I whisper, sinking farther in.

“Who—”

“No, he’s not gone,” Cooper’s voice says. “He’s hoping you two can talk.”

“I’ll, uh… leave you two to it,” Sloane says. I close my eyes and sigh. Then I pull myself out of my locker and face Cooper. Behind him my cousin backs away with a grimace and mouths, Sorry!

I close my locker, swing my backpack over my shoulder, and turn my attention to Cooper. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “About the fact that I hate how awkward things are between us now. About the fact you’ve been avoiding me.”

“I don’t know what to say to you.”

“I mean, same, but can we maybe figure it out? Because not talking—not being friends—it kind of really sucks.”

I look up at him, and the earnestness on his face tugs at my heart.

“It’s not like I’m having fun avoiding you, Coop. And it’s definitely not easy. But being around you is even harder.” He drops his head, and guilt pulses through me, despite him being the one who said we can’t be anything. I sigh. “But I suppose, like you said last month, avoiding each other isn’t really possible, especially since we have mutual friends, and this town is Polly Pocket–sized.” The slightest grin appears on Cooper’s face. “So I’ll stop dodging you and try to pretend like everything’s fine, okay?”

He stuffs his hands into his jeans pockets and looks at the floor, his smile falling. “I really wish you didn’t have to pretend.”

“So do I.” I shrug. “Maybe one day I won’t—once I get over you the way you got over me.”

Cooper stares at me like he wants to say something. But he doesn’t. Instead the tick-tick-ticking of the clock hanging on the wall over our heads fills the empty space between us in the now otherwise-silent hall.

He finally nods. “I better let you get back to Sloane.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tonight.”

My whole chest hurts when his eyes meet mine and he forces a smile. “Yeah.” He turns to go. “See you, Mitchell.”



* * *



I spend the next few hours at home dreading tonight.

“You need to chill out,” Sloane says, lying on my bed. “It’s going to be fine. You’re going to ignore Cooper. If Chloe’s there, you won’t even look in their vicinity.”

“Shoot. Do you think she’ll be there?” Of course she’ll be there. “How am I supposed to watch them cuddling during a movie?”

“You’re not. Like I said, you’ll ignore them,” she says. “You’ll focus on having fun with Jake. Even if you don’t like like him, he’s a fun guy. Worst-case scenario, you’ll tell him the back of the truck is cramped and suggest you guys grab a blanket and sit together outside the truck—where you won’t be able to see Cooper.”